Singapore is ramping up efforts to harness artificial intelligence (AI) across its economy through a national strategy that encompasses skills training and industry partnerships while promoting the responsible use of AI. Unveiling the national AI strategy at the Singapore Fintech Festival, Singapore's deputy prime minister, Heng Swee Keat, said AI is the country's next step in its smart nation initiative, noting that AI is already being used in several aspects of daily life. To bring the strategy to fruition, the government has identified five national AI projects to address key national challenges, and to deliver social and economic benefits to Singaporeans. These projects include intelligent freight planning in logistics, smart estates, chronic disease management in healthcare, personalised education and border security. Heng said the national AI strategy will be rolled out iteratively, to respond to the rapidly changing technology landscape and to tap new opportunities brought about by AI.

The update shares an announcement from the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") and provides important details regarding a second Federal Register Notice on AI and innovation building upon the earlier request for comments focused on the impact AI poses for patent law and policy. The Ocean Tomo AI Report Update contains important details regarding the window of opportunity to respond to the notice as well as sample questions included in the notice. You can request a copy of the study update here. Ocean Tomo Industry Analyst Reports provide a comprehensive look at current industry trends and deal activity in several technology areas. As a financial advisor with a focus on technology and intellectual property (IP), Ocean Tomo has gained unique insights related to the intellectual property driving the development of a variety of technology areas.

Some believe it will present us with innovative solutions to a myriad of problems, others believe it will signal the demise of all mankind. In an effort to learn more about the current state of this exciting technology, and cut through the noise, I jumped at the opportunity to listen and learn from Galina Alperovich, senior machine learning researcher at Avast, during the Digital Transformation EXPO Europe, currently in its 15th year of congregating the most influential innovators and practitioners from around the globe. Avast uses a network comprised of hundreds of millions of sensors (their end-users) that funnel data into the company's A.I. system, in order to detect and defend against cyber threats. "For cybersecurity, A.I. is super important," according to Ondrej Vlcek, chief executive officer of Avast. "A.I. is a great tool for cybersecurity to provide better defense and protection against attacks."[1]

The dawn of truly artificial intelligences will provoke an international security crisis, according to F-Secure chief research officer and security industry heavyweight, Mikko Hypponen. Speaking to Computer Weekly in October 2019 during an event at the company's Helsinki headquarters, Hypponen said that although true AI is a long way off – in cyber security it is largely restricted to machine learning for threat modelling to assist human analysts – the potential danger is real, and should be considered today. "I believe the most likely war for superhuman intelligence to be generated will be through human brain simulators, which is really hard to do – it's going to take 20 to 30 years to get there," said Hypponen. "But if something like that, or some other mechanism of generating superhuman levels of intelligence, becomes a reality, it will absolutely become a catalyst for an international crisis. It will increase the likelihood of conflict."

In reality, there is nothing artificial about these algorithms or their intelligence, and the term "AI" is a mystification! The term that describes the reality is "Human-Trained Machine Learning", in today's mad scramble to train these algorithms to mimic human intelligence and brain functioning. In the techie magazine WIRED, October 2018, we meet a pioneering computer scientist, Fei-Fei LI, testifying at a Congressional hearing, who underlines this truth. She said, "Humans train these algorithms" and she talked about the horrendous mistakes these machines make in mis-identifying people, using the term "bias in--bias out" updating the old computer saying, "garbage in--garbage out". Professor LI described how we are ceding our authority to these algorithms to judge who gets hired, who goes to jail, who gets a loan, a mortgage or good insurance rates -- and how these machines code our behavior, change our rules and our lives.

Only 22% of CRM users say AI meaningfully helps them a lot at work and only 12% actually use a specific AI-based tool; 11% say AI in their CRM allows them to focus on high-value customers and 36% CRM think AI is a strong value for the money spent on it [Dynata and Freshworks survey of 501 U.S. CRM users] Stanford's Michael Webb has developed a new methodology to estimate the impact of AI on jobs: Matching patent applications with job descriptions, he found that "AI exposure is highest for high-skilled occupations, suggesting that AI will affect very different people than software and robots," concluding that "high-wage occupations are relatively more exposed to AI than low-wage occupations" [The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Labor Market] More than 60% of Americans believe the government and companies collect data about them daily; more than 80% feel they have little control over the data collected about them by the government and companies and believe the risks of this data collection outweigh the benefits; 59% say they have little or no understanding regarding what is done with the data collected about them by companies and 78% have similar lack of understanding about the government's data collection; 70% say their personal data is less secure than 5 years ago [Pew Research Center] Over 74% of consumers are still confused about how their data is handled; over 49% still don't trust the privacy policies that businesses have shared; 32% of consumers are "Privacy Actives"--they care about privacy, are willing to act to protect it, and have already acted by switching companies or providers based on their data-sharing practices. European startups pursuing some kind of AI-related product or service are on track to raise $4.9 billion in 2019, up from $3.2 billion in 2018. Funding this year for robotics will reach $1.4 billion and for deep learning $320 million [Venturebeat.com] The market for virtual digital assistants (VDAs) will grow from $1.3 billion in 2018 to more than $8.9 billion in 2025 [Tractica]

Facebook is under fire for privacy concerns once again, as the social media giant tested a facial recognition app on its employees. Using real-time facial recognition, the firm was able to identify a person by pointing a smartphone camera at them. It was reported that the app has been discontinued, but the technology was capable of bringing up someone's Facebook profile who had enabled facial recognition on their profiles. Facebook did confirm that it developed the app, but denied it was capable of identifying members of its social media network and pulling up their profile. Facebook is under fire for privacy concerns once again, as the social media giant revealed it tested a facial recognition app on its employees.

The China Cables, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reveal about the camps in which more than a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are understood to be detained. This is for the first time a document outlining the camps has been leaked. In an exclusive Skype interview with Fergus Shiel, Project manager of China Cables, Saurabh Bose of WION asks about the classified intelligence briefings that reveal about the scope and ambition of Chines govt's AI-based policing platform. Two things differentiate China Cables from previously investigations, that an operation manual has revealed the camps in which more than a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are understood to be detained. The NYT had policy settings of these camps, anecdotal reports, satellite images, but this is the very first time that a document outlining the camps have been leaked we understand that it is the first document of it's kind to come out of China for the last thirty years because of it's classification level.

Gary Gorrel assigned to the 143rd Airborne Infantry Regiment from Texas, waits for his chinook to arrive, to conduct an air insertion exercise June, 10 2018, with members of the Israeli Defense Forces, the Italian Armed Forces and the Polish Army for exercise Swift Response. Exercise Swift Response 18 was a U.S. Army Europe-led multinational exercise held in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland - file photo. NATO and U.S. Army Europe forces will conduct "forcible entry" combat exercises in Lithuania, Georgia and Poland to prepare rapid response attack units for the possibility of war on the European continent. The Army's 82nd Airborne division will drop into hostile territory to lead air assaults in as many as five attack operations across three allied countries of enormous strategic significance to NATO forces. "Having our troops and allies involved in what is called a joint forcible entry will enable us to go in and take an area such as an airfield so it can used by friendly forces," Col. Joe Scrocca, director of public affairs, U.S. Army Europe, told reporters at the Association of the United States Army annual symposium in Oct.

The next Industrial Revolution is upon us, and scientists, entrepreneurs, and policymakers are warning of an imminent paradigm shift in the future of work. In partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, VICE talks to industry leaders and laborers to learn how radical developments in automation and artificial intelligence are set to change the world of work as we know it. From the food we eat to the clothes we wear, VICE's Future of Work explores technology's threat to the American worker and the ways we are responding. Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews