AI with AI
Episode 3.31: Eye, Pac-Bot
In COVID-related AI news, Andy and Dave discuss work from Mount Sinai researchers, who have created an AI system that uses CT scans to diagnose patients with COVID-19. MIT and IBM Watson announce plans to fund 10 AI research projects to find COVID-19. The National Security Commission on AI releases its second white paper on COVID-19, on mitigating economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and preserving US strategic competitiveness in AI. In non-COVID AI news, DARPA’s Gamebreaker project holds a virtual kickoff meeting of its program, seeking to model and then break the game balance. The United Nations Secretary-General releases a report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. And the JAIC unveils its "business process transformation" initiative. In research, Hong Kong University of S&T publishes research on EC-Eye, an artificial eye that "sees" like a human eye. Other research demonstrates that neural networks trained for prediction mimic the diverse features of biological neurons and perception. And NVidia, University of Toronto, Vector Institute, and MIT publish GameGAN, and generative model that learns visually to imitate a desired video game (in this case, observing and replicating the gameplay of Pac-Man). The report of the week comes from NATO, which publishes a look at S&T Trends 2020-2040. Wolfgang Ertel pens the book of the week, with Introduction to AI (2nd Edition), free through Springer. The University of Southern California hosts a virtual symposium AI for COVID-19 in LA. And a collaboration between Google and the Getty Museum produces Art Transfer, transforming photos using the style of different artists.