Last Week in AI
Weekly summaries of the AI news that matters!
Listen on:
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Our 103rd episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
If you are a fan, we'd appreciate your feedback on Apple Podcast, or just via email to contact@lastweekin.ai - feel free to DM us on Twitter too!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
(01:10) Instagram is testing an AI tool that verifies your age by scanning your face
(6:15) Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys using facial recognition technology to crack down on theft, Choice says
(10:13) Cruise’s driverless autonomous cars start giving rides to paying passengers
(12:10) Copilot, GitHub’s AI-powered programming assistant, is now generally available
(13:30) IRS expands AI-powered bots to set up payment plans with taxpayers over the phone
(14:10) General Motors is using AI to speed up the vehicle inspection process
(14:55) Learning to Play Minecraft with Video PreTraining (VPT)
(21:10) AI Detects Autism Speech Patterns Across Different Languages
(25:15) Meta releases largest open source AI language model to date
(26:05) Google's Parti Generator Relies on 20 Billion Inputs to Create Photorealistic Images
(27:30) New hybrid machine learning forecasts lake ecosystem responses to climate change
(30:04) Cerebras Systems Sets Record for Largest AI Models Ever Trained on a Single Device
(30:05) Pentagon Unveils Plan to Make 'Responsible Military AI' More Than Just a Buzzword
(34:43) Microsoft Plans to Eliminate Face Analysis Tools in Push for ‘Responsible A.I.’
(37:40) Vitali Klitschko fake tricks Berlin mayor in video call
(38:17) China’s Surveillance State Is Growing. These Documents Reveal How.
(39:03) Earthquake tech could limit deaths. Afghanistan shows it’s not easy.
(40:00) Alexa has a new voice — your dead relative’s
(41:18) Wordalle is a guess-the-prompt game that combines Wordle and DALL-E
(43:25) The King’s Swedish: AI Rewrites the Book in Scandinavia
(45:35) Outro
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Our 102st episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
If you are a fan, we'd appreciate your feedback on Apple Podcast, or just via email to contact@lastweekin.ai - feel free to DM us on Twitter too!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
(01:05) LaMDA’s Sentience is Nonsense - Here’s Why
(2:00) Condemning the deployment of GPT-4chan
(7:25) Microsoft and Meta join Google in using AI to help run their data centers
(11:20) AI maturity: Only 12% of companies are 'AI Achievers'
(16:45) NVIDIA & UW Introduce Factory: A Set of Physics Simulation Methods and Learning Tools for Contact-Rich Robotic Assembly
(21:50) Artificial intelligence may be the only way researchers can solve the perplexing puzzle of Long COVID. It’s already categorizing patients and even identifying them
(25:42) Reddit Bans ‘SFW’ Deepfake Community
(30:15) EU To Target Meta, Google, Twitter Over Deepfakes, Report Says
(33:28) How to copy text from more than 10 previously published papers and get accepted to CVPR 2022
(36:30) We taught an AI to impersonate Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde – here’s what it revealed about sentience
(38:02) DALL-E2 Creates The World’s First AI-Generated Magazine Cover For Cosmopolitan
(42:15) Outro
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Our 101st episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
If you are a fan, we'd appreciate your feedback on Apple Podcast, or just via email to contact@lastweekin.ai - feel free to DM us on Twitter too!
Outline:
(0:00) Intro
(1:13) Lessons from the GPT-4Chan Controversy
(8:14) Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient
(14:20) Tesla Autopilot safety faces bigger questions as US upgrades crash probe
(18:05) Stunning Insights from James Webb Space Telescope Are Coming, Thanks to GPU-Powered Deep Learning
(20:31) Can Machine Learning Translate Ancient Egyptian Texts?
(22:48) 444 Authors From 132 Institutions Release BIG-bench: A 204-Task ‘Extremely Difficult and Diverse’ Benchmark for Large Language Models
(26:23) ProcTHOR: Large-Scale Embodied AI Using Procedural Generation
(28:52) Axon Pauses Plans for Taser Drone as Ethics Board Members Resign
(32:42) Shield AI raises $165M at a $2.3B valuation to fuel development of its military autonomous flying systems
(35:38) AI program DALL-E mini prompts some truly cursed images
(39:30) Outro
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
Our 100th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
If you are a fan, we'd appreciate your feedback on Apple Podcast, or just via email to contact@lastweekin.ai - feel free to DM us on Twitter too!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
(03:12) Depressed? This algorithm can tell from the tone of your voice
(09:38) Energy Grids Plug into AI for a Brighter, Cleaner Future
(15:40) Meet ‘Codeball’ – A Deep Learning-based Automated Code Reviewer That Will Help Maintainers Review Github Pull Requests
(18:23) Alimentation Couche-Tard to deploy over 10,000 AI-powered cash registers at stores
(19:40) Machine Learning Shows That More Reptile Species May Be at Risk of Extinction Than Previously Thought
(20:30) How AI brought Val Kilmer’s ‘Iceman’ back into Top Gun: Maverick
(26:40) Can machine learning deliver one-minute brain MRI scans?
(32:04) AI model’s insight helps astronomers propose new theory for observing far-off worlds
(32:00) Caltech unit creates AI helping drones to withstand violent winds
(32:35) UC Berkeley’s Automated Crossword Solver Achieves 99.9% Letter Accuracy, Wins Top Tournament
(33:55) $10.5M Army Contract to CMU Lab Will Expand Use of AI in Predictive Maintenance
(34:50) China's AI defense can reportedly predict the course of hypersonic missiles
(35:47) US robot orders surge 40% as labor shortages, inflation persist
(41:36) A Face Search Engine Anyone Can Use Is Alarmingly Accurate
(49:48) Google bans deepfake-generating AI from Colab
(50:53) Seoul to create disaster response platform using AI
(51:48) Dutch police create deepfake video of murdered boy, 13, in hope of new leads
(52:35) Oregon dropping AI tool used in child abuse cases
(50:37) AI versus corporate logos
(58:14) I asked AI to make a Music Video... the results are trippy
(01:01:00) Outro
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
Our 99th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro(1:50) Royal Mail is Doing the Right Thing with Drone Delivery(6:10) Google uses AI to digitise maps in the utilities industry
(8:57) AI on the Ball: Startup Shoots Computer Vision to the Soccer Pitch
(9:26) Google Adds Machine Learning-Powered Studio Lighting To Video Calls
(11:33) Dyson launches a hiring spree for hundreds of engineers to build robots capable of doing household chores
(12:20) Pony.ai loses permit to test autonomous vehicles with driver in California
(12:52) Researchers develop algorithm to divvy up tasks for human-robot teams
(19:42) Microsoft AI Researchers Introduces (De)ToxiGen: A Large-Scale Machine-Generated Dataset for Adversarial and Implicit Hate Speech Detection
(24:32) Researchers Use Machine Learning to Identify Thousands of New Marine RNA Viruses in Study of Interest to Microbiologists and Clinical Laboratory Scientists
(25:17) Tiny robotic crab is smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robot
(26:12) TartanDrive dataset likely largest for off-road environments
(26:48) AI Framework Cuts Time, Effort Needed to Predict Critical Care Outcomes
(27:13) Ad break
(28:25) China and Europe are leading the push to regulate A.I. — one of them could set the global playbook
(33:30) New York State Office for the Aging deploys AI robots as companions for older adults
(37:25) Oxford High School tests AI gun detection system in wake of shooting
(38:38) An Autonomous Car Blocked a Fire Truck Responding to an Emergency
(40:12) U.S. firm Clearview A.I. fined for illegally collecting images of Brits' faces
(41:19) Pentagon names new chief of responsible artificial intelligence
(42:05) The Day I Became Friends with a Robot
(44:26) I Used AI To See What These 23 Popular Cartoon Characters Would Look Like In Real Life
(46:14) Outro
Saturday May 28, 2022
Saturday May 28, 2022
Our 98th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro(2:22) Autonomous cargo ship completes 500 mile voyage, avoiding hundreds of collisions(6:47) Investors pull back on artificial intelligence (9:49) Clearbot Neo autonomously clears plastic from harbors - "Open Ocean Engineering’s Clearbot Neo is a robotic boat that autonomously navigates harbors, canals and rivers to collect trash that would otherwise wash into the ocean."(10:30) You can practice for a job interview with Google AI - "Never mind reading generic guides or practicing with friends — Google is betting that algorithms can get you ready for a job interview. The company has launched an Interview Warmup tool that uses AI to help you prepare for interviews across various roles."(11:02) Uber Eats Dabbles With Delivering Food Via Robots - "Uber Eats is now testing autonomous food delivery in the Los Angeles area."(12:12) Ford-backed robotaxi startup Argo AI is ditching its human safety drivers in Miami and Austin - "Robotaxi startup Argo AI said Tuesday it has begun operating its autonomous test vehicles without human safety drivers in two U.S. cities — Miami and Austin — a major milestone for the Ford- and Volkswagen-backed company. For now, those driverless vehicles won't be carrying paying customers."
(13:17) DeepMind’s new AI can perform over 600 tasks, from playing games to controlling robots(20:10) Google claims its text-to-image AI delivers 'unprecedented photorealism'(25:30) Simultaneous emulation of neuronal and synaptic properties promotes the development of brain-like artificial intelligence - "Researchers have reported a nano-sized neuromorphic memory device that emulates neurons and synapses simultaneously in a unit cell, another step toward completing the goal of neuromorphic computing designed to rigorously mimic the human brain with semiconductor devices."(26:27) Face-to-face screening combined with machine learning model performs best at suicide risk prediction - "According to a study published in JAMA Network Open, a combination of in-person screenings and machine learning worked better than either method alone when it came to predicting suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in adults."(27:11) Google’s Universal Pretraining Framework Unifies Language Learning Paradigms - "Their 20B parameter model surpasses the state-of-the-art 175B GPT-3 on the zero-shot SuperGLUE benchmark and triples the performance of T5-XXL on one-shot summarization tasks."(27:49) Robotic surgery is safer and improves patient recovery time - "Robot-assisted surgery used to perform bladder cancer removal and reconstruction enables patients to recover far more quickly and spend significantly (20 per cent) less time in hospital, concludes a first-of-its kind clinical trial led by scientists at UCL and the University of Sheffield."(28:20) Ad break
(29:48) AI may be searching you for guns the next time you go out in public
(35:09) Israeli firm hopes AI can curb drownings
(38:12) Fatal Tesla Model S Crash in California Prompts Federal Probe - "The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating a fatal crash involving a 2022 Tesla Model S that may have had its automated driving system activated."
(39:10) Facebook issues $397 checks to Illinois residents as part of class-action - "More than a million Illinois residents will receive a $397 settlement payment from Facebook this week, thanks to a legal battle over the platform’s since-retired photo-tagging system that used facial recognition."
(39:50) Clearview AI's Facial Recognition Tool Coming to Apps, Schools - “Clearview AI is expanding sales of its facial recognition software to companies from mainly serving the police, it told Reuters, inviting scrutiny on how the startup capitalizes on billions of photos it scrapes from social media profiles. Instead of online photo comparisons, the new private-sector offering matches people to ID photos and other data that clients collect with subjects' permission. It is meant to verify identities for access to physical or digital spaces.”
(41:00) A Novelist and an AI Cowrote Your Next Cringe-Read
(44:03) AI Made This Thumbnail!
(45:46) Outro
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Our 97th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
(01:25) Hugging Face reaches $2 billion valuation to build the GitHub of machine learning
(4:30) Google ups the AI ante with new features for Voice, Assistant, Maps and more
(09:33) How machine learning is speeding up Formula 1
(10:02) China to build AI-powered 3D printed hydroelectric dam in Tibet
(11:00) Intel debuts new chips for AI workloads, data center acceleration and laptops
(11:30) $62.5M Fundraise Values Self-Checkout System Mashgin at $1.5B -
(12:20) Scientists Discover Method to Break Down Plastic in Days, Not Centuries
(16:25) This deep learning technique solves one of the tough challenges of robotics
(21:33) Researchers now able to predict battery lifetimes with machine learning
(22:34) How Do Patients Feel About AI in Health Care? It Depends
(23:22) Meta AI Introduces ‘Make-A-Scene’: A Deep Generative Technique Based On An Autoregressive Transformer For Text-To-Image Synthesis With Human Priors
(24:32) Ad break
(25:50) A quick guide to the most important AI law you’ve never heard of
(30:40) Clearview AI banned from selling its facial recognition software to most US companies
(34:20) Justice Department and EEOC Warn Against Disability Discrimination
(35:23) U.S. civil rights enforcers warn employers against biased AI
(36:12) Kendrick Lamar uses deepfakes in latest music video
(38:23) Humans vs. DALL·E
(41:52) Outro
Friday May 13, 2022
Friday May 13, 2022
Our 96th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
(01:36) Wearable, AI-powered whole-breast ultrasound system cleared by the FDA + FDA plays tooth fairy, awards clearance to VideaHealth's cavity-spotting AI
(06:40) Another Firing Among Google’s A.I. Brain Trust, and More Discord
(12:30) AI Model Can Accurately Detect Multiple Retinal Diseases in Real Time
(12:50) Intel wins DARPA RACER-Sim program
(14:00) Mayo researchers use AI to detect weak heart pump via patients' Apple Watch ECGs
(17:50) Tsinghua U & BAAI’s CogView2 Achieves SOTA Competitive Text-to-Image Generation With 10x Speedups
(23:13) In The Latest Research From The University Of Toronto, Machine learning-Based Approach Speeds Up The Counting Of Microplastics -
(23:52) Northeastern U & Microsoft Expand StyleGAN’s Latent Space to Surpass the SOTA on Real Face Semantic Editing
(24:55) Microsoft AI Researchers Develop MoLeR: A Deep Learning-Based Generative Model That Enables Efficient Drug Design
(26:50) Ad break
(28:40) UK Regulators' Path for AI Starts with Auditing Algorithms
(32:16) A unique machine-learning model predicts homelessness among US soldiers before their transition to civilian life
(35:45) Researchers Taught A.I. to Write Wine and Beer Reviews and They're Pretty Convincing
(39:33) T-SNE to view and order your Spotify tracks
(42:40) What’s New in Spot | Boston Dynamics
(44:17) Outro
Thursday May 05, 2022
Thursday May 05, 2022
Our 95th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
Applications & Business
(01:27) Meta Using AI to Create Greener Concrete for its Data Centers
(07:00) AI can now kill those annoying cookie pop-ups
(10:15) Lighting Round
AI can predict missed appointments. How can hospitals use that data for better care?
Start-up Pony.ai says it's the first self-driving company to get a taxi license in China
VisionNav Robotics closes $80M for AGVs
Armed with new $150 million raise, Oregon robotics startup sets its sights on Pittsburgh
Research & Advancements
(13:00) Machine Learning Helps See into a Volcano’s Depths
(17:30) Jurassic-X: Crossing the Neuro-Symbolic Chasm with the MRKL System
Lighting Round
Engineers use artificial intelligence to capture the complexity of breaking waves -
Which Animal Viruses Could Infect People? Computers Are Racing to Find Out. -
From blurry to bright: AI tech helps researchers peer into the brains of mice
AI predicts lung cancer tumor growth after radiation : NHS study "
(24:15) Ad break
Society & Ethics
(25:30) An algorithm that screens for child neglect raises concerns
(30:30) IBM research details AI skills gap across Europe
(33:20) Lighting Round
U.S. Senate Democrats urge Buttigieg to develop autonomous vehicle rules
Tough questions, few answers: The FDA wrestles with its approach to AI in medicine
Lyft exec Craig Martell tapped as Pentagon’s AI chief
The risks of attacks that involve poisoning training data for machine learning models
Fun & Neat
(35:45) Q&A: Inside DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge - "What SubT means for the future of autonomous robots"
(39:15) This Woman Used AI To Show What "Harry Potter" Characters Would Look Like In Real Life Based On Their Book Descriptions, And My Jaw Is On The Floor - "This AI version of Draco gives me full-body chills."
(41:56) Outro
Friday Apr 29, 2022
Friday Apr 29, 2022
Our 94th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Warning: some curse words are used in this episode towards the end
Outline:
(00:00) Intro
(2:10) GM Patents Autonomous Tech to Train New Drivers Sans Instructor
(6:22) Startups Join AI Acquisition Rush
(13:20) UC Berkeley & Intel’s Photorealistic Denoising Method Boosts Video Quality on Moonless Nights
(17:00) Amazon opens MASSIVE AI speech dataset so Alexa can speak your language
(21:40) Ad break
(23:20) South Africa’s private surveillance machine is fueling a digital apartheid
(29:15) Actors launch campaign against AI 'show stealers'
(37:13) This AI clone of Reddit’s Am I The Asshole forum will give you the best bad advice
(40:26) A Tesla vehicle using ‘Smart Summon’ appears to crash into a $3.5 million private jet
(45:00) Outro