July 2018 Summaries

The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) is a highly focused conference on the latest machine learning research across all domains, with its popularity growing since it began in 1980. This year's conference saw over 2,500 submissions and accepted 631 papers from major tech companies and universities. The content at ICML was more academically centered compared to other AI conferences, with a focus on improving state-of-the-art results in various domains and optimizing network performance. Reinforcement learning (RL) dominated the sessions, along with neural network architectures. Notably absent from the conference was Apple, despite its well-known struggle in AI technology.

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is the most common video streaming format today and was created by Apple in 2009. It is required for iOS devices, but Android and other platforms have also added support. HLS is popular due to its wide compatibility across platforms, simplicity of use with existing video formats, and ability to work over HTTP without needing special servers. The three parts of an HLS stream are the master manifest, media manifests, and short video segments. To stream video using HLS, one must create the media files, host them on a server, and load the master manifest in an HLS-compatible player. HLS is supported on web browsers, iOS devices, Android applications via Google's ExoPlayer project, and various TV platforms. Alternatives to HLS include Progressive MP4, RTMP, and MPEG-DASH.