Jeffrey J. Bloom

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Three ingredients are driving the development of deep learning: computing power, data, and AI as a Service.

AI has been around since the 1950s. But there’s more computing power available today than ever before. What’s becoming more available & commoditized, however, are the actual AI algorithms needed to process all the data — or ‘AI-as-a-Service.’

For machines to learn, they need accurate data that's properly labeled and vetted. Which is time consuming, expensive, and one of the reasons data is so valuable.

Since AI-as-a-Service and computing power are commodities available to all, data stands out as the most valuable natural resource that emerges organically from technological platforms.

Jeffrey J. Bloom

“The only effective way to manage the use of technology by a government is for the government proactively to manage this use itself,”

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Zuck's custom-made AI chip will power his ever-growing consumer device aspirations (beyond Oculus/Building 8). That is, an Echo-like AI smart speaker with a large touchscreen..

Jeffrey J. Bloom

The high heid yins at NASA certainly showed increased sensitivity when they blasted Elon Musk – huffily dismissing his new rocket as "too small." However, Musk and Bezos’ do excel at making innovative breakthroughs in propulsion technology at a rate those red-tape bound bureaucrats can’t match. ;)
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16207885.Future_shock__Nasa__39_s_doomed_when_only_a___39_Big_F_____g_Rocket__39__can_take_us_to_Mars/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

If you're Elon Musk, you may want to prepare for the apocalypse. Nvidia's latest GPU--DGX-2--sports a whopping two petaflops of performance! Empowering researchers to train smarter deep-learning AIs more quickly than ever!

Microsoft's head of speech & language says the new V100 GPUs will "extend the accuracy of our models on speech recognition & machine translation reaching human capabilities & enhancing offerings such as Cortana, Bing, & Microsoft Translator."
https://mashable.com/2018/03/27/nvidia-unveils-ai-supercomputer/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Existing conceptual design tools are informal, do not map to topology & cannot search design space systematically.
Design by Function-sharing thrOugh Compositional qUalitative Synthesis (D-FOCUS) aims to change that, by answering questions like "what do new designs for an aircraft that combines design elements of a helicopter and a plane look (and fly) like?" Using an entirely new mathematical framework, it enables systematic searching for topological layouts (i.e. structure or form) that fulfill functional requirements that can be instantiated into models to generate preliminary, detailed & optimal designs. As the system designs a complicated mechanical system, the software models how designs will function in the real world, understanding components, safety, functionality, etc.. By automating significant portions of the design process, human designers can explore substantially broader design spaces with a deeper understanding of advantages & limitations of design choices.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/03/20/1442969/0/en/DARPA-Disruptioneering-Selects-PARC-and-UW-Madison-to-Develop-Artificial-Intelligence-Software-that-Automatically-Designs-Complex-Mechanical-Systems.html

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Powered with Points Of Interest (POI) across various categories, users can zero-in-on the specific service they are searching.

IBM Watson Data Kits incorporate ‘clean’, ready-to-use organized industry-specific data to bridge that gap by providing machine-readable, pre-trained data companies require to accelerate AI development & lead to a faster time to insight and value.
https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/296261/ibm-unveils-watson-data-kits-to-speed-up-adoption-of-ai-apps

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Developers of all experience levels can now utilize IBM Watson Services for Core ML to quickly build machine learning apps, & easily integrate AI, data & mobile services optimized for Swift.

The combined technologies go beyond those apps, of course – the built in AI means that as the apps are used they will become smarter – eventually you should be able to point your device at something & the app will figure out what repair it most likely needs. There will also be implications in health, educational, research and city management technologies.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3263447/apple-ios/now-every-swift-developer-can-build-ai-apps-thanks-to-apple-and-ibm.html

Jeffrey J. Bloom

"I think bundling AI logic & data together with security & Blockchain sounds wonderful. We just have to ensure we know what that AI can ultimately do, because if something can learn & evolve, then we don’t necessarily know the limits of what we are securely receiving.”

By embedding every piece of data with AI, otherwise “dumb data"--requiring applications to become useful--becomes valuable & “smart.” The “AI Thought” attaches to data allowing information to act on its own. So, understanding where it came from, where it is supposed to go & what it has to do or what function it has to perform.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2018/03/18/hacker-launches-public-mineable-blockchain-thought-for-ai-superhighway/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Since the potentiality underlies automation & technologies such as Virtual and Augmented Reality as well as others questions the future of many industries & human jobs including those of the mobile application developers, yet the outcome may not be as dramatic as is feared.

The underlying statement is that automation & associated digital technologies may be a threat to low-lying laborers. But, as it gets upgraded to higher-level jobs, these modern concepts will contribute towards enhancing human capabilities more such that they concentrate on a meaningful task.

There is no possible threat to end employment for humans. Rather they are likely to increase.
https://www.whatech.com/mobile/blog/450146-automate-your-workplace-but-not-just-with-robots

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Alexa and Google Assistant are of course not the dumbest voice assistants. After using and comparing these four AI-powered voice assistants, we have found that Amazon’s Alexa is the smartest, while the Google Assistant secures the second position. Apple’s Siri is lacking improvements in its neural network, but Apple has successfully made it smart.

When it comes to answering specific questions, Cortana is not as smart as the other voice assistants. Sometimes, it takes to Bing results even for finding answers of general queries, and can be called the dumbest of all for obvious reasons.

Jeffrey J. Bloom

“And even if you can detect whether or not something has been manipulated, that still needs to be shown in some way when it's being represented on Facebook or YouTube wherever. And so this is sort of a [question of] not just, can you detect it, but also how does this actually affect the ecosystem around which we share information."

Lyu is working on a media forensics program sponsored by the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that is poised to assemble teams from academia, industry, government and international partners to devise technical solutions. The holy grail of the project is a kind of crowdsourcing platform where viewers can decide a video's authenticity.

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Video games may soon look a lot more like the real world. If you've enjoyed the thrill of driving through GTA V & spying out Los Angeles landmarks, then that's a sentiment you're probably going to start feeling a lot more often while you play video games. Google is opening its Maps platform's real-time data & offering new software toolkits to translate map info to the Unity game engine as well as help make games using that location data. The combination turns buildings & other landmarks into customizable 3D objects & lets you manipulate those objects to fit your game world. It can replace every real hotel into an adventurer's inn, for instance, or add arbitrary points of interest for the sake of checkpoints.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/14/google-opens-maps-to-game-developers/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Google researchers revealed a new quantum computing processor that may beat the best benchmarks in today's most advanced supercomputers.

That's bad news for CISOs. Experts agree that once quantum computing advances far enough & spreads wide enough, today's encryption measures are toast. Within a decade, quantum computers will be able to easily brute-force today's public key encryption.

Here are some key things to know & consider about this next generation of computing & its ultimate impact on security.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pam958/bristlecone-google-quantum-computer-72-qubits

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Pioneering Artificial Swarm Intelligence or "Swarm AI," Modeled after swarms in nature, the technology connects groups of people into real-time closed-loop systems, amplifying human intelligence. Referred to as an artificial "Hive Mind," the technology has the potential to create super-intelligent systems that incorporate human values, emotions, and sensibilities as an inherent part of the system.

In addition to being the top winner of the Innovation Awards, Unanimous AI held a live session at SXSW where it built a real-time Swarm AI system comprised of SXSW conference attendees. The swarm generated optimized insights, answering questions suggested by luminaries across many fields including Katie Couric, Matt Damon & Gary White, & the MIT Media Lab.
http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/unanimous-ai-wins-best-in-show-at-2018-sxsw-innovation-awards-1018687890

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Much has changed since the days of rampant DS piracy. With this exploit, systems need to be on version 3.0, whereas Nintendo is already well beyond that. Those that get a clean unit, keep it offline & then update from the Pokkén Tournament DX cartridge can install version 3.0, but that system will be restricted to that firmware for anyone wanting to utilise this homebrew exploit in its current form. As a result it's a very restrictive & niche option, likely to pass the vast majority of Switch owners by.

In any case, it seems a Homebrew Launcher is now close to being a reality on Switch, something that's always seemed inevitable since the system launched.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/12/switch_hackers_declare_that_a_homebrew_launcher_will_be_available_soon

Jeffrey J. Bloom

While some might have trepidation at using an app created by a leaker of government secrets (pretty ironic), they need not worry: Haven’s software is completely open-source; anyone is free to change & recompile the code as they please. Although newly released & in beta (as of December 29), there is a very serious market for such security applications & reports are that Haven is stable & performs well. This is good news for security & privacy enthusiasts.

While technology, particularly in mobile devices & operating systems, has made huge advances in the past few years, security & good security practices have not advanced at the same rate. People caught up in the latest tech don't seem to care about privacy & device security. More recently, however, security & privacy have been making big strides. Haven is a part of this picture. It will be very interesting to see what the future holds for apps like Haven, & how it will be used to report — and hopefully prevent — spying. 

https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/27835-app-developed-by-snowden-detects-and-reports-spying

Jeffrey J. Bloom

The 845 System on a Chip (SoC) is built for extended reality (XR), on-device AI & high-speed connectivity. It incorporates Qualcomm's Spectra 280 Image Signal Processor (ISP), its Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem, & the company's Secure Processing Unit (SPU), which enables improved biometrics security & user or application data key management.

"As AI moves to end devices, the Q support for TensorFlow & Caffe implementations will support the all-important inference functions of AI," enabling local processing of AI-enabled experiences, "without requiring the round-trip of data to the cloud & back," thus reducing latency, providing resilience against network outages, & offering the option of on-device models to protect private & confidential data.

The 845 consumes up to 30% less power for video capture, games, XR & graphics. The CPU's L3 cache & designated system cache for each IP block, allows passing "pointers to the data rather than copying it from block to block or from main memory."

"Most biometric solutions aren't secure... where the information is stored or how it's processed. Having a completely secure block prevents anyone from accessing the information."

https://www.technewsworld.com/story/84996.html

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Slashdot: By reverse-engineering malware & analyzing malicious C2 servers, Citizen Lab has identified Cyberbit Solutions as the fourth company (alongside Hacking Team, Finfisher & NSO Group) whose products & services are abused by autocratic regimes to target dissidents, journalists & others...

These companies enable autocrats with poor national infrastructure, but billions of dollars, to order up their own NSA. To wit: Elbit Systems, the parent company of Cyberbit, says it has a backlog of orders valuing $7 billion.
Cyberbit says they're not responsible for what others do with their software, arguing "governmental authorities & law enforcement agencies are responsible to ensure that they are legally authorized to use the products in their jurisdictions."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/12/10/0015234/autocratic-governments-can-now-buy-their-own-nsa?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=twitter

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Today’s big switch-on marks only 63 days since the September 29 signing, slashing the 100-day window by over one third. The mammoth powerbank was completed just last week.

“Congratulations to the Tesla crew & South Australian authorities who worked so hard to get this manufactured & installed in record time!” Musk tweeted.

http://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-largest-lithium-ion-battery-switched-728065

Jeffrey J. Bloom

"Clients will only give you what you've asked for," said Louisville attorney Ian Ramsey, co-chair of the privacy and data security practice group at Stites & Harbison. "Sometimes, you don't know all the documents the client has, so you may be asking the wrong questions."

"Before, if you put in a poor keyword, you'd get imprecise information..." Now--using a blend of AI, Machine Translation, Natural Language & Speech Recognition--attorneys may search using thoughts, phrases or questions instead of simple keywords."

https://www.newsbytesapp.com/timeline/Business/13435/69315/using-artificial-intelligence-in-the-field-of-law

Original article (require subscription):
https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2017/12/01/cover-storhow-artificial-intelligence-is-changing.html

Jeffrey J. Bloom

"Clients will only give you what you've asked for," said Louisville attorney Ian Ramsey, co-chair of the privacy and data security practice group at Stites & Harbison. "Sometimes, you don't know all the documents the client has, so you may be asking the wrong questions."

"Before, if you put in a poor keyword, you'd get imprecise information..." Now--using a blend of AI, Machine Translation, Natural Language & Speech Recognition--attorneys may search using thoughts, phrases or questions instead of simple keywords."

https://www.newsbytesapp.com/timeline/Business/13435/69315/using-artificial-intelligence-in-the-field-of-law

Original article (require subscription):
https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2017/12/01/cover-storhow-artificial-intelligence-is-changing.html

Jeffrey J. Bloom

The QLM (Quantum Learning Machine) simulator enables programmers to write code at the level of quantum gates using a language called aQasm (Atos Quantum Assembly Language), which Atos hopes will become the standard for quantum computing--once qubit-powered hardware generally available.

Both Google & IBM are close to commercializing 50 qubit chips, potentially delivering "quantum supremacy," where digital computers are no longer able to simulate equivalent quantum computations. Regardless, as more qubits are added, replicating quantum behavior becomes increasingly difficult.

At this point, quantum programming & algorithms will no longer be verifiable using simulators on classic Hardware, making it difficult to identify flaws.

HPC (High Performance Computing) is poised for a quantum leap. Soon bits & qubits will seemlessly co-mingle in datacenters, as the age of exascale computers comes to fruition.
https://www.top500.org/news/ornl-expands-quantum-computing-effort/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Tesla VP of Truck programs Jerome Guillen said: "Tesla will be the first customer for the truck. We will use our own truck to carry cargo in the US between our different facilities. We have an assembly facility in California, the Gigafactory in Nevada, so we will use our trucks to carry things in-between."

The route between factories is almost the perfect example to substantiate Musk's claims. According to Google Maps, the shortest route between Tesla Fremont & Tesla Gigafactory 1 is exactly 258 miles.
https://electrek.co/2017/11/25/tesla-semi-electric-truck-customer-cargo-route-fremont-gigafactory/

Jerom Guillen's presentation about the Tesla Semi Truck:
https://youtu.be/JZTCgTtfOG4

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Musk bet he could complete the giant megabattery for the South Australia within 100 days. A bet upon which he wagered the cost of the project. Now, local authorities will have to pay $50 million because Musk fulfilled his promise & completed the build ahead of his Dec. 1st deadline. Which is good news for the region: just last year, the area was hit with major, state-wide blackouts after storm winds literally ripped transmission towers out of the ground.
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-megabattery-australia/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

"The canvas of VR cannot be the external world—it has to be your body." - Lanier

Q: Why is VR "the inverse of AI" & inconvertibly human?
A: "AI is a fake thing. You take in a bunch of data [& replay it] in various forms of interpolation later on. Whereas in VR, the people are there but they’re being transformed in space into—so it’s a space versus time thing. It didn’t even occur to me that anybody would think AI is a real thing."

"The single most important tech that doesn’t exist yet is a way to improvise while you’re in VR. Almost like a musical instrument, but you’re playing reality—that would be the most important thing for the future of expression. It’s a hard thing to do. It might turn out that it’s never done. But I think people will figure it out." - Lanier
https://www.wired.com/story/jaron-lanier-vr-interview/

When you talk of the digital revolution & the brave new world of VR Jaron Lanier wouldn’t necessarily be the first name you’d think of. But the scientist is helping shape the technology which could change our lives for good or bad.
https://youtu.be/vkcZMKF61Sc

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Capsule networks tackle one of the biggest problems in AI: radically reducing the amount of data & compute power needed to train deep learning systems. Meaning AI could become available to the broader market, no longer consigned to a few companies with mammoth compute resources & infinite volumes of data – i.e. FANG (Facebook, AWS/Azure, Netflix, Google) companies.

A key area of difference between capsule & neural is the divergent workloads they are suited to handle. Capsule networks are right for problems “less open-ended & less discovery-oriented, that are more utility oriented,” Fitzmaurice said. “This won’t spell the death of neural networks. Neural networks will do things capsule networks won’t, like find patterns that we weren’t expecting. But we don’t need that (capability) for things where the patterns are well understood, where we know the patters already.”
https://www.enterprisetech.com/2017/11/22/ais-cool-new-thing-capsule-networks-explained/

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Texting or SMS, especially between mobile carriers, offers little or no security following the revelation that SS7 (the protocol that allows SMS between carriers) is flawed. The answer is simple, avoid using SMS for conversations you'd rather keep private.

The good news is companies are removing themselves from securing customers’ data. Apple encrypts data by maintaining key sharing between devices, meaning your data is accessible locally only by you.

There's also significant developments in authentication, such as FIDO Alliance & similar standards that secure personal data via biometrics, PINs & passwords through a decentralized model, keeping data safely stored by you.

Mobile devices enrich our lives & a new era of trusted apps on trusted devices is quickly approaching. Even against the backdrop of rogue actors, a healthy degree of vigilance & upkeep can give peace of mind to enjoy the benefits of our connected world.

http://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/361632-mobile-devices-are-more-vulnerable-than-ever-but-you-can-defend

Jeffrey J. Bloom

What makes this clip so scary is the scenarios plausibility. Beginning with a spectacular press event where the miniature drone tech is unveiled & able to take out "the bad guy" using the target's age, sex, fitness, uniform & ethnicity.

Inevitably, the tech falls into the wrong hands & the video depicts an attack on the US Capitol building, with only politicians from one party targeted. Then the same bots are used to take out thousands of students worldwide, all of whom shared the same human rights video on social media.

"The weapons took away the expense, danger & risk of waging war," says the talking head in the clip, admitting "anyone" can now carry out such a strike.

https://www.sciencealert.com/chilling-drone-video-shows-a-disturbing-vision-of-an-ai-controlled-future