Tech & Society
Competition or Cooperation?: Why AI should not be an arms race
Some politicians view international competition in AI as an arms race. That mindset could lead to escalating conflict, experts said.
Tech & Society
Tech & Society
Inside AI’s Muppet Empire: Why Are So Many NLP Models Named After Muppets?
As language models show increasing power, a parallel trend has received less notice: The vogue for naming models after characters in the children’s TV show Sesame Street.
Tech & Society
Deployment Gap: The state of enterpriese AI in 2020
More and more companies are developing machine learning models for internal use. But many are still struggling to bridge the gap to practical deployments.
Letters
NeurIPS Grows Up
I’ve been reflecting on the NeurIPS 2019 conference, which ended on Saturday. It’s always a wonderful event, but this year I found it a bittersweet experience. Bitter because the conference has grown so much that we no longer focus on...
Tech & Society
Transparency for Military AI: National Security Commission on AI required to share info
A U.S. federal judge ruled that the public must be able to see records from a government-chartered AI advisory group. The court decided that the National Security Commission on AI, which guides defense research into AI-powered warfighting technology, must respond to freedom-of-information requests.
Tech & Society
Fighting Fakes: China introduces a ban on deepfakes.
China announced a ban on fake news, targeting deepfakes in particular. The Cyberspace Administration of China issued new rules restricting online audio and video, especially content created using AI.
Tech & Society
Neighborhood Watchers: Reports charge Ring with mishandling customer data.
Smart doorbell maker Ring has built its business by turning neighborhoods into surveillance networks. Now the company is drawing fire for using private data without informing customers and sharing data with police.
Letters
AI Ethics Must Be Actionable
I’ve been thinking about AI and ethics. With the techlash and an erosion of trust in technology as a positive force, it’s more important than ever that we make sure the AI community acts ethically.
Tech & Society
Is AI Making Mastery Obsolete?: How human chess and go masters cope with being beaten by AI
Is there any reason to continue playing games that AI has mastered? Ask the former champions who have been toppled by machines.
Tech & Society
Google's AI Explains Itself: How Google's xAI tools help evaluate model performance
Google's AI platform offers a view into the mind of its machines. Explainable AI (xAI) tools show which features exerted the most influence on a model’s decision, so users can evaluate model performance and potentially mitigate biased results.
Letters
Building Trustworthy AI
Recently I wrote about major reasons why AI projects fail, such as small data, robustness, and change management. Given that some AI systems don't work, users and customers sometimes rightly wonder whether they should trust an AI system.
Tech & Society
When Private Data is Not Private: Google trained Project Nightingale on private patient data.
Google spent the past year training an AI-powered health care program using personal information from one of the largest hospital systems in the U.S. Patients had no idea — until last week.