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Hands-On Guide To Loss Functions Used To Evaluate A ML Algorithm – Analytics India Magazine

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The loss function is a method of evaluating how well the algorithm performs on your dataset, most of the people are confused about the difference between loss function and the cost function. We will use the term cost function for a single training example and loss function for the entire training dataset. We always try to reduce the loss function of the models using optimization techniques like Gradient Descent.

Loss functions are categorized into two types of losses

So how to choose which loss function to use.? It depends on the output tensor of the model. In regression problems, the output tensor is continuous data, and the output tensor of classification problems are probability values. Depending on the output variable we need to choose loss function to our model. Sometimes while building optimization models we may use multiple loss functions depending on the output tensor.

In this article, we will discuss the following loss functions.

Based on the demonstrated implementations, we can use these loss functions to evaluate the accuracy of any machine learning algorithm.

MSE loss is popularly used loss functions in dealing with regression problems. MSE loss function is an estimator measuring the average of error squares, mathematically it calculates the squared differences between the actual value and the predicted value, it is very easy to understand and implement.

A large MSE value indicates a wider spread of data and a smaller MSE indicated the value is nearest to the mean.

Implementation in python

MAE loss is also categorized in the regression problem, MAE loss calculates the average of absolute differences between the actual value and predicted values, when our data includes outliers we use MAE, so what are outliers.? The data points that are too large or too small than the mean. By using MAE loss the outliers dont affect the model.

Cross entropy is mostly used loss function in dealing with classification problems, cross-entropy measures the classification model whose probability in the range of 0 to 1, cross-entropy loss nearer to 0 results low loss and loss nearer to 1 results high loss. We calculate the individual loss for each class in a multiclass classification problem. When the output is probability distribution we use cross-entropy which uses softmax activation in the output layer.

Home Hands-On Guide To Loss Functions Used To Evaluate A ML Algorithm

The above formula is similar to the likelihood function if y=o then y(log(p)) will be 0 if y=1 then (1-y)log(1-p) will be zero.

We use Cross entropy loss in Multi-class classification problems like object detection. Lets consider the ImageNet dataset in which we have 1000 classes to find the loss.

The hinge loss function is used for a binary classification problem, a loss function is used to evaluate how well the given boundary is separating the given data, hinge loss is mostly used in SVM, this is used in the combination of the activation function in the last layer. We use Hinge loss to classify whether an email is a spam or not.

In the above demonstration, we discussed various types of the loss function and saw that depending on the output tensor we need to choose the loss function. Choosing the loss function for our model is very important because using the loss function we evaluate our model and it helps in optimizing the model to obtain error and reaching the global minima. Based on the implementations we showed above, these loss functions can be used to evaluate the accuracy of any machine learning algorithm.

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Hands-On Guide To Loss Functions Used To Evaluate A ML Algorithm - Analytics India Magazine

Oliver Stone Insists Putin Did Not Interfere in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election – Hollywood Reporter

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"I'm not a liar and I can't go along with what the vast majority believe on so much of this history," the three-time Oscar winner told The Hollywood Reporter's 'Awards Chatter' podcast.

Ever since his film JFK was released nearly 30 years ago, questioning the official story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and making famous the skeptical phrase "back and to the left," Oliver Stone has been dismissed by some as a conspiracy nut. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter's 'Awards Chatter' podcast tied to the publication of his acclaimed new memoir Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game, the three-time Oscar winner acknowledges that the label hurts if not him, then his films.

"It's not that easy to brush off," Stone, 73, says. "It happens all the time. Politics overshadows the filmmaking, and I realize that, but what am I gonna do? My opinions, when asked, are given. Sometimes I try to be political about it and diplomatic, but I'm not a liar and I can't go along with what the vast majority believe on so much of this history." He adds of the JFK assassination, "You had to have at least two shooters, and [Lee Harvey] Oswald was not one of them."

Lest anyone think Stone has not been driven into conformity, though, he insisted during the podcast that Russian president Vladimir Putin with whom he spent time making the 2017 Showtime docuseries The Putin Interviews did not interfere with America's 2016 presidential election to help advance the cause of Donald Trump, which is the opposite of what numerous U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded.

"Jesus Christ, do you think everybody in the country has to believe this Russian election stuff?" Stone asked. "Do you think we all have to agree? Does anybody have any ability to dissent from an opinion? Is it a fact that that happened? I mean, if you talk to a lot of the intelligent people in the cyber community and I have because I did a film about Edward Snowden [2016's Snowden] they will tell you that it was not a hack, it was a steal, it was an inside job [referring to the hack of Democratic National Committee emails which were then leaked ahead of the 2016 Democratic National Convention]."

Stone continued, "And [the now incarcerated WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange has been good on his word ever since he started; he's been an authentic person. I admire him deeply. To say that he was in collusion with the Russians and all this is part of some kind of crazy fiction that has happened to this country. You probably believe it. You have no choice but to believe it."

When, in response, it was stated that the U.S. intelligence community has uniformly concluded that Putin interfered in the election, Stone protested, "Not uniformly, no! Their original statement was 'a high degree of confidence' or something like that, and it was taken from three agencies, not from the 17 that they claim. In fact, you could go back into the intelligence community and you will find dissenters if they're honest. This has been misrepresented. I've talked to a lot of experts on this."

His theory regarding the DNC hack: "The FBI did not do its job. They should have gotten the original system got back into the DNC computer but they didn't give it. They gave it to a private company, CrowdStrike, that was on their payroll. So the whole thing is crooked from the inside. It feels like the JFK case again. It wasn't planned, it was developed that way. But it certainly was developed from inside. Sore losers, I would call it. And, by the way, I don't have any Trump has done things that are horrifying to me." (The CrowdStrike theory has been discredited.)

Stone explained, "I'm trying to understand both sides, trying to understand the mind of Julian Assange, the mind of whoever hacked the DNC what did he hack and what was on his mind? Maybe it bothered him that the Democratic Party was selling out the way it did; maybe it bothered him Hillary Clinton's Wall Street speeches or the DNC undermining of Bernie Sanders. Maybe it bothered him and maybe he did take things out to give them to Assange, which is what a lot of people say happened. But that story has been 'discredited'; I don't know why. Because it doesn't fit the present agenda for a Cold War against Russia, which is basically for more money for the military, when we're spending a fortune already, and now it's for China, too."

He added, "You're gonna regret this kind of thinking. This kind of thinking leads to conventional war. The Cold War grows and grows and grows, and then we take it to the edge because we have to, because 'We're Americans and we're top of the world' we think we're top of the world. We're gonna take things to a place that is very dangerous for our people. That's why I'm dissenting from this, you understand? And it's important we have dissenters."

Asked who he would encourage Americans to vote for in the 2020 presidential election, Trump or former vice president Joe Biden, Stone demurred, "It's up to them. I'm not gonna jump into that one. Biden has his problems, too."

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Oliver Stone Insists Putin Did Not Interfere in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election - Hollywood Reporter

Fired Tiverton teacher gets her job back – Fall River Herald News

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TIVERTON -- Amy Mullen has her job back with the Tiverton School Department.

U.S. District Court Chief Justice John J. McConnell Jr., ruling on a preliminary injunction Friday morning, said Mullens First Amendment rights were violated when she was terminated from her teaching job April 15 for speaking up about wanting to discuss distance learning as it pertained to her member teachers. Mullen is the head of the teachers union.

In granting the preliminary injunction filed by attorney Elizabeth Wiens, the judge ordered that Mullen be restored as a teacher until further notice. No doubt Ms. Mullen was retaliated against because of her First Amendment speech, McConnell said from the bench at the end of a virtual hearing.

Never once was her teaching called into question in the 25 years Mullen has worked for the district as a special education teacher, McConnell said, adding that she is considered an exemplary teacher.

Four attorneys were representing the School Department two were from the Interlocal Trust, the insurance carrier for the town. There was no ruling on their motion to dismiss the case Mullen brought against the district.

McConnell said he would take the motion to dismiss under advisement but at least part will be denied, he said. He said he was bothered by the individual suits against individual members of the School Committee who voted to terminate Mullen on the recommendation of Superintendent Peter Sanchioni.

Shell be back on the payroll as of today, School Committee attorney Stephen Robinson said Friday afternoon. We clearly will respect the courts orders, Robinson said, but added they respectfully disagree with the judge in his findings of fact and conclusions of law. We will explore our options.

Wiens wrote in the motion for preliminary injunction that Mullen should be reinstated immediately, noting in the 15-page motion that less than two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held that union speech is overwhelmingly of substantial public concern.

Wiens also wrote that there can be no doubt that speech relating to public education, including the creation of a Distance Learning Plan for students during a global pandemic is a matter of public concern. Mullens speech, Wiens wrote, was the sole factor in her termination.

In providing background, Wiens said Sanchioni repeatedly violated the collective bargaining agreement between the School Department and NEA-Tiverton, and because of numerous grievances and unfair labor practice complaints filed by the union, there was animus towards Mullen.

On March 12, 2020, Mullen attended a professional development committee meeting and communicated to the superintendent that online learning plans need to be negotiated with the union. She learned of a March 18 meeting for a distance learning plan and she arrived early to say the union should be part of the discussion.

Sanchioni raised his voice, told Mullen she was not invited to the meeting and told her he would write her up for insubordination if she did not leave, according to the motion.

She was placed on paid administrative leave on March 21 and told to cease and desist all communications with parents, teachers and administrators, or there would be further discipline, Wiens wrote. An April 6 letter to Mullen from the superintendent notified her of his intent to recommend to the School Committee that she be suspended without pay for her persistent disruption and insubordination. A Facebook post she made violated the gag order, it was later charged.

The School Committee voted unanimously April 14 to terminate Mullen, but voted again at a meeting in May to suspend without pay and terminate her at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. That vote was 4-0, with committee member Sally Black abstaining. Voting in favor was Chairman Jerome Larkin, Vice Chairwoman Diane Farnworth, Deborah Pallasch and Elaine Pavao.

Mullen filed suit soon after her termination, saying she was retaliated against by the district for speaking on behalf of her union members. The district said she was terminated for unprofessional and disruptive behavior.

In a June 17 email to Mullen, who wanted to be on the School Reopening Committee as a representative of the teachers union, she was advised by School Department legal counsel that she was not allowed on school property and not permitted to speak with school staff or administrators because of her suspension, Wiens wrote.

Much of the discussion at the hearing Friday morning centered on whether Mullen was speaking as an employee of the district, or as a private citizen at the distance learning meetings.

The speech took place in the workplace. It had to do with work-related issues, said attorney Marc DeSisto, representing the Interlocal Trust. When a union president speaks, that union official is speaking in a workplace official capacity and not as a private citizen, DeSisto argued, saying union and public employee are symbiotic.

He said the court was crossing out union and making it outside the employee realm. It goes back to whether she spoke as a private citizen and was protected by First Amendment speech, or spoke as an employee subject to disciplinary action.

Wiens told the judge that every court has found that speech as a union representative is not speech as an employee. We allege Amy Mullen was terminated because of her association with the union. The reason for the termination was her status as union president.

Wiens also argued the Tiverton School Department and the individual members of the School Committee who voted to terminate her and thus violated her First Amendment rights, should be held liable for damages for violating the Constitution.

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Fired Tiverton teacher gets her job back - Fall River Herald News

We are pursuing a clear, far-sighted strategy to ensure Covestro’s long-term success – Automotive World

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Covestro considers itself to be on a clear course and well-positioned for the rest of the year following challenging first six months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. At the virtual Annual General Meeting, broadcasted from the World Conference Center in Bonn, CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann confirmed the strategy pursued by the company: The development over the first six months and the economic outlook for the current year show that we still find ourselves in a macroeconomicly difficult situation. However, I am sure that we will steer Covestro through this successfully. We are pursuing a clear, far-sighted strategy that addresses current challenges, but most importanly will secure the companys long-term success.

For a more sustainable restart, Covestro has drawn on a new corporate vision to chart a clear course for the company. Over the long term, the company plans to align its entire production, its range of products and solutions as well as all areas to the circular concept. That means we aim to comprehensively establish the principle of circularity at our company, Steilemann said. Focus topics are alternative raw materials, innovative recycling, joint solutions and renewable energies.

On the path towards achieving a circular economy, Covestro will also be strengthening its innovative capabilities, for example in areas such as digital chemistry. Quantum computing can, for example, enable highly complex chemical reaction processes to be digitally simulated in the future, thus saving considerable time and resources. This would play a vital role in successfully driving the circular economy, Steilemann said. Quantum computing will enable us to take research and development to a completely new level also, and in particular, in regard to the pace at which we can develop innovations, Steilemann explained. The company has only recently announced a research partnership with Google in this area.

Steilemann again confirmed the guidance for the current fiscal year to the shareholders. Although Covestro has been observing a trend of sequential improvement since mid-May, 2020 nevertheless continues to be an exceptional year and the economic environment will remain uncertain in the second half of the year as well. Further developments depend largely on the course taken by the coronavirus pandemic, and this is not completely foreseeable. This makes it all the more important that our measures work and providepositive results already, Steilemann adds.

Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, Covestro had quickly and consistently taken measures to counter the effects on its business, setting clear priorities: Our top priority is to ensure the safety of our employees, business partners and customers. This is followed by maintaining production and supply chains. Equally important to us is to safeguard our strong liquidity position.

Early on, Covestro set the course for sustainably improving efficiency through the companys Perspective program. The company is now benefiting from this as well as from strengthening the short-term cost-saving measures approved at the beginning of this year. By 2020, the aim is to save a total of over EUR 430 million. In addition, the company has adjusted its investment plans and taken various financing measures in the first half of the year, including a new revolving credit facility, short-term working capital facilities, a loan from the European Investment Bank and the issuance of Eurobonds.

To further strengthen Covestros liquidity position in the current exceptional economic environment, the company decided in spring to propose a dividend of EUR 1.20 per share to the Annual General Meeting instead of the originally planned EUR 2.40 per share. This would equal a payout ratio of 40 percent and a new peak in relative terms.

CFO Dr. Thomas Toepfer at the Annual General Meeting: Our policy is to pay out an increased or at least a stable dividend to our shareholders. That was also our intention this year. We will, however, deviate from that policy in 2020 due to the enormous impact of the coronavirus pandemic. I am convinced we have made a balanced decision with this proposed dividend. We are taking the interests of our shareholders into account while at the same time securing our robust liquidity position and credit rating.

Covestro is broadcasting the complete virtual Annual General Meeting, including the Board of Management presentations and the Q&A, live via Webcast athttps://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/w6xzo9wa/lan/enstarting at 10 a.m. CET. Speeches by the Board of Management can also be followed live via LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The manuscripts of the speeches by Dr. Markus Steilemann and Dr. Thomas Toepfer are available online athttps://www.covestro.com/en/investors. The voting results will also be provided there after the Annual General Meeting.

SOURCE: Covestro

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We are pursuing a clear, far-sighted strategy to ensure Covestro's long-term success - Automotive World

Opinion: Heres a monument all Americans can rally around: Lets celebrate the Bill of Rights – Pocono Record

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Amid the turmoil over taking down Confederate monuments and others ranging from Christopher Columbus to Theodore Roosevelt, heres an idea that that almost everyone can get behind: How about erecting monuments that celebrate the Bill of Rights?

Yes, the Bill of Rights: 10 amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791, that spelled out the individual freedoms Americans have enjoyed ever since including the freedom to protest against things like monuments (thanks to the First Amendment.)

A campaign to place Bill of Rights monuments in state capitols in all 50 states is already underway, albeit moving slowly. Arizonas Bill of Rights monument was built in Phoenix in 2012, and plans for an OkIahoma monument in Oklahoma City are progressing. A smaller scale monument can be found in Montezuma, Iowa.

Its the brainchild of Chris Bliss, a comic by trade who has made the Bill of Rights his side project. Comics, after all, benefit greatly from the First Amendment. His campaign began nearly two decades ago, when there was controversy over monuments that celebrated the Ten Commandments, also often placed in state capitols.

Bliss envisioned erecting Bill of Rights monuments as a way to "comparison shop" with the Ten Commandments, he says whimsically. He also wants the monuments built near state capitols because "every kid goes to state capitols" on school field trips. He estimates that 40,000 students a year have visited the Arizona monument.

As he delved into the project, Bliss found that the Bill of Rights was something of a forgotten document, rarely taught in schools. People knew about a patients bill of rights or a bill of rights for airline passengers. But it was hard for people to grasp the abstract principles of the constitutional Bill of Rights, Bliss says, and therefore hard to turn those principles into marble or limestone.

Donations and support for Bliss Bill of Rights project have been sporadic over the years, with comedians like Lewis Black and the late Dick Gregory helping out. The Bill of Rights has "no preexisting constituency," Bliss says, unlike other organized groups that can lobby successfully for building monuments.

But in the aftermath of the recent protests nationwide that involve monuments and civil liberties, he hopes to jump-start his project and hasten the building of Bill of Rights monuments nationwide. "This is a very positive moment," Bliss says.

Amendments a safeguard for citizens

The relevance of the Bill of Rights to todays divisions is clear and deserves recognition. The Bill of Rights fosters freedom of expression, religion, due process, fair trials, protection against unreasonable government intrusion or excessive fines, among other important rights.

The 10 amendments are not without controversy. Interpreting the religion clauses of the First Amendment, the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment, and the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of the Eighth Amendment has been a contentious task for centuries.

And there are parts of the Bill of Rights that are quirky, to say the least. The Third Amendment, for example, prohibits soldiers from being quartered in homes without the consent of owners. It was a big issue at the time of the founding, but not now.

Opportunity to celebrate liberty

Bliss says there is no better remedy for monument controversies than to commemorate the Bill of Rights, which he calls "the most powerful and successful assertion of individual rights and liberties ever written."

He adds, "The ideas were radical at the time, but now, people say, Of course. There is not an exclusionary phrase in the entire document. It is time for us to rediscover our own Bill of Rights and to elevate it to the position of public prominence it richly deserves."

Tony Mauro, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, covered the Supreme Court for USA TODAY from 1982 to 2000.

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Opinion: Heres a monument all Americans can rally around: Lets celebrate the Bill of Rights - Pocono Record

Coinbase Planning Addition of Balancer, Helium, and 17 More Cryptos – Finance Magnates

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Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange in the United States, is considering the addition of 19 more digital currencies that include tokens from the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem to wrapped cryptos.

As announced on Friday in an official blog post, all the cryptocurrencies on Coinbases list are Ampleforth, Band Protocol, Balancer, Blockstack, Curve, Fetch.ai, Flexacoin, Helium, Hedera Hashgraph, Kava, Melon, Ocean Protocol, Paxos Gold, Reserve Rights, tBTC, The Graph, THETA, UMA, and WBTC.

The Most Diverse Audience to Date at FMLS 2020 Where Finance Meets Innovation

Coinbase detailed that the additions of these coins will require significant technical and compliance review in the part of the exchange, and in some cases even a green light from the local regulators.

We, therefore, cannot guarantee whether or when any above-listed asset will be listed on a Coinbase product in any jurisdiction, the San Francisco-based exchange stated.

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The popular crypto exchange and wallet platform also detailed that it will follow a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction approach in listing the digital currencies, meaning its users some jurisdiction might get their access early compared to others.

As part of the exploratory process customers may see public-facing APIs and other signs that we are conducting engineering work to potentially support these assets, Coinbase added.

The move came when the cryptocurrency market is gaining steam and is slowly moving towards a bull run again major cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum have recently breached major resistance levels.

Following the news of possible Coinbase listing, most of the coins have surged significantly Ocean Protocol is among the leading gainers jumping over 17 percent in the last 24 hours, while Balancer also gained in double-digits, as seen onCornmarketcap.com.

This surge in prices with major listing is usual with crypto as, last May, Maker, the token of one of the major DeFi platform, surged 37 percent with a listing on Coinbase.

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Coinbase Planning Addition of Balancer, Helium, and 17 More Cryptos - Finance Magnates

Trump says he’ll ban Tik Tok, to hoots of derision – Boing Boing

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Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump last night declared that he would ban the social media site Tik Tok.

As far as TikTok is concerned were banning them from the United States, Trump said, calling the action a severance.

Trump did not specify whether he will act through an executive order, or another method. such as a designation, according to NBC News.

Well, I have that authority. I can do it with an executive order or that, Trump said.

Microsoft is negotiating to buy Chinese-owned Tik Tok, which would fill a social-media hole in the tech giant's lineup of consumer offerings. But commentators think Trump is mostly just upset that the platform is an explosively-growing social media platform that will not supplicate to him as Twitter and Facebook have.

Vox recently gamed out how Trump might accomplish a "ban" on Tik Tok, but the experts consulted found it an unlikely scenario.

To really take TikTok off Americans phones, the government would have to do something like make Apple and Google sever their ties with ByteDance (along with any other Chinese app makers). Getting removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store would vastly reduce TikToks appeal, even if you could still access it through a sideloaded app or website. Apple, in particular, keeps tight control over iOS devices; its App Store policy is so restrictive that its spurred antitrust lawsuits. The government would essentially be ordering companies to deplatform TikTok and deplatforming can be extremely powerful.

To do this, the Trump administration could repeat a tactic it used with Huawei: have the Commerce Department put TikTok on the entity list that limits its commercial ties to US companies. The administration doesnt need congressional approval to do this, and it can cite any US company that does business with them (barring special exemptions) for violating sanctions. The entity list has stopped Google from working with Huawei on Android phones, and if TikTok were successfully added to the list, Apple and Google would have a hard time keeping them in the App Store.

James Lewis, director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says putting TikTok on the list would be extreme, unusual, and legally dubious.

Foreign Policy agreed.

Because the attempted ban by the United States is likely to rely on novel theories and will be imposed in haste, the companies are likely to have an opening to challenge the U.S. government action in court as lacking factual and legal support. A legal challenge might also put pressure on the U.S. government by forcing it to risk disclosure of sensitive intelligence on the Chinese companies if it chooses to fully defend court actions. Given the dearth of public evidence to date that TikTok provides any data to the Chinese government and the Trump administrations less-than-stellar record against procedural challenges to its executive orders, it is possible that a well-structured challenge might be able to overturn, or at least delay, any ban.

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Wake Up, a short film by The Lincoln Project, depicts what it might be like for a republican to wake up after being in a coma for nearly four years and have his family tell him everything thats happened since Trump came into power. It was directed by Jon Turteltaub.

If you ever dropped a quarter into a Space Invaders game, youve likely fantasized about having your own arcade cabinet in your house. Of course, you likely thought better of it for several reasons, including the idea that a giant cabinet dedicated to just one game isnt very practical. Polycade understands the urge though very, []

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with banks. Okay, its actually probably more like a tolerate-hate relationship. We understand their role in holding and securing our money so we dont have to stuff it in a mattress somewhere. But we dont trust the bank not to gouge us on fees whenever they can. And []

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Trump says he'll ban Tik Tok, to hoots of derision - Boing Boing

Artificial Intelligence Is the Hope 2020 Needs – Asharq Al-awsat – English

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This year is likely to be remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic and for a significant presidential election, but there is a new contender for the most spectacularly newsworthy happening of 2020: the unveiling of GPT-3. As a very rough description, think of GPT-3 as giving computers a facility with words that they have had with numbers for a long time, and with images since about 2012.

The core of GPT-3, which is a creation of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company based in San Francisco, is a general language model designed to perform autofill. It is trained on uncategorized internet writings, and basically guesses what text ought to come next from any starting point.

That may sound unglamorous, but a language model built for guessing with 175 billion parameters 10 times more than previous competitors is surprisingly powerful.

The eventual uses of GPT-3 are hard to predict, but it is easy to see the potential. GPT-3 can converse at a conceptual level, translate language, answer email, perform (some) programming tasks, help with medical diagnoses and, perhaps someday, serve as a therapist. It can write poetry, dialogue and stories with a surprising degree of sophistication, and it is generally good at common sense a typical failing for many automated response systems. You can even ask it questions about God.

Imagine a Siri-like voice-activated assistant that actually did your intended bidding. It also has the potential to outperform Google for many search queries, which could give rise to a highly profitable company.

GPT-3 does not try to pass the Turing test by being indistinguishable from a human in its responses. Rather, it is built for generality and depth, even though that means it will serve up bad answers to many queries, at least in its current state. As a general philosophical principle, it accepts that being weird sometimes is a necessary part of being smart. In any case, like so many other technologies, GPT-3 has the potential to rapidly improve.

It is not difficult to imagine a wide variety of GPT-3 spinoffs, or companies built around auxiliary services, or industry task forces to improve the less accurate aspects of GPT-3. Unlike some innovations, it could conceivably generate an entire ecosystem.

There is a notable buzz about GPT-3 in the tech community. One user in the UK tweeted: I just got access to gpt-3 and I can't stop smiling, i am so excited. Venture capitalist Paul Graham noted coyly: Hackers are fascinated by GPT-3. To everyone else it seems a toy. Pattern seem familiar to anyone? Venture capitalist and AI expert Daniel Gross referred to GPT-3 as a landmark moment in the field of AI.

I am not a tech person, so there is plenty about GPT-3 I do not understand. Still, reading even a bit about it fills me with thoughts of the many possible uses.

It is noteworthy that GPT-3 came from OpenAI rather than from one of the more dominant tech companies, such as Alphabet/Google, Facebook or Amazon. It is sometimes suggested that the very largest companies have too much market power but in this case, a relatively young and less capitalized upstart is leading the way. (OpenAI was founded only in late 2015 and is run by Sam Altman).

GPT-3 is also a sign of the underlying health and dynamism of the Bay Area tech world, and thus of the US economy. The innovation came to the US before China and reflects the power of decentralized institutions.

Like all innovations, GPT-3 involves some dangers. For instance, if prompted by descriptive ethnic or racial words, it can come up with unappetizing responses. One can also imagine that a more advanced version of GPT-3 would be a powerful surveillance engine for written text and transcribed conversations. Furthermore, it is not an obvious plus if you can train your software to impersonate you over email. Imagine a world where you never know who you are really talking to Is this a verified email conversation? Still, the hope is that protective mechanisms can at least limit some of these problems.

We have not quite entered the era where Skynet goes live, to cite the famous movie phrase about an AI taking over (and destroying) the world. But artificial intelligence does seem to have taken a major leap forward. In an otherwise grim year, this is a welcome and hopeful development. Oh, and if you would like to read more, here is an article about GPT-3 written by GPT-3.

Bloomberg

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Artificial Intelligence Is the Hope 2020 Needs - Asharq Al-awsat - English

Surprisingly Recent Galaxy Discovered Using Machine Learning May Be the Last Generation Galaxy in the Long Cosmic History – SciTechDaily

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HSC J1631+4426 broke the record for the lowest oxygen abundance. Credit: NAOJ/Kojima et al.

Breaking the lowest oxygen abundance record.

New results achieved by combining big data captured by the Subaru Telescope and the power of machine learning have discovered a galaxy with an extremely low oxygen abundance of 1.6% solar abundance, breaking the previous record of the lowest oxygen abundance. The measured oxygen abundance suggests that most of the stars in this galaxy formed very recently.

To understand galaxy evolution, astronomers need to study galaxies in various stages of formation and evolution. Most of the galaxies in the modern Universe are mature galaxies, but standard cosmology predicts that there may still be a few galaxies in the early formation stage in the modern Universe. Because these early-stage galaxies are rare, an international research team searched for them in wide-field imaging data taken with the Subaru Telescope. To find the very faint, rare galaxies, deep, wide-field data taken with the Subaru Telescope was indispensable, emphasizes Dr. Takashi Kojima, the leader of the team.

However, it was difficult to find galaxies in the early stage of galaxy formation from the data because the wide-field data includes as many as 40 million objects. So the research team developed a new machine learning method to find such galaxies from the vast amount of data. They had a computer repeatedly learn the galaxy colors expected from theoretical models, and then let the computer select only galaxies in the early stage of galaxy formation.

The research team then performed follow-up observations to determine the elemental abundance ratios of 4 of the 27 candidates selected by the computer. They have found that one galaxy (HSC J1631+4426), located 430 million light-years away in the constellation Hercules, has an oxygen abundance only 1.6 percent of that of the Sun. This is the lowest values ever reported for a galaxy. The measured oxygen abundance suggests that most of the stars in this galaxy formed very recently. In other words, this galaxy is undergoing an early stage of the galaxy evolution.

What is surprising is that the stellar mass of the HSC J1631+4426 galaxy is very small, 0.8 million solar masses. This stellar mass is only about 1/100,000 of our Milky Way galaxy, and comparable to the mass of a star cluster in our Milky Way, said Prof. Ouchi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the University of Tokyo. This small mass also supports the primordial nature of the HSC J1631+4426 galaxy.

The research team thinks that there are two interesting indications from this discovery. First, this is the evidence about a galaxy at such an early stage of galaxy evolution existing today. In the framework of the standard cosmology, new galaxies are thought to be born in the present universe. The discovery of the HSC J1631+4426 galaxy backs up the picture of the standard cosmology. Second, we may witness a new-born galaxy at the latest epoch of the cosmic history. The standard cosmology suggests that the matter density of the universe rapidly drops in our universe whose expansion accelerates. In the future universe with the rapid expansion, matter does not assemble by gravity, and new galaxies wont be born. The HSC J1631+4426 galaxy may be the last generation galaxy in the long cosmic history.

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Surprisingly Recent Galaxy Discovered Using Machine Learning May Be the Last Generation Galaxy in the Long Cosmic History - SciTechDaily

IoT Automation Trend Rides Next Wave of Machine Learning, Big Data – IoT World Today

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IoT automation has found new raison detre in the COVID-19 era.

An array of new methods along with unexpected new pressures cast todays IoT automation efforts in an utterly new light.

Progress today in IoT automation is based on fresh methods employing big data, machine learning, asset intelligence and edge computing architecture. It is also enabled by emerging approaches to service orchestration and workflow, and by ITOps efforts that stress better links between IT and operations.

On one end, advances in IoT automation include robotic process automation (RPA) tools that use sensor data to inform backroom and clerical tasks. On the other end are true robots that maintain the flow of goods on factory floors.

Meanwhile, nothing has focused business leaders on automation like COVID-19. Automation technologies have gained priority in light of 2020s pandemic, which is spurring use of IoT sensors, robots and software to enable additional remote monitoring. Still, this work was well underway before COVID-19 emerged.

Cybersecurity Drives Advances in IoT Automation

In particular, automated discovery of IoT environments for cybersecurity purposes has been an ongoing driver of IoT automation. That is simply because there is too much machine information to manually track, according to Lerry Wilson, senior director for innovation and digital ecosystems at Splunk. The target is anomalies found in data stream patterns.

Anomalous behavior starts to trickle into the environment, and theres too much for humans to do, Wilson said. And, while much of this still requires a human somewhere in the loop, the role of automation continues to grow.

Wilson said Splunk, which focuses on integrating a breadth of machine data, has worked with partners to ensure incoming data can now kick off useful functions in real time. These kinds of efforts are central to emerging information technology/operations technology (IT/OT) integration. This, along with machine learning (ML), promises increased automation of business workflows.

Today, we and our partners are creating machine learning that will automatically set up a work order people dont have to [manually] enter that anymore, he said, adding that what once took the form of analytical reports now is correlated with historic data for immediate execution.

We moved past reporting to action, Wilson said.

Notable use cases Splunk has encountered include systems that collect signals to monitor and optimize factory floor and campus activity as well as to correlate asset information, Wilson indicated.

Hyperautomation Hyped

The move toward more coordinated, highly integrated systems automation is strong enough that Gartner has dubbed it hyperautomation, and included it in its Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020.

The research group describes hyperautomation as the orchestrated use of multiple technologies to catalyze business-driven process change, and declares everything that can be automated, will be automated.

The hyperautomation category includes process and task automation tools, ML, event-driven software and RPA, according to Gartner. Estimates of Coherent Market Insights valued a global market for hyperautomation at $4.2 billion in 2017, and predicted 18.9% CAGR from 2019 through 2027.

Automation hyper or other is supported in several products. These include workflow orchestration software from companies ranging from Broadcom and BMC to Radianse and Resolve Systems. The space also holds players like ServiceNow and Splunk.

The ranks include industrial IoT automation systems from GE, Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, Plex, PTC and Siemens, as well as IT infrastructure and ERP application software such as C3.ai, IBM and SAP.

And, that is not to mention domain specialists like Esri, with geospatial data processing; Dassault Systmes, with 3D Design and engineering software; and many others working to automate aspects of IoT.

Business Process Automation

For Radianse, which integrates intelligent tracking and management software with tagged RFID and non-RFID devices, IoT automation means expanding real-time monitoring of staff tasks and automation of schedules from elder care facilities and hospitals to gyms, fitness centers and even bars.

In hospitals, naturally, asset tracking has gained new importance as respirator demand has vaulted. Cleaning schedules, too, now require new levels of tracking and efficiency. Change here is rapid.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, you see pivots in approaches. You see interfaces that dont require touch menus, or that interface to users own devices, according to Randy Ribeck, vice president of strategy for Radianse.

Ribeck said the company works with customers to implement systems that automate scheduling and asset use, and that the influx of data can be challenging. So, paring down incoming data to the essentials is an important mission. Otherwise, at times, you can be drinking from a fire hose, he said.

ITOps Automation

Agility has been the mantra of many organizations for years. Thats taken the form of DevOps, ITOps, MLOps and AIOps. All are methods organizations use to automate the repeatable steps developers and administrators take to keep apps running.

As use of IoT devices grows, more automation is being applied. Basically, more organizations are taking on the workflow styles of traditional telcos or cloud providers.

There is a common problem around the proliferation of IoT [devices]. Organizations are left to manage all of these things, to make sure they are working properly, said Vijay Kurkal, CEO, Resolve Systems, maker of an AIOps platform for enterprise-wide incident response, automation and process orchestration.

The problems grow greater as IoT devices take on more tasks. He cites one of the most ubiquitous of Things. That is, the ATM.

More than ever, banks need to know ATMs are up, running and functioning. That is because each ATM now serves multiple applications. If they fail, you lose business and customers are frustrated, Kurkal said.

Moreover, a truck roll that requires technicians to be dispatched (in a truck) to ATM locations is expensive. All that makes AI and automation an integral part of capable incident resolution planning, he said.

IoT Automation on the Map

Automation takes on a different aspect when IoT data is introduced, according to Susan Foss, product manager for real-time visualization and analytics at Esri, the geographic information system (GIS) giant.

What is different? Its the nature of the data being collected, she said. Organizations have never had this type of information before or at this granularity of time-space detail.

Before it was more periodic. Now they have it in the form of a living, breathing, constant supply, she added. That ushers in event processing architectures, changes the pace with which teams have to work with data, and augers more automation.

Foss said Esri is working with users to connect fast-arriving IoT data to location data. The goal is to create immediate visualizations of data on a map. This requires, Foss said, a delicate balance of compute horsepower against the incoming real-time data, as well as static data sources that might need to be used with it.

And, real-time activity mapping is going indoors in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, Esri recently updated its ArcGIS Indoors offering with new space planning templates. The software uses beacons and Wi-Fi to collect data for display on a live map showing activity in offices and other physical plants. Clearly, such capabilities have special import in the wake of coronavirus.

Retooling for the Next Normal

Subtle changes are underway in IoT automation, driven by global events, according to Prashanth Mysore, director of DELMIA marketing and strategic development at Dassault Systmes.

For one thing, a next normal is focused on ensuring employees safety and security, Mysore said.He also anticipates more change in supply chains, as closer connections to sourcing become more important, and real-time monitoring of supply chains is needed.

Mysore systems simulation and 3-D modeling will help in this regard, particularly where much new what-if analysis of system behavior must be swiftly completed. Like others, he singles out lightning-fast shifts to ventilator manufacturing by auto makers and others as a harbinger of things to come.

Things are so dynamic. For example, people have to look at how remote operations and networking affect security, he said, pointing as well to an upsurge in remote IoT system maintenance in times to come. This move to greater operational flexibility also signals the need for convergence between IT systems and operational systems, Mysore indicated.

Autonomizing the Unpredictable

Of course, the factory floor remains the citadel of automation. Key factors at play are big data, ML and the general trend toward digitization, according to Juan Aparicio Ojea, head of advanced manufacturing automation, Siemens Corporate Technology.

Ojeda said these factors combine to create what he calls autonomous automation. This next step for automation, it seems, is to venture into the realm of the unpredictable.

In traditional or classical automation, there is explicit motion programming, explains Ojeda. Tasks and procedures are static and repetitive. Thats due for change.

Historically, we have been very good at automating the predictable process. For example, the welding line in automotive assembly, he said. This approach faces issues, if parts are not represented perfectly. And changing these systems is programming intensive.

With next-generation autonomous automation, systems are based on ML modeling, rather than explicit programming, said Ojeda, who describes this as a move from automating the predictable to autonomizing the unpredictable.

As the recent COVID-19 rush to retool production lines showed, shifts in production can be challenging. This could be a job for autonomous automation, which Ojeda posits as a means toward more flexible automation and robotics.

Edge Computing Fits

IoT implementers should be aware that greater automation is about more than machine learning algorithms. Team leaders must also understand the full life cycle of products.

Autonomous automation means you have to extract the data, maintain it, figure out where you store it its a different computing architecture, requiring a new way of planning, Ojea said. Nothing comes free, machine learning is very compute and data intensive.

An answer to that issue in some cases will be robotics linked with edge computing. It makes a lot of sense to put computer power very close to the process, Ojea said. Edge fits well.

At the same time, autonomous automation should be viewed as an addition to classic automation methods, not a complete replacement, Ojea said.

From the days of the Jacquard automated loom through to Henry Fords automated assembly line and beyond, automation has driven new technology use. Clearly, the technologies now ready to meet that call are many, giving tech leaders plenty to ponder as they reimagine automation as it applies to IoT.

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IoT Automation Trend Rides Next Wave of Machine Learning, Big Data - IoT World Today


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