Google Street View Gives a Glimpse into Power of A.I.
The power of A.I. can reach deeper than just recommending which show to binge on Netflix. It can also be used to analyze millions of images to predict things like income, political leanings, and buying habits. Steve Lohr, Technology and Economics Reporter at The New York Times, joined us to discuss artificial intelligence's full potential when it comes to predictive analytics.
Lohr's recent piece in The New York Times highlights a Stanford study that used 50 million images from Google Street View to give a glimpse of A.I.'s ability to gather data. He explains that researchers identified 22 million cars to draw conclusions about information such as which political candidate a particular zip code favored. The project took just 2 weeks to classify all the cars. In his piece, Lohr points out that without the help of AI, it would take human experts over 15 years to accomplish that task.
This type of data collection raises concerns over privacy and issues of data access. He says most of predictive analysis has been used for commercial purposes and selling products. The use of data becomes scary when it becomes integrated into decisions such as hiring, he says, because the mistakes become more costly.
Over the past year, the new love for gaming has created a huge demand for the consumption of content on streaming platforms. All this has caused a rise in gaming influencers all over the world. Founder of Viral Nation Joe Gagliese and Digital Video Executive Andrew Wall, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Nikola announced that it delivered its first electric semi trucks last week, sending the embattled EV company's stock soaring. There is a lot of competition in this space, though, said Lauren Fix, an automotive analyst with Car Coach Reports. While every country has companies racing to dominate the electric trucking industry, she explained, a shortage of graphite, used in batteries, and a dearth of convenient charging stations will still keep growth slow in 2022. "You really have to be very careful when you're investing in this marketplace," Fix said. "That's great that [Nikola was] able to deliver one, but can they deliver more?"
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into Tesla. The agency is looking into about 580,000 Tesla vehicles, and a feature called 'Passenger Play' which allows drivers to play video games on the center touch screen. The feature previously only worked when a vehicle was in park; but, the NHTSA says it has confirmed that the feature has been available while vehicles are in motion since December of 2020. iSeeCars.com executive analyst Karl Brauer joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
