This week’s list of top data news highlights covers July 29, 2023 to August 4, 2023 and includes articles on using algorithms to identify hazardous near-Earth asteroids and democratizing access to geospatial data.
1. Generating Music from Text Prompts
Meta has launched a new open-source AI model called AudioCraft, which lets users create music and sounds from written prompts. The model was trained on 20,000 hours of music owned or licensed by Meta. The system has been used to generate noises of whistling, sirens, and humming, as well as instrument sounds such as guitar strings.
Digital kiosk provider Soofa is working with the Boston Environment Department to implement an air quality widget that provides Bostonians with real-time observed air quality data and forecasts. The kiosk uses information from more than 2,000 monitoring stations and provides residents with recommendations for outdoor activity.
3. Making Geospatial Data Open-Source
IBM and open-source AI platform Hugging Face have collaborated to make IBM’s geospatial foundation model, which was created from NASA’s satellite data, openly accessible. This partnership aims to address challenges in climate science by improving AI access to analyze large geospatial datasets, facilitating new innovations in Earth and climate science.
4. Discovering Hazardous Asteroids
Researchers from the University of Washington designed an algorithm to discover near-Earth asteroids and it has identified its first potentially hazardous celestial body, a 600-foot-long asteroid. The algorithm improves on existing methods for discovery as it can identify near-Earth asteroids with fewer and more dispersed observations.
Dating app Tinder is testing an AI tool that chooses users’ most attractive photos for their profiles, aiming to increase the likelihood of getting a positive response. The AI system will analyze a user’s photo album and select five images that best represent them, relieving the stress of photo selection and potentially helping users build better profiles.
A research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia has created a camera-based system to monitor chickens in sheds, providing real-time analysis of their growth and behavior. The system can quantify behaviors associated with temperature stress and assess the chickens’ welfare, enabling farmers to automatically calculate their flock’s weight and well-being.
7. Spotting Health Equity Gaps
Healthcare provider organization One Brooklyn Health has developed a tool that automates the collection of data on patient experiences to identify systemic gaps and trends in care, enabling the organization to address health disparities and improve patient outcomes.
Google has launched new privacy tools to help users track and remove search results about themselves including false information, unwanted contact details, and copyright violations. With this tool, users can access search results about themselves in a personalized dashboard, monitor their information, and receive notifications for new updates on search.
9. Analyzing Health Emergency Preparedness
A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and the University of Exeter Business School has developed a simulation tool that analyzes a region’s healthcare infrastructure. It provides crucial details such as the number of health centers, bed availability, ICU facilities, ventilators, oxygen, medicine supply, and healthcare workers, enabling the government to better plan and make decisions.
10. Developing Drugs for Schizophrenia
PsychoGenics, a preclinical research organization based in New Jersey, has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to develop an AI-enabled platform that analyzes patterns of behavior to screen potential drugs. Candidate drugs are injected into mice, which are then placed into a controlled environment where their behavior is tracked. The company is starting with developing a drug to treat schizophrenia.
Image credits: Wikimedia commons