Internet and Crossword

Understand AI

NOTso many years ago voice recognition software packages appeared on the market. Offering to allow verbal dictation to be converted to text on a PC screen, they proudly announced that their product was 90% efficient. With NICK SPARKS However this meant in practice that on average one word in ten would need correction. Not so wonderful if you wanted to transcribe long documents. Of course things have progressed since then and dictation and voice recognition software is far far better.

Now there are numerous devices and systems that can recognise verbal instructions, using various assistants like Google, Siri, Cortana, Alexa which all listen in for your commands and cope with to a certain extent with noisy backgrounds. There are applications appearing that can produce an image on a command. However, asking for an image of a Springer Spaniel eating a carrot suggests they are not quite there yet. AI (artificial Intelligence), as it’s called, is being incorporated into many devices particularly where image recognition is required for security purposes. Some phones will allow you to edit your photos by tapping an object or person to select them and then remove them from the image, automatically filling the space “intelligently” with something to match the background.

AI image manipulation is getting far smarter if you look at high-end image manipulation software such as Lightroom, Luminar Neo, etc. There are plenty of instructional videos on YouTube to help you make the most of your photographs with such programs and overcome many of the limitations of your camera. Can the old adage of “the camera never lies” be perhaps consigned to history?

So what is AI? The definition of Artificial Intelligence is somewhat loose. It is said to be the mimicking of human intelligence by machines especially computers. Examples include speech and language recognition and imaging processing, allied to acquiring large amounts of data which become actionable by rules (algorithms).

So, as the processing power and storage capacity of computers continues to expand we may expect to see more and more use of AI appearing on our devices.

This article is for guidance only, and the opinion of the writer. I.T. for the Terrified <it4ttcvh@gmail.com> Submitted for IT for the Terrified by Nick Sparks

The Mendip Mindbender

ACROSS

9 There is a layer of this in the

Earth’s lower stratosphere (5) 10 Fairy story presented as a seasonal, comical stage show (9) 11 This village, between Bath and Bristol, was recently, deemed, by the Daily

Telegraph to be one of the 20 best in Britain (7) 12 Self worship (7) 13 The essence of a speech (5) 14 The borough of New York hosting Wall Street (9) 16 Sir Ed Davy is leader of this political party (7,8) 19 Household revenue (9) 21 Weapon named after Thomas

A. Swift's electric rifle (5) 23 Gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual (7) 25 1200 hours (7) 27 Solved an anagram (9) 28 Youth wearing a head covering (5)

By greendandelion Clues in italics are cryptic

DOWN

1 Pawn a bottle of wine (4) 2 Breed of working country dog (6) 3 Tympanum (10) 4 Place, invention or discovery named after a person or place (6) 5 Long thin sensory appendages found in pairs on the head of some insects (8) 6 Sport played on horseback (4) 7 Member of the clergy (8) 8 Name of the oilrig moored at

Weston-super-Mare (3,7) 13 Thankful Village on River

Frome and 6 miles NE of

Frome (10) 15 Punctuation mark indicating possession or the omission of letters (10) 17 Where secret, administrative or supporting work is done (4,4) 18 Gabriel and Mark share a distinguishing feature (8) 20 Assemblies of clergy in division of a Christian church (6) 22 Radio 4 presenter Justin Webb went to a Quaker school here (6) 24 Supermarket chain from

Essen, Germany (4) 26 Toy to walk the dog with (4)