We aim to inform readers not only about events in the Bitcoin industry but also about developments in related technology spheres — cybersecurity, and now the world of artificial intelligence (AI).
ForkLog has gathered the most important AI news from the past week.
- Facebook is considering the legal questions surrounding the use of facial recognition technologies in smart glasses, which the company could unveil as early as this year.
- The EU Agency for Cybersecurity released a report detailing the potential attack vectors on autonomous vehicles, and urged scientists, developers, and practitioners to collaborate at all stages of creating smart machines.
- Researchers in China have developed a facial-recognition algorithm for Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys.
- The New York Police Department deployed the Spot robot dog from Boston Dynamics to a Bronx crime scene, and is considering how such devices could be used in the future.
- AI has upscaled the video clip “Never Gonna Give You Up” to 4K resolution at 60fps.
Facebook weighs facial recognition for its future smart glasses
Facebook’s vice president for augmented and virtual reality, Andrew Bosworth, told a private staff meeting that the company is examining legal and privacy concerns associated with facial recognition for its future smart glasses.
During the meeting Bosworth said the company is currently assessing whether it has the right to offer facial-recognition services on wearable devices. He said a decision has not yet been made. He noted that existing US laws could deprive Facebook of offering people the ability to search for others by photos.
“Facial recognition … may be the most challenging issue when the benefits are so clear and the risks so great, and we do not know where to balance these things,” Bosworth said in response to an employee’s question about whether people can “tag their faces as unrecognizable.”
An unnamed employee highlighted concerns about potential ‘real harm,’ including ‘stalkers’.
The smart glasses that Facebook talked about last year will be developed in partnership with Ray-Ban and its parent company Luxottica Group. More information about the device is expected from the company in the second half of 2021.
EU worries about vulnerabilities of AI-powered autonomous vehicles
The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity released a report warning that autonomous vehicles are “highly vulnerable to a wide range of attacks”. According to the report’s authors, the vulnerabilities could pose real threats to both passengers and pedestrians.
Threats considered in the report include attacks on sensors with light beams that suppress object-detection systems, internal malicious activity, and attacks on machine-learning algorithms.
“The vulnerability could be used to make AI ‘blind’ to pedestrians by manipulating, for example, the image-recognition component to misclassify them. This could lead to chaos on the streets, as autonomous vehicles may run into people on roads or crosswalks,” the report says.
The authors also noted that deploying machine learning in cars will require constant monitoring to ensure they have not been modified maliciously.
“AI cybersecurity cannot be treated as a secondary concern… especially when AI systems are developed by scientists and then deployed by engineers. AI systems must be designed, implemented and deployed by teams that include an automotive-industry expert, an ML expert and a cybersecurity expert,” the document says.
Chinese researchers develop facial recognition for monkeys
A research team from Northwest University in China has developed a facial-recognition system for Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys that inhabit the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province.
The technology is currently in an experimental stage and can identify around 200 golden snub-nosed monkeys.
“When the facial-recognition technology for monkeys is fully developed, we will be able to integrate this technology into infrared camera kits in the mountains. The system will automatically recognise them, identify them by name, and analyse their behaviour,” said Zhang He, a member of the research team.
Compared with human facial recognition, the monkey-recognition technology must contend with the hair on a golden monkey’s face, which places higher demands on the system’s ability to discern features and contours on the surface of the face.
There are about 4,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys in the Qinling Mountains, currently on the brink of extinction. Such projects are intended to help researchers track the population and take conservation measures.
Microsoft to add AI-powered text predictions to Word
Microsoft plans to add AI-powered text predictions to Word in March 2021, according to the updated Microsoft 365 roadmap.
The software giant first unveiled the feature to beta testers of the Office suite on Windows last year. It uses machine learning to offer writing suggestions based on the text entered by the user.
“Text predictions help users write more efficiently, quickly, and accurately. The feature reduces spelling and grammar errors and over time learns to offer better recommendations based on writing style.”
After the feature launches, users will see predictions as they type. To accept recommendations, press the TAB key; to reject them, press ESC. The feature can also be disabled altogether.
NYC police used Spot at crime scene
In late February, the New York Police Department deployed Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog to a crime scene in the Bronx.
A NYPD spokesperson said the robot is in a testing phase to assess whether it is useful in the field. The robotic dog is equipped with flashlights and cameras so the NYPD can see everything Spot sees.
Footage of the robot’s movements was captured on a FreedomNews.tv videographer’s camera. One eyewitness in the video described ‘this thing as creepy’ as the robot sped past the camera.
The NYPD has previously used a Spot robot. In October, the department used another Spot to locate a suspect who had barricaded himself in a building after firing a shot at someone in a dispute over a parking space in Brooklyn.
AI remasters ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ in 4K
The music video for Rick Astley’s famous 1980s track Never Gonna Give You Up, which became a meme, has been processed by AI algorithms and is now available in 4K resolution.
The remastering authors used the Topaz Video Enhance app, which is built on deep-learning algorithms that upscale the original video to 4K. They also employed the utility RIFE (Flowframes) to raise the frame rate to 60 frames per second.
The video was first uploaded to the Revideo YouTube channel in January, but the popularity spike came in late February. The full video has since been removed from the video site due to copyright issues, but it can still be viewed here.
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