WHO launched an AI-powered digital health worker, Florence

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October 7, 2022

In collaboration with the Qatar Ministry of Health, WHO, the World Health Organization launched its AI-powered digital health worker, Florence version 2.0. Florence offers assistance on how to eat healthily, be more active, stop using tobacco and e-cigarettes, and discuss strategies for relieving stress. She can also provide details on the COVID-19 vaccine and other subjects. Florence 2.0 offers a standard upgrade to the previous version and is available in Arabic English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian.

Andy Pattison, WHO’s team member for digital channels, said that over the last few years, digital technologies had played a vital role in helping people worldwide to lead healthier lives. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, AI digital health workers like Florence have helped combat misinformation and create awareness.

Additionally, Florence had studied the mental impact of the pandemic and estimated that 1 in every 8 people suffered from one or another mental disorder due to the pandemic environment. Pattison said, “The AI health worker Florence is a shining example of the potential to harness technology to promote and protect people’s physical and mental health.”

Dr. Yousuf AL Maslamani, the Official Healthcare Spokesperson for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, expressed his gratitude for partnering with WHO to develop Florence and raise awareness about key health issues faced by a majority of the people.

In order to interact with researchers, public health organizations, entrepreneurs, and policymakers, WHO released the beta version of Florence 2.0 at the WISH conference. WHO also plans to keep developing the digital health worker to help address more pressing health issues facing the world today.

Microsoft open-sourced FarmVibes.AI, the newly released AI algorithms for optimizing farm operations

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Disha Chopra

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October 7, 2022

Microsoft open-sourced FarmVibes.ai for farm operations

Microsoft Corporation has open-sourced FarmVibes.AI, its newly released toolkit of AI algorithms for optimizing farm operations. FarmVibes.AI is one of the many technologies Microsoft has created as part of Project FarmVibes. The program aims to enable more effective farming through software and connected devices like sensors. Microsoft also intends to open-source all the technologies it created for Project FarmVibes.

FarmVibes.AI toolkit includes four AI algorithms. Async Fusion, the first algorithm, can combine farm sensor data with satellite and drone pictures. The technique makes it easier to create farm maps that may be used to determine the best method for accomplishing agricultural operations.

Farm maps employ satellite data, which can be processed more easily with the help of the second algorithm called SpaceEye. When clouds are over a farm, getting the most recent satellite imagery is usually challenging. By using readings from satellite-based radar equipment, which can operate even in cloud cover, Microsoft’s SpaceEye algorithm substitutes the imagery.

Farm operators can predict temperature and wind speed using the third algorithm called DeepMC. DeepMC uses forecasts from weather stations and information from online-connected agricultural sensors to identify the most suitable time for farm operations.

The fourth algorithm that comes with FarmVibes.AI aids farmers in their efforts to promote sustainability. Microsoft claims that it can calculate the impact of various agricultural methods on the volume of carbon stored in a farm’s soil. The tool is also useful for other jobs, such as finding strategies to increase crop yields.

Google announces its own AI movie generator Imagen Video

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Sahil Pawar

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October 7, 2022

Google announces its own AI movie generator Imagen Video

Google announced its artificially intelligent (AI) movie generator called Imagen Video. It is still in the development phase, but the company says it will be capable of producing 1280×768 videos at 24 frames per second from a written prompt.

According to Google’s research paper, Imagen Video will have stylistic abilities, such as generating videos based on the work of famous artists like Vincent van Gough. It will also generate 3D rotating objects while preserving their structure and rendering text in various animation styles.

Google hopes its AI-video model can significantly decrease the difficulty of high-quality content generation. Imagen Video builds on Google’s Imagen, a text-to-image program similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E.

As Google’s research team described, Imagen Video will take a text description and generate a 16-frame, three-frames-per-second video at 24×48 pixel resolution. The system then upscales and predicts additional frames, producing a final 128-frame, 24-frames-per-second video at 720p.

Google says that Imagen Video has been trained on 14 million video-text pairs and 60 million image-text pairs, as well as the LAION image-text dataset, which was used to train Stable Diffusion.

Among the examples provided by Google are a panda chewing on bamboo, a zooming shot into a choppy sea filled with pirate ships, and an astronaut riding a horse. It is worth noting that all the results from Imagen Video are picked by Google, and as of yet, no independent testers have tried the program.

Tesla to remove ultrasonic sensors from EVs amid scrutiny

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Sahil Pawar

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October 7, 2022

Tesla to remove ultrasonic sensors from EVs

Tesla states it will start to remove ultrasonic sensors from its electric vehicles this month as it proceeds with using only cameras in its safety and driver-assistance features.

Tesla EVs now have 12 ultrasonic sensors on the front and rear bumpers. Short-range sound sensors are mainly used in parking applications and to detect close objects.

To recall, Tesla last year started dropping radar sensors amid a chip shortage. According to Elon Musk, the company can achieve full autonomy with cameras only, but he has missed his target to roll out self-driving taxis, which require no drivers.

Tesla faces growing public, regulatory, and legal scrutiny over its Autopilot system following crashes. The company said it would remove ultrasonic sensors from Model Y and Model 3 globally over the next few months. It will be followed by Model X and Model S in 2023.

The transition would temporarily limit automated parking features but not affect crash safety ratings, notes Tesla. While self-driving automakers and tech firms use multiple sensors like expensive lidars, Tesla relies only on artificial intelligence and cameras to help a vehicle recognize the environment.

Philip Koopman, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said that now the question is how well the cameras can see nearby its surroundings, which sometimes can be limited.

Amazon discontinues Amazon Glow, its video-calling device for kids

By

Gareema Lakra

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October 7, 2022

After a year of its release, Amazon discontinues Amazon Glow, its video-calling and gaming device for kids. Bloomberg broke the news of the discontinuation with the confirmation of Amazon. The device was directed toward kids aged 3-9 to stay connected remotely to their loved ones, which is no longer available on Amazon’s website.

Amazon Glow was developed during the pandemic to ease the distance between kids and their loved ones. It was a part of the original hardware products by Amazon, like Astro and Echo. Last year in September, at Amazon’s annual hardware event, the company announced an atypical z-shaped product known as Amazon Glow that could perform video calling along with games.

The device provides a 19.2-inch projected graphics screen that responds to touch to enjoy hands-on activities like games, and adults can join in for a fun interactive video call. The Amazon Kids+ subscription was necessary at the starting cost of $4.99 per month to access Glow. Amazon Glow combines the experience of a game system, an art and craft center, and a children’s library with interactive video chat.

Originally the device was priced at $300 and only available by invitation, but by the start of 2022 in late March, Amazon decided to make it available to the public. Over six months after the public rollout, now the company is stopping the selling of Amazon Glow.

Amazon spokesperson Tim Gillman stated, “At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers. We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments. We will be sharing updates and guidance with Glow customers soon,” indicating no reason is unveiled for the discontinuation for now. However, Amazon will bring more information to Amazon Glow customers soon.

Meta announces new ad formats to create revenue streams for Reels

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Sahil Pawar

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October 6, 2022

Meta announces new ad formats to create revenue streams for Reels

Meta Platforms announced a series of new ad formats, aiming to create new revenue streams for the short video and business messaging products it identified as key to growth this year.

In a blog post, Meta said it was starting the testing for a new skippable post-loop video ad format to play after its TikTok akin short video product Reels. Another new Reels format includes horizontally scrollable carousel ads, which can display between two and ten images at the bottom of a Reel.

Meta executives described the company’s business strategy at a press event. They said the new formats could lure Reels creators with ways to earn money from ad placements next to their videos.

Nada Stirratt, VP of Meta’s global business group said that Meta’s goal is to provide the monetization opportunities and tools as one is continually growing creator following across their platforms.

The executives also highlighted ads that open direct chats between prospective customers and businesses, saying Meta can now use AI to optimize whether the ads target new customers or those most likely to make a purchase.

Similarly, AI would power the selection of ads shown in users’ Instagram feeds, said Meta, citing internal research involving 400,000 advertisers that concluded that the approach produced more user purchases than other feed ads. Meta is also creating up new spaces for advertising on Instagram. It includes the ‘Explore’ tab that users see when they run a search in the app, the blog post said.

Intel to Take on AMD’s Xilinx with Future Edge FPGAs

By

Disha Chopra

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October 6, 2022

Intel, the microprocessor company, plans to take on AMD’s Xilinx, an operating system serving the aerospace and defense market, with Future Edge FPGAs. FPGAs, or Field Programmable Gate Arrays, are semiconductors based on a matrix of configurable logic blocks. Intel is focusing on enhancing the competitiveness of Xilinx-based products with plans to start selling standard FPGAs.

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are programmable chips that can be easily modified to fit a variety of workloads or emerging industry requirements. Compared to a typical CPU that is more general-purpose, the chips can handle those workloads more effectively. FPGAs are also significantly more flexible than ASICs, which are processors designed specifically for a single processing task.

For the edge and embedded markets, where it is critical to process data locally to control system-level latency and conserve power, Intel unveiled a new roadmap for the product line that includes mid-range Agilex FPGAs. The new chips will replace its Cyclone, Arria, and Stratix FPGAs built on older process nodes such as 20- and 28-nm.

Intel wants to add Xilinx to its existing Agilex family of FPGAs with an entirely new chip designed for its embedded system code “Sundance Mesa.” Executives at Intel have stated that the company is prepared to become a stronger competitor to AMD, which purchased FPGA juggernaut Xilinx for $49 billion at the beginning of the year, despite recent struggles to maintain the competition.

PM Modi test-driving a car in Europe sitting at Pragati Maidan using 5G technology

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Disha Chopra

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October 6, 2022

Ahead of the 5G launch, netizens can see PM Modi test-driving a car in Europe while sitting at Pragati Maidan, using 5G technology. He visited multiple telecom pavilions to experience 5G capabilities and test-drove the car he launched earlier in the day.

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal posted a picture of PM Modi on Twitter along with the following message: “India is the global leader. PM @NarendraModi ji uses India’s 5G technology to test drive an automobile remotely from Delhi to Europe.”

India driving the world.

PM @NarendraModi ji tests driving a car in Europe remotely from Delhi using India’s 5G technology. pic.twitter.com/5ixscozKtg
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) October 1, 2022

PM Modi also introduced 5G services earlier in the day at the 6th India Mobile Congress 2022 in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. Reliance CEO Mukesh Ambani, Bharti Airtel CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal, Vodafone Idea CEO Kumar Mangalam Birla, and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw all attended the event.

The event emphasized that solutions like E-health, connected cars, more immersive augmented reality, and metaverse experiences, along with other life-saving use cases and sophisticated mobile cloud gaming, among others, can be made possible by the 5G.

Biden administration unveils blueprint for AI Bill of Rights

By

Sahil Pawar

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October 6, 2022

Biden administration unveils blueprint for AI Bill of Rights

The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled a set of far-reaching goals aimed at averting the harm caused by the rise of AI systems, including guidelines for protecting people’s personal data and limiting surveillance.

Notably, The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights does not set out specific enforcement actions. Instead, officials said it is intended as a White House call to action for the US government to safeguard civil and digital rights in an AI-fueled world.

The White House said the white paper represents a significant advance in the administration’s plan to hold technology companies accountable. The administration also highlighted various federal agencies’ commitments to weighing new rules and studying the specific impacts of AI technologies.

The document has been released after a year-long consultation with over two dozen different departments. It also incorporates feedback from civil society groups, technologists, industry researchers, and tech companies, including Palantir and Microsoft.

It mentions five core principles that the administration says should be built into AI systems to mitigate the impacts of algorithmic bias, give users control over their data, and ensure that automated systems are used safely and transparently.

The resulting non-binding principles cite news reports, academic research, and agency studies documenting real-world harm from AI-powered tools. This includes facial recognition tools that contributed to unjust arrests and an automated system that discriminated against loan applicants who attended a historically black university or college.

The white paper mentioned that parents and social workers could benefit from knowing whether child welfare agencies were using algorithms to make a decision on when families should be investigated for maltreatment.

Accenture and Mars, a global confectionery leader, to develop “Factory of the Future” using AI

By

Disha Chopra

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October 6, 2022

accenture and mars develop factory of the future

Accenture, a strategy and consulting firm, and Mars, a global confectionery leader, to develop a “Factory of the Future” using AI. Since late 2020, Accenture and Mars have been testing digital twins, virtual representations of devices, goods, or procedures, for Mars’ manufacturing operations. With access to real-time data, they can anticipate and improve equipment performance, including dependability, quality, and energy efficiency.

Without investing additional time and resources in actual space, Mars can simulate and test the outcomes of product and manufacturing improvements using the digital twins. The companies have tested a prototype to lessen the instances of package overfilling, a common challenge faced by food-related industries.

Mars could observe production lines at one of its factories in Illinois from above, owing to the digital twin. The twin provided a predictive analytics model with sensor data from manufacturing equipment, enabling factory line operators to monitor real-time events and modify the filling process.

Accenture and Mars will develop a new cloud platform for manufacturing apps, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) over the next two years to set the groundwork for their vision of the “Factory of the Future.” Accenture contributes to the project through its cloud, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain expertise.

The new platform will offer cutting-edge robotics, AI, and automation capabilities at the edge to significantly increase the efficiency of Mars’ manufacturing operations and address crucial sustainability goals like overall greenhouse gas emissions and water waste reductions.