Tech & Society
Competition or Cooperation?: Why AI should not be an arms race
Some politicians view international competition in AI as an arms race. That mindset could lead to escalating conflict, experts said.
Latest
Tech & Society
Inside AI’s Muppet Empire: Why Are So Many NLP Models Named After Muppets?
As language models show increasing power, a parallel trend has received less notice: The vogue for naming models after characters in the children’s TV show Sesame Street.
Machine Learning Research
Self-Training for Sharper Vision: The noisy student method for computer vision, explained
The previous state-of-the-art image classifier was trained on the ImageNet dataset plus 3.5 billion supplemental images from a different database. A new method achieved higher accuracy with one-tenth as many supplemental examples — and they were unlabeled, to boot.
Tech & Society
Deployment Gap: The state of enterpriese AI in 2020
More and more companies are developing machine learning models for internal use. But many are still struggling to bridge the gap to practical deployments.
Letters
NeurIPS Grows Up
I’ve been reflecting on the NeurIPS 2019 conference, which ended on Saturday. It’s always a wonderful event, but this year I found it a bittersweet experience. Bitter because the conference has grown so much that we no longer focus on...
The Batch Newsletter
The Batch: Companies Slipping on AI Goals, Self Training for Better Vision, Muppets and Models, China Vs US?, Only the Best
I’ve been reflecting on the NeurIPS 2019 conference, which ended on Saturday. It’s always a wonderful event, but this year I found it a bittersweet experience. Bitter because the conference has grown so much that we no longer focus on a handful of ideas.
Tech & Society
Transparency for Military AI: National Security Commission on AI required to share info
A U.S. federal judge ruled that the public must be able to see records from a government-chartered AI advisory group. The court decided that the National Security Commission on AI, which guides defense research into AI-powered warfighting technology, must respond to freedom-of-information requests.
Machine Learning Research
Seeing the World Blindfolded: The observational dropout technique, explained
In reinforcement learning, if researchers want an agent to have an internal representation of its environment, they’ll build and train a world model that it can refer to. New research shows that world models can emerge from standard training, rather than needing to be built separately.
Tech & Society
Fighting Fakes: China introduces a ban on deepfakes.
China announced a ban on fake news, targeting deepfakes in particular. The Cyberspace Administration of China issued new rules restricting online audio and video, especially content created using AI.
Science
Predicting the Next Eruption: AI predicts volcano eruptions from satellite imagery.
AI is providing an early warning system for volcanoes on the verge of blowing their top. Researchers at the University of Leeds developed a neural net that scans satellite data for indications that the ground near a volcano is swelling—a sign it may be close to erupting.
Machine Learning Research
Keeping the Facts Straight: NLP system FactCC fact checks texts.
Automatically generated text summaries are becoming common in search engines and news websites. But existing summarizers often mix up facts. For instance, a victim’s name might get switched for the perpetrator’s.
Tech & Society
Neighborhood Watchers: Reports charge Ring with mishandling customer data.
Smart doorbell maker Ring has built its business by turning neighborhoods into surveillance networks. Now the company is drawing fire for using private data without informing customers and sharing data with police.