Daily Archives: September 16, 2021

BizClik Media Group hosts its second day of Technology, AI, Cyber Live – PRNewswire

Posted: September 16, 2021 at 6:46 am

LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --The second day of the Technology, AI, Cyber Live eventsponsored by BizClik Media Group and Leidosis underway at the Tobacco Dock venue in London.

Following a successful first day of the event, the second day hosts many more technology leaders from the industry, including Sunil Ramakrishnan, Vice President for Consulting at CGI, Brigadier Stefan Crossfields, Head Information Exploitation and Chief Data Officer at the British Army, and many more. The event features talks from leaders across two stages, as well as discussion panels, which attendees can watch live or access online via a dedicated interactive streaming platform.

The ability to interact with the speakers via the online platform allows for virtual attendees to get the most out of the regular networking breaks that take place throughout the day and ask questions to the executives on stage as if they are viewing from the venue.

The list of speakers at the event is inclusive of various technology applications, from digital transformation of clinical research to the implementation of artificial intelligence in military operations, training, and data sharing.

While the second day of the event is underway, tickets are still available to attend virtually. Day three will be solely virtual, running via the Brella viewing and networking platform and will present region-specific content, separated by EMEA, APAC and North America regions.

For more information on the regional day of the event, sign up to the online platform at http://www.technologymagazine.com.

Jason Westgate +44 (0)1603 217530 [emailprotected]

SOURCE BizClik Media

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Lockheed Martin Works with MakerBot for its AI-Assisted Lunar Rover Project for NASA – Plastics Technology

Posted: at 6:46 am

MakerBot, a Stratasys company, announced that Lockheed Martin has extended its use of MakerBot3D printers to produce parts and designs for its upcoming space projects.

In alliance with General Motors, Lockheed Martin is developing a new fully-autonomous lunar rover that could be used for NASAs Artemis program.

Some elements of the rovers autonomy systems early design and development are done at Lockheed Martins R&D facility in Palo Alto, Calif., the Advanced Technology Center (ATC), which is well-equipped with a variety oftechnology, including a lab full of 3D printers.

The latest addition to the ATCs 3D printing lab is the MakerBot METHOD X3D printing platform. With METHOD X, the team can print parts in materials like nylon carbon fiber and ABS giving them the performance they need for accurate testingand due to METHOD Xs heated chamber, the parts are dimensionally accurate without the variable warping that comes with a typical desktop 3D printer.

At ATC, we have multiple MakerBot printers that help with quick turnaround times, said Aaron Christian, senior mechanical engineer, Lockheed Martin Space. I will design a part, print it, and have it in my hand hours later. This allows me to quickly test the 3D-printed part, identify weak points, adjust the model, send it back to print overnight, and then have the next iteration in the morning. 3D printing lets me do fast and iterative design, reducing wait times for a part from weeks to hours.

Lockheed Martin engineers are testing a multitude of applications designed for the lunar rover. Christian and his teammates are using METHOD X to print a number of parts for prototyping and proof of concept for the rover project, including embedded systems housing, sensor mounts, and other custom parts. "The MakerBot METHOD X produces dimensionally tolerant parts right out of the box and for all sorts of projects, you can print multiple parts that can mate together."

Many of these parts are printed in MakerBot ABS and designed to withstand desert heat, UV exposure, moisture, and other environmental conditions. In combination with Stratasys SR-30 soluble supports, parts printed with MakerBot ABS are designed to provide a smoother surface finish compared to breakaway supports. Printing with dissolvable supports also enables more organic shapes that would have been otherwise impossible to produce through traditional machining.

Were in the very early stages of development and the rover we have at ATC is a testbed that we designed and developed in-house. This affordable modular testbed allows us to make quick changes using 3D printing to change the design for other applications, whether it be military, search and rescue, nuclear applications and just extreme environment autonomy needs, Christian said.

3D printing lets the team test parts affordably, iteratively, and modularly. One of the parts printed for the rover was a mount for a LIDAR, a sensor that can help determine the proximity of objects around it. Broadly used in self-driving vehicles, Lockheed Martin uses LIDAR in a lot of its autonomy projects. The mount was designed to sit on the rover, a completely modular robot system, so it was printed in ABS which allows it to handle more extreme conditions than typical PLA. The mount also allows engineers to continuously swap out the LIDAR with different sensors, such as a stereo camera, direction antenna, RGB camera, or a rangefinder. It has a complex organic shape to it, which can be difficult to achieve via traditional machining. The mount also has a lot of access to ensure proper airflow to keep the part cool and temperature-regulated on the robots.

The embedded electronics housing is designed to go inside the rover or in other robots at the ATC. The housing was developed to protect the electronics from anything that could potentially fall on them. Although it was printed in PLA, due to its hexagonal shape, it offers solid strength. Its design also lends itself well to the open airflow needed to cool down the system while still protecting the device.

In addition to printing prototypes, Lockheed Martin is using 3D printing for production parts that will go into various space-going platforms.

A big advantage for testing and flying 3D-printed parts for space applications is that it simplifies the design. You can create more complex shapes. It reduces the number of fasteners needed and part count, which is a huge cost savings because thats one less part that has to be tested or assembled, noted Christian. This also opens up for future in-situ assembly in space. You have designed, printed, and tested the part on Earth. Now you know that, in the future, you can 3D print that same part in space because you have shown that the material and part work there.

Manufacturing in space is expensive but appealing for future applications and missions. Now, bulk materials can be flown into space to be used to 3D print multiple parts and structures, rather than flying each part out individually. Combining that with a digital inventory of part files, 3D printing in space reduces costs by cutting out the need for storage and multiple trips, which make it expensive to fly.

The digital inventory concept helps push our digital transformation forwardyou have digital designs that you can ship up, where you just print the parts and have them assembled on location, Christian said.

Lockheed Martin Research Engineer Alyssa Ruiz inspects a 3D printed electronics housing printed on METHOD X in the ATC's 3D printing lab.

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At Gartner EMEA Conference, Phenom Emphasizes Critical Role of AI-Powered Talent Experiences in the Future of Work – Business Wire

Posted: at 6:46 am

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Phenom, the global leader in Talent Experience Management (TXM), is presenting today at Gartners virtual Reimagine HR EMEA Conference. The session, titled Phenom TXM: The Experience-First Platform for Attracting and Retaining Talent, is scheduled to start at 1:40 p.m. British Summer Time. It will examine how a unified, AI-driven approach to talent experiences helps candidates find the right job faster, employees learn and evolve, recruiters efficiently discover best-fit talent, and hiring managers make stronger decisions with data.

Phenom Associate Vice President for Talent Experience Strategy Dr. Benoit Hardy-Valle will lead the demo, leveraging his years of research on the future of work to demonstrate the connection between every stakeholder interaction throughout the talent lifecycle. Attendees will discover how AI and automation help find the most suitable talent for a position, empower employees to upskill, and accelerate sourcing efforts while cutting time to fill.

Gartners Reimagine HR Conference is the perfect venue to highlight the importance of AI and automations pivotal role in the changing world of HR, said Hardy-Valle. Europes most innovative talent management leaders will be in attendance, and were excited to explore the Phenom platform with them.

Phenoms platform personalizes and automates the talent journey for candidates, recruiters, employees and management with Career Site, Chatbot, CRM, CMS, SMS and Email Campaigns, University Recruiting, Internal Mobility, Career Pathing, Diversity & Inclusion, Talent Marketplace, Gigs, Referrals, Hiring Manager and Analytics.

Over 100 companies across the EMEA market have adopted Phenoms platform to upgrade their talent experiences. As demand for Talent Experience Management has spiked over the last year, Phenom acquired two Europe-based companies and opened an office in Munich to complement its European headquarters in Rotterdam. Over 100 Phenom employees are based in countries including Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

About Phenom

Phenom is a global HR technology company with a purpose to help a billion people find the right job. As a result, employers improve their talent acquisition and talent management efforts by helping candidates and employees find the right job, recruiters identify and engage the right talent, and management optimizes HR strategy, process and spend. Phenom was ranked among the fastest-growing technology companies in the 2020 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and won a regional 2020 Timmy Award for launching and optimizing HelpOneBillion.com.

Headquartered in Greater Philadelphia, Phenom also has offices in India, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

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How could AI and automation tackle the UK’s collapse in car manufacturing? – ITProPortal

Posted: at 6:46 am

1. What are the main factors contributing to the record fall in UK car manufacturing levels?

The U.K. automotive industry has been a pinnacle of excellence over the last century. However, during the last few decades, sectoral shifts and an evolving competitive landscape have adversely affected the industry, with the pandemic further aggravating these challenges by throwing the demand-supply equilibrium into disarray.

The recent and historic fall in car manufacturing in July which saw production fall to its lowest level since 1956 - is a combination of factors. In an industry as resource intensive as car manufacturing, the success of every manufacturer hinges on how well they navigate both local and global market challenges, such as staffing and material shortages. On one hand, the pingdemic has meant that carmakers have had to deal with unexpected staff shortages at a local level. More globally, the rising prominence of semiconductors in todays tech-powered products have meant that if manufacturers cant cope with an ongoing microchip shortage, production often comes to a grinding halt. That said, I am confident that the industry is resilient and will bounce back to normalcy, stronger than ever, and expect technology will play a key role in enabling this resilience in a prominent way.

Many of the challenges faced by manufacturers over the past year were unprecedented, but its important to note the role that technology could have played to predict or mitigate these challenges. For example, a transparent supply chain that helps to spot constraints in global shipments could enable early identification of supply chain bottlenecks and help inform the steps needed to clear them, or plan for alternative sources or logistics. For this reason, a smart, connected supply chain, which leverages data analytics to predict imbalances in supply and demand would have been a great way to proactively respond to an ongoing semiconductor shortage before it contributed to a fall in production.

Another contingency plan would be to standardize product configurations as much as possible, and postpone their final assembly, depending on the availability of critical components like chips and customer demand.

In addition, to counter the possibility of further staffing shortages, manufacturers could consider adopting higher levels of automation. Automation leverages advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), business process management (BPM), and robotic process automation (RPA) to automate tasks normally carried out by humans. But rather than to replace humans, automation could be deployed across functions that use up a lot of staff time, with little return. By automating these tasks, businesses could improve the efficiency and reliability of these tasks, enabling staff to spend a greater amount of their time on the tasks that drive the biggest results.

Ultimately, technology is a tool that carmakers can leverage to strengthen their core, drive intuitive decisions, and build responsive value chains. At Infosys, we call it a Live Enterprise, an organization that continuously senses its environment and responds in an agile, innovative, and rational manner. Think of it as an organism that adapts to its natural environment with the help of technology.

There are of course a number of challenges holding back the sectors digital transformation. Industrial productivity has remained flat for a decade, according to McKinsey. Technical debt from legacy systems continues to be a drag on some smaller manufacturers, sometimes impacting their ability to invest in contemporary systems. On-premise enterprise systems are also weighing down many organizations, preventing them from adopting secure collaboration tools for interactions with external partners and from scaling up globally.

On the other side of the coin, many large organizations are well and truly committed to digital transformation, adopting initiatives like Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution to drive the uptake of smart technology in operations. However, to avoid rushing the process and contributing towards organizational siloes, its important that digital transformation efforts are executed carefully and thoughtfully. For example, AI adoption in manufacturing requires a lot of data, which needs to first be cleaned, structured and stored in a way that ensures security and is compliant with data regulations.

In addition, the high number of use cases which all perform at different levels of maturity - makes AI adoption in manufacturing an incredibly complex endeavor. Therefore, the first and too often overlooked step for manufacturers is to assess the organizations AI maturity, which in turn should inform the organizations transformation strategy. This process involves critically assessing the organizations current state of AI adoption and aims to gain consensus on its short- and long-term goals, before advising on the execution of AI integration. Using these insights, organizations digital transformation efforts could be planned and implemented to ensure that it is cost-effective, low risk, and delivers a ROI.

Its promising to see that initiatives like Made Smarter - commissioned by the government - are supporting small and medium enterprises in their Industry 4.0 journey. The four recommendations made by Made Smarter are - leadership, adoption, innovation, and skills. Amid a staffing shortage, skills are likely to be the biggest challenge holding back the progress of digital transformation, but Im optimistic about what the sector could achieve.

The proven benefits of automation are higher levels of accuracy, quality, productivity, and safety. During a staffing shortage, automation also reduces the uncertainty surrounding the labor required to manufacture automobiles. Leveraging AI, automotive tools can make predictions based on the data they receive, enabling better product uniformity, quality, and safety. When it comes to car manufacturing, where mistakes simply cannot happen, automation provides an additional layer of safety for all involved in the products lifecycle. Given that these tools could also enable remote operation and monitoring, factories could effectively reduce the need for human-to-human contact during the ongoing pandemic.

However, the widespread take-up of these tools has understandably been beset by a range of cultural, financial, and logistical challenges. The primary challenge in the implementation of automation is the skill set required to implement it, from the design of the system to its installation, commissioning, operation, ongoing maintenance, repair, and upgrades. Change management is ultimately a challenge with a workforce that is used to traditional methods of manufacturing. In these circumstances, talent transformation platforms like Infosys Wingspan could play an important role in ensuring upskilling programs are led and informed by technology.

Amid a cultural resistance to automation due to the fear of job losses particularly amidst a pandemic upskilling initiatives could enable staff to take on more human-centric roles while leaving automation to take care of more mundane, time-consuming tasks. Its ultimately crucial that organizations are transparent about their automation plans and have a robust change management strategy in place well ahead of time.

Traditionally, the focus of automation in the industry has been reliant on using robots and Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Today however, newer technologies such as machine learning are enabling automation of various Quality Assurance (QA) processes.

Connected systems are a key prerequisite for deploying automation at scale and therefore any successful automation project must consider an effective integration strategy. This will allow for systems to be managed centrally and communicated throughout an organization. We anticipate that the rollout of 5G will support manage the complexity of this process over the coming years.

In addition, every automation project will need to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements regarding data and AI. The success of any project will depend on selecting the appropriate data for each use case and ensuring its quality and security. At Infosys, we use a simple framework to assess automation possibilities. The complete list of tasks required to make a car are classified into four categories, depending on the amount of programmability and decision making. Jobs that are high on programmability and low on decision making are best suited for automation. These are repeatable tasks with low levels of uncertainty, and so robots in the shop floor should be able to can handle these tasks with ease. Tasks that are low on both factors are jobs that require a human touch. Humans will always perform them.

Tasks that are high on both programmability and decision making are fit for hyperautomation.

Hyperautomation takes automation one step further and involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies and tools which work in harmonized fashion to augment repetitive tasks. Beyond AI, these technologies and tools include machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), business process, management (BPM), intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS), and more.

There are, understandably, worries that hyperautomation will impact job security in the U.K. over the coming decade. However, no single technology can replace the capability of humans. Humans will continue to play a role alongside machines and algorithms. The pandemic has significantly increased the importance of usage of hyperautomation. It will play a key role in manufacturing in the next decade. But jobs that need high levels of creativity, problem-solving, and decision making will continue to involve humans.

Close to 3 million people are employed in the manufacturing sector in U.K. Interestingly, investments for hyperautomation also take into account the workforce planning required to prepare this talent pool for the future. Initiatives for skill development, such as flexible working, apprenticeships, continuous education programs, etc., should be taken up to support lifelong learning and plug the skills gap. With such initiatives, humans will continue to play a key role in hyperautomation. In my view, when machines and algorithms take up repetitive tasks with high levels of accuracy and precision, people get freed up for new and innovative pursuits.

Jasmeet Singh, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Manufacturing, Infosys

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Researchers lay the groundwork for an AI hive mind – The Next Web

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Intels AI division is one of the unsung heroes of the modern machine-learning movement. Its talented researchers have advanced the state of AI chips, neuromorphic computing, and deep learning. And now theyre turning their sights on the unholy grail of AI: the hive mind.

Okay, that might be a tad dramatic. But every great science fiction horror story has to start somewhere.

And Intels amazing advances in the area of multiagent evolutionary reinforcement learning (MERL) could make a great origin story for the Borg a sentient AI that assimilates organic species into its hive mind, from Star Trek.

MERL, aside from being a great name for a fiddle player, is Intels new method for teaching machines how to collaborate.

Per an Intel press release:

Weve developed MERL, a scalable, data-efficient method for training a team of agents to jointly solve a coordination task. A set of agents is represented as a multi-headed neural network with a common trunk. We split the learning objective into two optimization processes that operate simultaneously.

The new system is complex and involves novel machine-learning techniques, but the basic ideas behind it are actually fairly intuitive.

AI systems dont have what the French call une raison dexister. In order for a machine to do something, it needs to be told what to do.

But, often, we want AI systems to do things without being told what to do. The whole point of a machine learning paradigm is to get the machine to figure things out for itself.

However, you still need to make the AI learn the stuff you want it to and forget everything else.

For example, if youre trying to teach a robot to walk, you want it to remember how to move its legs in tandem and forget about trying to solve the problem by hopping on one foot.

This is accomplished through reinforcement learning, the RL in MERL. Researchers tweak the AIs training paradigm to ensure its rewarded whenever it accomplishes a goal, thus keeping the machine on task.

If you think about AI in the traditional sense, it works a lot like a single agent (basically, one robot brain) trying to solve a giant problem on its own.

So, for an AI brain responsible for making a robot walk, the AI has to figure out balance, kinetic energy, resistance, and what the exact limits of its physical parts are. This is not only time-consuming often requiring hundreds of millions of iterative attempts but its also expensive.

Intels MERL system allows multiple agents (more than one AI brain) to attack a larger problem by breaking it down into individual tasks that can then be handled by individual agents. The agents collaborate in order to speed up learning across each task. Once the individual agents train up on their tasks, a control agent utilizes the sum of training to organize a method by which the entire goal is accomplished in our example, making a robot walk.

If this system was people instead of AI, itd be like the hit 1980s cartoon Voltron, where individual pilots fly individual vehicles but they come together to form a giant robot thats more powerful than the sum of its parts.

But since were talking about AI, its probably more helpful to view it more like the aforementioned Borg. Instead of a single AI brain controlling all the action, MERL gives AI the ability to form a sort of brain network.

One might even be tempted to call it a non-sentient hive mind.

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Cerence to Present at the Evercore ISI Autotech & AI Forum – GlobeNewswire

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BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerence Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC), AI for a world in motion, announced today that it will be presenting at the Evercore ISI Autotech & AI Forum on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The format for the conference will be a fireside chat featuring Mark Gallenberger, Cerence CFO, and Rich Yerganian, Vice President of Investor Relations.

The event will be webcast and can be accessed in the Events tab under the Investors section of the Companys website at https://www.cerence.com/investors/events-and-resources

The webcast replay will be available on the Companys website at http://www.cerence.com.

About Cerence Inc.Cerence (NASDAQ: CRNC) is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the mobility world. As an innovation partner to the worlds leading automakers and mobility OEMs, it is helping advance the future of connected mobility through intuitive, powerful interaction between humans and their cars, two-wheelers, and even elevators, connecting consumers digital lives to their daily journeys no matter where they are. Cerences track record is built on more than 20 years of knowledge and nearly 400 million cars shipped with Cerence technology. Whether its connected cars, autonomous driving, e-vehicles, or buildings, Cerence is mapping the road ahead. For more information, visit http://www.cerence.com.

Investor Contact InformationRich YerganianVice President of Investor RelationsCerence Inc.Tel: 617-987-4799Email: richard.yerganian@cerence.com

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Artificial intelligence a new portal to promote global cooperation launched with eight international organisations – Council of Europe

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On 14 September 2021, eight international organisations joined forces to launch a newportalpromotingglobal cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI). The portal is a one-stop shop for data, research findings andgood practices in AI policy.

The objective of the portal is to help policymakers and the wider public navigate the international AI governance landscape. It provides access to the necessary tools and information, such as projects, research and reports to promote trustworthy and responsible AI that is aligned with human rights at the global, national and local level.

Key partners in this joint effort include the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Bank Group.

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AI trial for prostate cancer expanded across five hospitals – Digital Health

Posted: at 6:46 am

Five new hospitals have joined a trial of artificial intelligence aimed at spotting prostate cancer quicker.

Each year more than 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, making it the most common cancer among men. Health tech company Ibex Medical Analytics are hoping to speed up the process of getting diagnosed to enable faster access to treatment.

Its artificial intelligence (AI) Galen Prostate technology aims to reduce diagnostic errors by using clinical-grade solutions to help pathologists detect and grade cancer.

Imperial College Healthcare, University College London, University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and University Hospitals Southampton will be trialling the technology with the potential for it to be adopted more widely across the health system.

Clinicians will compare the results of the AI analysis to current diagnosis methods, where biopsies are reviewed by a pathologist.

Professor Hashim Ahmed, chair of urology at Imperial College London, said: We strongly believe that AI has the potential to enhance both quality and efficiency, which is of paramount importance as we focus on putting every patient on the path to recovery.

Ibexs technology has demonstrated its robustness on several studies abroad and so we look forward to seeing its performance and utility first-hand in the NHS.

The trial is funded as part of the 140m NHSX AI awards. The company one funding in phase three of the AI Awards, working with Imperial College London to trial the technology.

Now, researchers from across the hospitals will put the technology to the test in detecting and grading cancer in 600 prostate biopsies over 14 months.

Joseph Mossel, chief executive and co-founder of Ibex Medical Analytics, said: This funding acknowledges the potential of AI in pathology practice and the scientific evidence and clinical utility we have demonstrated to date.

Matthew Gould, chief executive of NHSX, added: We are currently caught between having too few pathologists and rising demand for biopsies. This technology could help, and give thousands of men with prostate cancer faster, more accurate diagnoses.

It is a prime example of how AI can help clinicians improve care for patients as we recover from the pandemic.

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New O’Reilly Report Reveals Nearly Two-Thirds of Data & AI Professionals Prioritize Job Training in Hopes of Salary Increase – Business Wire

Posted: at 6:46 am

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OReilly, the premier source for insight-driven learning on technology and business, today announced the results of its 2021 Data/AI Salary Survey, which revealed that 64% of respondents took part in training or obtained new certifications in the past year to build upon their professional skills. The survey also found that 61% of respondents participated in training or earned certifications to solicit a salary increase or promotion. Despite this, the average change in compensation over the last three years was $9,252an increase of just 2.25% annually.

Overall, data and AI professionals have a clear desire to learn, with 91% of those surveyed reporting that theyre interested in learning new skills or improving existing skills. The survey revealed that one-third of professionals have dedicated more than 100 hours to training and development, which ultimately led to an average salary increase of $11,000. However, data and AI professionals who participated in one to 19 hours of training only saw an average salary increase of $7,100.

Data and AI professionals are among the most driven employees when it comes to upskilling. Given the shortage of qualified employees in fields like data science, machine learning, and AI, companies that are serious about building out their workforces must invest in learning and training to grow this talent internally, said Laura Baldwin, president of OReilly. With such a wealth of knowledgeable talent and a recovering global economy hungry to fill tech roles in digital work environments, theres never been a better time to invest in employee learning and reskilling.

The 2021 Data/AI Salary Survey, which polled 3,136 respondents, gathered salary findings based on gender, education level, job title, and which tools and platforms they work on daily. Of note, womens salaries were significantly lower than mens salaries, equating to 84% of the average salary for men. This salary differential held regardless of education or job title. For example, at the executive level, the average salary for women was $163,000 versus $205,000 for men (a 20% difference).

Looking at salary by programming language, the survey found that professionals who use Rust have the highest average salary (over $180,000), followed by Go ($179,000), and Scala ($178,000). While Python was most dominantly put to work among survey respondents, professionals who reported using this language earned around $150,000. When comparing salary by tool and platform, respondents who used the most popular machine learning tools saw the following average salaries: PyTorch ($166,000), TensorFlow ($164,000), and scikit- learn ($157,000). The highest salaries were associated with H2O ($183,000), KNIME ($180,000), Spark NLP ($179,000), and Spark MLlib ($175,000).

Additional findings from the 2021 Data/AI Salary Survey include:

Our survey reveals just how dedicated data and AI professionals are to advancing their careers through skill development and training. Getting L&D right is crucial for companies to retain and attract top talent in this hot job market, said Mike Loukides, report author and vice president of content at OReilly.

The full report and survey results are available here: https://get.oreilly.com/ind_2021-data-ai-salary-survey.html.

To learn more about OReillys learning content, training courses, certifications, and virtual events, visit http://www.oreilly.com.

About OReilly

For 40 years, OReilly has provided technology and business training, knowledge, and insight to help companies succeed. Our unique network of experts and innovators share their knowledge and expertise through the companys SaaS-based training and learning platform. OReilly delivers highly topical and comprehensive technology and business learning solutions to millions of users across enterprise, consumer, and university channels. For more information, visit http://www.oreilly.com.

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Arizona Republican says false claims of voter fraud have led to violent threats and a ‘front row seat to many disturbing sides of humanity’ – Yahoo…

Posted: at 6:45 am

A supporter of former President Donald Trump holds up a painting of him outside of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office on Nov. 6, 2020. AP Photo/Dario Lopez-MIlls

In 2020, Stephen Richer defeated incumbent Adrian Fontes by just over 4,000 votes.

He promised to make the office of Maricopa County Recorder "boring" again.

His office maintains the county's list of 2.6 million registered voters.

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Stephen Richer ran on a pledge to make things boring again. And he thought he ran for the best position to do that: as head of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, best known for processing documents, like deeds to a property, in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

But the Arizona Republican - a 30-something attorney who worked at conservative and libertarian think tanks - inherited a responsibility that has made the position of Recorder far more interesting than he would have liked: maintaining the county's list of registered voters. That has put him and his staff right at the center of allegations over the 2020 election.

"This position has given me a front-row seat to many disturbing sides of humanity, really disturbing sides," Richer said on a press call Wednesday. "Our latent herd mentality; our willingness to lie for personal gain; our predilection for violent rhetoric or even physical violence; and our extreme aggression toward contradicting facts and people. It's been eye-opening."

Earlier this month, Richer and a fellow Republican with a normally boring job, Eddie Cook of the Maricopa County Assessor's Office, issued a joint statement rebutting claims from a right-wing activist that "ghost votes" had been cast from vacant lots in the November 2020 election. Meanwhile, for the past several months Cyber Ninjas, a private firm with no experience auditing elections, has been purporting to do just that, searching Maricopa County's 2.1 million ballots for evidence of massive fraud that would discredit President Joe Biden's victory there.

Led by a conspiracy theorist who has made clear that they believe the election was stolen, Cyber Ninjas has accused Maricopa County Republicans of trying to cover up the alleged crime - saying, for example, that they had destroyed key election data, a claim amplified by former President Donald Trump that the company's amateur sleuths later retracted, admitting the information in question had been found on one of their own hard drives.

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The particulars aside, the broader, sprawling conspiracy makes no sense, Richer said. In Maricopa County itself, he noted, "Republicans won the majority of down-ticket races, including mine, in which I unseated the incumbent Democrat chief county elections official - yes, in a race that was supposedly rigged for Democrats."

But we now live in an age of "declining respect for professionals in the public space," Richer said. The knowledge that enables one to counter accusations of voter fraud is itself suspect. It's not enough for local election officials to hand count some 47,000 votes and finding "zero variances," as happened in Maricopa County last year - to be trusted, one has to have already concluded that fraud was there, as the founder of Cyber Ninjas did before being awarded a $150,000 contract from Arizona's Republican-led Senate, supplemented by another $5.7 million in private donations.

We live in an age, Richer argued, where authority is based on the number of followers on Twitter and views on YouTube, at the cost of faith in institutions and the reliability of election results. It's a lucrative hustle for a few, but "it also has a real human cost," he said. "I can't tell you the number of people on my staff who have been targeted, who have been denigrated, [and] who have been harassed."

In the field of politics, and now with vaccines and COVID-19, too many trust the demagogue and grifter - the likes of Cyber Ninjas and their "horror show" of an audit, Richer said - over the boring and competent.

"Oddly, we still know the importance of professionals in our personal lives," he said. "We still send our cars to the mechanic, our taxes to the accountant, and our teeth to the dentist ... And yet, in the public arena, many now seem to favor the loudmouth astrologists over actual experts and professionals."

After weeks of delay, Cyber Ninjas is believed to be on the verge of releasing a report on its findings. In the meantime, legislators from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, inspired by the example and eager to please a base that still supports the losing candidate, are engaging in their own efforts to relitigate the results of 2020.

It's a trend, Richer said, of undermining faith in elections and experts "will soon cause irrevocable damage - if it hasn't already."

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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Arizona Republican says false claims of voter fraud have led to violent threats and a 'front row seat to many disturbing sides of humanity' - Yahoo...

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