British court disagrees with Australia, rules that AIs cannot be patent inventors

The UK and Australia may have made a historic pact last week, but one thing they can’t agree on is whether AIs can be patent inventors.

AIs are increasingly being used to come up with new ideas and there’s an argument they should therefore be listed as the inventor by patent agencies. However, opponents say that patents are a statutory right and can only be granted to a person.

US-based Dr Stephen Thaler, the founder of Imagination Engines, has been leading the fight...

22 September 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

National Robotarium pioneers AI and telepresence robotic tech for remote health consultations

The National Robotarium, hosted by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, has unveiled an AI-powered telepresence robotic solution for remote health consultations.

Using the solution, health practitioners would be able to assess a person’s physical and cognitive health from anywhere in the world. Patients could access specialists no matter whether they’re based in the UK, India, the US, or anywhere else.

Iain Stewart, UK Government Minister for Scotland,...

20 September 2021 | Healthcare

Web data is driving AI development

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast shaping the world around us and is becoming increasingly important within business operations. In fact, research by Deloitte shows that 73% of IT and line-of-business executives see AI as an indispensable part of their current business. It’s clear to see there is great potential for AI in virtually all areas of our lives, but AI systems can only ever be as powerful as the information that they are built on. With huge quantities of very specific data...

14 September 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

Twitter begins labelling ‘good’ bots on the social media platform

Twitter is testing a new feature that will give the good kind of bots some due recognition.

Bots have become a particularly hot topic in recent years, but mainly for negative reasons. We’ve all seen their increased use to share propaganda to sway democratic processes and spread disinformation around things like COVID-19 vaccines.

However, despite their image problem, bots can be an important tool for good.

Some bots share critical information around things...

10 September 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

Janine Lloyd-Jones, Faculty: On the ethical considerations of AI and ensuring it’s a tool for positive change

The benefits of AI are becoming increasingly clear as deployments ramp up, but fully considering the technology’s impact must remain a priority to build public trust.

AI News caught up with Janine Lloyd-Jones, director of marketing and communication at Faculty, to discuss how the benefits of AI can be unlocked while ensuring deployments remain a tool for positive change.

AI News: What are the constraints, ethical considerations, and potential for deep reinforcement...

6 September 2021 | Ethics & Society

Sebastian Santibanez, SoftServe: On helping enterprises successfully use AI in their digital transformations

AI News spoke with Sebastian Santibanez, Associate Director of the Advanced Technologies Group at SoftServe, about how the company is helping enterprises to successfully use AI in their digital transformations.

AI News: What work do you do in the artificial intelligence space? 

Sebastian Santibanez: We understand that the truly successful data-minded organizations are very fluid in their definition of AI and SoftServe has embraced this fluidity by thinking of AI...

3 September 2021 | Enterprise

The UK is changing its data laws to boost its digital economy

Britain will diverge from EU data laws that have been criticised as being overly strict and driving investment and innovation out of Europe.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has confirmed the UK Government’s intention to diverge from key parts of the infamous General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Estimates suggest there is as much as £11 billion worth of trade that goes unrealised around the world due to barriers associated with data transfers

“Now that we have...

26 August 2021 | Ethics & Society

NIST: VisionLabs, IDEMIA, and CloudWalk lead in facial recognition accuracy

A report from the US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reveals the accuracy of various facial recognition algorithms.

The latest edition of the report currently has VisionLabs, IDEMIA, and CloudWalk in the lead:

Higher numbers are better as they indicate a lower prevalence of false positives.

The “N” values represent the number of individuals enrolled in each simulation of aircraft boarding. The N = 42,000 simulation,...

25 August 2021 | Face Recognition

Unity devs aren’t too happy their work is being sold for military AI purposes

Developers from Unity are calling for more transparency after discovering their AI work is being sold to the military.

Video games have pioneered AI developments since Nim was released in 1951. In the decades since, game developers have worked to improve AIs to provide a more enjoyable experience for a growing number of people around the world.

Just imagine the horror if those developers found out their work was instead being used for real military purposes without their...

24 August 2021 | Ethics & Society

Nvidia-Arm merger in doubt as CMA has ‘serious’ concerns

The proposed merger between Nvidia and British chip technology giant Arm is looking increasingly doubtful as the CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) believes the deal “raises serious competition concerns”.

A $40 billion merger of two of the biggest names in chip manufacturing was always bound to catch the eye of regulators, especially when it’s received such vocal opposition from around the world.

Hermann Hauser, Founder of Arm, even suggested that...

23 August 2021 | Companies