
Alibaba is investing huge sums in AI research and resources - nl
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610219/inside-the-chinese-lab-that-plans-to-rewire-the-world-with-ai/
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thisisit
> More impressive still, all this happens successfully in the middle of a
> crowded, noisy station. Each kiosk has to figure out who is speaking to it;
> zero in on that person’s voice within the crowd; transcribe the incoming
> speech; parse its meaning; and compare the person’s face against a massive
> database of photos—all within a few seconds.

At the risk of sounding cynical, what is more impressive is that even if the
kiosk either mis-identifies a voice or zeroes-in on the wrong person or mis-
transcribes the incoming speech or parses incorrectly or cannot compare a
person face or unable to connect to the database or identification takes more
than a minute - no one will ever ever hear about it. The person complaining
might get some points from his social score or go to jail.

But, we will get an article from MIT making it sound like everything works
flawlessly.

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mark_l_watson
It is probably a prototype system. That said, this is the way you make
progress: you build something, and see if it performs well enough, meeting
people’s needs.

Andrew Ng had a great demo of detecting one voice in a party environment in
one of his old classes. It was a matlab/octave one-liner.

Here in the US, we have had some fine successes by organizations like DARPA
‘going long’ and taking funding risks. Now the Chinese are doing the same.

~~~
tibbetts
DARPA and friends should go long. But it would be nice if journalists didn’t
act like problems were completely solved the first time they see a prototype.
That kind of hype is how you get AI winter.

~~~
jjoonathan
How do we disincentivise clickbait?

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njarboe
Stop clicking? Teach others to do the same.

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jjoonathan
That's what I'm doing, but I don't expect it to work.

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yters
It's funny in a disturbing way. NSA and Google use technology in an oppressive
way and everyone is up in arms. China develops oppressive technology and
journalists cannot stop singing their praise.

~~~
bilbo0s
I think it's pretty clear people have been up in arms about population
monitoring in both the US and China. In fact, if anything, we've been MORE
critical of China.

Here is the fundamental problem in a nutshell:

The governments of China and the US simply don't care what we think.

That's the problem we need to solve.

~~~
yters
In America, we can do something about it through many avenues. In China, you
get 'disappeared' for trying to do something about it. A bit of a difference.

~~~
fzss_
House of cards is a pretty accurate depiction of U.S. politics,there are many
avenues for one to be “disappeared” in America too. It’s not so much different

~~~
rubidium
"Down with N! Down with Winnie the pooh. "

Made it past the censors. I guess there are _some_ differences.

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rfdub
Chinese AI "rewiring" the world is a terrifying notion, as I'm sure by
mandatory design, China's version of Asimov's laws would basically put
obeisance to the party and big daddy XI as their primary tenets.

~~~
coldtea
As opposed to Trump and the US' "national interests", that have already caused
untold pain in the world?

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adamsea
There are no heroes here.

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seanmcdirmid
Does the shanghai subway now require IDs to use? That doesn’t sound right,
they do spot checks for sure but...foreigners use it also.

And you don’t need to buy a ticket if your RF transit card is filled up, so
the point of the kiosk checking ID via facial recognition is even weirder.
Maybe they setup that condition for expository reasons? There is no way kiosks
are going to screen everyone during rush hour, even if they work perfectly.

~~~
yorwba
I'm pretty sure this is only a prototype in a single location. When I took the
subway yesterday, I didn't see any face recognition anywhere. Then again I
haven't recharged my transportation card in half a year, so maybe they now
require ID for that. If they do, foreigners are probably identified by their
passport.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
They might be, but face recognition isn’t going to work for that. Is this
another case of foreigners waiting in line while Chinese get to use the kiosks
(as when taking the train)?

I find the subway so annoying in china. It worked well until they started
those damn security checkpoints, after that I just couldn’t justify taking it
rather than a taxi.

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zhte415
> security checkpoints

The points where bags are scanned? It is annoying. It is a security farce. It
does only take a few tens of seconds, less than a minute. Unless in peak
hours, then perhaps a minute more, where taxis would take 4x to 5x to take
where the subway puts you.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
It depends on the station, but liangmaqiao Beijing can have waits up to 30
minutes, sometimes even an hour. The lines can be crazy crazy long in ways
that can only happen in china.

Of course, traffic will make taxis slower. But it always seemed to work out
faster for me unless I had to leave at peak peak, and Beijing traffic makes
shanghai’s look reasonable.

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resource0x
Is the history repeating, or it just rhymes? :)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer)

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SubiculumCode
If China won't respect human rights, I would support moving away from them as
a trade partner. There are other producers with more liberty for their people.

~~~
blackrock
People do not view China as a trade partner.

Instead, China is viewed as an opportunity (to be exploited).

Apple, Dell, IBM, everyone, used them as cheap labor to get manufacturing
costs down. So that they can sell that sweet iPhone for $1000, and make $800
in profits. Apple stock goes up. Your 401k is more valuable.

Then, there are more iPhone users in China, than there are in the United
States. Apple can make more money selling services (music, apps,
subscriptions) to them, than they do in the United States. Do you want to take
away this sweet money tree from Apple?

Walmart views China as a cheap manufacturer. You can buy more plastic trinkets
for less. So you spend more money, to buy more things. Win for you. Win for
Walmart. Walmart stock goes up. Your 401k is more valuable.

If you want to kill the lucrative trade partnership with China, then you had
better give a good explanation to all the people with their cushy 401k, why
their retirement accounts are tanking.

The trade with China, may suck for the blue collar class, but it is very
lucrative for the investor class. And for you, your 401k gets a nice bounce,
so that you too, can get a share of the profits.

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kolbe
It's funny how many times that article mentions something that a Chinese
company is doing that is basically a copy of what a US company has already
done. And the only reasons the Chinese company is able to even be close is
that China essentially bans US tech companies from participating in their
economy, and probably because the government conducts espionage on their
behalf.

This is a huge deal, and even though steel tariffs aren't a great solution, I
at least appreciate that our government is treating China's behavior as a real
threat.

~~~
SilverCurve
I'm afraid the steel tariffs sabotage US trade and relation with allies more
than China. Most steel imports don't come from China
[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2018/mar/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2018/mar/08/angus-king/does-much-steel-does-us-import-china/)

~~~
kolbe
Let me quote myself from the post you replied to:

"steel tariffs aren't a great solution"

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listic
Is any modern computer reading comprehension service available online?

~~~
listic
BiDAF - Bi-directional Attention Flow Demo by Allen Institute for Artificial
Intelligence
[http://allgood.cs.washington.edu:1995](http://allgood.cs.washington.edu:1995)

