Europe
Bilingual Learning of Multi-sense Embeddings with Discrete Autoencoders
Šuster, Simon, Titov, Ivan, van Noord, Gertjan
We present an approach to learning multi-sense word embeddings relying both on monolingual and bilingual information. Our model consists of an encoder, which uses monolingual and bilingual context (i.e. a parallel sentence) to choose a sense for a given word, and a decoder which predicts context words based on the chosen sense. The two components are estimated jointly. We observe that the word representations induced from bilingual data outperform the monolingual counterparts across a range of evaluation tasks, even though crosslingual information is not available at test time.
Inbenta Launches 'Hybrid Chat' to integrate Human Live Chat with Artificial Intelligence
"Our research shows that a growing number of customers actually prefer self-service channels to answer questions, resolve issues or complete transactions. Yet, automated handling often hits limitations when it comes to handling complex queries or'remembering' information previously mentioned in a conversation," says Dan Miller, Opus Research lead analyst. "As intelligent assistant technology evolves; we anticipate the emergence of highly specialized'intelligent advisors' that know when and how to involve a live agent. Inbenta's Hybrid Chat is the beginning of this progress." "As a transactional e-commerce-based company, having a superior digital customer support program is essential. You wouldn't make your brick and mortar customers search your store without helping them, so why not give them a personalized experience virtually," says Andreia Ferreira, Live Chat Manager, Ticketbis.
Intensions Study: The Future of Work
The study found that 55% of Canadian adults would like their employer to provide extended leave opportunities, 45% would prefer not to work at fixed times (i.e. "Flexibility and empowerment will be the new work currencies and productivity will be redefined," says Badminton. "Flexible payment schedules for workers will come into effect administered by automated systems that measure output, not hours put in." Finally, many people are also concerned that work is interfering with their personal lives. "Whether it's cutting corners to save time, or paying other people to do their job for them, Canadian adults are considering some unique ways to take back control at work" says Black.
Machine Learning Is Learning How to Read Lips - DATAVERSITY
Natasha Lomas reports in TechCrunch, "For human lip readers, context is key in deciphering words stripped of the full nuance of their audio cues. But a technology model for lip-reading developed at the University of East Anglia in the UK has been shown to be able to interpret mouthed words with a greater degree of accuracy than human lip readers, thanks to the application of machine learning tech to classify the visual aspect of sounds. And the kicker is the algorithm doesn't need to know the context of what you're discussing to be able to identify the words you're using." Lomas goes on, "While the model remains a piece of research at this stage, there are scores of potential applications for technology that could automagically transform visual cues into accurate speech -- whether it's helping people who have audio impairments, or enhancing audio-less security video footage with additional speech data -- or even to try to figure out exactly what charged word one footballer spat at another in the heat of a match." She continues, "Such a tech could also be applied as a fallback for poor audio quality on a mobile or video call. Or even perhaps to power a front-facing camera-based mobile'voice' assistant which you wouldn't actually have to speak to but could just discreetly mouth commands at (how cool would that be?). Safe to say, the list of applications-in-waiting for machine powered lip-reading is as long as the dictionary is deep. So there's bags of future potential if only researchers can deliver the goods."
Could machines have become self-aware without our knowing it? – George Musser Aeon Essays
Usually when people imagine a self-aware machine, they picture a device that emerges through deliberate effort and that then makes its presence known quickly, loudly, and (in most scenarios) disastrously. Even if its inventors have the presence of mind not to wire it into the nuclear missile launch system, the artificial intelligence will soon vault past our capacity to understand and control it. If we're lucky, the new machine will simply break up with us, like the operating system in the movie Her. If not, it might decide not to open the pod bay doors to let us back into the spaceship. Regardless, the key point is that when an artificial intelligence wakes up, we'll know. But who's to say machines don't already have minds? What if they take unexpected forms, such as networks that have achieved a group-level consciousness? What if artificial intelligence is so unfamiliar that we have a hard time recognising it?
Will capitalism survive the robot revolution?
Economic experts are trying to figure out a question that just two decades ago seemed ridiculous: If 90 percent of human jobs are replaced by robots in the next 50 years -- something now considered plausible -- is capitalism still the ideal economic system to champion? No one is certain about the answer, but the question is making everyone nervous -- and forcing people to dig deep inside themselves to discover the kind of future they want. After America beat Russia in the Cold War, most of the world generally considered capitalism to be the hands-down best system on which to base economies and democracies. For decades, few doubted capitalism's merit, which was made stronger by thriving globalization and a skyrocketing world net worth. In 1989 -- when the Berlin Wall fell -- the world had only 198 billionaires.
Will capitalism survive the robot revolution?
Economic experts are trying to figure out a question that just two decades ago seemed ridiculous: If 90 percent of human jobs are replaced by robots in the next 50 years -- something now considered plausible -- is capitalism still the ideal economic system to champion? No one is certain about the answer, but the question is making everyone nervous -- and forcing people to dig deep inside themselves to discover the kind of future they want. After America beat Russia in the Cold War, most of the world generally considered capitalism to be the hands-down best system on which to base economies and democracies. For decades, few doubted capitalism's merit, which was made stronger by thriving globalization and a skyrocketing world net worth. In 1989 -- when the Berlin Wall fell -- the world had only 198 billionaires.
How I use comic books as a learning tool in my social studies classroom
Marvel is a Pakistani-American superhero from New Jersey. She became Marvel's first lead Muslim superhero when she took over the Ms. Marvel comic book series in February 2014. Tim Smyth, a social studies teacher at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pennsylvania, has read comic books since he was a young boy. While he has taught for 15 years, it was only in the last two years that Smyth decided to integrate his passion for comic books into his classes. But now he says comic books and graphic novels are powerful vehicles to engage students in both history and current events.
The Economist asks: Jerry Kaplan
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The rise of robotics - Mining Journal
Increasingly flexible, responsive, sensing, even humanlike, robots are beginning to augment and replace labour in a wide range of industries: a megatrend that is transforming the economics of manufacturing and reshaping the business landscape. Already used to fight wars, remove dangerous land mines, and fill customer orders, robots can also clean, dance, and play the violin; assist with surgery and rehabilitation, bathe elderly patients, measure and deliver medication, and offer companionship; and provide disaster relief, report the news, and drive cars. In short, robots can perform quite a few of the jobs that humans currently do – often more efficiently and at a far lower cost. Because robots can sharply improve productivity and offset regional differences in labour costs and availability, they'll likely have a major impact on the competitiveness of companies and countries alike. For instance, countries with a greater number of robotic programmers and robotic infrastructure could become more attractive to manufacturers than countries with cheap labour.