Innovative artificial intelligence, machine learning projects to watch

Google has managed to discover a number of exoplanets by training a neural network to spot promising signals based on NASA's Kepler space telescope. The code has now been made open-source and so we can look forward to more discoveries being made from this machine learning system.

Via: Google

Artificial intelligence has a range of applications, and creative fields are no exception. Arsenal is a new example of AI being utilized to improve photography. The mobile accessory and digital assistant harnesses deep learning algorithms to improve images by selecting shutter speed, ISO rates, aperture, and more.

Via: Arsenal

Another arena to watch is interactive art.

Random International's "Zoological" installation was an interesting application of AI. A flock of airborne white spheres intended to represent the seemingly random -- but ordered -- patterning of birds in flight, used artificial intelligence and sensors to hover, glide, and swarm towards audience members.

Via: Random International

Music and AI may not seem like a match made in heaven, but for Yamaha and dancer Kaiji Moriyama, artificial intelligence provides a new means of expression.

A concert held in Tokyo in November 2017 called "Mai Hi Ten Yu" utilized the dancer's bodily movements, recorded by sensors on his skin and 'translated' through AI to create piano sounds. The AI-controlled piano was accompanied by a human orchestra.

Via: Yamaha

Ethical debate aside, the use of artificial intelligence in military applications is an interesting concept.

Earlier this month, it emerged that Google's TensorFlow AI systems are being used by the US Department of Defense's (DoD) Project Maven. TensorFlow is being used to automatically analyze the reams of footage recorded by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the field.

Via: The Guardian

While robotic customer service assistants are not a common theme in stores, some well-known brands are exploring artificial intelligence to improve customer service in other ways.

McDonalds is examining how bot agents and natural language requests made to AI systems could cut downtime in the kitchen and speed up service to allow human employees to spend more time and effort on pleasing customers.

Via: ZDNet

A group of knitting enthusiasts has put artificial intelligence to good use -- by training a neural network based on 500 sets of knitting instructions to create new, weird, and wonderful patterns.

Via: The Atlantic

Can artificial intelligence create the perfect sports team? The Toronto Raptors hope so.

The basketball stars are working with the IBM Watson supercomputer to screen potential recruits, detect weaknesses and skillsets which are lacking, and to evaluate player performances.

Via: Information Week