America's border cops are considering adding facial-recognition technology to body cameras worn by agents. In a request-for-information document [PDF] – sent to equipment makers, and obtained by The Register on Thursday – the US government's Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) stated it wanted to “obtain information and, or …

Pixel 4 owners can unlock their smartphones with their faces even if they have their eyes closed. That's not good. Google’s Face Unlock feature in the new smartphone uses machine-learning algorithms to recognize your face and grant access to the device's apps and data. The biometric system is designed to ensure that only you …

Microsoft is rolling out a new feature that, it hopes, will filter out rude words in messages sent from Xbox Live users in a bid to make the gaming platform “a place where everyone can have fun.” “We are introducing a new customizable feature that can automatically filter out offensive language to give you more control over …

Internet celeb Siraj Raval’s reputation continues spiraling downward – after he admitted plagiarizing real scientists' work to produce a paper on neural qubits. Raval – who has 700,000 YouTube subscribers and 70,000 Twitter followers – was last month accused of scamming hundreds of students, who subscribed to his online …

RoundupIt's another Reg summary of recent AI news. UK gov launched a facial recognition system that didn’t work on darker skin: The British government knowingly rolled out a facial detection system that scans passport photos even though it was less accurate on people with darker skin. The Home Office, a department responsible for …

The internet is filled with trolls spewing hate speech, but machine learning algorithms can’t help us clean up the mess. A paper from computer scientists from the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, found that machines were more likely to flag tweets from …

If humans are to go beyond the Moon, they must rely less on ground control and more on AI systems to perform operations such as flying, and conduct scientific experiments more autonomously, according to a NASA paper [PDF] out this week. "Future missions to Mars will require crew and ground to operate independently from Earth- …

The US government has blacklisted 28 Chinese companies, including some of the world’s most valuable AI startups, for being complicit in China’s effort to brutally crack down on its Uyghur Muslim population. The majority of China’s Muslim population live in Xinjiang, a Northwestern region in between Kazakhstan and Mongolia. …

Deepfakes - counterfeit content generated by AI algorithms - are on the rise, staining the internet with doctored pornography, fake videos of political leaders, and bot accounts. There are now 14,678 deepfake videos plastered on the net, according to a report [PDF] written by Deeptrace, a startup focused on building software …

RoundupWelcome to this week's machine learning musings. Google has upset city officials by trying to improve its facial recognition technology, and the new TensorFlow 2.0 has been released. Google offered $5 gift vouchers to black homeless people and Atlanta city isn’t happy: Facial recognition datasets are unfairly dominated with …

UpdatedGoogle hired a temp agency to record people’s faces, especially those with darker skin, to collect data for a facial recognition system and offered them $5 gift vouchers in return. The contractors, hired by Randstad, a recruitment agency based in Atlanta, were reportedly asked to target black people. Many of these ended up …

Neural networks have helped scientists monitor the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet outbursts after an instrument on NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory suffered an electrical malfunction, making it difficult for scientists to monitor a portion of extreme ultraviolet energy (EUV) being spewed by our star. EUV rays ejected from solar …

Future DecodedThe future is AI, if Microsoft is to be believed. Microsoft UK CEO Cindy Rose wheeled out a succession of speakers on the topic at the company's Future Decoded shindig in London this week, with everyone from banking representatives to ocean researchers and the NHS on hand to extol the tech's virtues. A warning was issued to …

UpdatedAs if the internet isn’t already a complicated cesspool full of trolls, AI engineers have gone one step further to build a machine learning model that can generate fake comments for news articles. The eyebrow-raising creation, known as DeepCom, was developed by a group of engineers at Beihang University and Microsoft, China. “ …

The world’s fastest deep learning supercomputer is being used to develop algorithms that can help researchers automatically design neural networks for cancer research, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The World Health Organisation estimates that by 2025, the number of diagnosed new cases of cancer will reach 21. …

A US firm is flogging facial-expression software to analyse job candidates' performance in video interviews and make initial selections for companies including Unilever. The Marmite and Persil maker has previously used facial recognition software to analyse shoppers' reactions to in-store displays of products, and is now …

RoundupLet's catch you up on recent AI news happenings. Facial recognition at music festivals, yay or nay? Musicians and festival organizers are freaking out over the use facial recognition cameras being used during live performances. Several artists have joined a campaign organised by the non-profit activist group Fight for Our …

Special reportThe AI hysteria has led to a rash of budding engineers hoping to land a cushy job somewhere in Silicon Valley. So it's no wonder that thousands flocked to an online course titled Make Money with Machine Learning fronted by Siraj Raval, a self-proclaimed AI educator, rapper, and entertainer with nearly 700,000 subscribers on …