Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Cortana Now Reminds You to Do the Things You Promised in Emails
February 9th, 2017haha. Just cut to the chase and release a Cortana anal suppository. Via: The Verge: Microsoft is adding a new feature to Cortana today that will remind you to keep your promises. Suggested reminders lets Cortana remind you when you’ve promised to do something in an email. Microsoft is using machine learning to highlight phrases […]
As Goldman Embraces Automation, Even the Masters of the Universe Are Threatened
February 9th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: At its height back in 2000, the U.S. cash equities trading desk at Goldman Sachs’s New York headquarters employed 600 traders, buying and selling stock on the orders of the investment bank’s large clients. Today there are just two equity traders left. Automated trading programs have taken over the rest of […]
Bank of America Opens Branches Without Employees
February 8th, 2017Via: Reuters: Bank of America Corp has opened three completely automated branches over the past month, where customers can use ATMs and have video conferences with employees at other branches, according to spokeswoman Anne Pace. Like many U.S. banks in recent years, Bank of America has been reducing its overall branch count to cut costs […]
Google’s New AI System Unscrambles Pixelated Images
February 8th, 2017Via: Guardian: Google’s neural networks have achieved the dream of CSI viewers everywhere: the company has revealed a new AI system capable of “enhancing” an eight-pixel square image, increasing the resolution 16-fold and effectively restoring lost data. The neural network could be used to increase the resolution of blurred or pixelated faces, in a way […]
Inside Amazon’s Robot-Run Supermarket that Needs Just 3 Human Workers
February 6th, 2017Via: New York Post: The ground level of the futuristic prototype — a supermarket-sized version of its recently unveiled “Amazon Go” convenience store, with a bigger layout that could span anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000 square feet — would be devoted to goods that shoppers typically like to touch, sources briefed on the plans told […]
“Uber Hires Veteran NASA Engineer to Develop Flying Cars”
February 6th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: In 2010, an advanced aircraft engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center named Mark Moore published a white paper outlining the feasibility of electric aircrafts that could take off and land like helicopters but were smaller and quieter. The vehicles would be capable of providing a speedy alternative to the dreary morning commute. Moore’s […]
FedEx Bets on Automation as It Prepares to Fend Off Uber and Amazon
February 5th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, your FedEx package might someday be delivered by a robot. Rob Carter, FedEx’s chief information officer, says the shipping giant is considering small vehicles that could drive around neighborhoods and make deliveries without human drivers. … FedEx is also researching ways it […]
New Wheeled Robot from Boston Dynamics
February 1st, 2017Via: The Verge: Boston Dynamics is best known for its bipedal and quadrupedal robots, but it turns out the company has also been experimenting with some radical new tech: the wheel. The company’s new wheeled, upright robot is named Handle (“because it’s supposed to handle objects”) and looks like a cross between a Segway and […]
AI Beats Professional Poker Players
January 31st, 2017Via: BBC: A poker-playing AI has beaten four human players in a marathon match lasting 20 days. Libratus, an artificial intelligence program developed at Carnegie Mellon University, was trained to play a variant of the game known as no-limit heads-up Texas hold ’em. In a similar tournament in 2015, the humans won. The victory has […]
Cafe X, Bringing Robots to the Coffee Shop
January 30th, 2017Via: TechCrunch: The world’s first coffee shop opened in Constantinople in 1555. Four hundred and some years later, Cafe X is putting a twist on that old barista model. Opening in San Francisco today, the startup is opting instead to have a large robotic arm craft your caffeinated potions.
