Tinder introduces new tools to keep users safe

Tinder has announced a collection of tools for the app that prevent users from being catfished and help them keep in touch with trusted contacts and emergency services if needed.

A handful of the new tools are available thanks to the integration of Noonlight, a connected safety platform that gives each individual a personal safety service. Through Noonlight, users can share information about their date night — who they are meeting as well as where and at what time — with people they trust. Users can “discreetly trigger” emergency services in the event that they feel uncomfortable or in danger.


Along with Noonlight, Tinder has begun slowly rolling out Photo Verification, a feature that is still being tested, which “allows members to self-authenticate through a series of real-time posed selfies, which are compared to existing profile photos using human-assisted artificial intelligence technology.” Those with verified identities will have a blue checkmark next to their names in a very Twitter-like fashion.

Users will also be armed with a Safety Center tool which provides information about how to stay safe. The company has plans to eventually personalize this guide to each individual, but right now, it is rolling out with the same information for everyone.

Lastly, in select markets, the application will inform users if offensive content was sent thanks to machine learning. If this type of message is detected, Tinder will prompt users with a question asking “Does this bother you?” and if they answer “yes,” they will be presented with the option to block the person. Likewise, if a user is sending offensive content, the app will ask them to verify if they really want to send the material.

All features have already begun rolling out and will continue to over the next few months. RGA

source: technology.inquirer.net

Google’s AI Assistant aims to transcend the smart speaker

SAN FRANCISCO  — When Google launched its now distinctive digital assistant in 2016, it was already in danger of being an also-ran.

At the time, Amazon had been selling its Echo smart speaker, powered by its Alexa voice assistant, for more than a year. Apple’s Siri was already five years old and familiar to most iPhone users. Google’s main entry in the field up to that point was Google Now, a phone-bound app that took voice commands but didn’t answer back.

Now the Google Assistant — known primarily as the voice of the Google Home smart speaker — is increasingly central to Google’s new products. And even though it remains commercially overshadowed by Alexa, it keeps pushing the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can accomplish in everyday settings.

For instance, Google last year announced an Assistant service called Duplex, which it said can actually call up restaurants and make reservations for you. Duplex isn’t yet widely available yet outside of Google’s own Pixel phones in the U.S. Alexa and Siri so far offer nothing similar.

Google is expected to announce updates and expansions to its AI Assistant at its annual developer conference Tuesday.

Although voice assistants have spread across smartphones and into cars and offices, they’re currently most commonly found in the home, where people tend to use them with smart speakers for simple activities such as playing music, setting timers and checking the weather. Amazon’s Echo devices maintain a strong lead in the market, according to eMarketer ; the firm estimates that 63% of all U.S. smart speaker users will talk to an Amazon device this year, compared to 31% that will use Google. Apple’s HomePod is a mere afterthought, lumped in the “other” category which has a combined 12%.

More broadly, though, the competition is much more difficult to assess. Google claims the Assistant is now available across more than a billion devices, although many of those are smartphones whose owners may never have uttered the Assistant’s wake-up phrase, “OK Google.”

Google Assistant doesn’t record users commands by default — differing from Alexa — but recording must be turned on to access some of Assistant’s features, including a popular one that allows it to recognize different users by voice.

Amazon and Google may one-up each other on different metrics, but the real measurement is how well they’ve achieved those own goal, said Gartner analyst Werner Goertz.

Amazon’s deep ties in shopping make Alexa the go-to assistant for adding items to your grocery list or putting in a quick re-order of dish soap. Google’s decades of deep search technology make it the leader in looking up or answering questions you might have and personalizing its responses based on what else Google knows about you from your previous searches, your movements or your web browsing.

All that, of course, reinforces Google’s key advertising business, which is based on showing you ads targeted to your interests.


At first, the Assistant on Home mostly just acted as a vocal search engine; it could also carry out a few additional tasks like starting your Spotify playlists. Over time, however, it has added dozens of languages, partnered with more than 1,500 smart home companies to control lights, locks and TVs and learned to identify members of any given household by voice.

It’s also expanded the number of apps and other companies it works with and moved into Google Maps as a way to send text messages while driving.

Both Google and Amazon plan further expansions. Last year, Amazon unveiled a number of home gadgets with Alexa built in, including a “smart” microwave. At the CES gadget show this year, it showed off a phone-connected device that brings Alexa to cars.

Google countered with updates to its expanding Android Auto system, which got Assistant capability last year.

As Assistant and Alexa get smarter, faster and more personalized, analysts expect their reach to become broader and more ubiquitous. The speakers, said eMarketer analyst Victoria Petrock, are “getting people used to talking to their devices.” Eventually, she says, if you can speak to your microwave and TV and lights directly, you won’t need the speakers — except maybe to play music.

In these emerging areas Google is hoping to outflank rivals with its strong inroads with Android smartphones and cars. But it faces competition in many of these areas not just from Amazon, but also Apple and Microsoft.

Google I/O kicks off at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Mountain View, California. The company is expected to announce a less expensive Pixel phone and updates to its smart home devices.


source: technology.inquirer.net

How Google aims to simplify your life with AI

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Google put the spotlight on its artificial intelligence smarts at its annual developers conference Tuesday, announcing new consumer features aimed at simplifying your life.

Many of the updates have a practical bent, designed to ease tasks such as composing emails, making lists, navigating city streets and lessening the digital distractions that have increasingly addled people’s lives as a result of previous tech industry innovations.

One of the biggest crowd-pleasers for the thousands of software developers who gathered at the outdoor conference was an augmented reality feature on Google Maps that helps people get walking directions. Users will be able to follow arrows — or possibly a cartoon-like creature — that appear on a camera view showing the actual street in front of them.

Some new features for Android phones also aim to improve people’s digital well-being, including a new “shush” mode that automatically puts a phone in “do not disturb” mode if you flip it face down on a table. And a “wind down” mode will fade the screen to grey at a designated time to help you disconnect before bed.

The company’s digital concierge, known only as the Google Assistant, is getting new voices — including one based on that of musician John Legend — later this year. It will also encourage kids to be polite by thanking them when they say please, similar to a feature Amazon is bringing to its Alexa voice assistant.

The assistant may also soon be talking with ordinary people at businesses for tasks such as restaurant reservations, although the feature is still in development.

“Hi, I’m calling to book a hair appointment for a client,” said a realistic-sounding automated voice in a demo from the conference stage. The AI assistant deployed pauses and “ums” and “mmm-hmms” to sound more human in conversation with real people.

Google said it will roll out the technology, called Duplex, as an experiment in coming weeks. “We really want to work hard to get this right,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who kicked off the conference, known as Google I/O.

Other changes are more immediate. Gmail is getting an autocomplete feature that uses machine learning to offer suggestions for finishing half-completed sentences. For example, “I haven’t seen you” might be autocompleted to “I haven’t seen you in a while and I hope you’re doing well.” You can accept the completion by hitting the tab key.

The Google Photos app aims to get smarter about suggesting who you might want to share photos with. Whenever it recognizes a photo of one of your Google contacts, it can suggest sharing the photo with that person. It will also convert photos to PDFs and automatically add color to black-and-white photos or make part of a color photo black and white. The changes are coming in the next two months.

The search giant aims to make its assistant and other services so useful that people can’t live without them — or the search results that drive its advertising business. But it also wants to play up the social benefits of AI and how it’s being used to improve health care, preserve the environment and make scientific discoveries.

Pichai didn’t emphasize the privacy and data security concerns that have put companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google in the crosshairs of regulators. But he did say the company “can’t just be wide eyed about the innovations technology creates.”

“We know the path ahead needs to be navigated carefully and deliberately,” he said. “Our core mission is to make information more useful, accessible and beneficial to all of society.”

Google’s latest version of its Android phone software, for now known as Android P, will offer other smart features. It will teach the battery to adapt to how you use apps in order to conserve energy. Phones using Android P will also learn how to set your screen brightness by studying your manual adjustments, a change from automatic adjustments based on ambient light levels.

But not everyone will see the new Android features soon — if at all. Android P won’t be released until later this year, and even then, phone manufacturers and carriers frequently limit Android updates to their newest phones. Owners of Google’s own Pixel phones will get the updates most quickly.

Samsung is getting snubbed on some of these new features, at least for now. It has been challenging Google more frequently by launching that services duplicate what Google already offers on Android.

For instance, Samsung users won’t have access to an early “beta” version of Android P. Samsung’s camera app also won’t get a built-in Lens feature that lets Google offer information after taking a photo of a building or sign. Samsung has been developing its own similar feature called Bixby Vision.

It wasn’t immediately clear which company made the call to withhold the features announced Tuesday.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Top takeaways from 2018 Consumer Electronics Show

LAS VEGAS — The 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, which concluded Friday in Las Vegas, drew some 4,000 exhibitors from dozens of countries and more than 170,000 attendees, showcased some of the latest from the technology world

Here are highlights from the show:

Artificial intelligence battle

The duel between Amazon and Google for supremacy in artificial intelligence played out at the show. Amazon pushed its “Alexa Everywhere” strategy bringing its digital assistant to eyewear, wristwatches, televisions and even a toilet.

Not to be outdone, Google counterattacked with deals of its own, and with a massive ad campaign including a two-story “Google Assistant Playground” complete with a spiral slide from the roof to the pavement.

The rival virtual assistants were part of a larger trend to “smart” homes and cites where door locks, lights, security systems, traffic, and more are commanded or coordinated with the help of internet connections and machine brains.

Compassionate robots

Tech developers began moving beyond artificial intelligence to “emotional intelligence” and empathy with robots that can recognize people and their feelings, and respond in a more human manner.

Those on display included a ping pong-playing robot from Japan’s Omron Automation which adapts its game to its opponent by reading body language. SoftBank robot Pepper entertained guests in a private suite adjacent to the show.

Revving up car tech

More players began gunning for Tesla with premium electric cars, including Chinese startup Byton and a revamped startup led by designer Henrik Fisker.

The show included a large presence from automakers and showed a commitment to advancing self-driving cars.

South Korea’s Hyundai showed its new Nexo vehicle, betting on fuel cell technology, while Toyota unveiled a concept of an autonomous box for ridesharing and retail service.

Beyond the car

Even as car tech was on display, industry players sought to showcase alternative transport options. These included a self-driving motorcycle from Yamaha, and a range of electric bicycles, scooters, and hoverboards.

“We are seeing with personal mobility that some people like to skate; some people like to scoot, and some people like to ride,” Swagtron chief operating officer Andrew Koven said as he unveiled a line of rideable gadgets.

Let’s get medical

The tech world took a deep dive into the medical field, using virtual reality and sensors for health and medical applications.

Exhibitors showed how tracking and sensors used in self-driving cars can help keep the elderly from wandering off or determining distress. Other devices offered new ways to deal with stress and pain, or predict the onset of disease.

Medical professionals at a CES conference discussed how new pain management techniques such as virtual reality could help address the opioid addiction crisis.

Virtual reality headsets have been used to take people’s minds off pain by immersing them in soothing environments. VR programs have also eased trauma by letting patients work through troubling experiences.

Sensors and the cloud

Sensors, cloud computing and artificial intelligence are becoming so ubiquitous and affordable that they are popping up in tech items tailored for pets, babies, seniors, new moms and other niche categories.

From wearable breast pumps to hip air bags triggered when people fall, and dog or cat doors that open automatically for pets, internet age innovations are reaching into the farthest corner of everyday life.

On the lighter side

Streaming television powerhouse Netflix played with people’s minds with a booth for a fictitious company named Psychasec that offered replacement bodies in a promise of immortality.

It turned out to be a promotion for a coming Netflix show titled “Altered Carbon,” set to debut in February.

Other offbeat items at the event included self-driving suitcases which follow its owners through airports and navigate around obstacles.

Outside the official show, robotic pole-dancers made their Las Vegas debut at a nightclub, with the artist who created the devices seeking to make a point about technology, surveillance and voyeurism in today’s society.

The show was marked by a rain and flooding in usually dry Las Vegas, and a power outage in the main convention hall.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Virtual reality helps drug addicts to recover in Shanghai rehab centers

Around 700 drug addicts in two of Shanghai’s five rehabilitation centers have been using a newly developed system since late September to help staff members understand the sufferers’ level of addiction and assist them to turn their lives around more quickly, the Shanghai Drug Rehabilitation Administration said.

The AI system was developed by the Shanghai Mental Health Center in cooperation with the administration, East China Normal University’s School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, and Shanghai Qingtech, a company specializing in technological tracking of eye control.

Zhao Min, deputy director of the center, said one key problem in abandoning drug habits is the difficulty for the staff and even the addicts to know how badly they are addicted.

“In the past, when they were asked whether they wanted narcotics, they said ‘no’ without exception, which was not an honest answer, obviously,” she said. “Now we can resort to the new system.”

Users wear a VR helmet with an eye-movement tracking system and then “walk into” scenes with drugs and other paraphernalia. Their eye movement, together with other biological indicators such as heart rate and skin conductivity, is recorded as an objective way to show their level of addiction.

Another way the AI system can help is that it provides addicts with a more effective desensitization treatment in order to better prevent them from using drugs again.

“Usually in the centers they are given desensitization treatment with pictures of narcotics,” Zhao said. “It’s hard for such stimulation to truly arouse their appetite for drugs. So after they leave the centers and are exposed to temptations, they might be submerged in a whirlpool of drug abuse again.”

Statistics from the National Narcotics Control Commission show that more than 85 per cent of those who abandon a drug habit after two years of compulsory rehab relapse within a year.

With such a VR system, the addicts can “walk into” hotel rooms, karaoke bars and friends’ homes and watch men and women take drugs to fully stimulate their desire for narcotics, said Kuai Shuguang, a professor at East China Normal University.

Apart from desensitisation, the system was also designed to help addicts associate drugs more with negative consequences than “a pleasant experience”, he said.

Following the VR experience in the scenes where drugs are often taken, they will view videos showing how devastatingly drugs will harm human health so as to suppress their desire for them, he said.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook hires AI expert, launches lab in Canada's Montreal

TORONTO - Facebook Inc has hired artificial intelligence academic Joelle Pineau to head its new research lab in Montreal, the Silicon Valley social media company said on Friday.

Once the exclusive domain of academic researchers, artificial intelligence has grabbed the attention of the corporate world as businesses from healthcare to financial services look to use algorithms to sort through reams of data in search of patterns to solve problems.

The lab will be Facebook's fourth, after sites in Palo Alto, New York, and Paris, and joins similar AI research efforts in the city from Microsoft Corp and Alphabet's Google.

The company will also invest $7 million to support AI research at academic institutions in Montreal, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research said in a statement.

Pineau is a co-director of McGill University's Reasoning and Learning Lab whose work focuses on developing and applying models and algorithms applying robotics to healthcare, transportation and language processing.

One project she has been working on at McGill, where she will maintain her academic position, is a robotic wheelchair.

Pineau will be joined by fellow researchers Pascal Vincent, Michael Rabbat and Nicolas Ballat, and Facebook expects the team to grow to around 30 researchers.

Facebook already uses AI for image recognition, language analysis and targeted advertising. It also uses AI to identify and remove what the company deems "inappropriate content."

The Facebook project will be connected to McGill University's Centre for Intelligent Machines and to the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, started by University of Montreal professor and machine learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, two sources with knowledge of the plans said.

Combined, University of Montreal and McGill have more than 200 researchers, including students, working on AI research projects, Bengio said. That is up from around 150 cited by Google last year, which it called the greatest academic concentration of AI research in the world.

The mostly French-speaking province of Quebec boasts around 90 start-up companies focused on artificial intelligence.

The Canadian federal government has pledged C$125 million to build AI expertise in Montreal, the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, and Edmonton, while the provincial Quebec government has also promised some C$100 million ($82 million) specifically for AI research. — Reuters

IBM and MIT partner on artificial intelligence research

BOSTON— IBM is planning to spend $240 million over the next decade to create an artificial intelligence research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

MIT announced on Thursday the formation of the new MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. It will support joint research by IBM and MIT scientists.

Its mission will include advancing the hardware, software and algorithms used for artificial intelligence. It also will tackle some of the economic and ethical implications of intelligent machines and look at its commercial application for industries ranging from health care to cybersecurity. 


MIT President L. Rafael Reif said the new AI lab builds on a decades-long research relationship between IBM and MIT.

It will be based at the university and IBM’s nearby research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. KGA

source: technology.inquirer.net

WATCH: Apple’s Siri belts out Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

Apple has been known to hide easter eggs on its intelligent personal assistant Siri in previous years, but the latest one will take users down classic rock memory lane.

By uttering the words: “I see a little silhouette of a man,” to Siri on either the iPhone or a Mac, the quirky artificial intelligence will follow through with the lyrics of one of rock band Queen’s famous songs, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Although Siri may not possess the same singing prowess as Freddie Mercury,  the witty AI more than makes up for it with gusto, willingly belting out thirteen lines of lyrics following the opening line.

Considering Siri is classified as neither a boy or a girl, the virtual assistant even modified the lyrics to fit the situation. “I’m just a poor assistant, nobody loves me. It’s just a poor assistant from a poor family”.

Of course Siri couldn’t have been more wrong, since most Apple fans out there completely adore the virtual assistant.

If you want to hear more of Siri’s singing, just ask, “What does the fox say?” and it will do the rest. KI

source: technology.inquirer.net

HTC U Ultra launched, comes with an AI assistant

There are two very distinct features that make the U Ultra stand out. These are the small secondary screen and an AI assistant dubbed the Sense Companion, reports Engadget.

The secondary screen just above the main one is reminiscent of an LG device. This screen is paired with an AI that employs machine learning, that is, capable of learning the user’s usage habits and customize the device and services accordingly.

For example, should a holiday pops up on the calendar, the Sense Companion will shut off all alarms to let users sleep in a little longer. The AI can even determine which contact will appear on the secondary screen whenever a message is received.

As for the rest of the phone’s specs, the HTC U Ultra comes with a 5.7-inch Quad HD Super LCD 5 screen. Enclosing its electronics is a sleek metallic body available in four different colors (black, white, blue and pink), and is only 8mm at its thickest. The back is also covered with curved glass that adds to its elegant design.

Inside the metallic body is a Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, Android 7.0 Nougat, and a 12-UltrPixel camera with an f1.8 aperture. Most of all, this flagship no longer comes with a headphone jack.

Pre-orders for the HTC U Ultra are now available and the device is priced at $749. Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

Artificial intelligence replaces workers in Japanese company

One of the fears revolving around the development of artificial intelligence rises from the possibility that it may eventually replace humans as a workforce. This fear has now become a reality for a number of employees working for a Japanese company.

To be exact, 34 employees were laid off by Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance and replaced by an artificial intelligence system that calculates payouts to policyholders, reports The Guardian.

The system is based on IBM’s Watson Explorer which the firm believes would increase productivity by 30 percent and help yield a return on its investment in less than two years.

Thanks to the Watson Explorer’s cognitive systems, the company will now be able to read thousands of medical certificates while factoring in length of hospital stay, medical history and surgical procedures to calculate payouts. Of course, all of these will still have to be approved by a member of the staff.

With Japan’s prowess in the realm of robotics, having an AI system takeover human work is, if anything, somewhat inevitable. The Nomura Research Institute filed a report that nearly all jobs in Japan could be done by robots by 2035. Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

20 Whirlpool voice-activated smart appliances steal spotlight at CES

AI assistants like the ones in the Amazon Echo and Google home have mostly taken over the living room. The next space to conquer is the kitchen, and Whirlpool is more than happy to open the flood gates.

Twenty new models of smart appliances were recently unveiled at CES 2017. GE says that all these devices will have Wi-Fi connectivity and will be voice-activated as a standard, reports Digital Trends.

This lineup includes dishwashers, fridges, microwaves, ranges, and wall ovens, to name a few. Homeowners will soon be living the future where they can simply tell the stove to preheat or shut off before dinner gets overcooked.

Jason Mathew, senior director of global connected strategy at Whirlpool, describes the features of these smart appliances as ‘Scan-to-Cook.’ People will one day be able to simply take a picture or scan a bar code for the oven to heat up, say, frozen pizza, at just the right temperature.

Whirlpool’s broader version includes working with Innit, a company that is figuring out a way to digitize food.

Finally, as current AI assistants learn to adjust to specific user preferences, so too will these smart appliances in the future. For example, ovens will learn how chewy or crispy the users would like their cookies, and the ovens would adjust the cooking time accordingly.

There are big things in store for AI assistance in the household. Next thing we know, the fridge will be suggesting what to get from the grocery. Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook users face privacy issues with new AI system

Facebook will be launching a new artificial intelligence system to improve format sales posts and offer personalized content to their users, according to Engadget.

The new AI system is called DeepText, and is designed to analyze what Facebook users type on posts, messages, and other information on a user’s profile.

While this new system can benefit users by providing more content that interests them, it also has some serious implications as far as privacy is concerned. Said issues will have to be further investigated once the system makes its debut. Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net