Last Week in AI #140: Adobe's Deepfake tool, Clearview AI takes part in third-party test, how AI can help supply chains

Adobe's limited face editing tool resembles Deepfake capabilities, Clearview AI undergoes third-party audit, AI and supply chain simulations can make logistics more resilient, and more!

Nov 1, 2021

Adobe's Project Morpheus is Actually a Deepfake Tool?

On Oct. 28 Adobe announced a new AI-powered video editing tool called Project Morpheus. It can be used to edit people's expressions and other facial attributes. This continues Adobe’s efforts to introduce AI tools to its image and video editing software, with Neural Filters having already been added to photoshop last year. The tool only allows users to tweak faces rather than larger manipulations such as face swapping, though it is likely to expand in scope. This led some to be concerned with it being used for malicious ends, as with ‘DeepFake’ software.

Clearview AI finally takes part in a federal accuracy test.

Hoan Ton-That, founder of Clearview AI, testing the smart phone application, in 2019.

If you've heard Hoan Ton-That talk about Clearview AI, it's clear he wants you to believe that his algorithm rarely, if ever, gets things wrong. But can we trust his words? It seems we no longer have to: more than two years since law enforcement officers started using the company's algorithm, it has finally been subjected to a third-party test.

While Clearview performed very well--it stood among the top 10 out of more than 300 algorithms from over 200 facial recognition vendors--the test focused on how well algorithms could match two photos of the same person and not how well they could find a match for an unknown face in a large database. The latter task will be a more reliable indicator of how Clearview stands up, and Hoan Ton-That has said Clearview will be submitting to this one-to-many test soon. Clearview AI has been sued in court for collecting people's photos without their consent and continues to be mired in controversy. Perhaps the company's results will speak up for it.

How AI could solve supply chain shortages and save Christmas

Weaknesses and the brittleness of current global supply chains have become apparent in recent months due to a myriad of factors, including Covid-induced labor shortages. Looking toward the future, many companies are embracing the idea of combining supply chain simulations ("digital twins") and AI-based software that can learn from these simulations to better predict potential disruptions and respond to them in a proactive way.

Complex supply chain simulations has only become possible recently with more companies logging real-time data and acquiring more compute power. These simulations include information about inventory and shipping, consumer behavior, market and financial projections, weather, and geopolitical and socioeconomic trends. Big companies like Amazon, Google, FedEx, and DHL have their own simulation software, while smaller companies can look to third-party providers like Pathmind for similar tools. AI-based software can leverage these simulations by asking "what if" questions, forecasting outcomes based on different scenarios, optimizing for the best ways to respond. As supply chains get more complex in the future, such tools will only become more necessary.

📚 Last Week in AI is growing!

With 2500+ subscribers, we want to bring you more, and ask for your help by becoming a paid subscriber.

While the newsletter will remain free and unchanged, paid subscribers will have access to the following perks:

Weekly op-eds on the latest developments in AI
Early access to news briefs
Submit AI topic requests for in-depth research and coverage

Other News

Research

Neuron Bursts Can Mimic Famous AI Learning Strategy - "A new model of learning centers on bursts of neural activity that act as teaching signals — approximating backpropagation, the algorithm behind learning in AI. Every time a human or machine learns how to get better at a task, a trail of evidence is left behind."

Omniscient Master Teaches AI Drone Real Flying Skills In Virtual World - "A team from the University of Zurich (UZH) has trained AI to fly a drone in a virtual environment full of obstacles before setting it loose in the real world, where it was able to weave around at 40 kph/ 25 mph, three times as fast as the previous best piloting software."

MIT Researcher’s Machine Learning Study Can Save Seaweed - "Seaweed is very popular in East Asian cuisines, and it has enormous promise as a long-term food supply for the world’s rising population. Seaweed, in addition to its nutritional value, protects the environment from a variety of hazards."

Yale Researchers Use Machine Learning To Identify Brain Networks Predictive Of Aggression In Children - "Children’s mental disorders are defined as significant changes in how children learn, behave, or handle their emotions. Many times these changes create discomfort and make it difficult for them to get through the day."

MIT’s Latest AI Research Using Deep Neural Networks Explains How The Brain Processes Language Works - "Over the past decade, scientists have come up with models that perform object recognition as efficiently as the primate brain. The MIT researchers have also shown that visual object recognition models’ working compares with the structuring of the primate visual cortex."

NASA Wants Your Help Improving Perseverance Rover’s AI - "If you’re interested in helping out, NASA is calling on any interested humans to contribute to the machine learning algorithms that help Perseverance get around. All you need to do is look at some images and label geological features."

Applications

AI voice-acting tool xVASynth gets even better at recreating videogame voices - "In January, Nat Clayton highlighted a neat tool for modders that was used to give a fan-made trailer entirely AI-synthesized voice acting. That tool is called xVASynth, and it's the work of software developer Dan Ruta, who just updated it to version 2.0."

Photoshop’s AI Is Now So Fast That Hovering Over Objects Instantly Creates Perfect Masks - "Masking was once a painstaking photo-editing process. Now it's instantaneous."

The Futuristic Farming Robots That Are Changing Agriculture - "These robots help make food production easier, faster, and more efficient. In the past few years, farming technology had advanced in great strides with agriculture robots popping up all over the fields and these robots help make food production easier, faster, and more efficient."

Autonomous Boats Seem More Solvable Than Autonomous Cars - "MIT's Roboats will find useful applications in Amsterdam canals"

Nearly a third of new code on GitHub is written with AI help - "The open-source software developer GitHub says as much as 30% of newly written code on its network is being done with the help of the company's AI programming tool Copilot."

How Instoried Is Using AI To Turn Your Content Into Something People Actually Want To Read - "Instoried provides instant feedback on the written content created by businesses and individuals, as well as tips for improvements to drive greater engagement from the audience. With just a few words to go on, the tool will even create content automatically on your behalf."

Business

Robotics-powered ‘microfulfillment’ startup Fabric raises $200M - "Fabric, a startup developing a “microfulfillment” automation platform for retailers, today announced that it raised $200 million in series C funding"

82% of workers say AI can support career growth better than humans: Oracle survey - "For workers reconsidering their jobs amid the Great Resignation triggered by the pandemic, there is a new trusted source of career advice: artificial intelligence."

Making machine learning more useful to high-stakes decision makers - "A visual analytics tool helps child welfare specialists understand machine learning predictions that can assist them in screening cases."

McDonald's enters strategic partnership with IBM to automate drive-thru lanes - "McDonald's said Wednesday it has entered a strategic partnership with IBM to develop artificial intelligence technology that will help the fast-food chain automate its drive-thru lanes."

Microsoft acquires AI-powered moderation platform Two Hat - "Microsoft today announced that it acquired Two Hat, an AI-powered content moderation platform, for an undisclosed amount."

Concerns

Tesla pulled the latest FSD Beta from owners’ cars today - "Tesla OTA updates give, and Tesla OTA updates take away, with the electric car company unexpectedly rolling back the latest FSD Beta having already pushed it to owners’ cars."

Artificial intelligence sees more funding, but needs more people and better data - "The state of artificial intelligence is promising, and it is increasingly ready for real-life enterprises. But there are shortages of talent, lack of diversity in the field, and concerns about the handling the data that fuels ever-more-sophisticated algorithms. "

Twitter's machine learning algorithms amplify tweets from right-wing politicians over those on the left - "Twitter's algorithms are more likely to boost right-wing content than left-wing posts from politicians and news publications, according to a recent study."

How Liam Porr Tricked 26,000 People With a GPT-3-Based Blog - "AI: “I’m from the future. I’m here to give you some hints on what will happen. Actually, I’m from another dimension from your current timeline, but I know what happens to you — in a general way, of course.” Human: “You mean to me, me? Or to us, humanity?”"

Spooky Or Plain Creepy: Using AI Self-Driving Cars As Stalkerware To Sneakily Stalk Someone - "Thankfully, there is a growing effort toward AI For Good. This latest mantra entails ways to try and make sure that the advances in AI are being applied for the overall betterment of mankind."

Analysis

Twilight of the Robots? Androids in Contemporary Cinema - "Despite the unlikelihood of the technology coming to fruition, android stories remain as popular as ever. "

Policy

Chinese military may have an edge over US on artificial intelligence research, report warns - "Report by Georgetown University says PLA spending may be higher than America’s and adds that many of its suppliers could gain access to US technology."

Expert Opinions

Just Ask for Generalization - "Generalizing to what you want may be easier than optimizing directly for what you want. We might even ask for "consciousness". This blog post outlines a key engineering principle I’ve come to believe strongly in for building general AI systems with deep learning."

Why AI Sucketh - "Do you like those pesky ads between Facebook posts, Words With Friends, and other crap we see as we go about the web? I’m talking about all that stuff that has been predicted for what we like."

Cognition Without Computation - "Just because a theory is old doesn't mean it's correct"

Podcast

Check out our weekly podcast covering these stories!
Website | RSS | iTunes | Spotify | YouTube

Last Week in AI