Large transformer-based language models (LMs) trained on huge text corpora have shown unparalleled generation capabilities. However, controlling attributes of the generated language (e.g. switching topic or sentiment) is difficult without modifying the model architecture or fine-tuning on attribute-specific data and entailing the significant cost of retraining. We propose a simple alternative: the Plug and Play Language Model (PPLM) for controllable language generation, which combines a pretrained LM with one or more simple attribute classifiers that guide text generation without any further training of the LM. In the canonical scenario we present, the attribute models are simple classifiers consisting of a user-specified bag of words or a single learned layer with 100,000 times fewer parameters than the LM. Sampling entails a forward and backward pass in which gradients from the attribute model push the LM's hidden activations and thus guide the generation. Model samples demonstrate control over a range of topics and sentiment styles, and extensive automated and human annotated evaluations show attribute alignment and fluency. PPLMs are flexible in that any combination of differentiable attribute models may be used to steer text generation, which will allow for diverse and creative applications beyond the examples given in this paper.

An artificial intelligence algorithm developed by Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic and cardiac monitoring startup Eko to analyze ECG data for evidence of reduced left ventricular ejection fraction has been designated a "breakthrough device" by the FDA. The algorithm reads ECG data collected by Eko's digital stethoscope to measure LVEF, which refers to the amount of blood pumped out of the heart's left ventricle and can indicate heart failure. The breakthrough device label, presented to technology with potential to address unmet clinical needs, will speed up regulatory review of the algorithm. Eko and Mayo Clinic's partnership to develop the AI algorithm began in late 2018. Since then, studies have shown that the algorithm-equipped stethoscope achieves significant accuracy in detecting low ejection fraction.

Mars pictured in natural color taken by the Rosetta spacecraft's Optical, Spectroscopic, and ... [ ] Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS). Humans have evolved over millions of years to live on Earth. Now humans are planning long duration space missions that will require them to live in space for extended periods of time. NASA plans to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. NASA's Journey to Mars, the longest manned space mission ever, will require humans to live in space for more than three years.

Approvals for AI-based healthcare products are streaming in from regulators around the globe, with medical imaging leading the way. It's just the start of what's expected to become a steady flow as submissions rise and the technology becomes better understood. More than 90 medical imaging products using AI are now cleared for clinical use, thanks to approvals from at least one global regulator, according to Signify Research Ltd., a U.K. consulting firm in healthcare technology. Regulators in Europe and the U.S. are leading the pace. Each has issued about 60 approvals to date.

As enterprises face a barrage of cyberattacks, and the nature of these attacks is growing in sophistication, it is becoming difficult to pinpoint the vulnerabilities. The bad actors are becoming smarter and more coordinated. It has become a very organized industry, even though it is a dark industry. So here are three key aspects that organizations must immediately address as they prepare their cybersecurity strategy for 2020. Firstly, enterprises need to be in a state of perennial alert.

A US government study suggests facial recognition algorithms are far less accurate at identifying African-American and Asian faces compared to Caucasian faces. African-American females were even more likely to be misidentified, it indicated. It throws fresh doubt on whether such technology should be used by law enforcement agencies. One critic called the results "shocking". The National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) tested 189 algorithms from 99 developers, including Intel, Microsoft, Toshiba, and Chinese firms Tencent and DiDi Chuxing.

This year has had its share of science and technology advances from Army researchers. The U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory, the Army's corporate research laboratory, has the mission to discover, innovate and transition science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. The lab's chief scientist, Dr. Alexander Kott, picked the coolest advances to showcase what Army scientists and engineers are doing to support the Soldier of the future with a top 10 list from 2019: Future Army robots will be the strongest in the world, if visionary researchers have their way. Robots could be armed with artificial muscles made from plastic. Army researchers collaborated with a visiting professor from Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering to study how plastic fibers respond when they are twisted and coiled into a spring.

There's hardly any business nowadays that don't use computers and connect to the Internet. Companies maintain an online presence through their official websites, blogs, and social media pages. People use online services to conduct day to day activities like banking. And of course, there are many businesses that are completely based on the web like online markets, e-Commerce websites and financial services. All of these activities create opportunities for cyber attacks.

It's beginning to look a lot like the end of the year in cybersecurity! In an interview with the Pentagon's artificial intelligence honcho, we looked forward at how AI will intersect with warfare in the future--and the many unresolved questions that raises. And in an interview with venerated author Cliff Stoll, we took a look back a historic moment in cybersecurity. We detailed how popular conference room video displays can be hacked, and how WhatsApp group chat security still needs a little work. Chrome will check your passwords to make sure they're not already in some data breach somewhere.

Robots have replaced thousands of routine jobs on Wall Street. That's the contention of Marcos Lopez de Prado, a Cornell University professor and the former head of machine learning at AQR Capital Management LLC, who testified in Washington on Friday about the impact of artificial intelligence on capital markets and jobs. The use of algorithms in electronic markets has automated the jobs of tens of thousands of execution traders worldwide, and it's also displaced people who model prices and risk or build investment portfolios, he said. "Financial machine learning creates a number of challenges for the 6.14 million people employed in the finance and insurance industry, many of whom will lose their jobs -- not necessarily because they are replaced by machines, but because they are not trained to work alongside algorithms," Lopez de Prado told the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. During the almost two-hour hearing, lawmakers asked experts about racial and gender bias in AI, competition for highly skilled technology workers, and the challenges of regulating increasingly complex, data-driven financial markets.