“Machine learning” and “neural network” are familiar terms to anyone who follows what Google is up to these days, but they may not be the most accessible or comprehensible concepts for the masses. And that’s fine — you don’t need to have a firm grasp of machine learning to enjoy better photos or keyboards, for instance. Still, Google has been quietly showcasing ways for users to get more hands-on with these concepts, and the latest such experiment is a game called Emoji Scavenger Hunt.
Airbnb is making quick use of the travel accessibility startup it bought a few months ago. The rental service has introduced 21 filters that help you find disability-friendly listings that meet your exact needs. You can look for ramps, wide hallway… Engadget RSS Feed
Apple has been identified as a major supporter of the non-profit Magical Bridge Foundation, providing $ 250,000 in sponsorship for the ‘Innovation Zone’ of an accessible playground due to be constructed later this year in Fair Oak Park located in Sunnyvale, California. AppleInsider – Frontpage News
Apple has long been lauded for their dedication to creating accessible products, and Tim Cook has even called accessibility a “core value” of the company. Now, Apple is giving back to their own local community by partnering with the Magical Bridge Foundation to support the development of a new accessible playground in Sunnyvale, CA.
littleBits kits are a great way to teach kids how to build their own toys and electronics, but they're not exactly cheap. The Star Wars Droid inventor set, for instance, will set buyers back $ 100, while others could cost as much as $ 300. Now, the sta… Engadget RSS Feed
Google is one of the biggest tech companies paving the way for artificial intelligence and machine learning, and a recent announcement from the company stands to bolster that reputation. This week, Google announced the launch of a new service that will enable both businesses and individuals to begin building their own AI systems.
Officially called Google Cloud AutoML, the service comes in the wake of Google’s recognition that only a handful of big businesses currently have the budgets necessary to take advantage of AI and machine learning. At the same time, these are often the businesses best positioned to bring on new talent specializing in AI and machine learning engineering. While Google does have pre-trained models, they’re typically trained to perform very specific tasks. This programming also limits their recognition to only the objects they’ve been previously trained to recognize.
In a blog post, Google explained how Cloud AutoML will help businesses design their own customizable AI systems using advanced techniques like learning2learn and transfer learning. The first release of Cloud AutoML will be Cloud AutoML Vision, a service that focuses on making it easier to build machine learning models for image recognition.
We believe Cloud AutoML will make AI experts even more productive, advance new fields in AI and help less-skilled engineers build powerful AI systems they previously only dreamed of. While we’re still at the beginning of our journey to make AI more accessible, we’ve been deeply inspired by what our 10,000+ customers using Cloud AI products have been able to achieve.
AI Expertise
One of the biggest takeaways from the Cloud AutoML announcement is how it can facilitate the expansion of a dwindling talent pool. As said before, big businesses have the best chance of recruiting machine learning experts, but there’s a scarce amount of such talent available.
“We need to scale AI out to more people,” Li said. “But there are an estimated 21 million developers worldwide today. We want to reach out to them all, and make AI accessible to these developers.”
There’s also the not-so-small matter of the computing power needed to run an AI system. Recognizing that smaller businesses and individuals may not be capable of supporting such systems, Google aims to shoulder the burden through the use of Cloud AutoML.
With Cloud AutoML Vision specifically, developers will be able to utilize their systems directly on Google Cloud. In the event the images being used to train a system don’t have labels of their own, developers can rely on Google’s team of in-house labelers to “review your custom instructions and classify your images accordingly.” With Google taking care of the computational demand, problems could still crop up if a large number of users decide they want to push the capabilities of the service.
Cloud AutoML Vision is only the first of several Cloud AutoML projects Google has in development, as the company has plans to provide AI developers with even more ways to engage in machine learning development. Perhaps, with more people understanding both technologies, we can find a better way to incorporate both into our lives without allowing machines to completely take over.
On first mention, the 2019 Volkswagen Jetta may not sound like it’s worthy of making much of a splash. Yet Volkswagen used the 2018 Detroit Auto Show to launch a new version of the Jetta, its bread-and-butter sedan in the US. While the company promises a whole new range of EVs (some of which are retro-inspired), its compact sedan is still in charge of keeping the lights on for the automaker’s US arm.
Still, it’s tough to get too emotional over the exterior. While the 2019 Jetta certainly has more flair than the deeply plain outgoing model, it retains a conservative profile that is unlikely to offend anyone. There is more chrome and more LED lighting accents on the outside than ever before, although the Jetta still straddles something…
The New York Times today announced it was launching an “experiment in secure communication,” on the the dark web, only accessible through TOR (The Onion Router). As The Times says: The New York Times reports on stories all over the world, and our reporting is read by people around the world. Some readers choose to use Tor to access our journalism because they’re technically blocked from accessing our website; or because they worry about local network monitoring; or because they care about online privacy; or simply because that is the method that they prefer. To access the site users must first download…
Airbnb is making quick use of the travel accessibility startup it bought a few months ago. The rental service has introduced 21 filters that help you find disability-friendly listings that meet your exact needs. You can look for ramps, wide hallway…
Google Maps has added a new “Wheelchair accessible” option within transit navigation settings, helping people with disabilities find the easiest way to get around. 
littleBits kits are a great way to teach kids how to build their own toys and electronics, but they're not exactly cheap. The Star Wars Droid inventor set, for instance, will set buyers back $ 100, while others could cost as much as $ 300. Now, the sta…
