AI and machine learning platforms will start to challenge conventional thinking – CRN.in

As we draw closer to 2020, Rick Rider, Senior Director, Product Management, Infor shares predictions on AI.

Moving to Intellectual Digital Assistants. To meet growing enterprise user expectations, AI Digital Assistants will evolve into Intellectual Digital Assistants. Users no longer are satisfied with just telling Digital Assistants what to do and having them automatically execute certain tasks or basic configurations. 2020 will be the year when these digital assistants, using AI and machine learning (ML), start to understand the context of what users are doing, recommend potential next steps (based on completed actions), identify mistakes and auto-correct inputs, and start to engage with users in dynamic, on-the-fly conversations.

AI helps define a new normal. In 2020, AI and machine learning platforms will start to challenge conventional thinking, when it comes to enterprise business processes and expected outcomes. In other words, these systems will re-define our default assumptions about what is normal. This will make business process re-engineering and resource training more efficient. When examining supply chain processes, for example, AI platforms have observed that default values related to expected delivery dates and payment dates typically are used only 4 percent of the time. Users almost always plug in their own values. Therefore, AI and machine learning systems will start enabling us to disregard default values, as we understand them today, and act more quickly through trust in our data. We no longer will be beholden to predefined rules, defaults, or assumptions.

Operationalizing AI. Industry-specific templates will make AI easier to use and deploy in 2020. In manufacturing, AI and machine learning systems, will take advantage of templated processes to help enterprises better manage their parts inventories, improve demand forecasting and supply chain efficiency, and improve quality control and time-to-delivery. In healthcare, organizations will leverage AI and machine learning to better integrate data thats segregated in application silos, exchange information with partners across the care continuum, and better use that data to respond to regulatory and compliance requirements. And, in retail, companies will use AI and ML to better predict demand patterns and shipment dates, based on defined rules, and improve their short- and long-term planning processes.

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AI and machine learning platforms will start to challenge conventional thinking - CRN.in

Amazon Releases A New Tool To Improve Machine Learning Processes – Forbes

One of Amazons most recent announcements was the release of their new tool called Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels. This advanced tool has the capability to improve machine learning on a whole new scale, allowing for better data analysis and object recognition.

Amazon Rekognition will help users train their machine learning models more easily and allow them to understand a set of objects out of limited data. In other words, this capability will make machines more intelligent and capable of recognizing items with far less data sets than ever before.

Employees stand near an The Amazon Inc. logo is displayed above the reception counter at the ... [+] company's campus in Hyderabad, India, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2019. Amazon's only company-owned campus outside the U.S. opened at the end of August on the other side of the globe, thousands of miles from their Seattle headquarters. The 15-storey building towers over the landscape in Hyderabad's technology and financial district, signaling the giant online retailer's ambitions to expand in one of the world's fastest-growing retail markets. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

The Benefits of Machine Learning with Amazon Rekognition

Machine learning includes a scientific study and adoption of algorithms that allow computers to learn new information and functionalities without needing direct instructions. In other words, machine learning can be understood as the capability of computers to learn on their own.

Thus far, machine learning models required large data sets in order to learn something new. For instance, if you wanted a device to recognize a chair as a chair, you would have to provide hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of visual evidence of what a chair looks like.

However, with Amazons new recognition tool, machine learning models will be able to work with very limited data sets and still effectively learn the difference between new objects and items.

Computers will now be able to recognize a group of object based on as little as ten images, which is a significant improvement compared to previous requirements. Amazon is slowly but surely stepping on a fresh and untrodden path of machine learning development.

Why Amazon Rekognition Matters

Having limited data to work with used to be a challenge in machine learning. Today, new models will be able to learn efficiently without large sets of data all thanks to Amazons recently announced tool.

Instead of having to train a model from scratch, which requires specialized machine learning expertise and millions of high-quality labeled images, customers can now use Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels to achieve state-of-the-art performance for their unique image analysis needs, announced Amazon in their blog post.

The new Amazon Rekognition featured on December 3rd and it is expected to bring significant changes to machine learning all throughout 2020. The release of the new tool also took place in the AWS re:Invent conference that was held in Las Vegas.

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Amazon Releases A New Tool To Improve Machine Learning Processes - Forbes

MJ or LeBron Who’s the G.O.A.T.? Machine Learning and AI Might Give Us an Answer – Built In Chicago

Our country is deeply divided into two camps.

From coast to coast, people are eager to know the answer to one simple question: Who will come out on top Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

It might seem like a moot point. NBA legend Michael Jordan is now well into retirement while LeBron James is still able to continue building his case with the Los Angeles Lakers. Thanks to the laws of time and space, theres no way to accurately compare their talent in a conclusive way.

Or is there?

AutoStats, a product of Stats Perform, is using artificial intelligence and computer vision to unlock secrets of seasons past and predict seasons future.

The goal of AutoStats is to collect tracking data from every sports video that has ever existed which essentially enables us to travel back in time and compare players and eras in a way that we havent been able to do previously, said Patrick Lucey, chief scientist at Stats Perform. Using this technology, we can start to make the impossible possible.

The implications of these statistics are a real game-changer in the sports world, the effects of which can be seen in betting, team drafting and recruitment, professional commentary, fantasy football and how well your opinions on all-star players hold up.

Sujoy Ganguly, Ph.D.

Director of Computer Vision

I am the director of computer vision, which means I teach computers to watch sports. Specifically, we extract the positions of the players, their limbs and actions directly from the broadcast video you get in your home.

Patrick Lucey, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist

Im the chief scientist, and my role is to set the AI strategy to maximize the value of our deep treasure troves of sports data using AI technology.

Patrick Lucey: AI not only emulates what a human can do, but surpasses what even the best human expert can do. The reason why artificial intelligence has reached this superhuman capability is that it has utilized an enormous amount of data. The more data you have, the better your AI technology will be simple as that.

When it comes to the sheer volume of sports data, no other company has the amount that we have. We cover any sport you can think of, and we capture it at a depth that no other company does.

Sujoy Ganguly: The goal of our team is to create the most in-depth data at the broadest breadth. We do this by extracting player tracking, pose and event data everywhere there is broadcast video. To accomplish this, we have three streams:one that focuses on model development, the second that focuses on the deployment of these models to the cloud, and a third that focuses on implementation at the edge for in-venue deployment.

How does Stats Perform get its data?

Stats Perform collects data through raw video. Its collected via the companys in-venue hardware or snapped up from broadcasts.

Lucey: Well, its like teaching a child how to read. First, they have to learn the alphabet and words before being able to understand a sentence, then onto a paragraph only then they can understand the whole story. Once they have read a lot of books and seen similar stories in the past, then they can actually start to predict how the story will unfold.

Its similar for sport, where we first have to create a sports-specific alphabet and words from which to form sentences that represent gameplay that a computer can understand. Instead of using characters and textual words, we use spatial data and event sequences. From this sports-specific language we have built, we can then get the computer to learn similar gameplay from the data we have, which enables us to predict plays and player motion. The main reason why I believe AI has so much hype around it is that it is the ultimate decision analysis tool every decision and action can be objectively analyzed.

Ganguly: Teaching a machine to interpret sports is a complex and evolving problem. At a high level, we start with a clearly defined question. For example, what is the likelihood that a team will win a game, and how does this depend on the players on that team? Then we ask what information we have: We have results of thousands of games and data about the players who played in those games. From there, we can start the process of conducting experiments and converging to a high-performing model. Generally, this process requires an open and honest conversation about the results of each test and what we have learned.

Ganguly: Many of the challenges we face with machine learning are the same as in other industries, like how we collect and maintain data sets or how we manage training and deployment workloads. However, most companies that work on prediction are doing so on strictly temporal data. In contrast, we have spatial and temporal information. Unlike the autonomous vehicle companies that also deal with spatial-temporal data, we dont control all of the sources of video. This presents unique challenges in data collection but also allows us to use predictive models that allow for noise and are therefore robust.

Different kinds of data

Temporal data is data relating to time and spatial data refers to space. As Ganguly alluded to, combining the two is necessary in the tech behind self-driving cars. This data helps determine whats another moving object, like another car, and whats stationary, say, a tree. For Stats Perform, they data scientists are looking less at a deer in the road, and more how a player moves on the field, and at what speed. The result is the ability to pinpoint the specific motions of a player depending on the context of the game and play, and to anticipate how theyd react in a similar situation.

Lucey: The example I like to talk about is our work in soccer. Soccer is a hard sport to analyze because it is low-scoring, continuous and strategic. As such, the current statistics used, such as possession percentage, number of passes and completion rate, number of corners and tackles, do not correlate with goals scored and who won the match. Our AI-based metrics expected goals, quality of passes and playing styles correlate much higher with goals compared to standard statistics. These AI-metrics simply measure performance better. Using these AI tools, we were able to show how, against incredible odds, underdog Leicester City won the 2015-16 English Premier League title.

Ganguly: There are two significant ways that AI is and will continue to revolutionize sports. Firstly, AI is creating more complex and granular data at an unprecedented scale. For example, with our AutoSTATS technology, we can capture the motions of players in college basketball, where this data was never before available. The other way AI is revolutionizing sport is by allowing people to draw insights from our increasingly in-depth data. Using player tracking data, we can predict the motion of players. This allows us to see how a player will behave on their team after a trade, thereby allowing for better player recruitment.

Isolating a teams formation

Tools like Stats Performsunsupervised clustering method can quickly find a teams formation right down to the frame. When humans attempt to do this, their results fall just a few yards short.

Lucey: Even though we have the most sports data on the planet, to tell the best stories and provide the best analysis and products for our customers, we need even more granular data. Thats why I am so excited about our AutoStats work.

AI has so much hype around it is because it is the ultimate decision analysis tool every decision and action can be objectively analyzed. AI can not only capture data using computer vision and other sensors that couldnt be captured before, but it can help us transform that data into a form that can be used to make decisions. Given how popular sports are around the world and the importance they have on other sectors, theres potential for other industries to directly use the data and technology that we have generated to make future decisions.

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MJ or LeBron Who's the G.O.A.T.? Machine Learning and AI Might Give Us an Answer - Built In Chicago

Machine Learning Answers: If Seagate Stock Drops 10% A Week, Whats The Chance Itll Recoup Its Losses In A Month? – Forbes

Seagate Technology's hard disk drive assembly plant in Singapore, Monday, Feb. 5, 2007. ... [+] Photographer: Jonathan Drake/Bloomberg News

Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) stock has seen significant volatility over the last few years. While the demand for data storage is expanding, considering the growth of cloud computing and other technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the companys focus on hard-disk drive technology, which is cost-effective but slower and less power-efficient compared to newer solid-state drives has likely weighed on its valuation.

Considering the significant price movements, we began with a simple question that investors could be asking about Seagates stock: given a certain drop or rise, say a 10% drop in a week, what should we expect for the next week? Is it very likely that the stock will recover the next week? What about the next month or a quarter? You can test a variety of scenarios on the Trefis Machine Learning Engine to calculate if the Seagate stock dropped, whats the chance itll rise.

For example, if Seagate Stock drops 10% or more in a week (5 trading days), there is a 27% chance itll recover 10% or more, over the next month (about 20 trading days). On the other hand, after a 5% drop over a week (5 trading days), the Trefis machine learning engine says chances of an additional 5% drop over the next month, are about 31%. This is quite significant, and helpful to know for someone trying to recover from a loss. Knowing what to expect for almost any scenario is powerful. It can help you avoid rash moves.

Below, we also discuss a few scenarios and answer common investor questions:

Question 1: Does a rise in Seagate stock become more likely after a drop?

Answer:

The chances of a 5% rise in Seagate stock over the next month:

= 38% after Seagate stock drops by 5% in a week

versus,

= 45% after Seagate stock rises by 5% in a week

Question 2: What about the other way around, does a drop in Seagate stock become more likely after a rise?

Answer:

The chances of a 5% drop in Seagate stock over the next month:

= 31% after Seagate stock drops by 5% in a week

versus,

= 24% after Seagate stock rises by 5% in a week

Question 3: Does patience pay?

Answer:

According to data and Trefis machine learning engines calculations, absolutely!

Given a drop of 5% in Seagate stock over a week (5 trading days), while there is a 38% chance the Seagate stock will gain 5% over the subsequent week, there is more than 58% chance this will happen in 6 months, and 68% chance itll gain 5% over a year (about 250 trading days).

Question 4: What about the possibility of a drop after a rise if you wait for a while?

Answer:

After seeing a rise of 5% over 5 days, the chances of a 5% drop in Seagate stock are about 30% over the subsequent quarter of waiting (60 trading days). However, this chance drops slightly to about 27% when the waiting period is a year (250 trading days).

The table below shows the trend:

Trefis

Whats behind Trefis? See How Its Powering New Collaboration and What-Ifs ForCFOs and Finance Teams|Product, R&D, and Marketing Teams More Trefis Data Like our charts? Exploreexample interactive dashboardsand create your own

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Machine Learning Answers: If Seagate Stock Drops 10% A Week, Whats The Chance Itll Recoup Its Losses In A Month? - Forbes

Tech connection: To reach patients, pharma adds AI, machine learning and more to its digital toolbox – FiercePharma

Pharmas desire to build direct relationships with patients isnt new. But even as rapidly changing technology makes those connections more possible than ever, it's also making them more important.

Opt-in health apps. 24/7 call centers that depend on machine learning. Voice-enabled artificial intelligence that helpsmanage chronic conditions. Digital therapeutics with automated reporting. They're just a few of the tech toolsbecoming indispensable in pharma marketingand not just because of the value those tools offer patients.

It's also because thedata and analytics those provide are important as pharma companiesshiftto more patient-centric businesses.

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Researchers are often unable to access the information they need. And, even when data does get consolidated, researchers find it difficult to sift through it all and make sense of it in order to confidently draw the right conclusions and share the right results. Discover how to quickly and easily find, synthesize, and share informationaccelerating and improving R&D.

Astellas, for instance, hired its first senior vice president of patient centricity from Sanofi, where he spent eight years creating a system that integrates patient and physician perspectives into the drug discovery and development process.

Emerging digitaltools have also become important marketing devices that can convey pharma personality.

Take Reckitt Benckisers Mucinex Halloween TikTok videos. The brand translated its zombie-themed TV ad campaign for new product NightShift into a challenger TikTok promotion called #TooSickToBeSickand racked up more than 400 million views in just five days. Almost as importantly, it drummed up credibility with a young hip audience of influencers.

Another example is Eisais voice-enabled play and meditation skill called Ella the Jellyfish, created for children with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and their families. The skill can sing, play games, tell stories and offer guided meditations and offers friendly support for a challenging rare disease.

And although the word relationship is often used in regard to pharmas emerging connections with patients, that may not be the exactly right term, said Syneos Health Managing Director of Insights and Innovation Leigh Householder.

Its not a relationship in that its what loyalty looks like in other categorieslike airlines, she said. In pharma, it looks more like what you see from really good health insurers who are able to know enough about you to find those moments when a nudge or reconnect or their next product would be very useful in your life. Instead of relationship, maybe we could just say person-level relevance.

Whatever its called, the successes creating those connections means the industry should expect even more digital tools and optimization from pharma in 2020.

Kendalle Burlin OConnell, chief operating officer at life science nonprofit MassBio, said, The rise of mobile apps has created a new age of patient engagement that I expect will grow in 2020. Well see increased app development from both providers and manufacturers to track medical adherence, relay updates between patients and physicians regarding care, and disseminate real-time data that captures the full patient journey.

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Tech connection: To reach patients, pharma adds AI, machine learning and more to its digital toolbox - FiercePharma

Machine Learning Answers: If Twitter Stock Drops 10% A Week, Whats The Chance Itll Recoup Its Losses In A Month? – Forbes

The Twitter logo appears on a phone post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Oct. ... [+] 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Twitter stock has seen significant volatility over the last few years. While the stock is benefiting from an expanding international user base and improving monetization, slowing growth rates and concerns about its valuation have hurt the stock. Considering the recent price movements, we began with a simple question that investors could be asking about Twitters stock: given a certain drop or rise, say a 10% drop in a week, what should we expect for the next week? Is it very likely that the stock will recover the next week? What about the next month or a quarter? You can test a variety of scenarios on the Trefis Machine Learning Engine to calculate if the Twitter stock dropped, whats the chance itll rise.

For example, after a 5% drop over a week (5 trading days), the Trefis machine learning engine says chances of an additional 5% drop over the next month, are about 31%. This is quite significant, and helpful to know for someone trying to recover from a loss. Knowing what to expect for almost any scenario is powerful. It can help you avoid rash moves.

Below, we also discuss a few scenarios and answer common investor questions:

Question 1: Does a rise in Twitter stock become more likely after a drop?

Answer:

Not really.

Specifically, chances of a 5% rise in Twitter stock over the next month:

= 34% after Twitter stock drops by 5% in a week.

versus,

= 36.5% after Twitter stock rises by 5% in a week.

Question 2: What about the other way around, does a drop in Twitter stock become more likely after a rise?

Answer:

Yes, Slightly more likely. Specifically, chances of a 5% decline in Twitter stock over the next month:

= 30.7% after Twitter stock drops by 5% in a week

versus,

= 34.5% after Twitter stock rises by 5% in a week

Question 3: Does patience pay?

Answer:

According to data and Trefis machine learning engines calculations, largely yes!

Given a drop of 5% in Twitter stock over a week (5 trading days), while there is only about 23% chance the Twitter stock will gain 5% over the subsequent week, there is more than a 40% chance this will happen in 3 months.

The table below shows the trend:

Trefis

Question 4: What about the possibility of a drop after a rise if you wait for a while?

Answer:

After seeing a rise of 5% over 5 days, the chances of a 5% drop in Twitter stock are about 45% over the subsequent quarter of waiting (60 trading days). However, this chance drops slightly to about 42.5% when the waiting period is a year (250 trading days).

The table below shows the trend:

Whats behind Trefis? See How Its Powering New Collaboration and What-Ifs ForCFOs and Finance Teams|Product, R&D, and Marketing Teams More Trefis Data Like our charts? Exploreexample interactive dashboardsand create your own

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Machine Learning Answers: If Twitter Stock Drops 10% A Week, Whats The Chance Itll Recoup Its Losses In A Month? - Forbes

Global Contextual Advertising Markets, 2019-2025: Advances in AI and Machine Learning to Boost Prospects for Real-Time Contextual Targeting -…

The "Contextual Advertising - Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Contextual Advertising market worldwide is projected to grow by US$279.2 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 18.5%

Activity-based Advertising, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 18.6%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$166.2 Billion by the year 2025, Activity-based Advertising will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth.

Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 16.5% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$10.6 Billion to the region's size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$8.9 Billion worth of projected demand in the region will come from the rest of the European markets. In Japan, Activity-based Advertising will reach a market size of US$7 Billion by the close of the analysis period.

As the world's second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 23.6% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$69.7 Billion in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders.

Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio.

Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. All research viewpoints presented are based on validated engagements from influencers in the market, whose opinions supersede all other research methodologies.

Competitors identified in this market include:

Key Topics Covered:

1. MARKET OVERVIEW

2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS

3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS

4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/q96k8q

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191219005420/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Global Contextual Advertising Markets, 2019-2025: Advances in AI and Machine Learning to Boost Prospects for Real-Time Contextual Targeting -...

The Quantum Computing Decade Is ComingHeres Why You Should Care – Observer

Googles Sycamore quantum processor. Erik Lucero, Research Scientist and Lead Production Quantum Hardware

Multiply 1,048,589 by 1,048,601, and youll get 1,099,551,473,989. Does this blow your mind? It should, maybe! That 13-digit prime number is the largest-ever prime number to be factored by a quantum computer, one of a series of quantum computing-related breakthroughs (or at least claimed breakthroughs) achieved over the last few months of the decade.

An IBM computer factored this very large prime number about two months after Google announcedthat it had achieved quantum supremacya clunky term for the claim, disputed by its rivals including IBM as well as others, that Google has a quantum machine that performed some math normal computers simply cannot.

SEE ALSO: 5G Coverage May Set Back Accurate Weather Forecasts By 30 Years

An arcane field still existing mostly in the theoretical, quantum computers have done enough recently and are commanding enough very real public and private resources to be deserving of your attentionnot the least of which is because if and when the Chinese government becomes master of all your personal data, sometime in the next decade, it will be because a quantum computer cracked the encryption.

Building the quantum computer, it is said, breathlessly, is a race to be won, as important as being the first in space (though, ask the Soviet Union how that worked out) or fielding the first workable atomic weapon (seems to be going OK for the U.S.).

And so here is a postwritten in terms as clear and simple as this human could mustersumming up these recent advances and repeating other experts predictions that the 2020s appear to be the decade when quantum computers begin to contribute to your life, by both making slight improvements to your map app, and powering artificial intelligence robust and savvy enough to be a real-life Skynet.

First, the requisite introduction to the concept. Normal computers, such as the device you are using to access and display this content, process information in a binary. Everything is either a one, or a zero, or a series of ones and zeroes. On, or off. But what if the zero was simultaneously also a one? (Please exit here for your requisite digression into quantum physics and mechanics.)

The idea that a value can be a zero, or a one, or both at the same time is the quantum principle of superposition. Each superposition is a quantum bit, or qubit. The ability to process qubits is what allows a quantum computer to perform functions a binary computer simply cannot, like computations involving 500-digit numbers. To do so quickly and on demand might allow for highly efficient traffic flow. It could also render current encryption keys mere speedbumps for a computer able to replicate them in an instant.

An artists rendition of Googles Sycamore quantum processor mounted in a cryostat. Forest Stearns, Google AI Quantum Artist in Residence

Why hasnt this been mastered already, whats holding quantum computers back? Particles like photons only exist in quantum states if they are either compressed very, very small or made very, very coldwith analog engineering techniques. What quantum computers do exist are thus resource-intensive. Googles, for example, involves metals cooled (the verb is inadequate) to 460 degrees below zero, to a state in which particles behave in an erratic and random fashion akin to a quantum state.

And as Subhash Kak, the regents professor of electrical and computer engineering at Oklahoma State University and an expert in the field,recently wrote, the power of a quantum computer can be gauged by how many quantum bits, or qubits, it can process. The machines built by Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and possibly the Chinese all have less than 100 qubits,he wrote. (In Googles case, the company claims to have created a quantum state of 53 qubits.)

To achieve useful computational performance,according to Kak, you probably need machines with hundreds of thousands of qubits. And what qubits a quantum computer can offer are notoriously unstable and prone to error. They need many of the hard-won fixes and advancements that saw binary computers morph from room-sized monstrosities spitting out punch cards to iPhones.

How fast will that happencan it happen?

Skeptics, doubters, and haters might note that Google first pledged to achieve quantum supremacy (defined as the point in time at which quantum computers are outperforming binary computers) by the end of 2017meaning its achievement was almost two full years behind schedule, and meaning other quantum claims, like Dario Gil of IBMs pledge that quantum computers will be useful for commercial and scientific advantage sometime next year, may also be dismissed or at least subject to deserved skepticism.

Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, stands in front of IBMs Q System One quantum computer on October 18, 2019. Misha Friedman/Getty Images

And those of us who can think only in binary may also find confusion in the dispute between quantum rivals. The calculation performed by Googles Sycamore quantum computer in 200 seconds, the company claimed, would take a normal binary supercomputer 10,000 years to solve. Not so, according to IBM, which asserted that the calculation could be done by a binary computer in two and a half days. Either way, as The New York Times wrote, quantum supremacy is still a very arcane experiment that cant necessarily be applied to other things. Googles breakthrough might be the last achievement for a while.

But everybody is tryingincluding the U.S. government, which is using your money to do it. Commercial spending on quantum computing research is estimated to reach hundreds of millions of dollars sometime in the next decade. A year ago, spooked and shamed by what appeared to be an unanswered flurry of quantum progress in China, Congress dedicated $1.2 billion to the National Quantum Initiative Act, money specifically intended to boost American-based quantum computing projects. According to Bloomberg, China may have already spent 10 times that.

If you walk away with nothing else, know that quantum computer spending is very real, even if the potential is theoretical.

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The Quantum Computing Decade Is ComingHeres Why You Should Care - Observer

IBM and the U. of Tokyo launch quantum computing initiative for Japan | – University Business

IBM (NYSE:IBM) and the University ofTokyo announced today an agreement to partner to advance quantum computing and make it practical for the benefit of industry, science and society.

IBM and theUniversity of Tokyowill form theJapan IBM Quantum Partnership, a broad national partnership framework in which other universities, industry, and government can engage. The partnership will have three tracks of engagement: one focused on the development of quantum applications with industry; anotheron quantum computing system technology development; and the third focused on advancing the state of quantum science and education.

Under the agreement, anIBM Q System One, owned and operated by IBM, willbe installed in an IBM facility inJapan. It will be the first installation of its kind in the region and only the third in the world followingthe United StatesandGermany. The Q System One will be used to advance research in quantum algorithms, applications and software, with the goal of developing the first practical applications of quantum computing.

IBM and theUniversity of Tokyowill also create a first-of-a-kind quantumsystem technology center for the development of hardware components and technologies that will be used in next generation quantum computers. The center will include a laboratory facility to develop and test novel hardware components for quantum computing, including advanced cryogenic and microwave test capabilities.

IBM and theUniversity of Tokyowill also directly collaborateon foundational research topics important to the advancement of quantum computing, and establish a collaboration space on the University campus to engage students, faculty, and industry researchers with seminars, workshops, and events.

Quantum computing is one of the most crucial technologies in the coming decades, which is why we aresetting up this broad partnership framework with IBM, who is spearheading its commercial application,said Makoto Gonokami, the President of theUniversity of Tokyo. We expect this effortto further strengthenJapans quantum research and developmentactivities and build world-class talent.

Developed byresearchers and engineers fromIBM Researchand Systems, the IBM Q System One is optimized for the quality, stability, reliability, and reproducibility of multi-qubit operations. IBM established theIBM Q NetworkTM, a community of Fortune 500 companies, startups, academic institutions and research labs working with IBM to advance quantum computing and explore practical applications for business and science.

This partnership will sparkJapansquantum researchcapabilities by bringing together experts from industry, government and academia to build and grow a community that underpins strategically significant research and development activities to foster economic opportunities acrossJapan, saidDario Gil, Director of IBM Research.

Advances in quantum computing could open the door to future scientific discoveries such as new medicines and materials, improvements in the optimization of supply chains, and new ways to model financial data to better manage and reduce risk.

TheUniversity of Tokyowill lead theJapan IBM Quantum Partnership and bring academic excellence from universities and prominent research associations together with large-scale industry, small and medium enterprises, startups as well as industrial associations from diverse market sectors. A high priority will be placed on building quantum programming as well as application and technology development skills and expertise.

For more about IBM Q:https://www.ibm.com/quantum-computing/

AboutUniversity of Tokyo

TheUniversity of Tokyowas established in 1877 as the first national university inJapan. As a leading research university, theUniversity of Tokyooffers courses in essentially all academic disciplines at both undergraduate and graduate levels and conducts research across the full spectrum of academic activity. The University aims to provide its students with a rich and varied academic environment that ensures opportunities for both intellectual development and the acquisition of professional knowledge and skills.

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2020 and beyond: Tech trends and human outcomes – Accountancy Age

The next decade promises to offer both incredible opportunity and challenge for all of us. Technologies like artificial intelligence (and its close friend, machine learning) will no longer be considered new but will instead be at the heart of some huge disruptive changes that will run right through our society. In particular, AI will start to enable the automation of many things that were previously deemed too complex or even too human.

Well see these changes at work traditional professions like accountancy, lawyers and others will, over time, see significant portions of what they do be taken over by virtual robots. Vocations such as lorry drivers, taxi drivers and even chefs may disappear as machines are introduced to perform the same function but with more consistent results and less risk.

Well also see these changes at home as AI will bring a host of new changes to how we live. AI will help us speak any language to anyone in the world, it will help us discover and create new content and maybe even help us decide what food to eat and when we should rest (and for how long!) in order to help us live lives that are not just more healthy, but more productive and of course more fun.

Well (hopefully) see these changes at school and in education too when we finally realise that in the 21st century, simply knowing stuff is no longer enough. Instead we might seek to use AI to build personalised learning schemes that tailor learning for every unique student such that they can reach their true potential regardless of their background, ability to learn or particular strengths and weaknesses. This could also mean the end of exams and tests as we know it as we move away from the unnecessary stress and futility of a single measure of knowledge taken at a single moment in time to a world of continuous assessment, where the system is able to measure progress as a by-product of the work that the student does every single day.

As for the technology itself, its going to continue to get quicker, cheaper, more powerful and smaller. Your huge smartphone may not be so huge by the time we get to 2030, in fact it may not be a phone at all but instead a small implant that you have inserted under your skin, just like the one we use today for our pets

Well also see the introduction of new game changing technologies like Quantum Computing. Dont be fooled, this is not just another computer but faster, the power and potential Quantum Computing offers us is almost unimaginable. Todays quantum computers are limited, complex machines that require an extreme environment in which to run, (most early quantum computers need to run at -273 degrees centigrade so dont think youre going to see one in your office or your home any time soon. But they are important because of the scale at which they operate. In simple terms, the power of todays quantum computers is measured at around 50 cubits (a cubit is a quantum computers measure of power, a bit like the digital equivalent of horse power), scientists believe that when we can get Quantum computers to 500 cubits, those computers will be able to answer as many questions as there are atoms in the world and at the same time! This is a kind of computational power that we cant even begin to imagine.

Oh and robots too. These wont be the industrial robots youre used to seeing, they might not even be the science fiction looking robots (you know, the ones that start as friends and then take over the world). These robots are going to be not just our friends, theyll be a part of our families. Its already started. If you have a smart speaker at home, youve got an early ancestor of something that will end up becoming your own personal C3PO, not just there to help you but there to provide companionship and friendship while you go about your busy lives.

But all this wont be without some risks.

Massive parts of our current labour market will be challenged by the rise of the machines. Our kids will continue to lack the skills theyre going to need to thrive and we adults are going to struggle to make sense of it all at home and at work.

The machines wont be perfect either, seeing as theyre created by humans, they end up with some human problems as a result, algorithmic bias will be one of the defining challenges of 2020 and beyond and its going to take a lot of human effort to get all of us to a point where we can trust our lives to the algorithms alone.

The good news in all of this is that the end result is still ultimately down to us humans. The real answer to what 2020 will hold for technology and how it affects us in our everyday lives will continue to be all about how we humans choose to use it. Im hopeful for a new era in 2020, one where we turn the corner in our relationship with technology and look not for dystopia, but instead we seek to ensure everyone has the right skills and ambition to build the utopia we deserve. To get there we need to teach our kids (and ourselves!) to break free of the technology that traps and disconnects us, an instead use the same technology to elevate what we could achieve not by replacing us, but by freeing us to do all of the amazing things that the technology alone cannot do. The best future awaits those that can combine the best of technological capability with the best of human ability.

Dave Coplin is former Chief Envisioning Officer for Microsoft UK, he has written two books, worked all over the world with organisations, individuals and governments all with the goal of demystifying technology and championing it as a positive transformation in our society.

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2020 and beyond: Tech trends and human outcomes - Accountancy Age