Situation
Robot security: Making sure machines don't become the latest big threat
Who within organizations should be responsible for robotics security? Today's security threats have expanded in scope and seriousness. There can now be millions -- or even billions -- of dollars at risk when information security isn't handled properly. As robotics becomes increasingly intertwined with other facets of IT such as the cloud, mobile devices, data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), concerns about the risk of data theft and other negative impacts are legitimate. But the security issue goes beyond traditional risks such as the loss or theft of information or the interruption of services.
Drone attack on Kurdish, French forces reveals new threats
FILE- In this March 1, 2013 file photo, anti-Syrian President Bashar Assad protesters hold the Jabhat al-Nusra flag, as they shout slogans during a demonstration, at Kafranbel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. Insurgent groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State group in Syria have learned how to weaponize surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new twist to the country's civil war, a U.S. military official and others say. FILE- In this March 1, 2013 file photo, anti-Syrian President Bashar Assad protesters hold the Jabhat al-Nusra flag, as they shout slogans during a demonstration, at Kafranbel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. Insurgent groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State group in Syria have learned how to weaponize surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new twist to the country's civil war, a U.S. military official and others say. WASHINGTON (AP) -- French and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq were attacked by an exploding drone, the Pentagon said Wednesday, adding a new worry to the wars in Iraq and Syria as militant groups learn to weaponize their store-bought drones.
Robot rides may force error-prone human motorists off the road
New rules of the road for robot cars coming out of Washington this week could lead to the eventual extinction of one of the defining archetypes of the past century: the human driver. While banning people from driving may seem like something from a Kurt Vonnegut short story, it's the logical endgame of a technology that could dramatically reduce -- or even eliminate -- the 1.25 million road deaths a year globally. Human error is the cause of 94 percent of roadway fatalities, U.S. safety regulators say, and robot drivers never get drunk, sleepy or distracted. Autonomous cars already have "superhuman intelligence" that allows them to see around corners and avoid crashes, said Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive at Nvidia Corp., a maker of high-speed processors for self-driving cars. "Long term, these vehicles will drive better than any human possibly can," Shapiro said.
Islamic State found using explosive drones
The so-called Islamic State is now taking bombs to the skies. When the forces examined the drone, it blew up. The agency warned local law enforcement of the emerging threat that drones pose. While Islamic State fighters have long used hobby drones to conduct reconnaissance, last week's incident is thought to be the first "kamikaze"-style explosive drone attack by the Islamic State. Two similar attacks last month prompted US commanders on the ground to warn of the dangers of flying drone bombs.
New challenges in Syria as militants weaponized drones
FILE- In this March 1, 2013 file photo, anti-Syrian President Bashar Assad protesters hold the Jabhat al-Nusra flag, as they shout slogans during a demonstration, at Kafranbel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. Insurgent groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State group in Syria have learned how to weaponize surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new twist to the country's civil war, a U.S. military official and others say. FILE- In this March 1, 2013 file photo, anti-Syrian President Bashar Assad protesters hold the Jabhat al-Nusra flag, as they shout slogans during a demonstration, at Kafranbel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. Insurgent groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State group in Syria have learned how to weaponize surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new twist to the country's civil war, a U.S. military official and others say. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Militant groups like Hezbollah and the Islamic State group have learned how to weaponize surveillance drones and use them against each other, adding a new twist to Syria's civil war, a U.S. military official and others say.
Doctors beat online symptom checkers in diagnosis contest
In a head-to-head comparison, human doctors with access to the same information about medical history and symptoms as was put into a symptom checker got the diagnosis right 72 percent of the time, compared to 34 percent for the apps. The 23 online symptom checkers, some accessed via websites and others available as apps, included those offered by Web MD and the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. and the Isabel Symptom Checker in the U.K. "The current symptom checkers, I was not surprised do not outperform doctors," said senior author Dr. Ateev Mehrotra of Harvard Medical School in Boston. But in reality computers and human doctors may both be involved in a diagnosis, rather than pitted against each other, Mehrotra told Reuters Health. The researchers used a web platform called Human Dx to distribute 45 clinical vignettes - sets of medical history and symptom information - to 234 physicians. Doctors could not do a physical examination on the hypothetical patient or run tests, they had only the information provided.
We're Not Ready For Superintelligence
The problem with the world today isn't that too many people are afraid--it's that too many people are afraid of the wrong things. Consider this: what scares you more, that your life could end because of a terrorist attack or because you get crushed to death under a large piece of furniture? Despite a media environment in which the threat of terrorism is omnipresent and the threat of furniture nonexistent, your gravestone is actually more likely to say, "Died under a couch recently bought from Ikea" than "Perished in a terrorist attack." In fact, asteroids are more likely to kill the average person than lightning strikes, and lightning strikes are more dangerous than terrorism. The point is that, as I've written elsewhere, our intuitions often fail to track the actual risks around us. We dismiss many of the most likely threats while obsessing over improbable events.
Why AI Makes It Hard to Prove That Self-Driving Cars Are Safe
Car manufacturers will have difficulty demonstrating just how safe self-driving vehicles are because of what's at the core of their smarts: machine learning. "You can't just assume this stuff is going to work," says Phillip Koopman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who works in the automotive industry. In 2014, a market research firm projected that the self-driving car market will be worth 87 billion by 2030. Several companies, including Google, Tesla, and Uber, are experimenting with computer-assisted or fully autonomous driving projects--with varying success because of the myriad technical obstacles that must be overcome. Koopman is one of several researchers who believe that the nature of machine learning makes verifying that these autonomous vehicles will operate safely very challenging.
Obama's concerned an AI could hack America's nukes
During his eight years in office, President Barack Obama has seen hackers grow into a threat no president has faced before. US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have responded to everything from a Chinese hack of Google in 2009 to Russian digital meddling in this election. He's learned, as a result, to think a few moves ahead. And that includes preparing for possibilities that others might consider science fiction--like the possibility of an artificial intelligence trained through machine learning and tasked with stealing US nuclear codes. In an era when hackers can steal the fingerprints of 5.6 million federal employees and or pull off a modern version of Watergate, he wonders whether sophisticated adversaries might use AI to infiltrate the government's most sensitive systems.
The power of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the data centre
Data is everywhere – masses of it. And it's helping businesses to make better decisions across departments. Marketing can utilise data to discover the effectiveness of email campaigns, Finance can analyse past trends to make predictions and projections for the future, and Sales can target their follow-up with detailed information on prospective customers. But data is only useful when business tools transform it into valuable information. Data intelligence through algorithms and analytics make business data relatable. The most advanced solutions require enormous amounts of data to be able to offer accurate insight to users.