Africa
Solving Intelligence, Solving Real-world Problems
As a smart technology entrepreneur with a machine intelligence research background and passionate about advancing the state-of-the-art in machine or artificial intelligence (AI) to help solve real-world problems, it is very encouraging and exciting to see the AI buzz in the tech industry right now, the progress made in the field to create an even stronger intelligence toolbox, and the ever increasing practical applications in all industries and enterprise functions. Machine intelligence is not only changing the way we use our computers and smartphones but the way we interact with the real world. It is also one of the key exponential technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Given how all the major technology companies are embracing machine intelligence as a core part of their business and the multitude of startups building their business on this technology, AI is clearly not a passing fad, but being pushed across the rest of the tech world too. In this post I'm not only addressing some key topics about the current and future state of machine intelligence, but also practical steps we are taking here in Africa to not only use smart technology to solve problems, but also make a contribution towards advancing the-state-of-the-art in machine intelligence.
Meet your housemates: Incredible images show the PARASITES hiding in your home
Psoroptes cuniculi mites are non-burrowing parasites that chew the skin in the ear canal of rabbits. Kitchen sponges can accumulate food and microbes when used for long periods of time and are not thoroughly cleaned. Millions of dust mites inhabit the home, feeding on dead human skin that are common in house dust. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans since they prey on moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice and mites. Watch video Raging bull destroys car with horns at Spanish festival Watch video Wes Anderson gets festive for H&M 2016 Christmas collection Watch video Meet Reagan and Little Buddy whose friendship inspired a book Watch video Three pen tricks explained in this amazing magic tutorial Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Hilarious moment baby boy joins in with twerking girls Watch video Shanghai Jiao Tong researchers test facial recognition software Watch video Man films the moment after woman jumps out the plane by the gate Watch video Moment Dolphins and 49ers fans start massive brawl in the stands Watch video LOVE Magazine's Hype Williams advent teaser for Christmas 2016 Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Watch video Road rage attack shows driver smashing lorry window with spade Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Hilarious moment baby boy joins in with twerking girls Watch video Shanghai Jiao Tong researchers test facial recognition software Watch video Man films the moment after woman jumps out the plane by the gate Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Hilarious moment baby boy joins in with twerking girls Watch video Shanghai Jiao Tong researchers test facial recognition software Watch video Man films the moment after woman jumps out the plane by the gate Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Moment Dolphins and 49ers fans start massive brawl in the stands Watch video LOVE Magazine's Hype Williams advent teaser for Christmas 2016 Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Watch video Road rage attack shows driver smashing lorry window with spade Watch video Moment Dolphins and 49ers fans start massive brawl in the stands Watch video LOVE Magazine's Hype Williams advent teaser for Christmas 2016 Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Watch video Road rage attack shows driver smashing lorry window with spade Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder The scans were taken by scientists Steve Gschmeissner, who is one of the world's leading scanning electron microscopists in the world and award winning photo-micrographer Dennis Kunkel.
Artificial Intelligence: Radiologists and Pathologists as Information Specialists
Artificial intelligence--the mimicking of human cognition by computers--was once a fable in science fiction but is becoming reality in medicine. The combination of big data and artificial intelligence, referred to by some as the fourth industrial revolution,1 will change radiology and pathology along with other medical specialties. Although reports of radiologists and pathologists being replaced by computers seem exaggerated,2 these specialties must plan strategically for a future in which artificial intelligence is part of the health care workforce. Radiologists have always revered machines and technology. In 1960, Lusted predicted "an electronic scanner-computer to examine chest photofluorograms, to separate the clearly normal chest films from the abnormal chest films."3
Domestic output for eight Japan carmakers fell 3.2% in October
The combined domestic output of eight major Japanese automakers fell 3.2 percent in October from a year earlier to 743,086 vehicles for the first decline in three months, according to data from major automakers. Six of the eight carmakers reported declines, with Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s domestic output tumbling 23.4 percent to 44,279 vehicles due to a temporary halt of minicar production in the wake of a fuel economy data manipulation scandal that erupted in April. Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday its domestic output fell 6.1 percent in October to 260,426 vehicles, the first decline in three months, reflecting slower growth in exports to the Middle East and North America. Domestic production at Suzuki Motor Corp. dived 13.3 percent from the year before to 62,206 vehicles due to sluggish sales of its minicars -- or vehicles with engines no larger than 660 cc -- since a tax hike on that vehicle category. Nissan Motor Co.'s output at home jumped 36.6 percent to 95,490 vehicles thanks mainly to strong sales of its new Serena minivan, which is equipped with self-driving vehicle technology.
Is it time to buy into AI stocks?
Is it time to buy into AI stocks? Artificial intelligence can pick our stocks. But should investors be picking artificial intelligence? AI has long been a popular theme in sci-fi movies, but its potential is now entering the real world as computers start driving cars, beating the world's best Go player, figuring out what we want to buy (in my case, apparently, a Lexus) and constructing investment portfolios. To continue reading this article, you must be a Globe Unlimited subscriber.
Snaking roads through Transylvania and shipwrecks off the coast of South Africa
SkyPixel and drone maker DJI teamed up for a contest that features both'enthusiast' and'professional' groups to which users can submit their photos taken by drones. Pictured is'Infinite road to Transylvania', an image by Calin Stan. Apple's spaceship is almost ready for takeoff: Latest drone... Meet Tim, the rolling robot that keeps CERN running:... Australia's Great Barrier Reef in crisis as scientists... From ripping flesh from the dead to EATING their remains:... Apple's spaceship is almost ready for takeoff: Latest drone... Meet Tim, the rolling robot that keeps CERN running:... Australia's Great Barrier Reef in crisis as scientists... From ripping flesh from the dead to EATING their remains:... Dirkie Heydenrych is next with his'Ship Wreck at L'Agulhas' (pictured), which he used a DJI Phantom 3 Advance drone to capture. It shows a deteriorating vessel in the sea off the coast of South Africa. 'Dronie' by Manish Mamtani is next, which he used a DJI Phantom 3 while shooting in New Hampshire.
Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology » i360 Gov
Fedscoop: Autonomy and artificial intelligence may be integral to the Defense Department's Third Offset Strategy, but making those technologies useful will require IT investments to integrate them into defense systems, a new report says. "Both the DOD and the Intelligence Community, they are investing in these technologies. So artificial intelligence is a big priority area, machine learning, all these technologies," Matthew Hummer, director of analytics at big-data and analytics firm Govini, told FedScoop. "But they haven't really done a good job of integrating it into the current Distributed Common Ground Systems. And that's because those systems really need pretty much a big overhaul to be able to do that."
Cameras, ecommerce and machine learning
Mobile means that, for the first time, pretty much everyone on earth will have a camera, taking vastly more images than were ever taken on film ('How many pictures?'). This feels like a profound change on a par with, say, the transistor radio making music ubiquitous. Then, the image sensor in a phone is more than just a camera that takes pictures - it's also part of new ways of thinking about mobile UIs and services ('Imaging, Snapchat and mobile'), and part of a general shift in what a computer can do ('From mobile first to mobile native'). Meanwhile, image sensors are part of a flood of cheap commodity components coming out of the smartphone supply chain, that enable all kinds of other connected devices - everything from the Amazon Echo and Google Home to an August door lock or Snapchat Spectacles (and of course a botnet of hacked IoT devices). When combined with cloud services and, increasingly, machine learning, these are no longer just cameras or microphones but new endpoints or distribution for services - they're unbundled pieces of apps.
Troubling Study Says Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Who Will Be Criminals Based on Facial Features
The fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning are moving so quickly that any notion of ethics is lagging decades behind, or left to works of science fiction. This might explain a new study out of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which says computers can tell whether you will be a criminal based on nothing more than your facial features. The bankrupt attempt to infer moral qualities from physiology was a popular pursuit for millennia, particularly among those who wanted to justify the supremacy of one racial group over another. But phrenology, which involved studying the cranium to determine someone's character and intelligence, was debunked around the time of the Industrial Revolution, and few outside of the pseudo-scientific fringe would still claim that the shape of your mouth or size of your eyelids might predict whether you'll become a rapist or thief. Not so in the modern age of Artificial Intelligence, apparently: In a paper titled "Automated Inference on Criminality using Face Images," two Shanghai Jiao Tong University researchers say they fed "facial images of 1,856 real persons" into computers and found "some discriminating structural features for predicting criminality, such as lip curvature, eye inner corner distance, and the so-called nose-mouth angle."
The latest weapon in the fight against illegal fishing? Artificial intelligence
Facial recognition software is most commonly known as a tool to help police identify a suspected criminal by using machine learning algorithms to analyze his or her face against a database of thousands or millions of other faces. The larger the database, with a greater variety of facial features, the smarter and more successful the software becomes – effectively learning from its mistakes to improve its accuracy. Now, this type of artificial intelligence is starting to be used in fighting a specific but pervasive type of crime – illegal fishing. Rather than picking out faces, the software tracks the movement of fishing boats to root out illegal behavior. And soon, using a twist on facial recognition, it may be able to recognize when a boat's haul includes endangered and protected fish.