Category Archives: Ai

Event Our MCubed 2020 conference call for papers is up and running and we cant wait to hear what your organisation has been doing with machine learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics.

This year were particularly interested in how enterprises are taking technologies such as deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and more, and putting them into production, and how this works alongside their traditional applications and infrastructure.

At the same time, wed love to hear from you if you can take our attendees deep into key tools, frameworks, and platforms, and show them how to apply them to everyday problems.

You can find the full list of topics were interested in at the MCubed website, where you can also submit your proposal.

This years venue is the QE II Conference Centre in the heart of London, UK, and the show runs from October 12 to 14.

And if youre interested in all the above, but arent quite ready to take the stage, dont forget that tickets for MCubed 2020 are still at blind-bird prices, saving you 100s on the full ticket price. Click here for full details here.

Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business

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Got an AI secret you want to tell the world? Advice on ML business tools to share? Our MCubed 2020 call for papers is open and waiting for you - The...

Since 1887, the residents of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania have maintained the belief that an immortal groundhog name Punxsutawney Phil can and will predict the end of winter.

As popularized in the film Groundhog Day, each year on February 2nd, Phil is coaxed from his home in a tree stump and displayed to a baying crowd. If Phil sees his shadow therell be six more weeks of winter, say the top-hatted elders; if not, then an early spring is due.

But its time for Punxsutawney to stop terrorizing an innocent rodent, says animal-rights group PETA. Instead, says the organization, Punxsutawney Phil should be replaced with an animatronic groundhog that uses AI to actually predict the weather.

Times change. Traditions evolve. Its long overdue for Phil to be retired, PETA president and founder Ingrid Newkirk, wrote in a letter to the The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

By creating an AI Phil, you could keep Punxsutawney at the center of Groundhog Day but in a much more progressive way. Talk about taking your towns annual tradition in a fresh and innovative direction!

One of PETAs core principles is that animals are not ours to use for entertainment. The group argues that groundhogs are nocturnal creatures who hibernate through winter in the wild. Punxsutawney Phil, by comparison, is kept awake over the holiday period in a habitat attached to the local library, from which he ventures out to tour local schools.

As a prey species, groundhogs actively avoid humans, writes Newkirk. Being in close proximity to the public causes these animals great stress. When Phil is dragged out of his hole and held up to flashing lights and crowds, he has no idea whats happening.

Gentle, vulnerable groundhogs are not barometers, added PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman in a press statement.

But speaking to The Washington Post, Punxsutawney Groundhog Club president Bill Deeley said Phil is treated well and enjoys his routine. Hes fed a healthy diet; his habitat is temperature-controlled; and his burrow inspected by the Department of Agriculture every year. If hes so fearful of the cameras, if hes so fearful of us and of the crowds, why doesnt he make an attempt to run away? Deeley told the Post.

PETAs suggestion is that Phil should get a well-earned retirement, and that the Groundhog Day tradition should be updated for the 21st century. An animatronic rodent could do the job just as well, they say, and with the help of AI it could make more accurate predictions about the weather.

Right now, the business of whether or not Phil sees his shadow is decided in advance by Punxsutawneys elders, but PETA is right that AI could probably do a better job. Just this month, Google shared new research that uses machine learning to predict rainfall much faster than traditional computer systems. And considering the amount of suspicion and misinformation that often surrounds AI predictions, using machine learning could be as mysterious and as unusual event as enlisting a real rodent.

Todays young people are born into a world of terabytes, and to them, watching a nocturnal rodent being pulled from a fake hole isnt even worthy of a text message, writes Newkirk. Ignoring the nations fast-changing demographics might well prove the end of Groundhog Day.

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Punxsutawney Phil should be replaced with AI groundhog, says PETA - The Verge

Putting AI to its broadest use in national defense will mean hardening it against attack.

Americas intelligence collectors are already using AI in ways big and small, to scan the news for dangerous developments, send alerts to ships about rapidly changing conditions, and speed up the NSAs regulatory compliance efforts. But before the IC can use AI to its full potential, it must be hardened against attack. The humans who use it analysts, policy-makers and leaders must better understand how advanced AI systems reach theirconclusions.

Dean Souleles is working to put AI into practice at different points across the U.S. intelligence community, in line with the ODNIs year-old strategy. The chief technology advisor to the principal deputy to the Director of National Intelligence wasnt allowed to discusseverything that hes doing, but he could talk about a fewexamples.

At the Intelligence Communitys Open Source Enterprise, AI is performing a role that used to belong to human readers and translators at CIAs Open Source Center: combing through news articles from around the world to monitor trends, geopolitical developments, and potential crises inreal-time.

Imagine that your job is to read every newspaper in the world, in every language; watch every television news show in every language around the world. You dont know whats important, but you need to keep up with all the trends and events, Souleles said. Thats the job of the Open Source Enterprise, and they are using technology tools and tradecraft to keep pace. They leverage partnerships with AI machine-learning industry leaders, and they deploy these cutting-edgetools.

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AI is also helping the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, notify sailors and mariners around the world about new threats, like pirates, or new navigation information that might change naval charts. Its a mix of open source and classified information. That demands that we leverage all available sources to accurately, and completely, and correctly give timely notice to mariners. We use techniques like natural language processing and other AI tools to reduce the timelines reporting, and increase the volume of data. And that allows us to leverage and increase the accuracy and completeness of our reporting, Souleles said.

The NSA has begun to use AI to better understand and see patterns in the vast amount of signals intelligence data it collects, screening for anomalies in web traffic patterns or other data that could portend an attack. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, has said that he wants AI to find vulnerabilities in systems that the NSA may need to access for foreignintelligence.

NSA analysts and operators are also using AI to make sure they are following the many rules and guidelines that govern how the NSA collects intelligence on foreigntargets.

We do a lot of queries, NSA-speak for accessing signals intelligence data on an individual, Souleles said. Queries require audits to make sure that NSA is complying with thelaw.

But NSA technicians realized that audited queries can be used to train AI to get a jump on the considerable paperwork this entails, by learning to predict whether a query is reportable with pretty high accuracy, Souleles said. That could help the auditors and compliance officers do perform their oversight roles faster. He said the goal isnt to replace human oversight, just speed up and improve it. The goal for them is to get ahead of query review, to be able to make predictions about compliance, and the end result is greater privacy production foreveryone.

In the future, Souleles expects AI to ease analysts burdens, proving instantaneous machine translation and speech recognition that allows analysts to pour through different types of collected data, corroborate intelligence, and reach firmer conclusions, said Jason Matheny, a former director at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and founding director of the new Center for Security and Emerging Technology at GeorgetownUniversity.

One roadblock is the labor of collecting and labeling training data, said Souleles. While that same challenge exists in the commercial AI space, the secretive intelligence community cannot generally turn to, say, crowdsourcing platforms like Amazons Mechanical Turk.

The reason that image recognition works so well is that Stanford University and Princeton published Imagenet. Which is 14 million images of the regular things of the world taken from the internet, classified by people into about 200,000 categories of things, everyday things of the world; toasters, and TVs, and basketballs. Thats training data, says Souleles. We need to do the same thing with our classified collections and we cant, obviously, rely on the worlds Mechanical Turks to go classify our data inside our data source. So, weve got a big job in getting ourdata.

But the bigger problem is making AI models more secure, says Matheny. He says that todays flashy examples of AI, such as beating humans at complex games like Go and rapidly identifying faces, werent designed to ward off adversaries spending billions to try and defeat them. Current methods are brittle, says Methany. He described them as vulnerable to simple attacks like model inversion, where you reveal data a system was trained on, or trojans, data to mislead asystem,

In the commercial world, this isnt a big problem, or at least it isnt seen as one yet, because theresno adversary trying to spoof the system. But concern is rising, in 2017, researchers at MIT showed how easy it was to fool neural networks with 3D-printed objects by just slightly changing the texture. Its an issue that some in the intelligence community are beginning to talk about as well with the rise of new tools such as general adversarialnetworks.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has proposed an AI security program. Matheny said national labs should also play a leading role. To date, this is piecemeal work that an individual has done as part of a research project, hesaid.

Even a bigger problem is that humans generally dont understand the processes by which very complex algorithms like deep learning systems and neural nets reach the determinations that they do. That may be a small concern for the commercial world, where the most important thing is the ultimate output, not how it was reached, but national security leaders who must defend their decisions to lawmakers, say opaque functioning isnt good enough to make war or peacedecisions.

Most neural nets with a high rate of accuracy are not easily interpretable, says Matheny. There have been individual research programs at places like DARPA to make neural nets more explainable. But it remains a keychallenge.

New forms of advanced AI are slowly replacing some neural nets. Jana Eggers, CEO of Nara Logics, an AI company partnered with Raytheon, says she switched from traditional neural nets to genetic algorithms in some of her national security work. Unlike neural nets, where the system sets its own statistical weights, genetic algorithms evolve sequentially, just like organisms, and are thus more traceable. Look at a tool like Fiddler, a web debugging proxy that helps users debug and analyze web traffic patterns, she said. Theyre doing sensitivity analysis with what I would consider neural nets to figure out the why, what is the machine seeing that didntnecessarily.

But Eggers notes that making neural nets transparent also takes a lot of computing power, For all the different laws that intelligence analysts have to follow, the laws of physics present their own challenges aswell.

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Spies Like AI: The Future of Artificial Intelligence for the US Intelligence Community - Defense One

One of the most difficult of tasks on the modern battlefield is predicting where the enemy will attack next. Although the Army has plenty of ways to find the enemy, figuring out his intentions are something else entirely. Now the U.S. Army plans to use drones, target recognition, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to tell the colonels and generals where an attack appears imminent.

The Armys Aided Threat Recognition from Mobile Cooperative and Autonomous Sensors (ATR-MCAS) program aims to operate autonomous air and ground drones throughout the battle zone, keeping a continuous watch on the enemy. The drones identify the enemy weapons systems, such as tanks or infantry fighting vehicles, then pass on the sightings to the AI. The AI will then, according to the Army, identify, classify, and geo-locate entities, obstacles, and potential threats, generating a common operating picture (COP) of the battle zone.

Situational awareness, or the ability to know your position in relation to your surroundings and the enemy, is vitally important in wartime. A U.S. Army tank platoon slugging it out with their enemy counterparts may lose situational awareness due to the demands of combat. ATR-MCAS will allow those tankers to devote their attention entirely on the fight at hand, without the distraction of what is going on to the left and right of them. Once the battle is over, a quick look at the COP will get the platoon up to speed for the next fight.

Locating enemy forces is nothing new, but its what ATR-MCAS does next that makes it next level. The COP data is, processed by an AI-enabled decision support agent, which can make recommendations such as the prioritization of the threats for Soldiers to utilize." For example, if it notices a dozen tanks proceeding down one road towards U.S. troops and four tanks proceeding down a parallel road, it might flag the larger number of tanks as a higher priority.

ATR-MCAS will never take the place of the S-2, the human intelligence officer in an Army battalion. An AI is no match for a trained and experienced human eye, but what it can do is quickly analyze and prioritize information in order of likely importance. The AI can help make sense of dozens or even hundreds of sightings of enemy equipment on the battlefield, ensuring combat leaders and their staff avoid information overload while still bringing threats they might have missed to their attention.

Heres an example of how it might be used: A U.S. Army armor battalion is defending a NATO ally from Russian attack. The commander, a lieutenant colonel, is trying to identify the Russian forces streaming towards him while ensuring his troops are properly armed, fed, and situated. In the chaos of war, with ground, air, unmanned, artillery, and long range missile attacks to contend with, the battalions leadership might miss clues that a Russian brigade is massing and preparing to attack. ATR-MCAS artificial intelligence would piece together the clues and alert the battalion commander of the impending danger.

Source: DVIDS.

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The Army Wants To Use AI To Predict Where the Next Battle Will Take Place - Popular Mechanics

Only about 5% of rare diseases have an effective treatment. Among the other 95% is fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder and leading cause of autism. The search for a cure has been at turns both frustrating and hopeful, but overall an excruciatingly slow process.

Weve put millions of dollars into research, said Dave Bjork, director of community relations for the FRAXA Research Foundation, which was started in 1993 by two parents whose three-year-old had the inherited disorder. We really felt like we needed to change the paradigm.

Hoping to do just that is UK-based tech company Healx, which specializes in leveraging artificial intelligence to repurpose older drugs. In the process, some say it has also provided a model for how companies should be working with patient groups.

Theres never been a more exciting time for these patients because of AI and machine learning, said Tim Guillams, Healx CEO and co-founder. You can get treatment opportunities that most rare diseases didnt have in the past. More importantly, patients and families are really being empowered.

He and Bjork recounted their collaboration during a panel at Biotech Showcase, an event which took place on the sidelines of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this past month. Guillams said he was first approached by FRAXA in 2016 about using its AI to predict treatments for the disease. Healx uses a computational platform to determine which molecules that already exist can be targeted to rare diseases.

Its fragile X work focused on monotherapy as well as drug combinations which presents a particularly vexing problem in drug discovery because vetting a combination of just two or three drugs requires testing billions of possibilities. That work yielded five viable combinations; the companys fragile X treatments are poised to enter Phase 2 trials by this March, Guillams said.

This is really the power of AI, of the right partnerships and of a super-engaged and driven community, he said. And thats why patient groups and advocacy are essential. This is really a game-changer for the rare-disease community.

Because of this, Healx has been able to secure more funding. The firm announced a $56 million funding round in October, 10 months after raising $10 million. Based on the success of its FRAXA partnership, its now scaling up the model and working with other patient groups.

The healthcare system is starting to utilize AI to a greater extent, mostly for guiding clinical trials, but drug discovery remains one of AIs biggest gaps. It normally takes about a decade and a billion dollars, give or take, to develop a new drug from the ground up. Healxs model, developed with FRAXA, may shrink that timeline.

The whole concept of trying to start from scratch and build out a new molecule, where its going to take maybe $3 or $4 billion, to hit a patient population thats only about 300 or 400 patients, is something that has to be disrupted, said Ranjeet Alexis, investment director, Intel Capital, which was part of Healxs latest funding round.

The Healx-FRAXA collaboration not only shows how AI and machine learning can disrupt a space that has been challenging in the past. Its also a wonderful archetype for how biotechs and advocacy groups should be working together, said John Reynders, VP, data sciences, genomics and bioinformatics at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, who moderated the panel.

Now, Guillam said, hes working with a patient group on every one of his firms research projects. He said he hopes to see the first AI-predicted therapies hit the market by 2025 and with the time lags shrinking, possibly sooner. AI and machine learning are really this kind of driving force for improvement of quality of life for those patients and families, he said. Its happening right now.

Thats especially meaningful for parents like FRAXAs founders, Katie Clapp and Mike Tranfaglia, whose son just turned 30.

They had all of these years of trying, said Bjork. I think some of these things will just take a million years. Now in this short period of time, to have some other promising things happening, its exciting for the community and certainly for FRAXA.

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Tech firm using AI to find rare-disease treatments redefines patients' role in research - Technology - MM&M - Medical Marketing and Media

An interview with Veena Somready about her Journey to bring Neuro Rehab VRs technology to clinics around the US.

Veena Somareddy

In the US, it is estimated that the wait time for a physical therapy appointment is close to 30 days. When you finally arrive at the appointment, you will often see patients queued up to visit with a handful of physical therapists. At rehabilitation centers, physical therapy assistants often work closely with physical therapists to alleviate the burden of care.

For patients who have been through traumatic injury such as brain injury, the road to recovery can last months or years. This recovery process includes different types of therapies such as speech therapy, physical therapy, cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, etc.. Often, the long wait and long commute to different healthcare facilities can be just as difficult as the therapy itself.

After the long wait, when patients finally come face to face with a physical therapist, it takes a while to engage with the therapy that often push the patients to their physical limits. Physical therapists can spend a good portion of the time coaching patients to engage with the therapy so that progress can be made.

In the age of innovation, with a combination of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and big data, Neuro Rehab VR is bringing new tools to hospitals, clinics, and rehabilitation centers around the US. These tools will transform the way patients engage in physical therapy, and how physical therapists manage the therapy sessions.

In the last two years, Neuro Rehab VR has grown from a small startup working with one clinic in Fort-Worth, Texas to an expanding startup that is FDA registered, providing a suite of virtual reality applications to physical therapists for clinics in seven states in the US.

This month, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Veena Somready, cofounder of Neuro Rehab VR to find out more about her journey from being a researcher and a technologist to becoming one of the leading entrepreneurs who is bringing cutting-edge technology such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and VR (Virtual Reality) into the healthcare industry.

What inspired you to start Neuro Rehab VR?

In 2017, I was a Ph.D. student, developing Virtual Reality simulation and training systems. My partner Bruce Conti, founder of the Neurological Recovery Center, found me through my research and contacted me. His son was recovering from a brain injury at the time. He wanted to see if there was a way that we could work together to develop tools for the Neurological Recovery Center. I was inspired by his sons story and decided to work with him on the project. Eventually, we started Neuro Rehab VR to develop a suite of products that will allow patients to engage in physical therapy inside the virtual reality environment.

Initially, it mustve been a difficult decision to drop out of your Ph.D. program to work on Neuro Rehab VR full-time. What were your deciding factors?

Initially, the clinic that we worked with inFort-Worth, Texas had an amazing team of therapists, assistants, nurses, and patients. They were all very excited to try the therapy tools that we developed. They gave us very useful and quick feedback on everything that we asked them to try.

By combining cognitive therapy and physical therapy together in our VR therapy applications, immediately, I saw an increased level of motivation and engagement in the patients therapy sessions. The progress these patients made using our applications was inspiring. With big data, I also saw how much the progress reports in our applications helped physical therapists manage their patient relationships.

I realized that we were creating useful tools for both patients and therapists. The motivation from being able to develop tools that had a huge impact made it easier for me to drop out of my PhD program to focus on Neuro Rehab VR full-time.

How does virtual reality physical therapy differ from traditional physical therapy?

Virtual reality physical therapy is used to supplement traditional physical therapy. Often, patients who are recovering from traumatic injuries have a mental barrier due to the internalization of their diagnosis. They often think that due to their diagnosis, they may not be able to perform certain functions. Physical therapists often spend a lot of time during therapy sessions to coach patients through such mental barriers.

Immersed in the virtual reality world, patients often lose their inhibitions quickly. Our virtual reality worlds are engaging and modeled after practical daily tasks such as going shopping in a supermarket, cooking, making the bed, etc.. Patients who think that they cant perform these actions in real life will often end up performing these actions in the virtual reality world.

At the same time, the immersion in the VR world allows the patients to focus on their therapy more than they would in real life. Without distractions, even patients with ADHD can concentrate during their entire therapy session.

By pushing through their own mental barriers and being more focused in their therapy sessions, patients often make more progress during their VR therapy sessions.

Why do you think physical therapists were quick to embrace Neuro Rehab VRs Virtual Reality therapy?

Physical therapists are amazingly creative people. They use many other tools, and equipment to do their job besides the tools that we provide them with. Our tools, such as data and reporting, help physical therapists to better manage their training sessions. They provide evidence of progress for evaluation and payment.

At the same time, our VR therapy applications provide therapists with additional ways to engage with their patients. Often, the physical therapists that we work with teach our engineers to think about physical therapy differently. In turn, our engineers can help to build tools to realize the physical therapists vision. From the beginning, because physical therapists were such an integral part of helping us develop our VR therapy applications, they had a natural motivation to use these VR therapy applications in their day-to-day work.

What challenges did you face in developing Neuro Rehab VRs suite of VR therapy applications?

The biggest challenge that we overcame was the User Interface. Tweaking the initial version of our applications and making the User Interface easy to use took a lot of iterations. Now, our applications take zero setup time. You simply turn on our application and you are good to go. We went through many iterations with physical therapists and watched them as they used our VR therapy applications. It took us almost a year to develop and refine our initial product.

Another challenge we had was to keep pace with the technology. VR technology is constantly changing. In a way, its good because it gives us new possibilities of improving our product. But, it is a big effort to keep up. For instance, recently, the new version of Oculus allowed us to create a completely portable system with just the headset and controller, without dependency on any other devices. This opened up new possibilities for us to market our product.

Whats the one lesson that you learned early that helped you grow Neuro Rehab VR?

From the beginning, we tried to instill communication into our companys culture. We asked our engineers to talk to physical therapists directly so that the design of the product is a team effort. Even now, many enhancements come directly from the conversations between the physical therapists and our engineers. We started with one therapy application. Now, we have eight therapy applications. As we expand to more clinics this year, we are mindful of keeping close relationships with the therapists who use our products.

What is your vision for the future of Neuro Rehab VR?

We hope to expand to cover more therapy areas such as occupational therapy, orthopedics, etc.. We also hope that more clinics will use our line of therapy products. We are going to have a focused period of development soon to rollout more enhancements for some of our products. But, after that, we want more people to gain access to our therapy products. We want to democratize the access to our products. People who want to use our products, who may not have insurance to pay for it, can still be able to gain access to our products.

If you had to identify one critical step that set you on the path to success, what would that be?

In the beginning, when we just started Neuro Rehab VR while I was still in my PhD program, I won this competition called the Big Idea Competition from UT Dallas. This opportunity allowed me to gain access to many mentors.

At that time, I was just a technologist. I did not have any business experience. But, I learned how to pitch, how to have a business sense around technology, and how to grow a business. Most importantly, I learned how the healthcare industry works. Having this background knowledge of the healthcare industry has been crucial for our companys success.

As a female entrepreneur, what is your one piece of advice youd like to give to upcoming female entrepreneurs in the innovation startup space?

Not to be disappointed by setbacks. There are always setbacks. Learn from every experience. Every time you are doing something thats out of your comfort zone, you are leveling up. Its such a good time to be a female entrepreneur and a technologist. There are so many opportunities out there because of the rapid growth of innovation.

Even though VC funding is still low for companies started by female founders, it is growing every year. There are many supportive organizations such as WXR, Backstage Capital, etc.. focused on supporting female entrepreneurs in the innovation startup space. For me, along the way, many mentors helped me connect to the right resources and set me on the right path to success. Some of these mentors are on our companys board today.

For a lot of first time founders, the steep learning curve can be a difficult challenge to overcome, how would you advise these first time founders?

Try to learn new skills. If you are on the business side, try to learn about technology. If you are a technologist, then learn about the business. For example, I had to read books about neuroscience, entrepreneurship, startups, etc.. There are a lot of resources out there to help you. You just have to reach for it.

In the beginning, you can make a lot of mistakes. These resources are out there to help you avoid some of these mistakes. Once you have this mindset, you will be more motivated to learn. For example, one of the biggest lessons I learned early was to give my MVP to our customers and have them try it out. This led to almost a year of refining our product before we put it on the market. By the time we rolled out our product, we knew the value we were creating for our customers.

As we progress in this age of innovation, the use cases of AI and VR will become more prevalent. Neuro Rehab VR is a pioneering company that is making the best use of AI, VR, and big data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the therapy industry. Veena Somreadys valuable experience can serve to inspire a generation of startup founders in this space.

Originally posted here:

This Woman Is Changing The Therapy Industry With VR And AI - Forbes

HOUSTONChris Benson, principal artificial intelligence strategist for global aerospace, defense, and security giant Lockheed Martin, will give the opening keynote presentation at the Connected Plant Conference 2020, which will take place February 25 to 27, 2020, at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kicking off the event, Benson will shed light on the vast role and potential that artificial intelligence (AI) offers as the world embarks on a definitive fourth industrial revolution. While AI is a technology that is still emerging within the power and chemical processing sectors, it has made notable headway in other industries, including defense, security, and manufacturing, and it is commonly hailed as an integral technology evolution that will take IIoT to the next level. Some even describe AI as the software engine that will drive the fourth revolution.

Bensons address will glean from his deep knowledge of AI as a long-time solutions architect for AI and machine learning (ML), and the emerging technologies they intersectincluding robotics, IoT, augmented reality, blockchain, mobile, edge, and cloud. As a renowned thought-leader on AI and related fields, Benson frequently gives captivating speeches on numerous topics about the subject. He also discusses AI with an array of experts as co-host of the Practical AI podcast, which reaches thousands of AI enthusiasts each week. Benson is also the founder and organizer of the Atlanta Deep Learning Meetupone of the largest AI communities in the world.

Before he joined Lockheed Martin, where he oversees strategies related to AI and AI ethics, Benson was chief scientist for AI and ML at technology conglomerate Honeywell SPS, and before that, he was on the AI team at multinational professional services company Accenture.

This years Connected Plant Conference, scheduled for February 25 to 27 in Atlanta, is the only event covering digital transformation/digitalization for the power and chemical process industries. Presenters will explore the fast-paced advances in automation, data analytics, computing networks, smart sensors, augmented reality, and other technologies that companies are using to improve their processes and overall businesses in todays competitive environment.

To register or for more information, see: https://www.connectedplantconference.com

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Access Intelligence Announces Artificial Intelligence Strategist Chris Benson Will Deliver the Keynote Presentation at Connected Plant Conference 2020...

Today, Scotiabank announced a donation of $750,000 to the University of Ottawa to launch the Scotiabank Fund for the AI & Society Initiative.

"At Scotiabank, our investment in AI goes beyond the implementation of new tools and technologies," says Lora Paglia, Senior Vice President of Global Risk Management, Analytics. "We are committed to being leaders in the development of principles, guidelines and training for the appropriate application of this powerful technology. This partnership with the University of Ottawa allows us to help our future leaders as they build the future of AI."

"uOttawa is pleased to accept this generous gift from Scotiabank, which will further strengthen our proven capacity to provide Canadians with leading-edge research and regulatory guidance for the ethical use of AI in business, in medicine and elsewhere in our daily lives," Says Jacques Frmont, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa. "As we shift more and more of our social decision-making to intelligent algorithms, it is vital that we also critically assess the implications of these tools to ensure that they are designed and managed for the benefit of all. By supporting this work, Scotiabank's gift will ultimately benefit all Canadians."

The Scotiabank Fund for the AI & Society Initiative will help to identify solutions to essential issues related to ethical AI and technology development, and will offer students opportunities to gain experience in an emerging field that will have profound implications for Canadian society in the years to come.

Scotiabank believes that this investment in education is an investment in the long-term security, stability and growth in the future of our communities. Investments in academic institutions position young people to acquire the skills and resources necessary to support their success in the digital economy and Scotiabank looks forward to witnessing the resulting accomplishments and milestones in the years ahead.

"The rapid pace of AI development adds to the challenges facing modern societies, their citizens and raises multiple ethical, legal, and policy issues. For 20 years, uOttawa has been a global leader of the conversation technology law, ethics and policy for the benefits of Canadians and the rest of the world. Building on those previous successes, the new initiative will help shape a more inclusive digital society," says Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau, who will lead the new AI + Society Initiative.

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Scotiabank gifts $750000 to University of Ottawa to support AI research - Finextra

Last year, Finland launched a free online crash course in artificial intelligence with the aim of educating its citizens about the new technology. Now, as a Christmas present to the world, the European nation is making the six week program available for anyone to take.

Strictly speaking, its a present for the European Union. Finland is relinquishing the EUs rotating presidency at the end of the year, and decided to translate its course into every EU language as a gift to citizens. But there arent any geographical restrictions as to who can take the course, so really its to the worlds benefit.

The course certainly proved itself in Finland, with more than 1 percent of the Nordic nations 5.5 million citizens signing up. The course, named Elements of AI, is currently available in English, Swedish, Estonian, Finnish, and German.

There are already quite a few sites for people looking to learn the basics of AI, but Finlands offering seems worth your time if youre interested in such a thing. Its nicely designed, offers short tests at the end of each section, and covers a range of topics from the philosophical implications of AI to technical subjects like Bayesian probability. Its supposed to take about six weeks to finish, with each section taking between five and 10 hours.

The Finnish government said it originally designed the course to give its citizen an advantage in AI. Finland has always punched above its weight in the tech and education, so it seems sensible to marry the two strengths. Megan Schaible of the tech consultancy Reaktor, which helped design the course, said the motivation was to prove that AI should not be left in the hands of a few elite coders.

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Finland is making its online AI crash course free to the world - The Verge

Tis the end of the year when pundits typically dust off the crystal ball and take a stab at what tech, and its impact on consumers,will look like over the next12 months.

But we're also on the doorstep of a brand-new decade, which this time around promisesfurther advances in 5G networks, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, self-driving vehicles and more, all of which willdramatically alter the way we live, work and play.

So what tech advances can we look forward to in the new year? Heres what we can expect to see in 2020 and in some cases beyond.

(Photo: Getty Images)

The next generation of wireless has showed up on lists like this for years now. But in 2020, 5G really will finally begin to make its mark in the U.S., with all four major national carriers three if the T-Mobile-Sprint merger finally goes through continue to build out their 5G networks across the country.

Weve been hearing about the promise of 5G on the global stage for what seems like forever, and the carriersrecently launched in select markets. Still, the rollout in most places will continue to take time, as will the payoff: blistering fast wireless speeds and network responsiveness on our phones, improved self-driving cars and augmented reality, remote surgery, and entire smartcities.

As 2019 winds down, only a few phones can exploit the latest networks, not to mention all the remaining holes in 5G coverage. But youll see a whole lot more 5G phone introductions in the new year, including what many of us expect will be a 5G iPhone come September.

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When those holes are filled, roughly two-thirds of consumers said theyd be more willing to buy a 5G-capable smartphone, according to a mobile trends survey by Deloitte.

But Deloitte executive Kevin Westcott also said that telcos will need to manage consumer expectations about what 5G can deliver and determine what the killer apps for 5G will be.

The Deloitte survey also found that a combination of economic barriers (pricing, affordability) and a sense that current phones are good enough, will continue to slow the smartphone refresh cycle.

Are you ready for all the tech around you to disappear? No, not right away.The trend towards so-called ambient computing is not going to happen overnight, nor is anyone suggesting that screens and keyboards are going to go away entirely, or that youll stop reaching for a smartphone. But as more tiny sensorsare built into walls, TVs, household appliances, fixtures, what you're wearing, and eventually even your own body, youll be able to gesture or speak to a concealed assistant to get things done.

Steve Koenig, vice president of research at the Consumer Technology Association likens ambient computing to Star Trek, and suggests that at some point we won't need to place Amazon Echo Dots or other smart speakers in every room of house, since well just speak out loud to whatever, wherever.

Self-driving cars have been getting most the attention. But its not just cars that are going autonomous try planes and boats.

Cirrus Aircraft, for example, is in the final stages of getting Federal Aviation Administration approval for a self-landing system for one of its private jets, and the tech, which I recently got to test, has real potential to save lives.

How so? If the pilot becomes incapacitated, a passenger can press a single button on the roof of the main cabin. At that moment, the plane starts acting as if the pilot were still doing things. It factors in real-time weather, wind, the terrain, how much fuel remains, all the nearby airports where an emergency landing is possible, including the lengths of all runways, and automatically broadcasts its whereaboutsto air traffic control.From there the system safely lands the plane.

Or consider the 2020 version of the Mayflower, not a Pilgrim ship, but rather a marine research vessel from IBM and a marine exploration non-profit known as Promare. The plan is to have the unmanned shipcross the Atlantic in September from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts. The ship will be powered by a hybrid propulsion system, utilizing wind, solar, state-of-the-art batteries, and a diesel generator. It plans to follow the 3,220-mile route the original Mayflower took 400 years ago.

Two of Americas biggest passions come together. esports is one of the fastest growing spectator sports around the world, and the Supreme Court cleared a path last year for legalized gambling across the states. The betting community is licking their chops at the prospect of exploiting this mostly untapped market. Youll be able to bet on esports in more places, whetherat a sportsbook inside a casino or through an app on your phone.

One of the scary prospects about artificial intelligence is that it is going to eliminate all these jobs. Research out of MIT and IBM Watson suggests that while AI will for sure impact the workplace, it wont lead to a huge loss of jobs.

That's a somewhat optimistic take given an alternate view thatAI-driven automation is going to displace workers.The research suggests thatAI will increasingly help us with tasks that can be automated, but will have a less direct impact on jobs that require skills such as design expertise and industrial strategy. The onus will be on bosses and employeesto start adapting to newroles and to try and expandtheirskills, effortsthe researchers say will beginin the new year.

The scary signs are still out there, however. For instance, McDonalds is already testing AI-powered drive-thrus that can recognize voice, which could reduce the need for human order-takers.

Perhaps its more wishful thinking than a flat-out prediction, but as Westcott puts it, Im hoping what goes away are the 17 power cords in my briefcase. Presumably a slight exaggeration.

But the thing we all want to see are batteries that dont prematurely peter out, and more seamless charging solutions.

Were still far off from the day where youll be able to get ample power to last all day on your phone or other devices just by walking into a room. But over-the-air wireless charging is slowly but surely progressing. This past June, for example, Seattle company Ossiareceived FCC certification for a first-of-its kind system to deliver over-the-air power at a distance. Devices with Ossias tech built-in should start appearing in the new year.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone featuring a foldable OLED display.(Photo: Samsung)

We know how the nascent market for foldable phones unfolded in 2019 things were kind of messy.Samsungs Galaxy Fold was delayed for months following screen problems, and even when the phone finally did arrive, it cost nearly $2,000. But that doesnt mean the idea behind flexible screen technologies goes away.

Samsung is still at it, and so is Lenovo-owned Motorola with its new retroRazr. The promise remains the same: let a devicefold or bend in such a way that you can take a smartphone-like form factor and morph it into a small tablet or computer. The ultimate success of such efforts will boil down to at least three of the factors that are always critical in tech: cost, simplicity, andutility.

Data scandals and privacy breaches have placed Facebook, Google and other others under the government's cross-hairs, and ordinary citizens are concerned. Expect some sort of reckoning, though it isn't obviousat this stage what that reckoningwill look like.

Pew recently put out a report that says roughly 6 in 10 Americans believe it is not possible to go about their daily lives without having their data collected.

"The coming decade will be a period of lots of ferment around privacy policy and also around technology related to privacy," says Lee Rainie, director of internet and technology research at Pew Research Center. He says consumers will potentially have more tools to give them a bit more control over how and what data gets shared and under whatcircumstances. "And there will be a lot of debate over what the policy should be."

Open question: Will there be national privacy regulations, perhaps ones modeled after the California law that is set to go into effect in the new year?

It isnt easy to explain quantum computing or the field it harnesses, quantum mechanics. In the simplest terms, think something exponentially more powerful than what we consider conventional computing, which is expressed in1s or 0s of bits. Quantum computing takes a quantum leap with whatare known as "qubits."

And while IBM, Intel, Google, Microsoft and others are all fighting for quantum supremacy, the takeaway over the next decadeis that thetechmay helpsolve problems far faster than before, fromdiagnosing disease to crackingforms of encryption, raising the stakes in data security.

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What tech do you want or expect to see? Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter.

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AI, 5G, 'ambient computing': What to expect in tech in 2020 and beyond - USA TODAY