
Scientists developing AI tool to assess car repairs to aid insurance industry
Professor Mohammed Bader of the University of Portsmouth's Ai and Data Science Centre, said the system would provide a 'technical benchmark' for the industry.
He said: 'This project will combine machine learning and computer vision to develop AI powered systems that bring together engineers' practical expertise with cutting-edge technology.'
Graham Roberts, chief commercial officer at ABL 1 Touch, said the tool would provide a standard for assessing damage across the industry, giving the company a competitive advantage.
He said: 'We work in a fast-paced industry that is driven by substantially varying vehicle damage types from many sources.
'Therefore, it is paramount that we find new and innovative ways to identify, prioritise and schedule work into our sites.
'The need to generate scalable solutions that remove single-person dependencies and work on mass data learning protocols is something we embrace as a forward-thinking business.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
AI could soon detect early voice box cancer from the sound of your voice
AI could soon be able to tell whether patients have cancer of the voice box using just a voice note, according to new research. Scientists recorded the voices of men with and without abormalities in their vocal folds - which can be an early sign of laryngeal cancer - and found differences in vocal qualities including pitch, volume, and clarity. They now say AI could be used to detect these 'vocal biomarkers', leading to earlier, less invasive diagnosis. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University believe voice notes could now be used to train an AI tool that recognises vocal fold lesions. Using 12,523 voice recordings from 306 participants across North America, they found distinctive vocal differences in men suffering from laryngeal cancer, men with vocal fold lesions, and men with healthy vocal folds. However, researchers said similar hallmark differences were not detected in women. They are now hoping to collect more recordings of people with and without the distinctive vocal fold lesions to create a bigger dataset for tools to work from. In the UK, there are more than 2,000 new cases of laryngeal cancer each year. Symptoms can include a change in your voice, such as sounding hoarse, a high-pitched wheezing noise when you breathe, and a long-lasting cough. 'Here we show that with this dataset we could use vocal biomarkers to distinguish voices from patients with vocal fold lesions from those without such lesions,' said Dr Phillip Jenkins, the study's corresponding author said. 'To move from this study to an AI tool that recognises vocal fold lesions, we would train models using an even larger dataset of voice recordings, labeled by professionals. We then need to test the system to make sure it works equally well for women and men. 'Voice-based health tools are already being piloted. Building on our findings, I estimate that with larger datasets and clinical validation, similar tools to detect vocal fold lesions might enter pilot testing in the next couple of years," he predicted. It comes after research from US-based Klick Labs, which created an AI model capable of distinguishing whether a person has Type 2 diabetes from six to 10 seconds of voice audio. The study involved analysing 18,000 recordings in order to identify acoustic features that differentiated non diabetics from diabetics and reported an 89 per cent accuracy rating for women and 86 per cent for men. Jaycee Kaufman, a research scientist at Klick Labs, praised the future potential for AI-powered voice tools in healthcare, saying: 'Current methods of detection can require a lot of time, travel and cost. Voice technology has the potential to remove these barriers entirely.'


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Tencent says US AI chip import situation unclear as governments negotiate
BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Tencent ( opens new tab said on Wednesday it lacks clarity on U.S. AI chip imports as Beijing and Washington continue negotiations, though the company maintains it has sufficient inventory for its AI operations. "We don't really have a definitive answer on the import situation yet. There are a lot of discussions between the two governments. We are waiting to see what exactly comes out of that," Tencent President Martin Lau said during a post-earnings call. The comments come amid ongoing tensions over advanced semiconductor trade between the world's two largest economies. Nvidia(NVDA.O), opens new tab's H20 chips, designed specifically for the Chinese market, have been at the center of recent regulatory scrutiny from both governments over security concerns. Lau said the uncertainty would not constrain Tencent's AI ambitions, noting the company has adequate chip supplies for AI model training and multiple deployment options for AI services. The Shenzhen-based company reported strong second-quarter results, with revenue rising 15% to 184.5 billion yuan ($25.7 billion), beating analyst estimates of 178.5 billion yuan according to LSEG data. Gaming remained a key growth driver, with domestic revenue rising 17% to 40.4 billion yuan and international revenue climbing 35% to 18.8 billion yuan. Marketing services revenue increased 20% year-on-year to 35.8 billion yuan, bolstered by the use of AI to enhance the targeting of adverts. Net profit for the quarter reached 55.6 billion yuan, surpassing analyst expectations of 52.3 billion yuan, LSEG data showed. Tencent has accelerated AI investments over the past two years, though capital expenditure has moderated recently. After spending 36.6 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 27.5 billion yuan in the first quarter, its capex fell to 19.1 billion yuan in the second quarter. Lau signaled a more measured approach going forward as the company seeks sustainable monetization from its AI initiatives and to "spend smartly". The company has developed its own large language model, Hunyuan, launching the latest "Turbo S" version in February. But Tencent has also embraced third-party models, notably integrating DeepSeek's technology across its platforms including WeChat, which has over 1 billion monthly active users. ($1 = 7.1756 Chinese yuan renminbi)


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
India cenbank committee recommends AI framework for finance sector
MUMBAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A Reserve Bank of India committee has recommended a framework for developing AI capabilities for the country's financial sector, while safeguarding it against associated risks, according to a report released on Wednesday. The committee has recommended setting up a digital infrastructure to help build indigenous AI models and a multi-stakeholder standing committee to evaluate risks and opportunities. It also suggested building a fund to incentivise the development of homegrown AI models tailored for the needs of India's financial services sector. "The report envisions a financial ecosystem where encouraging innovation is in harmony, and not at odds, with mitigation of risk," the RBI said in a statement. The report contains 26 recommendations under six categories including infrastructure, capacity, policy, governance, protection and assurance. Other key recommendations by the eight-member committee headed by Pushpak Bhattacharyya, a computer scientist at IIT Bombay, include issuing of an enabling framework to integrate AI with existing digital public platforms such as instant payment system UPI, and designing audit frameworks. The central bank had set up the committee in December to develop a Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of Artificial Intelligence (FREEAI) for the finance sector. "The challenge with regulating AI is in striking the right balance, making sure that society stands to gain from what this technology has to offer, while mitigating its risks," according to the report.