#98 - Autonomous Boats, DeepMind’s General AI, Google’s DALLE-2, Cringe AI Novel

Our 98th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account! Outline: (00:00) Intro(2:22) Autonomous cargo ship completes 500 mile voyage, avoiding hundreds of collisions(6:47) Investors pull back on artificial intelligence (9:49) Clearbot Neo autonomously clears plastic from harbors - "Open Ocean Engineering’s Clearbot Neo is a robotic boat that autonomously navigates harbors, canals and rivers to collect trash that would otherwise wash into the ocean."(10:30) You can practice for a job interview with Google AI - "Never mind reading generic guides or practicing with friends — Google is betting that algorithms can get you ready for a job interview. The company has launched an Interview Warmup tool that uses AI to help you prepare for interviews across various roles."(11:02) Uber Eats Dabbles With Delivering Food Via Robots - "Uber Eats is now testing autonomous food delivery in the Los Angeles area."(12:12) Ford-backed robotaxi startup Argo AI is ditching its human safety drivers in Miami and Austin - "Robotaxi startup Argo AI said Tuesday it has begun operating its autonomous test vehicles without human safety drivers in two U.S. cities — Miami and Austin — a major milestone for the Ford- and Volkswagen-backed company. For now, those driverless vehicles won't be carrying paying customers." (13:17) DeepMind’s new AI can perform over 600 tasks, from playing games to controlling robots(20:10) Google claims its text-to-image AI delivers 'unprecedented photorealism'(25:30) Simultaneous emulation of neuronal and synaptic properties promotes the development of brain-like artificial intelligence - "Researchers have reported a nano-sized neuromorphic memory device that emulates neurons and synapses simultaneously in a unit cell, another step toward completing the goal of neuromorphic computing designed to rigorously mimic the human brain with semiconductor devices."(26:27) Face-to-face screening combined with machine learning model performs best at suicide risk prediction - "According to a study published in JAMA Network Open, a combination of in-person screenings and machine learning worked better than either method alone when it came to predicting suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in adults."(27:11) Google’s Universal Pretraining Framework Unifies Language Learning Paradigms - "Their 20B parameter model surpasses the state-of-the-art 175B GPT-3 on the zero-shot SuperGLUE benchmark and triples the performance of T5-XXL on one-shot summarization tasks."(27:49) Robotic surgery is safer and improves patient recovery time - "Robot-assisted surgery used to perform bladder cancer removal and reconstruction enables patients to recover far more quickly and spend significantly (20 per cent) less time in hospital, concludes a first-of-its kind clinical trial led by scientists at UCL and the University of Sheffield."(28:20) Ad break (29:48) AI may be searching you for guns the next time you go out in public (35:09) Israeli firm hopes AI can curb drownings (38:12) Fatal Tesla Model S Crash in California Prompts Federal Probe - "The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating a fatal crash involving a 2022 Tesla Model S that may have had its automated driving system activated." (39:10) Facebook issues $397 checks to Illinois residents as part of class-action - "More than a million Illinois residents will receive a $397 settlement payment from Facebook this week, thanks to a legal battle over the platform’s since-retired photo-tagging system that used facial recognition." (39:50) Clearview AI's Facial Recognition Tool Coming to Apps, Schools - “Clearview AI is expanding sales of its facial recognition software to companies from mainly serving the police, it