With other projects on our plate, we’re reducing our newsletter frequency from biweekly to monthly. Speaking of other projects, if you’re looking for a team to help apply machine learning or data science to a new product or existing workflow, we currently have space to bring on a new client, so drop us a note.
There you are, Waldo.
If Martin Handford knew that his Where’s Wally? (aka Where’s Waldo?) illustrations would one day be tackled by an artificial intelligence, maybe he would have thrown in trickier red herrings. More deception, though, probably wouldn’t have stopped this AI-wielding “There’s Waldo” robot that can identify Waldo in less than five seconds. Watch Mr. Handford’s tricky illustrations being robot handled here:
Pothole be gone
We’ve heard of AI helping cities avoid catastrophe by prioritize which pipes should be replaced in aging infrastructure, but this is new: machine learning is now being trained in Canada to help spot pesky potholes. One implementation plan is to mount cell phones in all city-owned vehicles and use machine learning to constantly scan road footage for cracks and small potholes. This would replace the hours it takes pothole-hunting city employees to go out and find these nuisances on their own. By repairing smaller potholes earlier in the erosion process, cities can save money.
You might want to go here instead . . .
We tried the AI-powered flight-purchasing app Hopper a little while ago, and at the time, we weren’t impressed, but things change, products get better, and v0.1.0 turns into v7.8.2. While we have yet to use the most recent version of this app ourselves, it sounds like it’s gotten a lot better. Its growth has soared since February, and it claims its recommendation engine frequently convinces users to buy better airfares to different locations than the ones they were initially searching for (e.g., heading to the Caribbean instead of Hawaii). It also sends AI-powered notifications to help users find better deals, better dates, and better arrival and departure airports. With a better application of the tech, it may be worth a try. Watch their introductory video here:
More Stories
- AI that can take written descriptions of your favorite book characters and create pictures of them
- “Deep-Speare” attempts to write poems like Shakespeare
- Can NLP tools tell your company when employee morale is low?
- AI brain-wave scanner and eye-tracking tech used by ad evaluation company to monitor viewer emotions
- Matching news articles with better pictures using AI
Extras
If you’re curious about the intersection of IoT and AI—particularly digital twins—here’s a podcast episode that discusses it.