Europe
Russian trolls outing porn stars and prostitutes with neural network facial recognition app
A new app that uses a neural network combined with facial recognition software to help put names to faces in random photographs by scanning social network data is being used in Russia to identify and harass young women who have previously appeared in pornographic films. Trinity Digital, an app developer in Russia, released a free iOS and Android app called FindFace in February that enables people to identify people by taking a random photograph and using its neural network to figure out the person's name, location, occupation and other details. A neural network is a huge network of computers that are trained using computer algorithms to solve complex problems quickly, as well as improving artificial intelligence by gaining a deeper recognition and understanding of art and the world around us. On 9 April, members of a disreputable imageboard called Dvach, which is like the Russian cousin of 4chan, launched a campaign to deliberately try to locate and identify actresses who appear in pornography, as well as women listed on Intimcity, a Russian website advertising prostitution and escort services. Using FindFace, the Dvach users not only identified the women, but they also shared archived copies of their profiles on Vkontakte (the Russian version of Facebook) publicly online and repeatedly spammed the families of the women letting them know that they had been outed as porn stars and prostitutes.
U.S. military ready to begin testing unmanned ship designed to cross oceans
SAN DIEGO โ The U.S. military is beginning tests of the world's largest unmanned surface vessel -- a self-driving, 132-foot (40-meter) ship designed to travel thousands of miles (kilometers) at sea without a single crew member on board. The so-called Sea Hunter has the potential to revolutionize not only the military's maritime operations but commercial shipping, according to military officials. Military officials showed off the ship in San Diego on Monday before it set sail to a nearby naval base where the testing will be conducted. The sleek, futuristic-looking steel-gray vessel was docked at a maritime terminal in the heart of San Diego's shipbuilding district, where TV crews filmed the robotic craft. No media access was given to the inside of the vessel.
Military tests unmanned ship designed for seafaring missions
The military is starting tests on the world's largest unmanned surface vessel -- a self-driving, 132-foot ship designed to travel thousands of miles out at sea without a single crew member on board. The so-called "Sea Hunter" has the potential to revolutionize not only the military's maritime operations but commercial shipping, according to military officials. Military officials showed off the ship in San Diego on Monday before it set off to a nearby Naval base where the testing will be conducted. The sleek, futuristic-looking steel-gray vessel was docked at a maritime terminal in the heart of San Diego's shipbuilding district, where TV crews filmed the robotic craft. No media access was given to the inside of the vessel.
Cognex (CGNX) Robert J. Willett on Q1 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Currently at this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct the question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. Also, as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host to Richard Morin. Thank you, and good evening, everyone. Earlier today, we issued a news release announcing Cognex's earnings for the first quarter of 2016, and we've also filed our quarterly report on Form 10-Q. For those of you who have not yet seen these materials, both are available on our website at www.cognex.com. They contain highly detailed information about our financial results. During tonight's call, we may use a non-GAAP financial measure, if we believe it is useful to investors, or if we believe it will help investors better understand our results or business trends. For your reference, you can see a reconciliation of certain items from GAAP to non-GAAP in Exhibit 2 of the earnings release. I'd like to emphasize that any forward-looking statements we made in the earnings release or any that we may make during this call are based upon information that we believe to be true as of today. Things often change and actual results may differ materially from those projected or anticipated. You should refer to the company's SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K, for a detailed list of these risk factors. Now, I'll turn the call over to Cognex's Chairman, Dr. Bob Shillman.
Algorithms and architecture for job recommendations
In this article, we'll describe the evolution of our recommendation engine, from the initial minimum viable product (MVP) built with Apache Mahout, to a hybrid offline online pipeline. We'll explore the impact these changes have had on product metrics and how we've addressed challenges by using incremental modifications to algorithms, system architecture, and model format. To close, we'll review some related lessons in system design that apply to any high-traffic machine learning application. Indeed's production applications run in many data centers around the world. Clickstream data, and other application events from every data center, are replicated into a central HDFS repository, based in our Austin data center.
S Korea, US Work on Advanced Artificial Intelligence Against Cyber Threats / Sputnik International
Seoul and Washington have agreed to join efforts to develop an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology to counter cyberspace threats, according to a joint statement quoted by the local media on Monday. The two countries "intend to explore areas of mutual value and benefit, which may lead to joint activities aimed at enhancing operational readiness to support cybersecurity, and resilience," the statement issued by the US Department of Homeland Security and the South Korean Ministry of Science reads as quoted by Yonhap news agency. The South Korean ministry told the media that the sides had agreed to cooperate on joint research on "AI-based cybersecurity" following the recent visit to the country of Reginald Brothers, the US under secretary for science and technology. Last month, South Korean media reported that North Korea had allegedly carried out a number of cyberattacks and stolen information from dozens of Seoul top government officials' smartphones.
Temporal Clustering of Time Series via Threshold Autoregressive Models: Application to Commodity Prices
Aslan, Sipan, Yozgatligil, Ceylan, Iyigun, Cem
This study aimed to find temporal clusters for several commodity prices using the threshold nonlinear autoregressive model. It is expected that the process of determining the commodity groups that are time-dependent will advance the current knowledge about the dynamics of co-moving and coherent prices, and can serve as a basis for multivariate time series analyses. The clustering of commodity prices was examined using the proposed clustering approach based on time series models to incorporate the time varying properties of price series into the clustering scheme. Accordingly, the primary aim in this study was grouping time series according to the similarity between their Data Generating Mechanisms (DGMs) rather than comparing pattern similarities in the time series traces. The approximation to the DGM of each series was accomplished using threshold autoregressive models, which are recognized for their ability to represent nonlinear features in time series, such as abrupt changes, time-irreversibility and regime-shifting behavior. Through the use of the proposed approach, one can determine and monitor the set of co-moving time series variables across the time dimension. Furthermore, generating a time varying commodity price index and sub-indexes can become possible. Consequently, we conducted a simulation study to assess the effectiveness of the proposed clustering approach and the results are presented for both the simulated and real data sets. Keywords: Clustering Nonlinear Time Series Models, Regime Switching, Spectral 1. Introduction The movement of commodity prices and the associated dynamics are interrelated with economics and directly affect many industries.
Diving Robot 'Mermaid' Lends a Hand (or 2) to Ocean Exploration
In Mediterranean waters, off the coast of France, a diver recently visited the shipwreck La Lune -- a vesssel in King Louis XIV's fleet -- which lay untouched and unexplored on the ocean bottom since it sank in 1664. But the wreck's first nonaquatic visitor in centuries wasn't human -- it was a robot. Dubbed "OceanOne," the bright orange diving robot resembles a mecha-mermaid. It measures about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length and has a partly human form: a torso, a head -- with stereoscopic vision -- and articulated arms. Its lower section holds its computer "brain," a power supply, and an array of eight multidirectional thrusters.
Will.i.am's is back with a new wrist-computer, and this one has a more impressive AI called AneedA
LOS ANGELES--Will.i.am sounds congested and subdued, his batteries running low after a high-octane appearance on The Ellen Show earlier that day. He's longing for 2025, when an artificial intelligence will be able to tell him to take it easy. "Will, you sound like you are stuffy," he says in the voice of this fictional AI. "What did you eat recently? Stay away from sweets because they are causing you more mucus. You should get some rest tonight. I'm going to cancel your appointments from 7 pm. I've already bought you some epsom salts from CVS. Go and pick them up."
Google Strikes Deal With NHS That Gives AI Unit Access To 1.6 Million Patient Records
Details of Google's DeepMind data-sharing agreement with the UK NHS revealed that the AI system would have access to millions of patient records. The agreement, according to the NHS, is for direct clinical use only. Google's deal with the National Health Service (NHS) will allow artificial intelligence units to access as many as 1.6 million private patient records, a new report has revealed. The data-sharing agreement, according to New Scientist, which first unmasked its true nature, would give Google's DeepMind unrestricted access to sensitive data that the Royal Free NHS Trust has. As early as 2014, Google has partnered with several scientists to understand human health.