Recent advances in machine learning leverage massive datasets of unlabeled images from the web to learn general-purpose image representations for tasks from image classification to face recognition. But do unsupervised computer vision models automatically learn implicit patterns and embed social biases that could have harmful downstream effects? We develop a novel method for quantifying biased associations between representations of social concepts and attributes in images. We find that state-of-the-art unsupervised models trained on ImageNet, a popular benchmark image dataset curated from internet images, automatically learn racial, gender, and intersectional biases. We replicate 8 previously documented human biases from social psychology, from the innocuous, as with insects and flowers, to the potentially harmful, as with race and gender. Our results closely match three hypotheses about intersectional bias from social psychology. For the first time in unsupervised computer vision, we also quantify implicit human biases about weight, disabilities, and several ethnicities. When compared with statistical patterns in online image datasets, our findings suggest that machine learning models can automatically learn bias from the way people are stereotypically portrayed on the web. Read More
#biasMonthly Archives: January 2021
Liquid Time-constant Networks
We introduce a new class of time-continuous recurrent neural network models. Instead of declaring a learning system’s dynamics by implicit nonlinearities, we construct networks of linear first-order dynamical systems modulated via nonlinear interlinked gates. The resulting models represent dynamical systems with varying (i.e.,liquid) time-constants coupled to their hidden state, with outputs being computed by numerical differential equation solvers. These neural networks exhibit stable and bounded behavior, yield superior expressivity within the family of neural ordinary differential equations,and give rise to improved performance on time-series prediction tasks. To demonstrate these properties, we first take a theoretical approach to find bounds over their dynamics, and compute their expressive power by the trajectory length measure in a latent trajectory space. We then conduct a series of time-series prediction experiments to manifest the approximation capability of Liquid Time-Constant Networks (LTCs)compared to classical and modern RNNs. Read More
Characteristics of a Data Whisperer
Data Scientists aren’t born — they’re made. IT pros from all backgrounds are working to gain the types of all skills companies need as the demand for data scientists outspaces the supply of qualified candidates. These are some common personality traits and skills of a data scientist. Read More

Humans Will Not Be Able To Control Superintelligent Artificial Intelligence, Study Shows
A new study has warned that it will become impossible to predict the actions of superintelligent artificial intelligence (AI), raising questions over whether humans may eventually lose control.
Research conducted by the Max-Planck Institute for Humans and Machines and published in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research has found that in order to accurately predict what an individual AI is going do, scientists would have to run an exact simulation of the system – a feat that will grow more difficult as AI systems become more and more advanced. Read More
How quantum computers could hack our brains with fake memories like Total Recall
Quantum computers, according to experts, will one day be capable of performing incredible calculations and nearly unfathomable feats of logic. In the near future, we know they’ll help us discover new drugs to fight disease and new materials to build with. But the far future potential for these enigmatic machines is as vast as the universe itself.
…. Reality, one way or another, boils down to whatever our brains believe it is. And this makes the idea of altering our memories, and thus our realities, all the more appealing – or terrifying, depending on how you look at it. Read More
Can AI Machine Learning Enable Robot Empathy?
Columbia University AI researchers enable machines to be more human-like.
Artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning is fueling the current commercial boom in automation, and robots are becoming increasingly more sophisticated. In a step forward in endowing robots with human-like behavior, researchers at Columbia University showed how AI machine learning can predict a robot’s future actions by observation and published their results earlier this month in Nature Scientific Reports. Read More
DIB Guide: Detecting Agile BS
Agile is a buzzword of software development, and so all DoD software development projects are, almost by default, now declared to be “agile.” The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to DoD program executives and acquisition professionals on how to detect software projects that are really using agile development versus those that are simply waterfall or spiral development in agile clothing (“agile-scrum-fall”). Read More
3 ways CIOs can use artificial intelligence (AI) to grow business in 2021
Amid the growth of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data market, business leaders are starting to realize that AI – like any other business function – requires structured strategy, planning, training, and execution to successfully implement.
Many companies working on digital transformation have amassed huge data archives but lack the ability to extract the information they need to unlock new synergies and growth paths. This bottleneck is visible in most companies I meet. The transition from data collection to fully formed, AI-driven growth strategy is a multi-step process that can appear overwhelming to those without clear guidance. Read More
Anatomy Of A Quantum Machine Learning Algorithm
What is a Variational Quantum-Classical Algorithm and why do we need it?
… Variational Quantum-Classical Algorithms have become a popular way to think about quantum algorithms for near-term quantum devices. In these algorithms, classical computers perform the overall machine learning task on information they acquire from running certain hard-to-compute calculations on a quantum computer.
The quantum algorithm produces information based on a set of parameters provided by the classical algorithm. Therefore, they are called Parameterized Quantum Circuits (PQCs). Read More
Get the book: Hands-On Quantum Machine Learning With Python.
The AI Squad
According to Mark Cuban, “The companies that have harnessed AI the best are the companies dominating. To paraphrase a great movie line, ‘They keep getting smarter while everyone else stays the same ‘ It’s the foundation of how I invest in stocks these days. ‘How good is the company at AI’ ” This “AI Squad” includes the US based members of the Big 7: Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, plus Apple. Read More