Alphabet Inc’s Google fired staff scientist Margaret Mitchell on Friday, they both said, a move that fanned company divisions on academic freedom and diversity that were on display since its December dismissal of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru. Google has recruited top scientists with promises of research freedom, but the limits are tested as researchers increasingly write about the negative effects of technology and offer unflattering perspectives on their employer’s products.

 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-research/second-google-ai-ethics-leader-fired-she-says-amid-staff-protest-idUSKBN2AJ2JA

new research from CSIRO’s Data61 in partnership with South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University and the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) has revealed that these object detectors can be exploited with relative ease. Through manipulation involving the use of simple objects, researchers have discovered that it is possible for people to digitally disappear and bypass detection despite the fact they are clearly in the video.

 https://algorithm.data61.csiro.au/new-research-reveals-its-possible-to-digitally-disappear-from-camera-detection/?utm_source=CSIROscope&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=Cloaking

How artificial intelligence will impact K-12 teachers

 https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/how-artificial-intelligence-will-impact-k-12-teachers#

Move Over, Moore’s Law: Make Way for Huang’s Law Graphics processors are on a supercharged development path that eclipses Moore’s Law, says Nvidia’s Jensen Huang

https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/computing/hardware/move-over-moores-law-make-way-for-huangs-law

Why the US ban on WeChat is a much bigger deal than TikTok

 https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/why-the-us-ban-on-wechat-is-a-much-bigger-deal-than-tiktok-20200807-p55jk0.html

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Wednesday said it was implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, halting a business it long defended as many protested law enforcement brutality against people of color. The decision culminates a two-year battle between Amazon and civil liberties activists, who have voiced concern that inaccurate matches could lead to unjust arrests.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-facial-recognition/amazon-pauses-police-use-of-facial-recognition-tech-for-a-year-idUSKBN23H3EO

Turn on your webcam, enable your microphone and share your computer screen, an anonymous voice told university student Emily Johnston as she sat her first online exam from her bedroom. Don't look away from your screen for too long, in case artificial intelligence scans your face and registers suspicious behaviour. Any noise or movement you make will be recorded, reviewed and stored for two years. Many university students have been unsettled by proctoring software being used to invigilate their online exams during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/you-re-being-watched-and-recorded-every-breath-students-unsettled-by-exam-software-20200519-p54ucb.html

Nvidia’s GameGAN AI Creates Pac-Man Without an Underlying Game Engine. The reason advances like GameGAN strike me as significant is because they don’t just represent an AI learning how to play a game. The AI is actually learning something about how the game is implemented purely from watching someone else play it. That’s closer, conceptually, to how humans learn

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/310886-level-up-nvidias-gamegan-ai-creates-pac-man-without-an-underlying-game-engine

'Greatest peril': study finds Australia most dependent on China among the Five Eyes. The report did not recommend an immediate economic decoupling from China as that would be “painful and expensive” but said the Five Eyes countries should work together to prevent China dominating the nine industries that it identified would dominate the future economy. They are: artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomous robotics, computing hardware, cryptographic technology, materials and manufacturing science, nano-technologies, networking and data communication, quantum technology and synthetic biology.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/greatest-peril-study-finds-australia-most-dependent-on-china-among-the-five-eyes-20200514-p54ssg.html

This Open-Source Program Deepfakes You During Zoom Meetings, in Real Time Avatarify runs on Skype and Zoom, and face-swaps your own face with a celebrity in live video calls.

https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/g5xagy/this-open-source-program-deepfakes-you-during-zoom-meetings-in-real-time

Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Tesla-teardown-finds-electronics-6-years-ahead-of-Toyota-and-VW2

Almost No One Out There Thinks That Isaac Asimov's Three Laws Could Work For Truly Intelligent AI. The First Law fails because of ambiguity in language, and because of complicated ethical problems that are too complex to have a simple yes or no answer. The Second Law fails because of the unethical nature of having a law that requires sentient beings to remain as slaves. The Third Law fails because it results in a permanent social stratification, with the vast amount of potential exploitation built into this system of laws.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/10/01/1949229/almost-no-one-out-there-thinks-that-isaac-asimovs-three-laws-could-work-for-truly-intelligent-ai

A Breakthrough for A.I. Technology: Passing an 8th-Grade Science Test. on Wednesday, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a prominent lab in Seattle, unveiled a new system that passed the test with room to spare. It correctly answered more than 90 percent of the questions on an eighth-grade science test and more than 80 percent on a 12th-grade exam.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/technology/artificial-intelligence-aristo-passed-test.html

Chinese face-swap app Zao rocketed to the top of app store charts over the weekend, but user delight at the prospect of becoming instant superstars quickly turned sour as privacy implications began to sink in.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-02/china-s-red-hot-face-swapping-app-provokes-privacy-concern

Leading computer science university Massachusetts Institute of Technology will set-up a new research centre in Adelaide's Lot Fourteen CBD innovation precinct.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/mit-to-move-into-adelaide-precinct/4691de32-3e74-4422-87c0-06b88bf03c4d

Keller doesn’t agree. “The working title for this talk was ‘Moore’s law is not dead but if you think so you’re stupid,’" he said Sunday. He asserted that Intel can keep it going and supply tech companies ever more computing power. His argument rests in part on redefining Moore’s law. “I’m not pedantic about Moore’s law talking just about transistors shrinking—I’m interested in the technology trends and the physics and metaphysics around that,” Keller says. “Moore’s law is a collective delusion shared by millions of people.” Keller also said that Intel would need to try other tactics, such as building vertically, layering transistors or chips on top of each other. He claimed this approach will keep power consumption down by shortening the distance between different parts of a chip. Keller said that using nanowires and stacking his team had mapped a path to packing transistors 50 times more densely than possible with Intel's 10 nanometer generation of technology.

https://www.wired.com/story/intels-new-chip-wizard-plan-bring-back-magic/

New deepfake algorithm allows you to text-edit the words of a speaker in a video

https://newatlas.com/edit-talking-head-text-deepfake/60160/

Jaguar is willing to pay you to drive your car and it is all about connection, according to the British maker. The company will pay drivers in cryptocurrency for providing road data including traffic conditions and pothole locations. The data will then be passed on to navigation companies and local authorities to help improve traffic flow and expedite road repairs. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is developing a “Smart Wallet” to hold the cryptocurrency. It will allow users of connected cars to pay for a range of products including tolls, parking fees and electric vehicle charging.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/motoring/hitech/jaguar-could-pay-you-every-time-you-drive-your-car/news-story/0fe661372fb5e0cfb7200f3253fedfe5

Adelaide’s mission to become a “Space City” will have a boost today from an announcement that it will be the home of smart satellites. Alongside Space HQ — the Australian Space Agency — and the promised Mission Control and Space Discovery Centre, Adelaide will be the strategic and decision-making base of a SmartSat co-operative research centre (CRC)

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/jobs/smartsat-satellite-research-centre-for-space-hq-in-adelaide/news-story/0093075c1c926323d4c3358299358c62

THE GODFATHERS OF THE AI BOOM WIN COMPUTING’S HIGHEST HONOR

https://www.wired.com/story/godfathers-ai-boom-win-computings-highest-honor/