Author: InfoForTech

In today’s hospitals and clinics, a dermatologist may use an artificial intelligence model for classifying skin lesions to assess if the lesion is at risk of developing into a cancer or if it is benign. But if the model is biased toward certain skin tones, it could fail to identify a high-risk patient.Perhaps one of the best known and most persistent challenges that AI research continues to reckon with is bias. Bias is often discussed in relation to training data, but model architecture can also contain and amplify bias, negatively influencing model performance in real-world settings. In high-stakes medical scenarios,…

Emergency first-responder leaders told federal regulators in a private meeting last month that they were frustrated with the performance of autonomous vehicles on their streets—that city firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and paramedics are forced to spend time during emergencies resolving issues with frozen or stuck cars. One fire official called them “a safety issue for our crews as well as the victims.” WIRED obtained an audio recording of the meeting.Officials from San Francisco and Austin, where Waymo has been ferrying passengers without drivers for more than a year, said the vehicles’ performance is getting worse. “We are actually seeing something…

GM announced earlier this week that it will upgrade 4 million vehicles with Gemini, Google’s family of generative AI models. The rollout will occur over several months and include GM’s four brands — Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac — with model year 2022 or newer. The vehicles must already have Google built-in, an Android-based operating system integrated into the vehicle dashboard.A representative for GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google built-in operates much like a phone, giving drivers and passengers access to Google Maps, Google Assistant and the Google Play store. Typically, you cannot add Google built-in…

Information technology services company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. today announced it agreed to acquire Astreya Inc., a San Jose-based information technology managed services firm specializing in artificial intelligence infrastructure and data center operations. The deal is worth about $600 million, the company confirmed to Reuters, and is expected to strengthen Cognizant’s AI portfolio. Founded in 1994, Cognizant describes itself as a professional services outfit that helps clients modernize technology and transform their experiences. In practical terms, that means the company works from inside enterprises to rebuild processes and technology foundations. In the AI era, that increasingly means reconstructing engineering around…

South Africa has had its first draft national artificial intelligence policy removed following the discovery of fictitious citations in the document that appeared to be AI generated.The recall, which has emerged after the draft policy’s phony references were exposed, is more than a bureaucratic blip; it’s precisely the sort of gaffe that might cause a person to drop their mug halfway to their lips.You have to ask yourself: Wait, the policy that is meant to regulate AI just got undermined by AI? That’s embarrassing, to be sure, but also instructive in that it’s a cautionary tale.South African communications and digital…

For something that’s supposed to help us recharge, weekends can feel surprisingly high-pressure. There’s always that underlying expectation to do something meaningful, especially when it comes to family time. Maybe it’s taking the kids out, planning an enriching activity, or just making sure the time feels “well spent.”  But between busy schedules and rising costs, not every weekend can (or should) be a complicated outing.  Instead, fostering routines that are easy to replicate on a weekly basis is more sustainable in the long run. Because the truth is, making weekends special doesn’t always mean doing more.  Sometimes, it’s just about…

YouTube’s search bar is evolving. “Ask YouTube” turns your video hunts into AI chats. But is it saving you time or just killing creator creativity? The traditional search bar is slowly becoming a relic of the past. And the latest to join the demolition crew is YouTube. Google is currently testing a feature called “Ask YouTube,” a conversational AI chatbot that replaces your usual scroll through thumbnails with a curated, back-and-forth dialogue. We’ve all been there: typing “how to fix a leaky faucet” and then spending ten minutes skimming through five different videos to find the one part where they…

The following is a joint announcement by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and IBM.IBM and MIT today announced the launch of the MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab, advancing their long-standing collaboration to shape the next era of computing. The new lab expands its scope to include quantum computing, alongside foundational artificial intelligence research, with the goal of unlocking new computational approaches that go beyond the limits of today’s classical systems.The MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab builds on a distinguished history of scientific excellence at the intersection of research and academia. Evolving from the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, which originated in 2017…

(Official UWOTC-CWA image) The team developing a video game based on Magic: The Gathering announced on Tuesday that they’ve unionized, describing the move as part of an attempt to improve working conditions at Renton, Wash.-based Wizards of the Coast and create better games. United Wizards of the Coast, operating in partnership with the Communications Workers of America, specifically represents the team working on Magic: The Gathering – Arena, an online adaptation of the long-running collectible card game. UWOTC-CWA says it represents “the collective labor of over a hundred game designers, programmers, producers, artists, QA, and more.” “We believe that, through…

If you’ve finished Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 and immediately wanted more, Netflix heard you. The animated series has officially been renewed for season 2, and it is returning to Netflix this fall. For context, Tales From ’85 is a spin-off of the original Stranger Things franchise, set in the winter of 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana. It follows the Hawkins Investigators Club as they face paranormal threats in an animated format separate from the live-action series. What happened at the end of Tales From ’85 season 1? [Spoiler warning: please skip this section if you have not finished season 1…