As of early 2020, Waymo self-driving vehicles have driven 20 million miles on public roads. That makes for vast amounts of recorded sensor data to improve the autonomous system. Waymo today detailed its Content Search tool and database with billions of encountered road objects.
Chatbots were all the craze last decade, and they’re now commonly found when interacting with support lines. Today, conversational agents are a bit limited, and Google is working towards a human-like chatbot “that can chat about anything.”
In his first big public move since being appointed the CEO of Alphabet last month, Sundar Pichai today called for AI regulation to govern how the promising new technology is leveraged.
ML has the potential to be applied to every field. Google today shared research on “Machine Learning for Precipitation Nowcasting from Radar Images” that hopes to tackle how forecasts for localized rain storms and other short-term weather events are still “particularly challenging.”
Earlier this month, the Pixel 4’s excellent Recorder app became available for older Google phones. The company today detailed the machine learning powering the entirely on-device transcription tool.
Thanks to the second rear camera, Google was able to improve Portrait Mode on the Pixel 4 after relying on a single lens for two generations. The Google AI team today detailed how it’s leveraging both techniques for better depth estimation and bokeh, as well as how to take the best portrait images.
One of the more notable Smart Display announcements at this year’s CES was the Lenovo Smart Clock. Its latest software update allows the Assistant smart device to create contextual “Impromptu” alarm ringtones by leveraging machine learning.
Machine learning powers a slew of features across Google’s apps and services. The company spent I/O 2019 and today highlighting various accessibility use cases. That happened to spur a discussion on Twitter that concluded with Google acknowledging that Android ML fart detection is technically in the realm of possibility.
With the Pixel 3, the Google Camera app gained a number of AI-powered features like Night Sight, Top Shot, and Photobooth. The latter is essentially Google Clips running on a phone, with the mode adding automatic kiss detection.
The U.S. military and other Washington officials are still upset over Google pulling out of Project Maven last year. However, another sticking point was Google’s work — at the time — on censored Search in China. That criticism recently reemerged with Sundar Pichai meeting President Trump and other top military brass today to allay fears about Google’s relationship with China, especially in regards to AI.
Last year, Google published its AI Principles in response to Project Maven backlash and revealed plans for an external advisory group. The company today announced an Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) to consider “complex challenges” related to AI, like facial recognition.
Following yesterday’s Spring (or Fall) Doodle that also appeared in the Pixel Launcher’s search bar, Google is celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach. This music making experience is Google’s first AI-powered Doodle, and lets users create a harmonized melody in the style of the Baroque composer.
In recent months, G Suite has added a number of machine learning-powered features to boost end-user productivity. After launching on the web last year, automatic room suggestions are coming to Google Calendar for Android and iOS.
One of the more impressive announcements that Google made at I/O 2018 was “Lookout.” This app helps the visually impaired see by pointing their phone at objects and getting verbal feedback. Lookout for Android is now available for the Google Pixel.
For the past several releases, Gboard for Android has been working on “faster voice typing” that works offline. Google is today making it official on Pixel phones, and details the “end-to-end, all-neural, on-device speech recognizer” it created.
For the past three years, Google and Verily have leveraged machine learning to screen for the two leading causes of preventable blindness in adults. In India, this algorithm is now being used in a clinical setting, while the European Union has certified it as a medical device.
A report yesterday revealed that the upcoming Google Maps AR navigation mode is first being tested with Local Guides. Google is now detailing the “global localization” technique behind the feature and how it leverages a Visual Positioning Service, Street View, and machine learning.
Speech synthesis technology has advanced a great deal in recent years, with neural networks from DeepMind doing an especially good job of creating realistic, human-like voices. Like with any technology, it can be abused and Google is working to advance state-of-the-art research on fake audio detection.
Top Shot is one of the many AI-powered camera features Google introduced with the Pixel 3. Google AI is now detailing how the smart feature works and what qualities your phone is looking for when it suggests an alternate frame.
Over the past year, Google AI has opened a number of research facilities around the world. The latest will be a lab at Princeton University to foster collaboration with the academic community.
Back in June, Google released AI Principles — in response to Project Maven backlash — that codified how artificial intelligence would be used in research and products going forward. The company is now detailing additional initiatives and processes that it implemented to ensure that all guidelines are enforced.
The potential uses for AI are vast with Google already applying it to consumer products and services for third-party developers. These APIs include natural language processing, TTS, and image recognition. However, unlike other companies, Google does not offer facial recognition technology and that absence is on purpose.
Last month, Google Translate received the Google Material Theme on the web along with a responsive design. In line with other company-wide efforts to “promote fairness and reduce bias in machine learning,” Google Translate will now provide feminine and masculine translations for some gender-neutral words.
Unlike other smartphone cameras that feature a Portrait Mode, the Pixel line gets by with only one rear camera. With the Pixel 3, Google turned to machine learning to improve depth estimation and “produce even better Portrait Mode results.”
