5G could mean the difference between night and day for firefighters. With smoke, flames and a claustrophobic mask on, running into a burning building is a leap of faith. Firefighters are taught never to leave the wall, because they could become disoriented, run out of air and die. “The way we used to look for …
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Take a five-minute walk behind Qualcomm’s main office in San Diego and you’ll find an unlikely kind of lab. The cavernous room, previously used for storing office furniture and boxes, has become the mobile chip giant’s testing ground for new wireless technologies, where it’s working on 5G in ways you may not be expecting. While 5G means super-high speeds on our …
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Microsoft has invested $1 billion in OpenAI and reached a multiyear deal with the artificial intelligence research startup to jointly develop new supercomputing tech, the companies said Monday. OpenAI will run its services on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. San Francisco-based OpenAI, which launched in 2015, has repeatedly emphasized its focus on the ethical use of artificial intelligence that “benefits all of …
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The human brain is made of something like 86 billion interconnected brain cells, or neurons. Intel has now taken a notable step toward a digital equivalent, building a computer system with 8 million digital neurons. The system, called Pohoiki Beach, is packed with 64 of Intel Labs’ Loihi chips and will be available to researchers who can help the chipmaker …
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New technology can improve our lives, but it can also come with unforeseen pitfalls. Cameras are now smaller, better and smarter than ever before, and that, warns the American Civil Liberties Union, could be an issue in the future. The nearly 50 million surveillance cameras in the US could be used to police people as smart technology improves, according to …
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Amazon’s latest jump into AI-powered shopping will help you pick out clothes and accessories. All you need to do is upload a photo or screenshot of what you’re looking for. Announced at #reMARS, StyleSnap, an AI-powered feature, helps customers shop for clothing and accessories. All you need to do is take a photograph or screenshot of a look that you …
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PCs are dogged by tradeoffs. It’s hard to use your laptop all day on battery, get real work done during a two-minute break waiting for your train, or work hard when you’re not plugged into an electrical outlet. Intel noticed. The giant chipmaker is leading a multi-company, multiyear effort called Project Athena to address those tradeoffs. Athena’s goal: Make us …
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Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous. Mobile maps route us through traffic, algorithms can now pilot automobiles, virtual assistants help us smoothly toggle between work and life, and smart code is adept at surfacing our next our new favorite song. But AI could prove dangerous, too. Tesla CEO Elon Musk once warned that biased, unmonitored and unregulated AI could be the “greatest …
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Google has announced Translatotron, an “experimental new system” that it says will translate speech directly into speech, removing the need for any text. “Translatotron is the first end-to-end model that can directly translate speech from one language into speech in another language,” a Google AI blog post on Wednesday said. Google said there are three stages of today’s translation systems: …
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Google unveiled new Android Q features Tuesday that it says can caption home videos in real time, with no internet connection needed. It’s possible because Google’s speech recognition software requires less processing power, so it can run on your phone or tablet, Google said. That comes with an added privacy benefit. Instead of streaming audio from your device to Google’s …
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