Facebook wants to make AI better by asking people to break it

Why people might never use autonomous cars 

Sponsored by IBM The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology 09.25.20 Good morning! Today: Facebook wants to improve AI by asking people to break it, why we may never use autonomous cars, and how close is AI to decoding our emotions? Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Facebook wants to make AI better by asking people to break it   Testing, testing: The explosive successes of AI in the last decade or so are typically chalked up to lots of data and computing power. But benchmarks also play a crucial role in driving progress—tests that researchers can pit their AI against to see how advanced it is. Fixed targets are easy to beat, however. This leads to misleading impressions of how good AIs really are. That’s why Facebook is releasing a new kind of test that pits AIs against humans who do their best to try to trip them up. Called Dynabench, the test will be as hard as people choose to make it. How does that work? Dynabench invites people to go to the website and quiz the models behind it. For example, you could give a language model a Wikipedia page and then ask it questions, scoring its answers. It’s focusing on language models because they are one of the easiest kinds of AI for humans to interact with. The purpose: Failures that surface during testing will automatically be fed back into future models, making them better all the time. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven Why people might never use autonomous cars Driverless car technology is advancing all the time, but it’s still a critical missing ingredient: trust. Listen to the latest episode of our podcast In Machines We Trust to hear engineers explain how they’re building a new language of communication between automated vehicles and their human occupants. If you’d like some more weekend listening, check out another episode of the podcast, all about how close AI is to decoding our emotions. And if you want to go behind the scenes, our AI team is joining the producers of the show for a Reddit AMA starting at 12pm ET on 29 September. Watch out for more details.  For an even deeper dive into these topics, why not get yourself a ticket to EmTech, MIT Technology Review’s virtual conference from Monday 19-Thursday 22 October? There’s an incredible line-up of speakers from AI researchers to big tech CEOs to covid-19 vaccine experts to contact tracing app developers. Oh, and I’ll be there too. Join us. We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Some students staged a kidnapping to get their friend out of Zoom lectures.   + Ideas for things you can do in your lunch break at home.    + A kitten playing.   + Grand Central Terminal workers had a secret “man cave” under the station.   + People are making some darn freaky cakes. (NYT $)   + David Attenborough joined Instagram and broke the world record for most followers gained in a 24 hour period. Sponsor Message How to build resilience now with smarter supply chains The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed vulnerabilities in global supply chains across most, if not all, sectors and industries. It’s clear that economic and societal costs will be huge. And although no one can predict the future, there are practical steps you can take now to mitigate extreme disruption while positioning your supply chain for long-term success. Read the report to explore how you can better manage, foresee, and limit the severity of disruptions through smarter supply chains. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 A second wave is sweeping across Europe But it’s yet to translate into much higher hospital admissions. (NYT $)   + A fifth vaccine candidate has entered the final stages of testing. (NYT $)   + The pandemic is worse than official figures show. (The Economist $)   + Trump is tussling with the FDA over whether the covid-19 vaccine review process. (Ars Technica)   + How to avoid a vaccination communication crisis. (The Verge)  2 Facebook groups could make US election chaos a whole lot worse We all saw what happened in Kenosha. (Mother Jones)   + Facebook is letting political advertisers tell lies, contrary to its own policies. (CNN)   + A former Facebook manager said the company “took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook.” (Ars Technica)   + A group of Facebook critics are tired of waiting for its official oversight board to launch, so they’re starting their own. (NBC)   + Another election security worry…hackers crippling county offices’ email systems. (ProPublica)  3 Can the reality of quantum computers match the hype? If they don’t, it won’t be for a lack of cash being ploughed into the technology. (The Economist $)   4 Why our brains have such an elastic sense of time 🧠🕰 It might be more accurate to say “time flies when you’re having more fun than you expected.” (Quanta)   5 The US must either defend or delay the TikTok ban today, a federal judge ruled Just when you think the whole situation can’t get messier. (WSJ $)   6 China’s digital currency is increasingly taking shape  The country’s online payments systems are widely seen as the most advanced in the world. (BBC)   7 Amazon is monitoring employee emails for signs of activism It recently seems to be ramping up its legally questionable attempts to disrupt labor organizing. (Recode)   + Alexa’s starting to talk back. (Wired $)   + Ring’s latest product is a drone that flies around your home. (The Verge)  8 QAnon is trying to convert people by mail A recipient said getting one of these flyers in her letterbox was “really, really scary.” (The Intercept)   9 A $1 hearing aid could restore the ability to hear to millions 🦻 A team of bioengineers created it from inexpensive, easy-to-find parts. (Science)   10 What the new tech elite can learn from the old  A sense of public duty and a modicum of humility could be a good place to start. (WSJ $) Time is running out to register for EmTech MIT.  This year, we're focusing on emerging technologies and trends that you can leverage to help you lead with innovation. You'll get actionable insights from experts at Facebook, Google, Salesforce, Twitter and other leading organizations. Register now. Take a stand “It's becoming harder and harder for people to have great conversations on existing platforms. People are mean to each other, and that meanness is kind of rewarded.” —Marc Bodnick explains to Protocol why he’s setting up a new “nice” social network, called Telepath. Top image credit: YATHEESH GOWDA | PIXABAY Please send Zoom call kidnappers to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free From prevention to response Join us online | December 2-3, 2020 *View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed with your email address  *Edit email preferences   |   *Unsubscribe from all emails Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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