Science
Deep Doo-Doo: AI App Diagnoses Poop Better Than People
People who suffer from gastrointestinal conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome are number two when it comes to describing the characteristics of their own poop.
Latest
Tech & Society
Wind in the Forecast: AI Tool Predicts Wind Turbine Energy Output
Machine learning is making wind power more predictable. Engie SA, a multinational energy utility based in France, is the first customer for an AI-powered tool from Google that predicts the energy output of wind farms.
Tech & Society
Toward Next-Gen Language Models: New Benchmarks Test the Limits of Large Language Models
A new benchmark aims to raise the bar for large language models. Researchers at 132 institutions worldwide introduced the Beyond the Imitation Game benchmark (BIG-bench), which includes tasks that humans perform well but current state-of-the-art models don’t.
Letters
Can an AI System Be Sentient? Ask a Philosopher
A Google Engineer recently announced he believes that a language model is sentient. I’m highly skeptical that any of today’s AI models are sentient. Some reporters, to their credit, also expressed skepticism.
Machine Learning Research
Airfoils Automatically Optimized: DeepMind AI Research Simulates Fluid Dynamics
Engineers who design aircraft, aqueducts, and other objects that interact with air and water use numerical simulations to test potential shapes, but they rely on trial and error to improve their designs. A neural simulator can optimize the shape itself.
Business
Meta Decentralizes AI Effort: Meta Restructures its AI Research Teams
The future of Big AI may lie with product-development teams. Meta reorganized its AI division. Henceforth, AI teams will report to departments that develop key products.
Tech & Society
Ethics Team Scuttles Taser Drone: Axon Cancels Plans to Sell a Taser Drone
A weaponized AI system intended to protect students has been grounded. Axon, which makes law-enforcement equipment such as tasers and body cameras, canceled a plan to sell remote-controlled drones capable of firing electroshock darts.
Tech & Society
LaMDA Comes Alive?: Google Engineer Says LaMDA AI is Sentient
A chatbot persuaded at least one person that it has feelings. A senior engineer at Google announced his belief that the company’s latest conversational language model is sentient.
The Batch Newsletter
The Batch: Google Engineer Claims Sentient AI, Ethics Team Grounds Taser Drones, Meta Reorgs AI Division, Deep Learning Optimizes Physical Designs
A Google Engineer recently announced he believes that a language model is sentient. I’m highly skeptical that any of today’s AI models are sentient. Some reporters, to their credit, also expressed skepticism.
Letters
What Rising Interest Rates Mean for AI, Part 2: Why It Still Makes Sense to Forge Ahead
Last week, I wrote about how rising interest rates are likely to lead investors and other finance professionals to focus on short-term returns rather than longer-term investments.
Machine Learning Research
Tech Imitates Life, Life Imitates Art: Image Generation Technique Works Pixel By Pixel
The computational systems known as cellular automata reproduce patterns of pixels by iteratively applying simple rules based loosely on the behavior of biological cells. New work extends their utility from reproducing images to generating new ones.
Tech & Society
Child-Welfare Agency Drops AI: Oregon and Pennsylvania Halt Use of AI Tool for At-Risk Kids
Officials in charge of protecting children stopped using a machine learning model designed to help them make decisions in difficult cases. The U.S. state of Oregon halted its use of an algorithm intended to identify children who may benefit from intervention.