Can't quite remember the name of the song stuck in your head? Hum it and our AI will take a guess, says Google
- Reference: 1603094287
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/19/in_brief_ai/
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"A song’s melody is like its fingerprint: they each have their own unique identity," [1]said Krishna Kumar, senior product manager at Google Search, this month. "We've built machine learning models that can match your hum, whistle or singing to the right 'fingerprint'.”
The tech is available via Google Assistant on iOS and Android, and all it needs is a sample of you humming for about ten to fifteen seconds. It only works with English-language tracks at the moment. Similar technology may exist in other apps.
Cruise to test cars with no drivers in SF
Cruise, the San-Francisco-based self-driving car startup bought out by General Motors in 2018, has been given the green light to drive its computer-controlled electric vehicles around the city without any humans inside.
“Before the end of the year, we’ll be sending cars out onto the streets of SF — without gasoline and without anyone at the wheel,” CEO Dan Armann [2]announced . “Because safely removing the driver is the true benchmark of a self-driving car, and because burning fossil fuels is no way to build the future of transportation.”
Cruise had planned to start the autonomous service last year though [3]decided more testing was needed. Now, Armann said, its time had come and the biz would prove its worth on "the chaotic, gritty streets of San Francisco."
Alphabet-backed Waymo [4]launched a limited robo-taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, earlier this month.
Non-profit drops out of Partnership of AI
Access Now, a non-profit org focused on fighting for people’s digital rights, has cancelled its membership with the Partnership of AI (PAI), a group backed by several large tech companies to build machine-learning systems responsibly.
PAI receives funding from more than 100 partners, including Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, as well as smaller non-profits, to conduct research into the social impacts of AI. The group has published reports on algorithmic bias, facial recognition, and law, though the documentation seems to have little effect, and aren’t directly implemented by any of its partners.
“While we support dialogue between stakeholders, we did not find that PAI influenced or changed the attitude of member companies or encouraged them to respond to or consult with civil society on a systematic basis,” Access Now said in a [5]statement .
"As a human rights organization, we support human rights impact assessments and red lines around use of these technologies, rather than an ethics, risk-based, or sandboxing approach." ®
Get our [6]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.google/products/search/hum-to-search
[2] https://medium.com/cruise/its-time-to-drive-change-f447f27cb353
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/24/gm_cruise_cars_delay/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/13/in_brief_ai/
[5] https://www.accessnow.org/access-now-resignation-partnership-on-ai/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
English?
"It only works with English-language tracks at the moment."
So you have to hum in English?
I'm surprised the "name that tune" app has taken so long, honestly. It's so obvious, I've been wanting that since I got my first smartphone.
songtapper.com was a website that would do that, many many years ago.
you only needed to mash the spacebar in a mildly convincing tuneful way to have it recognise your songs with a >5% accuracy:-)
Recognizing original soundtracks is easy and apps are everywhere; I think my phone does it unprompted on the lock screen. Recognizing humming, now that's a lot harder.
Hum it and our AI will take a guess, says Google
Oh, HOW USEFUL!!! Oh, HOW COOL!!!! I ABSOLUTELY MUST twitter about it! Let me SHARE this FABULOUS idea with ALL MY FRIENDS! I am SO GRATEFUL for google to make and share such a USEFUL, FREE technology. And lookie here, don't even need to lift your fat bum off your sofa, cause like, Google speaker!!!!
GOOGLE, True Saviours of Humanity, making YOUR life better and better and better and better and be
Re: Hum it and our AI will take a guess, says Google
Behind the rant there is always the serious question as to "why" and for what purpose Google really built this app..
Not remembering a song and asking your friends to help whilst you hum along is actually quite a fun thing to do as it involves some of that old-fashioned "real world human interaction"...
Google is not known for doing things without a reason, so I would presume that they are doing it order to make a guess at what a muffled conversation might actually contain.. Muffled as in : Listening to the "hum" of a conversation in another room, listening to another conversation in a crowd which is also more of a "hum" rather than actual words etc etc etc
Re: Hum it and our AI will take a guess, says Google
Got a testicle caught up in your knickers?
the chaotic, gritty streets of San Francisco.
You wait until you try that on the the chaotic, gritty streets of Central London complete with manic, unlicensed JustEat delivery drivers, London Black Cab drivers who decide to do a 180 turn without signalling or buses that just pull out beside you without indicating etc. etc.