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Researchers help workers collaborate with artificial intelligence systems

In a busy hospital, a radiologist uses an artificial intelligence system to help her diagnose medical conditions based on patients' X-ray images. Using the AI system can help her make faster diagnoses, but how does she know when to trust the AI's predictions?

Traditionally, she doesn't. Instead, she may rely on her expertise, a confidence level provided by the system itself, or an explanation of how the algorithm made its prediction -- which may look convincing but still be wrong -- to make an estimation.

To help people better understand when to trust an AI "teammate," Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers created a technique that guides humans to a more accurate understanding of when a machine makes correct predictions and when it makes incorrect ones. The research is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

By showing people how the AI complements their abilities, the new technique could help humans make better decisions or come to conclusions faster when working with AI agents.

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AI systems might reach higher performance if programmed with human language

The digital revolution is built on a foundation of binaries, invisible 1s and 0s called bits. The notion that computers prefer to "speak" in binary numbers is rarely questioned. According to new research from Columbia Engineering, that could be about to change.

A new U.S. National Science Foundation-funded study by mechanical engineer Hod Lipson and researcher Boyuan Chen proves that artificial intelligence systems might reach higher levels of performance if they are programmed with sound files of human language rather than with numerical data labels.

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Artificial Intelligence – an inextricable part of our lives.

Whether we like it or not, artificial intelligence is already part of our lives and the tendency is to become more and more interwoven with all human activities. Nowadays, some of the dreams of past generations are facts. However, as we daily adopt new technologies, the menace of losing control over this exponentially increasing process is always presented. We cannot deny the benefits of technological development. It made some of the painstaking efforts of the past look like no-brainers. Maybe that is what we should fear the most. It seems that the real challenge for future generations would be to find the subtle balance between technology and hand-work, artificial intelligence, and the good old human consciousness with all its pros and cons.

If you would like to know what are the international moods toward AI, below you will find the latest statistics made by Pew Research Center:

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The Waste Free World project

The co-operation of two of the world's biggest consumer goods firms results in an innovative recycling project. They have created machines that use artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically identify and sort plastic packaging.

The initiative is called The Waste Free World and it was recently announced as a collaboration between Unilever and the Chinese giant Alibaba. The goal of the project is to unite the packaging technologies of the former with the business operating system of the latter to advance and ensure a highly efficient process of returning plastics back into a closed-loop recycling system.