Fridays can be the most productive work day, as you look to shore up everything before the weekend starts.
Or, maybe instead, it’s a day filled with long lunches and listless Internet surfing, as you seek out all the interesting articles you missed during the week. Fear not: Xconomy has done the work for you, bringing a smattering of some of the most interesting reads out there.
This week, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence, one of the buzziest fields in tech. From Facebook to Microsoft to the NIH, organizations keep working to push forward the uses of A.I. Here are a few ways they are doing it:
Is There a Smarter Path to Artificial Intelligence? Some Experts Hope So
—The New York Times
Wait, you’re saying we might have invested too much in deep learning? Silicon Valley-based Kyndi and other organizations (including the Allen Institute) study “non-deep learning” tools that represent another side of A.I.
Retail Robot Maker Bossa Nova Raises $29M to Monitor Shelves
—Xconomy
Get this guy on The Price is Right! Bossa Nova snags $29 million for an A.I.-enhanced robot that surveys stores for empty shelves and verifies that prices are accurate, including at Walmart.
Facebook Is About To Bring The Hammer Down On Overseas Fake News Operators
—BuzzFeed News, The Verge
How do you prevent humans from lying to each other? Machines! Facebook announced it is using machine learning to fact-check against fake news and demote posts by repeat offenders.
Microsoft Is Using AI to Cut the Cloud’s Electric Bill
—Fast Company
Seattle giant Microsoft is touting its efforts to make data centers more energy efficient than traditional data warehouses with A.I. software. It’s the second time this month the company has made news on this front after it placed a data center on the ocean floor.
IBM Researchers Develop a Pair of Low-Power, High-Performance Computer Vision Systems
—VentureBeat
Sure, companies can run complex A.I. algorithms on costly, powerful computers. But can anyone develop something more efficient? IBM says… yes.
NXP Wants to Bring Machine Learning to “Edge” Processors
—Design News
NXP has developed software that it thinks will simplify and lessen the cost of employing machine learning—by applying so-called edge processing (to oversimplify: utilizing connected devices and the cloud for computing).
Microsoft Acquires Bonsai to Help With Its Artificial Intelligence Push
—CNBC
Microsoft is back at the acquisition game, adding Bonsai, an A.I. software company that aims to train business systems, to its Azure Machine Learning division.
Mapping Software Startup Ushr Lands Installation Deal with Cadillac
—Xconomy
Something has to process all that LIDAR mapping data in autonomous vehicles, right? This is the story of Michigan- and California-based Ushr’s role in Cadillac’s Super Cruise feature.
IBM Shows Off an Artificial Intelligence That Can Debate a Human — and Do Pretty Well
—USA Today
As if humans weren’t argumentative enough, IBM decided to make a machine that can now debate with us—and can scan billions of sentences on the IBM Cloud to shore up its argument. The question is: If computers are judging the debate, does that give the A.I. an advantage?
If You’re Scared of Artificial Intelligence, You Should Know It’s Already Everywhere
—Popular Science
Artificial intelligence is everywhere. Ha ha ha… ha?
JP Morgan Is Unleashing Artificial Intelligence on a Business That Moves $5 Trillion for Corporations Every Day
—CNBC
JP Morgan joins the list of too-big-to-fail banks that are now using A.I. assistants to help investment banking and institutional clients. “Alexa, don’t forget to send Fox $70 billion for the buyout!” “OK, sending your contact Jamie Foxx $70 billion for a tryout.”
And a few others:
—Google AI predicts hospital inpatient death risks with 95% accuracy
—Brain in Motion
—The Dangers of Facial Analysis
—How Spirit AI Uses Artificial Intelligence to Level Up Game Communities
—Nvidia Uses AI to Create Convincing Slo-Mo Video by Filling in Extra Frames
