Replacing Programmers, the World Cup Winner, and Other AI News

We aim to inform readers not only about events in the bitcoin industry but also about developments in adjacent technology spheres — cybersecurity and the world of artificial intelligence (AI).

ForkLog AI has compiled the most important AI news of the past week.

NVIDIA exits the Russian market

The tech giant confirmed it ceased all business operations in the country as of October 30, 2022.

According to the company, the Russian market accounted for no more than 2% of its total revenue in the last fiscal year. In gaming, the share was 4%.

NVIDIA spent $16 million on restructuring due to the closure of its Russian unit.

Tesla FSD becomes available to all North American residents

Tesla opened access to the beta version of the Full Self-Driving system to customers in North America.

Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option.

Congrats to Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

According to Elon Musk, the autopilot can be activated by requesting the feature from the infotainment screen in the robocar and paying for it.

Waymo allowed to transport passengers without a driver in San Francisco

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) allowed the company to transport passengers in a driverless robotaxi in San Francisco (USA).

Autonomous vehicles may operate around the clock and reach speeds up to 105 km/h. The company will be able to conduct free test rides across San Francisco, as well as in parts of Santa Clara County.

To launch a fully autonomous taxi deployment for passenger transport, Waymo will need several additional permits from the CPUC and DMV.

Reports: TSMC to supply a large batch of chips for Tesla

Tesla ordered a large batch of next-generation chips from Taiwan’s TSMC for the Full Self-Driving system.

According to Electrek, the processors will be manufactured at 4- or 5-nanometer process nodes at the Arizona plant (USA).

It is expected that in 2023 Tesla will become one of the seven largest customers of TSMC.

Blizzard trains AI to detect toxic gamers

Blizzard launched testing of an AI feature to detect hate speech in voice chats in the game Overwatch 2.

The system temporarily stores the recorded conversations of players who were reported for disruptive behavior. It then converts the audio file to text and sends it to moderators for review.

According to Blizzard, staff will not listen to voice-chat recordings. The audio is used only to create transcripts and is then deleted.

The feature rolled out with the latest PC patch and is available only in certain countries.

Reports: Google developing an AI assistant for programmers

Google is developing an AI assistant codenamed Pitchfork for writing source code.

According to Business Insider, the project idea originated in the X research division and is part of the company’s broader generative AI program. In summer 2022, its implementation was led by Google Labs engineers under the leadership of Olivia Hatalski, who contributed to the AR headset Glass and other devices.

It is expected that the algorithm will be able to learn programming styles and then write, fix, and update code based on that knowledge.

There is no information on the project’s current development stage.

Baidu discusses robotaxi popularity

The Chinese tech giant Baidu said that in some major Chinese cities its autonomous taxis are nearly as popular as traditional taxis.

CEO Robin Li noted that in Q3 each Apollo Go robotaxi completed over 15 trips per day on average in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou—roughly matching the daily demand for regular taxis, he added.

By comparison, in New York this figure is around 12 trips per day. is around.

AI predicted the winner of the 2022 World Cup

An employee of the PI.EXCHANGE startup used AI to forecast the results of the FIFA World Cup 2022 matches in Qatar.

The enthusiast used the company’s The AI&Analytics Engine platform, which allows building models without code. He trained the algorithm LightGBM on a dataset containing data from 23,000 international football matches dating back to 1993.

According to AI, the winner of the 2022 World Cup will be Brazil.

NVIDIA unveils AI-powered 3D object generator

NVIDIA unveiled an AI-based 3D object generator called Magic3D.

The system is based on the eDiffi algorithm. First, the model converts a query into low-resolution images, which are then processed into a final 3D representation using the Instant NGP framework.

After that, the DMTet AI algorithm extracts a higher-quality 3D mesh. This serves as a template for further images, whose scale increases.

According to NVIDIA, the result is a 3D model of an object sized 512×512 pixels, which can be imported and visualized in standard graphic software.

The company said Magic3D outperforms Google DreamFusion in speed and resolution.

Brain-computer interface learns to read thoughts

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have taught a brain-computer interface to read words spoken mentally.

Researchers recorded signals from individual neurons in the superior parietal lobule, a region of the parietal cortex responsible for tactile and motor actions. Previously they found that this brain region represents spoken phrases.

In the experiment, researchers asked a tetraplegic patient to silently articulate several words for 15 minutes. A brain implant transmitted data to a computer that trained to identify signal patterns.

According to the researchers, accuracy for eight words was 91%.

Researchers teach virtual robots to predict events ‘to infinity’

Researchers from MIT and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab presented an AI system for training cooperative or competitive agents in long-horizon foresight.

According to the scientists, the framework lets virtual robots account for other programs’ actions not only a few steps ahead but as time approaches infinity. After that, AI agents can adapt their behavior and find an optimal long-term solution.

The researchers believe the system could be used, for example, on a team of cooperative drones for locating a lost hiker in dense forests or on autonomous vehicles that can anticipate the movements of other vehicles and enhance passenger safety.

The most notable AI deals of the past week

From November 20 to 26, 2022, AI startups raised over $30 million. Here are the most notable deals.

• Taktile raised $20 million to expand its no-code platform for testing and deploying decision-making models.
• The creators of Harvey, an AI assistant for lawyers, raised $5 million.
• RedBrick AI raised $4.6 million to scale its system for annotating medical images.

Also on ForkLog:

• AI helped prove the authenticity of a controversial Renoir painting.
• In Israel developed a kamikaze drone with artificial intelligence.
• The deepfake of Sam Bankman-Fried offered compensation for the FTX collapse.
• AI from Meta outperformed humans in a classic board game.
• In San Francisco police robots will be allowed to use lethal force.
• Baidu called the US restrictions on AI chip shipments “insignificant”.
• Stable Diffusion 2.0 has ‘forgotten’ how to generate porn.

What to read this weekend?

ForkLog has looked into what AI can do in warfare and how armed forces around the world are employing the technology in practice.

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