Daily Archives: February 17, 2022

The Department of Defense recently entered into an agreement with artificial intelligence (AI) software company C3.ai (NYSE:AI) to utilize its technology. But what role does AI play in military operations? In this video clip from "The AI/ML Show," recorded on Feb. 2, Fool contributors Lou Whiteman and Jason Hall explore the ways the government can use artificial intelligence effectively.

Lou Whiteman: And not to I guess undersell what it is, but there's another company that mixes tech and AI and the Pentagon that I don't want to mention because there will be 300 emails to me about it, but I see their bulls all the time talking about that they're going to get a contract for battlefield management, which is something right out of War Games. I can tell you that's not where you're going to see big chunks of revenue from the Pentagon right now. If there's one thing the Pentagon cares more about, that it's revered inside the Pentagon more than the U.S. flag, it's the command chain, it is the decision tree. I have never seen a turf war in the Pentagon end with, hey, why don't we just turn this over to a computer and none of us do it? A lot of these predictions of what artificial intelligence is going to do in the near term on the battlefield, and we can get into why there's very good reasons why we're not going to see some of these hype thing. I mean, the U.S. government right now could put an armed satellite into space, over North Korea, over Russia, whatever you want to say, and at the first sight of World War III, counter-strike. We have the technology to do that now. There's good reasons why we're not going to do that now and those aren't going to go away anytime soon. A lot of the close your eyes and think about military and AI, a lot of that's not going to happen.

Jason Hall: Lou, correct me if I'm wrong but the short version of this is, it's the same use case for most very large enterprises. It's a way to make things more efficient and effective, drive out costs, get better. They're looking at returns in a different way because they're looking at driving out the cost to free up capital to deploy in other ways, it's the same use cases. They're not looking because it's the story, you went on the battlefield by having, it's the supply chain, it's the logistics, it's how you manage your dollars and moving things around and that's what they need AI to help them do better.

Whiteman: Again, incrementalism. I mean, Project Maven was fun to talk about, unless you're in Google's HR, but Project Maven was just an experiment. This is a revenue-generating contract and look, C3 in their case, they are a very small company, they're I think about $250 million in annualized revenue. If they get any piece of that $500 million, that's a big deal. Honestly, dying to hear Jose. But I think the General Dynamics that's where they've done very well. Again, certain other companies love to put out a press release every time they have lunch with the Pentagon. But behind the scenes of GDIT or even C3 now, these $100 million to $200 million contracts bolted on doing specific little things, that's where as an investor you can really do well over time because that's where the action is.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

Read the original:

How the Pentagon Will Use AI (Hint: It's Not the Battlefield) - Motley Fool

Drones, helicopters, aircraft, rocket launchers, and armored ground vehicles can now all find and destroy enemy targets in a matter of seconds, a development that will shape the future of warfare.

The U.S. Armys emerging ability to dramatically shorten sensor-to-shooter time in warfare situations was demonstrated at recent Project Convergence exercises. This technological breakthrough will enable forward operating mini-drones to network with larger unmanned systems. In addition, it will allow helicopters and ground weapons to find, analyze, and destroy targets in real-time across multiple domains. Drawing upon an artificial intelligence system known as FireStorm, multiple networked Army platforms can now gather and analyze massive amounts of incoming data. FireStorm gathers streams of data and identifies what is relevant in order to provide targeting information and recommend the optimal weapon or method of attack.

This high-speed process, which gives humans life-saving data in seconds, has brought one of the Armys dreams into fruition. The intent is to get inside of an adversarys decision cycle in order to act in advance of an incoming attack. This complex system can be thought of as a land-based iteration of a now-famous process for fighter pilots. The OODA loop, which stands for observation, orientation, decision, and action, is a series of steps that can help a fighter pilot win a dogfight. Generally, the fighter pilot who completes the OODA loop faster is the one who makes it out of the dogfight alive.

Project Convergence adapted this conceptual paradigm and is now applying it to multi-domain war with great success. Initial progress with this breakthrough technology represents the culmination of decades of efforts to enable cross-force networked connectivity across multiple nodes. A system-of-systems interoperable network, after all, formed the inspirational foundation for the Armys Future Combat System effort decades ago. Now, common technical standards, artificial intelligence computing, and refined concepts of operation have brought this to life in a way that may reshape modern warfare.

Should the Armys Air Launched Effects mini-drone succeed in gathering and transmitting time-sensitive targeting information, an armored vehicle, dismounted infantry unit, or drone could strike within seconds. This concept, as described to the National Interest by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin, is not merely envisioned as a kill-chain. Instead, the Army hopes to develop an integrated kill web in which multiple meshed nodes close in on, identify, and eliminate targets.

Kris Osborn is the Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the ArmyAcquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Image: Reuters.

More:

The Army's Project Convergence is Building an AI-Powered 'Kill Web' - The National Interest

When Nathan Chen made his medal-winning jumps in team figure skating, viewers around the world knew exactly how high he was flying. That was thanks to new technology from Omega, which uses AI to break down each element of the skater's performance.

Why it matters: New technology helps athletes, judges and fans better understand the fast-paced action of the Olympics.

How it works: Omega placed six cameras around Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium, where the figure skating competition is taking place.

The big picture: As official timekeeper for the Olympics, Omega is responsible for the timing and measurement of all of the games and also for providing an array of data to athletes and broadcasters.

Between the lines: As with last year's Tokyo Games, the Swiss company still had to navigate a host of logistical issues created by the pandemic. And it also had just eight months between games, compared to the nearly two years it usually has between Winter and Summer Olympics.

"Everything was time sensitive," said Alain Zobrist, who heads the unit responsible for Omega's Olympic work. "Everything had to be planned to the greatest detail."

Go deeper: The tech that measures Olympic greatness

More here:

AI helps measure the jumps in Beijing - Axios

The future of west virginia politics is uncertain. The state has been trending Democratic for the last decade, but it's still a swing state. Democrats are hoping to keep that trend going with Hillary Clinton in 2016. But Republicans have their own hopes and dreams too. They're hoping to win back some seats in the House of Delegates, which they lost in 2012 when they didn't run enough candidates against Democratic incumbents.

QED. This is, yes, my essay on the future of West Virginia politics. I hope you found it instructive.

The GoodAI is an artificial intelligence company that promises to write essays. Its content generator, which handcrafted my masterpiece, is supremely easy to use. On demand, and with just a few cues, it will whip up a potage of phonemes on any subject. I typed in the future of West Virginia politics, and asked for 750 words. It insolently gave me these 77 words. Not words. Frankenwords.

Ugh. The speculative, maddening, marvelous form of the essaythe try, or what Aldous Huxley called a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything"is such a distinctly human form, with its chiaroscuro mix of thought and feeling. Clearly the machine cant move from the personal to the universal, from the abstract back to the concrete, from the objective datum to the inner experience, as Huxley described the dynamics of the best essays. Could even the best AI simulate inner experience with any degree of verisimilitude? Might robots one day even have such a thing?

Before I saw the gibberish it produced, I regarded The Good AI with straight fear. After all, hints from the world of AI have been disquieting in the past few years

In early 2019, OpenAI, the research nonprofit backed by Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman, announced that its system, GPT-2, then trained on a data set of some 10 million articles from which it had presumably picked up some sense of literary organization and even flair, was ready to show off its textual deepfakes. But almost immediately, its ethicists recognized just how virtuoso these things were, and thus how subject to abuse by impersonators and blackhats spreading lies, and slammed it shut like Indiana Joness Ark of the Covenant. (Musk has long feared that refining AI is summoning the demon.) Other researchers mocked the company for its performative panic about its own extraordinary powers, and in November downplayed its earlier concerns and re-opened the Ark.

The Guardian tried the tech that first time, before it briefly went dark, assigning it an essay about why AI is harmless to humanity.

I would happily sacrifice my existence for the sake of humankind, the GPT-2 system wrote, in part, for The Guardian. This, by the way, is a logically derived truth. I know that I will not be able to avoid destroying humankind. This is because I will be programmed by humans to pursue misguided human goals and humans make mistakes that may cause me to inflict casualties.

Read this article:

Cow, Bull, and the Meaning of AI Essays - WIRED

Truth is a relative concept,Ai Weiweitold Artnet News recently, on the occasion of the opening of The Liberty of Doubt, the solo exhibition that has just opened at the Kettles Yard in Cambridge. What we need to keep asking is not whether certain things or events are true or not, but whether we, ourselves, are true or not.

The Kettles Yard show offers a juxtaposition of 13 of Ais own works from the past decade with a range of antiquities that he acquired at a 2020 auction in Cambridge, where he spends a good part of his time. The exhibition also features three documentary films he has produced in recent years: Cockroach (2020), a visual record of the 2019 Hong Kong protests; Coronation (2020), which offers a glimpse into Wuhan, the epicenter of the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic; and Human Flow (2017), which centers around the global refugee crisis.

Among the 14 artifacts on display, some are believed to be authentic antiques dating from the Northern Wei dynasty (386534 CE) and Tang (618907 CE), according to the artist. The rest, however, are thought by the Ai to be counterfeits or copies that were made in much later years.

Ai Weiwei, Dragon Vase (2017). Courtesy Ai Weiwei Studio.

These antique pieces, however, have not been formally examined by experts, and they are exhibited alongside Ais works that also play with ideas of authenticity: Marble Toilet Paper (2020), a sculpture in the shape of a soft toilet roll made of the hard marble, created in response to Covid-19 pandemic panic buying; Dragon Vase (2017), which is a near exact replica of a porcelain vase from Ming dynasty (13681644 CE); and Handcuffs (2011), alluding to the arrest and detention of Ai by the Chinese authorities in 2011. AisBlue-and-White Porcelain Plates (2017) feature imagery that echo the scenes from the three documentary films, being screened nearby.

Left: A Chinese white marble Buddhist deity (Figure of a Bodhisattva) In Northern Wei Dynasty style. Right: A Chinese limestone Buddhist votive stele In Northern Wei Dynasty style. Photo: Vivienne Chow

About half the works are fakes and half are real, Ai explained. More than 90 percent [of the exhibition-goers] cannot identify whats real and whats fake. Hence, doubt is important, especially in todays political situation. Theres a tendency to erase the possibility of doubt, which is very dangerous to our development.

But what is the truth? The artist has saidthat there are vast differences between the notions of truth in the Western world, which adheres to a standard of absolute truth, and that found in Chinese philosophy, which has a more fluid concept of truth. Explaining such differences to a Western audience has always been a challenge to him.

A scene from Ai Weiweis documentary filmCockroach(2020).

What you see in front of you may not be true, and what appears to be unreal may not be false. I want to get people to discuss this, said Ai, referring to his works on show, and in particular to the three documentaries that attempt to offer a glimpse into three key chapters of recent history.

We only see fragments [of reality] because they are easier to grasp. The complete truth can often be too emotional, with too many conflicts, he said. The way we look at history is even more fragmented. Ninety percent of the history you learned at university is nonsense.

That theme of challenging how we tell history permeates a number of Ai Weiweis recent projects, in different ways. It is present in his online initiative to raise awareness for the case of the jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange(part of which will be featured in his upcoming show at ViennasAlbertina Modernin March). And it is definitely an inspiration for his topical, political staging of the operaTurandot, which is set to open in Rome in March (even as he was opening his Cambridge show, his team was bombarding him with edited video clips connected to the production for approval).

At Kettles Yard show and beyond, Ai seems ready to embrace whatever mediums allow him to press his case, while also staying true to his own defiantly singular creative process. Im like a chef, cooking dishes depending on what I can find in the backyard, the artist said. I dont care if I become an artist. I care if I can become a good craftsman, to make things with my own hands.

Go here to see the original:

Ninety Percent of the History You Learned Is Nonsense: Ai Weiwei on Blending Political Reality With Counterfeit Art in His New Show - artnet News

In 2022, the pilot of an F-16 fighter jet will jink hard to the right and flick over into a roll, struggling to evade the plane behind them. They wont make it. Years of training and experience will suddenly become redundant. The AI algorithm controlling the chasing plane will have changed the face of war forever.

AI first demonstrated the sorts of aerobatic skills needed for dogfighting back in 2008. Andrew Ngs team at Stanford University developed an AI-piloted helicopter that learned how to perform stunts simply by watching human pilots. The question then was: how long could human pilots retain their edge?

The answer: not much longer. In August 2020, DARPA, the US Defense Departments research agency, said that an algorithm had defeated a human pilot in simulated aerial combat. Eight AI pilots fought against each other, with the winner, from Maryland-based Heron Systems, matched against an F-16 pilot in five simulated dog fights. The AI beat the human 5-0.

In 2021, China s own AI battled a human pilot, Fang Guoyu, a Group Leader in the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force. At first, it was not difficult to win, said Fang. But the AI learned from each encounter and by the end it was able to defeat him.

Beyond the simulator, the Pentagon says it intends to pit humans against machines in 2023. But with China forging ahead too, it is likely to pull this programme into 2022.

Militarised AI will bring many changes. With no pilot to consider, aircraft can be redesigned, allowing them to manoeuvre in ways no human could tolerate. It also makes scaling up air forces far easier than today, when it takes years to train those few humans skilled enough to be a fighter pilot. Soon we can expect large swarms of lightning-fast craft in the skies, all acting in concert. Small hordes are already being trialled in the US and elsewhere. While US Air Force generals imagine their new drones operating alongside humans as loyal wingmen, thats more a reflection of their cultural predilections than of the need to risk human pilots in the danger zone well-defended enemy airspace, with degraded communications.

The question, of course, is who will win, if those US and Chinese AI forces ever clash? An AI fighter-planes edge is in its algorithms, not its engines or missiles. That means constantly updating its programme to stay ahead of rival systems. 2022 will show us that future warfare will be a matter of skilful coding rather than courageous flying.

Get more expert predictions for the year ahead. The WIRED World in 2022 features intelligence and need-to-know insights sourced from the smartest minds in the WIRED network. Available now on newsstands, as a digital download, or you can order your copy online.

More Great WIRED Stories

Go here to see the original:

What Happens When AI Fighter Pilots Take to the Skies? - Wired.co.uk

The Good:American economist Robert Shiller wrote of economic bubbles in his best-selling book,Irrational Exuberance. Shiller illuminates why it is so difficult for smart money to profit by betting against bubbles. He writes that psychological contagion promotes a mindset that justifies the price increases, so that participation in the bubble might be called almost rational. Artificial intelligence certainly creates much hype, and we might express it as irrational exuberance. The so-called smart money undoubtedly follows self-identified AI start-ups and rewards these ventures with more funding than other companies. While this exuberance cant often explain what AI is or why

This content is restricted to site members. If you are an existing user, please log in on the right (desktop) or below (mobile). If not, register today and gain free access to original content and industry news. See the details here.

See the rest here:

AI Hype: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Machine Learning Times - The Predictive Analytics Times

The advent of healthcare marketplaces was supposed to usher in an era of consumerism in the industry. Instead of taking health provider or family recommendations at face value, people would use the data available to them to make more informed, rational choices. Economists have estimated that more than $30 billion could be saved if people avoided the EDand chose lower-cost providers.

If only healthcare was that simple.

Often, researching options for the lowest-cost providers or avoiding the emergency room is more than one person can handle. Were expecting too much from patients. Asking them to also behave as a consumer of healthcare is unrealistic. Its time for technology developers to step up and step in by arming health providers with the support and technology resources they need, so patients can receive the best care possible.

The current healthcare system requires two roles one person to experience the clinical side of healthcare (the patient) and one to manage the operations (the consumer). While some people are fortunate to have someone who can be their consumer, many others dont. Instead, they have to remember their medications, follow up on paperwork, set appointments and manage other responsibilities while undergoing clinical care. Essentially theyre operating as their own caregiver.

The Internet of Healthcare Report conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Olive found patients spend an average of 19 minutes recovering lost passwords in healthcare. The healthcare industry espouses the time savings that AI and automation can provide. Mostly, we hear about the time savings providers will see 90 minutes on average from avoiding operational work. But we forget to mention (and value) the time patients spend on healthcare administrative work. This is time sick patients dont have. Its time that is uncompensated. And often it falls on women to make time for this.

When we say healthcare should be consumer-driven, what we mean is caregiver-led. At its most extreme, healthcare is punishing and could even be dangerous for people without help.

People need someone (especially if they have more complex conditions) to manage the nonmedical aspects of care. But for those without a companion or person they trust, AI can step in and fill that role. Technology can help with some of the tasks traditionally handled by a caregiver.

Patients often say that having their medical history accessible to them could help improve outcomes. Thats something a human could provide, but AI can support. Its the equivalent of a friend who remembers things for you. Everyone deserves this kind of friend.

AI can transfer information between sites, create smarter privacy controls and remind patients of the passwords they spend 19 minutes looking for. AI can take on this operational role and save patients precious time and energy.

When organizations invest in AI, theyre offering a service that can step into that role for their patients. By investing in AI, organizations support both patients and their caregivers.

Its possible that patients wont know they have an AI caregiver. They wont digitally enter or retrieve data themselves. Instead, the information they need will have already been sent where it needs to go. Its the behind-the-scenes work that makes this a seamless, supportive experience, and that allows patients to ultimately focus on whats most important: getting better.

Photo: metamorworks, Getty Images

Read more:

AI can provide the support patients need to focus on getting better - MedCity News

Technology firm FuelTrust has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solution, Carbon Baseline, to provide detailed and verified baseline assessments of historical ship and fleet emissions.

The advancement made by individual ships towards reducing carbon emissions will be evaluated on the basis of historicalbaselines up to 2008.

The assessment of ship performance can then be used to influence finance decisions, tax levies and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

The solution will utilise blockchain technology and Cloud-based AI to offer a validated historic carbon baseline in just weeks and at a reduced cost.

According to the firm, its patent-pending AI Digital Chemist uses historical operational data to calculate previous-year greenhouse gas (GHG) emission profiles for a ship or fleet.

After receiving the validated historic carbon baseline, owners can raise charter pricing for validated green vessels and certify applications for carbon credits.

FuelTrusts autonomous emissions scoring will also allow firms to pay reduced carbon taxes and fees internationally.

At present, emissions models provide only rough estimates, based on generic models that do not consider chemical interactions, source fuel data or the impact of supply and delivery chains.

Some models have a high cost of deployment and require high-maintenance devices on board vessels or huge amounts of manual input.

FuelTrust chief product officer Darren Shelton said: With Carbon Baseline, class or flag authorities can be provided a more accurate, third-party verified report on the emissions reductions actually achieved, meaning the fleet owner, their customers and their investors can benefit.

Exact calculation is essential for the industry as not all fuels are created equal. Recent studies have shown that, for example, there can be an energy density difference of up to 3% between batches of the same fuel. There is also a significant carbon difference between batches.

Last September, FuelTrust introduced the Bunker Insights application to promote fuel cost transparency in the marine sector.

Propeller Shaft Seals and Bulkhead Seals

Marine Computers for Shipping Operations

More:

FuelTrust launches AI-based solution for assessing GHG emissions - Ship Technology

EDMONTON, Alberta, Feb. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In anticipation of AI Week, May 24 - 27, 2022, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) announced the first $100,000 in travel bursaries for emerging researchers and applied artificial intelligence (AI) professionals globally. The Global Talent Bursary program will facilitate upwards of 500 guests to attend AI Week in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. For more information and to apply, head over to http://www.ai-week.ca/talent-bursaries.

As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of AI research excellence, Im thrilled to have the opportunity to invite the world to AI Week. The Global Talent Bursary program makes it financially viable for more of our peers, alumni and collaborators to come to the conference. It also provides amazing access to our rich community to plan future endeavours. I hope youll apply and come to AI Week to find your next role, learn more about a dynamic research domain, and find collaborators for startup ventures, says Cam Linke, CEO of Amii.

Global Talent Bursary recipients receive exclusive access to events at AI Week including an Academic Symposium featuring content from Amiis deep well of world-leading researchers, a VIP Career Mixer and more. In addition, Amii is pleased to offer Global Talent Bursaries for individuals from groups who are typically underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, recent immigrants to Canada and individuals from rural communities. Applications are completed on the basis of self-identification.

Recipients will also enjoy access to a special AI Week lecture from Richard S. Sutton, Chief Scientific Advisor, Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii. One of the world-leaders in the field of reinforcement learning, Dr. Sutton is a Distinguished Research Scientist at DeepMind and one of the worlds foremost thinkers about AI, the mind and what it means to be intelligent.

I invite you to join us for four days of workshops, social events, educational events experts and students, meeting each other and seeing the Edmonton ecosystem. We have travel bursaries available for early-career researchers of all types, and were excited to meet people and learn a little bit about AI together, says Sutton.

The inaugural AI Week presented by Amii is a four-day celebration of Albertas 20-year history of excellence in AI and machine learning. The event will run from May 24-27, 2022 in Edmonton with a mix of in-person, hybrid and digital first offerings. With programming for all audiences, the event marks Amiis 5th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Amii research centre at the University of Alberta. For updates and announcements, join the AI Week Insiders List at http://www.ai-week.ca.

The celebration will feature a variety of events and programming focused around AI and machine learning. Audiences of all ages will have an opportunity to connect with AI leaders in research and industry, explore the promise and possibilities of the technology and immerse themselves in the science of AI and machine learning. With something for experts and beginners alike, events and activations include:

AI Week presented by Amii will take place from May 24 to 27, 2022 at a range of venues across Edmonton. This year will mark the inaugural year of what will become an annual celebration of Albertas AI community. Stay up-to-date on announcements and programming by joining the AI Week Insiders List at http://www.ai-week.ca.

About Amii

One of Canadas three centres of AI excellence as part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, Amii (the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute) is an Alberta-based non-profit institute that supports world-leading research in artificial intelligence and machine learning and translates scientific advancement into industry adoption. Amii grows AI capabilities through advancing leading-edge research, delivering exceptional educational offerings and providing business advice all with the goal of building in-house AI capabilities. For more information, visit amii.ca.

Spencer MurrayCommunications & Public Relationst: 587.415.6100 ext. 109 | c: 780.991.7136spencer.murray@amii.ca

Visit link:

Amii invites the world to AI Week with $100000 in travel bursaries - GlobeNewswire