Technology News

Rana el Kaliouby co-founded and led Boston startup Affectiva, which uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze mood and emotion.

Now she’s got a new job as deputy CEO of Smart Eye, after the Swedish eye-tracking company bought Affectiva for $73.5 million in June.

The auto industry is the prime market for Kaliouby and competitors like Australia-based Seeing Machines. Carmakers are bracing for new safety rules and standards around the world that could require dashboard cameras to detect dangerous driver behavior, especially in vehicles that are partly driving themselves but still need human attention.

El Kaliouby says that’s just the beginning of where in-car AI systems are going. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Ten years from now, a family’s in a car. What might your technology be doing on their trip?

A: OK, family’s in the car. You’ve got two kids in the back seat. First of all, the kids are fighting. The car knows that and can see that mom, who’s driving, is getting frustrated, a little mad, distracted. The car intervenes by recommending content for the kids — or through a conversational interface, mediating a game between the kids. They play for a little. They fall asleep. The car can see that so the lights dim and the music or movie turns off. Then the car realizes mom is exhausted and also starting to doze off, so it gets into this chatty mode to reengage her. And then mom leaves the car, forgets the child is in there, and gets a text message that says, “Oh, you may have forgotten Little Baby Joe!’ I’m making this up on the fly. It can basically personalize the whole cabin experience — music, lighting, temperature, based on knowing who’s inside the car and what they’re doing.

Q: What is Affectiva bringing to Smart Eye, and vice versa?

A: Smart Eye is a 22-year-old company. What they’ve been focused on the past couple years — and they are the undisputed market leader — is driver monitoring. They’re able to very accurately determine where a person is looking and they also monitor eye behavior. They can identify when a driver is distracted or drowsy. They’ve been contracted by 13 global automakers. Affectiva spun out of MIT 12 years ago and our focus is humanizing technology by bringing emotional intelligence to machines. We project there’s going to be an evolution in driver monitoring to everything that’s happening inside the vehicle. What are their mood and emotions? What activities are they engaged with? You become the eyes and ears of the car.

Q: How do you detect someone’s mood or emotions?

A: We do a lot of facial analysis but we’ve expanded to do a lot of body “keypoint” tracking so we can detect what people are actually doing — are you slouched in the car? Are you agitated? We monitor all of that.

Q: What about someone’s face will tell you they’re panicked?

A. There are expressions of fear. You can also start tracking other vital signs, like your heart rate or heart rate variability, breathing rate, via an optical sensor. That’s a direction we’re headed. It’s not at all ready for prime time but it’s something Affectiva and Smart Eye are exploring. And once you know a person’s baseline, you can find out if they are deviating from that baseline and the car can flag that.

Q: How do you protect against concerns you can misread someone’s emotion or mood based on race, gender, neurodiversity?

A: This is one of the things Affectiva’s really bringing to the table. It’s something we’ve been super intentional about. It starts with the diversity of the data. If you’re training an algorithm using middle-aged white men, that’s what it’s going to learn. The training set is critical and it’s everything from racial and ethnic diversity to diversity of facial appearances — maybe people are wearing glasses or hijabs or have beards. We’re partnering with synthetic data companies to augment our data sets and fill in the gaps. The second thing is, how do you validate the accuracy of the algorithms? If you just look at high-level accuracy, it might be hiding biases that exist in specific subpopulations. We dissect the data to make sure no bias is creeping in. And finally, the diversity of the team is how you overcome these blind spots.

Q: What about the privacy of people who don’t want to be analyzed or watched in the car?

A: In automotive, the good news is none of the data gets recorded. You do all the processing on the fly and make an inference, say, if the driver is drowsy. The car will hopefully respond to keep the driver safe. I think there needs to be a lot of consumer communication and transparency about what exactly the sensor is doing. I imagine there will be scenarios where you can switch it off. But if it’s a safety consideration, like your semi-autonomous vehicle needs to know if you are paying attention so it can transfer control back and forth, I imagine you may not be allowed to turn it off.

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BERLIN (AP) — Pharmaceutical company BioNTech said Monday that it wants to use the mRNA technology behind its coronavirus vaccine to target malaria.

The Germany-based company, which developed the first widely approved coronavirus shot together with U.S. partner Pfizer, aims to begin clinical trials for a “safe and highly effective malaria vaccine” by the end of next year.

“We are already working on HIV and and tuberculosis, and malaria is the third big indication (disease) with a high unmet medical need,” BioNTech’s chief executive, Ugur Sahin, told The Associated Press. “It has an incredible high number of people being infected every year, a high number of patients dying, a particularly severe disease and high mortality in small children.”

According to the World Health Organization, there were about 229 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2019. The global body estimates that 409,000 people died from malaria that year, with children under the age of 5 accounting for 67% of deaths.

Africa has by far the highest burden of the mosquito-borne disease worldwide, WHO says.

Sahin acknowledged that the effort is at a very early stage and there’s no guarantee of success. But he said the company believes it’s “the perfect time to address this challenge” because of the insights it has gained from developing an mRNA vaccine against the coronavirus and a growing understanding of how malaria works.

Experts say developing a vaccine to prime the immune system against malaria will be tricky, however.

“The genome of Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria, is more complex than viruses,” said Prakash Srinivasan, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

A malaria vaccine made by drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline already being trialed in three African countries has shown that inducing strong, long-lasting antibody levels is challenging, he said.

Existing and future variants of the parasite could also pose a challenge to developing an effective vaccine, said Srinivasan, whose lab is also working to develop a shot against malaria.

But Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, said the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic showed mRNA technology could be used to quickly adapt vaccines to work against new variants.

“The mRNA platform is going to be applicable to many different pathogens,” he said.

Sahin said early-stage development and testing of vaccines normally costs about $30-80 million.

The project, which is a collaboration with the World Health Organization, the European Commission and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “has no budget limits at the moment,” he added.

BioNTech said it is also seeking to establish an mRNA vaccine production facility in Africa, which is among the regions that have struggled to get sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The company said it is working with partners to “evaluate how to establish sustainable mRNA manufacturing capabilities on the African continent to supply African countries with vaccines.” Once built, such a facility would be able to make various mRNA-based vaccines.

BioNTech and Pfizer have said they will deliver 1 billion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to middle- and low-income countries this year, and another billion doses in 2022.

Last week, the two companies announced that a South African firm, the Biovac Institute, will become the first on the continent to start producing their coronavirus vaccine.

BioNTech has previously said it is working on a vaccine candidate for tuberculosis, with clinical trials aimed for 2022, and therapies for several forms of cancer.

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Around 1,000 protesters in Hungary’s capital on Monday demanded answers to allegations that the country’s right-wing government used powerful spyware to secretly monitor critical journalists, lawyers and business figures.

The protest march, which departed from a building that housed the secret police of Hungary’s communist and fascist regimes in the 20th century, came more than a week after a global investigation suggested that the digital devices of around 300 individuals had been targeted by the spyware in the Central European country — including at least 10 lawyers and five journalists.

“This scandal shows we cannot talk about the rule of law anymore in Hungary,” said Anna Donath, a Hungarian lawmaker in the European Union’s legislature who attended the demonstration. “Our demand is the resignation of the government.”

The Pegasus malware, produced by Israeli hacker-for-hire outfit NSO Group, infiltrates phones to collect personal data and location information, and can surreptitiously control the smartphone’s microphones and cameras. In the case of journalists, hackers can spy on reporters’ communications with sources.

Since the publication of the investigation’s results, Hungarian investigative journalism outlet Direkt36 released its findings that the president of the Hungarian Bar Association, a former state secretary and an opposition mayor were also targeted with the spyware.

Officials have declined to confirm or deny whether the government used the Pegasus software, but have maintained that all secret surveillance activities are conducted in accordance with Hungarian law.

Speaking in Brussels last week, Justice Minister Judit Varga wouldn’t say whether Hungary had purchased the spyware, but told reporters that “every country needs such tools.”

“It’s an illusion if anyone tries to make an issue out of it,” Varga said.

Monday’s protest was hosted by several opposition political parties that have allied to challenge hard-line Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party in elections next year.

Last week, three opposition members of Hungary’s parliamentary national security committee called for an emergency session to question government agencies on their potential involvement in the spying.

But on Monday, Fidesz members of the committee, representing the majority of seats, boycotted the session, preventing questioning of Interior Minister Sandor Pinter.

“I look at this as a confession on their part that they have something to hide here,” committee chairman Janos Stummer, of the right-wing Jobbik party, told The Associated Press.

Stummer said the opposition members of the committee would use all available means to determine whether Hungary’s government had purchased the spyware, and to find out if it had unlawfully targeted its political opponents.

“One week later they’re still saying it’s fake news, and they expect this scandal will die down and go quiet. The way I see it, there will certainly be a continuation of this,” Stummer said.

Gyorgy Ujlaki, 45, walked with Monday’s protest march to the Fidesz party headquarters near Budapest’s expansive city park.

“I found this outrageous. It is just a new phase of Orban’s system which in the last 11 years has systematically dismantled the rule of law,” he said.

“The correct thing for them to do would have been not spy on their political opponents, but now the best thing they can do is resign.”

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LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Lordstown Motors has received an investment of up to $400 million as the struggling electric truck maker continues to push toward production of its new pickup this fall.

The Ohio company, which has been under scrutiny over the claims it has made about the number of orders it has received for its trucks, said in a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that hedge fund YA II PN Ltd agreed to to buy up to $400 million worth of its shares over three years.

Shares of the company, which are down more than 60% this year, were flat Monday.

Lordstown’s operations have been under increasing scrutiny in recent months after the company said it had no firm orders for its vehicles just after saying it had enough to maintain production through 2022. The company’s CEO and chief financial officer resigned.

Lordstown acknowledged receiving two subpoenas from federal regulators earlier this month related to the company’s merger with DiamondPeak, a special purpose acquisition company, and that prosecutors in New York also had opened an investigation.

Last month, the company’s new chairwoman said it still plans to start making its electric truck called the Endurance in September.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The defense rested without calling any witnesses Monday in the murder trial of a man accused of killing a South Carolina college student who mistakenly got into what she thought was her Uber ride.

The judge sent the jury home for the day, scheduling closing arguments for Nathaniel Rowland’s trial for Tuesday morning. He faces up to life in prison if he is convicted of kidnapping and murder in the March 2019 killing of 21-year-old Samantha Josephson.

Prosecutors also rested their case Monday after calling nearly three dozen witnesses. The next-to-last person on the stand was a pathologist who testified there were more than 100 stab wounds on Josephson’s body.

There was also so little blood left in her body — 20 milliliters (1.3 tablespoons) when a body typically has at least 4 liters (1 gallon) — that workers at her autopsy struggled to get enough blood for routine testing, said Dr. Thomas Beaver, who conducted the examination of the woman after her death.

Beaver spent an hour methodically detailing the roughly 120 separate stab wounds on Josephson’s body. He said he didn’t have en exact number because there were so many.

“It gets to a point where it really doesn’t add much to the report,” said Beaver, a pathologist at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Beaver said almost all of the stab wounds were to Josephson’s head, arms, chest and back and several of the wounds would have penetrated into her brain or neck and been fatal. He took 170 photos and 13 X-rays.

“There were a lot of injuries,” Beaver said.

Before resting the defense’s case, Rowland’s lawyer asked the charges be thrown out because prosecutors had a circumstantial case — never showing that Rowland actually killed Josephson or was driving the vehicle when she disappeared.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman rejected the request, saying there was an avalanche of direct and circumstantial evidence that a jury should consider.

Josephson got into Rowland’s car in March 2019 thinking it was her Uber ride back to her house, prosecutors said. The University of South Carolina student from Robbinsville, New Jersey, instead found herself trapped in the back seat because Rowland had the child safety lock on, investigators said.

Prosecutors have taken a methodical approach the entire trial. Before Beaver took the stand, they linked Josephson’s blood to areas all over Rowland’s Chevrolet Impala, a knife with two blades and cleaning supplies in the trash behind his girlfriend’s home and on a sock and bandana owned by Rowland.

The prosecution has introduced a mountain of other scientific evidence, from matching a footprint found on a rear window of Rowland’s vehicle to Josephson, to cellphone data showing he was in the area where her body was found some 65 miles (105 kilometers) from where she was last seen in Columbia’s Five Points entertainment district.

Another witness said DNA found under Rowland’s fingernails matched Josephson’s genetic material.

In previous testimony, Rowland’s attorneys have pointed out scientists weren’t absolutely certain Rowland’s DNA was on the knife and his genetic material wasn’t in other places it might be expected.

Their questioning has also showed that while Josephson appeared to fight her attacker — she had several stab wounds that went all the way through her hands — none of Rowland’s DNA was found on her or under her fingernails and and no visible marks were found on Rowland after his arrest.

Beaver testified he was certain the knife with two blades taken from the trash can of Rowland’s girlfriend was used to kill Josephson. But on cross examination, Beaver told a defense attorney that he Googled hundreds of pictures of knives after the autopsy to figure out what could have caused the unique wounds and sent investigators a photo of a different looking weapon.

Josephson’s death turned a national spotlight on ride-hailing safety and led to some changes, including more prominent displays of driver’s license plates. The trial is being streamed across the country by Court TV.

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.

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