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AI will fix your photos

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Have you ever wished that you’d taken that latest selfie in summer not winter? Or that your photo of a horse was actually a cool and exotic zebra? Good news – the latest research from UC Berkley is looking to fix exactly these problems.
Most image translation today uses large training sets of aligned pairs as a starting point, but often these training sets aren’t available or would be hard to create. This research is looking into tackling exactly this problem: how can AI tackle translation tasks without a good starting point? The results for changing colour or texture within an image are great, but so far the results for changing shape are not so good – there’s a particularly awful example of an attempt to change a cat into a dog.
More generally, I think this is a great example of how flexibility is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity in AI. It’s not just about who can create the most accurate algorithm, but also who can do it the fastest, with least training data and covering the broadest range. As deep learning algorithms move from labs and competitions to the business world, the real winners won’t be the perfect algorithms – it’ll be first to market with a 95% solution.

Estimated reading time: 2 min

 

Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk.

What are the key risks?

  1. You could lose all the money you invest
    1. If the business you invest in fails, you are likely to lose 100% of the money you invested. Most start-up businesses fail.
  2. You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong
    1. Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker here.
    2. Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated firm, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here.
  3. You won’t get your money back quickly
    1. Even if the business you invest in is successful, it may take several years to get your money back. You are unlikely to be able to sell your investment early.
    2. The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.
    3. If you are investing in a start-up business, you should not expect to get your money back through dividends. Start-up businesses rarely pay these.
  4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
    1. Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well.
    2. A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments. https://www.fca.org.uk/investsmart/5-questions-ask-you-invest
  5. The value of your investment can be reduced
    1. The percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.
    2. These new shares could have additional rights that your shares don’t have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.

 

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA’s website here.