CRACKING OPEN THE BLACK BOX OF AI WITH CELL BIOLOGY

Computer scientists provide the framework for a neural network by setting up layers, each of which contains thousands of “neurons” that perform tiny computational tasks. The trainers feed in a dataset (millions of cat and dog photos, millions of Go moves, millions of driver actions and outcomes), and the system connects the neurons in the layers to make structured sequences of computations. The system runs the data through the neural network, then checks to see how well it performed its task (how accurately it distinguished cats from dogs, etc).

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WHAT’S THE BEST OPTION?

Some parents urge their children to be the best in everything they do. They push them to be the best athlete, and the best scholar, and the best musician, and so on. Other parents urge their children to pursue whatever they are best at, whether it be athletics, academics or music. Some parents push their children to try their best. Still others try hard not to push their children to be the best, or even to try to be their best, because they worry about the psychological damage that such messages might cause. But most parents love their children, and however they raise them, they are trying the best they can on their behalf.

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PROFILO: UNDERSTANDING APP PERFORMANCE IN THE WILD

The Facebook apps for Android and iOS are used by billions of people across the world. We have ambitious goals around delivering a delightful experience for people using Facebook and a strong belief that responsiveness and smoothness are keystones of a high-quality product experience. Together, these mean that, among other things, we need to quickly and efficiently investigate performance problems. Source: facebook.com

SCALING INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT WITH GRAIL

To build and maintain infrastructure at scale, easy access to the current state of the system is paramount. As Uber’s business continues to expand, our infrastructure has grown in size and complexity, making it more difficult to get all the information we need, when we need it. Source: uber.com

DEPLOY GLUON MODELS TO AWS DEEPLENS USING A SIMPLE PYTHON API

Today we are excited to announce that you can deploy your custom models trained using Gluon to your AWS DeepLens. Gluon is an open source deep learning interface which allows developers of all skill levels to prototype, build, train, and deploy sophisticated machine learning models for the cloud, devices at the edge, and mobile apps. Source: amazon.com

BEHIND THE MOTION PHOTOS TECHNOLOGY IN PIXEL 2

Background motion estimation in motion photos. By using the motion metadata from Gyro and OIS we are able to accurately classify features from the visual analysis into foreground and background. Source: googleblog.com

A STARTUP IS PITCHING A MIND-UPLOADING SERVICE THAT IS “100 PERCENT FATAL”

So yeah. Nectome is a preserve-your-brain-and-upload-it company. Its chemical solution can keep a body intact for hundreds of years, maybe thousands, as a statue of frozen glass. The idea is that someday in the future scientists will scan your bricked brain and turn it into a computer simulation. That way, someone a lot like you, though not exactly you, will smell the flowers again in a data server somewhere.

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ELECTRIC, SELF-FLYING, VERTICAL TAKEOFF TAXIS ARE COMING TO NEW ZEALAND

For years, rumors have swirled about Kitty Hawk, a flying car startup that has been lavishly funded by Google co-founder Larry Page. Last year, Kitty Hawk unveiled an awkward-looking contraption that worked something like a flying jet ski. Source: arstechnica.com

THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX ROOTS OF GPS

The story of the Navstar Global Positioning System starts in 1973, when the US Department of Defense approved funding for the technology, and the system was built out in bits and pieces up until 1995. Source: vice.com

OPEN SOURCE NEURAL NETWORK SYNTHESIZER

NSynth Super is part of an ongoing experiment by Magenta: a research project within Google that explores how machine learning tools can help artists create art and music in new ways. Technology has always played a role in creating new types of sounds that inspire musicians—from the sounds of distortion to the electronic sounds of synths. Today, advances in machine learning and neural networks have opened up new possibilities for sound generation.

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