Daily Archives: July 12, 2020

With a focus on women, U of T researcher aims to raise awareness of Mtis issues in Canada – News@UofT

Posted: July 12, 2020 at 1:31 am

An Indigenous scholars long-standing research related to Mtis women comes at a pivotal moment when understanding and standing in solidarity with people who are oppressed is crucial.

Jennifer Adese, an associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, has dedicated her efforts to Indigenous research throughout her academic career.However, it was attending the National Aboriginal Womens Summit (NAWS) in 2012 that cemented her focus on the experiences of Mtis women.

It was at these proceedings in Ottawa that Indigenous women collectively came together to call on the provincial premiers in attendance to use their power to push the federal government to commit to a national inquiry on the high rates of Indigenous women who have gone missing and/or been murdered, said Adese during a recent interview for the VIEW to the Upodcast.

I had the privilege to sit alongside these women as they met with different members of government, other Indigenous organizationsand even with United Nationsrepresentatives, and it gave me a pretty life-changing insight (into) the complex public strategies of resilience practised by Mtis women.

Adese, who joined the department as a faculty member in 2018, says the experience was not a new encounter with the high rates of murdered Indigenous women, nor was it her first time countering Canadas reluctance to reckon with its history of oppression and colonization. But the event reinvigorated her commitment to be an informed advocate and to lobby for the rights of Mtis and all Indigenous communities. Through her work, she continues to examine the history of violence against Mtis girls and women, looking into why Mtis were largely ignored in the federal government inquiry.

In 2019, Adese received Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding to pursue a project that explores Mtis womens mobilization and activism over the last 50 years.

When the two-year project wraps up, Adese has her sights set on strengthening existing collaborations with the academic community and Mtis organizations to raise awareness about Mtis issues through community engagement and dissemination of their findings.

It is this mobilizing of knowledge that Adese says is key to reaching a better understanding about the ongoing impacts of colonization, dispossessionand racism.

She says a central part of being involved in current activism confronting anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism is being informed.In her capacity as an educator, she feels that reading and educating oneself serves as a foundation for further action. So, too, is listening to and centering the voices of Black, Indigenousand other racialized groups.

Adese is currently wrapping up a book that is being published by UBC Press, titledAboriginal, which is an analysis of the term aboriginal and its more frequent usage after the Constitution Act of 1982 was passed.

In addition, Adese is a co-editor oftwo forthcoming anthologies:A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Mtis Studiesthat she has worked on with colleagues from University of Alberta;andIndigenous Celebrity: Entanglements with Fame, the first dedicated volume to explore Indigenous People's experiences with celebrity culture.

Adese has a personal interest in this area: She is Mtis and draws on her culture via a large family unit that is primarily based in Alberta. She says that her relationships with other Mtis people and communities provideher with a unique perspective for her work, writing and teaching.

A lot of previous research has been undertaken and published by non-Mtis, and the tendency through that work has been to analyze and discuss Mtis people as simply a byproduct of the intermarriage of two other populations, broadly First Nations and European, says Adese.

That is not how we understand ourselves and our existence as adistinct Indigenous people, and quite often how Indigenous Peoples represent ourselves through art, through literature, through political engagement is very different. So, for usit's very exciting work to push the conversation even further, and for the first time strive for this level of representation within Mtis studies research, but also within Indigenous studies research.

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With a focus on women, U of T researcher aims to raise awareness of Mtis issues in Canada - News@UofT

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The US, China and the AI arms race: Cutting through the hype – CNET

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Artificial intelligence -- which encompasses everything from service robots to medical diagnostic tools to your Alexaspeaker -- is a fast-growing field that is increasingly playing a more critical role in many aspects of our lives. A country's AI prowess has major implications for how its citizens live and work -- and its economic and military strength moving into the future.

With so much at stake, the narrative of an AI "arms race" between the US and China has been brewing for years. Dramatic headlines suggest that China is poised to take the lead in AI research and use, due to its national plan for AI domination and the billions of dollars the government has invested in the field, compared with the US' focus on private-sector development.

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But the reality is that at least until the past year or so, the two nations have been largely interdependent when it comes to this technology. It's an area that has drawn attention and investment from major tech heavy hitters on both sides of the Pacific, including Apple, Google and Facebook in the US and SenseTime, Megvii and YITU Technology in China.

Generation China is a CNET series that looks at the areas of technology where the country is looking to take a leadership position.

"Narratives of an 'arms race' are overblown and poor analogies for what is actually going on in the AI space," said Jeffrey Ding, the China lead for the Center for the Governance of AI at the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. When you look at factors like research, talent and company alliances, you'll find that the US and Chinese AI ecosystems are still very entwined, Ding added.

But the combination of political tensions and the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout both nations is fueling more of a separation, which will have implications for both advances in the technology and the world's power dynamics for years to come.

"These new technologies will be game-changers in the next three to five years," said Georg Stieler, managing director of Stieler Enterprise Management Consulting China. "The people who built them and control them will also control parts of the world. You cannot ignore it."

You can trace China's ramp up in AI interest back to a few key moments starting four years ago.

The first was in March 2016, when AlphaGo -- a machine-learning system built by Google's DeepMind that uses algorithms and reinforcement learning to train on massive datasets and predict outcomes -- beat the human Go world champion Lee Sedol. This was broadcast throughout China and sparked a lot of interest -- both highlighting how quickly the technology was advancing, and suggesting that because Go involves war-like strategies and tactics, AI could potentially be useful for decision-making around warfare.

The second moment came seven months later, when President Barack Obama's administration released three reports on preparing for a future with AI, laying out a national strategic planand describing the potential economic impacts(all PDFs). Some Chinese policymakers took those reports as a sign that the US was further ahead in its AI strategy than expected.

This culminated in July 2017, when the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping released a development plan for the nation to become the world leader in AI by 2030, including investing billions of dollars in AI startups and research parks.

In 2016, professional Go player Lee Sedol lost a five-game match against Google's AI program AlphaGo.

"China has observed how the IT industry originates from the US and exerts soft influence across the world through various Silicon Valley innovations," said Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at global tech market advisory firm ABI Research. "As an economy built solely on its manufacturing capabilities, China is eager to find a way to diversify its economy and provide more innovative ways to showcase its strengths to the world. AI is a good way to do it."

Despite the competition, the two nations have long worked together. China has masses of data and far more lax regulations around using it, so it can often implement AI trials faster -- but the nation still largely relies on US semiconductors and open source software to power AI and machine learning algorithms.

And while the US has the edge when it comes to quality research, universities and engineering talent, top AI programs at schools like Stanford and MIT attract many Chinese students, who then often go on to work for Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook -- all of which have spent the last few years acquiring startups to bolster their AI work.

China's fears about a grand US AI plan didn't really come to fruition. In February 2019, US President Donald Trump released an American AI Initiative executive order, calling for heads of federal agencies to prioritize AI research and development in 2020 budgets. It didn't provide any new funding to support those measures, however, or many details on how to implement those plans. And not much else has happened at the federal level since then.

Meanwhile, China plowed on, with AI companies like SenseTime, Megvii and YITU Technology raising billions. But investments in AI in China dropped in 2019, as theUS-China trade war escalated and hurt investor confidence in China, Su said. Then, in January, the Trump administration made it harder for US companies to export certain types of AI software in an effort to limit Chinese access to American technology.

Just a couple weeks later, Chinese state media reported the first known death from an illness that would become known as COVID-19.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, China has turned to some of its AI and big data tools in attempts to ward off the virus, including contact tracing, diagnostic tools anddrones to enforce social distancing. Not all of it, however, is as it seems.

"There was a lot of propaganda -- in February, I saw people sharing on Twitter and LinkedIn stories about drones flying along high rises, and measuring the temperature of people standing at the window, which was complete bollocks," Stieler said. "The reality is more like when you want to enter an office building in Shanghai, your temperature is taken."

A staff member introduces an AI digital infrared thermometer at a building in Beijing in March.

The US and other nations are grappling with the same technologies -- and the privacy, security and surveillance concerns that come along with them -- as they look to contain the global pandemic, said Elsa B. Kania, adjunct fellow with the Center for a New American Security's Technology and National Security Program, focused on Chinese defense innovation and emerging technologies.

"The ways in which China has been leveraging AI to fight the coronavirus are in various respects inspiring and alarming," Kania said. "It'll be important in the United States as we struggle with these challenges ourselves to look to and learn from that model, both in terms of what we want to emulate and what we want to avoid."

The pandemic may be a turning point in terms of the US recognizing the risks of interdependence with China, Kania said. The immediate impact may be in sectors like pharmaceuticals and medical equipment manufacturing. But it will eventually influence AI, as a technology that cuts across so many sectors and applications.

Despite the economic impacts of the virus, global AI investments are forecast to grow from $22.6 billion in 2019 to $25 billion in 2020, Su said. The bigger consequence may be on speeding the process of decoupling between the US and China, in terms of AI and everything else.

The US still has advantages in areas like semiconductors and AI chips. But in the midst of the trade war, the Chinese government is reducing its reliance on foreign technologies, developing domestic startups and adopting more open-source solutions, Su said. Cloud AI giants like Alibaba, for example, are using open-source computing models to develop their own data center chips. Chinese chipset startups like Cambricon Technologies, Horizon Robotics and Suiyuan Technology have also entered the market in recent years and garnered lots of funding.

But full separation isn't on the horizon anytime soon. One of the problems with referring to all of this as an AI arms race is that so many of the basic platforms, algorithms and even data sources are open-source, Kania said. The vast majority of the AI developers in China use Google TensorFlow or Facebook PyTorch, Stieler added -- and there's little incentive to join domestic options that lack the same networks.

The US remains the world's AI superpower for now, Su and Ding said. But ultimately, the trade war may do more harm to American AI-related companies than expected, Kania said.

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"My main concern about some of these policy measures and restrictions has been that they don't necessarily consider the second-order effects, including the collateral damage to American companies, as well as the ways in which this may lessen US leverage or create much more separate or fragmented ecosystems," Kania said. "Imposing pain on Chinese companies can be disruptive, but in ways that can in the long term perhaps accelerate these investments and developments within China."

Still, "'arms race' is not the best metaphor," Kania added. "It's clear that there is geopolitical competition between the US and China, and our competition extends to these emerging technologies including artificial intelligence that are seen as highly consequential to the futures of our societies' economies and militaries."

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The US, China and the AI arms race: Cutting through the hype - CNET

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Turkish youth and the governments stance on social media – Hurriyet Daily News

Posted: at 1:31 am

When the COVID-19 pandemic is over would you download an app developed by the state that has access to your everyday movement, in order to ensure your medical well-being and security?While 49.8 percent said no, 46.3 percent said yes. Those who dont know are a mere 3.9 percent.

The poll was conducted by the Istanbul Economics Research in cooperation with the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

One interesting finding of the poll was that 63 percent of those aged between 18-24 said they would download it. Are the youth careless about their privacy and less sensitive to their individual liberties?

Not necessarily, according to zgehan enyuva, from Middle East Technical University (ODT). Young generations are digital natives; they are born to the digital world and they accept the fact that it is there. They would not fight downloading the governments app. But they would troll it, manipulate it by entering wrong information, for instance, said enyuva at an online panel last month on the findings of the poll.

The debate on the youth at that panel was particularly timely since it came at a time when both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) both said they will be chasing the votes of Generation Z, the youngest segment eligible to vote in the next elections in 2023.

And interestingly, it was during the pandemic that the representatives of this generation got into direct interaction with the political elites. What pushed them to do so? The university admission exams. The date of the exam was changed twice due to the pandemic. The original date at the beginning of June was postponed to the end of July.

But as the government concluded that it started to take COVID-19 under control, it took forward the date to the end of June. The government wanted 2.5 million children who entered this years exam to go as soon as possible to holiday destinations to revitalize the domestic tourism.

The last change of date infuriated the youth, who had to readjust their working timeline, and they expressed their anger by launching the hashtag #SandiktaGorusuruz (Well see you at the ballot box) on May 4 on Twitter.

Known with his criticism of social media, one would assume President Recep Tayyip Erdoan is not a frequent user of social media, delegating the management of his accounts to his aides. But it was interesting to see that he chose YouTube as a channel of communication for the youth on June 26, one day prior to the university admission exam.

There, too, the youth did not miss the occasion to express their reaction. One cannot know whether he was aware of it at the time.

But his July 2 statement implying additional restrictions to social media platforms like YouTube came as a contradiction to the AK Partys urge to lure the votes of the youth.

Of course, there is still time until 2023. The AK Party might have prioritized an approach to restrict social media, which many believe will help silence dissenting voices, and lift the restrictions perhaps at a later stage, when they will need the votes of the youth. Or, perhaps, they are counting on their allies from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), as it seems to receive more support from the youth, than the AK Party.

Polls suggest the majority of the youngsters dont believe any of the present parties can solve the countrys problems. But they seem to be more attracted by the MHP, Y (Good) Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP). The youth want clearer stances from the parties, explained prominent pollster Bekir Konda in a recent interview.

According to enyuva, an academic with extensive work on youth, the generation that grew up with Harry Potter, a boy who waits to be saved by an old wise man and learns to fight against oppression throughout seven books, is now followed by the generation of Hunger Games, where this time a girl who initially struggles simply to feed her family turns into a rebel fighting oppression in a short time.

Young people are not saving the world, but they are engaged and connected with their local communities, said enyuva. They are staying away from party politics, but they are organized among themselves.

Turkish youth were ordered to stay at home during the pandemic and they obeyed it, according to enyuva, but they also took initiatives to bring care, for instance, for the elderly. And obviously, they are organizing through social media.

But enyuva warns that the learning curve in terms of social media has increasingly been in favor of the governments.

Turkey,

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AI technology will soon replace error-prone humans all over the world but here’s why it could set us all free – The Independent

Posted: at 1:31 am

It has been oft-quoted albeit humouredly that the ideal of medicine is the elimination of the physician. The emergence and encroachment of artificial intelligence (AI) on the field of medicine, however, puts an inconvenient truth on the aforementioned witticism. Over the span of their professional lives, a pathologist may review 100,000 specimens, a radiologist more so; AI can perform this undertaking in days rather than decades.

Visualise your last trip to an NHS hospital, the experience was either one of romanticism or repudiation: the hustle and bustle in the corridors, or the agonising waiting time in A&E; the empathic human touch, or the dissatisfaction of a rushed consultation; a seamless referral or delays and cancellations.

Contrary to this, our experience of hospitals in the future will be slick and uniform; the human touch all but erased and cleansed, in favour of complete and utter digitalisation. Envisage an almost automated hospital: cleaning droids, self-portered beds, medical robotics. Fiction of today is the fact of tomorrow, doesnt quite apply in this situation, since all of the above-mentioned AI currently exists in some form or the other.

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But then, what comes of the antiquated, human doctor in our future world? Well, they can take consolation, their unemployment status would be part of a global trend: the creation displacing the creator. Mechanisation of the workforce leading to mass unemployment. This analogy of our friend, the doctor, speaks volumes; medicine is cherished for championing human empathy if doctors arent safe, nobody is. The solution: socialism.

Open revolt against machinery seems a novel concept set in some futuristic dystopian land, though, the reality can be found in history: The Luddites of Nottinghamshire. A radical faction of skilled textile workers protecting their employment through machine destruction and riots, during the industrial revolution of the 18th century. The now satirised term "Luddite", may be more appropriately directed to your fathers fumbled attempt at unlocking his iPhone, as opposed to a militia.

What lessons are to be learnt from the Luddites? Much. Firstly, the much-fictionalised fight for dominance between man and machine is just that: fictionalised. The real fight is within mankind. The Luddites fight was always against the manufacturer, not the machine; machine destruction simply acted as the receptacle of dissidence. Secondly, government feeling towards the Luddites is exemplified through 12,000 British soldiers being deployed against the Luddites, far exceeding the personnel deployed against Napoleons forces in the Iberian Peninsula in the same year.

Though providing clues, the future struggle against AI and its wielders will be tangibly different from that of the Luddite struggle of the 18th century, next; its personal, its about soul. Our higher cognitive faculties will be replaced: the diagnostic expertise of the doctor, decision-making ability of the manager, and (if were lucky) political matters too.

Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company

Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads

The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare

Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished

Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011

Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions

Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately

Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company

Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads

The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare

Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished

Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011

Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions

Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately

The monopolising of AI will lead to mass unemployment and mass welfare, reverberating globally. AI efficiency and efficacy will soon replace the error-prone human. It must be the case that AI is to be socialised and the means of production, the AI, redistributed: in other words, brought under public ownership. Perhaps, the emergence of co-operative groups made up of experienced individuals will arise to undertake managerial functions in their previous, now automated, workplace. Whatever the structure, such an undertaking will require the full intervention of the state; on a moral basis not realised in the Luddite struggle.

Envisaging an economic system of nationalised labour of AI machinery performing laborious as well as lively tasks shant be feared. This economic model, one of "abundance", provides a platform of the fullest of creative expression and artistic flair for mankind. Humans can pursue leisurely passions. Imagine the doctor dedicating superfluous amounts of time on the golfing course, the manager pursuing artistic talents. And what of the politician? Well, thats anyones guess

An abundance economy is one of sustenance rather than subsistence; initiating an old form of socialism fit for a futuristic age. AI will transform the labour market by destroying it; along with the feudalistic structure inherent to it.

Thought-provoking questions do arise: what is to become of human aspiration? What exactly will it mean to be human in this world of AI?

Ironically; perhaps it will be the machine revolution that gives us the resolution to age-old problems in society.

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AI technology will soon replace error-prone humans all over the world but here's why it could set us all free - The Independent

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U.S. Agencies Issue Business Advisory Warning of Xinjiang-Related Supply Chain Exposure and OFAC Imposes Blocking Sanctions on Chinese Persons Related…

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Key Points

On July 1, 2020, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, State, and the Treasury issued a joint advisory on the Risks and Considerations for Businesses with Supply Chain Exposure to Entities Engaged in Forced Labor and Other Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang. The advisory follows months of increased attention by Congress, the Trump administration, and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) on labor conditions in Xinjiang and the treatment of Uyghurs and members of Muslim minority groups in China. Specifically, the advisory describes a range of specific abuses including mass arbitrary detentions, severe physical and psychological abuse, forced labor and other labor abuses, oppressive surveillance used arbitrarily or unlawfully, religious persecution, political indoctrination, forced sterilization, and other infringements of the rights of members of those groups in Xinjiang. The advisory also describes how these concerns are, in the words of Secretary of State Pompeo, no longer confined to the Xinjiang region but spread across China through government-facilitated arrangements with private sector suppliers.

Against this backdrop, the agencies warn businesses of the reputational, economic, and legal risks of involvement with entities that engage in human rights abuses, including but not limited to forced labor in the manufacture of goods intended for domestic and international distribution. The agencies specifically call on [b]usinesses, individuals, and other persons, including but not limited to academic institutions, research service providers, and investors [businesses and individuals] that choose to operate in Xinjiang or engage with entities that use labor from Xinjiang elsewhere in China to heed the warnings in the advisory and implement human rights-related due diligence policies and procedures.

Towards this end, while the advisory itself is explanatory only and does not have the force of law, the agencies outline a range of ongoing U.S. government efforts to curb alleged human rights abuses related to Xinjiang in the areas of import and export controls and financial sanctions. They also provide specific guidance to importers, exporters, and financial institutions on how to identify Xinjiang-related risks. The advisory further urges businesses and individuals to evaluate their exposure to Xinjiang-related risks and to the extent necessary, implement due diligence policies, procedures, and internal controls to ensure that their compliance practices are commensurate with identified risks and international best practice across the upstream and downstream supply chain, and in making investment decisions.

In particular, the advisory highlights three types of supply chain exposure that broadly track export, import, and financial activities implicating Xinjiang:

(1) Assisting in developing surveillance tools for the PRC government in Xinjiang.

(2) Relying on labor or goods sourced in Xinjiang, or from factories elsewhere in China implicated in the forced labor of individuals from Xinjiang in their supply chains, given the prevalence of forced labor and other labor abuses in the region.

(3) Aiding in the construction of internment facilities used to detain Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups, and/or in the construction of manufacturing facilities that are in close proximity to camps operated by businesses accepting subsidies from the PRC government to subject minority groups to forced labor.

On the subject of surveillance, the advisory recounts recent efforts by the Department of Commerce to list and leverage Entity List restrictions against a range of Chinese technology companies and public security bureaus allegedly implicated in human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang. The advisory goes on to describe the Xinjiang surveillance infrastructure as an unprecedented, intrusive, high-technology surveillance system across Xinjiang, as part of a province-wide apparatus of oppression aimed primarily against traditionally Muslim minority groups. According to the advisory, this system is enabled by technologies including artificial intelligence, facial recognition, gait recognition, and infrared technology, as well as mobile apps used by police to track personal data about Xinjiang residents and cloud databases used to centralize collected information. The advisory notes the role of Chinese surveillance and technology companies supported by PRC government contracts, but also points to evidence that these [Chinese] businesses also get support from foreign academics, scientists, businesses, and investors.

With respect to these concerns, the advisory warns that businesses and individuals engaged in certain activities or who are otherwise directly linked to those in Xinjiang engaged in certain listed activities may face reputational risks and/or trigger U.S. law enforcement or other actions.... These activities include:

On the subject of forced labor, the advisory and related comments by Acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cucinelli recount various recent and ongoing efforts by the Trump administration and Congress to increase scrutiny and enforcement related to labor conditions in Xinjiang and for Muslim minorities throughout the PRC.

As we described in our publication on this topic in March of this year, 2019 marked an uptick in DHS attention to and enforcement of forced labor authorities, beginning with a memorandum of understanding between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Liberty Shared in July 2019 and culminating in Customs and Border Protections (CBP) issuance on September 30, 2019, of what would be the first of a string of Xinjiang-related WROs. Following a series of congressional hearings and NGO activity in late 2019 calling for further scrutiny of labor conditions in Xinjiang, DHS released a formal strategy describing its commitment to combatting human trafficking and forced labor on January 15, 2020, which included among five key goals leveraging DHS law enforcement and national security authorities to investigate, take enforcement action, and refer [human trafficking and forced labor] cases for prosecution. Since CBPs September WRO, it went on to issue additional Xinjiang-related WROs on May 1 and June 17, 2020, and announced on July 1 the seizure of nearly 13 tons of hair worth more than $800,000 that it suspects may have been produced using forced child labor and imprisonment. In describing the seizure, Brenda Smith, CBPs Executive Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Trade, said that [i]t is absolutely essential that American importers ensure that the integrity of their supply chain meets the humane and ethical standards expected by the American government and by American consumers (CBP, July 1).

In Congress, Rep. McGovern and Sen. Rubio introduced, with bipartisan support, companion bills entitled the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (Bill Text,Reuters, March 11), which would, if enacted as written, create significant obligations and restrictions for textile and other importers with supply chains connected directly or indirectly to Xinjiang. While the bills remain pending in Congress, they continue to gain co-sponsors and in some respects have had their political paths cleared by the passage and enactment on June 17, 2020, of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (S. 3744), which received overwhelming support in both the House and Senate before being signed by President Trump. As noted in the advisory, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act directs the President to impose sanctions on each foreign person the President determines is responsible for certain actions with respect to specified ethnic Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region in China.

Against this backdrop, the advisory focuses on several areas of PRC government activity contributing to forced labor conditions in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, including:

(1) The governments mutual pairing assistance program linking companies from eastern China to factories in Xinjiang (described further in Annex 2 of the advisory).

(2) Involuntary transfers of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang to factories across China (described in Annex 3 of the advisory).

(3) The use of prison labor in the cotton, apparel, and agricultural sectors (described further in Annex 4 of the advisory).

To aid businesses and individuals in identifying and evaluating forced labor risks, the advisory goes on to describe six potential indicators of forced labor or labor abuses, including:

The advisory also includes (Annex 3) a nonexhaustive but illustrative list of industries in Xinjiang reported to be involved in labor abuses, including:

Finally, the advisory discusses certain due diligence strategies and challenges for identifying and evaluating Xinjiang-related supply chain exposure. For example, the advisory describes the role and limits of third-party audits as credible sources of information for indicators of labor abuses in light of repressive conditions on the ground. It further encourages businesses and individuals to collaborate with industry groups to share information, develop Chinese language research capabilities, and build relationships with Chinese suppliers and recipients of U.S. goods and services to understand their possible relationships in Xinjiang under the mutual pairing assistance program. The advisory also points to several forced labor and human trafficking due diligence tools produced by the Departments of Labor, State, and Justice, among others (see our March publication for additional resources, including a summary of CBPsnine-step processfor initiating and adjudicating forced labor allegations).

As described in the advisory, the foundational authority for regulating imports of goods produced from forced labor is found in Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307) (see our earlier Client Alert on Section 307here). This law prohibits the importation of [a]ll goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor[,] forced labor[, or] indentured labor, which includes forced or indentured child labor. Such merchandise is not only subject to exclusion and seizure; its importation may lead to criminal investigation of the importer and other parties involved in the import transactionand the imposition of civil or criminal penalties (e.g., 19 U.S.C. 1592 (penalties for fraud, gross negligence, or negligence) and 18 U.S.C. 545 (smuggling goods in the United States)).

In addition to the advisorys guidance for the import and export communities, it also urges entities with banking ties to the U.S. financial system to be aware of requirements for financial institutions to adopt risk-based antimoney laundering, counter terrorist financing, and countering proliferation financing (AML/CFT/CPF) programs to identify, assess, and mitigate risks related to those regulatory regimes. The advisory specifically urges financial institutions to assess their potential exposure to the risk of handling the proceeds of forced labor on behalf of their clients and, as appropriate, implement a mitigation process in line with the risk. As noted in the advisory, money laundering crimes generally require the involvement of proceeds of a specified unlawful activity, which may include sex trafficking, forced labor, and other crimes related to trafficking in persons.

To address these risks, the advisory recommends that financial institutions:

In addition, all U.S. persons and financial institutions with ties to the U.S. financial system must comply with U.S. economic sanctions administered by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

On July 9, OFAC and the State Department took the first concrete Xinjiang-related actions following the July 1 joint advisory. OFAC sanctioned four PRC officials and one Public Security Bureau pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (OFAC Press Release). These individuals and entities include:

As a result of the designations, U.S. persons are broadly prohibited from dealing with these persons and entities that are 50 percent or more owned, directly or indirectly, by one or more Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) (collectively, blocked persons), absent a license from OFAC. U.S. persons must also block and report to OFAC any such property that is in, or comes into, their possession or control.

Also on July 9, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Quanguo, Hailun, and Mingshan under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2020 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act; as a result, they and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States (State Department Press Release). Secretary Pompeo indicated that he is also placing additional visa restrictions on other CCP officials believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention or abuse of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang pursuant to the State Departments October 2019 visa restriction policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

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trusted computing artificial intelligence (AI) information warfare – Military & Aerospace Electronics

Posted: at 1:31 am

ARLINGTON, Va. U.S. military researchers are reaching out to industry to prevent enemy attempts to corrupt or spoof artificial intelligence (AI) systems by subtly altering or manipulating information the AI system uses to learn, develop, and mature.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued a solicitation on Wednesday (DARPA-PA-19-03-09) for the Reverse Engineering of Deceptions (RED) project, which aims at reverse engineering the toolchains of information deception attacks.

A deceptive information attack describes enemy attempts subtly to alters or manipulates information used by a human or machine learning system to alter a computational outcome in the adversarys favor.

Machine learning techniques are susceptible to enemy information warfare attacks at training time and when deployed. Similarly, humans are susceptible to being deceived by falsified images, video, audio, and text. Deception plays an increasingly central role in information warfare attacks.

Related: Research, applications, talent, training, and cooperation frame report on artificial intelligence (AI)

The Reverse Engineering of Deceptions (RED) effort will develop techniques that automatically reverse engineer the toolchains behind attacks such as multimedia falsification, enemy machine learning attacks, or other information deception attacks.

Recovering the tools and processes for such attacks provides information that may help identify an enemy. RED will seek to develop techniques that identify attack toolchains automatically, and develop scalable databases of attack toolchains.

RED Phase 1 will produce trusted-computing algorithms to identify the toolchains behind information deception attacks. The project's second phase will develop technologies for scalable databases of attack toolchains to support attribution and defense.

Related: Air Force researchers ask industry for SWaP-constrained embedded computing for artificial intelligence (AI)

The project also seeks to develop techniques that require little or no a-priori knowledge of specific deception toolchains; automatically cluster attack examples together to discover families of deception toolchains; generalize across several information deception scenarios like enemy machine learning and media manipulation; require just a few attacks to learn unique signatures; and scale to internet volumes of information.

Companies interested should upload 8-page proposals no later than 30 July 2020 to the DARPA BAA Website at https://baa.darpa.mil/. Email questions or concerns to Matt Turek, the DARPA RED program manager, at RED@darpa.mil.

More information is online at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/f108cad02f824285af5ca85e1f7481f4/view.

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Adobe’s New AI Tool Can Recommend Different Headlines and Images To The Varying Audience Of A Blog – Digital Information World

Posted: at 1:30 am

Continuing with their legacy of innovation, Adobe has yet again brought a new way to personalize a blog post for different users with the help of artificial intelligence.

Known by the name of Adobe Sensei, the technology will recommend different headlines, images (taken from the library of Adobe Stock), and also preview blurbs based on improving the experience for the targeted audience.

The new tool has come out as a part of the Adobe Sneaks program which employees use to develop their new ideas in the form of proper demos and then showcase what they have made at the Adobe Summit every year. So, while a lot of people consider Sneaks as merely demos, Adobe Experience Cloud Senior Director Steve Hammond disagree by telling that almost 60% of the Sneaks turn out into real products later after the Summit. Furthermore, Hyman Chung, a senior product manager for Adobe Experience Cloud state that Sneaks, in particular, can be more useful for content creators and content marketers who are already enjoying a great hile in traffic during the coronavirus pandemic and may now be looking for more unique ways to make readers engage more by doing less work.

Chung showed the magic of Experience Cloud with a test blog based on a tourism company. One blog post about traveling to Australia was presented differently to thrill-seekers, frugal travelers, partygoers, and others in the demo. The feature also provides the liberty to writers and editors to make changes in the preview according to the desired audience and even go through the Snippet Quality Score for what Sensei recommends.

Hammond also explained that the demo only illustrates Adobes approach to AI as the company majorly focuses on delivering automation in specific user cases with AI rather than going for building bigger platforms. So, in Senseis case, AI will not change the content but only how it is promoted on the site.

For privacy matters, Hammond has clearly mentioned that the audience personas are only built on what kind of information the user decides to share with the website or brand.

Read next: This New AI-Based Algorithm Created By Microsoft Helps To Restore Old Photos

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CoVID-19 and the use of robots – AI Daily

Posted: at 1:30 am

Back to the OG video. Scientists at the University of Liverpool have unveiled a robotic colleague that has been working non-stop in their lab throughout lockdown. The 100,000 programmable inhuman researcher learns from its results to refine its experiments. "It can work autonomously, so I can run experiments from home," explained Benjamin Burger, PhD student at the University and one of the developers of the robots. Dr Burger jokingly added, "It doesn't get bored, doesn't get tired, works around the clock and doesn't need holidays." Such technology could make scientific discovery "a thousand-fold faster", scientists say. A new report by the Royal Society of Chemistry lays out a "post-COVID national research strategy", using robotics, AI and advanced computing as a part of a set of technologies that "must be urgently embraced" to assist socially distancing scientists continue their look for solutions to global challenges. Future science historians will mark the start of the 21st century as a time when robots took their place beside human scientists. Programmers have turned computers from extraordinarily powerful but fundamentally dumb tools, into tools with smarts. Artificially intelligent programs make sense of knowledge so complex that it defies human analysis. They even come up with hypotheses, the testable questions that drive science, on their own.

For better or worse the robots are about to replace many humans in their jobs, analysts say; coronavirus outbreak is just speeding up the method. "People usually say they need an individual's element to their interactions but Covid-19 has changed that," says Martin Ford, a futurist who has written about the ways robots are going to be integrated into the economy within the coming decades. "[Covid-19] goes to vary consumer preference and really open up new opportunities for automation." Companies large and little are expanding how they use robots to extend social distancing and reduce the quantity of staff that need to physically come to figure. Robots are also getting used to performing roles workers cannot do at home. Walmart is using robots to scrub their floors, fast-food chains like McDonald's have been testing robots as cooks and servers in a service where the health concern is highest. After all this, it is evident that the majority of the jobs that are available to the general people like us are temporary, insecure, and badly paid. Nevertheless, with the advent of using more robots in the workplace, there will be an unjust, unfair and unacceptable distribution of income. Just for the sake of health concerns, the use of robots increased exponentially. All of this is that version of future which haunts the experts of AI.

While automation is likely to foster overall economic prosperity, it comes at the price of increasing inequality. The COVID-19 pandemic is reinforcing both the trend towards automation and its effects. The main challenge here is to ensure that as many as possible will benefit from the positive economic and social effects of automation to prevent a situation in which a substantial part of society is disconnected from the gains brought by technological progress. There are still many things that they will never be able to do better than humans, and there are still more that they will not be able to do as cheaply. We are yet to discover the full range of these things, but we can already find out the key limitations to what robots and AI can do.

First, there appears to be a high quality in human intelligence that, for all its wonders, AI cannot match, namely its ability to influence the uncertain, the fuzzy, and the logically ambiguous.

Second, due to the innate nature of human intelligence, people are extremely flexible in being able to perform umpteen possible tasks, including those that were not foreseen at first.

Third, humans are social creatures instead of isolated individuals. Humans want to deal with other humans. Robots will never be better than humans at being human, and so I conclude- there is no risk for a post-pandemic near future.

Reference: 1. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53029854

2. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52340651

3. https://voxeu.org/article/covid-19-and-macroeconomic-effects-automation

4. Roger Bootle- The AI Economy Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age; Nicholas Brealey Publishing, Sept. 2019

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From National Interests to the Diplomatic Elite, the Foreign-Policy Blob Is Structurally Racist – Foreign Policy

Posted: at 1:30 am

The ongoing awakening to the long-standing realities of discrimination against African Americans is marked by a scope and intensity that were unimaginable even one month ago. Polling shows a significant increase from 2015 among Americans who believe racial and ethnic discrimination in the United States are big problems, and widespread protestsincluding in rural and suburban communities where such activism is unprecedentedagainst systemic racism and police misconduct have erupted. The United States has thus entered a window of opportunity where real social change is more likely than at any time in recent history.

But are there foreign-policy implications for this moment? Could this enhanced recognition of racial discrimination at home result in meaningful differences in how the United States engages with the world? Its tempting to think sobut the answer to both questions is almost certainly no. The structural impediments to more seriously accounting for social justice and human rights in foreign policy are simply too great.

There are at least four such structural factors. First, the composition of foreign-policy shapers (think tank experts, columnists) and implementers (government officials) remains disproportionately white (and male). This is visibly evident from any photograph of senior military officials. But it also pronounced in Americas diplomatic corps. In 2002, 70 percent of all State Department employees were white; by September 2018, it remained nearly unchanged at 68 percent. Moreover, in 2018, the more senior the role, the greater the proportion of employees who were whitegoing from 35 percent for midlevel GS-10 rank up to 87 percent for the most senior civil service executives.

This relatively homogenous composition of the foreign-policy eliteincluding yours trulymatters because the recognition of racial oppression at home and abroad is a glaring blind spot. In 20-plus years of working at academic institutions and think tanks, I can recall very few mentions of race. And even these observations were made not out of inherent concern for racial underrepresentation or discrimination within the United States but because the lack of progress toward combating those twin evils could lessen Americas relative power on the international stage.

Second, the predominant frame through which foreign-policy debates are conveyed is as national security interests. These seemingly neutral concepts are conveyed through principles or objectives, ranked by their purported interest-ness: vital, extremely important, important, or secondary. Those categories come from a landmark 2000 report by the Commission on Americas National Interests, which was representative of many comparable bipartisan initiatives. The 23-member commission included just three women, one of whom was the only person of color (Condoleezza Rice). The sole mention of individual rightsone of 10 important national interestswas in promoting pluralism, freedom, and democracy in strategically important states as much as is feasible without destabilization. The caveats that this august group of geostrategic thinkers added on demonstrate that rights are not universal and should never hinder stabilitymeaning a government that endorses U.S. interests retains power.

Though the facts shift, and allies and adversaries come and go, the narrative of Americas global role is always conveyed via static interests, which remain wholly uninformed by human rights concernsunless it can be weaponized selectively to highlight an adversarys human rights abuses. Foreign policy cannot be reconfigured in enduring and impactful ways without updating the thinking and language that could enable such change.

Third, and relatedly, a consistently missing element in elite foreign-policy debates is the livelihoods of actual humans. The central unit of analysis is countries, which are overwhelmingly evaluated through the words and actions of their leaders. When people are considered at all, it is as demographic clusters that might influence the countries or regions where they residethe Arab youth bulge, Russias population decline, and Chinas graying citizenry are popular examples. So-called voices from the regions are those few media-tested, English-speaking people who reside in the rolodexes of TV producers, serve as visiting think tank fellows, or are escorted through Capitol Hill offices by K Street lobbyists.

Without a reimagining of Americas global influence from the perspective of the individuals who experience hatred, bigotry, and oppression, it is impossible to conceive of a foreign policy that ever truly confronts racism.

Finally, the defining manifestation of U.S. foreign policy for 75 years has been the threat or use of military force. The global architecture required to use force anywhere at any time requires host nation basing and overflight permissions. These, in turn, require permanently stationing U.S. troops abroad, which increases civil wars and enables human rights violations by host nation governments. These governments enjoy military assistance in the form of arms sales. According to the State Departments latest World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers report, the United States is the top arms exporter to the least democratic countries (meaning those in the lowest quintile as determined by Polity Project rankings)accounting for 66 percent of all such sales. In short, to project military power, the United States tolerates or abets subjugation.

Moreover, military spending ($712 billion) absorbs more than half of all federal discretionary spending, towering over the diplomacy and development budget ($48 billion), which could be far better suited to promoting individual rights and freedoms globally. Unfortunately, when you review what country receives the most foreign assistance from the United States, it is a conspicuous list of occupiers, autocrats, and illiberal regimes. The top six proposed recipients for 2020, in order, are: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Uganda. These are so-called strategic partners showered with aid because of their geographic location, security partnerships, or a consequence of great-power competition (Uganda). Congress could vastly increase funding for international and nongovernmental organizations that work to protect groups experiencing prejudice and seriously hold recipients of foreign aid to account for their human rights violations. But there is nothing in recent history to suggest that legislators will fulfill this needed role or even its most basic oversight functions.

For these four reasons, and many others, an overdue turn toward an individual, rights-centric foreign policy is unimaginable, at least for now. The current defensiveness among elite foreign-policy institutions toward considering the role that race plays in U.S. foreign policy is simply too overwhelming. A more diverse group of future foreign-policy thinkers and leaders could one day lead the waybut that group wont arrive in time to keep pace with the current push for racial justice across the rest of U.S. society.

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Cooper, the grocery assistant with AI, gives concierge service – Mail and Guardian

Posted: at 1:30 am

Swedish supermarket Coop Sweden has a retail grocery assistant on its websites. Cooper, as the assistant is called, can help you with dietary requirements, suggest recipes and provide nutritional information. The idea behind Cooper is to increase interaction with consumers while providing a seamless shopping experience.

As consumers move online, implementing the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is becoming more crucial. Cooper is an example of the 4IR in practice. These technologies are changing the way we work, commute, communicate and, as Cooper will tell you, even shop. The 4IR is based on high-level technology such as artificial intelligence, automation, biotechnology, nanotechnology and communication technologies that permeates society. It is a combination of various technologies that can communicate with humans and interact with other devices and programs.

The lockdown necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic has been an important yardstick for understanding behavioural changes in consumers as online options become more commonplace. A recent Nielsen study found that 37% of South Africans say they are shopping more online in this period. As Gareth Paterson, a lead retail analyst at Nielsen South Africa, put it, Amid the strange new world of Covid-19, online grocery shopping has been a lifeline for many South African consumers who have desperately sought out safe and secure shopping alternatives amidst the uncertainty of lockdown living. As a result, available online shopping platforms, especially for groceries, medicines, and other necessary items, have seen a surge in usage over the last few weeks as consumers prefer not to venture into stores and have increasingly opted for these reduced touchpoint alternatives.

According to data from the survey, Nielsen is anticipating that options such as click and collect and online personal shopping will grow exponentially, resulting in prolonged behavioural changes. Retailers have been quick to cotton on to this shift and have responded in innovative and effective ways. For instance, Checkers has launched an app called Checkers Sixty60, which has groceries delivered to you in 60 minutes. There are 5 000 groceries to choose from and options to substitute products if your first choice is not available.

In various industries, the coronavirus has been an important lesson where we are well equipped to deal with the 4IR and where we still have gaps. This will undoubtedly signal a shift in consumer behaviour and many will not return to traditional brick-and-mortar retail. We will increasingly see more retailers adapt to this way of operating. In fact, a report by global management consultancy Accenture last year suggested that South African retailers would see a knock to a business if they did not embrace e-commerce. The emphasis on traditional stores, Accenture argues, means that many retailers are losing out on the potential profits that come with online offerings. Yet, interestingly enough, the current pandemic may subvert this.

This is not to say that online shopping has not had somewhat of a watershed moment in recent years. Perhaps the best example that provides a holistic user experience is the Mr Price app. With it, you can shop online, find the stock in stores and even upload a picture of something you like for it to suggest similar items available on the app through the snap and shop feature. For instance, I could either take or upload a picture of a pair of brown formal shoes that I saw a colleague wear. The app will then pull any stock available at Mr Price that looks similar and provide a list of suggestions accompanied by pictures.

The starkest instance of the popularity of online retail is Black Friday, which has gained popularity in South Africa in the last few years. It is probably the biggest day of the year for retailers, particularly online retailers. In the week leading up to it, consumers receive hordes of massive Black Friday discounts. Some of them may have put together wish lists to check out at the stroke of midnight while others may have used their phones to search for discounts.

AI is tailoring the online experience and it is determining prices, inventory and making distribution far more efficient for your favourite retailers. Another example of this on Instagram is the move to online shopping with a new AR shopping feature that is being rolled out, which allows consumers to try on products digitally before buying them. For example, using your phone you could try on the latest shade of Mac lipstick to see how you would look. This followed a rollout of a checkout feature that allowed you to buy products directly on Instagram without ever leaving the app.

The try-on feature is limited to certain brands and is still in a trial phase, but it is as easy to use as the filters when you create a story that could give you dog ears and a tongue or freckles and blue eyes. The long-term vision is to roll this out with all retail, so, for example, you could see what a couch looks like in your living room. This is not the only technology Instagram has adopted. AI influencers have been introduced, which have been surprisingly popular.

According to consumer insight website LendEDU, three years ago 52.9% of millennials said Instagram has the most influence on them when making shopping decisions. For instance, many followers use the website LIKEtoKNOW.it, which sends a direct link to a product after a shopper likes a post. Creating completely digital influencers is a whole new avenue. Miquela is an AI influencer with 2.4-million followers. Just like any other influencer, her posts are perfectly planned, she has a themed feed, has sponsored content and gives her followers useful advice and brand recommendations. But she does not actually exist she is run with AI technology. This has not stopped her career from taking off.

Last year, she collaborated with Prada for Milan Fashion Week by posting 3D-generated gifs of herself at the Milan show venue wearing the spring/summer 2018 collection. On Pradas Instagram account, she gave their followers a mini-tour of the space, just like any influencer would for a brand. She is not an outlier there are many more like her. Balmain recently announced a Balmain Army made up entirely of computer-generated imagery (CGI) models. There is also a dedicated modelling agency for digital models called The Digital.

Amazon, the largest online retailer by revenue, has 45 000 robots at its warehouses to fulfil orders and a fleet of airborne drones into service for fast deliveries. It is not just online that retail is transforming with the 4IR. There is room to implement this kind of technology at brick-and-mortar level. The introduction of robotics has streamlined checkout processes, for instance. In the United Kingdom, you can self-checkout at grocery stores that weigh your goods to prevent theft. Similarly, there are robots akin to sales assistants in stores in the United States they can help you find an item either verbally or through the touch screen. Some robots can perform real-time inventory tracking.

Best Buy, the US-based electronics store, has an automated system much like the claw machine at the arcade that can retrieve products from shelves. There is scope to streamline and automate processes that will prove to be cost-effective for retailers in the long run. Accelerated adoption of technology will be a key strategic move that could lift retailers margins significantly. Retailers can introduce digital technologies and automation into their operations to reduce costs and enhance the customer experience. They can turn e-commerce from a threat to a growth opportunity, a McKinsey and Company report on the future of work in South Africa reads.

One of the grim realities of this era we are moving into is that there will be knock-on employment, particularly of low-skill workers. The caveat is that there will be demand for graduates and employees with higher skills levels, and we need to meet the demand for graduates not to fall into an even deeper unemployment crisis.

From a retail perspective, there is so much to be done that can augment consumers experiences. As industries vie to be a step ahead in the ever-changing context, consumers and business owners have to be open to these experiences and shifts. As physicist William Pollard once said: Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Johannesburg and deputy chair of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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