Google artificial intelligence creates its own AI ‘child’
Machine-made programme is more accurate than human-made systems
Google’s AutoML artificial intelligence (AI) system has created its own “fully-functional AI child” that’s capable of outperforming its human-made equivalents, reports Alphr.
The computer-made system, known as NASNet, is designed to identify objects, such as people and vehicles, in photographs and videos, the search engine giant says.
Studies show that NASNet is able to identify objects in an image with 82.7% accuracy. Google says this is an improvement of 1.2% over AI programmes created by humans.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The web giant has made the system “open source”, which means developers from outside the company can either expand upon the programme or develop their own version.
Researchers at Google say they hope AI developers will be able to build on these models to address “multitudes of computer vision problems we have not yet imagined.”
While the AI-made programme appears to be harmless in its current guise, Alphr says significant advances in its technology could have “dangerous implications.”
The website says AI systems could, for instance, develop their own “biases” and spread them onto other machines.
But the Daily Express says tech giants Facebook and Apple have joined the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society, a group that aims to implement strategies that “only allow AI to be developed if it will benefit humanity.”
The newspaper reports that Google’s engineering chief, Ray Kurzweil, also believes AI could cause problems for mankind in the future.
He says humanity will experience “difficult episodes” before AI can be used to benefit civilisation.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Republicans want to silence Israel's opponents'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Poland, Germany nab alleged anti-Ukraine spies
Speed Read A man was arrested over a supposed Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 19, 2024
Cartoons Friday's cartoons - priority delivery, USPS on fire, and more
By The Week US Published
-
AI is causing concern among the LGBTQ community
In the Spotlight One critic believes that AI will 'always fail LGBTQ people'
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
When even art is artificial
Opinion The AI threat to human creativity
By William Falk Published
-
The push for media literacy in education amid the rise of AI
In the Spotlight A pair of congresspeople have introduced an act to mandate media literacy in schools
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
How social media is limiting political content
The Explainer Critics say Meta's 'extraordinary move' to have less politics in users' feeds could be 'actively muzzling civic action'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Justice Department bites Apple with iPhone suit
Speed Read The lawsuit alleges that the tech company monopolized the smartphone industry
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
The complex environmental toll of artificial intelligence
The explainer AI is very much mostly not green technology
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Artificial history
Opinion Google's AI tailored the past to fit modern mores, but only succeeded in erasing real historical crimes
By Theunis Bates Published
-
Apple kills its secret electric car project
Speed Read Many of the people from Project Titan are being reassigned to work on generative AI
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published