Posted by Rishabh Agarwal, Research Scientist and Pablo Samuel Castro, Staff Software Engineer, Google Research, Brain Team Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of machine learning that focuses on learning from experiences to solve decision making tasks. While the field of RL has made great progress, resulting in impressive empirical results on complex tasks, such…
Posted by Nal Kalchbrenner and Lasse Espeholt, Google Research Deep learning has successfully been applied to a wide range of important challenges, such as cancer prevention and increasing accessibility. The application of deep learning models to weather forecasts can be relevant to people on a day-to-day basis, from helping people plan their day to managing…
Posted by Artem Dementyev, Hardware Engineer, Google Research Most wearable smart devices and mobile phones have the means to communicate with the user through tactile feedback, enabling applications from simple notifications to sensory substitution for accessibility. Typically, they accomplish this using vibrotactile actuators, which are small electric vibration motors. However, designing a haptic system that…
Algorithms now determine how much things cost. It’s called dynamic pricing and it adjusts according to current market conditions in order to increase profits. The rise of e-commerce has propelled pricing algorithms into an everyday occurrence—whether you’re shopping on Amazon, booking a flight, hotel or ordering an Uber. In this continuation of our series on…
In the coming years, mobility solutions—or how we get from point A to point B—will bridge the gap between ground and air transportation—yes, that means flying cars. Technological advancements are transforming mobility for people and, leading to unprecedented change. Nand Kochhar, vice president of automotive and transportation for Siemens Software says this transformation extends beyond…
It’s time we began to “fixate on data” to solve our problems, says one of the world’s leading experts in data science. In 2006, Jeannette Wing, then the head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University, published an influential essay titled “Computational Thinking,” arguing that everyone would benefit from using the conceptual tools…
Freshman year of high school, my boyfriend asked, “What’s it like having her around all the time?” He meant Kim. The bell for third period rang. I shifted against him, a combination lock pressed into my back, lockers slamming around us. Our mouths were still so close. I’d been wondering if he also felt hot…
With the supply-chain disruptions of the past two years showing no signs of easing anytime soon, businesses are turning to a new generation of AI-powered simulations called digital twins to help them get goods and services to customers on time. These tools not only predict disruptions down the line, but suggest what to do about…
Defining what is, or isn’t artificial intelligence can be tricky (or tough). So much so, even the experts get it wrong sometimes. That’s why MIT Technology Review’s Senior AI Editor Karen Hao created a flowchart to explain it all. In this bonus content our host and her team reimagined Hao’s original reporting, gamifying it into…
In 2018, when Google employees found out about their company’s involvement in Project Maven, a controversial US military effort to develop AI to analyze surveillance video, they weren’t happy. Thousands protested. “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” they wrote in a letter to the company’s leadership. Around a dozen…