Human-centric AI news and analysisWelcome to Neural’s guide to the glorious future of AI. What wonders will tomorrow’s machines be capable of? How do we get from Alexa and Siri to Rosie the Robot and R2D2? In this speculative science series we’ll put our optimist hats on and try to answer those questions and more. Let’s start with a big one: The Singularity.The future realization of robot lifeforms is referred to by a plethora of terms – sentience, artificial general intelligence (AGI), living machines, self-aware robots, and so forth – but the one that seems most fitting is “.”Rather than...…Human-centric AI news and analysisWelcome to Neural’s guide to the glorious future of AI. What wonders will tomorrow’s machines be capable of? How do we get from Alexa and Siri to Rosie the Robot and R2D2? In this speculative science series we’ll put our optimist hats on and try to answer those questions and more. Let’s start with a big one: The Singularity.The future realization of robot lifeforms is referred to by a plethora of terms – sentience, artificial general intelligence (AGI), living machines, self-aware robots, and so forth – but the one that seems most fitting is “.”Rather than...WW…

Gadgets for humansApple announced today that it’s reducing its App Store commission to 15% for developers earning less than $1 million a year. The company has made this cut from the 30% commission is previously charged.The new announcement comes as a part of Apple‘s “App Store Small Business Program” initiative. Under this project, only developers whose apps cumulatively earn less than $1 million per year can qualify.If during a year, their apps cross the million-dollar mark, Apple will levy 30% rates till the year-end. If revenues fall below $1 million for a developer, they can apply for...…Gadgets for humansApple announced today that it’s reducing its App Store commission to 15% for developers earning less than $1 million a year. The company has made this cut from the 30% commission is previously charged.The new announcement comes as a part of Apple‘s “App Store Small Business Program” initiative. Under this project, only developers whose apps cumulatively earn less than $1 million per year can qualify.If during a year, their apps cross the million-dollar mark, Apple will levy 30% rates till the year-end. If revenues fall below $1 million for a developer, they can apply for...WW…

Powered byDriving the future of sustainable mobilityPolestar accelerates the shift to sustainablemobility, by making electric driving irresistible.This article is brought to you by .Published November 19, 2020 — 14:38 UTCRead morePolestar accelerates the shift to sustainable mobility, by making electric driving irresistible.…Powered byDriving the future of sustainable mobilityPolestar accelerates the shift to sustainablemobility, by making electric driving irresistible.This article is brought to you by .Published November 19, 2020 — 14:38 UTCRead morePolestar accelerates the shift to sustainable mobility, by making electric driving irresistible.WW…

Netflix has quietly eliminated its free trial, meaning you have to sign up for its paid plans or you won’t be able to access Netflix. Given the site has more value than ever, in terms of original content, it’s a smart business decision — but still feels like a slap in the face to consumers.This change was by Phil Swann, the TV Answer Man, and is backed up by a Netflix that says free trials “are not available.” It’s not exactly clear when Netflix made the change, but the fact remains that if you aren’t already Netflix, you don’t get to try it. Either pay up or no watching Haunting of Bly...…Netflix has quietly eliminated its free trial, meaning you have to sign up for its paid plans or you won’t be able to access Netflix. Given the site has more value than ever, in terms of original content, it’s a smart business decision — but still feels like a slap in the face to consumers.This change was by Phil Swann, the TV Answer Man, and is backed up by a Netflix that says free trials “are not available.” It’s not exactly clear when Netflix made the change, but the fact remains that if you aren’t already Netflix, you don’t get to try it. Either pay up or no watching Haunting of Bly...WW…

Public Health England has admitted that in the UK were missed from daily figures being reported between September 25 and October 2. The missing figures were subsequently added to the daily totals, but given the importance of these numbers for monitoring the outbreak and making key decisions, the results of the error are far-reaching.Not only does it lead to underestimating the scale of coronavirus in the UK, but perhaps more important is the subsequent delay in entering the details of positive cases into the NHS Test and Trace system which is used by a team of contact tracers. Although all...…Public Health England has admitted that in the UK were missed from daily figures being reported between September 25 and October 2. The missing figures were subsequently added to the daily totals, but given the importance of these numbers for monitoring the outbreak and making key decisions, the results of the error are far-reaching.Not only does it lead to underestimating the scale of coronavirus in the UK, but perhaps more important is the subsequent delay in entering the details of positive cases into the NHS Test and Trace system which is used by a team of contact tracers. Although all...WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysisAn investigative journalist receives a video from an anonymous whistleblower. It shows a candidate for president admitting to illegal activity. But is this video real? If so, it would be huge news – the scoop of a lifetime – and could completely turn around the upcoming elections. But the journalist runs the video through a specialized tool, which tells her that the video isn’t what it seems. In fact, it’s a “,” a video made using artificial intelligence with .Journalists all over the world could soon be using a tool like this. In a few years, a tool like...…Human-centric AI news and analysisAn investigative journalist receives a video from an anonymous whistleblower. It shows a candidate for president admitting to illegal activity. But is this video real? If so, it would be huge news – the scoop of a lifetime – and could completely turn around the upcoming elections. But the journalist runs the video through a specialized tool, which tells her that the video isn’t what it seems. In fact, it’s a “,” a video made using artificial intelligence with .Journalists all over the world could soon be using a tool like this. In a few years, a tool like...WW…

A physics student at the University of Queensland recently published a paper indicating they’d ‘squared’ the math when it comes to time-travel. Not only should it theoretically be possible to travel back in time, according to the numbers, but you could do whatever you want without making any fundamental changes to the present.In other words: the ‘‘ may not be real.The problem : your eccentric old scientist buddy turns a DeLorean into a time machine. Before he can teach you how to use it properly, he’s murdered by terrorists. While fleeing the scene in said DeLorean you accidentally travel...…A physics student at the University of Queensland recently published a paper indicating they’d ‘squared’ the math when it comes to time-travel. Not only should it theoretically be possible to travel back in time, according to the numbers, but you could do whatever you want without making any fundamental changes to the present.In other words: the ‘‘ may not be real.The problem : your eccentric old scientist buddy turns a DeLorean into a time machine. Before he can teach you how to use it properly, he’s murdered by terrorists. While fleeing the scene in said DeLorean you accidentally travel...WW…

Gadgets for humansAs a reporter, I have to read a lot of articles every day, and I often can’t get around to all the tabs I open by the time I clock out. It’s frustrating as hell,  and I’ve been looking for a solution to clear my reading queue.Thankfully, I came across Podcastle, a Chrome extension that solved all my problems. On the surface, it’s just a text-to-speech converter — and there are many of them out there — but it comes with extra bells and whistles that are actually useful. And unlike other text-to-speech tools, it works across tabs so you can control your listening queue and...…Gadgets for humansAs a reporter, I have to read a lot of articles every day, and I often can’t get around to all the tabs I open by the time I clock out. It’s frustrating as hell,  and I’ve been looking for a solution to clear my reading queue.Thankfully, I came across Podcastle, a Chrome extension that solved all my problems. On the surface, it’s just a text-to-speech converter — and there are many of them out there — but it comes with extra bells and whistles that are actually useful. And unlike other text-to-speech tools, it works across tabs so you can control your listening queue and...WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysisPublished June 24, 2020 — 19:49 UTCDo you want to get the sassiest daily tech newsletter every day, in your inbox, for FREE? Of course you do: sign up for Big Spam .Read more…Human-centric AI news and analysisPublished June 24, 2020 — 19:49 UTCDo you want to get the sassiest daily tech newsletter every day, in your inbox, for FREE? Of course you do: sign up for Big Spam .Read moreWW…

India has finally restored 4G connectivity in Kashmir after 376 days, but in just two districts for now. The restoration is just on a trial basis, and the government will observe the state of law and order in these two areas to decide future steps.Last week, the authorities told the Supreme Court Last August, India after it scrapped Article 370 of the constitution to remove Jammu & Kashmir state‘s special autonomous rights.Later in January, the apex court ruled that. In response, the government restored partial connectivity with access to a limited number of websites. In March, , but...…India has finally restored 4G connectivity in Kashmir after 376 days, but in just two districts for now. The restoration is just on a trial basis, and the government will observe the state of law and order in these two areas to decide future steps.Last week, the authorities told the Supreme Court Last August, India after it scrapped Article 370 of the constitution to remove Jammu & Kashmir state‘s special autonomous rights.Later in January, the apex court ruled that. In response, the government restored partial connectivity with access to a limited number of websites. In March, , but...WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysis. “They were 100% right about this,” says LeCun, now Facebook’s chief AI scientist.They decided to LeCun immediately made open research the cornerstone of his plans. FAIR now publishes almost all of its work, and open sources the majority of its code, datasets, and tools — such as , a toolkit for quickly creating new machine learning models.The motivation behind this approach isn’t purely altruistic. It allows Facebook to influence what researchers work on, foster collaborations with academia and industry, and attract talent to FAIR.But isn’t he worried...…Human-centric AI news and analysis. “They were 100% right about this,” says LeCun, now Facebook’s chief AI scientist.They decided to LeCun immediately made open research the cornerstone of his plans. FAIR now publishes almost all of its work, and open sources the majority of its code, datasets, and tools — such as , a toolkit for quickly creating new machine learning models.The motivation behind this approach isn’t purely altruistic. It allows Facebook to influence what researchers work on, foster collaborations with academia and industry, and attract talent to FAIR.But isn’t he worried...WW…

YouTube is nixing its Community Contributions feature, which made it possible for users to help creators by translatingIn an on the Google Support Forums, a company spokesperson said the feature failed to generate enough traction — and was often used for nefarious reasons. The feature is slated to be discontinued across all channels on September 28, 2020.“The good thing is that community-contributed captions that have already been posted will continue to show up even after the removal. Even better, creators will have a chance to approve already submitted contributions until September...…YouTube is nixing its Community Contributions feature, which made it possible for users to help creators by translatingIn an on the Google Support Forums, a company spokesperson said the feature failed to generate enough traction — and was often used for nefarious reasons. The feature is slated to be discontinued across all channels on September 28, 2020.“The good thing is that community-contributed captions that have already been posted will continue to show up even after the removal. Even better, creators will have a chance to approve already submitted contributions until September...WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysisA . The researchers say it’s the first systematic attempt at using machine learning to predict relationship satisfaction.[Read: ]Notably, the individual characteristics of each partner — such as income and life satisfaction — were far less influential than relationship-specific factors.“Relationships-specific variables were about two to three times as predictive as individual differences, which I think would fit many people’s intuitions,” said Joel. “But the surprising part is that once you have all the relationship-specific data in hand, the individual...…Human-centric AI news and analysisA . The researchers say it’s the first systematic attempt at using machine learning to predict relationship satisfaction.[Read: ]Notably, the individual characteristics of each partner — such as income and life satisfaction — were far less influential than relationship-specific factors.“Relationships-specific variables were about two to three times as predictive as individual differences, which I think would fit many people’s intuitions,” said Joel. “But the surprising part is that once you have all the relationship-specific data in hand, the individual...WW…

Powered byInsightful takes on scaling your businessFor years, founders in Europe have marveled at America’s ability to bolster entrepreneurship, the caliber of tech companies emerging from Silicon Valley, and the maturity of the investment landscape.In America, failure is celebrated, seen as a mere consequence of trying to improve or disrupt an existing product or service. US entrepreneurs are known for their ability — and willingness — to tell the world about their success. Investors are less risk-averse.Meanwhile, their European counterparts, often seen as far more humble, have been...…Powered byInsightful takes on scaling your businessFor years, founders in Europe have marveled at America’s ability to bolster entrepreneurship, the caliber of tech companies emerging from Silicon Valley, and the maturity of the investment landscape.In America, failure is celebrated, seen as a mere consequence of trying to improve or disrupt an existing product or service. US entrepreneurs are known for their ability — and willingness — to tell the world about their success. Investors are less risk-averse.Meanwhile, their European counterparts, often seen as far more humble, have been...WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysisTo human observers, the following two images are identical. But researchers at Google showed in 2015 that a popular object detection algorithm classified the left image as “panda” and the right one as “gibbon.” And oddly enough, it had more confidence in the gibbon image.The algorithm in question was GoogLeNet, aarchitecture that won the 2014 ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC 2014).The right image is an “adversarial example.” It has undergone subtle manipulations that go unnoticed to the human eye while making it a totally different...…Human-centric AI news and analysisTo human observers, the following two images are identical. But researchers at Google showed in 2015 that a popular object detection algorithm classified the left image as “panda” and the right one as “gibbon.” And oddly enough, it had more confidence in the gibbon image.The algorithm in question was GoogLeNet, aarchitecture that won the 2014 ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC 2014).The right image is an “adversarial example.” It has undergone subtle manipulations that go unnoticed to the human eye while making it a totally different...WW…

Last month, India banned after tension between both nations at the border.The country’s government is now inspecting to ban 275 more China-originated apps including popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s BattleGround (PUBG) and ByteDance‘s music app Resso.According to a report from , government officials have created a list of 275 apps that might be violating security measures and user privacy. Apart from PUBG and , the list includes ecommerce app AliExpress from Alibaba and photo-sharing app ULike.India moved to ban 59 Chinese apps after more than 20 of its soldiers were killed in a...…Last month, India banned after tension between both nations at the border.The country’s government is now inspecting to ban 275 more China-originated apps including popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s BattleGround (PUBG) and ByteDance‘s music app Resso.According to a report from , government officials have created a list of 275 apps that might be violating security measures and user privacy. Apart from PUBG and , the list includes ecommerce app AliExpress from Alibaba and photo-sharing app ULike.India moved to ban 59 Chinese apps after more than 20 of its soldiers were killed in a...WW…

In a pre-recorded message to attendees of World AI Conference in Shanghai, Tesla’s flamboyant CEO Elon Musk bragged that the company has pretty much figured out self-driving. The company is “very close” to having a fully autonomous, no-driver required vehicle., M[Read: ]This might just be Elon being Elon, but current Tesla vehicles are nowhere near being capable of driving themselves.The misleadingly named Autopilot and Full-Self Driving packages are . In other words, drivers must always be present, have their hands on the steering wheel, and remain cognizant of their surroundings.This...…In a pre-recorded message to attendees of World AI Conference in Shanghai, Tesla’s flamboyant CEO Elon Musk bragged that the company has pretty much figured out self-driving. The company is “very close” to having a fully autonomous, no-driver required vehicle., M[Read: ]This might just be Elon being Elon, but current Tesla vehicles are nowhere near being capable of driving themselves.The misleadingly named Autopilot and Full-Self Driving packages are . In other words, drivers must always be present, have their hands on the steering wheel, and remain cognizant of their surroundings.This...WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysisA new study has explored whether AI can provide more attractive answers to humanity’s most profound questions than history’s most influential thinkers.Researchers from the University of New South Wales first fed a series of moral questions to , a text generator trained on millions of documents and websites, including all of Wikipedia. They added its responses to a collection of reflections from the likes of Plato, Jesus Christ, and, err, Elon Musk.The team then asked more than 1,000 people which musings they liked best — and whether they could identify the...…Human-centric AI news and analysisA new study has explored whether AI can provide more attractive answers to humanity’s most profound questions than history’s most influential thinkers.Researchers from the University of New South Wales first fed a series of moral questions to , a text generator trained on millions of documents and websites, including all of Wikipedia. They added its responses to a collection of reflections from the likes of Plato, Jesus Christ, and, err, Elon Musk.The team then asked more than 1,000 people which musings they liked best — and whether they could identify the...WW…

Online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart might have to hand over their site’s source code and core algorithms to the Indian government. According to a report by Bloomberg, that seeks to bring competitiveness in the market, list this as a mandate.The draft bill also asks if companies are using “explainable A” (XAI) — a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that makes solutions and methods understandable for humans. The bill tackles the question of storing the data locally, but leaves it open by saying that after consultation the government “The policy is not public yet, and...…Online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart might have to hand over their site’s source code and core algorithms to the Indian government. According to a report by Bloomberg, that seeks to bring competitiveness in the market, list this as a mandate.The draft bill also asks if companies are using “explainable A” (XAI) — a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that makes solutions and methods understandable for humans. The bill tackles the question of storing the data locally, but leaves it open by saying that after consultation the government “The policy is not public yet, and...WW…

Intel Capital, the investment arm of chipmaker Intel, has invested $253 million in India’s Reliance Jio in exchange for a 0.39% stake.This is the 12th investment in Reliance Jio in the last 11 weeks, taking the tally to $15.5 billion. Jio Platforms than all of India’s startups combined last year.Jio is India’s biggest mobile network provider with more than 388 million customers on board. Jio Platform is an umbrella company for its digital businesses including the carrier.Intel Capital invests in startups with a focus on 5G and communication, AI, and next-gen computing. The company has put...…Intel Capital, the investment arm of chipmaker Intel, has invested $253 million in India’s Reliance Jio in exchange for a 0.39% stake.This is the 12th investment in Reliance Jio in the last 11 weeks, taking the tally to $15.5 billion. Jio Platforms than all of India’s startups combined last year.Jio is India’s biggest mobile network provider with more than 388 million customers on board. Jio Platform is an umbrella company for its digital businesses including the carrier.Intel Capital invests in startups with a focus on 5G and communication, AI, and next-gen computing. The company has put...WW…

Autonomous vehicles (AVs), like self-driving taxis, continue to garner media attention as industry and political stakeholders claim that they will . But for people who have different mobility needs and rely on human drivers for work beyond the task of driving, the prospect of driverless taxis may not sound like progress. Unless accommodations are built into autonomous vehicle designs, companies risk undermining transportation access for the very communities this technology is promising to include.A January 2020 issued by the National Science and Technology Council and U.S. Department of...…Autonomous vehicles (AVs), like self-driving taxis, continue to garner media attention as industry and political stakeholders claim that they will . But for people who have different mobility needs and rely on human drivers for work beyond the task of driving, the prospect of driverless taxis may not sound like progress. Unless accommodations are built into autonomous vehicle designs, companies risk undermining transportation access for the very communities this technology is promising to include.A January 2020 issued by the National Science and Technology Council and U.S. Department of...WW…

India has banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Shareit, Mi Video, and UC Browser amid tension between two countries.The country’s IT ministry invoked Section 69A of the IT Act 2000 that lets the government block services if they’re deemed dangerous for sovereignty and integrity of the country:The ministry accused these apps of “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”BREAKING: Full statement from the Indian Govt’s Ministry of Electronics & IT. Statement says the apps are “engaged in activities which...…India has banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Shareit, Mi Video, and UC Browser amid tension between two countries.The country’s IT ministry invoked Section 69A of the IT Act 2000 that lets the government block services if they’re deemed dangerous for sovereignty and integrity of the country:The ministry accused these apps of “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”BREAKING: Full statement from the Indian Govt’s Ministry of Electronics & IT. Statement says the apps are “engaged in activities which...WW…

Powered byInside money, markets, and big techChina’s tech sector is close to surpassing the US to become the world’s best-performing technology industry in 2020.Indeed, China’s tech sector is catching up. Until now, the US comfortably led the world in recovering from (and thriving in) the coronavirus pandemic.US tech, represented by QQQ on the chart above (more on that later), was up 14% for the year as of Monday’s market close. China’s equivalent fund, CQQQ, had returned 13% in 2020  just one percent difference.As for the rest of the world: Europe’s tech sector has faired relatively well,...…Powered byInside money, markets, and big techChina’s tech sector is close to surpassing the US to become the world’s best-performing technology industry in 2020.Indeed, China’s tech sector is catching up. Until now, the US comfortably led the world in recovering from (and thriving in) the coronavirus pandemic.US tech, represented by QQQ on the chart above (more on that later), was up 14% for the year as of Monday’s market close. China’s equivalent fund, CQQQ, had returned 13% in 2020  just one percent difference.As for the rest of the world: Europe’s tech sector has faired relatively well,...WW…

Powered byInsightful takes on scaling your businessretentionPublished June 22, 2020 — 08:40 UTCWhy is queer representation so important? What's it like being trans in tech? How do I participate virtually? You can find all our Pride 2020 coverage .Read moreCan your tech disrupt another industry? Then join Lloyd’s innovation accelerator and help transform insurance.…Powered byInsightful takes on scaling your businessretentionPublished June 22, 2020 — 08:40 UTCWhy is queer representation so important? What's it like being trans in tech? How do I participate virtually? You can find all our Pride 2020 coverage .Read moreCan your tech disrupt another industry? Then join Lloyd’s innovation accelerator and help transform insurance.WW…

Human-centric AI news and analysisAs best we can guess, life started on planet Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. Unfortunately, so did death. And the reaper remains undefeated.About 99 percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct. There’s almost no scientific reason to believe humans won’t join them in a relatively insignificant amount of time. I say almost entangled[Read: ]alive“Published June 19, 2020 — 19:33 UTCWhy is queer representation so important? What's it like being trans in tech? How do I participate virtually? You can find all our Pride 2020 coverage .Read more…Human-centric AI news and analysisAs best we can guess, life started on planet Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. Unfortunately, so did death. And the reaper remains undefeated.About 99 percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct. There’s almost no scientific reason to believe humans won’t join them in a relatively insignificant amount of time. I say almost entangled[Read: ]alive“Published June 19, 2020 — 19:33 UTCWhy is queer representation so important? What's it like being trans in tech? How do I participate virtually? You can find all our Pride 2020 coverage .Read moreWW…