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Google has smartened up several of its products with a type of artificial intelligence called deep learning, which involves training neural networks on lots of data and then having them make predictions about new data. Google Maps, Google Photos, and Gmail, for example, have been enhanced with this type of technology. The next service that could see gains is Google Translate.

Well, let me back up. Part of Google Translate actually already uses deep learning. That would be the instant visual translations you can get on a mobile device when you hold up your smartphone camera to the words you want to translate. But if you use Google Translate to just translate text, you know that the service isn’t always 100 percent accurate.

In an interview at the Structure Data conference in San Francisco today, Jeff Dean, a Google senior fellow who worked on some of Google’s core search and advertising technology and is now the head of the Google Brain team that works on deep learning, said that his team has been working with Google’s translation team to scale out experiments with translation based on deep learning. Specifically, the work is based on the technology depicted in a 2014 paper entitled “Sequence to Sequence Learning with Neural Networks.”

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Microsoft Research reveals more details about a telepresence technology they are developing that could fundamentally improve communication today.

In this day and age, it almost comes as no surprise when new technology emerges that’s poised to change how people live and work. Take, for instance, Microsoft Research’s Room2Room project.

In a previous post, we talked about how the technology is going to use projected augmented reality to give users a more interactive and immersive approach to video conferencing between remote participants. Now we’re starting to get some of the particulars about the new project, and a clearer picture is starting to emerge about how it will work.

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My new Huff Post story asking why the major presidential candidates don’t discuss transhumanist science:

THE BLOG Why Won’t Sanders, Clinton, Trump and Cruz Discuss Transhumanist Science Issues? 03/11/2016 03:49 pm ET Zoltan Istvan US Presidential candidate of Transhumanist Party; Creator of Immortality Bus; Author of #1 bestselling Philosophy novel ‘The Transhumanist Wager’ Image by DonkeyHotey Have y…

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Digital CMOS camera with QE technology with improved photon detection capabilities — now this should interest to many medical departments, researchers, and even for security checkpoint screening.

Hamamatsu Corporation has again raised the bar in scientific CMOS camera performance with the 2016 version of the ORCA-Flash4.0 V2. The increased quantum efficiency (QE), now at a peak of 82%, increases the likelihood of detecting the faintest of signals, helping to answer the question “Is it there?” And, for brighter samples, higher QE translates into shorter exposure times without sacrificing image quality. The ORCA-Flash4.0 V2 opens up new possibilities for imaging in low conditions and improves signal to noise at all light levels.

Since its introduction and evolution, the ORCA-Flash4.0 series has become the favorite scientific CMOS camera of investigators everywhere, powering cutting-edge imaging research in every field from biology and chemistry to astrophysics and nanotechnology. The widespread appeal is due to the vast array of high-performance features: low read noise, large field of view, high dynamic range and fast frame rates. The newly enhanced QE of the “Flash V2” only serves to increase the power and versatility of this game-changing camera.

The ORCA-Flash4.0 V2 is available and shipping now. What breakthrough will you make with your extra photons?

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I do believe we’re within a 7 to 8 yr window at this point with Quantum hitting the broader main stream computing infrastructure. However, we have banks in Europe that have been using the technology for network communications, Los Alamos Labs experimenting since late 2011 with Quantum Internet, now China is launching their own Quantum Satellite for wireless communications; so I do suggest a strategy needs to be developed over the next 2 to 3 yrs for government & industry around how to manage & plan for deployment of Quantum especially with China & Russia’s interest.

New research demonstrating that quantum computing is now just an engineering challenge moves the possibility of encryption-cracking machines to the front burner.

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Google, AI, and Quantum — Google believes deep learning is not suitable on Quantum. Not so sure that I agree with this position because deep learning in principle is “a series of complex algorithms that attempt to model high-level abstractions in data by using multiple processing layers with complex structures” — the beauty around quantum is it’s performance in processing of vast sets of information and complex algorithms. Maybe they meant to say at this point they have not resolved that piece for AI.

Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest subjects these days, and recent advances in technology make AI even closer to reality than most of us can imagine.

The subject really got traction when Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and more than 1,000 AI and robotics researchers signed an open letter issuing a warning regarding the use of AI in weapons development last year. The following month, BAE Systems unveiled Taranis, the most advanced autonomous UAV ever created; there are currently 40 countries working on the deployment of AI in weapons development.

Those in the defense industry are not the only ones engaging in an arms race to create advanced AI. Tech giants Facebook, Google, Microsoft and IBM are all engaging in various AI-initiatives, as well as competing on developing digital personal assistants like Facebook’s M, Cortana from Microsoft and Apple’ Siri.

Continue reading “AI is closer than we know” | >