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1973: well-known mathematician Professor James Lighthill delivered a health report that seemed to signal the death of the robotics industry. According to Lighthill, robots would only ever be able to play chess like an experienced human amateur. He also claimed that things like facial recognition would never come to be because such tasks were beyond the capability of machines. Thanks to Lighthill’s report, AI funding was reduced considerably, paving the way for what became known in AI circles as the AI winter. -- Holy City Sinner

In today's news, Neuralink "show & tell" event pushed back to the end of November, an AI created 100,000 full-body photos of people who don't exist, Lyft co-founder says that automated vehicles won't replace drivers for at least a decade, and LSU AI smartphone app helps mentally ill, families, caregivers. 

Neuralink 'Show & Tell' Event Pushed Back to the End of November  

Elon Musk announced back in August that his brain-machine interface company, Neuralink, would be holding a progress update “Show & Tell” event on October 31. As per a recent post from the Tesla CEO, however, the Neuralink event has been postponed by a month, with the Show & Tell now being scheduled on November 30, 2022. 

Musk co-founded Neuralink in 2016 with the intention of developing an implantable device that would enable people to communicate with computers directly through their brains. This should pave the way for a far more efficient way to communicate with machines as opposed to more conventional input methods like touch screens, keyboards, or voice assistants. 

Musk has stated that Neuralink’s research will enable mankind to keep up with developments in Artificial Intelligence. More lately, however, Neuralink has largely focused its efforts on developing a device that could help restore capabilities to people with disabilities or treat people with conditions such as morbid obesity. 

While Neuralink’s technology and goals may sound like they are in the realm of science fiction, some experts have shared their support for the company and its concepts. Professor Andrew Jackson from Newcastle University, an expert in neural interfaces, has previously stated that the brain-machine startup’s concepts are no more impossible than other claims about neurotechnology. 

Neuralink’s technology was demonstrated in 2020 and 2021 with pigs and monkeys. The company even released a video clip of a monkey playing the video game Pong with his mind in April 2021. Musk has stated that Neuralink hopes to test its technology in people in the near future, and this past April, the Tesla CEO noted that Neuralink is still pushing to hold its first trial application of the company’s technology in humans by the end of the year. 

Recent reports, however, suggest that Musk may need to be more conservative with Neuralink’s target, as the company is yet to receive the FDA’s approval. The brain-machine startup has also not issued a comment about its Show & Tell event’s new date. 

Teslarati

An AI Created 100,000 Full-Body Photos of People Who Don't Exist 

Up until now, AI portraits of people who don’t exist have just been headshots. But now, a company has created 100,000 fake humans that have bodies too.

Generated Photos have released 100,000 “super realistic full-body photos” made entirely from artificial intelligence (AI).

What’s more, the photos are available for free for non-commercial use, so long as a backlink is given attributing Generated Photos.

Previously, the generated photos only showed the head and shoulders. Now, full bodies have been added allowing for implementation into more mediums.

The full-body AIs can be used in advertisements, web design, game and video production among many other avenues.

The AI headshot photos have already been used in the gaming industry, for mental health issues, as references for artists, or NFT artworks.

“Full-body photos can do all the above things and much more than just faces,” notes Artem Kan from Generated Photos.

“There are lots of speculations and prejudices against content generated by AI. Many people think of that exclusively as deep fakes, disinformation, and related malicious stuff. But the same people watch movies with deceased actors resurrected by computer technologies and go to ABBA concerts in 2022.”

The company notes that there have been some peculiar uses of its product. One such example is crime prevention.

“Our photos help law enforcers to catch online predators and offenders. We cannot share many details on this as it involves personal information and cases with pending legal status,” the company writes.

A website dedicated to victims of COVID-19 in the U.S. used the generated photos to illustrate the massive impact that the coronavirus had on the country. 535,000 faces were generated, each one representing a person who died of the disease.

PetaPixel

Lyft Co-Founder Says Automated Vehicles Won't Replace Drivers For at Least a Decade

Image Credits: Haje Kamps / TechCrunch

Human drivers on the Lyft platform aren’t going to be replaced by autonomous vehicles anytime soon, company co-founder and president John Zimmer told the audience today at TechCrunch Disrupt.

“I can’t imagine anytime in the next decade-plus where we would need any less drivers,” he said, noting that he envisions autonomous vehicles handling anywhere from 1% to 10% of rides in the future.

“What we do in our industry represents maybe 1% of vehicle miles traveled,” he said. “There’s much more room for growth of our overall business.”

Over the past decade, more than 112 million Lyft riders have taken over 3 billion rides, and 5 million drivers — “3% of the U.S. workforce,” Zimmer said — had earned tens of billions of dollars.

In his talk with transportation editor Kirsten Korosec, Zimmer was hesitant to commit to a timeline on which he thinks autonomous vehicles will enter into broader commercial service.

“I always think it’s just a couple years away, but it’s super hard to predict,” he said. “It’s this last percent of a technical problem, and then you have to get the cost down for autonomous vehicles. So it will happen. I strongly believe it’s not a matter of if, but obviously when.”

Should it happen, Zimmer thinks that the initial rollout is likely to occur on platforms like Lyft. The best way to commercialize autonomous vehicles, he said, is on a “hybrid network.” Though autonomous vehicles have progressed in their capabilities, they’re still unable to handle every condition they’ll encounter on the roads. Even if they are able to safely navigate 10% of trips, that’s not a sufficient number to bring riders on board en masse.

“Imagine being on AT&T or Verizon and making one out of 10 calls. That would not be a good network to be on,” said Zimmer. “Being on the Lyft network, you’ll be able to get 10 out of 10 rides. One might be an autonomous vehicle with one of our partners, nine are going to be from our driver community. And so I think what we do is super important and can flex as that technology is ready.”

Lyft’s autonomous vehicle strategy has changed significantly in the last year or so. In April 2021, the company sold its self-driving unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet subsidiary for $550 million, saving the company $100 million annually in operating expenses. In place of that, Zimmer said the company has been prioritizing partnerships over internal development.

In August, Lyft and autonomous vehicle technology company Motional launched robotaxis in Las Vegas on the Lyft network.

“I think it’s too early to pick one winner,” he said. “Today, it’s about having multiple partners. Ten years from now? Too hard to predict.”

TechCrunch

LSU AI Smartphone App Helps Mentally Ill, Families, Caregivers 

Through a partnership with Capital Area Human Services District, one of Louisiana’s largest behavioral health providers, LSU leverages AI technology to catch early warning signs of serious mental illness and improve treatment.

LSU Professor of Psychology Alex Cohen is working to treat serious mental illness using artificial intelligence. He is developing a smartphone app that can track speech and facial expressions to alert them, their families and treatment teams of worsening mental states to help prevent costly—and scary—emergencies and suicide. He recently partnered with Capital Area Human Services District, or CAHSD, one of Louisiana’s largest behavioral health providers. Based in Baton Rouge, CAHSD serves about 10,000 people in seven surrounding parishes—Ascension, East and West Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Iberville and Pointe Coupee. Through a pilot project led by Cohen, LSU is now providing patients in CAHSD’s First-Episode Psychosis, or FEP, program with phones that come pre-loaded with Cohen’s app, called QITraq.

The patients in the FEP program are particularly high-risk and will therefore benefit from the kind of continuous support Cohen’s technology enables, according to Outreach Services Mental Health Program Director Paul Tuminello at CAHSD.

“Our FEP patients have a tough time dealing with their first episode of psychosis,” Tuminello said. “Most have minimal treatment history, experience, knowledge or support, which take time to develop, cultivate and maintain.”

We’re not only treating the individuals, but their families as well,” Tuminello continued. “Families are involved and some have limited knowledge and experience dealing with delusions, hallucinations and other symptomology that their loved ones are experiencing. It can be a very scary situation for everyone.”

Patients in the FEP program often struggle with paranoia. Getting them to trust technology that tracks what they say and think can be a major hurdle, but Tuminello believes in transparency and putting patients and their families in charge of how and when the technology is used. The feeling of not being entirely alone can also be positive for patients and their families, he says.

“Importantly, any data we collect is incredibly useful in adjusting treatment planning and medication,” Tuminello said. “We’re a mobile service provider, so we work in the community and in the clients’ homes, but we cannot be with them all the time. LSU’s cutting-edge technology can help us more accurately determine if medications and treatment approaches are working, so patients don’t end up in the hospital, higher levels of care, or, worse, in jail. We can pinpoint the treatment focus to meet a client’s specific needs—even if they have difficulty verbalizing what’s going on during their sessions—with the additional information the app provides us with after their session has ended.

Although one in 30 adults in Louisiana gets diagnosed with serious mental illness compared to one in 20 in the country overall, the social, emotional and economic burden is significant. Serious mental illness hinders productivity, overloads healthcare and law enforcement and is a major driver of homelessness.

Bossier Press

HOT TAKES

• Xpeng took the wraps off XNGP, its latest advanced driver-assistance system. The software enables the car to carry out some driving functions automatically but requires a driver behind the wheel. The company said XNGP will roll out later this year in certain cities in China and it will be available with the G9 Max, its top-spec sport utility vehicle. Xpeng said in a press release that XNGP is the final step “before full autonomous driving is realized.” XNGP is Xpeng’s answer to Tesla’s Autopilot. -- CNBC 
• Keebo, provider of an AI-powered software solution for companies to automate manual tasks, raised a $15M Series A led by True Ventures, with participation from Neotribe, Pear, 406 Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures. -- Inside AI
• Can Twitter stamp out misinformation? Should it? -- PC Mag

INVESTMENTS & ACQUISITIONS

• Jasper (USA) - $125M Series A. An AI content platform that allows individuals and teams to use AI to scale their content strategies.
• Anonos (USA) - $50M Debt Financing. A global data privacy and security software company that eliminates the tradeoff between data protection and data utility.
• AQEMIA (FRANCE) - 30M E, Series A. Drug discovery - Pharma 3.0.
• Bolster, Inc. (USA) - $15M Series A. A deep learning-powered fraud prevention platform protecting the world’s leading brands from counterfeit activity.
• Seasats (USA) - $10M Corporate Round. Effortless ocean data.

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