Page 40 - Informatics

International eGov Update

Meena is Google’s first truly conversational AI

oogle is attempting to build the "rst digital assistant that can truly
hold a conversation with an AI project called Meena. Digital assis-
G tants like Alexa and Siri are programmed to pick up keywords and
provide scripted responses. Google has previously demonstrated its work
towards a more natural conversation with its Duplex project but Meena
should o!er another leap forward.
Meena is a neural network with 2.6 billion parameters. Google claims
Meena is able to handle multiple turns in a conversation (everyone has
that friend who goes o! on multiple tangents during the same conversa-
tion, right?)
Google published its work on e-print repository arXiv on Monday in a
paper called “Towards a Human-like Open Domain Chatbot”. A neural
network architecture called Transformer was released by Google in 2017
which is widely acknowledged to be among the best language models
available. A variation of Transformer, along with a mere 40 billion En-
glish words, was used to train Meena. The result of Meena brings its conversational ability close to that of hu-
mans. On average, humans score around 86 percent using the SSA metric.
Google also debuted a metric alongside Meena called Sensibleness and We don’t yet know when Google intends to debut Meena’s technology in
Speci"city Average (SSA) which measures the ability of agents to main- its products but, as the digital assistant war heats up, we’re sure the com-
tain a conversation. Meena scores 79 percent using the new SSA metric. pany is as eager to release it as we are to use it.
For comparison, Mitsuku – a Loebner Prize-winning AI agent developed
by Pandora Bots – scored 56 percent. Source: https://arti!cialintelligence-news.com

Vietnam launches mobile disinfection chamber
The chamber aims to prevent and reduce the spread of infectious diseases.
he Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, in collaboration the Health Ministry, and the Vietnam Red Cross Society jointly launched
with the Centre of Science and Technology Development for Youth, the campaign with the aim of raising funds to support COVID-19 preven-
T has successfully created and o#cially launched a mobile disinfec- tion and control e!orts.
tion chamber serving people in COVID-19-a!ected areas. The creation of
the chamber aims to prevent and limit the spread of infectious diseases, The campaign started on 19 March and will end on 18 June 2020.
especially in the current situation of COVID-19 pandemic.
Supporters can join the programme by texting “CV n” to 1407, of which
As per media reports, it is expected to be installed in areas at high risk of “n” is the number for support. Each text message will contribute at least
COVID-19 infections such as quarantine areas containing people infected VND 20,000 (US $0.86) to the fund.
with COVID-19, as well as at hospitals, supermarkets, railway and bus
stations, airports, o#ces, schools, and other crowded areas. All the money pooled by the programme will be used to buy medical
equipment, necessities, and support COVID-19 patients and those under-
Initially, three mobile disinfection chambers will be set up at the HCM going quarantine.
City Youth Cultural House in District 1, HCM City Traditional Medicine
Institute in Phu Nhuan district, and the Saigon Union of Trading Co-oper- In his speech at the launching ceremony, the President of the Vietnam
atives (Saigon Co.op) in District 1. The chamber is designed as a module Fatherland Front Central Committee, Tran Thanh Man, appreciated rele-
so it can be easily installed, uninstalled and transported. Its main com- vant agencies for organising the campaign, saying that it will signi"cant-
ponent is a 360-degree fog mist sprayer using an anolyte solution which ly contribute to preventing the epidemic.
is a powerful disinfectant against bacteria and viruses.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front had also launched a fund-raising pro-
It automatically activates the disinfection spraying process once a person gramme on 17 March, which has so far raised over VND 282 billion (over
steps in. US $12 million), he said. The government also launched a mobile appli-
cation for Vietnamese citizens to declare their health status. Citizens
It only takes 30 seconds to complete a round of disinfection in each can update their daily health status and they can also provide informa-
chamber. It is estimated that each chamber can disinfect up to 1,000 peo- tion to the best of their knowledge about cases suspected of having the
ple per day. Around 100 chambers could be manufactured a week to meet COVID-19 in their residential areas.
the needs in the city and southern provinces.
Data collected through the app will help the nation’s health sector to
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) announced a identify who needs medical assistance in the fastest and most e!ective
text message campaign to call for public support against COVID-19. manner.
MIC, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee’s Standing Board, Source: https://www.opengovasia.com/

40 informatics.nic.in April 2020