Google's AI talks to Pluto

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( Hi, it’s Nico. Google’s annual I/O conference [kicked off on Tuesday]( and the company showed off all the ways it’s using artificial intelligence to make our family memories more vivid, to make smartphone cameras less racist, and potentially to even save lives. Let’s start with the innovations in cameras. One of the features Google debuted, dubbed “cinematic moments,” will use machine learning to animate groups of two or three similar photos, using the images to, for example, create a gif of your dog. More seriously, the company is also trying to improve its Pixel phone camera so that it more accurately takes pictures of Black and Brown people—who too often blend into the background or are underlit in photos because phones weren’t coded with their skin tones in mind. And Google is even using AI to identify potential skin diseases through photographs, so you can check out that mole before booking a trip to the dermatologist. The splashiest AI developments, however, centered around language processing. On Tuesday the company debuted LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications, which it called “breakthrough conversation technology.” The tech picks up on the nuances of how we speak and can “talk” back in a way that feels relatively natural. To showcase the concept, Google staged a mock conversation with Pluto, the rocky astral sphere, which recently lost its designation as as planet: "I wish people knew that I am not just a random ice ball,” Google’s AI-generated Pluto said. “I am actually a beautiful planet." It added that you should wear a coat if you plan on dropping by. Google also unveiled what it called MUM, or the Multitask Unified Model, which understands complex questions with multiple variables. MUM is 1,000 times more powerful than its predecessor BERT, or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, the company said. Both new language models will be used to build out services like Google Search and the company’s home assistant. But as whimsical as these developments are, Google’s AI division at the moment is best known for the [controversies that have rocked the company](. In December, Google ousted Timnit Gebru, a prominent Black AI researcher, amid a disagreement over a paper she co-wrote that was critical of the company’s technology. A couple of months later, her co-lead, Margaret Mitchell, was fired following an investigation into her file transfers. The women had criticized Google, alleging instances of racism, sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as bias issues in its technology—most prominently one of the language models that helps underpin Google’s ubiquitous search engine, the aforementioned BERT. While the wide-ranging and charming applications of AI are a contrast to the division’s checkered past, it’s precisely because Google develops so many AI tools that it needs internal controls—people and processes who can help reduce technological bias on behalf of the billions of users who will one day rely on those products. The company still has scores of researchers who try to ensure fairness in AI and is planning to double the number to 200, but the ouster of Gebru and Mitchell has left lingering questions about the division and its management. The head of Google AI, Jeff Dean, acknowledged that reality for the [first time on Tuesday](, saying “the reputational hit is a real thing” after the women’s forced exits. In an interview with tech news website CNET, Dean said “we have to move past this.” Until the company regains the trust of users, academics and ethical AI advocates, though, conversations with Pluto can only help so much. —[Nico Grant](mailto:ngrant20@bloomberg.net) If you read one thing Check out Bloomberg Businessweek’s annual “How-To Issue.” You’ll learn how to pitch a VC, make money as a social media influencer, tip a bartender [and more](. And here’s what you need to know in global technology news Apple is preparing to launch new desktops and laptops with [faster processors](, accelerating the company’s efforts to replace Intel chips in its products. New MacBook pros could debut as soon as this summer. It wasn’t just AI at Google’s developer conference. The company also said Tuesday that it would [showcase Shopify merchants]( on its shopping site. The biggest Bitcoin selloff since the cryptocurrency started soaring last year [keeps going](. Amazon is extending its ban on police use of its facial recognition technology [indefinitely](. Uber, Lyft and other gig companies could be nearing a [compromise with labor groups]( in New York State. WeWork says demand is now higher than it was before the pandemic, as employers search for [more flexible office leases](.  Like Fully Charged? | [Get unlimited access to Bloomberg.com](, where you'll find trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters.  You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022