Illustration of a crystal snowball
Amazon

Simulation Substitutes for Data: When simulation works wonders with deep learning

The future of machine learning may depend less on amassing ground-truth data than simulating the environment in which a model will operate. Deep learning works like magic with enough high-quality data. When examples are scarce, though, researchers are using simulation to fill the gap.
Excerpt from Ring commercial
Amazon

Neighborhood Watchers: Reports charge Ring with mishandling customer data.

Smart doorbell maker Ring has built its business by turning neighborhoods into surveillance networks. Now the company is drawing fire for using private data without informing customers and sharing data with police.
Booksby.ai book covers created by AI
Amazon

Who’s Minding the Store?

Amazon, watch your back. There’s a new player in the book business and, unlike Jeff Bezos, it doesn’t need eight hours of sleep a night. The online bookstore Booksby.ai is run entirely by AI. Neural networks write the books, create the cover art, price the merchandise, even write the reviews.
Illustration of two black cats labeled as cats, one white cat labeled as banana
Amazon

Biased Data Trains Oppressive AI

Will biases in training data unwittingly turn AI into a tool for persecution? Bias encoded in software used by nominally objective institutions like, say, the justice or education systems will become impossible to root out.
Collage with photos of people's faces
Amazon

Public Access, Private Faces

One of the largest open datasets for training face recognition systems has its roots in a popular photo-sharing service. Companies that have used this data could find themselves liable for millions in legal recompense.
Chart with number of AI startup acquisitions from 2010 to 2019
Amazon

AI Startups in Demand

AI startups are being scooped up at an accelerating pace, many by companies outside the tech sphere. A report by CB Insights shows that, as of August, 2019 was on track to surpass last year’s record number of AI startup acquisitions.
Amazon Rekognition screen capture
Amazon

Amazon Prepares for a Crackdown

Amazon is writing what it hopes will become U.S. law governing use of face recognition technology. At a press event, Jeff Bezos told that his company’s lawyers are drafting a statutory framework to guide what he views as an inevitable federal crackdown on face recognition.

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