A Distinctive AI-Powered ‘Reading Marathon’ by the School Education Department in Association with a Google App, Concludes

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June 14, 2022

Google’s ‘Read Along app’ in association with the School Education Department, concluded a ‘reading marathon’. The campaign commenced on June 1 and aimed to ensure that children have a joyful experience while learning to read. It enabled students to read texts in Tamil and English. With the help of an in-app reading buddy, students could get assistance and a few words of encouragement.

The Illam Thedi Kalvi initiative is to promote reading habits among children. Children could read texts in Tamil and English during this large-scale AI-powered reading marathon. Many students visited the Illam Thedi centers throughout the summer holidays to continue reading.

Volunteers in the initiative had the app installed on their phones. They were responsible for creating children’s profiles. K. Elambahavath, Officer on Special Duty, Illam Thedi Kalvi, said, “The children either read from the phones of the volunteers or used the app on smartphones in their homes. Since students already enjoy using smart phones, they enjoyed reading through the app— it felt like an interactive game and the encouragement for getting words right also motivated them.”

The initiative appears to be a successor of a similar volunteer-led program initiated in October 2021 as the most extensive post-pandemic outreach program to address the learning gaps due to COVID-19. This year, the initiative aims to involve AI in teaching reading habits. With massive success, lakhs of students came to read at the centers.

Mr. Elambahavath concluded, “We initiated this digital intervention to promote reading habits among children. As of Saturday, nearly 17.4 lakh students had read over 226 crore words through the app.”

DeepBrain AI awarded third place at global technology pitching competition T-Challenge

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Sahil Pawar

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June 14, 2022

DeepBrain AI, a high-end AI creator, has been awarded third place in the category of solution development at the T-Challenge award ceremony. The award ceremony was held in Bonn, Germany, on June 1st.

DeepBrain AI was awarded 50,000 euros and was presented with the opportunity to establish business partnerships with T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekomin.

T-Challenge is a global technology pitching competition that Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile co-host. Both are the leading telecommunications companies in Germany and the United States.

More than 300 startups from across the globe participated in the competition to present new ideas and solutions on various themes. Some of the topics included extended reality (XR) solutions consisting of virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality (AR).

The competition initially started receiving applications for participation in October last year. Qualifiers were held for all participating companies in February of this year, out of which ten companies from each category of solution development and design development were selected.

Thus, 20 companies had gathered in Germany to compete in the final technology pitching competition, wherein Deep Brain AI was awarded third place in the solution development category, beating the other leading global companies.

At the competition, DeepBrain AI presented its AI Human solution that can create photorealistic virtual humans using deep learning and video synthesis. Along with introducing practical uses in various fields such as finance, education, broadcasting, technology development, and commerce, the company emphasized its marketability and technological innovation.

The CEO of DeepBrain AI expressed the significance of being recognized for the DeepBrain AI technological innovation and the global competitiveness of IT and AI startups by participating in the T-Challenge. He said that the company would continue to strive to achieve many such feats through active participation in global competitions and expanding business areas.

Microsoft uses AI to improve audio and video quality on Microsoft Teams

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Sahil Pawar

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June 14, 2022

Microsoft uses AI to improve Microsoft Teams

Microsoft has announced the roll-out of the new AI enhancements for its video conferencing software Microsoft Teams, which will enhance audio and video quality on calls. The updates are expected to be available in the coming months.

Announced in a Microsoft blog post, the features include echo cancellation, real-time screen optimizations for video playback, de-reverberation, and brightness and soft-focus video enhancements.

Microsoft Teams uses AI technology to differentiate between a speaker’s sound and the user’s voice. This feature eliminates the echo without suppressing speech or multiple users’ ability to speak simultaneously.

De-reverberation can adjust poor room acoustics using machine learning to convert captured audio signals to sound as if users are speaking into a close-range mic. This can fix the specific sound issues where the room acoustics may cause sound to bounce or reverberate, forcing the user’s voice to sound shallow.

Another feature is Interruptibility, the ability to interrupt for clarification or validation, resulting in more natural conversations. The software will use full-duplex (two-way) transmission of audio that will allow users to speak and hear others simultaneously.

Microsoft Teams uses a trained model fed with 30,000 hours of speech samples to retain ideal voice quality while suppressing unwanted audio signals, thus resulting in more fluid dialogues. This will solve the issue of removing echo while maintaining full-duplex audio when using headphones.

The new Microsoft Teams software update has background noise suppression, with the company’s proprietary AI-based noise suppression a default feature for all users. Moreover, AI will help with better video and screen sharing quality.

Machine learning platform predicts surgical complications

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Sahil Pawar

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June 14, 2022

Machine learning platform predicts surgical complications

Researchers from the University of Florida have developed a machine-learning platform called MySurgeryRisk, that can predict and address postoperative surgical complications as accurately as the clinicians.

MySurgeryRisk was created to help prevent some complications by predicting the risk rates for patients planning to undergo surgery. The platform was created using 74,000 procedures, including 58,000 adult patients at the University of Florida Health. Also, it was trained to predict post-surgery complications using 135 variables extracted from patient EMRs. These variables included laboratory, clinical, demographic, pharmacy, and other data.

The system algorithm was then tested to predict prolonged intensive care unit stays and mortality risk after the surgical procedures. The platform can predict the risk of 8 major surgical complications, including sepsis, cardiovascular issues, neurological issues, and acute kidney injury.

Read More: AI predicts race from X-Ray images

After the successful development and training, the researchers compared MySurgeryRisk’s accuracy in predicting surgical complications in 100 cases to the predictions of the surgeons for the same cases. The platform performed on par with the surgeons in predicting the probability of complications in most patients. However, it outperformed the surgeons at predicting blood clots in veins.

The platform is valuable for surgeons while preparing for a surgical procedure. With predictions of risks from MySurgeryRisk in mind, surgeons can be more strategic in the operating room, like choosing to implement additional techniques to improve patient outcomes.

The researchers aim to make MySurgeryRisk more precise in the future by including thousands of potentially relevant, uncollected data found in the operating room. For example, information from anesthesia devices and ventilator monitors. They also aim to expand validation testing of the tool at other healthcare institutions across Florida and make it more widely available.

Logy.ai Introduces India’s First AI-based Cataract Screening Solution with Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals

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Disha Chopra

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June 14, 2022

logy.ai introduces cataract screening with sharp sight eye hospitals

Logy.ai, in collaboration with Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals, New Delhi, has introduced AI as a screening solution to identify cataracts with an accuracy of 92%. The innovation presents a simple chatbot on WhatsApp and would not require any additional application. The screening can be done in rural areas.

Logy.ai is an intelligent care service provider aiming to bring AI with a user-friendly interface. In recent developments, the company has helped Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals to solidify its position as a leading eye care provider that uses AI for health screening. The latter is an established eye care provider with over 10 lakh successful procedures and surgeries in its 14 facilities in North and East India centers.

Priyanjit Ghosh, Co-founder, and CEO, of Logy.ai, expressed that Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals is a proactive partner with the firm. Their partnership synergizes with Logy.ai’s vision of new-era technologies like AI to promote health screening. The collaboration aims to build top-of-the-line AI products in the healthcare domain and bridge the gap between technology and medicine.

She said, “We are grateful to the top leadership of Sharp Sight for providing us the opportunity to collaborate in this journey.”

Deepshikha Sharma, CEO of Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals, stated, “The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought breakthroughs in many areas of medicine. In ophthalmology, AI has delivered robust results in the screening and detection of diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinopathy of prematurity. Cataract management is another field that can benefit from greater AI application.”

She added, “We are really glad to partner with Logy.AI envisions, which will open doors for healthcare professionals to undertake research and better utilize AI tools to understand their patient’s disease patterns and improve treatment outcomes significantly.”

AI predicts race from X-Ray images

By

Sahil Pawar

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June 14, 2022

An international team of health researchers from the US, Canada, and Taiwan has found that deep learning models based on artificial intelligence can identify a person’s race just from their X-rays.

The team trained their AI using hundreds of thousands of existing X-ray images labeled with details of the patient’s race and then tested their system on X-ray images that the computer software had not seen before and had no additional information on.

Artificial intelligence could predict the reported racial identity of the person/patient on the images with surprising accuracy. Even when the scans were taken from people of the same age and sex, the AI could predict it accurately.

According to the published paper in The Lancet Digital Health, the team aimed to show that, when trained, standard AI deep learning models can predict race from medical images with high performance across multiple imaging modalities.

The scientists are unaware of why the AI system is so accurate at identifying race from images that do not contain such information. Even in the case of the limited information provided, for instance, removing clues on bone density or focussing on a small part of the body, the AI models still performed surprisingly well at predicting race.

According to experts, the system may be detecting signs of melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color, which is unknown to science as of now.

Researchers across the medical field say that the research acts as yet another piece of evidence that AI systems can lead to biases and prejudices in human beings, sparking racism, sexism, or other forms of discrimination.

Spotify Acquired Text-to-Speech Platform Sonantic

By

Disha Chopra

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June 14, 2022

In an official statement, Spotify said it acquired the AI Voice startup Sonantic, which works on turning text into speech. The acquisition will enhance text-to-speech features. Spotify believes high-quality voices will face a demand surge, thus looking at the investment as a long-term solution.

Ziad Sultan, Vice President of Spotify, said, “We’re really excited about the potential to bring Sonantic’s AI voice technology onto the Spotify platform and create new experiences for our users, this integration will enable us to engage users in a new and even more personalized way.”

Recently, Spotify has been indulged in similar acquisitions of tech podcast companies like Podsights and Chartable. The company aims to establish its dominance in the audiobook market and become a podcast leader. The acquisition of Sonantic can be viewed as yet another effort to stand out from its competitors.

Sonantic is a startup that focuses on delivering realistic voices. Zeena Qureshi and John Flynn, founders of Sonantic, said, “We’re looking forward to joining Spotify and continuing to build exciting voice experiences, we believe in the power voice has and its ability to foster a deeper connection with listeners around the world, and we know we can be better than ever on the world’s largest audio platform.”

Spotify is yet to disclose the exact terms of the acquisition and its intention to venture into the text-to-speech startup business. However, it claims it has identified several opportunities based on the same. It believes it can use Sonantic’s tech to provide context about upcoming recommendations without them having to look at the screen.

Telangana AI Mission partners with AgHub for AgriTech Startups

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 14, 2022

Telangana AI Mission AgHub AgriTech Startups

Telangana AI Mission (T-AIM) announces that it has partnered with Hyderabad’s AgHub to help AgriTech startups grow in the country.

According to the plan, T-AIM and AgHub will begin working together on capacity building and mentorship in agri-entrepreneurship.

T-AIM is a one-of-a-kind initiative of the Telangana government that aims to accelerate the development and deployment of artificial intelligence-powered solutions in the region.

Moreover, it is backed by the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India, NASSCOM.

This new development will help several artificial intelligence (AI)-based agri-tech businesses through T-Revv AIM’s Up startup acceleration program. ‘Revv Up’ accelerator program was also announced by the government last year to empower startups working in the artificial intelligence industry.

Principal Secretary, ITE&C, Government of Telangana, said, “the Telangana government has built a network of expert institutions in order to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship. This partnership carries immense promise of enhancing the potential offered by artificial intelligence in agriculture.”

Under this new collaboration, selected startups will become eligible for AgHub facilities such as co-working space and PJTSAU subject knowledge. Additionally, T-AIM also organized a day-long Artificial Intelligence skill-building session for 28 PJTSAU post-graduate students and professors to mark the commencement of this new partnership.

V Praveen Rao, Vice-Chancellor, PJTSAU, said, “Close collaborations and partnership between ecosystem enablers would build a strong and thriving ecosystem for aspiring agriprenuers and startups.”

A few months back, the Telangana state government also announced its plans to introduce and implement AI-based quality control for crops or grains stocked at the state’s procurement centers. The AI-based quality control initiative will be launched as a trial in three procurement centers throughout the state, including Narayanpet and Kamareddy.

Tesla and Samsung signs deal to deliver new Cameras for Self-driving cars

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 13, 2022

The world’s most popular electric car manufacturing company, Tesla, announces a multi-billion dollar deal with global technology giant Samsung to deliver new cameras for Tesla’s self-driving cars.

According to a report of Korea Economic Daily, the recently signed deal is worth $4 billion. Despite the fact that Samsung has opted not to manufacture its own electric cars, it does sell critical components to the EV industry, like cameras.

While LG will continue to supply 20% of the cameras for Tesla’s self-driving system, Samsung will now supply the rest of the devices (80%) post this deal.

The components will be Samsung’s version 4.0 camera modules with 5 million pixels. It is said that Samsung’s new version 4.0 camera modules produce photos that are five times crisper than the company’s prior 3.0 modules, making this a significant upgrade. Tesla’s current Autopilot sensor suite is thought to have a resolution of roughly 1.2 megapixels.

Recently, Tesla also announced its second Tesla AI Day on the 19th of August. However, Elon Musk later, through a tweet, postponed the event to 30th September. This decision was made as the company made efforts to develop its robot named Optimus.

According to officials, the scheduled event would reveal “many cool updates” for the customers. Tesla’s Optimus robot, also known as Tesla Bot, is an artificial intelligence-powered general-purpose robotic humanoid, which was initially announced back in 2019 during the first Tesla AI Day.

Meta to launch metaverse academy in France with Simplon

By

Sahil Pawar

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June 13, 2022

The multinational technology conglomerate Meta and Simplon, a French digital training firm, will launch a metaverse academy in France for the coming academic year.

The academy would aim to train around 100 students for free in its first year. Students will be trained in two roles, specialist immersive technology developers and support and assistance technicians, said Meta’s vice president for southern Europe, Laurent Solly.

According to Frederic Bardeau, co-founder of Simplon, the academy would follow in-person teaching and be project-based, emphasizing the 3D world and interactions in virtual universes.

Located in cities including Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Nice, the metaverse academy will train 20 students per city each year, with a particular emphasis on diversity.

The target is for 30 percent of the first cohort to be women, said Solly. While on the other hand, Bardeau said he would endorse positive discrimination and not look at the CVs for admission.

Considered the most significant technological advancement for the internet in the 21st century, the metaverse refers to an immersive digital world that aims to recreate a simulation of real-life through augmented and virtual reality, thus taking the web from 2D to 3D.

In October 2021, Meta expressed its intentions to create around 10,000 jobs in Europe in five years while building metaverse. The academy is based on the predictions that future job skills demanded by employers will be in cohort with the metaverse.

According to Meta and Simplon, 80% of the careers that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet. Considering this fact, they emphasized the need to develop training schemes now.