Artificial Intelligence

The Tamil Nadu government is said to be working on the ‘world’s first’ policy for safe and ethical use of artificial intelligence, according to Santosh K. Mishra, CEO of Tamil Nadu E-Governance Agency, and commissioner of e-governance in the Tamil Nadu government. State government officials have told the media that they might be releasing a blockchain policy soon. The policy is expected to set certain parameters that will need to be met before release of an AI-based solution, including in government. “While new technologies open up huge opportunities, they can also throw some big surprises. Governments and private institutions roll out these technologies in their domain. If they have not completely understood the pitfalls therein, there can be massive disasters. That is what we are countering by bringing out this policy.” he added. The policy is expected to assist the state government in implementing AI and blockchain solutions in public administration by subjecting procurement to fulfillment of ‘seven parameters’ as set out in the policy.

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and Prime Minister Modi are expected to discuss and sign agreements on AI and green mobility among other things such as climate, regional security, trade and investment during her 3-day visit to India that begins on 31st October. This was shared with the media by German ambassador Walter J. Linder, who added that Merkel will be accompanied by cabinet colleagues as well as a business delegation. Merkel has said in a message released ahead of her visit that the focus this time would be on ‘economic and trade relations, innovation and digitalisation and climate protection and sustainable development’. Germany is currently India’s largest trading partner in Europe and over 1,700 German firms operate in India.

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) have announced that they have developed algorithms for novel applications in AI, machine learning and deep learning to solve engineering problems. The researchers intend to establish a startup called ‘AISoft’ to develop solutions for fields such as thermal management, semiconductors, automobiles, aerospace and more. AIsoft is ‘nearly million-fold faster’ as compared to existing solutions in the field, according to Vishal Nandigana, Assistant Professor, Fluid Systems Laborator, Department of Mechanical Engineering. The researchers utilised a AI trained with data sets and a deep learning model to arrive at solutions for engineering problems.They have also developed hardware products aiming to solve thermal management problems in thermal and electronic cooling industries.

At a recent meeting with Debjani Ghosh, president of IT industry body NASSCOM, Telangana’s state IT Minister KT Rama Rao announced the intent of his government to declare the year ‘2020’ as the ‘year of artificial intelligence’ to promote the use of the technology in sectors such as agriculture, urban transportation and healthcare. The minister added that the government would host a number of events centered around AI through the year and is interested in partnering with NASSCOM to bridge the skill gap in emerging technologies.

Oral-B has launched a $220 (approx. 16,000 Rupees) AI-powered electric toothbrush called the ‘Genius X’ that promises to help you brush better. Featuring a wireless Bluetooth connection, the Oral-B Genius X links to a companion app on your phone to time how long you brush your teeth for, how much pressure you’re applying, where you have been brushing and where you should brush more next time. It also gives you a rating. The Oral-B Genius X comes with custom brush heads, along with a rechargeable battery that lasts two weeks and an included travel case that can charge both your toothbrush and smartphone at the same time.

Wildfires are notoriously hard to track and manual systems are not efficient enough as data becomes obsolete quickly with rapid spread. Now, new AI systems are being introduced to help in this regard. An AI firm called CrowdAI has developed an automatic algorithm named FireNet. FireNet uses drones that fly above the wildfire and constantly record at 20 frames a second. This evidence is sent back to the AI in real time which decodes the data and identifies exactly where the wildfire is using GPS signals from the drones. Additionally, any rogue fire that splits of from the main wildfire is flagged by the software to analysts. To train the system, it was fed tens of thousands of frames of wildfire videos. Thanks to machine learning, it is now claimed to spot the edges of fires with a 92% accuracy.

Using imagination, researchers have almost doubled the speed at which completely paralyzed patients can communicate with the world. In new experiments, a volunteer paralyzed from the neck down imagined moving his arm to write each letter of the alphabet. That brain activity helped train a computer model known as a neural network to interpret the commands, tracing the intended trajectory of his imagined pen tip to create letters. Eventually, the computer could read out the volunteer’s imagined sentences with roughly 95% accuracy at a speed of about 66 characters per minute, the researchers reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.