Rice University chemists are employing machine learning to fine-tune its flash Joule heating process to make graphene. A flash signifies the creation of graphene from waste. Rice University scientists are using machine learning techniques to streamline the process of synthesizing graphene from waste through flash Joule heating. This flash Joule process has expanded beyond making graphene from various carbon sources, to extracting other materials, like metals, from urban waste. The technique is the same for all of the above: blasting a jolt of high energy through the source material to eliminate all but the desired product.

The cash-and-stock deal was announced in 2020 but the US Federal Trade Commission sued to block it in December, arguing that competition in the nascent markets for chips in self-driving cars and a new category of networking chips could be hurt if Nvidia carried out the purchase. The buyout also faced scrutiny in the UK and the EU amid concerns that it could push up prices and reduce choice and innovation. It had yet to receive approval in China, which has previously withheld approval of cross-border chip acquisitions. SoftBank said on Tuesday that Arm would now prepare for a stock market flotation before the end of the financial year to 31 March 2023. The sale would have marked an early exit from Arm for SoftBank, which acquired it for $32bn, and the collapse of the deal marks a big setback to the Japanese conglomerate's efforts to generate funds at time when valuations across its portfolio are under pressure.

The US national tax authority announced Monday that it will stop using facial recognition software to verify taxpayers' identities when they create online accounts, following a chorus of privacy concerns. Internal Revenue Service officials had put forth the authentication system as a security measure following years of growing fears over online scams and identity theft, but the program ended up also prompting worries. The initiative involved identity verification company ID.me, which won a nearly $90 million contract to make taxpayers' accounts more secure. The IRS said "it will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts." "The IRS will quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition," it said, as the agency faces staffing shortages and significant backlogs.

The current wave of artificial intelligence can be traced back to 2012, and an academic contest that measured how well algorithms could recognize objects in photographs. That year, researchers found that feeding thousands of images into an algorithm inspired loosely by the way neurons in a brain respond to input produced a huge leap in accuracy. The breakthrough sparked an explosion in academic research and commercial activity that is transforming some companies and industries. Now a new trick, which involves training the same kind of AI algorithm to turn 2D images into a rich 3D view of a scene, is sparking excitement in the worlds of both computer graphics and AI. The technique has the potential to shake up video games, virtual reality, robotics, and autonomous driving.

Imagine a team of physicians using a neural network to detect cancer in mammogram images. Even if this machine-learning model seems to be performing well, it might be focusing on image features that are accidentally correlated with tumors, like a watermark or timestamp, rather than actual signs of tumors. To test these models, researchers use "feature-attribution methods," techniques that are supposed to tell them which parts of the image are the most important for the neural network's prediction. But what if the attribution method misses features that are important to the model? Since the researchers don't know which features are important to begin with, they have no way of knowing that their evaluation method isn't effective.

DeepBrain AI's AI human technology is a solution that creates a virtual human capable of real-time interactive communication. It implements AI that can communicate directly with users by fusion of speech synthesis, video synthesis, natural language processing, and speech recognition technologies. As a technology that can realize complete contactless service in various fields, banks have the effect of providing a secure counseling service to customers who prefer non-face-to-face in accordance with the COVID-19 situation, and shortening customer waiting time through faster response. First, the AI banker greets customers when they arrive at the kiosk and provides answers to their questions. All answers go through the process of deriving optimal information based on KB-STA, a financial language model developed by KB Kookmin Bank, and delivered to customers through the AI banker's video and voice implemented with DeepBrain AI's AI human technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has now closely matched or even surpassed humans in what were previously considered unattainable areas. These include chess, arcade games, Go, self-driving cars, protein folding, and much more. This rapid technological progress has also had a huge impact on the financial services industry. More and more CEOs in the sector declare (explicitly or implicitly) that they run "technology companies with a banking license". There is also a rapid emergence and growth of the financial technology industry (fintech), where technology startups increasingly challenge established financial institutions in areas such as retail banking, pensions.

Looking beyond this mission, Whittaker says several other innovations have the potential to transform the way robots currently explore the Solar System. Currently, rovers use stereo vision to detect landscape hazards. Whittaker says that if laser-ranging technology called Lidar can be miniaturised to fit on a robot, it would be a "breakthrough".

DeepMind, a UK-based AI company, has taught some of its machines to write computer software – and it performs almost as well as an average human programmer when judged in competition. The new AlphaCode system is claimed by DeepMind to be able to solve software problems that require a combination of logic, critical thinking and the ability to understand natural language. The tool was entered into 10 rounds on the programming competition website Codeforces, where human entrants test their coding skills. In these 10 rounds, AlphaCode placed at about the level of the median competitor. DeepMind says this is the first time an AI code-writing system has reached a competitive level of performance in programming contests.

Another week, another privacy horror show: Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit text message service for people experiencing serious mental health crises, has been using "anonymized" conversation data to power a for-profit machine learning tool for customer support teams. Crisis Text Line's response to the backlash focused on the data itself and whether it included personally identifiable information. But that response uses data as a distraction. That's the real travesty--when the price of obtaining mental health help in a crisis is becoming grist for a machine learning mill. And it's not just users of CTL who pay; it's everyone who goes looking for help when they need it most.