The improvement of language model robustness, including successful defense against adversarial attacks, remains an open problem. In computer vision settings, the stochastic noising and de-noising process provided by diffusion models has proven useful for purifying input images, thus improving model robustness against adversarial attacks. Similarly, some initial work has explored the use of random noising and de-noising to mitigate adversarial attacks in an NLP setting, but improving the quality and efficiency of these methods is necessary for them to remain competitive. We extend upon methods of input text purification that are inspired by diffusion processes, which randomly mask and refill portions of the input text before classification. Our novel method, MaskPure, exceeds or matches robustness compared to other contemporary defenses, while also requiring no adversarial classifier training and without assuming knowledge of the attack type. In addition, we show that MaskPure is provably certifiably robust. To our knowledge, MaskPure is the first stochastic-purification method with demonstrated success against both character-level and word-level attacks, indicating the generalizable and promising nature of stochastic denoising defenses. In summary: the MaskPure algorithm bridges literature on the current strongest certifiable and empirical adversarial defense methods, showing that both theoretical and practical robustness can be obtained together.

When the Tokyo Paralympics opened on Aug. 24 after a one-year delay because of the coronavirus pandemic, the National Stadium floor was a celebration with fireworks, music, acrobats and clowns. Among the dancers was Ai Haruna, arguably Japan's most famous transgender woman, fittingly chosen to perform in line with the Games' theme, "We Have Wings," to evoke all that is possible in difficult circumstances. The 49-year-old television personality, singer and entrepreneur had gone through a general audition to get her part, eager to spread the much-needed message of resilience and togetherness through the Games for athletes with disabilities. "Let's have the freedom to spread our wings and dream big. That's the message I wanted to send to the world," Haruna said in a recent interview.

In this photo illustration Facebook logo can be seen, Kolkata, India, 28 February, 2020. Facebook ... [ ] Inc on Thursday announced its decision to cancel its annual developer conference due to Coronavirus outbreak according a news media report. Some crisis situations are caused by what people say or do. On occasion, a crisis--or an embarrassing incident--is caused by technology. The New York Times reported yesterday that, "Facebook users who recently watched a video from a British tabloid featuring Black men saw an automated prompt from the social network that asked if they would like to'keep seeing videos about Primates', causing the company to investigate and disable the artificial intelligence-powered feature that pushed the message. "This was clearly an unacceptable error and we disabled the entire topic recommendation feature as soon as we realized this was happening so we could investigate the cause and prevent this from happening again," Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said in a statement to USA Today. "As we have said, while we have made improvements to our AI, we know it's not perfect and we have more progress to make," she said. "We apologize to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations." This is not the first time that advanced technology has created an embarrassing situation for an organization. The Washington Post reported yesterday that "a judge ruled that Apple will have to continue fighting a lawsuit brought by users in federal court in California, alleging that the company's voice assistant Siri has improperly recorded private conversations." Last week at the Paralympics in Tokyo, Toyota self-driving pods injured a pedestrian. Reuters reported that, "In a YouTube video, Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda apologized for the incident and said he offered to meet the person but was unable to do so.

Toyota's e-Palette is back in service. As Roadshow reports, the automaker has resumed use of its self-driving shuttle at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo following a collision with a visually impaired athlete. Not surprisingly, both Toyota and the games' Organizing Committee have made changes in light of the crash -- they've determined that both the autonomous vehicle and the circumstances around it were to blame. The company noted there were only two guide people at the intersection where the collision occurred, making it difficult for them to watch all vehicles and pedestrians at the same time. It simply wasn't possible to ensure safety at this signal-free intersection without everyone working together, Toyota said.

Four days into the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Toyota removed its self-driving e-Palette vehicles from the event following a collision with a pedestrian. The automaker made the decision Friday, according to Reuters, a day after one of the pods hit a visually impaired athlete who was walking nearby. According to a video statement from Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, reported in English by Reuters, the vehicle had stopped at a junction and was about to turn under manual control from an onboard operator when it hit the pedestrian at one or two kilometers-per-hour. The identity of the athlete has not been released to the public. Toyota first announced its plans to deploy e-Palettes at the games in October 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic forced the organizers of the Olympics to delay the 2020 games by a year.

At a Tokyo cafe, Michio Imai greets a customer, but not in person. Dawn cafe's robots are intended to be more than a gimmick, offering job opportunities to people who find it hard to work outside the home. How are you?" a sleek white robot shaped like a baby penguin calls from a counter near the entrance, turning its face to customers and waving its flippers. Imai is behind the controls at his home in Hiroshima, 800 km away, one of around 50 employees with physical and mental disabilities who work as Dawn's "pilots," operating robot staff. The cafe opened in central Tokyo's Nihonbashi district in June and employs staff across Japan and overseas, as well as some who work on site. It was originally supposed to open last year to coincide with the Paralympics, but the opening was postponed by the pandemic -- just like the Games, which began on Tuesday. Around 20 miniature robots with almond-shaped eyes sit on tables and in other parts of the cafe, which has no stairs and smooth wooden floors large enough for wheelchairs. The machines named OriHime feature cameras, a microphone and a speaker to allow operators to communicate with customers remotely. "May I take your order?" one asks, next to a tablet showing a menu of burgers, curry and salad. As customers chat with the pilots operating the mini robots, three larger, humanoid versions move around to serve drinks or welcome customers at the entrance. And there's even a barista robot in a brown apron at the bar that can make coffee with a French press. But the robots are largely a medium through which workers can communicate with customers. "I talk to our customers about many subjects, including the weather, my hometown and my health condition," said Imai, who has a somatic symptom disorder that makes leaving home difficult. "As long as I'm alive, I want to give something back to the community by working.

They are trying to get a head start, and unlike most of the 11,000 athletes who will be in Tokyo for the games, and thousands more for the Paralympics, they will be able to speak Japanese. "Just the language itself, I love it," said Abraham Majok, a runner who arrived in Japan in November with three other South Sudanese athletes and a coach. "And it's nice and since we started learning it. But, you know, we are moving well with it and we just love it." They are training northwest of Tokyo in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, supported mainly by donations from the public.

Watching elite athletes run, leap and score, it's hard to imagine there's much room for improvement, but the Internet of Things, Big Data and virtual reality are shaving milliseconds from sprinters, extending the jumps of Olympians – and helping your favourite striker put the ball in the net. That's before bionics change sports forever, with predictions that the sprinters at the next summer Olympics could be outperformed by an athlete at the Paralympics. It all starts with data collection, which shouldn't be a shock. The film Moneyball was based on the true story of Oakland Athletics' team manager outwitting rivals with data science – and that was in 2002. Fast forward to 2018 and the combination of always-on sensors and connectivity takes the idea several leaps forward.

Facial recognition technology will be used at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics to streamline the entry of athletes, officials and journalists to the games venues, sources close to the organizing committee said. The technology won't be used on spectators, who will be asked to show their tickets and submit to luggage checks just as in the previous Olympics, the sources, who declined to be named, said Saturday. The organizing committee will distribute ID cards bearing facial photos for those involved with the games, which is expected to reach around 300,000 to 400,000 people, including the athletes. When they enter the venues, their face will be automatically checked against the registered photo for discrepancies. Digital verification will make it difficult to use stolen or forged cards and is also expected to reduce waiting times.

More and more Japanese companies are seeing benefits from helping Paralympians and their support organizations ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. In mid-October, Yui Kamiji, bronze medalist in women's wheelchair tennis at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, was invited to a meeting with 11 employees at Japan Airlines, an official sponsor of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The group has been nicknamed the JAL Sports Ambassadors. Kamiji, who belongs to record label Avex Group Holdings Inc., recalled her experience at the Rio Games and how she dealt with the long flight. Asked what wheelchair athletes care most about during long flights, Kamiji said some carry cushions with them, depending on their disability, to avoid developing bedsores.