June 18, 2015

Google DeepMind Teaches Artificial Intelligence Machines to Read




The best way for AI machines to learn is by feeding them huge data sets of annotated examples, and the Daily Mail has unwittingly created one.

(June 18, 2015)  A revolution in artificial intelligence is currently sweeping through computer science. The technique is called deep learning and it’s affecting everything from facial and voice to fashion and economics.

But one area that has not yet benefitted is natural language processing—the ability to read a document and then answer questions about it. That’s partly because deep learning machines must first learn their trade from vast databases that are carefully annotated for the purpose. However, these simply do not exist in sufficient size to be useful.

Today, that changes thanks to the work of Karl Moritz Hermann at Google DeepMind in London and a few pals. These guys say the special way that the Daily Mail and CNN write online news articles allows them to be used in this way. And the sheer volume of articles available online creates for the first time, a database that computers can use to learn and then answer related about. In other words, DeepMind is using Daily Mail and CNN articles to teach computers to read.


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