The U.K.'s data watchdog says it will investigate AI systems that screen job applications so it can uncover potential biases against minorities and neurodiverse people. Experts have pointed out that such recruitment software could unfairly reject people who use certain writing or speech patterns, such as those who don't have English as a first language, leading to discrimination. More: - The investigation will focus on potential racial discrimination that's embedded in some automated recruitment software. The ICO has received complaints that such systems unfairly exclude candidates who are from diverse backgrounds.
- The probe, led by the U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), was laid out as part of the agency's new three-year plan under its new information commissioner, John Edwards.
- On Thursday, Edwards said the probe will examine AI's impacts on people whose data aren't always included in the initial software development and testing, "such as neurodiverse people or people from ethnic minorities."
Zoom-out: - In May, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said AI tools used by employers to hire and monitor workers have the potential to discriminate against people with disabilities, potentially violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Last year, the EEOC launched an initiative to make sure AI-based hiring tools comply with civil rights laws.
THE GUARDIAN 
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Meta introduced Make-A-Scene, an AI-powered image generator that lets people use freeform sketches, in addition to text, to create their own digital images. Like OpenAI's DALL-E, the system also churns out art using just words as prompts. Meta's model is an "AI research concept" and is not available to the public yet. More: - According to Meta, combining text with simple sketches allows people to be more specific about what image they'd like to generate.
- For example, a text prompt of "a painting of a zebra riding a bike" might have a zebra that's too large or a bike facing the wrong direction. Adding a sketch can narrow down the user's vision.
- In its own internal testing, Meta showed human evaluators two images generated by Make-A-Scene, which were sketch-and-text and text only. They rated sketch-and-text as "better aligned" with the original sketch 99.54% of the time.
Zoom-out: - Meta said it has shared access to Make-A-Scene's demo with AI artists Sofia Crespo, Scott Eaton, Alexander Reben, and Refik Anadol. Crespo, a generative visual artist, has used it to generate hybrid creatures, such as a jellyfish with flower petals. Reben, a roboticist, used it in his series where he creates real-life art as described by AI systems.
META AI BLOG
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Autonomous delivery startup Nuro said it will close its Phoenix hub and end commercial operations there. The provider of driverless delivery vehicles has also eliminated seven positions at its offices in Houston and Mountain View, Calif., where its headquarters are located. More: - Nuro said the Phoenix metro area — where it has tested modified Priuses and its small unmanned cars for deliveries since 2018 — is no longer on its "commercial roadmap for the foreseeable future."
- Three of its Phoenix employees have opted for severance. Its other employees there will join its tele-operations team in Tempe, Ariz.
- The company introduced its third-gen driverless delivery vehicle, also called Nuro, in January. The slim battery-electric car navigates roads using lidar, cameras, radar, and thermals and delivers goods at a max speed of 45 mph.
- In November, Nuro announced a $600M funding round led by Tiger Global Management and a five-year partnership with Google Cloud to boost its vehicles' machine-learning capabilities.
THE ROBOT REPORT
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AssemblyAI, a startup using AI to analyze and summarize audio and video files and moderate content, said it has raised $30M in Series B funding. The AI-as-a-service provider said it will use the capital to build out its AI infrastructure and grow its engineering and AI research teams, which include experts from DeepMind, Google Brain, and Meta AI. More: - AssemblyAI's services provide content moderation, automatic transcription, topic detection, and auto chapter summarization that developers access through various APIs.
- The cost for core transcription is $0.00025 per audio-second, according to its website.
- To create its AI models, the company said it uses Transformers, large language models, and other technology that powers popular AI models like GPT-3 and DALL-E 2.
- Its Series B round, led by Insight Partners, included existing investors at Accel and Y Combinator.
- AssemblyAI has raised $64M to date. In March, it announced a $28M Series A round led by Accel.
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AI content delivery platform Kontent.ai announced a $40M fundraise from Expedition Growth Capital to expand its global presence. Its "headless" content management system (CMS) platform allows developers to build content channels and sites with their chosen technology stack. They can plan and create content through prebuilt workflows in a cloud-based system. More: - Kontent provides an AI-powered Recommendation API that analyzes "recommendable" items to display to specific app and website users.
- Its CMS product has been used by Algolia, Anaplan, SonarSource, the University of Oxford, Unum Insurance, and others to power 2,000 sites, apps, commerce experiences, and other projects.
- Czech Republic-based Kontent was formed in 2015 as an internal startup within the software firm Kentico. As of this week, it has spun off as an independent company.
- Kontent said it plans to hire 100 employees over the next 12 months, open a New York office, and further develop its products.
Zoom-out: - Unlike traditional CMS, headless CMS is a back-end system that allows users to manage content in one place and deploy it across any front-end of their choosing.
- Research and Markets predicts the headless CMS software market will reach $1.6B by 2027, up from $328.5M in 2019.
BUSINESS INSIDER
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M&A roundup — The latest acquisitions in the AI space: - DroneBase, a drone data collection and analytics startup, announced its purchase of Inspection², a U.K.-based company using AI to automate and speed up inspections of renewable energy sites.
- American Robotics parent company Ondas Holdings will acquire autonomous drone solution company Airobotics.
- Enterprise AI SaaS company SymphonyAI said it's acquiring financial crime detection business NetReveal from BAE Systems for an undisclosed sum.
- Video AI surveillance provider Cloudastructure completed its purchase of Infrastructure Proving Grounds assets, including its cloud-based IoT cybersecurity solution GearBox.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | 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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