Pre-Weekend AI Goodies

Some things in life are SO GOOD it feels illegal to have them for free, just like this newsletter.

Hey, tech fanatics! We’re back to bring you the best of AI and our future Lords: Robots.

Friday’s Roundup…

• FIFA’s new AI toys are making it impossible to score (offside) goals

• AI to Fight against pests

• Google’s secret project to automate coding

• Amazon working at a fast pace to “replace humans to hire humans”

• Obrizum is the future of adaptive learning in workplaces

• BBC’s face-swapping AI use can change the dynamics of documenting stories

• Small Robot Company with solutions to make planting more efficient

• Apple’s RoomPlan and its problem

• Sam’s Club and their AI Pie Predictions for Thanksgiving

FIFA’s New AI Toys are Making the World Cup More Interesting

If you don’t get the offside rule, this piece may not be for you, but read along anyway.

FIFA’s 2022 World Cup is in full swing in Qatar, and one of the best things about it is the vast AI automation that’s helping the refs make decisions.

From the offside rule being more efficiently judged to the sensors in the Al-Rihla ball, and the CCTV operations, everything is AI this time.

The 3 Main Takeaways:

• Referees have always had controversy surrounding them regarding the offside rule and goal-line tech, but this time, FIFA has the answer to it all through AI checks.

• Further, the Al-Rihla ball is designed with motion sensors inside, feeding information at 500 t/s, making it easier for referees to take decisions on fouls.

• Lastly, with the help of 22,000+ CCTV cameras and facial recognition tech, crowd control is becoming easier this World Cup for all the stadiums in the country.

With the success of this, FIFA next needs to figure out an AI to make diving to fake a foul impossible for players.

AI-Powered Insect Traps to Beat Pests

Have a pest problems? Worry not, because, just like everything nowadays, AI is the answer.

Trapview, a Slovenian company, is using AI to recognize pest existence in a spot and predict how they will spread, issuing advance warning.

Here’s how it works:

• The device used pheromones to attract pests and takes images of them with a camera.

• AI then cross-references against Trapview’s database, trained to recognize 60+ species.

• Once identified, the AI then assesses weather and location data that could contribute to the pests’ spread, then sends a notification to the farmer.

• The app is also trained to inform where and when to use pesticides to help crop growth.

Interesting, really. Though I, personally, would be a lot more impressed with a tool that could tell me which places have a lizard problem so I can stay 100 km clear of it.

Other News

> Google is working on a secret project that will allow code to write, fix, and update itself. Experts suggest it will change the future of the company and of coding.

> No one’s working as fast as Amazon to replace robots with humans; now developing AI HR solutions to recruit employees without needing to use human expertise. Sounds ironic, to be fair.

> Experts suggest emotional AI is the future of health since, you know, humans have already reached the maximum of emotional intelligence and are now ready to train robots to achieve the same.

> Meet Obrizum, a nightmare for lazy employees and a blessing for more adaptive ones, that uses AI to streamline adaptive learning in organizations. Sounds quite interesting to me.

> BBC recently used face-swapping tech to hide people’s identities. It’ll surely change the future of human connectivity in documentaries without putting the victims at risk.

> The Small Robot company is aiming to make farming more efficient through robots that help out with “per-plant farming”. Revolutionizing, right?

> Apple’s RoomPlan allows users to make 3D designs of their rooms to redesign their homes, but users report it’s so time-consuming that it’d take lesser to actually renovate the room.

> Sam’s Club spent Thanksgiving predicting and accurately restocking for pie demands in their stores through AI, making their services efficient. Now, if only they could also predict which of their stores is going to get vandalized…

This Week’s Funding Update

• Featurespace gets UK and US govt. Fundings for their AI Crime Prevention tech

• UAE backs $42M Funding of London AI Startup

• Harvey, an AI law tool, gets $5 M funding from OpenAI

• Nosh gets $1 M in pre-seed funding

Meme of the Day!