Amazon's DeepLens AI camera has begun shipping, offering developers a turnkey way to get started on deep learning, computer vision, and more, all packaged into a standalone gadget smaller than an Echo. Announced late last year, the AWS DeepLens camera is in reality a compact computer wearing a camera hat, and designed to be a gateway to using Amazon's various cloud services.
Formally, Google I/O is the company annual event to connect with developers as well as partners spanning its entire platform and product range. It is also a time for Google to share its direction not just for specific products but for the company as a whole as well. So while the schedule and topics of talks are public, its grand vision, expressed in keynotes, is still under wraps. Given Google's focus these past months, however, we can pretty much predict what it will be delivering on stage in a few hours.
Advancements in machine learning and computer imaging are making impressive but impossible scenes in crime drama shows finally possible. Like the infamous "zoom in, enhance" CSI method. The latest achievement comes from NVIDIA, who has been aggressively pushing its silicon, like the Tesla V100 GPU as the processor of machine learning research. Unlike the aforementioned enhancing technique, this deep learning technique is instead able to fill in holes and missing parts in images with something else that looks deceptively part of the original.
Self-driving cars is a hot topic these days, eclipsed only by the recent Facebook drama. And because of the deaths involved, it has become an emotional one as well. While the incidents should encourage the industry to take stock of its technology, it shouldn’t cause development and research to come to a grinding halt. Especially when the side hustlers at Microsoft Garage have developed a way to safely teach these autonomous driving AIs. And they’re doing so with the age-old idea of simulations.
Google's Magenta AI has spawned an unexpected hardware device, the NSynth Super synthesizer that uses machine learning to create new sounds. Based on the Magenta research project, it's built using the NSynth neutral synthesizer that Google released last year, embodying the AI smarts in a tactile physical interface.
Google has updated its Arts and Culture app with some nifty new functionality. If you download the app (or apply the new update, assuming you already had the app installed), you can share a selfie and have the app attempt to find your fine art doppelgänger. Unsurprisingly, this new functionality has taken the internet by storm, receiving a lot of attention on social media over the weekend.
Amazon made a rather surprising announcement today, revealing a product that seems to go toe-to-toe in many ways with Google Clips. Say hello to the AWS DeepLens camera, a new camera that's designed with deep learning AI in mind. That's similar to what Google is trying to do with Clips, but while that camera is aimed at consumers, the DeepLens camera is targeted toward developers.
Google has snapped up the former head of Tesla's Autopilot, with Chris Lattner joining the Google Brain deep learning artificial intelligence project. Lattner was, until recently, leading Tesla's work on semi-autonomous and autonomous driving, having been recruited in January of this year. The electric car company has been one of the most ambitious in its public commitments to making driverless cars practical, with founder and CEO Elon Musk promising that Tesla vehicles being built today will be, with the right software and legal framework, capable of full Level 5 autonomy in the coming years.
The AI invasion isn’t coming. It’s already hear. Forget Skynet, we already have Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, and, now, Bixby. But AI is found in more than those. It’s also present in Google Search, Office Lens, email, photos, and, soon, your head. No, we’re not talking about plugging your head to a computer, but something close. Microsoft researchers have just revealed how the next version of the HoloLens will include a custom-made, special-purpose chip whose processing power will be dedicated solely to, what else, AI.
In September of last year, Intel announced that it had acquired Movidius. Modivius is a company that does a lot of different things, from making avoidance sensors for DJI drones to developing deep learning technologies with a handful of different partners. Today we're seeing some of the deep learning fruits of that buyout, with Intel introducing us to the Movidius Neural Compute Stick.
Although they have always been a source of fantasy as well as nightmares, robots and artificial intelligence have taken the spotlight in the recent years, even in mainstream media. One recurring theme has always been about how these technologies will soon replace humans, mostly in the work place. Those fears were perhaps magnified when AlphaGo, from Google-owned DeepMind, defeated legendary Go player Lee Sedol. Google perhaps expected some level of outrage but it says it was surprised to instead see some contemplation as human players try to learn the never before seen moves that the AI made.
Anyone who has followed crime procedural TV shows, particularly the likes of CSI, will probably be familiar with the "zoom in, enhance" method of pulling evidence out of thin air, so to speak. It has become so common an occurrence that it has transformed both into a trope but also into a sort of holy grail for computer scientists. The latter bunch at the Google Brain deep learning lab might have come across a process that almost comes close to fiction. Well, almost.