DeepMind sets up a separate unit for ethical regulations around AI
Google-owned DeepMind has set up DeepMind Ethics & Society (DMES), a unit for societal and ethical impact of artificial intelligence. Tech consultant Sean Legassick will lead the unit, along with former Google policy manager and government adviser Verity Harding. DMES is expected to focus on six areas: privacy transparency and fairness, economic impacts, governance and accountability, managing AI risk, AI morality and values, and how AI can address global challenges. The announcement for DMES comes a year after a group of leading technology firms, activists, and academic organizations came together to set up the Partnership on AI, pressing for best practices in AI developments. DMES is also separate from DeepMind’s secretive internal ethics and safety board, which has been functioning since 2010 when Google acquired DeepMind.
Google’s Teachable Machine lets users train a web app to respond in a certain way to certain actions
Google has introduced a new AI feature named “Teachable Machine” using which users can set a pattern and ask the app to identify it using webcam. The platform promises to teach machine learning concepts in the easiest way possible – all you have to do is to turn on your webcam, train the robot brain what a certain action and motion looks like, and then tell it what kind of reactions you would like. The machine uses Java-based deeplearn.js framework, and works well with most browsers.
Google introduces improved version of WaveNet on Assistant
Google has announced that it is now using an updated and better version of WaveNet on Google Assistant. WaveNet was unveiled by Google a year back, as a deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms that could produce better and more realistic speeches. Then at the time of its launch the platform had been called too computationally intensive to deploy in the real world. This had led the developers to work hard over the last 12 months to improve the speed and overall quality. At the moment WaveNet is only available for English (U.S.) and Japanese, Google said, adding that the new version is the first product to launch on its latest TPU cloud infrastructure.
Other Data Science News
LinkedIn announces new data analytics tool named Talent Insights
LinkedIn has launched Talent Insights, a paid big data analytics product that may answer questions like what schools are producing the most successful data scientists or which companies have been hiring the most Python developers; or what skills are growing the fastest in the industry. Aimed at smarter hiring, Talent Insights will come initially with two views: “Talent Pool” and “Company report.” The product was announced in a closed beta at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect event, and is expected to be generally available in 2018.
Disney’s original blockchain platform Dragonchain kicks off Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
Dragonchain, the blockchain platform originally developed at Disney and now managed by the Dragonchain Foundation, launched its public Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on 2nd October, marking the one-year anniversary of Disney releasing it as open source. Tokens will be issued until 2nd November, and proceeds received will be used in providing access to Dragonchain platform services, project incubation, and professional services to support enterprises, start-ups, and entrepreneurs building applications on the platform. “Our vision for Dragonchain is a secure and flexible blockchain platform paired with a crowd scaled incubator,” said Joe Roets, Founder and CEO of Dragonchain Inc. “The system is modeled to create feedback loops and accelerate blockchain projects and market success.”