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An AI future where voice and video trump words
Ari Roisman, CEO and cofounder of Glide, a video-messaging app that hopes to capitalize on the coming transition away from texting and towards a voice-and-video interaction future. SAN FRANCISCO - Typing is so ... 20th century. And soon texting is likely to join it in that same communication dustbin. That's a view Ari Roisman, CEO and cofounder of video messaging app Glide, shares with some of the titans of tech ranging from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "We're at the beginning of a new era of human computer interaction," says Roisman during a podcast Friday with USA TODAY.
A Simple Proof From the Pattern-Matching Card Game Set Stuns Mathematicians
In a series of papers posted online in recent weeks, mathematicians have solved a problem about the pattern-matching card game Set that predates the game itself. The solution, whose simplicity has stunned mathematicians, is already leading to advances in other combinatorics problems. Invented in 1974, Set has a simple goal: to find special triples called "sets" within a deck of 81 cards. Each card displays a different design with four attributes--color (which can be red, purple or green), shape (oval, diamond or squiggle), shading (solid, striped or outlined) and number (one, two or three copies of the shape). In typical play, 12 cards are placed face-up and the players search for a set: three cards whose designs, for each attribute, are either all the same or all different.
5 questions for Apple to answer at WWDC
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is coming to San Francisco next week, giving CEO Tim Cook a chance to get developers fired up over the latest that Apple has to offer. Don't expect a new iPhone. WWDC is all about software and services, but we'll also get a general update on the state of Apple. Here are some questions Apple needs to answer at the event. When Siri launched in 2011, it was one of the first virtual assistants of its kind, but it now has competitors from Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
U.S. military says it has killed more than 120 Islamic State leaders
U.S. drone operators had been stalking the baby-faced British terrorist for days with infrared cameras and other sensors before the order came to kill him. As night fell on April 25, a U.S. warplane dropped a guided-bomb that obliterated the SUV occupied by 23-year-old Raphael Saihou Hostey near Mosul, Islamic State's stronghold in Iraq. Hostey, a recruiter for the militants, was targeted by a U.S. military campaign that has singled out and killed more than 120 Islamic State leaders, commanders, propagandists, recruiters and other so-called high-value individuals so far this year, officials said. The leadership attacks have picked up recently due to intelligence collected by special operations teams on night raids, from captured militants, and from intercepts of emails, cellphones and other communications. The focus on Islamic State's command and control structure, including its recruitment and funding systems, has helped weaken the Sunni extremist group as Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish forces press the militants on the battlefield.
What does your phone reveal about you? Experts claim they can predict your age and income from your apps
App developers rely on user demographics to effectively target their audiences – but just how much information do your apps really reveal about you? According to a new study, it might be more than you think. Researchers analysed the app choices of thousands of Android users to determine the predictability of certain attributes, and found that apps can provide insight on your gender, age, and even income. Researchers analysed the app choices of thousands of Android users to determine the predictability of certain attributes, and found that apps can provide insight on your gender, age, and even income. In the paper, published to the journal arXiv, researchers with Verto Analytics in Finland and the Qatar Computing Research Institute created a model based on the demographic attributes and apps of 3,760 Android users.
A Tale Of Two Technologies: Machine Learning and Virtual Reality - Transforming the Real Estate Industry
A few weeks ago Emma Sinclair (@ES_Entrepeneur) asked me if I would write a piece about new trends in technology (applied to the real-estate industry) for the annual PROPS Lunch Magazine published to help Variety, a children's charity in the UK. How could I possibly say no? This piece that I wrote was printed in a magazine (pictured at the end of this post) that was handed out at the 25th Props Lunch. This event raised more than 380,000 from the real estate industry to buy wheelchairs for disabled or disadvantaged kids -- bringing the total raised to date to 9.5m. I'm so glad I could contribute to an event miles away in my own little way.
Thomas Middledtich Leads AI Scripted Sci-Fi Short, Sunspring
We haven't quite reached Terminator's Judgment Day, but there's no doubt that technological advancement has lead to countless gadgets and computer programs that have taken over jobs that used to belong to humans (I used to be a projectionist, which is all but extinct in the age of digital). Director Oscar Sharp, producers Allison Friedman, Andrew Kortschak, Andrew Swett, and Silicon Valley star Thomas Middledtich teamed up to create the short film Sunspring – a nonsensical piece written by anLSTM recurrent neural network. Along with "technologist collaborator" Ross Goodwin, the team set out to build "Jetson", a machine that could write screenplays. They fed the neural network hundreds of science fiction scripts, from TV and film, and proceeded to shoot and edit Jetson'scrazypants script over the course of 48 hours for the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge. "The question for us is, Can a computer write a screenplay that will win a competition?", says the filmmaker over the credits.
In defence of sex machines: why trying to ban sex robots is wrong
The campaign, led by academics Kathleen Richardson and Erik Billing, argues that the development of sex robots should be stopped because it reinforces or reproduces existing inequalities. Yes, society has enough problems with gender stereotypes, entrenched sexism and sexual objectification. But actual opposition to developing sexual robots that aims for an outright ban? That seems shortsighted, even – pardon the pun – undesirable. Groundbreaking work by David Levy, built on the early research into teledildonics – cybersex toys operable through the internet – describes the increasing likelihood of a society that will welcome sex robots. For Levy, sex work is a model that can be mirrored in human-robot relations.
Google showcases new products at I/O 2016 event, attracts more women attendees
Tech giant Google held its annual I/O developers conference I/O 2016 from May 18 to May 20. The well-known 3-day-event for developers all over the world kicked off with a 2 hour keynote by Google CEO Sundar Pichai who showcased previews of Google's latest products such as Google Assistant, Google Home, two messaging technologies Allo and Duo, and many more. Google's focus of this year's conference was on how to make people's life easier by offering them the right tools that can assist them at the right time and help them with small household tasks such as order movie tickets, make dinner reservations, check their flight tickets, etc. "Google Home is the stake in the ground in Google bringing a smart assistant into the home -- and in the bigger picture, a connected life within the future smart home that is built around their interfaces," Paul Erickson, senior analyst at IHS Technology said for TechNewsWorld. "A connected speaker is only one manifestation of that -- a Google voice interface could just as easily be part of mic-equipped smart appliances, smoke detectors, thermostats, and AV devices from different brands," he added. Trying to launch new products as a firm response to its competitors such as Amazon and Facebook, which are using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to their best interest, Google is making its best to help users with household tasks so that they can in turn focus on more important things going on in their lives.
Metropolis-by Fritz Lang- Maria's transformation
Metropolis is a silent science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. Lang and von Harbou, who were married, wrote the screenplay in 1924, and the story was novelized by von Harbou in 1926. It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and examines a common science fiction theme of the day: the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The film stars Alfred Abel as the leader of the city, Gustav Fröhlich as his son, who tries to mediate between the elite caste and the workers, Brigitte Helm as both the pure-at-heart worker Maria and the debased robot version of her, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad scientist who created the robot. Metropolis was produced in Germany in the Babelsberg Studios by Universum Film A.G. (UFA) and released in 1927 during a stable period of the Weimar Republic. The most expensive film of its time, it cost approximately 7 million Reichsmark to make.