Smells Like AI Spirit

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Smells Like AI Spirit
Number 2719
Broadcast Date MARCH 24, 2016
Episode Length 42:48
Hosts Tom Merritt
Guests Justin Robert Young

It doesn’t seem like there can be an Uber for anything but Uber. Is that because of the VC funding crunch. Is winter coming to startups? Justin Young and Tom Merritt discuss.

Guest

Headlines

Sony Computer Entertainment, which the Verge reminds us becomes Sony Interactive Entertainment next week, has formed a new company called ForwardWorks to make smartphone games. The new company will use PlayStation characters and IP to make, “Full-fledge game titles.” Atsushi Morita, head of SCE in Japan And Asia will be president of the new company which will incorporate on April 1st. It will initially focus on games for users in Asia.
Remember yesterday we told you about the chatbot, Tay, from Microsoft that mimics a teen? Well this is why we can’t have nice things. Microsoft has shut down the bot after it began making offensive statements. You see, the bot sometimes parrots back statements with its own comedic commentary. That led to people provoking Tay into saying nice things about Hitler and denying the Holocaust among others. A Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch, “We have taken Tay offline and are making adjustments.”
Google has developed an Android app called Accessibility Scanner which calls out interface elements that can be improved. The app will look for things like where text should be larger and touch targets should have different colors or better contrast. Accessibility Scanner is available now in the Google Play Store.
VentureBeat reports sources tell it YouTube is working on a live streaming app called YouTube Connect. A source close to the matter says functionality is similar to Periscope and Facebook Live. You log in using a Google account to begin streaming. Other features include chat, tagging, and a news feed that highlight the latest clips from friends or subscribed YT channels. Streamed videos can be viewed from the app or YT channel and saved in the app. YouTube Connect will be available for iOS and Android.
Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky told Tech Insider that the company will lay off 40 employees this week, about 25% of its staff. He blamed slower funding from VCs for the layoffs, saying “money is pretty tight these days.” Migicovsky wants Pebble to focus on the health and fitness. Pebble will also start selling in India next month in partnership with Amazon.
Facebook is testing a tool that alerts users when an impersonator uses their name and profile photo. The user will be asked if the profile in question is theirs. If you say yes, the profile will be manually reviewed by Facebook. According to FB Head of Global Safety, Antigone Davis the feature is active in 75% of the world with the rest to follow in the near future. FB is also testing a way to report non-consensual intimate photos and a photo privacy check tool that lets users review who can see posted photos.
Google announced the Cloud Machine Learning platform available in limited preview as a cloud service. One part lets developer build machine learning models from their own data and another offers a pre-trained model. In other words any app can take advantage of the machine learning that powers Google Photos, Voice recognition and Google Translate among others.
Rovi, maker of electronic program guides for TV is in talks to acquire TiVo maker of devices that use electronic program guides. While both companies make real products the Verge notes both companies make most of their money from patents. And a truism is that the company with a taller stack of patents generally makes more money on patents. TiVo’s CEO stepped down in November and has not yet been replaced.
Researchers at Baidu published a paper describing how it can use Baidu Maps to predict areas where crowds may be forming in dangerous sizes that could lead to stampedes and death by crushing. As people look up routes to their destination the new method could issue an alert if the number of queries crosses a certain threshold. It could also be used by malls and theme parks to anticipate crowd size or to manage road traffic. It could also be used to anticipate protests. A demonstration system has been made but it has not been implemented anywhere yet.
Hulu launched an app designed for the Samsung Gear VR headset available in the Gear VR Oculus Store. It includes normal content as well as 25 exclusive original VR shows and films. Those are available even if you’re not subscribed to Hulu. Hulu says its the first of several VR apps for different platforms.
At Line Conference Tokyo, Line’s CEO Takeshi Idezawa announced new features around [ shopping including an auto-login for users who move from Line to unrelated services. Users in Japan can complete payments using Line Pay. The app will also ad a coupon book, digital rewards cards, and in-app shops. Line’s API will allow connection to in-store beacons and chat bots. Line also announced Line Mobile, an MVNO on NTT Docomo’s network coming to Japan this summer for JPY 50 (US$4.50) a month.
  • Thanks to st71398, KAPT_kipper, goshayr, spsheridan and more for submitting some of these stories on the subreddit.

Discussion

Pick of the Day

Listening to your conversation about messaging platforms.
Check out Fleep. It's messaging meets email. I started using it recently and it's working out pretty well.
Submitted by Darrin

Messages

Am I the only one that gets a little frustrated when it comes to all the peripherals that the VR developers are trying to roll out? The Sony ice cream cones and the MS Kinnect both fell flat. I'm more interested in them getting the screen resolution, head tracking and the connection standards right. I feel like all of the peripherals detract from the what the real goal should be (To have a visually immersive experience). I wish developers would just work on first person experiences from a normal gaming standpoint (shooters, flight simulators, driving etc) I don't need a expensive bird flight peripheral collecting dust in the corner.
Sent by Chris

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"Tick-Tock, Intel Ran Out the Clock" 		Smells Like AI Spirit
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