Chatbots, Fraud Detection, Robotics in Industry (and More) – This Week in Artificial Intelligence 11-04-16

1 – Carnegie Mellon Receives $10 Million From K&L Gates To Study Ethical Issues Posed By Artificial Intelligence

Carnegie Mellon announced that it will dedicate a $10 million gift from the K&L Gates Foundation to the establishment of a new K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies. Carnegie Mellon President Subra Suresh expressed gratitude for the grant, commenting on CMU’s work ahead:

“It is not just technology that will determine how this century unfolds. Our future will also be influenced strongly by how humans interact with technology, how we foresee and respond to the unintended consequences of our work, and how we ensure that technology is used to benefit humanity, individually and as a society.”

The foundation will support new faculty chairs, three new Presidential Fellowships for doctoral students, a biennial conference, scholarships to recognize undergraduate students’ achievements in the artificial intelligence and related fields.

(Read the full press release on Carnegie Mellon University News)

2 – Citi Ventures Deploys Machine Learning And Artificial Intelligence With People

Citi Ventures, responsible for investments in innovative technologies and companies, is making an investment in Feedzai, a machine learning company that specializes in real-time fraud protection. The investment parallels with Citi Global Innovations Labs’ active interests in applications of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics. Ramneek Gupta, managing director and co-head of investing for Citi Labs, commented on the symbiotic relationship of pairing AI capabilities that enhance the human role in directing AI as Citi and other financial institutions seek to better protect consumers.

(Read the full article on Forbes)

3 – Companies Rally to Build Chatbots for Messaging Services

The pursuit of pioneering smart virtual assistants and chatbots is trending across industries, and more than 33,000 new bots have been created since Facebook opened its Messenger service six months ago  and invited developers to build them on the communications platform. A primary objective for current developers is to build a more natural interface between machines and humans – an assistant that’s not too human and not too robot-like. Stan Chudnovsky, vice president and head of product for Messenger at Facebook, predicts that people and AI-powered chatbots will conduct complex dialogs in the next two years. Chatbots are still in their infant stage, with companies like ADP working with social anthropologists and copywriters to help improve chatbot behavior.

(Read the full article on The Wall Street Journal)

4 – Will Self-Driving Trucks, Now A Reality, Unseat Truck Drivers?

While autonomous cars have gotten more than their fair share of attention from the media, self-driving trucks and big rigs have made a more veiled emergence in the hands of researchers and entrepreneurs. Uber recently acquired Otto, which developed self-driving big rig technology. Alain Kornhauser, Head of the Autonomous Vehicle Engineering program at Princeton University, notes that long-haul trucks are well suited for self-driving technology – they drive mainly on well-marked highways, which are generally smoother and free of pedestrians. He believes self-driving trucks will be in use within a decade, but it’s likely those trucks will still have a human driver at the wheel – in case something goes awry.

(Read the full interview on NPR)

5 – Robots Help Position Interventional Needles

A new robotic arm will help physicians reduce the time spent placing a needle for biopsy from an average 30 minutes to 5 minutes. The arm was developed by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automa-tion IPA’s Project group for Automation in Medicine and Biotechnology PAMB and the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS and is being shown at the MEDICA trade fair in Düsseldorf from November 14 to 17. This more efficient human-robot collaboration provides other benefits, such as reducing the amount of radiation exposure to both patients and doctors from the X-Ray used to help insert a needle into tissue. Researchers predict the arm will be in the market in three years.

(Read the full article on Science Daily)

Image credit: Government Technology