'HADAR' - the new thermal imaging that allows AI to see in pitch blackness

Welcome to The Dispatch! We are the newsletter that keeps you informed about AI. Each weekday, we scour the web to aggregate the many stories related to artificial intelligence; we pass along the news, useful resources, tools or services, guides, technical analysis and exciting developments in open source.

In today’s Dispatch:

• InWorld has become the top-funded startup in AI Gaming, with a $500m valuation. InWorld’s business model is using AI to develop more compelling ‘non-player characters’ in games; various game modders have already integrated the technology with quite a few games.

• A CNBC article & video covers how layoffs are affecting tech workers. Since the beginning of last year, tech firms have shed almost 400,000 employees and the number is climbing - is a booming AI industry the solution or the problem?

• Dell Technologies and Nvidia have launched a new suite of reference-model blueprints aimed at teaching enterprises how to adopt and manage generative AI for immediate use (in our technical section).

Plus: New York legislators look to help protect actors and writers, Wisconsin cops using AI for surveillance, Jupyter AI for Jupyter notebooks, trending tools and more!

Purdue University develops ‘HADAR’ - thermal imaging that allows AI to see through pitch darkness like broad daylight

The story: Researchers at Purdue University have developed HADAR (heat-assisted detection and ranging), a patent-pending innovation that enhances machine vision and perception. Combining thermal physics, infrared imaging, and machine learning, HADAR can enable machines to perceive texture and depth, even in challenging conditions - like complete darkness, fog, or rain.

More details:

• Unlike traditional thermal imaging, HADAR can detect and read textures and fine features. HADAR is also a fully passive sensor - unlike LiDAR and radar, etc. which emit and receive signals - which connotes advantages in safety as well as a lack of signal interference.

• Initial applications of HADAR are automated vehicles and robots, but the technology could expand into sectors like agriculture, defense, healthcare, and wildlife monitoring.

• The current sensor is large and slow, and further development is required to reduce its size, price, and increase the frame rate for practical applications in autonomous vehicles.

Takeaways: HADAR could address the inability of current machine vision systems to accurately perceive texture, depth, and details in low/no light conditions like darkness, fog, or rain. The development could mark a shift in how we approach machine perception, breaking down the dichotomy between day and night. However, the practical implementation of HADAR still faces challenges in hardware size, speed, and cost. If these can be overcome, HADAR could be implemented into autonomous vehicles in a synergistic way, combining with existing systems to create a more robust and nuanced understanding of the vehicle’s environment. The research being funded by DARPA likely signals future use in defense/surveillance systems.

New York legislators move to protect writers and actors from AI Replacement

The story: Legislators in the U.S., both at state and federal levels, are drafting bills to protect workers from being replaced by artificial intelligence. Amid ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, and as a response to the growing use of AI in media creation, New York’s legislative measures aim to ensure that human creativity is not supplanted by AI-generated content.

More details:

• In New York: Senate Bill S7422 and Assembly Bill A7634 would prohibit any companies seeking tax credit from using AI to replace human workers. The New York bills cover any form of media, including text, images, video, or sound, fully or partially created using AI.

• House of Representatives Bill H.R. 6553 focuses on researching AI's impact on the workforce and guards to mitigate human displacement by ‘training and retaining’ workers in the age of AI.

• Additionally, the No Robot Bosses Act and the Exploitative Workplace Surveillance and Technologies Task Force Act enforce human oversight in employment decisions and examine the effect of automation on workers.

Takeaways: With Hollywood negotiations stalled over the issue of AI, lawmakers are acting to defend workers vulnerable to displacement. The proposed laws highlight growing concerns about AI's effects on livelihoods and seek to shield vulnerable professions. Joint federal agencies have already made their strong pro-human protection stance clear.

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Generative AI in Jupyter

The story: Jupyter AI is a new open-source tool that brings generative AI capabilities to Jupyter notebooks. It allows users to generate code, summarize content, ask questions, and more using AI.

More details:

• Jupyter AI supports popular AI models like Claude, GPT and Cohere. More will be added.

• It provides a chat interface to converse with an AI assistant and notebook magics to invoke models programmatically.

• Users can generate entire notebooks from text prompts using the chat interface. Full docs on Jupyter AI can be read here.

Takeaways: AI-assisted programming continues to become more ubiquitous and more accessible. By integrating leading models into the familiar Jupyter interface, it allows more developers to augment their workflows with AI. Jupyter AI uses LangChain to leverage any number of LLM’s of your choice, or even your own local model.

Social media/YouTube:

• The near future? (meme) [Reddit]

• This sweater is an invisibility cloak for AI surveillance [X]

• Generate entire movies with AI [YouTube]

• Gorilla: LLM’s connected with massive API’s [YouTube]

Did you know?

While AI in healthcare typically makes the news with more headline-worthy themes like cancer breakthroughs, one of the biggest reasons to be excited about AI in healthcare is how it will transform administrative burdens within the field. Take a closer look at the exciting marriage of AI and healthcare.

Trending AI Tools & Services:

• NimbleBox: Plug n’ play MLOps on your cloud.

• Reflex: Build web apps in pure Python - check out the TechCrunch writeup

• HappyRobot.ai: AI-powered data extraction from drones/satellites

• Shaktimaan: India's first Personal Mentor & discipline inducing learning ecosystem

• TL:DR This: TLDR This helps you summarize any piece of text into concise, easy to digest content so you can free yourself from information overload.