Reflecting on APAC Data Protection and Cyber-security Highlights for 2019 (and what lies ahead!) – Data Protection Report

2019 saw continued growth and change in data protection and cyber-security across the Asia-Pacific. Following the implementation of the GDPR in May, 2018, many jurisdictions moved to review and strengthen existing data privacy and cyber-security laws. In addition, 2019 saw regulators publishing findings in respect of some of the largest data incidents of 2018. We have set out below the key highlights of the year and what to look out for in 2020.

Singapores Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) imposed the highest fines to date in respect of a cyber-attack on SingHealths patient database system affecting 1.5 million patients. SingHealth was fined S$250,000 as the data controller, and its contractor was fined S$750,000 for failing to take adequate security measures to protect personal data in its possession.

Japan

The European Commission adopted its adequacy decision in respect of Japan, finding that Japan provides a comparable level of protection of personal data to that in the European Union. This decision enables personal data to flow freely between the two jurisdictions without the need for additional safeguards.

Vietnam

Vietnams Law on Cybersecurity came into effect giving authorities greater power to investigate users of online content and censor content published online. Data localisation requirements are also imposed on foreign service providers.

Taiwan

Taiwans Information and Communication Security Management Act came into effect introducing the regulation of information and communication security management and cyber-security.

Chinas Draft of the Information Security Technology Personal Information Security Specification was issued for public comment. The draft Specification updates the earlier Specification which came into effect on 1 May, 2018 and proposes further requirements in respect of personal data protection including the right to be forgotten and the right to portability. As at the date of this article, the draft Specification has been further revised but not yet been finalised.

China

As at the date of this article, both draft Measures are yet to be finalised and there is no definitive timeline by which the final version of theMeasureswill be issued and implemented.

Singapore

Singapores PDPC released a consultation paper to seek feedback on proposed amendments to the Singapores Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) including introducing data portability and data innovation provisions. The proposed data portability provisions will give individuals more control over their personal data while the data innovation provisions make clear that organisations will be able to use personal data for appropriate business purposes without consent.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lankas Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technologypublished the Cyber Security Bill, 2019. This Bill looks to protect vital information, essential services and critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks and proposes establishing a Cyber Security Agency, Computer Emergency Readiness Team and a National Cyber Security Operations Centre. Public consultations in respect of the Bill are still ongoing.

Hong Kongs Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data served an enforcement notice in respect of a data incident resulting in unauthorised access to the personal data of approximately 9.4 million individuals.

China

Chinas Draft Measures on Security Assessment of Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Information were issued for public comment. The draft Measures lay down stricter requirements in relation to cross-border transfers of personal data with the intention to better safeguard internet users rights, public interests and national security. As at the date of this article, the draft Measures have not yet been finalised.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lankas Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technologypublished the Data Protection Bill, 2019, which, if enacted, will be Sri Lankas first specific data privacy regime. The aim of this Bill is to protect personal data, enhance consumer confidence and ensure the growth of Sri Lankas digital democracy and innovation. Public consultations in respect of the Bill are still ongoing.

Chinas revised Draft Cryptography Law was introduced for public comment. The draft Law lays down a number of general requirements in relation to cryptography classification, usage, promotion, and protection. The draft Law also introduces specific requirements for certain Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) operators to use cryptography products or services. The final Law was promulgated on 26 October 2019 and took effect on 1 January 2020.

New Zealands Bill amending the Privacy Act had its second reading in parliament. The Bill proposes stronger powers for the Privacy Commissioner, mandatory breach notifications and increased fines. The Bill is likely to come into force in 2020.

Singapores PDPC released a new Guide to Notification under the PDPA which contains information and examples on good practices which organisations may adopt when notifying individuals about personal data protection policies and practices. The Guide is a predecessor to impending amendments to Singapores PDPA to introduce a mandatory data breach notification regime in Singapore.

Singapores PDPC released a new chapter on cloud services to the Advisory Guidelines to provide clarity on the responsibilities of organisations using cloud services to process personal data in the cloud, as well as the responsibilities of cloud service providers when processing personal data on behalf and for the purposes of organisations.

Japans data protection authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission, published an outline of proposed amendments to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. The proposed amendments include extending the rights of individuals in respect of personal data that has been provided to third parties, mandatory breach reporting, and strengthening regulations relating to cross-border transfers. The draft bill is expected to be published in early 2020.

Indias revised Draft Personal Data Protection Act, 2019 was published. The Draft is the subject of much discussion as, while it reflects many themes and safeguards present in the GDPR including the right to data portability and the right to be forgotten, it also permits the government to have an unfettered access to protected personal data in certain circumstances, including for national security purposes.

Reflecting the developments in 2019, the type and level of activity show that the Asia-Pacific region is not only dynamic in terms of changes to data protection laws but it also demonstrates the different stages the various jurisdictions are at in terms of their data privacy and cyber-security regimes. Some, like Sri Lanka, are at the beginning of the journey while other regimes, like Hong Kong, have been in place since before the widespread use of the internet. However, despite these differences, the common denominators for countries in this region are that they are implementing and strengthening data privacy and cyber-security regimes and aligning them with international norms.

2020 is already shaping up to be an important year in terms of developments, with Hong Kong leading the way. Earlier this week, Hong Kongs Panel on Constitutional Affairs released a discussion paper seeking views on proposed changes to Hong Kongs long standing data protection law, the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO). When the PDPO was first implemented in 1995, no one could have imagined the data driven society and social media ecosystem we live in today nor the challenges that this would bring. The changes to the PDPO proposed in the discussion paper look to address some of these issues as well as introducing mandatory breach notifications, revenue based fines and bringing Hong Kongs regime more in line with international trends. For more information on the discussion paper, please read our recent article https://www.dataprotectionreport.com/2020/01/consultation-paper-published-on-hong-kongs-data-protection-law/.

In addition to the developments in Hong Kong, we are looking forward to watching how data protection law evolves throughout 2020 as countries in the Asia-Pacific region continue to review, develop and strengthen their data privacy and cyber-security regimes, and keeping you updated along the way.

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Google CEO: ‘Artificial intelligence needs to be regulated’ | TheHill – The Hill

Google CEO Sundar Pichaiis calling for governments around the world to regulate artificial intelligence, saying the sensitive technology should not be used to "support mass surveillance or violate human rights."

However, Pichai the top executive at Google as well as its parent company Alphabet also argued that governments should not go too far as they work to rein in high-stakes technologies like facial recognition and self-driving vehicles.

His speech inEurope and companion op-edcome as Europe weighs newethics rules for artificial intelligence and the White House urges a light-touch approach to regulating technology.

"There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated," Pichai wrote in theFinancial Times. "It is too important not to. The only question is how to approach it."

Since 2018 Google has touted its AI principles as a potential framework for government regulation. The guidelines urge tech companies to ensure artificial intelligence technologies incorporateprivacy features, contribute to the greater social good and do not reflect "unfair" human biases.

Critics have pushed back onthe tech industry's stated support for AI regulation,claiming the companies are trying to dictate the terms of regulation in their own favor.

"Sensible regulation must also take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms, especially in high-risk areas, with social opportunities," Pichai wrote.

Governments around the world have found themselves behind the curve as artificial intelligence advances at lightning speed, opening up new frontiers for potential regulation. Several cities in the U.S. have taken the lead by imposing all-out bans on facial recognition technology,which oftenmisidentifies people of color at higher rates.

Pichai has thrown his support behind a temporary ban onfacial recognition technology, which he says can be used for "nefarious" purposes.

"I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and give a framework for it, Pichai said at a conference in Brussels this week.It can be immediate, but maybe theres a waiting period before we really think about how its being used. ... Its up to governments to chart the course.

Microsoft has also released its own ideas around how to regulatefacial recognition tech, and says it abides by a strict set of AI ethics standards.

In 2018, Pichai spent his speech in Davos, Switzerland, toutingthe enormous potential of artificial intelligence, presenting a rosier view of the technologybefore it experienced an intense backlash over the past several years.

Now, as Europe and the U.S. creep closer to instituting rules around many of the products that Google creates, Pichai is raising his voice around what he sees as the best approach to AI.

"Googles role starts with recognizing the need for a principled and regulated approach to applying AI, but it doesnt end there," Pichai wrote. "We want to be a helpful and engaged partner to regulators as they grapple with the inevitable tensions and trade-offs. We offer our expertise, experience and tools as we navigate these issues together."

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Sonasoft (SSFT) Selected as Artificial Intelligence (AI) Solution to Power New AI Marketing Platform by Cognitive ROI – GlobeNewswire

SAN JOSE, CA, Jan. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE Sonasoft Corp. (OTCQB: SSFT), a leader in innovative artificial intelligence (AI) and data management solutions, today announced that its artificial intelligence solution, NuGene, was selected to power a new AI marketing platform by Cognitive ROI. This marketing ROI tool leverages the unique capabilities of NuGene to deliver marketing ROI improvements of 20-30%.

Marketing is critical to the success of many businesses. But marketing is also somewhat of an art that is hard to analyze. Understanding where to spend your money on the maximum return is essential. This is incredibly hard to do, even at a macro-scale. But what if you could predict exactly which channels will perform best?

Cognitive ROI uses Sonasofts NuGene AI platform to create POEM. POEM (from the acronym for plan, optimize, execute, and measure) allows you to model your marketing ROI based on past performance. It uses Sonasofts advanced AI to incorporate historical data, current trends, and expert knowledge of the market.

POEMs marketing planning module allows you to determine the best marketing mix to achieve the desired ROI for a given investment. It allows you to drill right down to the specific channel and perform what if analysis to see the impact of specific spending decisions.

POEM is unique because it leverages NuGene from Sonasoft. It couples this with marketing-specific data models and human expertise. The result is it is consistently able to outperform more traditional AI solutions for marketing ROI.

NuGene goes further than traditional machine learning analysis of data and tests all correlations to find the ones with the strongest causation, resulting in models that are more robust and less biased, said Ankur Dinesh, Sonasofts Chief of Artificial Intelligence.

Using NuGene, POEM has transformed marketing from an art to a science, said founder and CEO Bharath Gaddam. By pooling data from external resources like Nielsen and Google Ads, NuGene equips POEM to dynamically update models to reflect real-time changes in the market.

About Sonasoft

Based in Silicon Valley since 2003 Sonasoft is a public company (SSFT) providing solutions that create significant competitive advantages from data, the most valuable corporate asset in the digital economy. Sonasofts artificial intelligence solution and software capabilities harness data to enable businesses to accelerate and improve decision making, increase operational efficiency, and automate critical processes.

For more information about Sonasoft, please visit:

https://www.sonasoft.com

For more information about Sonasofts Artificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions, please visit:

https://www.sonasoft.com/products/artificial-intelligence-ai/

For investor-specific information, please visit:

https://www.sonasoft.com/investors/

Forward-looking Statements

This release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company, its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) the Companys financing plans; (ii) trends affecting the Companys financial condition or results of operations; (iii) the Companys growth strategy and operating strategy; and (iv) the declaration and payment of dividends. The words may, would, will, expect, estimate, anticipate, believe, intend, and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

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Artificial Intelligence is Helping You to be a Better Leader – Analytics Insight

Decision-making stays one of the definitive tests for leadership in new entrepreneurs. Indeed, even experienced pioneers who have a reputation of sound decision-making have, sooner or later, settled on a radically poor decision that shook their reputation.

As the discussion about AI guarantees an extreme change of the company, leaders are particularly inquisitive to know whether it will make it simpler for them. While a lot of them are excited, some of them dont need decision-making made simpler. Their ability to settle on sound decisions without complex innovation is the very foundation of their reputation for being acceptable leaders.

The principal crucial reality about AI is that you dont know early what the data will uncover. By its very nature, AI is an act of pure trust, similarly as embracing your ignorance and radical reframing seem to be. Furthermore, such as learning to let go, tuning in to AI can assist you with finding truly novel, troublesome insights in astounding and unexpected places. A second reality about AI is that it makes time and space to think by separating the signal from the noise. You let the algorithms free on a vast landscape of data, and they report back only what you have to know and when you have to know it.

From the perspective of leaders, AI can take general inquiries and convey data-driven answers, pin-pointing areas of focus and producing attainable solutions. For instance, a broad question to a data-analytics team with respect to efficiency can be replied via training algorithms on any number of data sources, from financial to internal communications. They can perceive and decipher patterns and trends that are regularly concealed to a human eye.

Letting the AI team follow a course and not a goal acquires results and answers not influenced by personal beliefs or bias with respect to the organization. This implies totally new solutions. Artificial intelligence technology can perceive when levels of communications between teams are problematic, or when teams are spending an excessively long time on specific assignments. Outfitted with this information, leaders can settle on decisions that result in progressively firm teams and an increasingly effective organization.

Artificial intelligence can be a huge help to the leader whos trying to turn out to be inwardly agile and foster creative approaches to deal with change. At the point when a CEO puts AI puts to work on the hardest and most complex vital challenges, the individual in question must depend on a similar set of practices that build personal inner agility.

Sending AI out into the mass of intricacy, without knowing ahead of time what it will return with, the CEO is embracing the disclosure of unique, unexpected, and breakthrough ideas. This is an approach to test and lastly proceed onwards from long-held convictions and biases about their company, and to profoundly reframe the questions so as to discover altogether new sorts of solutions.

Whats more, the best thing about AI solutions is that they can be tested. Artificial intelligence makes its own observational feedback loop that enables you to think about your organization as an experimental science lab for transformation and performance improvement. At the end of the day, the hard science of AI can be exactly what you have to pose the kind of wide questions that establish the foundation for important advancement.

It might turn out to be certain that specific characteristics in leadership will be required less, for example, domain expertise, decisiveness and authority. Human leadership characteristics may come to be valued all the more, for example, humility, adaptability, vision and constant engagement. In reality, meta-analytic studies as of now propose that personality qualities, for example, interest, extraversion and emotional stability are twice as significant as IQ with regards to anticipating leadership effectiveness.

In that capacity, we may see leadership roles later on that are significantly increasingly human, working intimately with AI systems to recognize solutions, yet to guarantee their smooth, effective implementation.

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Artificial Intelligence Chip Market to 2027 – Global Analysis and Forecasts by Segment ; Type ; and Industry Vertical – Olean Times Herald

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global artificial intelligence chip market was valued at US$ 5,658.1 Mn in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 83,252.7 Mn by 2027 with a CAGR growth rate of 35.0% in the forecast period from 2019 to 2027.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05774487/?utm_source=PRN

In last few years, Artificial intelligence and its applications such as Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Expert Systems, Automated Speech Recognition, AI Planning, and Computer Vision have gained considerable traction in terms of both R&D as well as use cases across the globe.Several industry verticals have implemented AI technology for numerous use cases to utilize real-time analytics with self-learning technology in order to gain useful business insights.

The Artificial Intelligence chip market has enormous potential in industries such as Retail, BFSI, Automotive, IT and Telecom among many others.

North America is the leading region in the global Artificial Intelligence chip market followed by Europe.Due to the willingness to spend and adopt artificial intelligence powered solutions and services by all the verticals, the artificial intelligence chip market in North America contributes the largest market share during the forecast period.

The growing need for digitalization and smart technological solutions to implement intelligent business decisions have contributed substantially towards the growth of artificial intelligence chip market in North America. Other factors such as the surge in demand for smartphones, industrial automation, internet of things (IoT), smart cities, smart homes, robotic process automation are also boosting the growth of artificial intelligence chip market in this region.

The global artificial intelligence chip market is bifurcated on the basis of the segment into the Data Centre and Edge.Based on type, the AI chip market is segmented into CPU, GPU, ASIC, FPGA, and others.

The others section include SoC Accelerators and other application specific custom & hybrid chips.Based on industry vertical, the artificial intelligence chip market is further segmented into BFSI, Retail, IT & Telecom, Automotive & Transportation, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, and others.

The others section in industry vertical includes education, utilities, oil & gas, mining, etc. (this section will vary with various geographic regions). Geographically, the market is divided into five regions including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.

The overall artificial intelligence chip market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources.The research process begins with exhaustive secondary research using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the artificial intelligence chip market.

Also, multiple primary interviews were conducted with industry participants and commentators in order to validate data and analysis. The participants who typically take part in such a process include industry expert such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managers, and external consultants such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders specializing in the artificial intelligence technology.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05774487/?utm_source=PRN

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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What Apples Xnor.ai deal says about its ambitions for privacy, battery life, and artificial intelligence – GeekWire

Arm Holdings CEO Simon Segars shows an Xnor.ai board at a 2019 event.

Speaking on stage last year about the rise of artificial intelligence on devices, Arm Holdings CEO Simon Segars touted the capabilities of the chip giants Cortex-M4 processor to help identify objects using image recognition technology. But the circuit board on the slide behind him showed another logo: Xnor.ai.

Not many people knew that name at the time, even inside the industry, but they do now. Xnor.ai is the Seattle-based startup that was acquired by Apple recently for around $200 million, as first reported by GeekWire last week.

Its inclusion in the Arm CEOs presentation illustrated the growing attention for Xnor.ai at the time, fueled by the industrys rising fascination with artificial intelligence on the edge, in the small cameras, sensors, and many other types of devices proliferating around the world.

You need to push intelligence to the edge, explained Alexei Andreev, co-founder and managing director at Autotech Ventures, which was an early investor in Xnor.ai. You cannot move data in and out to the data centers anymore if you want to make fast decisions, if you dont want to overload your data networks.

Xnor.ais capabilities are a big part of what makes Apples acquisition of the company so intriguing.

Based on technology developed at the University of Washington, and incubated at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), the startup streamlined and simplified the calculations needed for image recognition and other components of artificial intelligence. Devices using Xnor.ais technology, for example, are able to identify objects such as people, backpacks and vehicles without needing to rely on a network connection to a data center, or a devices resource-intensive graphics processing unit. Instead, they can use a CPU on devices.

You just cant afford to take all of the data to where the processing can be done, said Arms Segars at a separate event. You need to take the processing to the data.

Andreev and others we spoke with for this story were careful to say that they dont know exactly what Apple plans to do with Xnor.ais technology.

Before news of the deal broke, Apple appeared determined to keep even the fact that it acquired Xnor.ai a secret, creating a company called Xylophone Capital Corp. to complete the transaction, according to Delaware corporations filings obtained by GeekWire in the course of reporting the story. Xnor.ais full website was also taken taken offline in recent weeks, replaced with a bare-bones placeholder page.

But the nature of the Xnor.ai technology suggests a few areas where Apples acquisition of Xnor.ai could come into play.

In one example of the technologys potential, Xnor last year demonstrated the ability to run its AI technology on a solar-powered AI chip that could run without other power for more than 30 years.To us, this is as big as when somebody invented a light bulb, Xnor.ais co-founder, Ali Farhadi, said the time.

The key to Xnors edge technology is a chip that can run AI software on mere milliwatts of power, so that a coin-sized battery could theoretically keep the chip running for 30 years. The system takes advantage of low-power wireless technologies such asNarrowband IoTandLoRa.

Madrona Venture Group and AI2 put $2.6 million in seed funding into Xnor.ai in 2017, and Madrona led a$12 million Series A financing round in 2018 with additional backing from Autotech, NGP Capital and Catapult Ventures. When the venture was spun out, it had just six employees, but that has since grown to about 70 people.

Apple has made 20 artificial intelligence acquisitions in the last decade, more than any other tech company, and it has sought to position itself as a bastion of user privacy and security. The company acquired another company specializing in on-device AI, Silk Labs, in November 2018.

In 2016, Apple acquired Turi, another Seattle startup specializing in machine learning and AI, which also has roots at the University of Washington, and for a similar price, about $200 million. Apple has since released developer tools based on Turis platform and incorporated Turis technology into its own products.

However, Apple wasnt the only company knocking on Xnor.ais door. Sources told GeekWire last week that Intel and Amazon had formal discussions with Xnor.ai about a possible acquisition. The Financial Timesreported that Microsoft also approached the company.

GeekWires Alan Boyle, Taylor Soper and Kevin Lisota contributed to this report.

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Ray Bradbury on War, Recycling, and Artificial Intelligence – JSTOR Daily

One of the roles of science fiction is to provide readers with a glimpse of how the future could be. Ray Bradbury didnt get everything about the future right. We havent yet seen books and reading made illegal (as in his 1953 Fahrenheit 451), just as we havent yet discovered another planet ready for American colonizers (as in his 1950 The Martian Chronicles). And yet, the themes he explored in those booksmass media and censorship, colonization and environmental changeare more relevant than ever. Even in his lesser-known workssuch as the 1951 sci-fi collection, The Illustrated Man, Bradbury tackles a surprising array of issues that feel as if they were ripped from todays headlines.

Readers today will find in The Illustrated Man a fresh perspective that illuminates global issues like artificial intelligence and climate change. Bradbury also engages with the political and cultural challenges of migration: specifically, the crossing of the U.S.Mexico border, which has since received much attention with the dawn of the so-called Trump Era.

* * *

Theres a story in The Illustrated Man called The Highway, where Bradbury tells a tale about the beginning of an atomic war in the US. The war, however, is experienced through the eyes of a Mexican peasant, Hernando, who lives next to a highway in northern Mexico.

One day, Hernando glimpses a procession of hundreds of American tourists driving north to return to the US. They are heading home, that is, to join the fight in an upcoming atomic war. When the last car stops by Hernando, he sees a group of young Americans crying for help: their car needs water to continue their way back home. Right before they leave, the driver tells Hernandowho doesnt know why all the cars are driving so fast or why these young Americans are so desperatethat the end of the world has finally arrived. Hernando doesnt react to the young mans confession. The car leaves. Hernando goes back to his rural routine, but suddenly stops to wonder: What do they mean the World?

Here, Bradbury highlights the generational and cultural gap between the young Americans and the aging Hernando, who lives with his wife and works their land, recycling the automobile waste that travelers from north of the border leave behind. Its a harrowing scene, but also terrifically realistic: it illustrates not only the clashing of multiple incompatible worldviews, but shows how all such worldseven those seemingly distant from the centers of powerare threatened by contemporary global dangers. Its moments like these that ensure Bradburys relevance, even one hundred years after his birth.

* * *

Bradburys eye for contemporary troubles extends beyond the dangers of global disaster. In the prologue to The Illustrated Man, Bradbury introduces a character who has an existential problem: his torso is covered in living tattoos. Having the tattoos becomes a curse because the illustrations on his body acquire life of their own. The living illustrations unveil an ominous, even prophetic future for the person that looks at them. The Illustrated Man describes his curse:

So people fire me when my pictures move. They dont like it when violent things happen in my illustrations. Each illustration is a little story. If you watch them, in a few minutes they tell you a tale. In three hours of looking you could see eighteen or twenty stories acted right on my body, you could hear voices and think thoughts. Its all here, just waiting for you to look.

Unexpectedly, through this illustrated character, Bradbury highlights the possible dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Today, there are fears that AI will permeate and disrupt the political organization of postmodern societies. For instance, AI can predict the affinities and choices of an individual based on the application of algorithms. What The Illustrated Man shows is the consequence of those predictions once revealed to ordinary people. The Illustrated Man, not without melancholy, says:

If Im with a woman, her picture comes there on my back, in an hour, and shows her whole lifehow shell live, how shell die, what shell look like when shes sixty. And if its a man, an hour later his pictures here on my back. It shows him falling off a cliff, or dying under a train. So Im fired again.

In his article If Planet Death Doesnt Get Us, an AI Superintelligence Most Certainly Will, Bryan Walsh suggests that if a super artificial intelligence becomes able to disregard human valueswhile also increasing its intelligencethen humanity might end up controlled by a nonhuman entity with a vision of the future that does not adhere to the crucial ethical issues that societies are facing today.

The Illustrated Man, as Bradbury formulated him, can be read as a metaphor for the intersection between human values (the jobless fate of the Illustrated Man) and a superintelligence that determines human life through visual representations of the future (the living, prophetic tattoos). Most importantly, Bradburys story doesnt prophesize the invention of this particular machine so much as it examines the ways in which humans would react to such an invention.

The fear that individuals will surrender their ethical compasses to technology is a constant specter in Bradburys stories. In The Illustrated Man, this fear is represented by the refusal of the characters to accept the futures that the illustrations predict for them. Bradburys Illustrated Man, and those around him, represent the ways that humans will struggle againstand violently rejectthe enigmatic directives of any intelligence beyond our own, even if (as Bradbury notes) the intelligence is speaking truthfully.

* * *

Where did Bradburys inspiration for these particular stories in The Illustrated Man come from? The clashes he foresaw in the futurequestions of AI and global catastrophe, atomic war and border crossingcame from his own forays into Mexico in 1945.

In fact, Bradbury himself experienced the traumatic effects of crossing the USMexico border. Between October and November of 1945, Bradbury and his friend Grant Beach traveled from Los Angelesacross southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texasto Mexico City. On their way, they found swarms of locusts and other hardships familiar from news stories today. But what was most shocking and traumatic for Bradbury was that this trip into Mexico surprisingly challenged his own deeply-held, exotic ideas about Mexican people, which he had acquired while growing up in East Los Angeles.

While in Mexico City, Bradbury spent most of his time seeking the murals of Jos Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera. It is possible to suggest that Bradbury found inspiration for The Illustrated Man in these murals. The muralsperhaps what Bradbury saw as informative, or even prophetic, illustrationsrepresent past, present, and future Mexican society from a Marxist perspective, featuring people in motion with plenty of stories, colors, and historical clues (thus bringing to the audience a multilayered experience).

One of the most famous paintings by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Our Present Time, depicts a faceless man reaching with arms wide open to a space ahead of him, embracing an uncertain future. This is the very same fate of the Illustrated Man. Furthermore, many of the catastrophic themes that Bradbury engages with in The Illustrated Man are also present in these Mexican murals.

* * *

What future did Bradbury see for us? And did he embrace it? In The Fox and the Forest, included in The Illustrated Man, Bradbury sets his story explicitly in Mexico. The plot of the story is not complicated: William and Susan Travis are a married couple living in the year 2155.

That year is not a good time to be alive, since there is war, slavery, and a generalized social unhappiness. In order to escape from the apocalyptic 2155, the couple travel in time back to 1938 rural Mexico, where they believe that peace, simplicity, and happiness can be found. When it seems that they have been able to escape from their time, the 2155 police show up to take them back to the future, thus frustrating the couples escapade.

This narrative has a very pessimistic tone, evoking the nostalgia of older and happier times. Those from the future view our present as superior to their own time. Bradburys dark future, it seems, is unavoidableeven in our own present day.

* * *

More than 60 years ago, The Martian Chronicles (1950), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and The Illustrated Man (1951) fascinated the young members of the generation growing up after the darkness of the Second World War, but before the new kinds of wars known to our own era. Now, as the 21st century unravelswith all of its challenges, technological dilemmas, and even proliferation of tattoosBradbury remains a fundamental figure of the sci-fi genre.

Bradbury had certainly not anticipated that by 2020 (like what Hernando does in The Highway) recycling was going to become a mainstream human endeavor, or that the USMexico border was going to catalyze many of the 21stcentury anxieties about global migration and demographic explosion. And yet, his stories seem to rhyme with our own era. Readers will keep finding in Bradburys tales about the future a contemporary interpretation of our everlasting fears about the end of the world, as well as a whisper of hope.

In the epilogue of The Illustrated Man, the narrator sees his own death in one of the living tattoos: it is the Illustrated Man that chokes him to death. The narrator decides to run away from this terrible fate. In this age of global catastrophe, who doesnt recognize the desire to run from such incontrovertible proofs of the worlds doom?

And yet, just like the world today, Bradbury too oscillated between utopia and dystopia. For as many people shown running from their prophesied demises, Bradbury shows young peoplelike those who Hernando couldnt understandcharging home to meet a near-certain death. Bradburys work, ultimately, is for them: those readers who believe that science fiction is an effective tool to illustrate how the worst consequences of todays global political decisions will be faced by future generations.

Young people are approaching an uncertain globalized future with plenty of possible outcomes, both dystopian and utopian. Nothing is simple: the technology that Walsh decries, the kind that the Illustrated Man fears, is even today becoming an effective tool for social mobilizations (lets think about the protests, from Hong Kong to Chile, organized through social media). Meanwhile, today, we know more than ever that any fight for the future will require the work and sacrifice of the whole world: not just car-driving Americans, but people like Hernando, too. Clearly, even Bradbury cant get everything right.

Perhaps, if Bradbury was alive today, he would ask young people: what role will you play, when my future comes crashing into your present?

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Robot Burns poems created by artificial intelligence – Scotland on Sunday

They are some of the most well-known and loved poems in the world whose insightful sentiments have withstood the test of time over hundreds of years.

But now a student at the University of Glasgow has used a Robot Burns artificial intelligence (AI) poem generator programme to create almost instant works by Robert Burns, in honour of a fellow student, Chris, who took his own life on Burns Day, on 25 January 2016.

Perry Gibson, who is studying for a PhD in computing science, is donating all proceeds of his limited edition Robot Burns pamphlet to The Samaritans, the suicide prevention charity.

The Robot Burns pamphlet includes 20 works across a variety of subjects and is accompanied by illustrations by Alasdair Currie, co-founder of independent Scottish publisher Hooltet Publishing.

Mr Gibson gathered a data set of 2,000 poems by Burns, used an algorithm and created a specific coding programme which were then analysed by the GPT-2 programme operated by OpenAI whose funders include technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.When the first Burns poem came out, I blinked. I hadnt thought of what the consequences would be.

When I started, I just wanted to learn more about the technology, I hadnt really thought too much about what the text was going to be.

Before doing this my knowledge of Burns wasnt more than the ordinary Scottish guy whod learned a couple of his poems in high school.

Now, because of losing Chris, Burns Day has been marked for me and his other friends in a way, and not for the best of reasons.

But reading Burns work, and also looking at the recent hypothesis that he might have had bi-polar has made me see him in a completely different light. Maybe hes had more influence on me than I thought.

Mr Gibson added: Im excited to hear what people think and how they feel Robot Burns compares to the work of Scotlands national bard.

Colin Waters, communications manager at the Scottish Poetry Library, said: What you wont find are many poetry generators that can produce poems in Scots.

Poets, like many professions, are waiting to see if the day has come a little closer when AI can complete their task better than them.

Many contemporary Scots havent got the hang of the Scots Burns wrote in his day, so itll be fascinating to see what a computer makes of it.

Once Robot Burns has mastered the language, itll be interesting to see what it writes about next.

Mr Waters added: I imagine its take on To a Mouse will be less about timrous beasties and more about the device we use to move a cursor across a screen.

l Robot Burns, by Perry Gibson and illustrated by Alasdair Currie, 10, available from robotburns.com

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Robot Burns poems created by artificial intelligence - Scotland on Sunday

EnHelix ETRM Wins 2019 Leading Innovator in Oil and Gas Artificial Intelligence Analytics Software Award – Send2Press Newswire

HOUSTON, Texas, Jan. 22, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) EnHelix, EnHelix ETRM has emerged among the Leading Innovators in Oil & Gas Artificial Intelligence Analytics Software for 2019. The announcement was made known in an announcement sent to EnHelix Marketing Director Jen Wang by Wealth & Finance International.

According to the announcement, EnHelix Commodity Trading & Logistics Software was selected as the leading software of the year after a judging process that took over three months.

Commenting on the award, Marketing Director of EnHelix Jen Wang said, The EnHelix commodity trading and logistics software with artificial intelligence and blockchain is an advanced solution for trading companies which helps to standardize and automate its system of physical trades, reduces frauds and operational risks, and expedites settlement.

Our artificial intelligence trading system is fit-for-purpose configurable software that works on machine learning, deep learning, and cognitive science with the goals of providing trading companies an advantage on speed and agility on highly competitive and volatile commodity markets.

Wang added, Our customers are thrilled on how powerful the artificial intelligence is with business automation and seamless AI user experiences.

With EnHelix oil and gas AI solution, companies can now automate their trading, logistics, and accounting processes with machine learning capability with much-improved speed and efficiency. This benefits everyone along the supply chain from market participants to customers.

More information: https://www.enhelix.com/

TheOil and Gas Artificial Intelligence Award is an initiative ofWealth & Finance International launched to acknowledge the exemplary performance and innovation of some outstanding AI organizations. Winning the Artificial Intelligence Award provides organizations with the evidence they need to prove, beyond doubt that they are outstanding. Previous winners of the Artificial Intelligence Award include EQ investors, Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) among many other reputable companies.

EnHelix is a global software leader in providing commodity trading and logistics management solutions driven by integratedBlockchainandArtificial Intelligenceto serve the value chain across crude oil, natural gas, LNG, refined products, petroleum, chemical, NGL, renewable, power, coal, and other commodity markets.

*(LOGO 72dpi: https://www.enhelix.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/logo_appstream.png)

VIDEO (YouTube): https://youtu.be/-uj4P6-9u9w

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EnHelix ETRM Wins 2019 Leading Innovator in Oil and Gas Artificial Intelligence Analytics Software Award - Send2Press Newswire

Singapore unveils new initiatives to build consumer trust in artificial intelligence at WEF – CNA

DAVOS: A set of three initiatives, aimed at improving consumer trust on the use and governance of artificial intelligence (AI), were announced by Singapore at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting on Tuesday (Jan 21).

They are an Implementation and Self-Assessment Guide for Organisations (ISAGO), a compendium of use casesand a second edition of the Model AI Governance Framework.

The initiatives followed the launch of the Model AI Governance Framework by Singapore at last years WEF annual meeting as well as the announcement of Singapores National AI Strategy in November.

They were announced by Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran and WEF AI portfolio lead Ms Kay Firth-Butterfield at a press conference in Davos.

Mr Iswaran is in Davos together with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam for the WEF annual meeting.

The three initiatives are meant to complement one another.

The Model AI Governance Framework was updated to include additional considerations such as robustness and reproducibility, and is aimed at making it more relevant and usable.

Developed with input from more than 60 organisationsincluding Google, Microsoft and MasterCard,ISAGO aims to help organisations assess the alignment of their AI governance practices with the Model AI Governance Framework by providing industry examples and practices.

The compendium of use cases, meanwhile, shows how local and international organisations across different sectors and sizes have implemented or aligned their AI governance practices with the framework.

Companies said they welcomed Singapores moves to strengthen governance in the field of AI.

Grabs chief technology officer for mobility and core technology Mark Porter said the model framework was a valuable starting point for companies looking to adopt the technology.

We strongly believe that AI adoption and development must be supported with a sound governance framework so that it can contribute to building a future that is smarter, safer and more inclusive, he said.

DBS Bank's group head of legal, compliance and secretariat Lam Chee Kin said the framework was a "remarkable initiative" that has helped the bank develop and refine its own approach to AI.

"By using the thinking contemplated in the framework, we can identify tough questions around ethics and supervision of AI, and from the answers we can build better processes," said Mr Lam, adding that this is needed to maintain customer trust and stakeholder accountability.

In an interview, Mr Iswaran told CNA that at least 15 organisations haveadopted the model framework.

The aim of the initiatives is to make the use of AI human centric and transparent, he said.

The objective really is to translate these ethical principles that it must be human-centric and responsible and translate that into practical guidelines so that companies who want to adopt AI technologies have a kind of guidebook on how they can go about doing this whilst maintaining the trust of their clients and their customers.

While AI has much potential, there are question marks around its application, said the minister.

The more we are able to work with partners around the world to engender trust in this AI technology, the more we are able to utilise its full potential, and benefit our people and our businesses.

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Singapore unveils new initiatives to build consumer trust in artificial intelligence at WEF - CNA