Tech & Society
AI Makes Headlines: Primer introduces an automated headline generator.
Which headline was written by a computer? A: FIFA to Decide on 2022 World Cup in March B: Decision in March on 48-team 2022 World Cup, Says Infantino
Transformer
Machine Learning Research
That Online Boutique, But Smarter: A summary of Amazon's Visiolinguistic Attention Learning
Why search for “a cotton dress shirt with button-down collar, breast pockets, barrel cuffs, scooped hem, and tortoise shell buttons in grey” when a photo and the words “that shirt, but grey” will do the trick? A new network understands the image-text combo.
Machine Learning Research
Computer Vision Transformed: Google's Detection Transformer (DETR) for object detection
The transformer architecture that has shaken up natural language processing may replace recurrent layers in object detection networks. A Facebook team led by Nicolas Carion and Francisco Massa simplified object detection pipelines by using transformers, yielding Detection Transformer (DETR).
Tech & Society
Bots Don’t Need Social Distancing: Covid-19 drove demand for Replika, an AI chatbot.
A chatbot is providing companionship for the locked-down and lonely. Downloads of Replika, a chatbot designed to be a virtual friend, have spiked during the coronavirus pandemic, reports the New York Times.
Machine Learning Research
Bigger is Better: A research summary of Microsoft's Turing-NLG language model.
Natural language processing lately has come to resemble an arms race, as the big AI companies build models that encompass ever larger numbers of parameters. Microsoft recently held the record — but not for long.
Machine Learning Research
Choosing Words Carefully: BLUERT trains language models to be better translators.
The words “big” and “large” have similar meanings, but they aren’t always interchangeable: You wouldn’t refer to an older, male sibling as your “large brother” (unless you meant to be cheeky). Choosing among words with similar meanings is critical in language tasks like translation.
Tech & Society
Outing Hidden Hatred: How Facebook built a hate speech detector
Facebook uses automated systems to block hate speech, but hateful posts can slip through when seemingly benign words and pictures combine to create a nasty message. The social network is tackling this problem by enhancing AI’s ability to recognize context.
Machine Learning Research
Big Bot Makes Small Talk: A research summary of Facebook's Generative BST chatbot
Facebook recently rolled out its entry in the World’s Biggest Chatbot sweepstakes. In keeping with the company’s social-networking dominance, the bot is designed to excel at chitchat on any subject.
Machine Learning Research
Toward Open-Domain Chatbots: Meena Scores High on System for Grading NLP Chatbots
Progress in language models is spawning a new breed of chatbots and, unlike their narrow-domain forebears, they have the gift of gab. Recent research tests the limits of conversational AI.
Tech & Society
Roll Over, Beyoncé: How OpenAI's Jukebox generates synthetic music
A new generative model croons like Elvis and raps like Eminem. It might even make you think you’re listening to a lost demo by the Beatles. OpenAI released Jukebox, a deep learning system that has generated thousands of songs in styles from country to metal and soul.
Machine Learning Research
Transformers Transformed: Research improves transformer efficiency with Reformer.
Transformer networks have revolutionized natural language processing, but they hog processor cycles and memory. New research demonstrates a more frugal variation.
Tech & Society
Bot Comic: How Google's Meena chatbot developed a sense of humor
Androids may not dream of electric sheep, but some crack jokes about horses and cows. Meena, a 2.6-billion parameter chatbot developed by Google Brain, showed impressive conversational ability, discussing a variety of topics.