Business

Bye Bye Bots

The independent research lab OpenAI wowed technology watchers in 2019 with a robotic hand that solved Rubik’s Cube. Now it has disbanded the team that built it. What’s new: OpenAI cofounder Wojciech Zaremba revealed that OpenAI

Home Sweet AI-Appraised Home

Real estate websites helped turn automated real-estate assessment into a classic AI problem. The latest approach by a leader in the field gets a boost from deep learning.

No Cashier? No Problem

Shoppers at Amazon’s newest grocery store can skip the checkout line. What’s new: Amazon opened its first full-scale supermarket that monitors which items customers place in their cart and charges them automatically when they leave. It calls the system Just Walk Out.

Flight Paths Optimized

An AI system is helping aircraft avoid bad weather, restricted airspace, and clogged runways. What’s new: Alaska Airlines will route all its flights using a system from Airspace Intelligence called Flyways.

Face Recognition for the Masses

Face recognition tech tends to be marketed to government agencies, but PimEyes offers a web app that lets anyone scan the internet for photos of themself — or anyone they have a picture of. The company says it aims to help

Banking on Computer Vision

AI-powered surveillance is becoming a staple in U.S. banks. What’s new: Several banks are using cameras equipped with computer vision to bolster security and boost employee productivity, according to Reuters.

Wreck Recognition

Automobile insurers are increasingly turning to machine learning models to calculate the cost of car repairs. What’s new: The pandemic has made it difficult for human assessors to visit

Cream of the Startup Crop

AI startups continue to roared ahead, global pandemic or no. What’s new: Tech industry analyst CB Insights published its fifth annual list of the 100 most promising private AI companies.

The Right Problem for Your Solution

A new tool connects novice programmers with projects that match their experience and interests.What’s new: Github’s Good First Issues tool uses deep learning to find easy-to-fix issues among the collaborative software development platform’s

Steal Your Face

What if you could identify just about anyone from a photo? A controversial startup is making this possible.What happened: Hundreds of U.S. law enforcement agencies are using a face ID service that matches photos against a database of billions of images,

AI Steals CES

Artificial intelligence was everywhere at the biggest, buzziest consumer-technology showcase in the U.S. What’s new: AI ruled the convention floor at the annual Consumer

Deepfakes Go Mainstream

Society awakened to the delight, threat, and sheer weirdness of realistic images and other media dreamed up by computers.What happened: So-called deepfakes became both more convincing and

Driverless Cars Stall

Makers of self-driving cars predicted a quick race to the finish line, but their vehicles are far from the homestretch.What happened: A few years ago, some car companies promised road-ready

IP for AI

The number of patents issued for deep learning has doubled every year since 2013.What’s new: Inventor, engineer, and lawyer Nick Brestoff tracks deep learning patents. He detailed his findings in a blog on InsideBigData and

Deployment Gap

More and more companies are developing machine learning models for internal use. But many are still struggling to bridge the gap to practical deployments.What’s new: Many companies haven’t figured out how to realize their AI