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Cognitive Computing Comes To The Fore in Digital Transformation

#artificialintelligence

When IBM's Watson triumphed on Jeopardy! in 2011, it was a major validation of the potential of artificial intelligence and a sign of things to come. But Watson didn't stop there, said IBM's Jay Di Silvestri, speaking at a CDW Summit on "Modernizing IT Infrastructure for Digital Transformation" in Las Vegas on Monday. In the six years since, IBM's AI experts have sought to answer the question, What else can Watson do? "That group immediately turned its sights to say, 'What can we do that is as impressive, but different?'" said Di Silvestri, IBM's Watson platform adoption leader. Watson's next challenge, IBM decided, would be unstructured text, and Di Silvestri said that applications are already on the market for organizations that want to leverage AI to improve customer service and operations. The next phase of Watson is a logical one, he said: deconstructing the technology behind Watson into services that help businesses.


Edible robot surgeons will cure you from the inside out

Engadget

Back in 1985, the best robotic surgeon we had was the PUMA 560, a manipulator arm just barely more advanced than Rocky Balboa's robo-butler. The PUMA was nevertheless revolutionary. It was the very first mechanical operator, progenitor to steady-handed robo-surgeons like of the DaVinci system. But in the near future, robots will no longer be cutting into us -- from the outside, at least. Even as the the current generation of robotic surgeons continues to shrink, with miniscule pincers and malleable toolsets capable of curling their way through our innards, the medical community is working to develop robotic surgical devices capable of operating autonomously, or at least remotely.


Could a robot do your job? Find out now

#artificialintelligence

New data from research house AlphaBeta provides the answer. Search to find your job -- if you're game. A new analysis ranks how much of every occupation in Australia is at risk of automation, as artificial intelligence looks set to reshape our working lives. Economist Andrew Charlton, who led the AlphaBeta team that conducted the analysis, says that over the next 30 years, automation will affect every job in Australia -- but not always in the ways you might expect. "It's not so much about what jobs will we do, but how will we do our jobs," he explains.


Automated English visa test struggles to understand English

Engadget

An Irish veterinarian's application for an Australian visa has been rejected after she failed to pass an automated English proficiency test, despite completing it in her native language of... English. Louise Kennedy, who has two degrees (both obtained in English), wanted to apply for permanent residency in the country on the grounds of her job, which is classed as a shortage profession. Despite acing the reading and writing parts of the test she didn't score highly enough on oral fluency, as it seems the machines couldn't understand her accent. The Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic is an automated system that asks applicants a number of questions and records their vocal responses which are analyzed and scored. The Australian government demands a score of at least 79 points.


When AI dominates, what will we do for a crust?

#artificialintelligence

What does the worldwide head of research at Google tell his kids about how to prepare for the future of work with artificial intelligence? "I tell them โ€ฆ wherever they will be working in 20 years probably doesn't exist now," Peter Norvig says. Be flexible, he says, "and have an ability to learn new things". Future of work experts (yes, it's a thing now) and AI scientists who spoke to Lateline variously described a future in which there were fewer full-time, traditional jobs requiring one skill set; fewer routine administrative tasks; fewer repetitive manual tasks; and more jobs working for and with "thinking" machines. From chief executives to cleaners, "everyone will do their job differently working with machines over the next 20 years," Andrew Charlton, economist and director of AlphaBeta, says.


Teaching Machines to Detect Humanity's Dark Side

#artificialintelligence

Armies of content moderators are working to scrub social networks of the worst content humanity has to offer -- violence, gore, hardcore sexual imagery -- and they can't keep up. The disturbing litany of murders, suicides and assaults have already become macabre technological milestones. These include Robert Godwin Sr., the 74-year-old father of nine and grandfather of 14 who was selected by a gunman at random and then murdered in a video posted to Facebook in mid-April. One week later, a man in Thailand streamed the murder of his 11-month old daughter on Facebook Live before taking his own life. The beating and torture of an 18-year-old man with intellectual and development disabilities was live-streamed on the service in January, and the tragic shooting death of two-year-old Lavontay White Jr. followed a month later on Valentine's Day.


Google Home plays Deezer tunes at the sound of your voice

Engadget

Google Home doesn't have a huge range of on-demand music services on offer (Google's services and Spotify are your biggest choices), but you can add one to the list today. Deezer has launched Home support for its streaming music service, giving listeners in several countries a hands-free music source if they're not fans of the larger providers. The stand-out is voice control over Deezer's semi-automatic Flow playlist -- you can tell Home to "play your Flow" and get a highly personalized playlist with very little effort. Not surprisingly, Deezer is catering to its core European audience first: it's starting today with support in France and Germany, while the US, UK, Australia and Canada are due later in 2017. You probably won't rush to sign up for Deezer if you weren't already a member, but look at it this way: few music services outside of the majors work with voice-guided speakers, so this could be a reason to stick to Deezer if you were thinking of jumping ship.


Confession of a so-called AI expert

@machinelearnbot

I have a confession to make. I feel like a fraud. Every few days, I receive an email from either a friend, a friend of a friend, or a random company that asks me for my insights in Artificial Intelligence. These include entrepreneurs who have just sold their startups, Stanford MBA graduates who reject half a million dollar offers, venture capitalists, even major bank executives. A couple of years earlier, I wouldn't even have the courage to approach those people, let alone dreaming about them wanting to talk to me.


Column: Why, as an immigrant, I am not outraged by Trump's immigration proposal

PBS NewsHour

President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on immigration reform. Entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa says the RAISE Act could be good for the country. Editor's note: Silicon Valley entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa has appeared frequently on this page, most recently here. I was shooting with him just last week in and around his home in Palo Alto for a story on his new book, "The Driver in the Driverless Car," and his forecast of an imminent job crisis caused by high technology and what we as a society should do about it. And more to the point, high tech in the form his Tesla, which can already do a lot of the driverless driving, including parking itself in Vivek's garage by remote control -- somewhat haltingly -- as this brief 1:33 video clip demonstrates: An immigrant from India, Vivek has been a staunch -- some would say "strident" -- supporter of diversity, especially in high tech, where he has found it lamentably lacking with regard to both gender and race.


Proceedings of the 2017 ICML Workshop on Human Interpretability in Machine Learning (WHI 2017)

arXiv.org Machine Learning

This is the Proceedings of the 2017 ICML Workshop on Human Interpretability in Machine Learning (WHI 2017), which was held in Sydney, Australia, August 10, 2017. Invited speakers were Tony Jebara, Pang Wei Koh, and David Sontag.