This paper introduces an interesting experiment that tries to show that adversarial examples that transfer across recently proposed deep learning models can influence the visual classification produced by time-limited humans (at most 2.2 to 2.5 seconds for looking at the image and making the classification). The idea is to take a set of 38 observers to classify images into 2 classes from within each of three separate groups (pets - cat or dog, hazard - snake or spider, vegetables - broccoli or cabbage). The images are presented in different ways: 1) original image, 2) adversarial image manipulated to be classified by an ensemble classification method (of 10 recently proposed deep learning models), 3) flip, which is the original image manipulated by a vertically flipped adversarial perturbation (this is a control case to show that low signal-to-noise ratio alone does not explain poor human classification), and 4) false, which is an image outside the three groups above, manipulated by an adversarial perturbation to be classified as one of the classes within one of the three groups. In general, results show that 1) adversarial perturbations in the false class successfully biased human classification towards the target class; and 2) adversarial perturbations cause observers to select the incorrect class even when the correct class is available (this is the 2nd manipulation described above). I found this paper quite interesting to read and I support its publication.

Deepfakes are becoming so common that we may not even realise that some of the images and videos we encounter have been artificially created. We briefly discuss what a deepfake is and some of the ways it has been permeating our lives and the content we consume. Generally, April Fool's Day is perhaps the only day of the year when we have permission to share practical jokes and hoaxes, in the hope that some of the more gullible among us would believe them, but ultimately, we can all have a good laugh about it and move on. However, what happens when it is not April Fool's Day, and hoaxes abound? That is the situation that increasingly is emerging and is of particular concern. A CNN article published late last week highlighted some of the recent hoaxes that went viral: "Pope Francis wearing a massive, white puffer coat.

Several recurrent networks have been proposed as representations for the task of formal language learning. After training a recurrent network rec(cid:173) ognize a formal language or predict the next symbol of a sequence, the next logical step is to understand the information processing carried out by the network. Some researchers have begun to extracting finite state machines from the internal state trajectories of their recurrent networks. This paper describes how sensitivity to initial conditions and discrete measurements can trick these extraction methods to return illusory finite state descriptions.

Here at Wevvy, we like to have a little fun with our April Fools' pranks, and this year is no exception. Listed below are just a few of the zany, harmless practical jokes that we have in store. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback--just speak anywhere near a Wevvy-enabled object. Wevvy smart doorbells are installed in seventy per cent of American homes--and we're going to ring them all at once! O.K., you got us--we're doing some crank-calling. With Wevvy's revolutionary Internet-dialling service, it should take us only a few clicks to call every number ever.

Google is skipping its tradition of designing an April Fools' Day joke on its front page during the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement came from Lorraine Twohill, Google's chief marketing officer, who informed company management of the decision in an email. According to Twohill, the decision was made'out of respect' for everyone currently working to fight against the spread of COVID-19. Google will forgo its annual tradition of posting an April Fools' Day joke for the first time since the tradition began in 2000, a decision the company says was made'out of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic' 'Under normal circumstances, April Fool's is a Google tradition and a time to celebrate what makes us an unconventional company,' Twohill wrote, according to a Business Insider report. 'This year, we're going to take the year off from that tradition out of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Tokyo-based risk management firm is cautioning against a potential surge in coronavirus-related disinformation on April Fools' Day, alarmed by the recent spread of what it perceives to be baseless rumors on social media that the government is secretly preparing for the start of a Tokyo lockdown that day. Unsubstantiated rumors pertaining to COVID-19 have been swirling online for months, but gossip with a more urgent tone and more fear-mongering in nature has emerged in recent days, making digital literacy against false rumors more important than ever, according to Tokyo-based Spectee Inc. The firm says it uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to monitor, collect and analyze the deluge of online information. "Previously, the most common types of coronavirus-related misinformation and disinformation we would see were primarily medical and health-related, as in, 'granite has the power to kill the virus,' or'drinking lukewarm water is effective against the virus,'" said Kenjiro Murakami, head of Spectee. But as the number of COVID-19 cases has risen and the prospect of a citywide lockdown -- floated by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike as a possibility -- loomed large over Japan last week, Murakami said the firm detected a rise in rumors over the weekend that go far beyond misguided health tips.

Google's taking a more'natural' approach to it's April Fool's Day this year, adding a plant-to-human interface called Google Tulips and a'Snakes' game for Maps in the latest installment of phony and fun products. According to the company, Google Tulips, available only on April 1, allows users to communicate with one of world's most beloved flowers -- the tulip -- to ascertain just what exactly is on their minds. 'Decoding the language of plants and flowers has been a decades-long challenge. But that changes today,' reads the company's statement on its farcical new service. In a video for the April Fool's gag, plants are shown beckoning for more water, sunlight, and even providing a source of conversation for an elderly woman.

Investors trying to pick winners are parsing what little data is available, but that could lead them down the wrong path. Even investor darling Tesla is struggling with production and financing problems. These have pushed the stock down more than 10% in the past year. Sales data tell one story. China's BYD and BAIC are in the lead, followed by Tesla and BMW .

Google's April Fools' Day jokes have come to be expected over the years, and this year they haven't missed a step. Open up Google Maps today and you'll be greeted with a pleasant surprise: the option to play Ms. Pac-Man on any set of streets in the world. While Google also offered Pac-Man back in 2015, given that gameplay is only available for one day at a time, the novelty of exploring the world through such a hungry, two-dimensional lens has far from worn off. I spent a couple of hours playing early this morning, and chose five of my favorite locations around the world to play, included here with direct links to the maps so you can try them out yourself. How could I leave Lombard Street off of this list?

April Fools' Day is an annual tradition, but where did it begin? April Fools' Day is Saturday. It's the day of the year where it becomes nearly impossible to trust anything you read online. It also means the Internet's got jokes. Some are pretty good, others we are really wishing were real.