We consider a problem of ecological inference, in which individual-level covariates are known, but labeled data is available only at the aggregate level. The intended application is modeling voter preferences in elections. In Rosenman and Viswanathan (2018), we proposed modeling individual voter probabilities via a logistic regression, and posing the problem as a maximum likelihood estimation for the parameter vector beta. The likelihood is a Poisson binomial, the distribution of the sum of independent but not identically distributed Bernoulli variables, though we approximate it with a heteroscedastic Gaussian for computational efficiency. Here, we extend the prior work by proving results about the existence of the MLE and the curvature of this likelihood, which is not log-concave in general. We further demonstrate the utility of our method on a real data example. Using data on voters in Morris County, NJ, we demonstrate that our approach outperforms other ecological inference methods in predicting a related, but known outcome: whether an individual votes.

Global "Artificial Intelligence(AI) in Retail Market" (2019-2025) research report analyzed the current state in the definitions, classifications, applications, …

Cambridge Analytica may have become the byword for a scandal, but it's not entirely clear that anyone knows exactly what that scandal is. It's more like toxic word association: "Facebook", "data", "harvested", "weaponised", "Trump" and, in this country, most controversially, "Brexit". It was a media firestorm that's yet to be extinguished, a year on from whistleblower Christopher Wylie's revelations in the Observer and the New York Times about how the company acquired the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users in order to target them in political campaigns. This week sees the release of The Great Hack, a Netflix documentary that is the first feature-length attempt to gather all the strands of the affair into some sort of narrative – though it is one contested even by those appearing in the film. "This is not about one company," Julian Wheatland, the ex-chief operating officer of Cambridge Analytica, claims at one point. "This technology is going on unabated and will continue to go on unabated.[…] There was always going to be a Cambridge Analytica. It just sucks to me that it's Cambridge Analytica."

Sure, world is crying out loud that big-data's biggest problem will be resources. Demand has skyrocketed and everyone in the world is going into tailspin in meeting that demands. Companies are going frantic and overspending to hire data scientists to secure themselves from any upcoming shortfall. This is nothing but a sign that world needs our robot algorithm friends to pacify some demand and increase credibility to new paradigms. Who could forget Steve Balmer's famous quote comparing Big Data as a Machine Learning problem.

This week's furor over FaceApp has largely centered on concerns that its Russian developers might be compelled to share the app's data with the Russian government, much as the Snowden disclosures illustrated the myriad ways in which American companies were compelled to disclose their private user data to the US government. Yet the reality is that this represents a mistaken understanding of just how the modern data trade works today and the simple fact that American universities and companies routinely make their data available to companies all across the world, including in Russia and China. In today's globalized world, data is just as globalized, with national borders no longer restricting the flow of our personal information - trend made worse by the data-hungry world of deep learning. Data brokers have long bought and sold our personal data in a shadowy world of international trade involving our most intimate and private information. The digital era has upended this explicit trade through the interlocking world of passive exchange through analytics services.

The use of facial recognition in the United States public sector has received a great deal of press lately, and most of it isn't positive. There's a lot of concern over how state and federal government agencies are using this technology and how the resulting biometric data will be used. Many fear that the use of this technology will lead to a Big Brother state. Unfortunately, these concerns are not without merit. We're already seeing damaging results where this technology is prevalent in countries like China, Singapore, and even the United Kingdom where London authorities recently fined a man for disorderly conduct for covering his face to avoid surveillance on the streets. In the United States, San Francisco recently banned the use of facial recognition by law enforcement and other agencies due to its impression of "spying" on residents.

WASHINGTON/DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Iran said it had seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday but denied Washington's assertion that the U.S. Navy had downed an Iranian drone nearby this week, as tensions in the Gulf region rose again. Britain said it was urgently seeking information about the Stena Impero tanker, which had been heading to a port in Saudi Arabia and suddenly changed course after passing through the strait at the mouth of the Gulf. The tanker's operator, Stena Bulk, said in a statement the ship was no longer under the crew's control and could not be contacted. Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted a military source as saying the vessel had turned off its tracker, ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guard and was sailing in the wrong direction in a shipping lane. "We will respond in a way that is considered but robust and we are absolutely clear that if this situation is not resolved quickly there will be serious consequences," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters.

I was alarmed to read this week that the Alabama Senate has passed a bill to outlaw abortion under almost all circumstances, including cases of rape and/or incest. Under the bill, doctors face 10 years in prison for attempting to terminate a pregnancy and 99 years for carrying out the procedure. Fortunately, for decades, women's reproductive rights groups, health providers, technologists, and hackers have been working together internationally to support a women's right to choose. They've created a legacy of work that may be able to help. The worst major city for abortion access is Rapid City, South Dakota, where women must travel 318 miles to get an abortion.

Ursula von der Leyen was elected on Tuesday as the new President of the European Commission by 383 Members of the new European Parliament. She is the first woman to hold the office. A centre-right politician and close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, she was until this week Germany's defense minister. So what does her election mean for EU tech policy over the next five years? We did get a glimpse of her priorities in her Tuesday morning speech addressing the plenary of the European Parliament ahead of her confirmation vote.

Cybersecurity suffers from a skills shortage in the market. As a result, the opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) automation are vast. In many cases, AI is used to enhance and improve certain defensive aspects of cybersecurity. Prime examples are combating spam and detecting malware. From the attacker point of view, there are many incentives to using AI when trying to penetrate others' vulnerable systems.