Algorithms

Last year a longstanding conspiracy was reignited, telling the tale of how your smartphone is listening to your conversations and delivering targeted ads, but it still isn't true and the way you actually get your ads is much more unsettling.

Ireland’s new commission for media regulation, has invited public feedback on the country’s first Online Safety Code, which includes a recommendation that video-sharing platforms consider turning off recommender algorithms based on user profiling.

Even with convincing deep fakes causing record-label panic and a flurry of new AI tech garnering plenty of interest, we’re still at the very beginning of learning just how modern machine learning will change art and pop culture, for both good and bad.

X-ray vision has long been a superpower, but soon mere mortals could see hidden objects with help from AI. A new “ghost imaging” system reads the brainwaves of a person looking at light scattered off a wall to identify an object around a corner.

Researchers at MIT have developed a new algorithm that takes stock of ocean conditions to determine in real-time where stranded items and people are likely to appear, which could give the efficiency of search and rescue operations a big boost.

A longstanding conspiracy is the tale of how Facebook is listening in on your conversations, but the way it is actually serving you ads is much more unsettling.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an autonomous robot arm that can figure out the best way to pick up food of any shape and bring it up to a user’s mouth, which should make mealtimes easier for people with limited mobility.

Last week, the first ever work of AI-generated art to be sold by a major auction house fetched US$432,500. The work, entitled Portrait of Edmond Belamy, sold for 45 times its estimate, however many in the AI art community are frustrated such a basic example of algorithmic art achieved this success.

MIT researchers have set out to develop a new machine learning system designed to evaluate not just individual articles, but entire news sources. The system is programmed to classify news sources for general accuracy and political bias.

A rare 175 year-old book containing the world's first computer algorithm by Ada Lovelace – mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron – has been sold at auction in England for £95,000 (US$125,000).

If robots are ever going to earn their keep, they’ll need to learn on the job. AI researchers from Nvidia have now demonstrated a system that lets robots do just that, learning how to perform a specific task by watching someone do it just once.

​It's a sad fact that pedophiles often hang out in online chatrooms, looking to strike up conservations with unsuspecting children. In the worst cases, they arrange face-to-face meetings, resulting in sexual assault. A new algorithm, however, is designed to help keep that from happening.