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Facebook is teaching AI to talk you through directions

Jul11
by on July 11, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, artificial intelligence


Facebook is developing a “Talk the Walk” AI capable of giving walking directions without knowing a user’s location. What it is: A team comprised of a researcher from the University of Montreal in Canada and Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) scientists recently published a white paper describing a neural network capable of giving a person plain language directions without the use of GPS or other location tracking aids. According to the researchers: We introduce the Talk the Walk dataset, where the aim is for two agents, a “guide” and a “tourist”, to interact with each other via natural language in order…

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How can we use coding more creatively? Artist and hacker Zach Lieberman will be taking all your questions

Jul11
by on July 11, 2018 at 3:21 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, artificial intelligence, creative, Design & Dev, TNW Answers


What do computer coding and creating art have in common? Who are the artists who have influenced you most? How can art make everyday life better? Ask all this and more to new media artist Zach Lieberman. Lieberman is an artist, researcher, teacher, and hacker who makes tools and art that play with what is visible and invisible. He uses the body and code working together to create projects such as a tool allowing people to draw with their eyes, an app that allows iPhones to visualize sounds in A.R, and software that shows video stills where they were captured in physical space: He’s been listed as…

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Should software developers have to pay income tax? Serious question.

Jul11
by on July 11, 2018 at 2:56 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Insider


I just got back from a press trip to Bucharest, Romania. While there, I was afforded the chance to speak with Bitdefender’s CEO and founder, Florin Talpeş. We talked about the burgeoning Romanian tech scene, which was once dominated by outsourcing companies, but is now filled with genuinely innovative companies that are aggressively expanding abroad. During our chat, Mr. Talpeş dropped a bombshell: in Romania, programmers (and other research and development professionals) don’t pay income tax. I’m serious, and it’s not a swindle. Rather, it’s strategically clever move from the Romanian government that’s been in place since 2003. It’s designed to…

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CryptoKitties finally finds a real use-case in charity auction for sea turtles

Jul11
by on July 11, 2018 at 2:31 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, cryptocurrency, Hard Fork


CryptoKitties, the cutesy blockchain game where you can collect, customize, breed, and inevitably pimp out virtual cats is still apparently still a thing. Once so popular that it brought Ethereum to its very knees, dwindling interest has spurred them to adopt a more holistic way to get people to spend money on seemingly worthless vanity tokens. This is “Honu,” the super special-edition CryptoKitty whose name means “turtle” in Hawaiian. He (or she) is certified to exist immutably on the Ethereum blockchain and is so frigging handsome, he’s hand-and-then-some. Ownership of Honu is up for sale, and recent partnerships formed between…

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Jabees’ wireless earbuds are good for the gym, but can’t compete with AirPods

Jul11
by on July 11, 2018 at 2:12 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, gear


Thanks very much, Apple. Due to the success of Airpods, everyone’s releasing wireless bluetooth earbuds these days. The latest company to throw its hat into this tiny, easily lost ring is Jabees. It has successfully raised $161,003 in funds on Indiegogo for its Firefly headphones and we got to try them out. Now, there are two things that Jabees believes separates them from the pack of other earbud manufacturers: the price and a situational awareness feature. Hold on – a what-now awareness feature? So, according to “studies” that appear to exist nowhere on the internet and are cited on Firefly’s…

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