Emergent // Future: Staying Relevant, Let's Enhance!, and a Portrait by Neural Networks

Algorithmia

14 February 2017 | 3 min read

Issue 41
This week we look at what it means to stay relevant in the AI age, how you can make your own image “enhance” button like on CSI Miami, what we’re reading this week and things to try at home!

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Staying Relevant

Elon Musk says humans must merge with machines or become irrelevant in AI age.

“Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence,” Musk told an audience at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

“It’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output.”

Musk’s point is that computers can move bits at a trillion per second, while humans can do about 10 bits per second. Basically, humans are last year’s model.

Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook sees augmented reality as a fundamental, revolutionary technology similar to the smartphone. He views AR like the silicon used in the iPhone’s chips – it’s a core technology and not a product.

Let’s Enhance! ✨

Google’s new neural networks can turn pixelated faces back into real ones.

In a new paper, Google researchers describe using neural networks to not only “deblur” an image, but to generate new image details that appear plausible to the human eye.

The method uses a neural network, the “conditioning” network, which has scanned a large number of related but higher-resolution images and downsized them to a lower resolution 8×8 pixel. The second algorithm, known as the “prior” network, then adds details to the 8×8 images based on higher-resolution images of similar photos.

What We’re Reading

A Portrait by Neural Networks. A CMU student trained a style transfer algorithm (from Algorithmia) on his own art and then applied it to a self portrait. (Vimeo)
Advances in Artificial Intelligence Require Progress Across all of Computer Science. Over the last decade, the constellation of computing technologies referred to as artificial intelligence has emerged into the public view as an important frontier of technological innovation with potential influence in many realms. (Computing Community Consortium)
Building Applications With Deep Learning: Expectations vs. Reality. Nowadays, building applications involves many technologies. There are technologies to render user interfaces, to retrieve and store data, to serve many users, to distribute computing, etc. (126kr)
The End of Moore’s Law. After a solid fifty year run that completely reshaped our world, Moore’s Law, concerning what we put on silicon wafers, is over. But that end unleashes lots of new opportunities. (Rodney Brooks)
You, and (A)I. How artificial intelligence might help us be more social, live longer, and build closer communities, in the future. (IDEO Stories)

Things To Try At Home

Emergent // Future is a weekly, hand-curated dispatch exploring technology through the lens of artificial intelligence, data science, and the shape of things to come.

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