The doomers have it wrong. AI is not going to end the world--but it is going to end the web as we've known it. AI is already upending the economic covenant of the internet that's existed since the advent of search: A few companies (mostly Google) bring demand, and creators bring supply (and get some ad revenue or recognition from it). AI tools are already generating and summarizing content, obviating the need for users to click through to the sites of content providers, and thereby upsetting the balance. Meanwhile, an ocean of AI-powered deepfakes and bots will make us question what's real and will degrade people's trust in the online world.

The algorithms that underlie modern artificial-intelligence (AI) systems need lots of data on which to train. Much of that data comes from the open web which, unfortunately, makes the AIs susceptible to a type of cyber-attack known as "data poisoning". This means modifying or adding extraneous information to a training data set so that an algorithm learns harmful or undesirable behaviours. Like a real poison, poisoned data could go unnoticed until after the damage has been done. Your browser does not support the audio element.

And latency almost always matters when it comes to running artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) workloads. Great AI requires a lot of data, and it demands it immediately." That's both the blessing and the curse in any sector – industrial and manufacturing are prominent examples, but the principle applies widely across businesses – that generates tons of machine data outside of their centralized clouds or data centers and wants to feed it to an ML model or other form of automation for any number of purposes. Whether you're working with IoT data on a factory floor, or medical diagnostic data in a healthcare facility – or one of many other scenarios where AI/ML use cases are rolling out – you probably can't do so optimally if you're trying to send everything (or close to it) on a round-trip from the edge to the cloud and back again. In fact, if you're dealing with huge volumes of data, your trip might never get off the ground. "I've seen situations in manufacturing facilities ...

A free and open internet is under attack, according to Sundar Pichai, the head of Google. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, the Google CEO said an open internet –information online being equally free and available to everybody – has been a'tremendous force for good' that is'taken for granted'. While Mr Pichai did not directly refer to China, he did make the point: 'None of our major products and services are available in China.' He also called artificial intelligence (AI) more profound than fire or electricity, and said privacy is'foundational to everything we do'. Pichai's firm posted whopping revenues of $55.3 billion in the first quarter of this year, but he argued against suggestions it's a'surveillance capitalist'. The Open Internet is a fundamental network (net) neutrality concept.

The Internet has enhanced communications, increased commerce, and brought people together socially. Unfortunately, it has also enabled malicious activity with data breaches, ransomware, destroyed systems, and the Dark Web. Cyberattacks have become so common that only the large ones make the news now. The United States is arguably the most "wired" country in the world, with everything from cars to refrigerators to security cameras connected online, making us also the most vulnerable. Because the open Internet is driven by cost and speed and not by security, continual cyberattacks have pushed us into a new kind of Cold War -- with artificial intelligence (AI) serving as the basis of this arms race. From Moonlight Maze in the late 1990s to the recent SolarWinds attack, we have seen malware and ransomware planted in our infrastructure and systems.

This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon. In the recent years, face recognition applications have been developed on a much larger scale. Image classification and recognition has evolved and is being used at a number of places. I recently read an article where a face recognition application has been deployed at one of the airports for a completely automated check in process. This will alleviate the need for manual intervention and provide a seamless end to end check in process via technology.

Huawei could soon be allowed to do business with US companies again, according to leaks ahead of the current trade talks between the US and China. Don't be fooled – we have been here before only to be disappointed. This appears to be, as usual, a sop to the markets as any trade progress is likely to be no more than pedestrian. Last week, we have seen further evidence that the fractures in the global order are increasing – and that they are being driven by technology. Not only has Donald Trump banned several Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) companies from doing business with US companies, but the European Union (EU) has issued a warning about cyberattacks from state-backed companies that have equipment in the bloc's 5G networks. Chinese state media has attacked Apple for providing a map that has assisted protesters in Hong Kong, forcing it to withdraw the application.

You know by now that Internet of Things devices like your router are often vulnerable to attack, the industry-wide lack of investment in security leaving the door open to a host of abuses. Worse still, known weaknesses and flaws can hang around for years after their initial discovery. And Monday, the content and web services firm Akamai published new findings that it has observed attackers actively exploiting a flaw in devices like routers and video game consoles that was originally exposed in 2006. Over the last decade, reports have increasingly detailed the flaws and vulnerabilities that can plague insecure implementations of a set of networking protocols called Universal Plug and Play. But where these possibilities were largely academic before, Akamai found evidence that attackers are actively exploiting these weaknesses not to attack the devices themselves, but as a jumping off point for all sorts of malicious behavior, which could include DDoS attacks, malware distribution, spamming/phishing/account takeovers, click fraud, and credit card theft.

The vision of the so-called internet of things -- giving all sorts of physical things a digital makeover -- has been years ahead of reality. But that gap is closing fast. Today, the range of things being computerized and connected to networks is stunning, from watches, appliances and clothing to cars, jet engines and factory equipment. Even roadways and farm fields are being upgraded with digital sensors. In the last two years, the number of internet-of-things devices in the world has surged nearly 70 percent to 6.4 billion, according to Gartner, a research firm.