Programming a computer is, if you squint, a bit like magic. You have to learn the words to the spell to convince a carefully crafted lump of sand to do what you want. If you understand the rules deeply enough, you can chain together the spells to force the sand to do ever more complicated tasks. If your spell is long and well-crafted enough, you can even give the sand the illusion of sentience. That illusion of sentience is nowhere more strong than in the world of machine learning, where text generation engines like GPT-3 and LaMDA are able to hold convincing conversations, answer detailed questions, and perform moderately complex tasks based on just a written request.

Researchers from Facebook and MIT Labs have proposed a new methodology that uses machine learning and satellite imagery to generate street addresses in areas of the world where individual buildings don't have a unique address. The methodology divides the street addressing into two processes. The first process is segmentation. During segmentation, road pixels are identified using deep learning from 0.5 meter resolution satellite images. The second part of segmentation involves developing the road network from these identified pixels.

The DXC Technology 600 was held this Saturday night under the lights of the Texas Motor Speedway. Scott Dixon took the checkered flag even though about 3,000 local DXC employees, clients, family, and friends were cheering for the DXC-sponsored car, driven by Simon Pagenaud, who finished 2nd. But this race had a lot more to offer than just car racing. As the title sponsor, DXC Technology had the opportunity to showcase some interesting technology at the event. DXC Labs director Sam Johnston brought some examples of the innovative technology DXC is using to develop new solutions.

According to the UK-based company What3words, I live at offers.reform.curve in Brooklyn. I work for Condé Nast, which has offices in downtown Manhattan at words.artists.names--but Afterward, I'll be drinking at trick.pills.prompting. These little word-salads are cute, but you might be wondering: Why do I need a new address? If you live in the developed world, you probably don't; Google Maps knows where you live, and so does the mail carrier.