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ICYMI: Sorting crops with artificial intelligence

Engadget

Today on In Case You Missed It: Google's Tensor Flow machine learning technology helped create a device to sort through massive amounts of cucumbers at a farm in Japan, sorting the vegetables by quality grade so that humans don't have to do it manually. Meanwhile, an Australian scientist created an ink that changes colors when exposed to sunlight, which could theoretically help people from getting a sunburn. We also touched on the new internet-connected pet toy from Acer and rounded up the biggest headlines of the week for you in TL;DR. Be sure to check out IBM Watson's movie trailer and read about SpaceX's rocket explosion. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.


Building a stairway to the singularity

The Japan Times

A computer's victory over a human go master this past March reminds us of the pending "singularity" -- the rapidly approaching moment in time when artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence. Machines will learn, and we won't be their teachers. Are we prepared for it? Can we prepare for it? Many futurists declare it inevitable, probably within a generation, maybe less.


Topicly

#artificialintelligence

Technology has greatly affected our lives over the years. Now, a study from Stanford University has revealed how artificial intelligence (A.I.) may change people's lifestyle -- from transportation, employment, health and household chores -- by the year 2030. Machine learning is a subfield of computer science, that grew out of the quest for artificial intelligence. It is so pervasive in today's world that you probably use it often in daily life, without even realising it. Machine learning has given us self-driving cars, effective web search, recommendations that you get when you visit web sites or social media sites, face detection in a digital photo album, stock trading etc. Mark Zuckerberg made it his new year's goal to create Jarvis-like artificial intelligence for his home -- at this point it lets him manage his house and toasts his bread.


Machine learning could help revolutionize cancer diagnosis - Biotechin.Asia

#artificialintelligence

Machine learning is a subfield of computer science, that grew out of the quest for artificial intelligence. It is so pervasive in today's world that you probably use it often in daily life, without even realising it. Machine learning has given us self-driving cars, effective web search, recommendations that you get when you visit web sites or social media sites, face detection in a digital photo album, stock trading etc. Machine learning enables computers to analyze vast amounts of data and automatically detect patterns and features, or make predictions regarding certain conditions. In a dynamic disease like cancer, gauging and diagnosing such a complex heterogeneity is the biggest challenge. After decades of cancer research, it has become increasingly clear that no two patients' cancers are exactly the same, and even within one person's tumor there is a wild diversity of cells.


Japan aims to raise food self-sufficiency to 55% by 2050

The Japan Times

New estimates by the agriculture ministry show that the nation can raise its food self-sufficiency to 55 percent in 2050 from 39 percent now, sources said. The estimates are based on the assumption that Japan will maintain its current farm production while the population declines. The long-term estimates on food self-sufficiency are the first the ministry has ever made. According to the estimates, daily food demand will drop from 307 billion kilocalories in 2014 to 220 billion in 2050 due to the fall in population. To maintain the current output, the ministry believes it necessary to boost productivity, maintain the farming workforce and prevent farmland from being abandoned.


The Moral Imperative of Artificial Intelligence

#artificialintelligence

The big news on March 12 of this year was of the Go-playing AI-system AlphaGo securing victory against 18-time world champion Lee Se-dol by winning the third straight game of a five-game match in Seoul, Korea. After Deep Blue's victory against chess world champion Gary Kasparov in 1997, the game of Go was the next grand challenge for game-playing artificial intelligence. Go has defied the brute-force methods in game-tree search that worked so successfully in chess. In 2012, Communications published a Research Highlight article by Sylvain Gelly et al. on computer Go, which reported that "Programs based on Monte-Carlo tree search now play at human-master levels and are beginning to challenge top professional players." AlphaGo combines tree-search techniques with search-space reduction techniques that use deep learning. Its victory is a stunning achievement and another milestone in the inexorable march of AI research.


From Virtual Nurses To Drug Discovery: 90 Artificial Intelligence Startups In Healthcare

#artificialintelligence

In our quarterly analysis of companies pursuing healthcare-focused applications of AI, we reported that deals leapt from less than 10 in 2011 to 60 in 2015. So far this year (as of 8/23/2016), companies in this space have raised over 55 equity funding rounds. Some of the recent deals include a 25M Series A round raised by London-based health services startup, Babylon Health, backed by investors including Kinnevik and Google-owned DeepMind Technologies (Babylon will reportedly roll out a Siri-like voice recognition interface this year), and a 154M Series A round raised by China-based iCarbonX. "By 2025, AI systems could be involved in everything from population health management, to digital avatars capable of answering specific patient queries." We identified over 90 companies that are applying machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics to reduce drug discovery times, provide virtual assistance to patients, and diagnose ailments by processing medical images, among other things.


World's First Self-Driving Taxis Start Pick-Ups

#artificialintelligence

The world's first self-driving taxis are beginning to pick up passengers in Singapore. Select members of the public are able to hail a free ride using their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. Get updates and more Breaking News here: http://smarturl.it/APBreakingNews The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. AP's commitment to independent, comprehensive journalism has deep roots.


The Google of China announces new AI and Internet of Things initiatives

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This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Baidu, the Chinese-based internet services conglomerate, has made several major announcements about its upcoming IoT projects. The company's plans center on a revamped artificial intelligence (AI) platform, which the company hopes will enable it to effectively increase its presence in the world of the IoT. Baidu plans to use this revamped AI platform to develop a voice assistant similar to Amazon's Echo, reports Bloomberg. It will be working with speaker manufacturer Harman Industries to develop the device, which it hopes will allow users to order food, summon a ride, or control smart home products via voice commands.


The ultimate promise of artificial intelligence lies in sorting cucumbers

#artificialintelligence

Farming in Japan is different than the United States. The average Japanese farm is just 4.8 acres, and more than 1.5 million small-scale food producers punctuate Japan's mountainous islands. In contrast, the average US farm size is 434 acres. Japan's distributed model poses an issue: The price of modern, high-efficiency farm equipment demands a large operation to cover costs. One small farm, however, is turning to homebrew artificial intelligence instead of buying the standard machinery.