The Best Things We Bought in 2019

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/smarter-living/wirecutter/best-things-we-bought-in-2019.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 31, 2019 at 09:11PM

From a killer fly swatter to a family-worthy cargo bike, these are the things we bought this year that made our lives easier and a lot more fun.

GigaOm Analysts Share Their 2020 Predictions for Enterprise IT

Source: https://gigaom.com/2019/12/31/gigaom-analysts-share-their-2020-predictions-for-enterprise-it/
December 31, 2019 at 05:07PM

Here at GigaOm we’re looking at how leading-edge technologies impact the enterprise, and what organizations can do to gear up for the future. Here’s a take from several of our analysts about what to watch for in enterprise IT and beyond, this coming year and in years to come. 

From Kubernetesization to workforce automation, data center shrink and the rise of the architect, read on.

Andrew Brust, Big Data & Analytics

• “Kubernetesization” and Containerization of the Data Analytics Stack — both open source and commercial. To a large extent, this is one’s obvious. But it’s giving rise to something less so: a tendency to spin up clusters (be they for big data, data warehousing or machine learning) on a task-by-task basis. Call it extreme ephemeralism, if you’d like. It’s enabling a mentality of serverless everything. This architecture underlies the revamped Cloudera Data Platform, and it’s also being leveraged by Google for Spark on K8s on Cloud Data Proc. Ultimately, it’s enabling new workloads.
• Warehouse & Lake Converge, But in a Fragmented Fashion — We see this with SQL Server 2019 (its “Big Data Clusters” integrate Spark), Azure Synapse Analytics (which is the revamp of Azure SQL Data Warehouse and will also integrate Spark, as well as Azure Data Lake Store) and in the Redshift Federated Query and Parquet Export features AWS announced at re:Invent.  Everyone is trying to bring warehouse and lake together, and make them operate like two different interfaces on a common data store.  But everyone’s doing it their own way (in Microsoft’s case, they’re doing it two different ways). This divergence dulls the convergence that everyone’s aiming for.
• BI Goes Big Brand — Salesforce got Tableau, Google’s trying to close its acquisition of Looker and Microsoft’s got Power BI.  It’s getting harder to be an independent BI provider.  That’s probably why Qlik is building out its portfolio to be a comprehensive data analytics stack (including integration and data catalog) and not just BI. 
• AI Tries to Get Its Act Together, and Has a Long Way to Go — New improvements announced for SageMaker, including AutoPilot, are steps in the right direction. Likewise many of the new features in Azure Machine Learning.  But AI is still notebook-oriented and sloppy.  It’s trying to get the DevOps religion and integrate with software development stacks overall, but it hasn’t fully happened yet.  The need here is getting more acute by the week.

Stowe Boyd, Future of Work

• Workforce Automation — as distinct from back-office Robotic Process Automation (RPA), this is technology to automate rote, manual work, and maybe management work (like what middle managers do) in the not-too-distant future. 
• Work Platforms. — From Uber/Lyft (which have had such an impact on the transportation sector), to myriad others. Expect the range of platforms to expand across industries, both consumer-facing and within business. 
• Work Chat — Slack has led the charge in chat-based collaboration and communication but was mainly for techies and coastal elites. Now, Microsoft Teams is taking the simplicity and effectiveness of work chat mainstream. 

JP Morgenthal, Digital Transformation & Modernization

• Geopolitical & Market Forces — The US is heading into an election year with a President surrounded by controversy and who continues to levy tariffs against trading partners. Key financial analysts are predicting the bull market is slowing and will have a profound effect on the markets. Potentially, many businesses will panic and pull resources and attention from digital transformations. 
• Increased, Yet Misguided Use of Cloud/Mobile — The above will have an effect on consumption of cloud and mobile platforms and services. Many will forge forward with a cloud strategy still believing it will save them money, even though this has been thoroughly disproved time and again over the past decade. These failures will only further inhibit these businesses from being able to compete effectively.
• Technology-Driven Disruption — While the market will take a hit, money on the sidelines will continue to work: companies with products and offerings deemed disruptive will see big investments, as investors see the opportunity to unseat old-world monoliths. This will have a net effect of transforming the overall market landscape. Investments will be heavy in Artificial Intelligence, Digital Workers / Automation, consumer technologies, healthcare IT, and remote collaboration. Cloud will see benefits here as there will be a strong foundation for scaling in these areas.
• Quantum comes to Deep Learning — Quantum computing will also make major leaps in 2020 and we will start to see its impact on deep learning and forecasting.

Enrico Signoretti, Data Storage &Cloud Infrastructure

• Hybrid cloud is Still Considered as Another Silo, Alongside On-Prem & SaaS — Enterprise organizations want to manage their data in a better way and avoid silos. They still don’t know how (especially in the EU), nor do they understand the solutions available, their limitations, and their level of maturity. 
• Storage Sees a Major Trend Towards Data Management — Connected to the above, and as data storage is increasingly commoditized, the differentiator comes from how you can manage the data saved in these storage systems. 
• Investments Move Towards Edge Computing & Public Cloud, Shrinking Core Datacenters — This trend will stop sooner or later and we will see a balance emerge between the three, as data and applications become easier to move (for example based on Kubernetes plus adequate supporting infrastructure layers). It will take at least two years, but many vendors are already showing some very interesting developments.

Jon Collins, DevOps, Innovation & Governance

• DevOps Gets a Rebrand — No innovation philosophy lasts forever, and DevOps is showing its own weaknesses as a developer-centric idea centered on speed when enterprises need something balanced across stakeholder groups with value-driven innovation at its core. As the software development and operations industry matures, it too is looking for ways to meet the needs of organizations that are more complex and less able to change. Expect tooling to follow suit, encompassing broader stakeholders and an end-to-end view which better meets enterprise needs. 
• Containerization Trumps Serverlessness — The industry has only had to wait 35 years for this one, as distributed systems finally have sufficiently powerful networking infrastructure to deliver Yourdon and Constantine (et al)’s notions of software modularity. Or, in layperson’s terms, application chunks can exist anywhere and still talk to each other. Containerization, based on Kubernetes or otherwise, is a popular manifestation of such chunking: the need for code modules to be self-contained and location-independent overrides any “please run on our serverless platform” exclusivity. 
• Multi-Cloud Creates & Next Licensing Battle — The big cloud players have a fight on their hands and they know it. The competitor is unbranded access to commoditized compute and data storage resources, based on open and de facto standards, leveraging easy-to-shift chunks of innovation (see also: containers). Faced with the onslaught of write-once-run-anywhere, vendors have three weapons: differentiation through manageability (a good thing), data gravity (a moveable feast) and indeed, existing contracts and volume discounts. 
• Architects & Policy-Setters Become the New Kingmakers — Even as organizations continue to pivot towards technology-based innovation at scale, just doing it becomes less and less of a differentiator (example: all automotive manufacturers will have driverless cars, then what?). As a result, attention in DevOps and elsewhere will turn away from effectiveness (doing the right thing) and back to efficiency (doing things right), manifested in terms of architectural, process and governance excellence. 

California Wanted to Protect Uber Drivers. Now It May Hurt Freelancers.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/technology/california-freelance-gig-workers.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 31, 2019 at 01:00PM

A state act to protect part-timers at companies like Uber and Lyft takes effect on Wednesday. Some freelancers say it will limit their prospects.

Huawei Posts Solid Growth but Warns of Difficulties Ahead

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/business/huawei-revenue-growth.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 31, 2019 at 06:58AM

In a year-end note, a deputy chairman said the Chinese tech giant’s confrontation with the United States would hurt its prospects for 2020.

Uber and Postmates File Suit to Block California Freelancer Law

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/technology/uber-and-postmates-file-suit-to-block-california-freelancer-law.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 31, 2019 at 04:58AM

The ride-hailing company and the delivery start-up are seeking an injunction against the new law, which takes effect Jan. 1.

The 2019 Good Tech Awards

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/technology/the-2019-good-tech-awards.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 30, 2019 at 07:20PM

It’s true! Some tech companies had a positive social impact this year.

Randy Suess, Computer Bulletin Board Inventor, Dies at 74

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/technology/randy-suess-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 24, 2019 at 01:07AM

The messaging system that he and a friend created in 1978 was a forerunner of social media services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

What Does California’s New Data Privacy Law Mean? Nobody Agrees

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/technology/california-privacy-law.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 30, 2019 at 12:25AM

The statute was meant to standardize how companies disclose their consumer data-mining practices. So far, not so much.

Prime Anchor: An Amazon Warehouse Town Dreams of a Better Life

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/technology/amazon-kentucky.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 28, 2019 at 05:29AM

In Campbellsville, Ky., the tech giant’s influences abound. The profits, not so much.

The Week in Tech: What 5 Billion Means to Amazon

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/technology/amazon-billion-edit-submissions.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 05:00PM

The company gets that many daily submissions to edit descriptions and details about products for sale on its site. How does it keep up?

Blocked in U.S., Huawei Touts ‘Shared Values’ to Compete in Europe

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/world/europe/huawei-EU-5G-Europe.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 11:00AM

The Chinese tech giant is spending millions of dollars on a charm offensive in Brussels, hoping for a leading role in building 5G networks. It seems to be working.

The F.A.A. Wants to Start Tracking Drones’ Locations

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/business/drones-faa-tracking.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 06:42AM

A proposal would require most drones flying in American airspace to include technology that would allow the government to keep tabs on them.

Self-Checkout in France Sets Off Battle Over a Day of Rest

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/business/self-checkout-automation.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 03:14AM

Besieged by online rivals, retailers are staying open Sunday afternoons with automated cashiers. Critics see an invasion of American-style consumerism.

The Watch Is Smart, but It Can’t Replace Your Doctor

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/upshot/apple-watch-atrial-fibrillation.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 26, 2019 at 05:54PM

Apple has been advertising its watch’s ability to detect atrial fibrillation. The reality doesn’t quite live up to the promise.

Boeing Starliner Lands in New Mexico After Clock Error Prompts Early Return

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/science/boeing-starliner-landing.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 25, 2019 at 10:02PM

The new ride to orbit built for NASA and its astronauts returned to Earth after problems during its first trip to space on Friday.

Smashing the Finance Patriarchy With Memes

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/style/finance-memes.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 25, 2019 at 06:36PM

Wall Street wants you to stay ignorant. @MrsDowJones is here to teach us financial literacy.

Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Leaves Board, Severing Last Tie

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/technology/uber-travis-kalanick.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 25, 2019 at 04:48AM

He has sold more than $2 billion of his Uber shares and on Thursday will complete the sale of his remaining stake in the company.

Pentagon Warns Military Personnel Against At-Home DNA Tests

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/us/military-dna-tests.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 25, 2019 at 02:34AM

The tests, from companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry, have become popular holiday gifts, but the military is warning service members of risks to their careers.

Chuck Peddle Dies at 82; His $25 Chip Helped Start the PC Age

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/technology/chuck-peddle-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 24, 2019 at 10:52PM

His invention brought digital technology to a new breed of consumer devices and powered early Apple and Commodore computers.

Not Even ‘Star Wars’ Can Save This Year’s Box Office

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/movies/star-wars-box-office.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 24, 2019 at 05:57PM

In 2019, Hollywood put out a whopping 58 franchise films, including “The Rise of Skywalker,” released this weekend. Still, ticket sales dropped.

The Unforeseen Dangers of a Device That Curbs Drunken Driving

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/business/drunk-driving-interlock-crash.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 23, 2019 at 11:11PM

Ignition interlock devices are becoming ubiquitous. They can distract drivers and cause crashes.

What You’re Unwrapping When You Get a DNA Test for Christmas

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/science/dna-testing-kit-present.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 23, 2019 at 09:13PM

To what extent is giving a DNA test also a present for law enforcement?

What Does California’s New Data Privacy Law Mean? Nobody Agrees

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/technology/california-privacy-law.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 29, 2019 at 01:00PM

The statute was meant to standardize how companies disclose their consumer data-mining practices. So far, not so much.

Voices in AI – Episode 103: A Conversation with Ben Goertzel

Source: https://gigaom.com/2019/12/26/voices-in-ai-episode-103-a-conversation-with-ben-goertzel/
December 26, 2019 at 04:00PM

[voices_in_ai_byline]

About this Episode

On Episode 103 of Voices in AI, Byron Reese discusses AI with Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET, diving into the concepts of a master algorithm and AGI’s.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

Transcript Excerpt

Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, I’m Byron Reese. Today, my guest is Ben Goertzel. He is the CEO of SingularityNET, as well as the Chief Scientist over at Hanson Robotics. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Temple University. And he’s talking to us from Hong Kong right now where he lives. Welcome to the show Ben!

Ben Goertzel: Hey thanks for having me. I’m looking forward to our discussion.

The first question I always throw at people is: “What is intelligence?” And interestingly you have a definition of intelligence in your Wikipedia entry. That’s a first, but why don’t we just start with that: what is intelligence?

I actually spent a lot of time working on the mathematical formalization of a definition of intelligence early in my career and came up with something fairly crude which, to be honest, at this stage I’m no longer as enthused about as I was before. But I do think that that question opens up a lot of other interesting issues.

The way I came to think about intelligence early in my career was simply: achieving a broad variety of goals in a broad variety of environments. Or as I put it, the ability to achieve complex goals in complex environments. This tied in with what I later distinguish as AGI versus no AI. I introduced the whole notion of AGI and that term in 2004 or so. That has to do with an AGI being able to achieve a variety of different or complex goals in a variety of different types of scenarios, different than the narrow AIs that we have all around us that basically do one type of thing in one kind of context.

I still think that is a very valuable way to look at things, but I’ve drifted more into a systems theory perspective. I’ve been working with a guy named David (Weaver) Weinbaum who did a piece recently in the Free University of Brussels on the concept of open ended intelligence, which is more looking at intelligence, than just the process of exploration and information creation than those in the interaction with an environment. And in this open ended intelligence view, you’re really looking at intelligent systems and complex organizing systems and the creation of goals to be pursued, is part of what an intelligence system does, but isn’t necessarily the crux of it.

So I would say understanding what intelligence is, is an ongoing pursuit. And I think that’s okay. Like in biology the goal is to define what life is in ‘the once and for all’ formal sense, before you can do biology or an art, the goal isn’t to define what beauty is before you can proceed. These are sort of umbrella concepts which can then lead to a variety of different particular innovations and formalizations of what you do.

And yet I wonder, because you’re right, biologists don’t have a consensus definition for what life is or even death for that matter, you wonder at some level if maybe there’s no such thing as life. I mean like maybe it isn’t really… and so maybe you say that’s not really even a thing.

Well, this is that one of my favorite quotes of all time [from] former President Bill Clinton which is, “That all depends on what the meaning of IS is.”

There you go. Well let me ask you a question about goals, which you just brought up. I guess when we’re talking about machine intelligence or mechanical intelligence, let me ask point blank: is a compass’ goal to point to North? Or does it just happen to point to north? And if it isn’t it’s goal to point to North, what is the difference between what it does and what it wants to do?

The standard example used in resistance theory is the thermostat. The thermostat’s goal is to keep the temperature above a certain level and below a certain level or in a certain range and then in that sense the thermostat does have—you know it as a sensor, it has an actual mechanism that’s a very local control system connecting the two. So from the outside, it’s pretty hard not to call the thermostat a goal to a heating system, like a sensor or an actor and a decision making process in between.

Again the word “goal,” it’s a natural language concept that can be used for a lot of different things. I guess that some people have the idea that there are natural definitions of concepts that have profound and unique meaning. I sort of think that only exists in the mathematics domain where you say a definition of a real number is something natural and perfect because of the most beautiful theorems you can prove around it, but in the real world things are messy and there is room for different flavors of a concept.

I think from the view of the outside observer, the thermostat is pursuing a certain goal. And the compass may be also if you go down into the micro physics of it. On the other hand, an interesting point is that from its own point of view, the thermostat is not pursuing a goal, like the thermostat lacks a deliberative reflective model of itself either as a goal-achieving agent. To an outside observer, the thermostat is pursuing a goal.

Now for a human being, once you’re beyond the age of six or nine months or something, you are pursuing your goal relative to the observer, that is yourself. But you’re pursuing that goal—you have a sense of, and I think this gets at the crucial connection between reflection and meta thinking, self-observation and general intelligence because it’s the fact that we represent within ourselves, the fact that we are pursuing some goals, this is what allows us to change and adapt the goals as we grow and learn in a broadly purposeful and meaningful way. Like if a thermostat breaks, it’s not going to correct itself and go back to its original goal or something right? It’s just going to break, and it doesn’t even make a halting and flawed defense to understand what it’s doing and why, like we humans do.

So we could say that something has a goal if there’s some function which it’s systematically maximizing, in which case you can say of a heating or compass system that they do have a goal. You could say that it has a purpose if it is representing itself as the goal maximizing system and can manipulate its representation somehow. And that’s a little bit different, and then also we get to the difference between narrow AIs and AGIs. I mean AlphaGo has a goal of winning at Go, but it doesn’t know that Go is a game. It doesn’t know what winning is in any broad sense. So if you gave it a version of Go with like a hexagonal board and three different players or something, it doesn’t have the basis to adapt behaviors in this weird new context and like figure out what is the purpose of doing stuff in this weird new context because it’s not representing itself in relation to the Go game and the reward function in the way the person playing Go does.

If I’m playing Go, I’m much worse than AlphaGo, I’m even worse than say my oldest son who’s like a ‘one and done’ type of Go player. I’m way down on the hierarchy and I know that it’s a game manipulating little stones on the board by analogy to human warfare. I know how to watch the game between two people and that winning is done by counting stones and so forth. So being able to conceptualize my goal as a Go player in the broader context of my interaction with the world is really helpful when things go crazy and the world changes and the original detailed goals didn’t make any sense anymore, which has happened throughout my life as a human with astonishing regularity.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

[voices_in_ai_link_back]

Byron explores issues around artificial intelligence and conscious computers in his new book The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity.

Voices in AI – Episode 103: A Conversation with Ben Goertzel

Source: https://gigaom.com/2019/12/26/voices-in-ai-episode-103-a-conversation-with-ben-goertzel/
December 26, 2019 at 04:00PM

[voices_in_ai_byline]

About this Episode

On Episode 103 of Voices in AI, Byron Reese discusses AI with Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET, diving into the concepts of a master algorithm and AGI’s.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

Transcript Excerpt

Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, I’m Byron Reese. Today, my guest is Ben Goertzel. He is the CEO of SingularityNET, as well as the Chief Scientist over at Hanson Robotics. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Temple University. And he’s talking to us from Hong Kong right now where he lives. Welcome to the show Ben!

Ben Goertzel: Hey thanks for having me. I’m looking forward to our discussion.

The first question I always throw at people is: “What is intelligence?” And interestingly you have a definition of intelligence in your Wikipedia entry. That’s a first, but why don’t we just start with that: what is intelligence?

I actually spent a lot of time working on the mathematical formalization of a definition of intelligence early in my career and came up with something fairly crude which, to be honest, at this stage I’m no longer as enthused about as I was before. But I do think that that question opens up a lot of other interesting issues.

The way I came to think about intelligence early in my career was simply: achieving a broad variety of goals in a broad variety of environments. Or as I put it, the ability to achieve complex goals in complex environments. This tied in with what I later distinguish as AGI versus no AI. I introduced the whole notion of AGI and that term in 2004 or so. That has to do with an AGI being able to achieve a variety of different or complex goals in a variety of different types of scenarios, different than the narrow AIs that we have all around us that basically do one type of thing in one kind of context.

I still think that is a very valuable way to look at things, but I’ve drifted more into a systems theory perspective. I’ve been working with a guy named David (Weaver) Weinbaum who did a piece recently in the Free University of Brussels on the concept of open ended intelligence, which is more looking at intelligence, than just the process of exploration and information creation than those in the interaction with an environment. And in this open ended intelligence view, you’re really looking at intelligent systems and complex organizing systems and the creation of goals to be pursued, is part of what an intelligence system does, but isn’t necessarily the crux of it.

So I would say understanding what intelligence is, is an ongoing pursuit. And I think that’s okay. Like in biology the goal is to define what life is in ‘the once and for all’ formal sense, before you can do biology or an art, the goal isn’t to define what beauty is before you can proceed. These are sort of umbrella concepts which can then lead to a variety of different particular innovations and formalizations of what you do.

And yet I wonder, because you’re right, biologists don’t have a consensus definition for what life is or even death for that matter, you wonder at some level if maybe there’s no such thing as life. I mean like maybe it isn’t really… and so maybe you say that’s not really even a thing.

Well, this is that one of my favorite quotes of all time [from] former President Bill Clinton which is, “That all depends on what the meaning of IS is.”

There you go. Well let me ask you a question about goals, which you just brought up. I guess when we’re talking about machine intelligence or mechanical intelligence, let me ask point blank: is a compass’ goal to point to North? Or does it just happen to point to north? And if it isn’t it’s goal to point to North, what is the difference between what it does and what it wants to do?

The standard example used in resistance theory is the thermostat. The thermostat’s goal is to keep the temperature above a certain level and below a certain level or in a certain range and then in that sense the thermostat does have—you know it as a sensor, it has an actual mechanism that’s a very local control system connecting the two. So from the outside, it’s pretty hard not to call the thermostat a goal to a heating system, like a sensor or an actor and a decision making process in between.

Again the word “goal,” it’s a natural language concept that can be used for a lot of different things. I guess that some people have the idea that there are natural definitions of concepts that have profound and unique meaning. I sort of think that only exists in the mathematics domain where you say a definition of a real number is something natural and perfect because of the most beautiful theorems you can prove around it, but in the real world things are messy and there is room for different flavors of a concept.

I think from the view of the outside observer, the thermostat is pursuing a certain goal. And the compass may be also if you go down into the micro physics of it. On the other hand, an interesting point is that from its own point of view, the thermostat is not pursuing a goal, like the thermostat lacks a deliberative reflective model of itself either as a goal-achieving agent. To an outside observer, the thermostat is pursuing a goal.

Now for a human being, once you’re beyond the age of six or nine months or something, you are pursuing your goal relative to the observer, that is yourself. But you’re pursuing that goal—you have a sense of, and I think this gets at the crucial connection between reflection and meta thinking, self-observation and general intelligence because it’s the fact that we represent within ourselves, the fact that we are pursuing some goals, this is what allows us to change and adapt the goals as we grow and learn in a broadly purposeful and meaningful way. Like if a thermostat breaks, it’s not going to correct itself and go back to its original goal or something right? It’s just going to break, and it doesn’t even make a halting and flawed defense to understand what it’s doing and why, like we humans do.

So we could say that something has a goal if there’s some function which it’s systematically maximizing, in which case you can say of a heating or compass system that they do have a goal. You could say that it has a purpose if it is representing itself as the goal maximizing system and can manipulate its representation somehow. And that’s a little bit different, and then also we get to the difference between narrow AIs and AGIs. I mean AlphaGo has a goal of winning at Go, but it doesn’t know that Go is a game. It doesn’t know what winning is in any broad sense. So if you gave it a version of Go with like a hexagonal board and three different players or something, it doesn’t have the basis to adapt behaviors in this weird new context and like figure out what is the purpose of doing stuff in this weird new context because it’s not representing itself in relation to the Go game and the reward function in the way the person playing Go does.

If I’m playing Go, I’m much worse than AlphaGo, I’m even worse than say my oldest son who’s like a ‘one and done’ type of Go player. I’m way down on the hierarchy and I know that it’s a game manipulating little stones on the board by analogy to human warfare. I know how to watch the game between two people and that winning is done by counting stones and so forth. So being able to conceptualize my goal as a Go player in the broader context of my interaction with the world is really helpful when things go crazy and the world changes and the original detailed goals didn’t make any sense anymore, which has happened throughout my life as a human with astonishing regularity.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

[voices_in_ai_link_back]

Byron explores issues around artificial intelligence and conscious computers in his new book The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity.

Prime Anchor: An Amazon Warehouse Town Dreams of a Better Life

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/technology/amazon-kentucky.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 10:22PM

In Campbellsville, Ky., the tech giant’s influences abound. The profits, not so much.

The Week in Tech: What 5 Billion Means to Amazon

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/technology/amazon-billion-edit-submissions.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 05:00PM

The company gets that many daily submissions to edit descriptions and details about products for sale on its site. How does it keep up?

Blocked in U.S., Huawei Touts ‘Shared Values’ to Compete in Europe

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/world/europe/huawei-EU-5G-Europe.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 11:00AM

The Chinese tech giant is spending millions of dollars on a charm offensive in Brussels, hoping for a leading role in building 5G networks. It seems to be working.

The F.A.A. Wants to Start Tracking Drones’ Locations

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/business/drones-faa-tracking.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 27, 2019 at 06:42AM

A proposal would require most drones flying in American airspace to include technology that would allow the government to keep tabs on them.

Self-Checkout in France Sets Off Battle Over a Day of Rest

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/business/self-checkout-automation.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 26, 2019 at 04:56PM

Besieged by online rivals, retailers are staying open Sunday afternoons with automated cashiers. Critics see an invasion of American-style consumerism.

Voices in AI – Episode 103: A Conversation with Ben Goertzel

Source: https://gigaom.com/2019/12/26/voices-in-ai-episode-103-a-conversation-with-ben-goertzel/
December 26, 2019 at 04:00PM

[voices_in_ai_byline]

About this Episode

On Episode 103 of Voices in AI, Byron Reese discusses AI with Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET, diving into the concepts of a master algorithm and AGI’s.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

Transcript Excerpt

Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, I’m Byron Reese. Today, my guest is Ben Goertzel. He is the CEO of SingularityNET, as well as the Chief Scientist over at Hanson Robotics. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Temple University. And he’s talking to us from Hong Kong right now where he lives. Welcome to the show Ben!

Ben Goertzel: Hey thanks for having me. I’m looking forward to our discussion.

The first question I always throw at people is: “What is intelligence?” And interestingly you have a definition of intelligence in your Wikipedia entry. That’s a first, but why don’t we just start with that: what is intelligence?

I actually spent a lot of time working on the mathematical formalization of a definition of intelligence early in my career and came up with something fairly crude which, to be honest, at this stage I’m no longer as enthused about as I was before. But I do think that that question opens up a lot of other interesting issues.

The way I came to think about intelligence early in my career was simply: achieving a broad variety of goals in a broad variety of environments. Or as I put it, the ability to achieve complex goals in complex environments. This tied in with what I later distinguish as AGI versus no AI. I introduced the whole notion of AGI and that term in 2004 or so. That has to do with an AGI being able to achieve a variety of different or complex goals in a variety of different types of scenarios, different than the narrow AIs that we have all around us that basically do one type of thing in one kind of context.

I still think that is a very valuable way to look at things, but I’ve drifted more into a systems theory perspective. I’ve been working with a guy named David (Weaver) Weinbaum who did a piece recently in the Free University of Brussels on the concept of open ended intelligence, which is more looking at intelligence, than just the process of exploration and information creation than those in the interaction with an environment. And in this open ended intelligence view, you’re really looking at intelligent systems and complex organizing systems and the creation of goals to be pursued, is part of what an intelligence system does, but isn’t necessarily the crux of it.

So I would say understanding what intelligence is, is an ongoing pursuit. And I think that’s okay. Like in biology the goal is to define what life is in ‘the once and for all’ formal sense, before you can do biology or an art, the goal isn’t to define what beauty is before you can proceed. These are sort of umbrella concepts which can then lead to a variety of different particular innovations and formalizations of what you do.

And yet I wonder, because you’re right, biologists don’t have a consensus definition for what life is or even death for that matter, you wonder at some level if maybe there’s no such thing as life. I mean like maybe it isn’t really… and so maybe you say that’s not really even a thing.

Well, this is that one of my favorite quotes of all time [from] former President Bill Clinton which is, “That all depends on what the meaning of IS is.”

There you go. Well let me ask you a question about goals, which you just brought up. I guess when we’re talking about machine intelligence or mechanical intelligence, let me ask point blank: is a compass’ goal to point to North? Or does it just happen to point to north? And if it isn’t it’s goal to point to North, what is the difference between what it does and what it wants to do?

The standard example used in resistance theory is the thermostat. The thermostat’s goal is to keep the temperature above a certain level and below a certain level or in a certain range and then in that sense the thermostat does have—you know it as a sensor, it has an actual mechanism that’s a very local control system connecting the two. So from the outside, it’s pretty hard not to call the thermostat a goal to a heating system, like a sensor or an actor and a decision making process in between.

Again the word “goal,” it’s a natural language concept that can be used for a lot of different things. I guess that some people have the idea that there are natural definitions of concepts that have profound and unique meaning. I sort of think that only exists in the mathematics domain where you say a definition of a real number is something natural and perfect because of the most beautiful theorems you can prove around it, but in the real world things are messy and there is room for different flavors of a concept.

I think from the view of the outside observer, the thermostat is pursuing a certain goal. And the compass may be also if you go down into the micro physics of it. On the other hand, an interesting point is that from its own point of view, the thermostat is not pursuing a goal, like the thermostat lacks a deliberative reflective model of itself either as a goal-achieving agent. To an outside observer, the thermostat is pursuing a goal.

Now for a human being, once you’re beyond the age of six or nine months or something, you are pursuing your goal relative to the observer, that is yourself. But you’re pursuing that goal—you have a sense of, and I think this gets at the crucial connection between reflection and meta thinking, self-observation and general intelligence because it’s the fact that we represent within ourselves, the fact that we are pursuing some goals, this is what allows us to change and adapt the goals as we grow and learn in a broadly purposeful and meaningful way. Like if a thermostat breaks, it’s not going to correct itself and go back to its original goal or something right? It’s just going to break, and it doesn’t even make a halting and flawed defense to understand what it’s doing and why, like we humans do.

So we could say that something has a goal if there’s some function which it’s systematically maximizing, in which case you can say of a heating or compass system that they do have a goal. You could say that it has a purpose if it is representing itself as the goal maximizing system and can manipulate its representation somehow. And that’s a little bit different, and then also we get to the difference between narrow AIs and AGIs. I mean AlphaGo has a goal of winning at Go, but it doesn’t know that Go is a game. It doesn’t know what winning is in any broad sense. So if you gave it a version of Go with like a hexagonal board and three different players or something, it doesn’t have the basis to adapt behaviors in this weird new context and like figure out what is the purpose of doing stuff in this weird new context because it’s not representing itself in relation to the Go game and the reward function in the way the person playing Go does.

If I’m playing Go, I’m much worse than AlphaGo, I’m even worse than say my oldest son who’s like a ‘one and done’ type of Go player. I’m way down on the hierarchy and I know that it’s a game manipulating little stones on the board by analogy to human warfare. I know how to watch the game between two people and that winning is done by counting stones and so forth. So being able to conceptualize my goal as a Go player in the broader context of my interaction with the world is really helpful when things go crazy and the world changes and the original detailed goals didn’t make any sense anymore, which has happened throughout my life as a human with astonishing regularity.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

[voices_in_ai_link_back]

Byron explores issues around artificial intelligence and conscious computers in his new book The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity.

The Watch Is Smart, but It Can’t Replace Your Doctor

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/upshot/apple-watch-atrial-fibrillation.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 26, 2019 at 01:00PM

Apple has been advertising its watch’s ability to detect atrial fibrillation. The reality doesn’t quite live up to the promise.

Pentagon Warns Military Personnel Against At-Home DNA Tests

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/us/military-dna-tests.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 25, 2019 at 02:34AM

The tests, from companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry, have become popular holiday gifts, but the military is warning service members of risks to their careers.

Chuck Peddle Dies at 82; His $25 Chip Helped Start the PC Age

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/technology/chuck-peddle-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 24, 2019 at 10:52PM

His invention brought digital technology to a new breed of consumer devices and powered early Apple and Commodore computers.

Smashing the Finance Patriarchy With Memes

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/style/finance-memes.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 24, 2019 at 09:09PM

Wall Street wants you to stay ignorant. @MrsDowJones is here to teach us financial literacy.

Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Leaves Board, Severing Last Tie

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/technology/uber-travis-kalanick.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 24, 2019 at 07:00PM

He has sold more than $2 billion of his Uber shares and on Thursday will finalize the sale of his remaining stake in the company.

The Unforeseen Dangers of a Device That Curbs Drunken Driving

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/business/drunk-driving-interlock-crash.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 23, 2019 at 01:00PM

Ignition interlock devices are becoming ubiquitous. They can distract drivers and cause crashes.

Not Even ‘Star Wars’ Can Save This Year’s Box Office

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/movies/star-wars-box-office.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 22, 2019 at 11:39PM

In 2019, Hollywood put out a whopping 58 franchise films, including “The Rise of Skywalker,” released this weekend. Still, ticket sales dropped.

What You’re Unwrapping When You Get a DNA Test for Christmas

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/science/dna-testing-kit-present.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 22, 2019 at 07:13PM

To what extent is gifting a DNA test also a present for law enforcement?

No ‘Magic Bullets’ in the Fight Against Online Abuse, but ‘Spiders’ Help

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/us/hotlines-child-sexual-abuse.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 22, 2019 at 07:08PM

Nearly four dozen nonprofits around the world are dedicated to removing photos and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet. It’s a daunting task.

The Week in Tech: How Is Antitrust Enforcement Changing?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/technology/the-week-in-tech-how-is-antitrust-enforcement-changing.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 22, 2019 at 06:18PM

A reporter who has covered the tech industry for more than two decades explains how we may be entering a progressive era of antitrust.

Boeing Starliner Landing: What You Need to Know

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/science/boeing-starliner-landing.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 22, 2019 at 08:00AM

The new ride to orbit built for NASA is returning to Earth early after problems during its first trip to space on Friday.

Randy Suess, Computer Bulletin Board Inventor, Dies at 74

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/technology/randy-suess-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 21, 2019 at 02:40AM

The messaging system that he and a friend created in 1978 was a forerunner of social media services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Newsroom: eMarketer: Click and Collect Sales to Grow 55%

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/emarketer-click-and-collect-sales-to-grow-55/
December 19, 2019 at 07:01AM

US Click and Collect Buyers In 2019, click and collect ecommerce sales for the entire year will jump 54.9% to reach $36.54 billion. This year, there will be 128.9 million click and […]

At the Edge of the World, a New Battleground for the U.S. and China

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/technology/faroe-islands-huawei-china-us.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 20, 2019 at 08:40PM

The Faroe Islands have become perhaps the most unexpected place for the United States and China to tussle over the Chinese tech giant Huawei.

What to Expect From the Boeing Starliner Launch

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/science/boeing-starliner-launch.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 20, 2019 at 08:00AM

NASA and Boeing will conduct a test flight of a capsule that could soon carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

How a Top Antitrust Official Helped T-Mobile and Sprint Merge

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/technology/sprint-t-mobile-merger-antitrust-official.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 20, 2019 at 01:51AM

Text messages indicate that Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, worked behind the scenes to help the companies pull off a deal.

Many Facial-Recognition Systems Are Biased, Says U.S. Study

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/technology/facial-recognition-bias.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 20, 2019 at 01:47AM

Algorithms falsely identified African-American and Asian faces 10 to 100 times more than Caucasian faces, researchers for the National Institute of Standards and Technology found.

Prime Power: How Amazon Squeezes the Businesses Behind Its Store

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/technology/amazon-sellers.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 10:32PM

Twenty years ago, Amazon opened its storefront to anyone who wanted to sell something. Then it began demanding more out of them.

Where Are the Tech Zillionaires? San Francisco Faces the I.P.O. Fizzle

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/technology/tech-IPO-san-francisco.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 08:26PM

All those tech I.P.O.s this year that were supposed to make people megarich only made them rich-ish.

Science, Splendor and ‘Dresden Green’ to Impress a Sovereign

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/arts/design/making-marvels-exhibition-metropolitan-museum.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 06:00PM

Dozens of ingeniously crafted objects are on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the world’s fanciest hat pin (at 41 carats).

Bank of England Audio Leaked, Giving Some Traders an Edge

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/business/bank-of-england-audio.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 11:57AM

The British central bank says a supplier, without authorization, provided sound from news conferences ahead of the video feed.

Newsroom: UK: Time Spent with Digital Media to Surpass Time with Traditional Media in 2019

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/uk-time-spent-with-digital-media-to-surpass-time-with-traditional-media-in-2019/
December 18, 2019 at 07:01AM

Continued adoption of connected TV is driving growth of digital video   December 11, 2019 (London, UK) — This year, for the first time, UK adults spent more time with digital media than with traditional media. By the end […]

Newsroom: eMarketer Lowers Airbnb’s Share as Competition Heats Up

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/emarketer-lowers-airbnbs-share-as-competition-heats-up/
December 18, 2019 at 07:01AM

Share of US adult users will drop below 75% and continue declining December 18, 2019 (New York, NY) – Competition in the home-sharing space is becoming even more fierce.  While […]

There’s No Winter Break From ‘Publish or Perish’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/science/scientists-holiday-work.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 03:58AM

An analysis of submissions to two top journals showed that scientists in the U.S. were highly likely to be working during holidays.

Uber Settles Federal Investigation Into Workplace Culture

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/technology/uber-settles-eeoc-investigation-workplace-culture.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 02:10AM

The ride-hailing company “permitted a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation,” the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found.

Gadget of the Year: The Toaster Oven

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/technology/personaltech/gadget-of-year-toaster-oven.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 19, 2019 at 02:10AM

They keep getting smarter and more powerful. We compared an internet-connected toaster oven and an old-fashioned one side by side.

What We Learned About the Technology That Times Journalists Use

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/technology/personaltech/technology-times-journalists-use.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 10:51PM

After three years and more than 130 columns, the smartphone was tops. There were also some deliberate Luddites among us.

The Catastrophist’s 2019 Tech Gift Guide

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/style/gift-guide-tech.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 09:43PM

Because nothing is just a gadget anymore.

Newsroom: UK: Time Spent with Digital Media to Surpass Time with Traditional Media in 2019

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/uk-time-spent-with-digital-media-to-surpass-time-with-traditional-media-in-2019/
December 18, 2019 at 07:01AM

Continued adoption of connected TV is driving growth of digital video   December 11, 2019 (London, UK) — This year, for the first time, UK adults spent more time with digital media than with traditional media. By the end […]

Newsroom: eMarketer Lowers Airbnb’s Share as Competition Heats Up

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/emarketer-lowers-airbnbs-share-as-competition-heats-up/
December 18, 2019 at 07:01AM

Share of US adult users will drop below 75% and continue declining December 18, 2019 (New York, NY) – Competition in the home-sharing space is becoming even more fierce.  While […]

Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Underground

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/technology/fosta-sex-trafficking-law.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 07:58PM

A change in a law to hold tech platforms accountable had almost universal support in Congress last year. Now, some are revisiting their decision.

Verizon Outages Reported Nationwide

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/business/verizon-outages.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 05:56PM

Users reported widespread disruptions as they tried to make outgoing calls and text. The company said it had fixed a problem involving long-distance calls to landlines.

The Machines Are Learning, and So Are the Students

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/education/artificial-intelligence-tutors-teachers.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 01:00PM

Artificial intelligence is starting to take over repetitive tasks in classrooms, like grading, and is optimizing coursework and revolutionizing the preparation for college entrance exams.

Internet Giants, Defied by Bitcoin, Now See Its Tech as a Remedy

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/technology/facebook-twitter-bitcoin-blockchain.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 01:00PM

A decentralized internet was hailed as a way to dethrone Twitter and Facebook. But to the tech giants, the idea could unload some of their burdens.

Europe’s Cheops Satellite Will Try to Launch Again

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/science/cheops-satellite-launch.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 08:00AM

Follow the launch of the world’s newest orbiting telescope, which will search for habitable worlds.

A Surveillance Net Blankets China’s Cities, Giving Police Vast Powers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/technology/china-surveillance.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 05:57AM

The authorities can scan your phones, track your face and find out when you leave your home. One of the world’s biggest spying networks is aimed at regular people, and nobody can stop it.

Uber in Talks to Sell Its Food-Delivery Business in India

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/technology/uber-eats-sell-food-delivery-india.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 02:56AM

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, is paring back the company’s money-losing businesses.

Online Sex Trafficking Law Shows Difficulty of Reining In Big Tech

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/technology/online-sex-trafficking-law-big-tech.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 01:23AM

A change in a law to hold tech platforms accountable had almost universal support in Congress last year. Now, some are revisiting their decision.

Online Sex Trafficking Law Shows Difficulty of Reining In Big Tech

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/technology/online-sex-trafficking-law-big-tech.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 18, 2019 at 01:23AM

A change in a law to hold tech platforms accountable had almost universal support in Congress last year. Now, some are revisiting their decision.

India Adopts the Tactic of Authoritarians: Shutting Down the Internet

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/world/asia/india-internet-modi-protests.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 09:00PM

India, the world’s largest democracy, shuts down the internet far more than any other country. This week, 60 million people — roughly the size of France — have no service.

A Rare Russian Tech Triumph, a Police Raid and a Backlash

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/world/europe/russia-tech-nginx.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 08:34PM

A case linked to a $670 million acquisition shows that there may be a limit to the authorities’ abuse of law enforcement to advance corrupt business interests.

What Do Gen Z Shoppers Want? A Cute, Cheap Outfit That Looks Great on Instagram

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/style/fast-fashion-gen-z.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 06:30PM

Three young women shoppers in three countries talk about what they buy, where they buy it and why.

Unable to Retrieve Money, Cryptocurrency Investors Want Dead Executive Exhumed

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/business/gerald-cotten-death-cryptocurrency.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 04:25PM

Gerald W. Cotten, the C.E.O. of Quadriga CX, was the only one who knew crucial passwords, the company said. When he died, users could not recover millions in their accounts. Now they want proof he is actually dead.

Europe’s Cheops Satellite Will Scour Space for Habitable Planets

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/science/cheops-satellite-exoplanet.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 08:00AM

Follow the launch of the world’s newest orbiting telescope.

Uber in Talks to Sell Its Food-Delivery Business in India

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/technology/uber-eats-sell-food-delivery-india.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 17, 2019 at 02:56AM

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, is paring back the company’s money-losing businesses.

This Is Not About How Young People Use Tech

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/technology/personaltech/internet-culture.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 11, 2019 at 08:57PM

Taylor Lorenz, who writes about internet culture, explains how she keeps her finger on the pulse.

2020 Campaigns Throw Their Hands Up on Disinformation

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/2020-campaigns-disinformation.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 16, 2019 at 12:53AM

Few politicians have teams to spot false statements about them online, or to fight back before it spreads.

Gift Ideas for Car Lovers or Commuters

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/business/car-gifts.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 11, 2019 at 02:00PM

Hot Wheels big and small, smartphone holders, night-vision aids and more.

Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/amazon-aws-cloud-competition.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 15, 2019 at 01:30PM

Software start-ups have a phrase for what Amazon is doing to them: ‘strip-mining’ them of their innovations.

Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/prime-leverage-amazon-power-cloud-aws.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 15, 2019 at 01:30PM

Software start-ups have a phrase for what Amazon is doing to them: ‘strip-mining’ them of their innovations.

To Prevent Deadly Infections, F.D.A. Approves the First Disposable ‘Scope’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/health/disposable-duodenoscopes-infections.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 14, 2019 at 02:13AM

Reusable duodenoscopes infected patients in a series of notorious outbreaks. Now there’s a disposable model to be used just once.

A.I. Is Making It Easier to Kill (You). Here’s How.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000006082083/lethal-autonomous-weapons.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 14, 2019 at 01:40AM

A tank that drives itself. A drone that picks its own targets. A machine gun with facial-recognition software. Sound like science fiction? Weapons powered by artificial intelligence are already here.

Tony Brooker, Pioneer of Computer Programming, Dies at 94

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/technology/tony-brooker-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 14, 2019 at 12:52AM

After meeting Alan Turing, Mr. Brooker went to work at the University of Manchester and wrote the programming language for the first commercial computer.

‘We Trusted You’: WeWork’s Chair on Adam Neumann and the Future

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/business/wework-marcelo-claure.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 13, 2019 at 11:18PM

After a bailout by SoftBank, the shared office space company plans to sell customers more services and renegotiate leases with landlords.

The Week in Tech: Countdown to the California Consumer Privacy Act

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/technology/california-consumer-privacy-act-ccpa.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 13, 2019 at 05:00PM

Companies are figuring out how to deal with a new law that gives individuals the right to see, delete and stop the sale of the personal information about them.

She Accused a Tech Billionaire of Rape. The Chinese Internet Turned Against Her.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/business/liu-jingyao-interview-richard-liu.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 13, 2019 at 01:00PM

Liu Jingyao, a college student, describes what it’s like to be slut-shamed by 800 million people.

I Tested 13 Bidets. I’m a Convert.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/smarter-living/wirecutter/i-tested-13-bidets-im-a-convert.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 07, 2019 at 01:30AM

The difference between a bidet and a washlet, and why you might love one, too.

Killer Robots Aren’t Regulated. Yet.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/technology/autonomous-weapons-video.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 13, 2019 at 01:00PM

“Killing in the Age of Algorithms” is a New York Times documentary examining the future of artificial intelligence and warfare.

F.T.C. Is Said to Consider an Injunction Against Facebook

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/technology/ftc-facebook-injunction.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
December 13, 2019 at 02:22AM

Such an action would seek to block a technical integration of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, people familiar with the matter said.

Voices in AI – Episode 102: A Conversation with Steve Durbin

Source: https://gigaom.com/2019/12/12/voices-in-ai-episode-102-a-conversation-with-steve-durbin/
December 12, 2019 at 04:00PM

[voices_in_ai_byline]

About this Episode

On Episode 102 of Voices in AI, Byron Reese discusses security and its impact on AI as a whole with Managing Director Steve Durbin of the Information Security Forum.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

Transcript Excerpt

Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, and I’m Byron Reese. Today our guest is Steve Durbin. He is the managing director of the ISF, the Information Security Forum. His main areas of focus include strategy, information technology, cybersecurity and the emerging security threat landscape across the corporate and personal environment. He runs his company as the managing director, which he has been doing for almost a decade. Welcome to the show, Steve.

Steve Durbin: Nice to be here, Byron. Thanks for having me.

I always like to get our bearings real quickly. I normally ask what artificial intelligence is, but I’m going to give you a different kind of “getting our bearings.” It seems that through the history of code makers and code breakers it’s been unclear who has the upper hand. And maybe it goes back and forth. Right now, when you look at the security landscape of the technologies out there, is it easier to be white hat or black hat?

I think that I’d have to say it’s easier to be black hat. Why do I say that? I think that if we look at all the technology that’s available, then we have to bear in mind that for every white hat there are probably at least two black hats that are making use of that very same technology, and they don’t have some of the challenges that the white hats have. So, they’re not as restricted in things like corporate governance, in things like budgets, in things like where they might practice and ply their trade. That’s why I’m saying that for the time being anyway that the black hats probably have the upper hand.

That’s a pretty provocative statement to say there are twice as many people trying to break security as trying to enforce it. I assume that’s a gut feeling, but break that open a little bit… Where are all these bad guys?

Yeah, I think the major shift, Byron, has come about with crime as a service. So, if you roll it back to the good old bad days of probably only about three to five years ago, then you needed to have a certain amount of skill to be a black hat, to be a bad guy. Crime as a service then became very much more readily available, particularly on the dark web. And now you don’t need to have some of that skill. You can, for instance, purchase denial of service attacks. They do come with 24-hour support. They do come with a hotline, provided you pay your bill… then you can pretty much try these things out.

And so, one of the concerns I think for everybody is that it isn’t just the professional hacker, the professional black hat. We’ve also got now some amateurs that are plying their trade, and they’re really starting to make use of some of these things. So that’s why I’m saying that the number of the bad guys outweighs the good.

The other reason, of course, is that we know that there is a skill shortage – in terms of the good guys trying to find the right level of skill set, the right level of capability, and attracting them to your organization. That is proving to be a very difficult challenge to overcome.

So, geographically… I’m really intrigued by this. There are these companies I could just order up a denial of service that I can… from the way you described it, they have better tech support than some of the companies I call to try to get support. Are they concentrated geographically or dispersed throughout the world?

Well, one of the challenges for law enforcement of course is: How do you find where these people are? And the Internet has provided a means of bouncing traffic across multiple servers, across multiple geographies, that make it exceptionally difficult for law enforcement to catch these people. And therein lies one of the challenges. Even if you can track back crime that perhaps is being committed in, let’s say, Denmark… and you know that the perpetrator is sitting in the Ukraine, being able to extradite that individual and actually nail them down is very very difficult. And that’s just one of the challenges.

This really goes back to the point I was making about technology: Whilst advancing, whilst providing a lot of opportunities for the good guys, it is also being used to the same extent by the bad guys.

When you read about these breaches where 50 million people’s credentials were stolen, and 100 million credit cards, and 60 million Social Security numbers and these staggering numbers… why isn’t the world awash in more identity theft than it seems it is? We know credit cards still work. Right? My credit card fees when I process a credit card are 2.25 percent. I have credit cards that give me 2 percent cash back. Somehow my credit card company is living off half a point, which tells me there either is not enough fraud or they’re not bearing the cost of it. All these numbers are small, but why don’t we have this apocalypse? Why doesn’t that crash the financial system… at least the retail financial system?

I think that’s a really good question, and I think the answer to that is that we should never underestimate the amount of investment, the amount of skill the financial services organizations in particular have deployed in terms of monitoring what is happening – in terms of credit card transactions, being able to use systems to intelligently determine whether it’s you, whether it’s me, or whether it’s a third party that is using the credit card, and to stop some of these things before they incur significant losses.

I think one of the other things that is going on in this space is encryption. That is making life still difficult for people who’ve stolen the information… to un-encrypt them unless they happen to have gotten the keys. In most cases that isn’t happening.

So, there are some checks and balances in there that mean that even though we’re seeing a lot of losses of really valuable information, it isn’t being used at a fairly exponential rate to bankrupt organizations. And so I think that we have to give a little bit of credit to the financial services organizations in particular – because they’ve been the targets for quite some while now, because let’s face it that’s where the money is – [and to the way in which] they have been implementing systems in terms of fraud detection in particular and client notification and so on… and indeed collaboration amongst themselves to share details of the attacks and so on… We need to give them a little bit more credit in that space, I think.

So if I’m a black hat person, just a lone person, but I’m very talented and I live in a country where it would be hard to get at me, what is the lowest thing… the easiest thing to do to try to make money? Is it phishing scams? Is it trying to just get a couple of people’s information and use it? Where do you see the most activity occurring right now?

I think the sort of individual that you’re talking about is… I would describe as the “start out” black hat. What they’re really trying to do is to see whether they can run a number of phishing scams. Those are relatively easy to do. They’re relatively cost-effective in terms of the amount of money required to purchase some of those personal details. It’s a small number of dollars. We’re not talking massive amounts at all. If you send out enough of these, you will get some responses that will more than adequately cover your costs. So that for me is the “start out” guy.

The bigger area of concern – and this is really highlighted by people like Interpol for instance in their upcoming threat report that recently came out – is around the way in which ransomware is becoming much more of a targeting tool. So, looking at how you can really go after specific individuals or specific organizations with sophisticated ransomware, which certainly law enforcement is concerned about… To do that, of course, you need to be very much more sophisticated from a black hat point of view. We’re not talking about the rank amateur who is just starting out here. We are talking about people who’ve been doing it for quite some while. And if we go on from there, then we move into the nation state environment, where you have some very highly sophisticated cyber criminals, who are looking to do everything from steal research and development to potentially attack critical infrastructure.

I certainly want to come back there, because that’s a pretty exciting thing. But before we get there, let’s talk about ransomware for a minute. I remember it wasn’t long ago where a group of hospitals were hit, under the theory that they’re going to have to pay. Right? Like quickly, because lives were threatened. What percentage of things like that does the general public hear about? Or is the incentive for people who must pay, generally speaking, to keep it very quiet, pay and not mention it?

I think there is always going to be an incentive – particularly if the information is critical – for you to be tempted to pay. Particularly if the amount that’s being asked for isn’t debilitating from an organizational standpoint. There are very few organizations out there that can really afford the disruption of a full-blown ransomware attack and not respond to it in some way shape or form. I mean there are a number that were hit by the NotPetya, for instance, who did just replace their entire infrastructure. If you think about that, for a large multinational… the amount of time, resources, money that’s required to do all of that… very few organizations can do that. And you do have, particularly if we look at say the healthcare space, hospitals, organizations for which the primary business is patient care. It’s about looking after you and me when we need it the most. And technology is a means of facilitating that. And so, I think that there is always going to be a temptation if the price is right to pay and move on.

But I come down on the same side as law enforcement on that one. That probably isn’t the way to go… even though tempting. Because what you’re doing is, you’re sending a signal that says we do pay, we do reward blackmail of this nature. [It’s] very hard though if all your systems are on the floor and you’ve got a hospital full of people and you must revert to pen and paper. How long are you going to be able to do that? How long is that going to be sustainable for your business? So, I don’t think it’s an easy thing to answer or to recommend, but obviously you have to be aware that if you do pay once there is a good chance that the people may come back and ask for more at a later point in time. And that’s just something you need to be aware of.

You mentioned encryption was still strong, that encrypted messages are still hard to break. And I guess that works in reverse. When ransomware essentially encrypts somebody’s systems, that’s really hard… You say: “We don’t pay.” But you don’t say, I’m assuming: “Don’t pay, we have a way for you to get out from under it without paying.” Is that correct?

I think in some cases there may be a way out from under it without paying, but in the majority that is not the way to go. So, you are having to effectively write off your current dataset, and this really leads to the importance of planning for that day. We talk a lot at the ISF about planning for cyber resilience. It isn’t just about hoping for the best. It’s about assuming that one day something is going to happen. You’re going to be breached. You’re going to be attacked with a ransomware attack, whatever it might be. You’re going to have to rely on the backup plan. You must make sure it is comprehensive. You must make sure you have rehearsed it. And you hope that day will never come.

But the loss of data – if you are regularly backing up, keeping it separate and following a good approach to cyber security hygiene – means that you can get your business back up and running, albeit you will have lost a significant amount of data. But you won’t have lost everything, so you will be able to recover to a certain extent. The importance of making sure that you’ve got the right processes, policies and procedures in place really can’t be underestimated.

In the U.S., are companies required to disclose when they’re breached, or do they do that as good public relations… or do they do it at all?

There has been a bit of a change in the U.S. If I was talking to you probably five years ago, maybe a little bit more, then I was hearing certainly from legal firms that were advising clients who had been breached. The clients were not taking the advice. They weren’t notifying, even though they knew they had to in certain states.

I think that the world has moved on. We now have a much more stringent set of regulations in certain areas. You mentioned healthcare earlier. That is certainly there. If we look at personal identifiable information as it relates to European citizens for instance… the General Data Protection Regulation, that has a global reach. We look at some of the more recent laws that have been passed in California, for instance. So, I think the world is, as I say, moving on.

I do think we will get to a place rightly or wrongly where we will have much tighter regulation, where we will be required as organizations to report breaches within reasonable periods of time. In the European Union that happens to be 72 hours. Now we can argue whether that’s a good number or a bad number. But it’s clear what you have to do. And I think that is where we’re headed generally in terms of breach reporting.

Why is that? Well I think that there is a gradual growing concern amongst the public, amongst individuals, amongst other organizations in the supply chains for instance, that we need to have this information. We need to know that our data has been compromised or lost so that we can do something about it. At a personal level, simple things like changing passwords, and the sooner you can do that the better. And that’s just one of the drivers that are out there.

I chatted with a fella… and this has to be ten years ago, so perhaps it’s outdated. We were talking about DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, and his company mitigated against them. When you had one, they got you out from under it. I asked, “How do you do that?” And he said, “Well, unfortunately, we break the law. We wish we didn’t. But we go out and attack all the machines that are attacking the server in question.” He said the law just isn’t up-to-date enough for that to be something that legally we’re allowed to do. But, of course, we’re deflecting an attack. So, it’s kind of all we can do. (A) is that still how it’s done? and (B) would that still be illegal?

“Hack back.” Yeah, you must have a pretty high degree of sophistication to be able to do that. That is not something most organizations can do. We are seeing a lot of discussion and saber rattling, if you like, in that particular space from certain governments here in the United States. That is certainly the case in the United Kingdom, so it’s similar as well. But that’s at the government level. At the organizational level, you will have to rely on a third party that has that capability. And I think that wherever you happen to be in the world, there are different views that are taken as to the legality of that, and certainly whether the action is viewed as being defensive or whether it is something else. It’s a very very complex area. It’s not one that you should be going into, I would say, unless you really understand what you’re up to. And, yes, you would need to have some sophisticated expertise on your side in order to do that effectively and make sure that you weren’t making the matter worse.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

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