All posts tagged: speak

AI-powered avatars can gesture naturally as they speak

AI-powered avatars can gesture naturally as they speak

Published by skeptic

Humans use both speech and gestures to convey information Stanford University An artificial intelligence model can make virtual avatars gesture naturally to match spoken words – possibly paving the way for AI-generated newsreaders or influencers that move more realistically as they speak. As humans talk, we gesture to help convey our meaning. But when video game characters or digital avatars attempt similar behaviour, they often make generic movements regardless of what they are actually saying. To make virtual figures gesture more realistically, researchers first had to teach an AI model the connection between speech and body language – and the emotions… Source link

How AI can let you speak with space | Science, Climate & Tech News

How AI can let you speak with space | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

“I’m feeling a mix of excitement and nerves” – that’s how the AI replied when I asked how it felt minutes before the rocket launch. The reply came from the Hera Space Companion, an AI-powered assistant that was developed to “communicate” with the spacecraft of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission. Launched in October and due to last several years, the Hera mission is part of a planetary defence project designed to assess whether Earth can be protected from a catastrophic asteroid impact. Image: Hera’s Thermal Infrared Imager instrument captured this image of Earth and the moon from a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometres. Pic: European Space Agency “The ambition is to allow everyone to get closer to this mission and access information in a totally new way,” says Ian Carnelli, ESA’s head of mission. “For the first time, we have connected data from the spacecraft directly to Microsoft Azure. This allows users to actively engage with the spacecraft, follow discoveries in near real-time, and gain a unique behind-the-scenes look at the space …

Droidspeak: AI models work together faster when they speak their own language

Droidspeak: AI models work together faster when they speak their own language

Published by skeptic

Do you speak AI? Shutterstock/Ole.CNX Microsoft has created an artificial language that allows AI models to talk to each other faster and more efficiently than in English, with the hope that groups of models will be able to team up without having to resort to clumsy and sprawling human words. Many researchers believe that using several artificial intelligence models, each with different specialisms and abilities, to solve problems collectively holds promise for tackling thorny problems that individual ones can’t solve. Although large language models like ChatGPT have been shown to be capable of communicating at high speed, even reaching consensus… Source link

Cape Town’s most affected speak for themselves – Evidence & Policy Blog

Cape Town’s most affected speak for themselves – Evidence & Policy Blog

Published by skeptic

Laurence Piper, Gillian Black, Anna Wilson, Liezl Dick and Tsitsi Mpofu-Mketwa This blog post is based on the Evidence & Policy article, ‘Policy engagement as ‘empowered representation’: democratic mediation through a participatory research project on climate resilience’. Policy engagement is both a condition and moral obligation of publicly funded research projects in many countries, and our case in South Africa was no different. It was just relatively difficult. In 2019 we won a UKRI grant to do participatory research on how people living in poor settlements in Cape Town experience and respond to the climate-related hazards of water scarcity, floods and fires. The idea was to work closely with affected community members in understanding how they coped with these disasters, and what they thought could be done better in the future, by themselves and with help from others. We discussed our experiences in our recent article in Evidence and Policy, and summarise some of them here. These community participants then presented their experiences and ideas for climate resilience as ‘best bets’ to government officials in …

Speak to Me of Home by Jeanine Cummins—Book Review

Speak to Me of Home by Jeanine Cummins—Book Review

Published by skeptic

Unveiling the Roots of Identity In her latest novel, “Speak to Me of Home,” Jeanine Cummins weaves a rich tapestry of family, identity, and the eternal quest for belonging. With the same deft hand that brought us “American Dirt,” Cummins explores the intricate threads that connect three generations of women as they navigate the complex terrain between Puerto Rico and the American Midwest. This multigenerational saga is a testament to the power of storytelling, offering readers a profound meditation on what it truly means to call a place home. A Symphony of Voices At its heart, “Speak to Me of Home” is a story told through the voices of three remarkable women: Rafaela Acuña y Daubón: The matriarch who leaves her beloved Puerto Rico for the promise of a new life in St. Louis Ruth Brennan: Rafaela’s daughter, caught between two worlds and desperate to belong Daisy Hayes: Ruth’s daughter, whose journey back to Puerto Rico sets in motion a reckoning for the entire family Cummins masterfully intertwines their narratives, creating a symphony of voices …

Groundbreaking Brain Chip Allows Man With ALS to “Speak” Again

Groundbreaking Brain Chip Allows Man With ALS to “Speak” Again

Published by José

Image by UC Davis Health via YouTube Using an amazing new brain-computer interface (BCI), a man who’d lost the ability to speak is now able to communicate his thoughts out loud using his own voice. Scientists at the University of California, Davis have developed a brain chip that can interpret brain signals and have them be “read” aloud by a computer in real time. Using this chip, 45-year-old Casey Harrell, whose speech is slurred from the muscle control loss that characterizes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig‘s disease, went from being very difficult to understand to communicating in a computerized voice. What’s more: the voice assistant software connected to Harrell’s BCI is designed to sound like his voice before the disease took hold using artificial intelligence trained with audio samples of him pre-ALS. Implanted last summer in the left precentral gyrus, the brain region responsible for speech, the BCI’s 256 electrodes record the area’s activity and essentially convert it into text that’s then read aloud by the AI voice assistant mere seconds later. As …

Magic Dave: David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out – part 2 | News

Magic Dave: David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out – part 2 | News

Published by skeptic

The celebrated American magician David Copperfield has been accused by 16 women of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour, according to a Guardian US investigation. Lawyers for Copperfield denied all the allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour. They described the allegations against him as “false and entirely without foundation”. They also said there had been “numerous false claims” made against him in the past, but that none had been proved. They noted that he had never been charged with a crime. The lawyers said inappropriate behaviour against women “is the opposite of everything he stands for and works hard for”. They said Copperfield was a major advocate of women’s rights even before the rise of the #MeToo movement. Composite: REX/Getty Support The Guardian The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work. Support The Guardian Source link

Magic Dave: David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out – part 1 | News

Magic Dave: David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out – part 1 | News

Published by skeptic

The celebrated American magician David Copperfield has been accused by 16 women of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour, according to a Guardian US investigation. Lawyers for Copperfield denied all the allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour. They described the allegations against him as “false and entirely without foundation”. They also said there had been “numerous false claims” made against him in the past, but that none had been proved. They noted that he had never been charged with a crime. The lawyers said inappropriate behaviour against women “is the opposite of everything he stands for and works hard for”. They said Copperfield was a major advocate of women’s rights even before the rise of the #MeToo movement. Composite: REX/Getty Support The Guardian The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work. Support The Guardian Source link

Former Ofsted chief to speak at NSS conference

Former Ofsted chief to speak at NSS conference

Published by skeptic

The former head of school inspectorate Ofsted will speak at the National Secular Society’s conference this year, to discuss the challenges religion can pose in education. Amanda Spielman, who was Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills from 2017 to 2023, will address the Secularism 2024 conference on 19th October at Covent Garden in London. The theme of this year’s conference is “Protecting liberal values”. Spielman will speak about her experiences working for the best interests of schoolchildren, in the face of often extreme pressure from religious groups. Since becoming head of Ofsted, Spielman advocated for “muscular liberalism”, in recognition that some schools, “under the pretext of religious belief”, use education “to narrow young people’s horizons, to isolate and segregate, and in the worst cases to indoctrinate impressionable minds with extremist ideology”. Her concerns include sex segregation at faith schools, girls being forced to wear hijab to school, and religious attacks on inclusive relationships and sex education. In 2018 she backed St Stephen’s Primary School in London for restricting hijabs and ritual fasting for young …

It’s as if misogyny was the vice that dared not speak its name at the Garrick. That cloud has now lifted | Simon Jenkins

It’s as if misogyny was the vice that dared not speak its name at the Garrick. That cloud has now lifted | Simon Jenkins

Published by skeptic

The Garrick Club’s vote this week in favour of admitting women as members mattered. It mattered – and was the subject of widespread public debate – because the club’s prominence in London’s establishment landscape made its exclusion of women seem unjust and wrong. With a large number of senior judges and other public servants as members, it simply could not pass as just another club. Some might argue that this popularity speaks to its standing, others that it also brings responsibility. The vote lifts a cloud from the club’s reputation, as did a similar vote by the Athenaeum in 2002. These places are not hole-in-the-corner institutions. In my view, the Garrick’s influence on Britain’s public life has been overstated. But privilege and influence are perceived, and that has been enough to make the club’s membership vulnerable to public scrutiny. That vulnerability was evident in the embarrassment some members felt at seeing the issue discussed outside the club’s walls. It was as if misogyny was a vice that dared not speak its name. This week, as …