 Sony says its AI agent beat top human players in the racing simulation game Gran Turismo Sport. The "landmark" AI achievement shows the larger role neural networks could play in the development of software for autonomous vehicles, according to Stanford automotive professor J. Christian Gerdes. More: - Researchers trained the AI program, GT Sophy, using deep reinforcement learning, rewarding the system for meeting goals through trial-and-error.
- The AI agent navigated the racetrack after only several hours of training. Within two days, it was able to beat the speed of 95% of drivers in the training dataset,
- After 45,000 training hours, the system achieved "superhuman performance" on three GT tracks.
- All in all, it took ~20 PlayStations running simultaneously for up to 12 days to train GT Sophy to race from scratch to superhuman.
- AI has already beaten human players in Mahjong, chess, and Go, but car driving posed its own challenges in that the AI had to make split-second decisions in real-time, according to Sony.
- The AI algorithm was built in collaboration between Sony AI, Polyphony Digital, and Sony Interactive's cloud gaming team.
- Sony AI's research paper, "Outracing champion Gran Turismo drivers with deep reinforcement learning," was recently published in the journal Nature.
NATURE 
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Several Democratic lawmakers are asking federal agencies to stop using the facial-recognition tool Clearview AI, saying it threatens people's privacy rights and civil liberties. The lawmakers want the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Interior, and Health and Human Services to stop using facial recognition, citing Clearview AI's technology as "particularly dangerous." More: - According to a GAO report, at least four of the federal agencies have used Clearview's tech for "domestic law enforcement."
- On Wednesday, Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., sent letters asking the departments to stop the use of Clearview AI and other similar products.
- In the letters, the lawmakers cite threats that the technology poses to marginalized communities, which extend beyond inaccuracy claims.
- Communities of color already face over-policing, so biometric surveillance would likely infringe on their privacy "disproportionately" compared to non-minority communities, they wrote.
- In a response, Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That claimed that previous NIST testing indicates that the company's facial recognition algorithm does not show any "detectable racial bias."
- The letters come after the IRS announced this week that it will no longer use third-party facial-recognition software to verify taxpayers' identities online.
GIZMODO
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Autonomous vehicles with permits drove a record 4.1 million miles in California last year — roughly double the miles driven in 2020, according to the DMV. Fifty companies, including Tesla, Apple, and Toyota, have permits to test their self-driving vehicles on California roads with backup human drivers. More: - Of those 50 companies, 28 reported that they didn't test any autonomous vehicles during the period from Dec. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021.
- The vehicles of the remaining 22 companies still logged the most AV miles ever driven in California for a year-long period.
- Meanwhile, seven companies have permits to test vehicles without any driver at all. That includes Cruise, which recently launched free public robotaxi rides in San Francisco.
- Cruise has received the three permits required by the DMV for self-driving; however, it is awaiting approval by the California Public Utilities Commission for the ability to charge for rides.
- Cruise's investors include General Motors Financial, Walmart, Microsoft, Honda, and SoftBank Vision Fund, which recently made good on its pledge to invest an additional $1.35B in the AV company.
SPECTRUM NEWS 1
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Leaf Logistics, the developer of AI-based software for supply chains and logistics, raised a $37M Series B round led by Sozo Ventures. The startup says its machine learning-based transportation platform links shippers, carriers, and others to "deliver resilient transportation planning and a forward view of the market" and help manage uncertainties in supply chains. More: - Leaf uses shipping data to provide forecasts of how supply chains disruptions can affect companies' capacity.
- It recommends how to weather the uncertainties through adjustments to trucking routes.
- Its AI models were trained on the freight data of 425 shippers. It also claims relationships with 550 logistics service providers.
- NY-based Leaf plans to use the funding to advance its hiring and scale commercial deployment and product development.
- The company recently reported a 10x annual revenue increase.
VENTUREBEAT
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 A message from MALWAREBYTES Secure success for 2022 with AI-powered cyberprotection. Remote workforces continue to raise security concerns for businesses. Remote workforces make easy targets for cybercriminals. - 1 out of 5 businesses experienced a remote-worker related security breach
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 Nearly half of people said they would use an AI-powered dating app to find a long-term partner, according to a new Tidio survey. The chatbot maker polled 1,191 people about AI dating and other topics. The findings: - 46% would want an AI app to analyze their written bio and find a partner with common interests.
- 48% said they wouldn't break up with a person they like even if an algorithm told them to do so.
- 54% said they would most prefer AI to assist with finding a match based on their own personalized criteria.
- 56% would want an AI system to provide in-app chatting help.
- 66% said they consider an AI-powered app more trustworthy than a non-AI app.
- 68% said they would be open to the algorithm analyzing their profile to suggest changes to make it more attractive.
- 75% said they would add new data to optimize the algorithm if a match isn't immediately made.
PC MAG
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🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - 1859 (San Diego, Calif.), AI/pico-scale screening data platform to discover new small molecule medicines: $40M A led by Northpond Ventures, OMX Ventures, participation from FusionX Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners.
- hireEZ (Mountain View, Calif.), AI-powered global talent platform: $26M led by Conductive Ventures.
- Annotell (Sweden), software to assess the performance of autonomous systems’ perception capabilities: $24M A from Metaplanet, NordicNinja.
- Morai (South Korea), automotive simulation tools to verify the safety and reliability of self-driving systems: $20.8M B led by Korea Investment Partners, participation from KB Investment, Korea Development Bank, Naver D2 Startup Factory, Hyundai Motor Group, et al.
- Krista Software (Dallas, Texas), AI-led intelligent automation platform: $15M led by Grotech Ventures, participation from Rally Ventures, iGrafx.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our newsletter Inside Venture Capital.
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- DataRobot's Jeremy Achin and Igor Taber launched VC firm Cortical Ventures along with a new $50M venture fund focused on next-gen AI companies.
- IBM, ATB Financial, and Armilla AI joined the Responsible AI Institute, a non-profit working on responsible AI tools and certification programs.
- Tiger Global led a $12M Series A funding round for fintech Devron, developer of a data science and machine learning platform for enterprises.
- An update in Adobe Premiere Pro adds an AI "Remix" feature that automatically retimes music to match the length of videos.
- Russian mobile operator MTS and South Korea's KT Corp. announced a partnership to develop data centers and AI solutions and combine KT's voice recognition service with MTS AI's video analytics.
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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