This week's list of top data news highlights covers the period from June 22, 2024 to June 28, 2024 and includes stories on using AI algorithms to diagnose Parkinson's disease earlier and Los Angeles' first robot-powered Chinese restaurant.
1. Reinventing Virtual Companionship
Character AI, a California-based startup that provides AI-generated, chattable characters, has launched a feature that lets users call their AI chatbot companions. The free calling feature uses AI to generate custom voices for each character, making interactions between the chatbot and the user feel more authentic.
2. Cancer Treatment
Tokyo-based multinational investment firm SoftBank Group has partnered with U.S.-based precision medicine company Tempus AI to launch an AI-powered cancer treatment service in Japan. The new service uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the genetic and medical data of millions of patients in the U.S. and Japan to provide personalized treatment for cancer, the leading cause of death in Japan.
3. Stargazing
Unistellar, a France-based manufacturer of smart telescopes, is rolling out a new pair of smart binoculars called Envision that integrates augmented reality to identify and label thousands of stars, celestial bodies and landmarks such as mountains and roads. The Envision binoculars connect to a mobile app to access a vast database containing geographic and astronomical data, and use that data to provide real-time situational information as users observe objects and landmarks.
4. Protection of beachgoers
The city of Bethany Beach, Delaware, has launched a digital tool that uses data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide beachgoers with near real-time data on beach safety, including storm activity, water temperature and other ocean conditions.
5. Early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease
Researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University Medical Center of Gottingen in Germany have developed a blood test that uses an AI algorithm to diagnose Parkinson's disease up to seven years before symptoms appear. When tested on patients with rapid eye movement disorder, who are at high risk of developing Parkinson's, the test analyzed eight specific proteins in the blood and identified biomarkers similar to those found in Parkinson's patients with 79 percent accuracy.
6. Job Hunting Support
California-based startup Jobright has developed an AI-powered job search platform to help foreign workers in the U.S. The platform uses large-scale language models (LLMs) to provide personalized job recommendations, identify jobs that offer visa sponsorship, and suggest experts for introductions on LinkedIn to help foreign workers find work in the U.S. more easily and quickly.
7. Virtual Content Recommendations
The co-founder of book tracking and recommendation app Goodreads has launched a new app called Smashing that uses AI to recommend online content based on users' interests. Users can up-vote or down-vote recommended content 30 times a day, as well as submit their own content to help the algorithm better curate content.
8. New Language Translations
Google is introducing 110 new languages, spoken by at least 1 million people, to Google Translate, thanks to its PaLM 2 AI language model, which is particularly good at translating closely related languages and dialects, such as French-based Creoles. The list of newly added languages includes Cantonese, which has traditionally been difficult to translate because it overlaps with Mandarin, and Afar, spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
9. Detecting medical emergencies
CENSIS, Scotland's innovation centre for sensing, imaging and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, has partnered with several public and private organisations to develop an AI-powered IoT device to monitor the health of elderly and vulnerable people living alone. The device uses smart meter data to track appliance usage and uses machine learning to monitor power usage at 10-second intervals. The device detects everyday anomalies that may indicate an emergency or health problem and alerts family members or carers in the event of an emergency.
10. Cook on a budget
Tigawok, Los Angeles' first robot-powered Chinese restaurant, uses automated wok cooking machines to cook traditional Chinese dishes quickly and affordably. Using the robots to ensure consistency of flavor, Tigawok aims to offer a more authentic Chinese flavor than Americanized chain restaurants while keeping prices low for customers.
Image credit: Shawn Pierce
