TLDR 2019-05-21

Google has announced a new Glass augmented reality headset that is targeted at enterprise users. The $999 headset is now classified by Google as an official product rather than an experiment. It has a new processor, an improved camera, a USB-C port, and advanced machine learning capabilities. Google has partnered with Smith Optics to produce a safety frame for the Glass. While it was originally built for consumers, pushback due to privacy concerns made Google change its strategy and start marketing the device to businesses only. Google boasts that businesses have reported faster production times, improved quality, and reduced costs by using Glass.

Microsoft’s Edge for Mac is now officially supported and is available for preview by Mac users. Mac keyboard shortcuts will be supported, and users will be able to switch tabs and access media controls from the Touch Bar. New privacy control settings and a feature that allows users to more easily collect images, text, and notes from the web have been announced but are not available yet. A link to the download page is available.

An AI system was able to predict lung cancer in patients five percent more accurately on average than a group of six human experts and was 11 percent more likely to reduce false positives. The model will be available through the Google Cloud Healthcare API as Google continues to test and improve it. More than 42,000 chest CT screening images from 15,000 patients were used to train the AI system. Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of death, killing roughly as many people each year as breast cancer. Google has also applied AI to other medical research, including an AI that can recommend treatment for 50 eye diseases with a 94 percent accuracy.

An AI that was only trained for image recognition spontaneously gained the ability to estimate the quantity of a number of objects. Researchers found that the AI had neurons sensitive to certain numbers. The way these neurons worked is very similar to the same ‘number sense’ mechanism that exists in humans. Neurons distinguish more between lower numbers and generalize larger numbers. This research suggests that human cognition and AI should be studied together, as each field can help develop understanding in the other.

Sheetson turns any Google sheet into a JSON API. Users only need to share their document with the service, and then they will be able to access their information through the API. There are currently no restrictions on its use.

Oya allows developers to bootstrap easy to work with, deployable projects. Developers can create their own packs or browse a wide range of available packs from other projects. Confidential data can be stored via Oya secrets using PGP and other encryption methods.

Google has suspended all its hardware, software, and technical services business with Huawei after the US Government added the Chinese giant to a trade blacklist. Existing Huawei owners will still be able to download updates provided by Google. However, future Huawei handsets will not include proprietary apps and services from Google, such as Maps, YouTube, or Gmail. As the second biggest smartphone maker in the world, losing access to Google’s proprietary apps could jeopardize Huawei’s business worldwide. Huawei has also lost access to US-made chips, with chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx, and Broadcom announcing that they will not sell hardware to Huawei until further notice.