From 2010 to 2011, I worked on YouTube's artificial intelligence recommendation engine--the algorithm that directs what you see next based on your previous viewing habits and searches. One of my main tasks was to increase the amount of time people spent on YouTube. At the time, this pursuit seemed harmless. But nearly a decade later, I can see that our work had unintended--but not unpredictable--consequences. In some cases, the AI went terribly wrong.

Amazon is developing a higher quality version of the Echo speaker and ramping up work on its home robot. The company plans to release the new Echo by next year, according to people familiar with the product. Prototypes of the cylindrical speaker are wider than the current Echo to squeeze in additional components including at least four tweeters, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter. The robot, previously reported by Bloomberg, has wheels and can be controlled by Alexa voice commands, the people said. Both devices are being developed by Amazon Lab126, a research and development arm based in Sunnyvale, California.

Editor-at-Large based in London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom. Expertise in Unemployment, Food, recipes, Sports, Science & space, Technology, see all» Women's health, Environment & green living, Sexual health, Men's health, Concerts, Music, Pets, Celebrities, Social media, Pharmaceuticals, Travel, Internet, Careers & workplace, Government, Stocks & trading, Drinks, Jobs, Charity & volunteer work, Books, Education, Automotive, Board games, Entertainment, Politics, Movies, General business news & info, Small business, Video games, Health, Food, dining & restaurants Dell Technologies has released the final update to its 2020 Legacy of Good plan, reporting on its sustainability progress. Hair straighteners may not be the fist item that comes to mind when hacking is mentioned, but as more and more devices become connected, anything that relies on digital technology carries a vulnerability. Electric cars could be used as battery hubs in order to store renewable energy. This concept, being considered for the U.K., is about capturing and utilizing some of the excess energy produced from electric vehicles.

There is an unprecedented growth in the percentage of aging population throughout the world, particularly in growing economies such as Europe, Japan and China. Form 2000 to 2050, the percentage of the world's population who is 60 years of age and older will approximately double from about 12% to 22% (from 605 million to 2 billion). During the same period, the number of people aged 80 years and older will quadruple. In the USA, 14.5% of the population is 65 years or older, but by 2030 these number is anticipated to grow to 20%. This rapid aging demographic will directly affect social, economic and health outcomes for these growing economies.

Google officials have admitted that the company's workers can listen to Google Assistant users, and that one of them recently leaked confidential data. A Dutch language expert working for Google to train its speech technology leaked private information in a breach of the company's security policies, company officials said. The disclosure came after Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS reported that its reporters listened to more than 1,000 conversations recorded by the search giant's virtual assistant, including some that revealed identifiable information about the users. "As part of our work to develop speech technology for more languages, we partner with language experts around the world who understand the nuances and accents of a specific language," Google executive David Monsees wrote in a blog post posted on Thursday. These language experts review and transcribe a small set of queries to help us better understand those languages." "We just learned that one of these language reviewers has violated our data security policies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data.

This repository provides examples and best practices for building recommendation systems, provided as Jupyter notebooks. Several utilities are provided in reco_utils to support common tasks such as loading datasets in the format expected by different algorithms, evaluating model outputs, and splitting training/test data. Implementations of several state-of-the-art algorithms are provided for self-study and customization in your own applications. Please see the setup guide for more details on setting up your machine locally, on Spark, or on Azure Databricks. NOTE - The Alternating Least Squares (ALS) notebooks require a PySpark environment to run.

Amazon Echo devices are compatible with a multitude of smart home products. Amazon's Echo smart speaker is reportedly about to get a premium upgrade. Citing people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg published a report on Friday saying that the e-commerce giant is poised to unveil a next-level Echo in 2020 that's larger in size to accommodate new technology, better sound and at least four tweeters. The online tech behemoth has previously worked to upgrade the Echo's sound with software tweaks, offering a standalone subwoofer and add-ons that connect the speaker to a stereo. An Echo with improved sound quality would directly rival high-end Sonos speakers and Apple's acoustically rich $300 HomePod.

A New Mexico man was arrested for allegedly beating his girlfriend after their Amazon device alerted police. Eduardo Barros, 28, was with his girlfriend and her daughter at a residence in Tijeras, outside of Albuquerque, on July 2. The pair got into an argument and the confrontation became physical, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff Department's spokesperson, Deputy Felicia Romero. Eduardo Barros, 28, (pictured), was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill his girlfriend after he mentioned'calling sheriffs' during a fight, which prompted an Alexa device to call 911 It is understood Barros allegedly became angered because of a text message that the woman received and he accused her of cheating on him. He was allegedly in possession of a firearm and threatened to kill his unidentified girlfriend, saying to her, 'Did you call the sheriffs?' A smart speaker, which was connected to a surround sound system inside the house, recognized the comment as a voice command and called 911, Romero told the New York Post.

If you're looking for a smart plug that hits all the right notes and never puts a foot wrong, the iDevices Switch is still the way to go. On top of Android and iOS compatibility, the Switch offers in-depth energy monitoring and seamless integration with the two most popular smart home ecosystems: Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit. Looks aren't everything, but the iDevices Switch is easily the most attractive smart plug we tested. Along with its sleek, minimalist casing, it offers a unique "night light" LED strip that can be set to any color of the rainbow. Mercifully, the Switch only occupies a single outlet on your wall panel, and its own outlet is positioned on the right-hand side--a real advantage if you want to place it snugly behind a couch or bookcase. It could also be a disadvantage if you want to plug something in on the left side, but for most users the side placement will be a plus rather than a minus. The slickly designed iDevices app is more attractive than most, and very easy to use.

Google acknowledged its contractors are able to listen to recordings of what people say to the company's artificial-intelligence system, Google Assistant. The company admitted on Thursday that humans can access recordings made by the Assistant, after some of its Dutch language recordings were leaked. Google is investigating the breach. The recordings were obtained by the Belgian public broadcaster VRT, which reviewed more than 1,000 audio clips and found 153 had been captured accidentally. Google Assistant begins automatically recording audio when prompted by a user, usually by saying a wake-up word or phrase like, "OK, Google". Google says contractors listen to recordings to better understand language patterns and accents, and notes that recordings may be used by the company in its user terms.