Science illuminates the dark night when the Greek poet looked to the heavens, lonely for her lover. Due to tantalizing hints in the poem, scholars have long debated when it was written. Now, thanks to software used to simulate night skies in planetariums, scientists have figured it out. READ MORE: Software solves the mystery of a 2,500 year-old poem by Sappho | Ars Technica
Category Archives: Technology
Here’s What A Robot Learned After Binge-Reading Romance Novels | HuffPost #AI #textmining #books #tech #machinelearning
Earlier this month Google’s software engineer Andrew Dai explained to BuzzFeed News that the genre’s formulaic approach to storytelling makes it ideal for machine learning. They hit a sweet spot between the labyrinthine, meandering sentences found in literary fiction, and the less elevated language used in kids’ books.
And in a heartrending plot twist: the experiment worked. The hairy details were released last week, but in short, the AI successfully connected lines of text to related phrases based on frequently connected words and phrases used in romance novels. READ MORE: Here’s What A Robot Learned After Binge-Reading Romance Novels | HuffPost
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Don’t panic! ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ tech jumps off page into reality | CNET #books #tech #scifi #libraryfun #culture
As Douglas Adams fans the world over celebrate Towel Day, it’s become clear that once-futuristic items from the author’s beloved book series are now part of our everyday lives. READ MORE: Don’t panic! ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ tech jumps off the page into reality – CNET
IBM Now Letting Anyone Play With Its Quantum Computer | WIRED #tech #remote #quantumcomputing #online #openaccess @IBM
Quantum computing is computing at its most esoteric. It’s an experimental, enormously complex, sometimes downright confusing technology that’s typically the domain of hardcore academics and organizations like Google and NASA. But that might be changing.
Today, IBM unveiled an online service that lets anyone use the five-qubit quantum computer its researchers have erected at a research lab in Yorktown Heights, New York. You can access the machine over the Internet via a simple software interface—or at least it’s simple if you understand the basics of quantum computing. READ MORE: IBM Is Now Letting Anyone Play With Its Quantum Computer | WIRED
Google Is Feeding Romance Novels To Its AI Engine To Make Its Products More Conversational | BuzzFeed #AI #books
This has to be one of the most awesome headlines I have ever seen while curating news for this blog! 🙂
For the past few months, Google has been feeding text like this to an AI engine — all of it taken from steamy romance novels with titles like Unconditional Love, Ignited, Fatal Desire, and Jacked Up. Google’s AI has read them all — every randy, bodice-ripping page — because the researchers overseeing its development have determined that parsing the text of romance novels could be a great way of enhancing the company’s technology with some of the personality and conversational skills it lacks.
And it’s working, too. Google’s research team recently got the AI to write sentences that resemble those in the books. With that achievement unlocked, they’re now planning to move on to bigger challenges: using the conversational styles the AI has learned to inform and humanize the company’s products, such as the typically staid Google app. READ MORE: Google Is Feeding Romance Novels To Its Artificial Intelligence Engine To Make Its Products More Conversational | BuzzFeed News
15 Top Tech Jobs of 2016 | Mashable #tech #careers #jobs #employment #STEM #technicalskills
Over the past few years, skilled developers and tech professionals have been in high demand for startups and corporations alike. And 2016 will be no exception. What will be different, however, is the sheer quantity of specialties companies are seeking in order to fill highly specific gaps, from data engineers to machine learning experts with deep knowledge of their fields.
Given that many companies are already hiring — or will be shortly — I asked 15 startup founders from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) which categories of technical talent they are looking for this year and why these roles will be so impactful. Their best answers are below. READ MORE: 15 top tech jobs of 2016 | Mashable
The Untold Story of Magic Leap, the World’s Most Secretive Startup | WIRED #VR #virtualreality #AR #augmentedreality #mixedreality #MR #tech
In depth, informative long form post on all aspects of AR, MR, VR and Magic Leap.
Virtual reality is posed to become a fundamental technology, and outfits like Magic Leap have an opportunity to become some of the largest companies ever. READ: The Untold Story of Magic Leap, the World’s Most Secretive Startup | WIRED
Audible, long known only for #audiobooks, is branching out into #podcasts and news | @NiemanLab #audio #Audible #originalcontent @audible_com
The podcast/audio world has been waiting for Audible to make its big move into the space. It’s here, including original content from major publishers like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. READ MORE: Audible, long known only for audiobooks, is branching out into podcasts — and news | Nieman Journalism Lab
Gamification, personalization and continued education trending in edtech | TechCrunch #edtech #education #gamification #personalization #trends
Using CrunchBase, I took a look at $5.5 billion invested in 450 edtech companies over the last three years. I’ve highlighted those in this landscape that exhibit the qualities of an amazing company: a great team, an amazing product and the potential for a huge impact. READ MORE: Gamification, personalization and continued education are trending in edtech | TechCrunch
A browser for people who think Chrome is for dummies | CNET #Internet #browsers #interfaces #tools #tech #UX
Vivaldi 1.0, from the creators of Opera, is crammed with options for those of you who want to break out of the confines of ordinary browsers. READ MORE: A browser for people who think Chrome is for dummies | CNET
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