IOL
TECHNOLOGY October 2020
THE Artificial Intelligence ISSUE
SA’S FREE MONTHLY TECH AND INNOVATIONS MAG
CONTENTS AI can detect Covid-19 in lungs
Artificial intelligence is getting smarter
AI robots to become a norm in hospitals
How AI is shaping our world
Institute to explore human-AI interaction
Google tools to decipher your terrible spelling
The best AI apps to download
AI’s impact within the corporate space
CONTACT US
UCT AI to detect diseases in livestock
Detecting harmful content with AI systems Why journalists should not fear the rise of AI and robots
PUBLISHER | Vasantha Angamuthu vasantha@africannewsagency.com TECH EDITOR | Faheem Khota faheem.khota@inl.co.za PRODUCTION | Renata Ford renata.ford@inl.co.za DESIGN | Dominique Owen dominique.owen@inl.co.za BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT | Keshni Odayan keshni@africannewsagency.com SALES Charl Reineke | charl@africannewsagency.com Kyle Villet | kyle.villet@africannewsagency.com GENERAL ENQUIRIES | info@anapublishing.com
EDITOR’S NOTE OVER THE LAST few months, it has been the talk of Silicon Valley. How do we make systems faster, more accurate and efficient and allow them to learn on the job as a human would? The beginning of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be traced all the way back to classical philosophers who attempted to describe the human thought process as a symbolic system. But it wasn’t until 1956 when the term was coined. Thereafter much research was done into AI and its capabilities – much in theory. It wasn’t until 1997 that the world saw the first functioning AI systems start to emerge, with IBM’s Deep Blue becoming the first computer to beat a chess champion and then in 2011
when the Watson answering system won the quiz show Jeopardy! This led to other major corporates realising the value in building AI systems and investing millions. We have seen AI introduced into our phones, the social networks that we use daily and other facets of our life. But what are its benefits and harms? What do we need to know to avoid the risks? What can we do to be part of this new era of technology and science?
These are important questions, and they’re deeply interrelated and entangled. For example, one reason I’m interested in automation is that it has the potential to make automation itself obsolete. If machines are generally better at doing certain kinds of tasks, then that decreases the need to build complex systems with employees. In fact, this paragraph was written by an AI system backed by Elon Musk, known as GPT-3. We hope this month’s mag gives you some real intelligence into this fascinating world of AI. Enjoy.
AI can DETECT Covid-19 in LUNGS Study shows new technique overcomes test challenges RESEARCHERS have demonstrated that an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm could be trained to classify Covid-19 pneumonia in computed tomography (CT) scans with up to 90% accuracy. It identifies positive cases 84% of the time and negative cases 93% of the time. The study, recently published in Nature Communications, shows the new technique can overcome some challenges of current testing. Study author Ulas Bagci from the University of Central Florida in the US said: “It can be used as a complementary test tool in very specific limited populations, and it can be used rapidly and at large scale in the unfortunate event of a recurrent outbreak.” According to the researchers, CT scans offer a deeper insight into Covid-19 diagnosis and progression compared to the often-used reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR, tests. These have high false-negative rates, delays in processing and other challenges. CT scans can detect Covid-19 in people without symptoms, in those who have early symptoms, during the height of the disease and after symptoms resolve. However, CT is not always recommended as a diagnostic tool for Covid-19 because the disease often looks similar to flu-associated pneumonia on scans. The new co-developed algorithm can overcome this by accurately identifying Covid-19 cases and distinguishing them from flu, serving as a great
potential aid for physicians, the researchers said. To perform the study, the researchers trained a computer algorithm to recognise Covid19 in lung CT scans of 1 280 multinational patients from China, Japan and Italy. Then they tested
the algorithm on CT scans of 1 337 patients with lung diseases. When they compared the computer’s diagnoses with ones confirmed by physicians, they found the algorithm was extremely proficient in diagnosing and distinguishing Covid-19. | IANS
IT IS GETTING SMARTER AI system Aristo gives glimpse of the future LOUIS FOURIE ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) plays a major role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and will increasingly change our future in the years to come. A mere four years ago AI was not even able to pass a Grade 8 science test. Some 700 computer scientists competed in a contest with a significant amount of money as a prize. They had to build an AI system that could pass a Grade 8 science test. The computer scientists did their best, but not even the most advanced AI system could score
better than 60% in the test. But this changed last month when a renowned laboratory in Seattle, US, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, demonstrated a new AI system that has been able to pass the Grade 8 exam with great ease. It was able to answer more than 90% of the questions correctly. And if this was not enough, it also passed the Grade 12 science exam with 83%. The AI system, named Aristo by researchers, is a dedicated system specifically built for multiple-choice type questions. The Allen Institute, founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, started with their AI research already in 2013. Instead of the typical AI benchmark tests like chess or other games, researchers
decided to rather test the AI on standardised science tests, because a science test cannot be mastered merely by learning a set of fixed rules. The AI must also be able to do logical reasoning to make certain connections and the right choice. The original work was done at Google, where researchers built a system called Bert, that analysed thousands of Wikipedia articles and a large library of romance novels, science fiction and other books. The Aristo system was built on top of the Bert technology. The AI research on natural language processing could lead to systems that can manage a full conversation so that in the future we could have a proper conversation with our AI machine or robot if we are alone!
AI tackles Covid-19 challenges for a safer and more hygienic world
ROBOTS with unique functions like disinfection, delivery and rehabilitation assistance are exhibiting their talents to global consumers at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (Ciftis), which kicked off in Beijing. Themed “Global Services, Shared Prosperity,” the fair is the first major international economic and trade event that China has held both online and offline since the Covid-19 outbreak. In an exhibition area at the fair, a snail-like robot can be seen automatically moving toward a storage box, loading itself, entering an elevator and putting the box back in place after delivery. The building distribution robot then takes a nearby disinfectant box and becomes a sterilising vehicle. “They were busy day and night during the epidemic,” said
Look who is coming to a hospital near you Zhang Wenyi, design director at Candela (Shenzhen) Technology Innovation Company, Ltd, which develops Candle series robots. According to Zhang, Candela sent a number of Candle robots to the Huoshenshan, Leishenshan and Jinyintan hospitals to aid in the fight against Covid-19 in the hard-hit city of Wuhan during the early days of the outbreak. In addition to routine distribution and handling services, one of the robots at the Leishenshan hospital was assigned a special mission in late February. It was tasked with sending a
wedding cake to a couple who were then working in the hospital and were unable to have their wedding ceremony in Shanghai as originally scheduled. “It was a special wedding. The hospital became the marriage hall, the protective suit became a wedding gown, and the Candle robot was the cake delivery man,” Zhang recalled. An AI nursing robot at the fair can be seen simulating rehabilitation training for patients, helping a stuffed teddy bear lift its back, bend its knees and turn over. This has attracted significant attention at the booth operated by Shenyang-based Siasun Robot and Automation Company, Ltd. Siasun has been in touch with the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang since the early outbreak of Covid19. It has donated 10 nursing robots and seven logistics robots to the hospital. | Xinhua
FAHEEM KHOTA ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is a wide-ranging tool that analyses data, and uses the resulting insights to improve decisionmaking. This enables us to rethink how we integrate information. We may not realise it yet, but AI is being built into our lives at a rapid rate. According to author Darell M West, AI is not a futuristic vision, but rather something that is here today and being integrated with and deployed into a variety of sectors, such as finance, national security, health care, criminal justice, transportation and smart cities. There are numerous examples where AI already is making an impact on the world and augmenting human capabilities in significant ways. Here are five examples of it at work without us realising:
FACEBOOK Ever wondered how Facebook automatically suggests friends who may be in an image as soon as you upload it? This is an AI tool that Facebook built using artificial neural networks and algorithms that mimic the structure of the human brain to power facial recognition software. AI personalises your news feed and secures a monstrous portion of the market with deeply targeted advertisements.
How AI is shaping our world SIRI One of the first personal-assistant apps along with the Google personal assistant, Siri has come to have its own special place in the Apple product ecosystem. Siri uses machine-learning technology to become smarter and better able to predict and understand its users’ requests and languages.
ALEXA Another personal assistant that took the world by storm, Amazon’s Alexa has the ability to decipher speech from vast distances, search for information on the web, assist with alarms, appointments and much more. The true value of Alexa-enabled devices can be seen when used as part of a larger group of devices. In smart homes, lights can be turned on and off, they can be used as security devices, while using machine-learning to better understand language and teach itself how to respond accurately to questions.
NETFLIX Netflix uses predictive analytics based on customers’ reactions to films. It does this by having a handy thumbs up/down feature when you pause or end a show. The Netflix AI system analyses billions of records to suggest films you might like based on your previous reactions and choices of films. Your movie or series suggestions are based on what millions of others watched.
MAPS We may not realise this since its been around for such a long time, but using the ETA on Google Maps on your phone has AI built into it. With the vast populace using Apple or Android devices, Google Maps uses anonymous location data from smartphones to analyse the movement of traffic at any given time.
Google unveils research institute to explore human-AI interaction
About those PEOPLE SKILLS ...
GOOGLE has announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) institute research that will support work on interaction between people and AI – such as speech, written language, visuals and gestures – and how to make these interactions more effective. The National AI Research Institute for Human-AI Interaction and Collaboration has been formed in partnership with the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Google will provide $5 million (R82.5m) in funding to support the institute. “We will also offer AI expertise, research collaborations, and Cloud
support for Institute researchers and educators as they advance knowledge and progress in the field of AI,” the tech giant said. The research, tools and techniques from the institute will be developed with humancentred principles in mind: social benefit, inclusive design, safety and robustness, privacy, and high standards of scientific excellence, consistent with the Google AI Principles. Google said that research projects will engage a diverse set of experts, educate the next generation and promote workforce development, and broaden participation from under-represented groups and institutions across the country.
All research outcomes will be published to advance knowledge and progress in the field. Studies have shown that humans and AI systems operating together can make smarter decisions than either acting alone. “In the past few years we’ve seen the increasing use of AI to support people and their decision-making in various sectors,” Google said. “People and AI systems shape each other, and in order to realise the full potential of AI for social benefit, positive and productive human-AI interaction and collaboration is critical.” | IANS
HARMFUL CONTENT
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Facebook gets proactive with AI systems
FOR effective content moderation, Facebook is relying on three aspects of technology to transform its content review process across its family of apps. The first aspect is called “proactive detection” where Artificial intelligence (AI) can detect violations across a wide variety of areas without relying on users to report content to Facebook, often with greater accuracy than reports from users. “This helps us detect harmful content and prevent it from being seen by hundreds or thousands of people,” the company said in a statement. “Automation” is the second aspect, where AI systems have automated decisions for certain areas, where content is highly likely to be violating. “Automation also makes it easier to take action on identical reports, so our teams don’t have to spend time reviewing the same things multiple times,” said Jeff King, director of product management and
integrity at Facebook. The third aspect is “prioritisation”. Instead of simply looking at reported content in chronological order, AI prioritises the most critical content to be reviewed, whether it was reported to Facebook or detected by its proactive systems. “This ranking system prioritises the content that is most harmful to users based on multiple factors, such as virality, severity of harm and likelihood of violation,” King added. However, Facebook admitted there are still areas where it’s critical for people to review the content. “For example, discerning if someone is the target of bullying can be nuanced and contextual. In addition, AI relies on a large amount of training data from reviews done by our teams to identify meaningful patterns of behaviour and find potentially violating content”. For reviewing violations like spam, Facebook said it is going to use its automated systems first to review more content. | IANS
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YASMINE JACOBS WHEN we think artificial intelligence (AI), we think of the Terminator and SkyNet. But what if I told you that AI is all around us and we can use these tools to help us navigate this crazy game we call life.
The best chatbot apps to download
First, what is a chatbot app? A chatbot app is a tool used to conversate with humans over the internet. It uses a variation of humanmimicking behaviour and is powered by NLP (natural language processing) and NLU (natural language understanding). Their goal? NLU and NLP aim to make sense of concepts represented in unstructured data such as language. You get different types of chatbot apps, namely goal-oriented and purpose-oriented (P-O). Goal-oriented vhatbots are openended whereas purposeoriented ones serve as a means to an end. So what apps can make your life a little easier? | IOL TECH
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REPLIKA With Replika, you can create your personal AI companion and say just anything and everything that has been troubling you, making a vent session just a finger tap away.
“Replika is an AI that you can form an actual emotional connection with – and decide whether you want your Replika to be your friend, romantic partner or mentor. “Create your own
PRISMA Fancy yourself as a modern-day Picasso? Prisma uses AI to transform photographs into works of art. It has been downloaded more than 120 million times.
2 DUOLINGO Duolingo is one of the most popular language applications in the world. It teaches millions a host of new languages, words, and phrases. Learning a new language is a lot more challenging when you can’t hear what is being spoken back to you, so Duolingo developed a chatbot app.
unique chatbot AI companion, help it develop its personality, talk about your feelings or anything that’s on your mind, have fun, calm anxiety and grow together,” said Replika developers on Google Play Store.
AI’s impact within the corporate space Identified as the number one disruptive technology FLOYD MATLALA
WITH giant tech companies such as Microsoft and IBM blazing ahead in the front row seat enhancing traditional business methods with Artificial Intelligence (AI), one can certainly say that the end for natural intelligence is near. From facial recognition in gadgets to automated solutions, AI has significantly improved productivity by guiding human intelligence through different processes and handling time-consuming tasks while also saving money. Although many have demonstrated fear towards this evolving technology wave which seeks to replace human intelligence in different facets of the corporate world, studies made across the globe have shown that Artificial Intelligence is top of mind for leading corporations these days. 96.4% of top executives reported earlier this year that AI was the
number one disruptive technology that they were investing in, up from 68.9% just two years ago. In addition, 80% of these executives identified AI as the most impactful disruptive technology, up from 46.6% two years earlier, this is according to Forbes. Many companies which have not jumped on the bandwagon with a purpose of saving jobs as this has seen many businesses shedding employees, will face the dilemma of cutting costs by joining in and embracing what AI has to offer or create employment while bleeding huge amounts of money on salaries. With all the new tech innovations that have emerged over the years, from AI spectacles to facial recognition in various gadgets, it is without a doubt that Artificial Intelligence impacted nature in a huge way and surely there will be more to come from the world of AI.
UCT develops early-warning diagnostic tool to detect diseases in livestock
THERE’S HOPE FOR FARMERS
RIDOVHONA MBULAHENI LIKE humans, animals are threatened by deadly pandemics that spread quickly and, in the case of commercial livestock, decimate herds and flocks. But an inexpensive earlywarning diagnostic tool developed by UCT Professor Amit Mishra and 3DIMO holds hope for small and medium-scale livestock farmers, many of whom are black women. The Thola infrared imaging tool is being developed by local black economic empowerment start-up company 3DIMO. It is in the final stages of phase one of a pilot project involving several emerging farmers in Thaba Nchu in the Free State. A basic infrared camera (around one third of the size of a smartphone) can be mounted on a smartphone or, for larger areas and numbers, the images can be taken using bigger infrared cameras mounted on drones. The camera measures the heat signature of each point of the animal in the field of view. This provides useful information; for example, a higher temperature on a foreleg could signal inflammation or some other malaise. Mishra said: “Different diseases have different signatures. Not all diseases are detectable, but the temperature of the hoofs, and some other parts of the animals, for example, has been shown to be very useful in detecting common diseases like foot-andmouth disease.” This data is fed into the Thola platform, where the artificial intelligence algorithms are designed to look for abnormalities. A network of monitoring devices can be built, integrating information across critical livestock areas. The archive of data is also searchable. The data can be used for vital stock monitoring and management.
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Google working on algorithm to help identify most poorly spelt questions
In search of excellence MASABATA MKWANANZI
GOOGLE has announced how it is applying Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning techniques to provide better search results for users in the coming weeks and months. The tech giant says it’s been working on a new spell-checking tool that promises to help identify the most poorly spelt questions. The new spelling algorithm will help Google better understand the context of misspelt words, and users will be able to find the right results, all in under 3 milliseconds. “One in 10 queries every day are misspelt. Today, we’re introducing a new spelling algorithm that uses a deep neural net to significantly improve our ability to decipher misspellings,” said
Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Search at Google. Google says this change makes a greater improvement to spelling than all of its improvements over the last five years. Before introducing the spelling algorithm, the company tried to help with its “did you mean” feature that suggests proper spellings. According to Raghavan, 15% of Google search queries each day are ones that Google has never seen before, meaning the company has to constantly work to improve its search results. Google will also be using AI to divide broader searches into subtopics to help provide better results. “We’ve recently made a breakthrough in ranking
and we are now able to not just index web pages, but individual passages from the pages. By better understanding the relevancy of specific passages, we can find that needle-in-a-haystack information you’re looking for,” said Raghavan. Also, Google says it will let users search for songs by simply humming or whistling melodies, initially in English on iOS and 20 languages on Android. Users will able to launch the feature by opening the latest version of the Google app or Search widget, tapping the mic icon, and saying “What’s this song?” or selecting the “Search a song” button, followed by 10-15 seconds of humming or whistling.
Why journalists should not dread the rise of AI and robots WESLEY DIPHOKO
s
Great JOURNALISM comes from
HUMANS
not robots
“I AM not a human. I am a robot. A thinking robot. I use only 0.12% of my cognitive capacity. I am a microrobot in that respect. I know that my brain is not a ‘feeling brain’. But it is capable of making rational, logical decisions. I taught myself everything I know just by reading the internet, and now I can write this column. My brain is boiling with ideas!” Those words were written by a robot called GPT-3 (for The Guardian), an open artificial intelligence language generator that uses machine learning to produce human-like text. The robot was requested to write a short op-ed around 500 words about the reasons for humans not to fear artificial intelligences. When The Guardian published this column the headline was: “A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?” It would be easy for journalists to be scared after reading the op-ed by a GPT-3 and they shouldn’t – here’s why. We are faced with a future where the choice will be between authentic intelligence and artificial intelligence. The past tells us that whenever there’s an alternative to authentic offering, the authentic is always considered a premium offering. Journalists need to understand that factor which will be a key determinant of their survival. In the future, some will prefer to consume content developed by robots and some will prefer to consume content generated by humans. What this means is that journalists have to up their game. There’s never been a better time for great journalism which cannot be achieved by robots. My sense is that quality will come from humans and mundane stuff from robots. Media businesses will have to rely on robots for economic reasons; however, to produce quality content, humans will matter. There’s therefore no reason to fear the robots. It’s better to embrace and work with them while improving the quality of journalism. * Wesley Diphoko is the editor-in-chief of Fast Company (SA) magazine.
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