Daily Archives: September 15, 2022

When movies made the leap from silent to sound, production companies had their eyes on the next sensory frontier in entertainment.

So in 1939, they attempted to bring smell into the cinematic experience. The Smell-O-Vision, a system that piped prepackaged scents from under movie theater seats, made its debut at the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York City.

It didnt go as planned. Audiences complained that the scents were out-of-sync with the movie, overpowering, or simply unpleasant. Despite an attempted revival in the 1960s, the technology largely fell by the wayside.

But now, more than sixty years later, science is considerably closer to making Smell-O-Vision a reality.

The Smell-O-Vision concept didnt work as planned, but it may be due for an AI revamp.LMPC/LMPC/Getty Images

Computer scientists and chemical engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can reverse-engineer a smell based on its chemical makeup.

With this technology, they hope to one day create custom scents on-demand, according to a study recently published in PLOS One. It does sound tempting to smell ratatouille as its being carefully prepared in Ratatouille.

Heres the background Scent has played an important evolutionary role: The brains olfactory bulb, which is responsible for processing odors, sits right next to the amygdala, which handles emotions and the two share considerable neural overlap.

Thats why certain smells tend to evoke a strong emotional response; for example, the scent of chocolate chip cookies might transport you right back to the warmth of your grandmothers kitchen, while the odor of pencil shavings may evoke college exam anxiety.

We rely on these subtle olfactory cues to tell us whether to feel safe, nervous, excited, or relaxed in a given environment.

The olfactory bulb, which processes odors, sits right next to the emotion-handling amygdala.TIM VERNON / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

People vary in how they interpret these signals. Factors like an individuals race, gender, genetics, and unique experiences can all contribute to the way they perceive a specific smell.

Amanda Holloman, a computer science PhD student at the University of Alabama who specializes in olfactory research, has noticed this subjectivity in her own work (she was not involved with the new study). One person might smell popcorn, and another smells vanilla, she says.

Whats new The researchers ran each scent through a mass spectrometer to reveal its chemical signature. They were able to isolate about sixty components called odorants that make up any smell.

Then, using a machine learning algorithm, they assigned a quality such as sweet, fruity, or astringent to each odorant, and measured its ratio relative to the smells other components. By tweaking these ratios, the researchers say, they may eventually be able to generate custom-tailored scents.

Currently, theres just a numerical calculation, says Takamichi Nakamoto, an engineer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and senior author of the new study. But later, wed like to repeat this actual smell.

Future virtual reality experiences could include custom scents to further immerse users.Liyao Xie/Moment/Getty Images

Why it matters The team envisions an AI perfumer that can blend up a scent based on a given description. Such a device would be a boon for the cosmetic fragrance industry for example, cooking up new scents for shampoos, lotions, or candles.

But it could also have medical applications, such as treating certain types of seizures. And it could even make for more realistic VR experiences in the Metaverse and other digital environments.

Whats next The algorithm created by Nakamotos team was trained to recognize scents using human-generated descriptions of smells from a database.

But because olfactory computing is a relatively new field, Nakamoto says we have limited data on how people perceive odors. This can lead to algorithmic bias, an increasingly common issue in artificial intelligence.

To avoid this bias from creeping in or, at the very least, minimize it Holloman thinks researchers should develop a database using information from human subjects with as wide a range of different backgrounds as possible. We need to focus more on recruitment, she says.

For now, she thinks the new study represents a promising step forward for the olfactory computing field.

Whether or not Smell-O-Vision will succeed remains to be seen (or rather, sniffed). Either way, harnessing the power of fragrance with artificial intelligence sounds pretty scent-sational.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY.

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AI could revamp the once-doomed Smell-O-Vision - Inverse

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kintsugi, a Bay Area startup developing voice biomarker technology to detect signs of depression and anxiety from short clips of speech, has been named a 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Governance and Responsible AI an annual award recognizing startups that are innovative, impactful, and intriguing.

Kintsugi is developing machine learning algorithms that analyze short clips of free-form speech for vocal features that correlate with clinical depression and anxiety. Their API platform Kintsugi Voice provides clinical decision support to healthcare practitioners, by scoring patients' mental health in real time. The tool integrates seamlessly with clinical call centers, telehealth platforms, and remote patient monitoring apps.

The Gartner report highlights that Kintsugi Voice does not rely on question and answer methods to assess a users mental health, nor is it based on natural language processing, because it analyzes how people speak, not the content of their speech. That furthermore allows them to operate in any language.

The machine learning model is based on the largest dataset in the world for voice biomarkers and mental health. It is collected from Kintsugis award-winning consumer wellness app in over 250 international cities and in multiple languages. The startup leverages this uniquely large and continuously evolving global dataset to prevent bias and push for responsible AI in healthcare. Furthermore, it is working to broaden its impact by deploying Kintsugi Voice in different patient populations, via clinical partnerships with a number of hospitals and health organizations.

According to Gartner, companies considered to be Cool Vendors in AI Governance and Responsible AI are those developing tools that assure AI fairness, bias mitigation, explainability, privacy and compliance.

We are thrilled to be recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor, said Grace Chang, Founder and CEO of Kintsugi. Mental health conditions are on the rise, and are only identified by primary care practitioners 47.3% of the time. We aim to support providers with objective and accurate mental health insights, so that they can ensure that their patients get the care they need.

Kintsugi recently announced a $20M Series A, bringing the companys total capital raised to $28M since its inception in 2019. The funding round was led by New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, and will further Kintsugis mission of scaling access to mental healthcare for more of those in need.

This is the latest in a series of accolades for the startup, which was listed in Forbes 2022 AI 50 in North America, and received the 2022 Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Technology Innovation Leadership Award.

About Kintsugi:

Kintsugi is developing novel voice biomarker software to detect signs of clinical depression and anxiety from short clips of free-form speech, closing mental health care gaps across risk-bearing health systems, saving time and lives. Based in Berkeley, California, Kintsugi is on a mission to provide equitable access to mental healthcare for all.

About Gartner:

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. Its expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organizations mission critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

Gartner disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Kintsugi named 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Governance and Responsible AI - Business Wire

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The much-hyped metaverse concept once thought of as a futuristic, hypothetical online destination is quickly becoming a new kind of internet. As more users interact with one another in these virtual environments, brands will realize new opportunities for engaging their target audiences. Companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook) are rapidly making plans to expand into the metaverse, altering and advancing how people will work, socialize, shop and even bank in the future.

While some completely disagree with the positive potential of this digital world, it cannot be refuted that the metaverse is a topic that many have heard of and will become increasingly ubiquitous. Gaming may be its most obvious initial use case, as consumers and gamers alike are steadily continuing to merge their physical and digital lives. This is something thats been happening since the arrival of the iPhone, a device that has become an extension of our brains and bodies. As technology progresses and advances, its only natural that more parts of our lives will be embedded into the digital world.

With more people opting to live inside the metaverse, there will be routine tasks that require more advanced and intuitive communication. Be it mailing a letter, purchasing land or buying a burger, there must be a proper way to scale communications through artificial intelligence. Technologies like CAIP (conversational AI platforms) will allow brands to design more appealing and engaging user experiences in this burgeoning virtual environment.

As more retail, banking and technology companies begin to inhabit the metaverse, the need for intelligent and relatable customer service programs will be crucial for success in this new arena. To achieve this, it has become increasingly clear that conversational AI must be the foundation of the metaverse, especially for experience delivery.

Whether its a virtual post office, bank, or fast food restaurant, the interactions will be between a human-controlled avatar and a chatbot, so these avatars must have a streamlined way to communicate in order to effectively reach their goal. We are seeing this begin to take shape, as Meta just released its open source language model that includes 175 billion words, a good start for the conversational AI that will give consumers access to advanced customer support systems that interact like humans. These advancements will not only allow retailers to make the customer service process easier, they can also help them create an even more immersive experience for brand loyalists.

In addition to its language model, Meta released major improvements to its hand tracking API, allowing a users hand to move as freely as it would in the physical world. This same precedent must be set for digital conversations, especially in consumer engagement and customer support settings. Just as users need to be able to use their hands, they will need to achieve goals through conversation. If a user cannot properly communicate with an avatar (bot), the lack of human experience will likely detract from the systems ability to blend the digital and physical worlds.

The metaverse can be thought of as a series of universes that merge, where a user could seamlessly flit among their worker, gamer and social media personas based on their requirements. Many have noted that the metaverse will probably play out like an open-world MMO or MMORPG (e.g. Fortnite or World of Warcraft, respectively) which will allow metaverse avatars to interact with each other. In order for these aspirations to even begin to take shape, the proper AI must be implemented to ensure algorithms and interactions are as scalable and sustainable as possible. This will be especially important considering the number of languages spoken across the globe (there are more than 7,100).

If the metaverse aims to unite these worlds, how will it allow us to overcome language barriers? This is where conversational AI, speech recognition and self-supervised learning come into play. When providing a chatbot (or in this case, avatar) that needs to support thousands of languages, any conversational AI platform would need to train the avatars to recognize patterns of specific speech and language in order to respond effectively and efficiently to written and voice queries.

Mark Zuckerberg referred to AI as the most important foundational technology of our time, believing that its power can unlock advancements in other fields, like VR, blockchain, AR and 5G.

With companies across all industries developing ways to monetize the metaverse, these industry giants are banking on it becoming the new (and all-encompassing) internet. Much like the internet boom in the 1990s, we just may look back at this moment and wonder how we ever survived without the metaverse.

In any universal shift of life, and especially when it comes to technology, its important to understand the foundational elements that build these integral parts of our lives. As technology becomes more and more integral in our lives, its important for users to truly understand the underpinnings of things like smartphones, computer programs and alternate digital universes.

Innovations like the metaverse would not be achievable without conversational AI, and as open source programs continue to develop, the adoption of this space will only grow.

Raj Koneru is CEO of Kore.ai

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Into the metaverse: How conversational AI will build its experiential foundation - VentureBeat

Warzone 2.0 will have an enemy AI faction you'll need to deal with after dropping into battle, according to today's Call of Duty Next reveal event. The AI faction will add a new layer of depth, up the stakes, and make combat even more realistic - all of which makes sense for Warzone's sequel.

Other popular battle royale games like Apex Legends and Fortnite have enemy AI you can encounter in specific areas on certain maps. Apex has deadly spiders, prowler dens, and an armory full of loot protected by robots. Fortnite has had tons of AI enemies throughout its lifespan, including aggressive ones that would randomly pop up from some underground lair and characters who are only aggressive if engaged.

The Warzone 2.0 AI faction, which is currently unnamed, will likely be narratively tied to the new map, Al Mazrah. The desert-based Warzone 2.0 map is set in a fictional region of Western Asia, and it looks incredibly dense and layered, with tons of verticality (but, thankfully, not as many sniper camp spots). It's unclear if the AI faction characters will attack on sight, or if they need to be provoked, but either way, you should keep your head on a swivel - you aren't just worried about enemy players anymore.

Warzone 2.0 is set to debut on November 16. Since it's being built in the same engine as Modern Warfare 2, you might want to check out the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta for a feel for the guns, gameplay changes (there's a new jump-to-prone maneuver that will be very helpful), and more.

Check out our full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer preview to see what to expect from the beta.

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Warzone 2.0 AI factions will add a new layer of danger - Gamesradar

Teenagers deserve to grow, develop, and experiment, says Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a nonprofit advocacy group. They should be able to test or abandon ideas while being free from the chilling effects of being watched or having information from their youth used against them later when they apply to college or apply for a job. She called for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to make rules to protect the digital privacy of teens.

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Hye Jung Han, the author of a Human Rights Watch report about education companies selling personal information to data brokers, wants a ban on personal data-fueled advertising to children. Commercial interests and surveillance should never override a childs best interests or their fundamental rights, because children are priceless, not products, she said.

Han and Fitzgerald were among about 80 people who spoke at the first public forum run by the FTC to discuss whether it should adopt new rules to regulate personal data collection, and the AI fueled by that data.

The FTC is seeking the publics help to answer questions about how to regulate commercial surveillance and AI. Among those questions is whether to extend the definition of discrimination beyond traditional measures like race, gender, or disability to include teenagers, rural communities, homeless people, or people who speak English as a second language.

The FTC is also considering whether to ban or limit certain practices, restrict the period of time companies can retain consumer data, or adopt measures previously subscribed by congressional lawmakers, like audits of automated decision-making systems to verify accuracy, reliability, and error rates.

Tracking peoples activity on the web is the foundation of the online economy, dating back to the introduction of cookies in the 1990s. Data brokers from obscure companies collect intimate details about peoples online activity and can make predictions about individuals, like their menstrual cycles, or how often they pray, as well as collecting biometric data like facial scans.

Cookies underpin online advertising and the business models of major companies like Facebook and Google, but today its common knowledge that data brokerages can do far more than advertise goods and services. Online tracking can bolster attempts to commit fraud, trick people into buying products or disclosing personal information, and even share location data with law enforcement agencies or foreign governments.

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The FTC Is Closing in on Runaway AI - WIRED

In three to five years, 80% of what marketers do will be dependent on artificial intelligence.

MSP SUMMIT/CHANNEL PARTNERS LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Allison Bergamo knows the power of artificial intelligence (AI) for marketing. Bergamo, principal at Bergamo Marketing Group, uses that kind of AI at her firm because, she said, she wants to be ahead of the curve. Bergamo wouldnt be wrong. As statistics go, in three to five years, 80% of what marketers do will be dependent on this type of technology.

Bergamo Marketing Groups Allison Bergamo

However, its not plug and play, said Bergamo, who added that marketers will have to use clean, unstructured data with some of the technology.

Bergamo was part of a panel of marketing experts who spoke at the MSP Summit/Channel Partners Leadership Summit in Orlando on Thursday. Their advice to the audience spanned from using artificial intelligence technology, to how to master relationships, to learning ways to market on a budget. The latter couldnt be more relevant for MSPs, they said.

Even though many MSPs are small and have finite resources, that doesnt mean they should neglect marketing.

You can find money in your budget to allocate toward this. Its important, said Marcial Velez (pictured right, above), CEO at Xperteks Computer Consultancy. Historically MSPs grow about 10% [annually]. If you want to outperform that rate, youve got to invest in this.

And the investment doesnt have to be expensive, the panelists said. One can be technologically savvy about marketing without spending a lot of money. Velez said digital business cards are a great example because they can share information beyond someones name and company affiliation. Social media and blog posts can also be exchanged with this tool.

You can now start connecting to the content that you want your customers to see right away. You can now show your story, he said.

Charlene Ignacio, CEO (pictured middle, above) at The CMO Guru, HireXPro, also agreed that simplicity goes a long way. She likened it to the difference between buying an expensive Mercedes (a euphemism for a pricey marketing program) and buying a Honda. Everyone thinks they need the Mercedes, she said, even though a Honda can get you where you need to go.

A Honda works perfectly. It will last you 20 years longer, and the maintenance is lower, Ignacio said. When it comes to marketing, I like to do simple things because marketing can become like a black hole (of costs).

However, knowing whether to use cost-effective AI and digital business card tools presumes a certain baseline knowledge by a companys team. If a firm doesnt have that knowledge and needs a marketing program to attain those kind of resources, where do they begin?

Finding a company to outsource ones marketing may be a good first step. And a firm might have luck initially finding marketers who understand its business model. However, the panelists said the likely scenario is that ones first choice of marketers will not work out. Be prepared to fail, they said. But fail fast.

Take Reggie Stevens (pictured left, above), CEO at Iris Solutions, for example. In 2018, Stevens acquired Iris Solutions and set out to find a marketing team.

I didnt know what I was doing, he said.

It turns out neither did the marketers. Yet Stevens didnt spend his time begrudging the fact that he didnt get the professionals he needed to promote his company.

The pandemic made life even more complicated. Stevens knew he needed to keep his community of customers engaged differently because many people were working remotely.

He was steadfast and found another marketing firm.

You know, we had this freak-out moment and we just went back to the basics and started experimenting, he said about his work with the new marketing team. We began differently.

And he started to see results, but it took a year. This is not unusual for marketing initiatives.

Establishing reasonable expectations around how much time it takes to generate a marketing pipeline is critical, he said. It takes a commitment.

However, its even more granular than that. Its a 24/7 process, Velez said.

I think the modern marketer today is someone who looks at marketing more than just an activity, he said. You should automate these systems so that youre continually outreaching and doing things for your existing customers and prospecting for any of your clients.

He added: It takes someone with a really holistic view.

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Experts Speak to the Power of Artificial Intelligence for Effective Marketing - Channel Futures

AI-generated art has become quite a vexing subject for anyone interested in both art and tech. With a new exhibition, the fracas continues.

Recently, an Artificial-intelligence (AI)-generated work beat humans in a fine art competition in the USA. And this week, a graphic novel will go on sale that features visuals generated by AI.

While the idea of AI art is incredibly exciting for those building wild worlds in the Metaverse, the notion is making skilled artists have a heart-sinking moment.

Many people are asking the question, are artists who have honed their skills for years now obsolete? Are these new AI-generated works valid? If a work is beautiful, is it not still art?

This is the question that a new exhibition hopes to ask its punters.

The exhibition will display hundreds of AI-generated works by multiple prompt writers. Styles range from classical to modern, photorealistic to abstract. The UnrealArt exhibition will show new works every few minutes.

Visitors to the exhibition can also prompt the AI to generate new artworks of their own. If the works are good enough, they will be included in the exhibition.

Of course, the appearance of such an exhibition means that the debate about whether this is valid art or not, is expected to rage on.

The host city is worth noting. Amsterdam has always been known for avant-garde thought when it comes to art.

Most tourists know Amsterdam for its achingly beautiful canals, and cobblestone streets that wind their way around waffle bars, marijuana cafes, and the Red-Light District. But Amsterdam is also famous for hosting humans who have pushed artistic boundaries for centuries.

The Rijksmuseum sits in the heart of the city. The building displays the most comprehensive collection of Rembrandts in the world. Rembrandt was famous for painting in an ultra-realistic manner, not bending to pressure to depict his patrons as exaggeratedly good-looking. Even when undertaking self-portraits, he didnt spare himself the brutal reality of aging or ugliness. It is #NoFilterLife, but hundreds of years ago.

The same museum is also home to the works of Johannes Vermeer. He was a 17th-century Dutch painter who is known for his wildly famous work called Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Vermeers early works showed his subjects undertaking everyday tasks of middle-class life. This was in contrast to the usual paintings of the day, that depicted glorified false narratives of rich merchant sponsors. This in itself pushed a new boundary in the art world.

Of course, the most famous artist from the Netherlands is Vincent Van Gogh. His art has its very own museum in Amsterdam. It is a young travelers rite-of-passage to drink magic mushroom tea in the nearby cafes and spend the day in the museum.

Van Gogh was considered to have been wildly before his time. His works were considered rebellious and recalcitrant towards established art standards of the day. Van Gogh expressed his world on canvas the way he saw it. The style became known as expressionism the freedom to express what you see. He died in poverty, while today his images adorn coffee cups and cushions across the world.

While the city of Amsterdam originally rejected Van Goghs art, the city has repented. Now, Amsterdam has claimed Van Gogh, and every single idea that he ever used to push against the artistic conventions of the day.

Now, we have a new idea spreading wildly across the world: AI-generated art. Multiple platforms have arisen to make words into images. While these platforms are in their very early stages, they can generate some stunning, otherworldly, show-stopping visuals.

And yet, AI-generated art means that anyone can now be an artist without having any particular skillset or talent borne into them.

Is the world now fairer and more open to potential artists, thanks to AI? Or does it leave truly talented creators with obsolete skills?

The UnRealArt exhibition in Amsterdam explores the questions raised by the latest innovations in AI art. The display hosts a number of works purely made by bots.

Artworks generated by AI have been around since at least 2018. Four years ago, Christies sold an AI-generated portrait for $423k.

It is called [ ())] + [( (()))] Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, from La Famille de Belamy (2018). It was the first AI-generated art to sell at auction. The piece was sold alongside other works by big-name artists such as Banksy.

The work was expected to sell for $10,000. But after a six-minute bidding war, the final price was $432,500. The art went to an anonymous bidder over the phone, who paid a 4,320% increase on the original asking price.

The Christies catalogue said that the painting was by the fictional Belamy family. It was actually created by an AI, a bot trained by a Paris-based art collective called Obvious. They said that they fed the computer 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th century and the 20th. The final picture was the result after the algorithm did its magic.

Artist Robbie Barrat told Artnet News, No one in the AI and art sphere really considers them to be artists theyre more like marketers.

Whether you feel that AI-generated works are art, or marketing, there seems to be no stopping the movement.

According to the artist hosting the exhibition in Amsterdam, text-to-image tools have become available to a much wider public, creating a tsunami of new artworks.

Creative arts such as drawing, painting and writing have long required a high level of skill. AI tools such as MidJourney and DALL-E 2 are allowing anyone with an idea to simply describe it in a short prompt and see it come to life within seconds. The ease with which anyone can now create a wide range of works raises some interesting questions, such as what is creativity? Who is the author? Is it the computer or the prompt writer? How will this technology change the creative arts? How can these tools be used for good or for bad? The UnRealArt exhibition is designed to let the visitor explore these questions themselves.

The UnRealArt platform is a fully decentralized platform that lets anyone upload AI art to sell as NFTs. In fact, if you have an online gallery, you can sell these artworks and get a 10% commission.

All the works from the exhibition can be seen here.

The UnRealArt exhibition opening is at Treehouse NDSM on the 16th of September, running until the 25th.

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AI-Generated Art Exhibition Hits Amsterdam, Fuelling the Controversy - BeInCrypto