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Interview with a writer: Jaron Lanier Coffee House

AITopics Original Links

In his new book, Who Owns The Future?, computer scientist, Jaron Lanier, argues that as technology has become more advanced, so too has our dependency on information tools. Lanier believes that if we continue on our present path, where we think of computers as passive tools, instead of machines that real people create, our myopia will result in less understanding of both computers and human beings, which could cause the demise of democracy, mass unemployment, the erosion of the middle class, and social chaos. Lanier encourages human beings to take back control of their own economic destiny by creating a society that values the work of all industries, and not just those with the fastest networks. By monetizing information, he foresees a more egalitarian society, which can still adhere to the principles of free market capitalism. What will the future economy look like if technology keeps advancing the way it does and we do nothing?


Voice recognition software helps decode data from Yellowstone geyser basin

AITopics Original Links

Dawson, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in California, said he happened by chance upon the discovery that voice recognition could be applied to seismic data. A visiting researcher from Spain who specialized in voice recognition needed a desk and the USGS just happened to have a spare that she could use. Dawson and Carmen Benรญtez got to talking one day and decided to apply her skills to decoding data collected from the Norris Geyser Basin.


Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment

AITopics Original Links

Since the dawn of the space age, unmanned spacecraft have flown blind with little or no ability to make autonomous decisions based on the content of the data they collect. The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) is operating onboard the Earth Observing-1 mission since 2003. The ASE software uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting. This software demonstrates the potential for space missions to use onboard decision-making to detect, analyze, and respond to science events, and to downlink only the highest value science data. The onboard science algorithms analyzes the images to extract static features and detect changes relative to previous observations.


North Dakota National Guard reportedly deploys anti-drone system at oil pipeline protest site

FOX News

The North Dakota Army National Guard reportedly deployed an "anti-drone missile system" at the site of the Dakota Access oil pipeline on Tuesday. North Dakota Guard spokesman William Prokopyk confirmed to The Daily Beast the presence of the Avenger missile system. He added that the system was put in place "strictly in the observation role." The Morton County Sheriff's Department echoed Prokpyk's statements, adding that the systems "are used strictly for observation of ungoverned encampments to help protect private property and maintain public safety," according to The Daily Beast. Jon Ziegler, who describes himself as a "citizen journalist," spotted the surface-to-air missile launchers at the site.


IoT, AoT, AI, machine learning, cloud, big data and predictive analytics to dominate in 2017: Teradata India - ET CIO

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Bangalore: Tereadata India released its technology predictions for the India market in 2017. Smart commercial buildings are predicted to be the highest user of IoT until 2017, followed by smart homes. Together these two categories will consume just over 1 billion connected devices by 2018. The Internet of Things (IoT) has vast implications for government institutions from city hall to international governing bodies. Tens of billions of physical devices are expected to join the global network by the end of the decade, providing a number of concerns and opportunities for planners, policymakers and regulators.


Robots are evolving so quickly that the big concern may be how much we don't know about AI

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In Davos right now, the world's best and best-performing economic minds are gathered for their annual bout of elite networking. You know you're not invited because a ticket costs $35,000, and that's before the cost of membership, which is also required, and even more expensive. But we get news reports from the proceedings and the most interesting one today concerns the World Economic Forum's recent report which claims the biggest risk in 2017 is people losing their jobs to robots. The word out of Davos is we have nothing to fear. If you don't believe them, you might find some comfort in a story about Donald Trump that's been kicking around for a couple of years that is, well, intriguing. The next Leader of the Free World has never used a computer. It's great fun (Matt Novak has tenaciously taken up the baton at Gizmodo), and not at all as far-fetched as you might be thinking right now. We know Trump tweets, badly. But it is actually surprisingly difficult to find evidence of him looking comfortable behind a MacBook.


Refugee's daughter driven to build Japanese language school in Vietnam

The Japan Times

The child of a refugee from Vietnam is striving to realize her dream of building a Japanese language school in the Southeast Asian country. "My dream is to do something that would serve as a bridge between Japan and Vietnam," said Doan Thy Trang, 27. To achieve that goal, she founded a consulting firm in Akashi, a city in Hyogo Prefecture facing the Seto Inland Sea, in January 2015. Trang explained that many business trainees from Vietnam she meets through her work have little difficulty communicating with Japanese in daily conversations but struggle with technical terms. "Vietnamese need a school that teaches them Japanese language used in workplaces," she said.


Business leaders urge new thinking in age of artificial intelligence

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It's no secret that automated machines and robots are rapidly replacing human workers. In Europe, concerns about the loss of good-paying jobs to automation is so strong that the idea of a universal basic income is gaining traction. France, for one example, could lose three million jobs by 2025 due to automation, a former education minister campaigning for the French presidency has argued. The topic has been front of mind this week for participants at the World Economic Forum's annual summit in Davos, Switzerland. There, CBS News asked business leaders to look past the hope and hype of artifical intelligence and reflect on the negatives of automation.


Fighting cybercrime using IoT and AI-based automation

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Last November, detectives investigating a murder case in Bentonville, Arkansas, accessed utility data from a smart meter to determine that 140 gallons of water had been used at the victim's home between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. It was more water than had been used at the home before, and it was used at a suspicious time--evidence that the patio area had been sprayed down to conceal the murder scene. As technology advances, we have more detailed data and analytics at our fingertips than ever before. It can potentially offer new insights for crime investigators. One area crying out for more insight is cybersecurity.


Conversational computers

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