What the Blog? is an Essentials video series discussing what’s next for the AI industry, and what we’re all dying to know: Will artificial intelligence take over the world? Editors Isabella Moulton and Martin Jacobsz bring you a snappy summary of articles directly from our expertly curated AI Essentials Newsletters.

Our first article on the latest AI news, discusses a firm which is offering an alternative to gathering real-world data, a world where they create whatever kind of data you need, and pretty cheaply at that. To generate the synthetic humans needed to create the data, they first scan actual humans, and capture their every detail… It sounds like something out of a science fiction film, but this is real life. They then feed this data into a series of algorithms to develop 3D human representations. While synthetic data has historically been viewed as less desirable than real data, it’s gaining more appeal given new data privacy regulations, as well as growing concerns regarding AI ethics and AI bias. Obviously though, synthetic data fails to reflect reality, which is a bit of a scary idea. Read the article and other artificial intelligence news, here.

Our second article highlights how humanoid robots can help us-- from entertainment, to household support and care, and even to making our jobs easier, social robots could provide some much welcomed aid to our lives. Experts have been doing a lot of thought, what if robots could also help combat senior citizen loneliness? Robotic experts are investigating how social robots and machine learning could offer some much needed companionship for senior citizens, by not only acting as an assistant, but a friend. While many fear robots increasing presence in our society, it’s important to remember how much good can also come from their existence. Curious about the newest artificial intelligence trends? Read our blog here.