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The Search for AI Talent Is Being Hampered by Visa Processes

The Search for AI Talent

I wrote recently about the challenges small businesses face in recruiting the engineering talent they require to build the kind of high-tech ventures that will advance society. Complex and expensive visa processes often mean that the best talent goes to larger organizations that can support them through the immigration maze.

It’s a scenario that new research from Georgetown University finds replicated in the battle for AI talent. The report highlights how restrictive immigration policies are hampering the ability of American firms to recruit and retain the kind of AI talent they need.

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7 Key Predictions for the Future of Voice Assistants and AI in 2020

7 Key Predictions for the Future of Voice Assistants and AI in 2020

When voice technology began to emerge in 2011 with the introduction of Siri, no one could have predicted that this novelty would become a driver for tech innovation. Now nearly eight years later, it’s estimated that every 1 in 6 Americans own a smart speaker (Google Home, Amazon Echo) and eMarketer forecasts that nearly 100 million smartphone users will be using voice assistants in 2020. 

Brands such as Amazon and Google are continuing to fuel this trend as they compete for market share. Voice interfaces are advancing at an exponential rate in industries of all kinds, ranging from healthcare to banking, as companies are racing to release their own voice technology integrations to keep pace with consumer demand.

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Smart Glass and the Future of Artificial Vision

Smart glass is being for facial recognition on cell phones.

Facial recognition technology is advancing at a tremendous pace, with the glass that is literally the face of modern systems at the heart of this progression. A recently published paper from the University of Wisconsin-Madison highlights the progress being made in the field, with their ‘smart’ glass able to recognize images without requiring either sensors or a power source.

“We’re using optics to condense the normal setup of cameras, sensors and deep neural networks into a single piece of thin glass,” the researchers explain.

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Growing Volume of Technological Advancements Propel the Cognitive Computing Industry Forward

The advent of artificial intelligence has resulted in numerous technological developments in recent years. One of the AI-related fields that are becoming popular and promises to take the current digitized economy to the next level is cognitive computing. It makes use of machine learning and reasoning, natural language processing, speech recognition, and data mining processes such as AI; however, it takes things to the next level. Cognitive computing technologies can grasp and manage vast amounts of data, apply reason, gain insights, and constantly learn when interacting with individuals and machines. They provide us with a great opportunity to make smarter and more informed decisions.

The market for cognitive computing is growing rapidly. Driving it are factors such as the increasing volume of large complex data and the growing trend of increasing cloud-based services, big data analytics, and harnessing the internet speed. As per Allied Market Research, the market generated $13.8 billion by 2020, thereby growing at a CAGR of 33.1 percent during the forecast period, 2015 - 2020.

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Using AI and Social Media to Detect Noisy Areas

Noise disturbances are far and away the most common form of anti-social behavior reported to the police and local authorities, and I'm sure we've all experienced the blight of loud parties. For officials, however, it's likely that the number of reported incidents is a fraction of the total number.

Researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have developed an AI-driven tool that they believe will provide officials with a more accurate representation of noise concerns.

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Using AI to Improve Diagnoses and Prognoses of Diseases

Smarter diagnosis and prognosis of a disease has obvious benefits to patients and healthcare providers alike. A team from Cardiff University believes that artificial intelligence can play a big role in doing just that. In a recently published study, the team describes how AI can help improve risk assessments for patients with cardiovascular disease in an efficient manner that requires neither expertise or human interaction.

"If we can refine these methods, they will allow us to determine much earlier those people who require preventative measures. This will extend people's lives and conserve NHS resources," the researchers explain.

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New Research Highlights the Long Road Still Ahead for AI

The media has been awash with breathless prose about the capabilities of artificial intelligence in recent years. One would be forgiven for thinking that machines are practically at human levels of cognition already, or at least will be very soon.

A recent study from UCLA highlights just how far there still is to go. The study illustrated a number of quite significant limitations that the researchers believe we have to understand and improve upon before we let ourselves get carried away.