However, the frequency in which the Canadian government employs AI is worrying for some. Fears of governments using AI to infringe on private freedoms are very real, as some countries, such as China, have begun to use facial recognition software for police surveillance. Furthermore, people are rapidly losing confidence in social media platforms and Internet security, often citing the absence of human intervention in the decisions that algorithms make as the cause. Furthermore, 54% of North Americans express concern for their online privacy, and the non-consensual use of personal data by social media companies and federal governments do little to ease these fears. While more Canadians are more concerned about their online security due to threats posed by internet companies, at least 59% fear for their personal information being used by their own government.

Globally, public sector institutions are on the path to digital transformation. Yet they are faced with technological, cultural, and regulatory challenges. In recent years, several governments have created plans to encourage the adoption of disruptive technologies, like robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI). Many have already adopted automation technologies and have seen results like improved productivity, more engaged employees, and cost efficiencies.

It feels as though 2019 has gone by in a flash, that said, it has been a year in which we have seen great advancement in AI application methods and technical discovery, paving the way for future development. We are incredibly grateful to have had the leading minds in AI & Deep Learning present their latest work at our summits in San Francisco, Boston, Montreal and more, so we thought we would share thirty of our highlight videos with you as we think everybody needs to see them!. We were delighted to be joined by Dawn at the Deep Reinforcement Learning Summit in June of 2019, presenting the latest industry research on Secure Deep Reinforcement Learning, covering both the lessons leant in the lead up to her presentation, current challenges faced for advancement, and the future direction of which her research is set to take. You can see Dawn's full presentation from June here. Reinforcement Learning is somewhat of a hotbed for research, this year alone we have seen several presentations that have broken down the ins and outs of RL, that said, Doina's talk just last month gave us some new angles on the latest algorithmic development.

There's little doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is having a massive impact on IT budgets, operations, and user experiences. But an area of AI that is receiving increasing attention is ethics. As people and companies become more dependent on the use of algorithms to make and support decisions, the inherent biases of software developers and the data pools they depend on to build their models have come under close scrutiny. Machine learning, task automation and robotics are already widely used in business. These and other AI technologies are about to multiply, and we look at how organizations can best take advantage of them.

Artificial intelligence is here, it's just the beginning, and it's time to start thinking about how to regulate it. Those were the takeaways from the Technology Alliance's AI Policy Matters Summit, a Seattle event that convened experts and government officials for a conversation about artificial intelligence. Many of those experts agreed that the government should start establishing guardrails to defend against malicious or negligent uses of artificial intelligence. But determining what shape those regulations should take is no easy feat. "It's not even clear what the difference is between AI and software," said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, on stage at the event. "Where does something cease to be a software program and become an AI program?

One of the biggest threats to privacy and national security is the ability of the immensely powerful quantum computers to break prevailing methods of encryption almost instantaneously. Once quantum computers become a reality, something that could conceivably happen in the next decade or two, all of the data protected by encrypted systems on the internet will become decrypted and unprotected, accessible to all individuals, organizations or nation-states. Dr. Jill Pipher, President of the American Mathematical Society, VP for Research, and Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor of Mathematics at Brown University led a briefing last week for lawmakers on Capitol Hill called "No Longer Secure: Cryptography in the Quantum Era" about the threats that quantum computing poses to existing cryptographic systems that support national and economic security. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) began the briefing by saying "we're acutely aware of the potential advantages and disadvantages that quantum presents. And we're also very concerned that some of our adversaries and competitors are investing a great deal in quantum computing."

A warehouse in an industrial park about an hour's drive north of downtown Beijing offers a paradoxical picture of China's much-hyped, and increasingly controversial, artificial intelligence boom. Inside the building, a handful of squat cylindrical robots scuttle about, following an intricate and invisible pattern. Occasionally, one zips beneath a stack of shelves, raises it gently off the ground, then brings it to a station where a human worker can grab items for packing. A handful of engineers stare intently at code running on a bank of computers. The robots and the AI behind them were developed by Megvii, one of China's vaunted AI unicorns.

By accepting the Deed and closing the Transaction, Buyer, on behalf of itself and its successors and assigns, shall thereby release each of the Seller Parties from, and waive any and all Liabilities against each of the Seller Parties for, attributable to, or in connection with the Property, whether arising or accruing before, on or after the Closing and whether attributable to events or circumstances which arise or occur before, on or after the Closing, including, without limitation, the following: (a) any and all statements or opinions heretofore or hereafter made, or information furnished, by any Seller Parties to any Buyerâ s Representatives; and (b) any and all Liabilities with respect to the structural, physical, or environmental condition of the Property, including, without limitation, all Liabilities relating to the release, presence, discovery or removal of any hazardous or regulated substance, chemical, waste or material that may be located in, at, about or under the Property, or connected with or arising out of any and all claims or causes of action based upon CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the foregoing release and waiver is not intended and shall not be construed as affecting or impairing any rights or remedies that Buyer may have against Seller with respect to (i) a breach of any of Sellerâ s Warranties, (ii) a breach of any Surviving Covenants, or (iii) any acts constituting fraud by Seller.

Twenty IT leaders look into their crystal balls to predict the technologies and trends that will drive the sector in 2020. CIO Australia asked Australian technology bosses about their top line predictions for 2020, the technologies that will have the greatest impact next year, and what top trends will impact the IT and business landscape. Here are the predictions from IT leaders across vendor land to CIOs and CTOs across a host of industries. Intelligent systems (machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation) are the top trends in 2020. Intelligent systems will have a significant impact on increasing situational awareness (insights) and using these insights to enhance decision making – to deliver optimal outcomes for customers. One large impact on the business landscape will be the expanding role of digital twins – extending beyond the optimisation of individual assets/systems to driving improvements at the organisational level. We are introducing a reference to'Digital Twin of Operations (DTO)' – having recently built some proof of concepts. The DTO brings together inputs from a range of different systems and assets onto a common data & analytics platform; is able to process large-scale and real-time data sets to simulate millions of'what if' scenarios through cloud technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will shape the destiny of humanity, but first humanity has the opportunity to shape AI. At times, anxiety about the former causes us to overlook the latter. We forget that artificial intelligence is going to serve the goals with which we're now programming it. Its implementation will follow the standards we now have the opportunity to set. This leaves citizens -- and those representing us in government -- with an urgent responsibility.