Recent AI, Big Data, Deep Learning, Machine Learning Info Digest 2017/09/08

Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence To Spot Alzheimer's Before Onset of Symptoms
Scientists from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute’s Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory at McGill have developed an algorithm that reliably detects signs of dementia before its onset. The technology could be used to help families prepare for treatment options, and to help researchers select better candidates for clinical trials that test drug effectiveness.

Facebook creates AI that negotiates in unknown new language
Facebook AI Research (FAIR) has been working on artificial intelligence (AI) agents that negotiate for the best deal, using all the complexities of language, reasoning, and deception that humans use.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Predicting the Future of AI
Predicting the future is really hard, especially ahead of time.

What machines can tell from your face
Life in the age of facial recognition. Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers’ attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters. This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. Apple’s new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the homescreen. 

Python overtakes R, becomes the leader in Data Science, Machine Learning platforms
While in 2016 Python was in 2nd place ("Mainly Python" had 34% share vs 42% for "Mainly R"), in 2017 Python had 41% vs 36% for R. 

Object detection: an overview in the age of Deep Learning
There’s no shortage of interesting problems in computer vision, from simple image classification to 3D-pose estimation. One of the problems we’re most interested in and have worked on a bunch is object detection. 

Background removal with deep learning
Background removal is a task that is quite easy to do manually, or semi manually (Photoshop, and even Power Point has such tools) if you use some kind of a “marker” and edge detection.  However, fully automated background removal is quite a challenging task.