Neural network learns to identify group sizes without knowledge of numbers

“ANS (Approximate Number Sense) is the ability of living beings to estimate with reasonable accuracy the differences in sizes of different groups. Fish, for example, demonstrate an ability to join the larger of two schools without having to count. Getting a computer to do the same has until now, never been done.

To get their AI network to develop ANS, the researchers used a neural network that ‘learns’ to recognize images and to respond based on what it’s seen. The system used mimics the biological processes of the eyes and brain, where one layer artificially recreates the retina with neurons that fire when exposed to pixels in an image and another that attempts to recreate some of the functions associated with brain processing.” (Bob Yirka, Physorg)

New Software Designed to Improve Politics

“Until 2015, a team of experts in political science and simulation and computing technologies, belonging to a consortium of 17 partners from Europe and China, will be developing advanced artificial intelligence tools to collect, analyse and interpret automatically the opinions expressed by users through the internet with the aim of assessing politicians in the design and implementation of social policies.” (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Check out the FUPOL website for more details.

A Smart Phone that Knows You’re Angry

Cartoon: User:Sympho - Wikimedia Commons

“The prototype system, to be presented in Las Vegas next week at the Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, is designed to work as part of a Twitter client on an Android-based Samsung Galaxy S II. It enables people in a social network to view symbols alongside tweets that indicate that person’s emotional state. But there are many more potential applications, says Lee. The system could trigger different ringtones on a phone to convey the caller’s emotional state or cheer up someone who’s feeling low. ‘The smart phone might show a funny cartoon to make the user feel better,’ he says.” (Duncan Graham-Rowe, Technology Review)

Google’s ‘Babel fish’ heralds future of translation

Image: Quatermass - Wikimedia Commons

“Because of the statistical approach, you may enter something and get some crazy translation. What we are trying to do is limit those crazy translations and ensure in all cases we are providing a reasonable translation.  This really comes from the fact that this is a statistical system. We’ve built it so you can literally put anything into it. We will translate anything you give us. It might be good or it might be bad, but on average it will be quite impressive.” (Ashish Venugopal, TECH CENTRAL)

And check out the Google Gadget Babel Fish Language Translation.

Play against Watson

Click on the image to play against Watson yourself. (hosted by NYTimes.com).

Check out their account of Watson’s performance on Jeopardy!.

Digital Maoism

Photo: Edge

“What we are witnessing today is the alarming rise of the fallacy of the infallible collective. Numerous elite organizations have been swept off their feet by the idea. They are inspired by the rise of the Wikipedia, by the wealth of Google, and by the rush of entrepreneurs to be the most Meta. Government agencies, top corporate planning departments, and major universities have all gotten the bug.” (Jaron Lanier, Edge)

Collective intelligence: an interview with Pierre Levy

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“The creation of IEML (Information Economy Meta Language) is based on the explicit assumption that all human beings, and all cultures, have in common a basic linguistic-symbolic ability. The main limitation of artificial intelligence is the belief that logic and statistics are sufficient to model human intelligence. I don’t think that current techniques of automatic reasoning are enough to model the basic symbolic manipulation ability of the human species. In addition to the formal tools of artificial intelligence, we need a new kind of formalism to describe in a functional and computable manner our capacity to create and transform meaning (sense, signification).” (Pierre Levy in Eelke Hermens, Masters of Media)

Robot videojournalist uses cuteness to get vox pops

“However, as any journalist on a vox-pop assignment soon finds out, people can be cranky – and Boxie took its share of abuse from the public. Force sensors in the robot recorded that it had suffered violent shaking – or been thrown to the ground – a number of times. So the researchers have some advice for future builders of robotic reporters: ‘Try not to be annoying.’ ” (Paul Marks, New Scientist)

The Internet Gets Physical

Image: Paul Sahre

“The concept has been around for years, sometimes called the Internet of Things or the Industrial Internet. Yet it takes time for the economics and engineering to catch up with the predictions. And that moment is upon us […] One [application] is a smart hospital room, equipped with three small cameras, mounted inconspicuously on the ceiling. With software for analysis, the room can monitor movements by doctors and nurses in and out of the room, alerting them if they have forgotten to wash their hands before and after touching patients — lapses that contribute significantly to hospital-acquired infections. Computer vision software can analyze facial expressions for signs of severe pain, the onset of delirium or other hints of distress, and send an electronic alert to a nearby nurse.” (Steve Lohr, NYTimes.com)

Creating Artificial Intelligence Based on the Real Thing

Photo: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg News

“At the outset, Dharmendra S. Modha, the I.B.M. computer scientist leading the project, described the research grandly as ‘the quest to engineer the mind by reverse-engineering the brain.’ The project embarked on supercomputer simulations intended to equal the complexity of animal brains — a cat and then a monkey. In science blogs and online forums, some neuroscientists sharply criticized I.B.M. for what they regarded as exaggerated claims of what the project could achieve.” (Steve Lohr, NYTimes.com)