Data Science Insider: February 18th, 2022

In This Week’s SuperDataScience Newsletter: DeepMind Can Manipulate Nuclear Fusion. Fake Faces Created by AI Look More Trustworthy Than Real People. Clearview AI Aims to Put Almost Every Human in Facial Recognition Database. Neuralink Faces Animal Abuse Claims. Researchers have Developed a New AI That Can Flirt. Cheers, - The SuperDataScience Team P.S. Have friends and colleagues who could benefit from these weekly updates? Send them to [this link]( to subscribe to the Data Science Insider. --------------------------------------------------------------- [DeepMind Can Manipulate Nuclear Fusion]( brief: Nuclear fusion is the process by which our sun and other stars power themselves, however after decades of research it remains frustratingly out of reach. One of the main challenges to achieving this is to shape and maintain a high-temperature plasma within the reactor. Temperatures inside a nuclear fusion reactor reach hundreds of millions of degrees, transforming matter into a plasma state that is neither solid, liquid, nor gas. In order to extract energy from it, scientists need to somehow hold the plasma together. In stars this is achieved through gravity, however, on Earth, the process requires lasers or magnets. DeepMind used its advanced deep learning tools to manipulate the superheated plasma within a magnet-based reactor, known as a tokamak. DeepMind’s AI was able to constantly control the plasma by taking 90 different measurements 10,000 times a second and adjusting the magnetic field accordingly. Why this is important: The potential of nuclear fusion is massive, with physicist Dr Arthur Turrell recently describing it as “a breakthrough in human history akin to the adoption of electricity”. Now that DeepMind has trained an AI to control the superheated plasma inside a nuclear fusion reactor it opens up new avenues to advance the arrival of unlimited clean energy. [Click here to sign up!]( [Fake Faces Created by AI Look More Trustworthy Than Real People]( brief: A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA suggests that real humans can easily fall for machine-generated faces—and even interpret them as more trustworthy than the genuine article. The synthetic faces for this study were developed in back-and-forth interactions between two neural networks, examples of a type known as generative adversarial networks. One of the networks, called a generator, produced an evolving series of synthetic faces like a student working progressively through rough drafts. The other network, known as a discriminator, trained on real images and then graded the generated output by comparing it with data on actual faces. The generator began the exercise with random pixels. With feedback from the discriminator, it gradually produced increasingly realistic humanlike faces. Ultimately, the discriminator was unable to distinguish a real face from a fake one. Why this is important: The finding adds to concerns about the accessibility of technology that makes it possible for just about anyone to create deceptive still images. “We found that not only are synthetic faces highly realistic, they are deemed more trustworthy than real faces,” says study co-author Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The result raises concerns that “these faces could be highly effective when used for nefarious purposes.” [Click here to read on!]( [Putting Every Human in Facial Recognition Database]( In brief: The controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI has reportedly told investors that it aims to collect 100 billion photos—supposedly enough to ensure that almost every human will be in its database. This article by The Washington Post claims that Clearview AI told investors in a financial presentation in December that it is on track to have 100 billion facial photos in its database within a year, enough to ensure “almost everyone in the world will be identifiable.” There are an estimated 7.9 billion people on the planet. The presentation said that Clearview has already racked up 10 billion images and is adding 1.5 billion images a month. Clearview told investors it needs another $50 million to hit its goal. Clearview has built its database by taking images from social networks and other online sources without the consent of the websites or the people who were photographed. Why this is important: We have covered the controversy surrounding Clearview’s technology on several occasions in these newsletters. Clearview is facing various privacy lawsuits and lost an important ruling this week in a case over whether the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by collecting and using facial images without people's consent. [Click here to discover more!]( [Neuralink Faces Animal Abuse Claims]( In brief: Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink is defending itself against claims that its researchers abused monkeys in the testing of its products. Neuralink – which hopes to create a revolutionary interface that would allow humans to control devices with their brains – has denied the allegations that that the animals were tortured and left to die in horrific experiments at its facilities. In a lengthy complaint filed with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said the research caused “extreme suffering” in its test subjects, who “had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die.” The complaint targets a partnership between Neuralink and the University of California, Davis that was carried out between 2017 and 2020, in which researchers implanted a device “approximately the size of a quarter” into the skull of macaque monkey test subjects. Why this is important: Here at SuperDataScience we covered the news, in 2021, that Neuralink had published a video of a monkey appearing to control a computer with its mind. The release sparked controversy, with many noting that typically such videos are published in scientific journals and subject to peer review, allowing for more oversight and accountability. This latest story fans the flames of this debate. [Click here to see the full picture!]( [Researchers have Developed a New AI That Can Flirt]( In brief: A new AI program has been developed that can mimic flirty speech patterns, thanks to new 'non-word sounds' including sighs and breaths. Sonantic, based in London, produces expressive AI voices for a range of uses, including Hollywood movies and computer games. The latest development was built with an 'unnamed Hollywood client' called 'What's Her Secret?', designed to create a flirty female lead character 'that has never lived'. They released a video, with the face of an actress but the voice of AI, designed to demonstrate it is possible to create “hyper-realistic romantic encounters.” In developing the AI, the team discovered secrets that humans can use to sound more romantic and flirty, including slowing down to create suspense, gently smiling when speaking, and keeping a smooth, consistent pace. The voice models generated by Sonantic can already express happiness and sadness, but flirty required a subtle approach, not possible with simple language. Why this is important: As noted by Sonantic CEO Zeena Qureshi, capturing subtle emotions is difficult as AI voice models tend to “make emotions sound muted,” adding that this “muting effect” leads to more subtle emotions being “drowned out and [sounding] robotic.” This new development is a step closer to more realistic AI that more closely models human interactions. [Click here to find out more!]( [Super Data Science podcast]( this week's [Super Data Science Podcast](, we have a relaxed, laugh-filled conversation on A.I. with Glean software engineer and Stanford graduate Lauren Zhu. Tune in if you’re keen to learn more about natural language problems and discover how she juggles so many important roles at once! --------------------------------------------------------------- What is the Data Science Insider? This email is a briefing of the week's most disruptive, interesting, and useful resources curated by the SuperDataScience team for Data Scientists who want to take their careers to the next level. Want to take your data science skills to the next level? Check out the [SuperDataScience platform]( and sign up for membership today! Know someone who would benefit from getting The Data Science Insider? 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