The AI boom is happening all over the world, and it’s accelerating quickly

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The second annual AI Index report pulls together data and expert findings on the field’s progress and acceleration.

The rate of progress in the field of artificial intelligence is one of the most hotly contested aspects of the ongoing boom in teaching computers and robots how to see the world, make sense of it, and eventually perform complex tasks both in the physical realm and the virtual one. And just how fast the industry is moving, and to what end, is typically measured not just by actual product advancements and research milestones, but also by the prognostications and voiced concerns of AI leaders, futurists, academics, economists, and policymakers. AI is going to change the world — but how and when are still open questions.

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These walking robots could help humans get back on their feet again

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Bipedal robots could explore Mars one day. But first they’re teaching scientists at Caltech’s Amber Lab important lessons about helping humans here on Earth.

Watching a robot trip and fall makes my heart sink. The worst part about it? I’m the one responsible.

I’m standing in a Pasadena, California, lab filled with bipedal (or two legged) robots. A researcher challenges me to try and trip a 5-foot, semihumanoid robot called Amber that’s walking on a treadmill. It’s attached with a rope to a railing above as it walks in place, so it’s only going to fall forward or backward if I’m too heavy-handed.

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Brain Corp to provide AI services to Walmart

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The Auto-C, powered by BrainOS, joins Walmarts technology ecosystem.

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Brain Corp, a San Diego-based software technology company, announced today that it has entered into a relationship with Walmart to provide AI services to the world’s largest retailer.

Brain Corp’s BrainOS platform currently automates more than a hundred of Walmart’s fleet of commercial floor scrubbers across the United States. BrainOS provides the machines with autonomous navigation and data collection capabilities, all tied into a cloud-based reporting system. Walmart expects to have 360 BrainOS-powered machines in stores by the end of its fiscal year, January 31, 2019.

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Get ready. 2019 predictions about Artificial Intelligence that will make your head spin

 

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Instead of breaking systems with ransomware, adversaries will leverage new tools to conduct harmful assaults on targeted subjects and organizations.

A staff member stands near a computer as it participates in the CHAIN Cup at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. A computer running artificial intelligence software defeated two teams of human doctors in accurately recognizing maladies in magnetic resonance images on Saturday, in a contest that was billed as the world’s first competition in neuroimaging between AI and human experts. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)ASSOCIATED PRESS

While the hip, ubiquitous business buzzwords are cryptocurrency and blockchain, the truly formidable factor of what is being called the fourth industrial revolution is Artificial Intelligence. Whether praised as a panacea for greater business efficiency or the feared as the demise of humanity, Artificial Intelligence is upon us and will impact business and society at large in ways that we can only begin to imagine. Fasten your seatbelts. Here’s what a few influencers in the arena say is on tap for 2019.

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5 important Artificial Intelligence predictions (for 2019) everyone should read

 

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Artificial Intelligence – specifically machine learning and deep learning – was everywhere in 2018 and don’t expect the hype to die down over the next 12 months.

The hype will die eventually of course, and AI will become another consistent thread in the tapestry of our lives, just like the internet, electricity, and combustion did in days of yore.

But for at least the next year, and probably longer, expect astonishing breakthroughs as well as continued excitement and hyperbole from commentators.

This is because expectations of the changes to business and society which AI promises (or in some cases threatens) to bring about go beyond anything dreamed up during previous technological revolutions.

AI points towards a future where machines not only do all of the physical work, as they have done since the industrial revolution but also the “thinking” work – planning, strategizing and making decisions.

The jury’s still out on whether this will lead to a glorious utopia, with humans free to spend their lives following more meaningful pursuits, rather than on those which economic necessity dictates they dedicate their time, or to widespread unemployment and social unrest.

We probably won’t arrive at either of those outcomes in 2019, but it’s a topic which will continue to be hotly debated. In the meantime, here are five things that we can expect to happen:

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Chinese company says it will soon cross $100 battery threshold, slaying the gasoline car

 

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Envision Group analysts discovered the price curve after purchasing Nissan’s battery division, Envision CEO Lei Zhang said. Getty photoGETTY

Envision Energy will produce batteries for $100 per kilowatt hour by 2020, the Shanghai company’s founder and CEO said at Stanford University, predicting the price will drop to $50 only five years later and end the reign of the internal-combustion engine.

Envision’s analysts realized they could achieve these goals after the company purchased Nissan’s battery division earlier this year, CEO Lei Zhang said at Stanford University’s Global Energy Forum. Stanford just released video of Lei’s remarks, which came in response to a slightly more conservative prediction by Stanford’s Arun Majumdar.

“I have something to add on to Arun’s comment,” Lei said. “He mentioned by 2022 we are able to reach $100 per kilowatt hour, but I say we are able to arrive much earlier. By 2020 we are able to deliver the cost of $100 U.S. Just recently we bought a Japanese battery company, so we have very detailed analyzed this trend of cost, so we are able, probably by 2025, to achieve $50 U.S. dollar per kilowatt hour.”

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Turning to AI to save endangered languages

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Group of Yugambeh Aboriginal warriors dance.

As languages are becoming extinct at an alarming rate, speakers of endangered languages are turning to technology in a race against time to pass on their unique languages and cultures to the next generation.

The United Nations has declared 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages in an effort to promote awareness of the plight of languages that are in danger of disappearing. “Through language, people preserve their community’s history, customs and traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking, meaning and expression. They also use it to construct their future. Language is pivotal in the areas of human rights protection, good governance, peace building, reconciliation, and sustainable development”: all core aspects of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Thanks to the benefits of artificial intelligence for language documentation and learning, AI is becoming more important than ever in the fight to save endangered languages.

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In a major breakthrough, Google unveils an AI that learns on its own

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Surpassing The Masters

We’ve written before about how Google is one of the most prominent tech companies leading the way when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence. As each month passes, its AI division, DeepMind, continues to reveal increasingly advanced AI capabilities, especially when it comes to AlphaGo.

This particular AI is most well-known for mastering the ancient Chinese game of Go…and subsequently defeating 18-time world champion Lee Se-dol, which happened just last year.

Since then, DeepMind has started adding imagination to its AI, and they also used gaming to teach the AI how to better manage tasks. AlphaGo even went on to defeat another top go player, Ke Jie, once again showing off its (potentially) unlimited potential to learn.

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Using Artificial Intelligence to fix healthcare

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Surgery filmed in 360° and live-streamed to remote doctors could already be happening in a hospital near you.

The healthcare industry should be using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to a far greater degree than at present, but progress has been painfully slow. The same factors that make the healthcare system so attractive to AI developers – fragmented or non-existent data repositories, outdated computer systems and doctor shortages – are the same things that have stopped AI from providing the gains that should be created.

The healthcare sector also presents unique obstacles for AI: data must flow freely through AI systems to achieve real results, but extracting data from handwritten patient files or PDFs is cumbersome for us, and difficult for AI. Despite technical and operational challenges, new research suggests that the arrival of the tech giants into the industry may provide the data and the capital required to digitize this fairly untapped market.

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Chinese ‘Gait Recognition’ tech ID’s people by how they walk

CHINESE ‘GAIT RECOGNITION’ TECH IDS PEOPLE BY HOW THEY WALK

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In this Oct. 31, 2018, photo, Huang Yongzhen, CEO of Watrix, demonstrates the use of his firm’s gait recognition software at his company’s offices in Beijing. A Chinese technology startup hopes to begin selling software that recognizes people by their body shape and how they walk, enabling identification when faces are hidden from cameras. Already used by police on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai, “gait recognition” is part of a major push to develop artificial-intelligence and data-driven surveillance across China, raising concern about how far the technology will go. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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Deep learning algorithm detects Alzheimer’s up to six years before doctors

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A new algorithm significantly outperformed human clinicians in predicting which patients would go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

A powerful new deep learning algorithm has been developed that can study PET scan images and effectively detect the onset of Alzheimer’s disease up to six years earlier than current diagnostic methods.

The research is part of a new wave of work using machine learning technology to identify subtle patterns in complex medical imaging data that human clinicians are unable to pick up. Continue reading… “Deep learning algorithm detects Alzheimer’s up to six years before doctors”

Artificial Intelligence will be the greatest jobs engine the world has ever seen

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Fears that AI will make many types of workers unemployable are unfounded.

In the past few years, artificial intelligence has advanced so quickly that it now seems that hardly a month goes by without a newsworthy AI breakthrough. In areas as wide-ranging as speech translation, medical diagnosis and game play, we have seen computers outperform humans in startling ways. This has sparked a discussion about what impact AI will have on employment.

Some fear that as AI improves, it will supplant workers in the job force, creating an ever-growing pool of unemployable humans who cannot economically compete with machines in any meaningful way. This concern, while understandable, is unfounded.

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