University of Washington to Lead NSF for Artificial Intelligence Research

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August 3, 2021

University of Washington to Lead NSF for Artificial Intelligence Research

The National Science Foundation (NFS) announces its plans to conduct research on the use of artificial intelligence for understanding dynamic systems under the leadership of the University of Washington (UW).

Under the new initiative of NSF, eleven new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes will be built across forty states. NSF has already received funding of $220 million for this purpose.

Earlier this year, NSF had collaborated with Amazon Web Services for its Fairness in Artificial Intelligence Program.

The research program will focus on the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning and develop real-time learning applications for controlling complex dynamic systems.

An associate professor at the University of Washington, Steve Brunton, said, “We literally live and breathe inside of a working fluid, and so do nearly all of our machines. But because of the multiscale complexity of the fluid, which involves a cascade of increasingly smaller eddies, we still have an incredibly hard time predicting what fluids will do outside of idealized and controlled settings.”

He further added that they want to explore the possibility of training machine learning and artificial intelligence systems that would enable them to learn partially known or unknown physics concepts.

The collaborative research will develop data-enabled artificial intelligence solutions to tackle several challenges in the field of science and engineering. Apart from research, the collaboration would also train future researchers by providing them the necessary support and assistance.

They intend to tie up with high schools and offer artificial intelligence projects to educate students and would also actively recruit fresh college graduates from underrepresented regions of the United States to train them.

An applied mathematics professor at UW, Nathan Kutz, said, “Importantly, we will provide AI ethics training for all involved in the institute. We will also make this training available to the community at large, thus enforcing a disciplined approach to thinking about AI.”

DesiCrew Scales Up its Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Services

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 3, 2021

DesiCrew Scales Up its Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Services

India-based digital ops startup DesiCrew plans to scale up its artificial intelligence and machine learning service in order to expand further. The company was founded in Chennai in the year 2007 by Saloni Malhotra.

The startup was incubated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and specializes in providing artificial intelligence and data services. It has received total funding of $1.2 million from investors like VenturEast and responsAbility Investments AG.

The company plans to increase its workforce from 1000 to 2500 by the year 2025. The company currently provides services like conversational artificial intelligence, end-to-end machine learning platforms, artificial intelligence-powered IT solutions, and intelligent process automation.

It also offers various data labeling services like image annotation and knowledge graph development. DesiCrew is now looking forward to new funding as it aims to increase its revenue by 60% to hit the $10 million mark.

CEO of DesiCrew, J.K. Maninavvan, said, “We focus on both economic and social impact, building prosperity hubs in rural communities. Our two-pronged strategy of upping the ante on high value and high-end tech services and our relentless pursuit of quality is helping us onboard many new customers in the recent months.”

He further added that the company is on the right track in expanding its operations and increasing the team size by taking advantage of the current pace of digital adoption in the industry.

The startup has expertise in computer vision, natural language processing, and analytics that will play a pivotal role in its expansion.
DesiCrew is now rigorously working to capture more market share in the Middle East, North America, Europe, and also grow in the domestic market by closely working with Indian businesses.

Samsung Launches Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Lab In Karnataka

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 3, 2021

Samsung Launches Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Lab In Karnataka

Samsung announces the launch of its new artificial intelligence and machine learning lab at KEL Technological University in Hubballi, Karnataka. The lab will be used by the students and faculty members of KEL university to conduct advanced research on various subjects like data engineering.

The lab is built upon an area of 3000 sq. ft. and has many modern types of equipment to enable the students to develop solutions for real-world challenges. Expert engineers from Samsung Research and Development center in Bengaluru will train students in developing artificial intelligence systems, mainly for mobile camera technology and speech recognition.

Managing Director of Samsung R&D center in Bengaluru, Dipesh Shah, said, “India is a repository of young Millennials and Gen Z talent. At Samsung, we envision this lab to become a hub of young minds igniting India’s innovation ecosystem, build capabilities among the students to make them industry-ready, and also promote industry-academia collaboration.”

He further added that this new move by Samsung proves its commitment towards the initiative #PoweringDigitalIndia. 3rd and 4th-year B.Tech students, M.Tech students, and P.h.D scholars of KEL Technological University will be allowed to conduct collaborative research and publish research papers jointly with SRI-B engineers.

The research lab is also equipped with systems to store and render vast amounts of data. Samsung will provide certification to the participating students on completion of a research project. Earlier Samsung had conducted intensive research and development tasks in the field of 5G networking, artificial intelligence, and machine learning in India.

Vice-Chancellor of KEL Technological University, Dr. Ashok Shettar, said, “Today, our world is becoming increasingly data-centric, and along with AI, it continues to transform the way we live, work and do business.”

He also mentioned that this new initiative of Samsung would give the students good industry exposure and allow them to work with the best engineers on research projects to develop solutions for various challenges.

NVIDIA Advances Instant AI with North American Availability of Base Command Platform

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 3, 2021

NVIDIA Advances Instant AI with North American Availability of Base Command Platform

Multinational tech company NVIDIA announces the availability of its artificial intelligence base command platform in North America. This platform will enable businesses to process vast amounts of data using advanced computing infrastructure.

The base command platform is a hosted artificial intelligence development hub that provides instant access to high-performance computing resources for enterprises. The platform uses NVIDIA DGX SuperPod to deliver the best possible performance through optimized artificial intelligence workflow software. The platform is now available at a monthly subscription in North America and Canada.

Head of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA, Manuvir Das, said, “As enterprise AI adoption grows, so does demand for faster access to the world-leading infrastructure offered by NVIDIA and our partners. Base Command Platform makes it easy for enterprises to instantly access the power of an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD to accelerate the AI and data science development lifecycle.”

Businesses will now be able to develop and train models and effectively manage them using NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence platform. The price of the monthly subscription of Base Command Platform starts from $90,000 with a minimum of three months subscription that allows customers to use a maximum of 20 DGX SUperPods.

The platform also supports NetApp’s services to allow customers access to high-performance storage requirements for accelerated artificial intelligence computing. NVIDIA has also partnered with Equinix to provide the support of more than 220 data centers operated by Equinix for its Base Command Platform.

Weights & Biases will provide MLOps software that would offer various features like experiment tracking and model visualization for NVIDIA’s platform. CEO of Weights & Biases, Lukas Biewald, said, “Pairing the immediate access to NVIDIA’s DGX SuperPOD AI supercomputing offered by NVIDIA Base Command Platform with Weights & Biases’ MLOps experiment-tracking tools means that AI developers will be able to work with incredible efficiency as they solve complex problems.”

Google Announces New Tensor Chips For Pixel 6

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 3, 2021

Google Announces New Tensor Chips For Pixel 6

Tech giant Google announces the launch of its new custom tensor chips with Pixel 6 by the end of 2021. Google has designed an in-house System on Chip (SoC) that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for its Pixel smartphones.

The chip will power two upcoming pixel devices, namely Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 pro. The smartphones are expected to be launched in October 2021. The company claims that the custom tensor chip will deliver an unmatched and innovative artificial intelligence experience to its users in many fields like photography and performance.

In a recent blog, Google mentioned, “Over the years, we introduced features like HDR+ and Night Sight, which used artificial intelligence (AI) to create beautiful images with computational photography.”

With this new chipset, the firm wants to up-scale the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide the best features to its customers. The company designed the chipset after scrutinizing the way people use smartphones now and how they will use them in the future.

The Tensor chip will also feature a new security core and Titan M2 to provide maximum security in a smartphone possible till date. The blog mentioned, “With Tensor, we thought about every piece of the chip and customized it to run Google’s computational photography models. For users, this means entirely new features, plus improvements to existing ones.”

So excited to share our new custom Google Tensor chip, which has been 4 yrs in the making (📎 for scale)! Tensor builds off of our 2 decades of computing experience and it’s our biggest innovation in Pixel to date. Will be on Pixel 6 + Pixel 6 Pro in fall. https://t.co/N95X6gFxLf pic.twitter.com/wHiEJRHJwy
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) August 2, 2021

Google has planned to change the rear design of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 pro with a new camera module to accommodate better and bigger image sensors. The font has been kept similar on both variants of the smartphone.

Three color options will be available to choose from for both of the devices. The smartphones will come with Android 12 and will use Google’s Material You technology to provide an esthetic user interface.

This new technology of Google uses mixing color science and advanced engineering to provide better color schemes, immersive animations, and a new design framework.

Artificial Intelligence Solutions Failed during COVID-19 Pandemic

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 2, 2021

Artificial Intelligence Solutions Failed during COVID-19 Pandemic

According to a recent report, numerous different artificial intelligence solutions were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they failed miserably in tackling the situation. Healthcare systems across the globe suffered a huge blow when the pandemic broke out.

Researchers then developed many artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions to aid hospitals diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients. But experts are now claiming that the efforts were in vain as the solutions did not deliver expected results, and also some were found to be harmful.

An epidemiologist at The Massachusetts University, Laure Wynants, said, “This pandemic was a big test for artificial intelligence and medicine, but I do not think we passed the test. The pandemic has put problems (with artificial intelligence) in the spotlight that we have been dragging along for some time.”

Before the spread of the Coronavirus in the western world, researchers tried to develop machine learning algorithms that would help doctors to make informed decisions to treat the patients.

The United Kingdom’s national data science center Turing Institute had earlier published a report that mentioned that artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions made little to no difference in the treatment and prediction of COVID-19 infections.

Another research conducted by the British Medical Journal examined the accuracy of more than 250 predictive algorithms and concluded that none of them were able to meet the expectations.

Bullock J, a researcher, said, “Artificial intelligence systems are still at a preliminary stage, and it will take time before the results of such AI measures are visible. Very few of the reviewed artificial intelligence systems have operational maturity at this stage.”

The artificial intelligence industry is making new discoveries at a very rapid pace that backs the fact that we would be able to build new platforms that generate accurate results to tackle any future outbreaks effectively.

Twitter Announces Bug Bounty Program to find Bias in Artificial Intelligence

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 2, 2021

Twitter Announces Bug Bounty Program to find Bias in Artificial Intelligence

Social networking platform Twitter announces its new bug bounty program to find bias in artificial intelligence algorithms. The bounty program has a prize pool of over $7,000.

It mainly focuses on detecting bugs and biases in artificial intelligence image cropping algorithms. This move comes after the constant criticism Twitter faces for its image cropping algorithm as users claim it to be biassed towards lighter skin toned people.

According to Twitter, it is pretty challenging to identify bugs on its own. Hence it has now reached out to the public for improving its technology.

The blog written by Rumman Chowdhury and Jutta Williams mentioned, “We want to foster a similar community focused on ML ethics so that we can identify a wider range of issues than we can do ourselves. With this challenge, we are on Twitter. And the industry aims to set a precedent for the positive and collective identification of algorithmic harm.”

The winner of the competition will be awarded an amount of $3,500. The runner-ups will be given $1,000 and $500, respectively. Apart from the traditions award categories, Twitter has also introduced two news categories, namely Most Innovative and Most Generalizable. Both of these categories have a winning prize of $1,000.

The blog also mentioned, “It sparks more people to be involved who maybe didn’t have resources and free time. We want to start cultivating and creating a community of ethical AI hackers.”

Interested candidates can register themselves with HackerOne in order to compete in the program. The registration link is available on the official website of Twitter.

The bounty program is all set to go live from 30th July 2021 to 6th August 2021. The timings of the competition will be from 9:00 AM to 11:59 PM Pacific Time.

Facebook to Develop Artificial Intelligence Solution for Age Recognition

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 2, 2021

Facebook to Develop Artificial Intelligence Solution for Age Recognition

Tech Giant Facebook announces its plans to develop new artificial intelligence solutions for accurate age recognition. The company has a policy that restricts users of age less than 13 years from registering on its platform.

Users nowadays bypass this restriction by entering an incorrect age on the social media platform of Facebook. The company plans to tackle this issue using the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

The company is now seeking help from web browsers and operating system developers to provide them with the required data for developing accurate artificial intelligence algorithms capable of determining the actual age of users.

Currently, Facebook depends on user reports against accounts to verify and remove them from the platform. Vice President of youth products at Facebook, Pavni Diwanji, said, “We’re developing AI to find and remove underaged accounts and new solutions to verify people’s ages. We’re also building new experiences designed specifically for those under 13.”

Facebook is also planning to build a new platform specifically for users below the age of 13. A new social media platform is currently being developed to enable users to have an age-appropriate online experience that can be managed by their guardians.

Earlier, the company planned to use government IDs to ensure the age of the users, but now they have changed their approach and are relying on artificial intelligence. The research team plans to use currently available data to train its artificial intelligence system.
While explaining their approach in a recently published blog, Diwanji said, “We look at things like people wishing you a happy birthday and the age written in those messages. We also look at the age you shared with us on Facebook and apply it to our other apps where you have linked your accounts and vice versa.”

Australian Court Decides to Recognize Artificial Intelligence as Inventors

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 2, 2021

Australian Court Decides to Recognize Artificial Intelligence as Inventors

Australian Federal Court now decides to recognize artificial intelligence as inventors under the patent law. This groundbreaking announcement has changed the widely accepted fact that only humans can invent new technologies.

Earlier this year, the South African government also recognized an artificial intelligence neural network named DABUS as an inventor. An Australian Law professor at the University of Surrey, Ryan Abbot, had also filed two international patents in seventeen different countries across the globe to recognize DABUS and the inventor of two neural systems for adjustable food containers and emergency beacons.

He mentioned that he wanted to support DABUS after realizing the double standards the current law has for the assessment of human behavior and artificial intelligence. The developer of DABUS, Stephen Thaler, had been engaged in numerous legal cases worldwide for this recognition since 2019.

Thaler said, “It’s been more of a philosophical battle, convincing humanity that my creative neural architectures are compelling models of cognition, creativity, sentience, and consciousness.”

He further added that the recently established fact that their artificial intelligence platform DABUS has developed patent-worthy inventions prove that the system can function as a conscious human brain.

Dr. Mark Summerfield, the patent attorney of Australia, said, “A recognition in Australian law that the term inventor can encompass a machine would not only be well ahead of the dictionaries, it would also be ahead of any significant usage of the word in this way in society at large, or even among qualified experts in the field.”

Countries like The United States and the United Kingdom have already rejected to accept artificial intelligence as an inventor. The developers are now looking forward to a positive response from India, Japan, and Israel.

Neuralink Raises $205 Million In Series C Funding Round

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 2, 2021

Neuralink Raises $205 Million In Series C Funding Round

Brain computing startup Neuralink announces that it has raised $205 million in its series C funding round in a blog. The funding was led by Vy Capital and had other participants, including Sam Altman, Ken Howery, Fred Ehersam, and Google Ventures.

Neuralink uses artificial intelligence technologies to help brain dead or injured people. In the long run, it plans to develop many brain-machine interfaces to cure various types of brain ailments that would create a connected biological and artificial intelligence ecosystem.

The company has now received total funding of $363 million after the new investment round led by a Dubai-based investment company Vy Capital. Neuralink is a California-based startup founded by Elon Musk and PayPal co-founder Max Hodak in the year 2016.

The firm specializes in developing high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to enable individuals suffering from paralysis to interact with society. Earlier in 2017, the company had received an investment of $107 million from Elon Musk.

Officials said that they aim to “develop brain-machine interfaces that treat various brain-related ailments, with the eventual goal of creating a whole-brain interface capable of more closely connecting biological and artificial intelligence.”

The company plans to use this fresh funding to bring its product to the public and conduct research to develop and improve its products. According to Elon Musk, Neuralink’s first product called ‘N1 Link’ will be technology that will be implanted into paralysis patients in order to enable them to interact with others.

N1 Link will be completely invisible after the implantation process and will process and transmit data wirelessly. Musk describes the product as a “FitBit in your skull with tiny wires that go into your brain.”
The official blog mentioned, “The first indication this device is intended for is to help quadriplegics regain their digital freedom by allowing users to interact with their computers or phones in a high bandwidth and naturalistic way.”