Archive for the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Category

Artificial intelligence is being used to digitally replicate human voices – NPR

Reporter Chloe Veltman reacts to hearing her digital voice double, "Chloney," for the first time, with Speech Morphing chief linguist Mark Seligman. Courtesy of Speech Morphing hide caption

Reporter Chloe Veltman reacts to hearing her digital voice double, "Chloney," for the first time, with Speech Morphing chief linguist Mark Seligman.

The science behind making machines talk just like humans is very complex, because our speech patterns are so nuanced.

"The voice is not easy to grasp," says Klaus Scherer, emeritus professor of the psychology of emotion at the University of Geneva. "To analyze the voice really requires quite a lot of knowledge about acoustics, vocal mechanisms and physiological aspects. So it is necessarily interdisciplinary, and quite demanding in terms of what you need to master in order to do anything of consequence."

So it's not surprisingly taken well over 200 years for synthetic voices to get from the first speaking machine, invented by Wolfgang von Kempelen around 1800 a boxlike contraption that used bellows, pipes and a rubber mouth and nose to simulate a few recognizably human utterances, like mama and papa to a Samuel L. Jackson voice clone delivering the weather report on Alexa today.

A model replica of Wolfgang von Kempelen's Speaking Machine. Fabian Brackhane hide caption

A model replica of Wolfgang von Kempelen's Speaking Machine.

Talking machines like Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa, or a bank's automated customer service line, are now sounding quite human. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, we've reached a point where it's sometimes difficult to distinguish synthetic voices from real ones.

I wanted to find out what's involved in the process at the customer end. So I approached San Francisco Bay Area-based natural language speech synthesis company Speech Morphing about creating a clone or "digital double" of my own voice.

Given the complexities of speech synthesis, it's quite a shock to find out just how easy it is to order one up. For a basic conversational build, all a customer has to do is record themselves saying a bunch of scripted lines for roughly an hour. And that's about it.

"We extract 10 to 15 minutes of net recordings for a basic build," says Speech Morphing founder and CEO Fathy Yassa.

The hundreds of phrases I record so that Speech Morphing can build my digital voice double seem very random: "Here the explosion of mirth drowned him out." "That's what Carnegie did." "I'd like to be buried under Yankee Stadium with JFK." And so on.

But they aren't as random as they appear. Yassa says the company chooses utterances that will produce a wide enough variety of sounds across a range of emotions such as apologetic, enthusiastic, angry and so on to feed a neural network-based AI training system. It essentially teaches itself the specific patterns of a person's speech.

Speech Morphing founder and CEO Fathy Yassa. Chloe Veltman/KQED hide caption

Speech Morphing founder and CEO Fathy Yassa.

Yassa says there are around 20 affects or tones to choose from, and some of these can be used interchangeably, or not at all. "Not every tone or affect is needed for every client," he says. "The choice depends on the target application and use cases. Banking is different from eBooks, is different from reporting and broadcast, is different from consumer."

At the end of the recording session, I send Speech Morphing the audio files. From there, the company breaks down and analyzes my utterances, and then builds the model for the AI to learn from. Yassa says the entire process takes less than a week.

He says the possibilities for the Chloe Veltman voice clone or "Chloney" as I've affectionately come to call my robot self are almost limitless.

"We can make you apologetic, we can make you promotional, we can make you act like you're in the theater," Yassa says. "We can make you sing, eventually, though we're not yet there."

The global speech and voice recognition industry is worth tens of billions of dollars,and is growing fast. Its uses are evident. The technology has given actor Val Kilmer, who lost his voice owing to throat cancer a few years ago, the chance to reclaim something approaching his former vocal powers.

It's enabled film directors, audiobook creators and game designers to develop characters without the need to have live voice talent on hand, as in the movie Roadrunner, where an AI was trained on Anthony Bourdain's extensive archive of media appearances to create a digital double of the late chef and TV personality's voice.

As pitch-perfect as Bourdain's digital voice double might be, it's also caused controversy. Some people raised ethical concerns about putting words into Bourdain's mouth that he never actually said while he was alive.

A cloned version of Barack Obama's voice warning people about the dangers of fake news, created by actor and film director Jordan Peele, hammers the point home: Sometimes we have cause to be wary of machines that sound too much like us.

[Note: The video embedded below includes profanities.]

"We're entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time," says the Obama deepfake in the video, produced in collaboration with BuzzFeed in 2018. "Even if they would never say those things."

Sometimes, though, we don't necessarily want machines to sound too human, because it creeps us out.

If you're looking for a digital voice double to read an audiobook to kids, or act as a companion or helper for a senior, a more human-sounding voice might be the right way to go.

"Maybe not something that actually breathes, because that's a little bit creepy, but a little more human might be more approachable," says user experience and voice designer Amy Jimnez Mrquez, who led the voice, multimodal and UX Amazon Alexa personality-experience design team for four years.

But for a machine that performs basic tasks, like, say, a voice-activated refrigerator? Maybe less human is best. "Having something a little more robotic and you can even create a tinny voice that sounds like an actual robot that is cute, that would be more appropriate for a refrigerator," Jimnez Mrquez says.

At a demo session with Speech Morphing, I get to hear Chloney, my digital voice double.

Her voice comes at me through a pair of portable speakers connected to a laptop. The laptop displays the programming interface into which whatever text I want Chloney to say is typed. The interface includes tools to make micro-adjustments to the pitch, speed and other vocal attributes that might need to be tweaked if Chloney's prosody doesn't come out sounding exactly right.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Chloney. Happy birthday to you," says Chloney.

Chloney can't sing "Happy Birthday" at least for now. But she can read out news stories I didn't even report myself, like one ripped from an AP newswire about the COVID-19 pandemic. And she can even do it in Spanish.

Chloney sounds quite a lot like me. It's impressive, but it's also a little scary.

"My jaw is on the floor," says the original voice behind Chloney that's me, Chloe as I listen to what my digital voice double can do. "Let's hope she doesn't put me out of a job anytime soon."

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Artificial intelligence is being used to digitally replicate human voices - NPR

6 features of the ideal healthcare artificial intelligence algorithm – HealthExec

1. Explainable: Many algorithms are unable to "show their work," commonly known as the black box problem. But quality tools must clarify the traits of a patient and their medical condition while making a diagnosis. Separating association from causation is also crucial.

2. Dynamic: Digital tools should capture and adjust to patients in real-time. For example, intracranial and cerebral perfusion pressure can shift quickly after a head injury, not recognizing these changes can prove deadly.

3. Precise: The average person generates more than 1 million gigabytes of healthcare data during their lifetime or nearly 300 million books, the authors noted. Algorithms must utilize and distill this information to diagnose complex diseases and changing conditions.

4. Autonomous: After training and testing periods, AI should be able to learn and offer results with little input from providers or developers.

5. Fair: Implicit bias and social inequities must be accounted for. Prior to including demographic or socioeconomic factors into a prediction model, developers must determine whether that factor has a proven association with a clinical outcome.

6. Reproducible: These tools are validated externally and prospectively, and shared among multiple academic communities and institutions. Federated learning uses a decentralized, online infrastructure to train algorithms and presents a good opportunity for developing reproducible tools.

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6 features of the ideal healthcare artificial intelligence algorithm - HealthExec

Teaching Stream Faculty in Artificial Intelligence job with KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | 278533 – Times Higher Education…

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology: Faculty Positions: Center for Teaching and Learning

Location

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Deadline

Feb 28, 2022 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time

Description

The Center for Teaching and Learning at KAUST seeks to appoint one or more teaching stream faculty members in the field of artificial intelligence. Such a faculty member will teach in the underlying methodology of machine learning, and modern AI, as well as its application in software, using modern tools like TensorFlow and Pytorch. The faculty member will educate students in how to use these algorithms and software to implement advanced machine learning and AI methods on modern computing platforms, including graphical processor units (GPUs). The principal teaching will be on neural networks, for applications in image and natural language processing, but also in other areas, like medicine and geoscience. While the faculty member need not be an expert in all of these application areas, he/she should have deep enough understanding of the underlying methodology to adapt to a diverse set of applications.

The teaching responsibilities will come in several forms. The faculty member may teach up to one class each semester within a KAUST academic program, like Computer Science. Additionally, the faculty member will help lead small workshops at KAUST on AI training for a wide audience of scientists and engineers, for people who hope to apply the technology, but need not wish to become experts. Finally, KAUST is seeking to expand its exposure to the Saudi community outside the KAUST campus. AI training and development of micro-credentials will be performed for short periods in Saudi cities like Riyadh, accessible to a wide audience of technical people, as well as business leaders who hope to learn about what can be achieved with AI, but who do not seek to become experts themselves. These teaching opportunities outside of KAUST are meant to address the need for AI training throughout the Kingdom, and will help KAUST meet its expanded mission to help upskill a broad segment of the Saudi community. The faculty member will help design these training opportunities, and with KAUST colleagues will assist in their delivery. In this context, there may be opportunities to perform on-site training for employees at major Saudi companies.

For a teaching stream faculty member, it is anticipated that one would typically teach 2 to 3 classes per semester. However, the individual who fills the role described here will typically teach one class per semester. Therefore, the remaining time commitment is meant to address the development and implementation of AI workshops at KAUST, as well as the aforementioned training opportunities planned for Saudi cities like in Riyadh, and possibly targeted training for Saudi companies.

This teaching stream faculty position is full-time, over the 12 month calendar year, with vacation periods consistent with all KAUST faculty. The summer period will be a particularly important time for developing and executing the teaching to be performed outside KAUST.

Qualifications

We welcome candidates with a PhD in Computer Scienceor related areas, with a strong background in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

Application Instructions

To apply for this position, please complete the interfolio application form and upload the following materials:

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Teaching Stream Faculty in Artificial Intelligence job with KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | 278533 - Times Higher Education...

Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc. Reports Revenue Increases of Over 315% vs. Same Period Prior Year as Shown in 3rd Quarter SEC…

Detroit, Michigan, Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (OTCPK:AITX), a global leader in AI-driven security and productivity solutions for enterprise clients, filed its quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the period ended November 30, 2021. AITX is a full SEC reporting company that files detailed annual and quarterly reports as prepared by a PCAOB registered firm and reviewed by an independent auditor.

Subsequent to the close of the quarter the company engaged with and is currently under contract with a leading investor relations, corporate communications, and digital media group. Details will be released under a separate release.

The quarter continued great progress and growth on all fronts, said Steve Reinharz, President and CEO of AITX. Through the year weve seen revenue increase over $800,000 over the previous year, thats a 315% increase. Plus, weve invested heavily in research and development and manufacturing, gearing up for the initial shipment of RAD 3.0 products and the deployment of ROAMEO.

Key Takeaways from the 10-Q Filing

AITX Financials

For the nine months ended November 30, 2021, the Company raised over $9.4 million from debt issuances and another $8.5 million through common shares issuances. This funding will allow the company to expand and grow its business.

The Companys current ratio showed significant improvement from 0.27 at the end of February 2021 to 0.96 at the end of Q3, November 30, 2021. Current ratio, also known as the working capital ratio, measures a business ability to pay off its short-term debt obligations with its current assets. This is a significant positive trend, substantially improving the Companys liquidity.

Device parts inventory (on hand) as of November 30, 2021 at $1,331K, up from $64K as of February 28, 2021, an increase of 1,980%. This increase supports both organic growth, inventory for fast delivery of select devices, and support for an expanding sales pipeline.

The Company invested broadly in its research and development spending $2.1M for the nine months ending November 30, 2021, a 912% increase compared to the same period the previous fiscal year. The increase supports investments in new project development, increased engineering, and programming resources. The Company has been working heavily on the development of new products such as ROAMEO 2.0, ROSA 3.0, AVA 3.0, STAN and TOM with other products to be released in fiscal 2023.

Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD) Sales Growth

The Company reports that its sales funnel continues its growth as its sales team has expanded to a total of 7 representatives. RADs reach expanded into new markets, signing 5 new authorized dealers, and opening business opportunities in the attractions, gaming, retail, and power utility industries. RAD President, Mark Folmer commented We are now on a trajectory where we can expect upwards of $100,000 in recurring monthly revenue by the end of the next quarter.

Expanded Marketing Activities at RAD During the Quarter

The Company embarked on several new marketing initiatives during the period. RAD personnel participated at 2 major market conferences and trade shows, each producing immediate sales results. The RAD sales and marketing teams went on the road, showcasing the public rollout of ROAMEO 2.0 and ROSA 3.0 returning with orders and filling the sales pipeline with opportunities, Reinharz added. Just 3 weeks after meeting a prospect at a show in Orlando we had a new client for a ROAMEO. Were finding that prospects love seeing the RAD solutions in person, thats why weve committed to exhibit at 4, maybe more shows in 2022.

The Company also invested in and launched a new website, under the simplified domain name radsecurity.com. We often refer to RAD as now being in a new orbit, Reinharz commented. Our team has dramatically enhanced our look, our feel, our overall presentation. The RAD 3.0 device designs, our enhanced websites, our marketing, everything has been refreshed and represents us well, Reinharz concluded.

RADs ROSA received 3 prestigious awards during the fiscal quarter. ROSA and the newly announced RAD Light My Way was named the winner of CBREs Innovation Challenge 2021 Best Workplace Experience Solution Award. ROSA continued its award run by taking 2 AST ASTORS Awards in the categories of Best Robotic Perimeter Protection and Best Motion Detection Solution.

The Company recommends that interested parties examine the published 10-Q to review all details and reminds readers that this press release is limited to the applicable highlights of the quarter.

Follow Steve Reinharz on Twitter @SteveReinharz for future RAD and AITX updates.

CAUTIONARY DISCLOSURE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSThis release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this news release other than statements of historical fact are "forward-looking statements" that are based on current expectations and assumptions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the ability of Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions to provide for its obligations, to provide working capital needs from operating revenues, to obtain additional financing needed for any future acquisitions, to meet competitive challenges and technological changes, to meet business and financial goals including projections and forecasts, and other risks. Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement(s) and/or to confirm the statement(s) to actual results or changes in Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions expectations.

About Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions (AITX)AITX is an innovator in the delivery of artificial intelligence-based solutions that empower organizations to gain new insight, solve complex challenges and fuel new business ideas. Through its next-generation robotic product offerings, AITXs RAD, RAD-M and RAD-G companies help organizations streamline operations, increase ROI, and strengthen business. AITX technology improves the simplicity and economics of patrolling and guard services and allows experienced personnel to focus on more strategic tasks. Customers augment the capabilities of existing staffs and gain higher levels of situational awareness, all at drastically reduced cost. AITX solutions are well suited for use in multiple industries such as enterprises, government, transportation, critical infrastructure, education, and healthcare. To learn more, visit http://www.aitx.ai, http://www.radsecurity.com and http://www.radlightmyway.com, or follow Steve Reinharz on Twitter @SteveReinharz.

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Steve Reinharz949-636-7060@SteveReinharz

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Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc. Reports Revenue Increases of Over 315% vs. Same Period Prior Year as Shown in 3rd Quarter SEC...

COPAN Diagnostics Announces Another Giant Step in the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Microbiology – BioSpace

MURRIETA, Calif., Jan. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of recent news of FDA clearance for Colibri, automated colony picking instrumentfor identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing in clinical Microbiology, today COPAN announced the North American launch of PhenoMATRIX TAG, colony selection software which automatically chooses isolated colonies on plated media for picking.This new capability is a major enhancement to PhenoMATRIX artificial intelligence (AI) software which allows automated specimen processor WASPLab users to automatically pre-assess and pre-sort culture plates and segregate bacterial cultures.

COPAN launches PhenoMATRIX TAG, AI software that automatically selects isolated colonies on plated media for picking.

PhenoMATRIXis an unparalleled AI powered software, developed with an advanced selection of highly sophisticated algorithms designed for use in the clinical Microbiology laboratory.By grouping negative cultures, which represent the majority of cultures screened, Microbiologists can quickly review up to 40 plates at a time and batch release negative results quickly.Eliminating the need to review each plate manually, saves precious time and allows technicians to focus on complex cultures which require their unique expertise, and to consult with physicians to provide better patient care.

The power of PhenoMATRIX AI is enhanced with PhenoMATRIX TAG which automatically performs colony selection for ID and AST workup immediately after automated culture interpretation.

"This is truly the next revolution in AI for Clinical Microbiology.PhenoMATRIX TAG uses advanced algorithms to ensure that the best and most isolated colonies are chosen for workup, every time. This technology brings speed and precision to a task that requires high mental acuity and places a lot of stress on overburdened laboratory technologists. This innovation in laboratory automation rapidly and precisely ensures that the correct isolated and/or pure aggregated colonies are automatically chosen for work-up,"said COPAN Diagnostics' CEO Norman Sharples.

PhenoMATRIX TAGautomatically detects and "tags" the best colonies to be picked by Colibri for workup.PhenoMATRIX TAG can interpret growth based on each laboratory's custom rules, presumptively identify colonial morphology, and pre-select the best isolated colonies for workup. The PhenoMATRIX TAG software highlights isolated colonies as well as aggregated colonies; colonies which are not fully isolated but determined by the software to be identical and thus pure. After defining the optimal colonies for selection, PhenoMATRIX TAGcommunicates the colony coordinates to the Colibri for reliable and accurate picking.

COPAN Diagnostics' Workflow Specialist and LEAN Six Sigma Blackbelt, Rosalind Russell discussed the impact that PhenoMATRIX TAG has on laboratory workflow. "The most critical and technically complex aspect of positive culture workup is the selection and picking of colonies for ID and AST workup. Approximately 30% of all cultures require ID/AST workup and this accounts for more than 50% of technologist time to perform.With PhenoMatrix TAG and Colibri, this high complexity task can be managed automatically for up to 70% of positive cultures. These are plates that do not even need to be touched by the technologist. PhenoMATRIX TAG software uses AI to defineoptimal colony diameter, degree of isolation and uniformity to reduce errors and standardize this highly complex process. Colibri interfaces with the AI to pick the assigned colonies without the need to touch the plate.

About COPAN Laboratory Automation WASPLabWASPLab is a highly efficient, modular, scalable, and customizable specimen processing and culture work-up system for Clinical Microbiology. Samples move from front-end processing to Smart Incubation, Digital Microbiology and Artificial Intelligence/Interpretive Algorithms for plate reading.The system accepts any manufacturer's plated media, and utilizes gold standard, CLSI approved system for planting and streaking.

About Colibri:

COPAN's Colibri automatically picks isolated colonies for further workup and investigations. Colonies are designated by the laboratory technologist or automatically by COPAN's advanced AI, PhenoMATRIX TAG. Colibri works with both VITEK MS MALDI-TOF and Bruker Biotyper systems seeding either manufacturers' target plate formats, automatically applying matrix, and through a software interface, sending instructions and coordinates identifying each individual culture workup spot. The precision robotics of the full laboratory automation system WASPLab combined with Colibri help to eliminate any potential transposition errors.Colibri can also seed colonies into various size tubes or bottles to prepare McFarland suspensions for antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST)* verifying opacity of suspensions using the onboard nephelometer. The system applies barcode labels to tubes and prepares purity check plates from these suspensions.

When asked how PhenoMATRIX TAG and Colibri will impact clinical Microbiology, COPAN's Scientific Director and former Directory of Microbiology at Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Susan Sharp said "This technology allows highly skilled technologists to simply and quickly review and release automated culture results and spend their valuable time investigating the most complex cultures of the day. Technologists will have the time to consult with patients' clinicians about the appropriate path for evaluation of these difficult cultures and expediently release these reports."

To learn more about visit http://www.copanusa.com/phenomatrix.

About COPAN Diagnostics, Inc.

COPAN Diagnostics is part of COPAN Group, a leading manufacturer of collection and transport systems and full laboratory automation in the world.COPAN's collaborative approach to pre-analytics has resulted in FLOQSwabs, ESwab, UTM Universal Transport Medium, laboratory automation including WASP and WASPLab. For more information, visit http://www.copanusa.com.

*AST capability currently IUO (Investigational Use Only) in the USA market.Always consult product inserts and instructions for use for the appropriate use of the products. Product clearance and availability restrictions may apply in some countries.

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SOURCE COPAN Diagnostics, Inc.

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COPAN Diagnostics Announces Another Giant Step in the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Microbiology - BioSpace