University of Toronto researchers have designed an algorithm to disrupt facial recognition technology. The past few months have witnessed a mainstream groundswell around security and data privacy, embodied most notably in news of Cambridge Analytica's data-collection tactics and the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before the U.S. senate. One major form of data emerges from facial recognition technology, which uses algorithms to identify us based on facial feature points. Every time you upload a photo to Facebook, Instagram, or otherwise, you give these learning systems another data point around your face -- and anybody else in the picture with you -- as well as metadata such as phone type and location. To address this problem, researchers at University of Toronto, led by Professor Parham Aarabi and graduate student Avishek Bose, have developed an algorithm to dynamically disrupt this technology.

Ricardo Baeza-Yates ([email protected]) is Chief Technology Officer of NTENT, a search technology company based in Carlsbad, CA, USA, and Director of Computer Science Programs at Northeastern University, Silicon Valley campus, San Jose, CA, USA.

Sensor technology is designed to allow machines to interact with real-world inputs, whether they are humans interacting with their smartphones, autonomous vehicles navigating on a busy street, or robots using sensors to aid in manufacturing. Not surprisingly, three-dimensional (3D) sensors, which allow a machine to understand the size, shape, and distance of an object or objects within its field of view, have attracted a lot of attention in recent months, thanks to their inclusion on Apple's most-advanced (to date) smartphone, the iPhone X, which uses a single camera to measure distance. Indeed, the TrueDepth system, which replaces the fingerprint-based TouchID system on the Apple handset, shines approximately 30,000 dots outward onto the user's face. Then, an infrared (IR) camera captures the image of the dots, which provides depth information based on the density of the dots (closer objects display a dot pattern that is spread out, whereas objects that are farther away create a denser pattern of dots. Altogether, the placement of these dots creates a depth map with 3D data that is used to supply the system with the information it needs to check for a facial identity match, which then unlocks the device.

Apple hasn't shed much light on how its HomePod-connected speaker is selling, but research firm Strategy Analytics has some insight. The $349 speaker, Apple's high-end answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home, doesn't look to be sizing up to an iPhone, iPad or even Apple Watch-sized hit. Strategy Analytics says Apple sold 600,000 HomePod speakers -- which first went on sale in February -- during the first quarter, representing 6% market share of the smart speaker market. At the same time, Amazon shipped some 4 million Echo speakers, representing 43.6% market share, to 2.4 million speakers for Google, which had 26.5% share. This is quite a drop for Amazon, which had 81.8% market share in the same quarter a year ago, to Google's then 12.4%.

Lawmakers, child development experts, and privacy advocates are expressing concerns about two new Amazon products targeting children, questioning whether they prod kids to be too dependent on technology and potentially jeopardize their privacy. In a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Friday, two members of the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus raised concerns about Amazon's smart speaker Echo Dot Kids and a companion service called FreeTime Unlimited that lets kids access a children's version of Alexa, Amazon's voice-controlled digital assistant. "While these types of artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology offer potentially new educational and entertainment opportunities, Americans' privacy, particularly children's privacy, must be paramount," wrote Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas), both cofounders of the privacy caucus. The letter includes a dozen questions, including requests for details about how audio of children's interactions is recorded and saved, parental control over deleting recordings, a list of third parties with access to the data, whether data will be used for marketing purposes, and Amazon's intentions on maintaining a profile on kids who use these products. Echo Dot Kids is the latest in a wave of products from dominant tech players targeting children, including Facebook's communications app Messenger Kids and Google's YouTube Kids, both of which have been criticized by child health experts concerned about privacy and developmental issues.

The Amazon Echo with Alexa is great, but it can act a little funny sometimes. These are Ranker's best stories involving Alexa. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. The Amazon Echo with Alexa is great, but it can act a little funny sometimes.

Science fiction has long been criticised for its lack of racial diversity and inclusion. It's rare to see a lead character who isn't white. One study of the top 100 highest-grossing films in the US showed that just eight of those 100 movies had a non-white protagonist, as of 2014. Six of those eight were Will Smith, according to diversity-focused book publisher Lee and Low Books. The long-term exclusion of people of colour from science fiction offers up an interesting paradox.

AI is helping businesses understand "what will happen in the future and how they can stay ahead," says Oracle NetSuite EVP Jim McGeever. He now runs his own firm, Evans Strategic Communications LLC.) CLOUD WARS -- A few months after upgrading its huge portfolio of SaaS apps with "adaptive intelligence" capabilities for the digital economy, Oracle is doing the same for its entire NetSuite family of integrated applications aimed at small and mid-sized businesses. The NetSuite announcement means that while Oracle is still well behind SaaS leader Salesforce.com in revenue, Oracle now offers not only the broadest set of SaaS apps on the market--a truly end-to-end integrated portfolio--but also has the largest family of AI- and machine-learning-enhanced applications suitable for customers ranging in size from the world's largest corporations down to small businesses. The impact will be significant because in cloud ERP alone, NetSuite has 40,000 organizations--standalone companies as well as subsidiaries of big corporations--running its products across 160 countries. And when this NetSuite AI initiative is paired up with the significant commitment Oracle's making to ensure that AI and machine learning are fully infused into all of its IP rather than being a separate application, it's clear that Oracle wants to ensure there is zero daylight between today's AI phenomenon and the company's extensive cloud product lineup--including NetSuite.

Artificial intelligence may still be in its infancy, but it's moving fast. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the data-rich health sector. AI has the potential to provide more precise, personalised care, as well as help us to shift our focus from treatment to prevention and tackle some of the world's biggest global health issues. The WHO estimates that achieving the health-related targets under the Sustainable Development Goals – from ending tuberculosis to ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services by 2030 – will cost between $134bn-$371bn (£97bn-£270bn) a year over current health spending. AI startups raised $15.2bn last year alone, adding to investments made by tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Alibaba and a host of research institutions.

Amazon is making a home robot, according to Bloomberg. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Amazon is making a home robot, according to Bloomberg.