This is a special episode of the a16z podcast — it’s an audio history, told through the voices of the a16z crypto team, about what crypto is, how it really works, and why it matters. This “innovation overview” is meant as a resource, and it features hallway-style conversations with the a16z team as well as outside experts. Read More
Monthly Archives: April 2021
Got Milk?
Run out of milk? Robots on call for Singapore home deliveries.
Singapore technology company, OTSAW Digital, deployed a pair of robots to bring residents their groceries in one part of the city state. The robots are equipped with 3D sensors, a camera and two compartments each able to carry up to 20 kg (44 lb) of food. The service is part of a one-year trial. Read More
Introducing Digital Einstein
Explained: How An ML Model From AWS Detects Abnormal Machine Behaviour
Every machine is subject to wear and tear and can lead to a loss of efficiency if left unattended. The health of equipment is key to driving operational efficiencies at shop floors. To that end, Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced the general availability of Lookout for Equipment. The new service is equipped with machine learning models from AWS. Amazon Lookout for Equipment empowers industrial customers to leverage machine learning to optimise their equipment sensors to carry out large-scale predictive maintenance.
Customers can use the service to precisely identify equipment anomalies, diagnose problems quickly, minimise false warnings, and prevent costly downtime by taking action before system failure. Read More
NoCodeZ AI
Geoffrey Hinton has a hunch about what’s next for AI
A decade ago, the artificial-intelligence pioneer transformed the field with a major breakthrough. Now he’s working on a new imaginary system named GLOM.
Back in November, the computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Hinton had a hunch. After a half-century’s worth of attempts—some wildly successful—he’d arrived at another promising insight into how the brain works and how to replicate its circuitry in a computer.
“It’s my current best bet about how things fit together,” Hinton says from his home office in Toronto, where he’s been sequestered during the pandemic. If his bet pays off, it might spark the next generation of artificial neural networks—mathematical computing systems, loosely inspired by the brain’s neurons and synapses, that are at the core of today’s artificial intelligence. His “honest motivation,” as he puts it, is curiosity. But the practical motivation—and, ideally, the consequence—is more reliable and more trustworthy AI.
A Google engineering fellow and cofounder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Hinton wrote up his hunch in fits and starts, and at the end of February announced via Twitter that he’d posted a 44-page paper on the arXiv preprint server. He began with a disclaimer: “This paper does not describe a working system,” he wrote. Rather, it presents an “imaginary system.” He named it, “GLOM.” The term derives from “agglomerate” and the expression “glom together.” Read More
A data science book for kids!
The team at Domino Data Lab has cracked open their crayon box to write and illustrate the world’s first-ever children’s book about data science. Introduce your kids to Florence the Data Scientist and Her Magical Bookmobile! Read More
Mapping AI’s Societal Impact
AI is not just code and algorithms. It’s an industry built on a global network of resource extraction, human labor, and data collection. Kate Crawford, senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research and research professor of communication and science and technology studies at USC Annenberg, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the far-reaching impacts of AI and to consider the urgent case for proper governance and regulation of the industry. Read More
Podcast: What’s AI doing in your wallet?
Tech giants are moving into our wallets—bringing AI and big questions with them.
Our entire financial system is built on trust. We can exchange otherwise worthless paper bills for fresh groceries, or swipe a piece of plastic for new clothes. But this trust—typically in a central-government-backed bank—is changing. As our financial lives are rapidly digitized, the resulting data turns into fodder for AI. Companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google see it as an opportunity to disrupt the entire experience of how people think about and engage with their money. But will we as consumers really get more control over our finances? In this first of a series on automation and our wallets, we explore a digital revolution in how we pay for things. Read More
The new lawsuit that shows facial recognition is officially a civil rights issue
Robert Williams, who was wrongfully arrested because of a faulty facial recognition match, is asking for the technology to be banned.
On January 9, 2020, Detroit police drove to the suburb of Farmington Hill and arrested Robert Williams in his driveway while his wife and young daughters looked on. Williams, a Black man, was accused of stealing watches from Shinola, a luxury store. He was held overnight in jail.
During questioning, an officer showed Williams a picture of a suspect. His response, as he told the ACLU, was to reject the claim. “This is not me,” he told the officer. “I hope y’all don’t think all black people look alike.” He says the officer replied: “The computer says it’s you.”
Williams’s wrongful arrest, which was first reported by the New York Times in August 2020, was based on a bad match from the Detroit Police Department’s facial recognition system. …On Tuesday, the ACLU and the University of Michigan Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Initiative filed a lawsuit on behalf of Williams, alleging that the arrest violated his Fourth Amendment rights and was in defiance of Michigan’s civil rights law. Read More
Rick's Cafe AI 