Category Archives: Artificial Intelligence

It has become common practice for attackers to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to link tools together so that they can be run in parallel when conducting an attack.

Attackers use AI and ML to take the results from one tool and then allow the other tools to "learn" about the finding and use it against other systems. As an example, if a one tool finds a password, that tool can feed the information to another tool or bot that may conduct the exploitation of one or many systems using the discovered password.

AI and ML allows for an attacker to program a toolset or bot to act like a "real" attacker. As an example, the tool or bot may launch a phishing attack against an organization and then take the results of the phishing tool and conduct other types of attacks just as a human would.

Attackers are building toolsets and bots that use AI and ML techniques to evade detection and blocking the methods already in place within most organizations. Many of these tools (typically open source) can be easily obtained from the Internet. This gives anyone the ability to run the tools against target organizations.

In an article in Wired President Obama expressed his concerns about AI-enabled bots attacking nuclear weapon silos and causing a launch. This intimates that the threat of AI and ML enhanced attacks are a major concern even at the highest level of government.

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How criminals use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - BetaNews

Baidu, the largest search engine in China, has confirmed it will dissolve its healthcare department to focus on introducing artificial intelligence (AI) into this area, Sina Technology reported on Thursday.

Two programs will be added to its AI arm Thumb Doctor andIntelligent Little e. Thumb Doctor is an online platform where real experts answer peoples questions about medical symptoms, while Intelligent Little e is a chatbot project that helps provide instant diagnoses.

The content production team will move into the search engine department. While the rest of the business in the former healthcare department will be shut down, according to a company announcement released on Thursday at noon.

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Axing the department doesnt mean Baidu will stop exploring the field of medical care, Li Yanhong, the CEO of Baidu, said during a Q&A session at the China Entrepreneurs Forum that opened on Wednesday night, officially acknowledge the change. Baidu is aiming to participate in more upstream areas, like gene detection and new drugs R&D.

With big potential in the medical care market on the horizon, Baidus shift into more upstream areas depends on artificial intelligence, says Li.

Li shared his understanding of how AI technology could combine with medical care at the 3rd World Internet Conference in November last year.

According to Li, the first level of this combination is the O2O (or online to offline) intelligent queuing system. This means people make a hospital appointment online, which eliminates the need to queue for hours to register with a doctor. The second level is an intelligent diagnostic system, which allows a chatbot to analyze symptoms to help doctors make better diagnoses.

Baidu Doctor, an app developed by the company in 2015, already offers appointment bookings and self-diagnosis. It seems the company is already heading toward the third and fourth level, which, as Li said, is precision medicine based on gene analysis and new drugs R&D.

Li thinks artificial intelligence will play an important role in analysing the result of gene sequencing, so as to help identify rare and common diseases in advance. The technology is also expected to simulate the efficacy of new drugs, so as to lower the cost and period of R&D.

However, medical care has been a sensitive sector for the search engine giant since the death of Wei Zexi in April 2016.

Wei was a 21-year-old college student who died after receiving experimental treatment for a rare form of cancer (synovial sarcoma) at a hospital he learned about from a promoted search result on Baidu.

The company has since been criticized for its pay-for-placement results that had influenced Weis medical choices and delayed proper treatment.

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Baidu cut its healthcare business to concentrate on artificial intelligence - Asia Times

Artificial intelligence is already well-established in the world of targeted advertising and recommendations. But AIis also rapidly evolving on social media as a way to help brands quickly and efficiently discover, engage with, and learn from their followers.

Although there is no one definition for it, we can summarize social artificial intelligence as a form of collecting and sifting through customer history, user-generated content, and data from social media channels to generate more relevant content and, as a result, a more meaningful experience for followers.

Social AI has the ability to provide a better social experience overall. For an example of what social AI can do, we just have to look at Facebook. The social network has already incorporated artificial intelligence as part of the platform in many innovative ways. From automatic face tagging to the stories that appear in News Feeds, Facebook has been at the forefront of what AI can do for social media by incorporating a variety of AI technologies that help continuously improve the Facebook user experience.

Were now seeing more and more social networks investing in social AI technologies, and although the technology is still relatively young, many remarkable new ways to surface content to audiences have emerged. Yet despite the groundbreaking opportunities social AI presents, many brands have yet to turn to social AI to help engage their audiences, target new customers, and analyze the enormous volumes of social data that is now accessible.

So to help uncover what social artificial intelligence can do, heres a look at some of the exciting opportunities it brings to the table for those in the social media marketing world and how marketers can keep an eye on this trend.

Rather than viewing social AI as a potential threat to the jobs of social media marketers everywhere, John Hagel of Deloitte suggests the new wave of technology could actually be an exciting opportunity for brands to free up their time for more real, creative work. If we allow machines to take care of all of the picayune, everyday tasks that machines can take care of (such as recommendations and customer support), then marketers can have more time to focus on the creative side of their campaigns.

The technology that seems so threatening now may actually become our ally, amplifying our performance improvement by freeing us from the tasks that today keep us tightly locked into the routines of the past and providing us with the data we need to spark even more imagination and creativity, says John Hagel, co-chairman for Deloittes Center for the Edge.

For brands publishing multiple new stories or posts per day, automating a significant portion of those messages can free up time for creating more substantial content and monitoring responses. The New York Times did just this with achatbot that automates some of the 300 messages it posts to its social media pages daily.

The intelligent bot helps predict how stories will perform on social media, as well as suggests which stories editors should boost or promote. An analysis of the campaign found that the posts generated by the chatbot received almost 380 percent more clicks. For marketers seeking to keep engagement levels up while keeping the numbers of hours spent creating content down, this can be a good way to do so.

There are a number of facial recognition technologies, but Facebook took its algorithm to the next level with AI. With its enormous database of images,Facebooks algorithm is constantly improving through machine learning. Every time someone tags a photo, it is added to a huge, user-driven wealth of knowledge that helps advance the entire facial recognition algorithm. According to Facebook, it is able to accurately identify a person 98 percentof the time.

Such facial recognition on a wider scale could have many applications for a brands social strategy. Andy Pringle, head of performance media at digital marketing agencyPerformics, points out just how brands will be able to target followers with facial recognition technology:

You can imagine brands asking people to give permission to be recognised in return for offers while theyre out and about. Say, theres a guy waiting for a bus for ages in front of digital screen running a beer campaign. If that person likes that brand on Facebook you can foresee either the screen saying hi and giving him or her a voucher code for a free beer or triggering a voucher to be delivered to their Facebook inbox.

Its highly unlikely that AI will ever replace all engagements on social media after all, the point of social media is human interaction. But it does give brands the ability to automatically surface the most valuable, important conversations to respond to or engage with.

According to Eli Israel, the founder of Meshfire, a platform that uses AI to assist with social media, the workloads of social media managers have hit an all-time high. Social media teams have been assigned an overwhelming number of tasks that go beyond simple content creation they are required to perform a certain level of customer service as well. Unfortunately, customer support has become a major time suck. He suggests a number of ways social AI can help social media teams alleviate the pressures of providing instant support in order to spend their time much more effectively, including:

Increased investments and resources are being allocated to the advancement of social AI technology to revolutionize social media and a brands role in it. The intersection of social media and AI also presents many new opportunities for social media marketers to shine. To prepare for this new age, Forrester discussed a number of recommendations on how marketers can adapt. And while they mostly refer to the surge in chatbots, the advice can also be applied to adapting to social AI.

As Forresterput it, being human, helpful, and handy is key. The traditional marketer role of pushing content must be readjusted to focusing more on two-way conversations. AI will guide the conversations in the beginning, but humans must step in for the actual engagements.

Marketers must also accept that they will need to serve customers in real time. Instant responses are now expected on social media, and these expectations will only solidify over the next year. Making sure your team is set up internally to handle rapid turnarounds on social media, and implementing automated response technology if needed, will ensure your brand is prepared to deal with these customer expectations in both the short and long term.

There are a number of ethical dilemmas that surround artificial intelligence. Questionable trending algorithms and fake news are just two examples of the side effects weve seen so far. Even though these have created problems more for publishers than for actual brands on social media, its still important to follow these stories as artificial intelligence applications carry over into the marketing world.

The amount of research being put out is still limited, so following the top AI thought leaders who are discussing the intersection of AI and social media is a good way to stay on top of this trend. IBM omnichannel marketer Amber Armstrong, speaker and brand consultant Tamara McCleary, and Marshall Kirkpatrick are just a few people social discovery platformLittle Bird identifies as the best social media thought leaders to follow in this space.

Social AI will constantly change as it further develops, but keeping a close eye on this trend is a good place for marketers to start. There wont ever be a complete substitute for human engagement, but social AI definitely has the potential to be a means to the end goal of social media marketing, which is to truly understand your followers.

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What 'social artificial intelligence' means for marketers - VentureBeat

Forbes

Actress Kristen Stewart's Research Paper On Artificial Intelligence: A Critical Evaluation Forbes There are perhaps two different questions to answer here: (1) What do we think of the paper? (2) What do we think of the headlines that the paper generated? Let me address the second question first, because I think that is the root of the (possible ...

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Actress Kristen Stewart's Research Paper On Artificial Intelligence: A Critical Evaluation - Forbes

Forbes

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Robots: More Brains Than Brawn Forbes Automation and robots for manufacturing have come a long way since Unimate was introduced in the 1960's. The machines that manufacturers are using today are smaller, safer and able to perform more than a single task without expensive programming.

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Artificial Intelligence-Driven Robots: More Brains Than Brawn - Forbes

"The acceptance of AI in the business is going to involve an evolution."

There's plenty of excitement around artificial intelligence: analyst Gartner places it at the top of its top 10 strategic technology trends for 2017. The analyst says the technology has reached a tipping point and AI is beginning to extend its tentacles into every service, thing, or application, and that it will become the primary battleground for technology vendors looking to make money through 2020.

Interim CIO Christian McMahon, who is managing director at transformation specialist three25, acknowledges interest in AI has exploded recently, but he also voices a word of caution.

AI and the Future of Business

Machine learning, task automation and robotics are already widely used in business. These and other AI technologies are about to multiply, and we look at how organizations can best take advantage of them.

"All the major corporates, accelerators and venture capitalists are desperate to find a foothold," he says. "However, I don't think the current AI market is at a stage where breakthrough technologies are about to be unveiled. Rather, it's a vibrant market which seems more conceptual than one of tangible substance."

It is a sentiment that chimes with Omid Shiraji, interim CIO at Camden Council. His organisation holds a huge amount of data and aims to use its knowledge to help people with complex needs. AI could provide a breakthrough in data insight, yet Shiraji says CIOs must focus on value creation.

"The business case for these projects is not easy -- you can take a step into the unknown," says Shiraji. "You sometimes have to rely on intuition rather than ROI to place your investments in these types of projects."

Gartner suggests executives who take a risk on AI projects will be rewarded and should consider experiments in one or two high-impact scenarios. So how will pioneering organisations build a business case for AI? Two IT leaders -- one each from the private and public sectors -- give us their take.

Sizing up the opportunity

Matt Peers, CIO of global law firm Linklaters, draws a parallel between the use of big data and the growing importance of AI. Peers says success in big data is all about being able to make the best use of the information you possess -- and Linklaters, a 175-year-old firm, is a business with more knowledge than most.

Peers says his organisation should be able to turn its history into a competitive advantage. Lawyers need knowledge about legal precedent, previous projects, and internal skills specialisms. He believes advances in AI will help his firm to create more sophisticated approaches to search.

"The key to success is getting the right information to people quickly," he says. "Some of the tools that are being developed for AI will help us search big data. Most of the technologies on the market today are good at clustering and reading contracts, and enabling you to search vast volumes of data for legal themes."

He expects the ability to digitise and search contracts for key legal themes to become commonplace very quickly. Linklaters has already created an AI working group to help analyse services in the marketplace and to work out how these technologies might impact the business.

"Firms in some key sectors are already making a move," says Peers. "We've spent a lot of time in the past 18 months sizing up the opportunities by talking to people, seeing demonstrations, and running proof of concept studies."

Peers recognises AI could also help change the way lawyers work, yet he also expects a cultural challenge. Senior partners trust their associates to spend hours considering the details of legal documents. Trusting computers to undertake the same task in seconds presents a different form of dependence.

"It's a big shift because the reputation of that lawyer and firm is on the line," he says. "The acceptance of AI in the business is going to involve an evolution. It's important to remember that there are many matters in the legal world where AI is not going to be useful for quite a long time. It's going to take a while for computers to provide trusted advice and opinion."

Using data to save lives

Toby Clarke, interim head of IT at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, says AI will have a huge impact on the work of publicly-funded organisations. Moorfields has been working closely with DeepMind Research, a project that involves the Trust sharing a set of one million anonymised eye scans.

The project between Moorfields and DeepMind relies on historic scans, meaning that while the results of the research might be used to improve future care, they will not affect patients today. However, the hope is that discoveries through the initiative will lead to earlier detection and help reduce preventable eye disease.

"What they're doing with that information is truly amazing," says Clarke, referring to the DeepMind project. "It's cutting edge and will make a significant difference."

He says the key to long-term change through AI is being able to use information to inform patient care. And that use presents challenges, particularly in terms of data security and confidentiality. "The real value will come from using non-anonymised data," he says.

"If you have a large repository of information, and you can add big data from demographics, you can start to take make predictions about patient healthcare. You could potentially say when people should be coming in for tests in terms of early warnings."

The current project uses anonymous data. "It has to be that way," says Clarke. "In terms of healthcare, there will always be issues around how you commercialise data, and how you deliver value back to the host organisation and its patients."

Clarke, however, is keen to point out that similar projects could sponsor significant change. "It's difficult for humans to understand the impact of AI right now but the potential is huge," he says. "The technology self-learns and I find it exceptionally exciting. AI is different and new, and it's something everyone involved in IT should be investigating."

In contrast to reports that automation simply leads to job cuts, Clarke says AI - particularly in the role of predictive medicine - could lead to a whole new range of data science roles. "It's not about removing jobs but it is potentially about saving lives," he says.

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Artificial intelligence: How to build the business case - ZDNet

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Forget lessons, these smart skis are loaded with artificial intelligence Mashable Forget lessons, these smart skis are loaded with artificial intelligence. 790. Shares. Share. Tweet. Share. What's This? Image: Piq. 2016%2f09%2f16%2f8f%2fhttpsd2mhye01h4nj2n.cloudfront.netmediazgkymde1lza3.c1888 By Karissa Bell 2017-02-07 ... and more »

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Forget lessons, these smart skis are loaded with artificial intelligence - Mashable

Home > Cool Tech > Swarm AI correctly predicted the outcome of Super

Why it matters to you

If you believe it was impossible to predict the outcome of this year's Super Bowl, you would be wrong. You may want to consult with the AI before your next sporting wager.

The New England Patriots win over the Atlanta Falcons was nothing short of amazing. The Pats rallied back from a 25-point deficit to tie the game in the final minutes of regulation and secured the win with a decisive touchdown drive in overtime. You may still be reeling from the comeback, but heres something else that will blow your mind: Even before the first ball was snapped, an artificial intelligence platformaccurately predicted the outcome of the game, right down to the 34-28 win by the Patriots.

Created by Unanimous, Swarm AI is a prediction engine that combines swarming algorithms with human input. The companys AI software allows real, live human users to gather in artificial swarms, The software monitored the conversations in these swarms and collected group intelligence data that is used to make predictions. The company has a string of success accurately predicting the top four winning horses in a recent Kentucky Derby, the last two Stanley Cup winners, and nine out of 10 NFLplayoff games.

Being able to predict the final score of the Super Bowl is not an easy task, though. Of the 1,641 Super Bowl final score predictions published by Scripps Howard over the past 19 years, only two have been correct regarding Super Bowl final score predictions. For the Super Bowl, Unanimous took on this challenge by creating wars with 40 football fans and connected them online. The platform then used the swarms group intelligence to make its own predictions abouthow many points each team would score.

More:Suggestic wants to use artificial intelligence to help you stick to your diet

So when the Patriots ended up winning the Super Bowl with the predicted 34-28 score, the folks at Unanimous (and everywhere else) were blown away by this uncanny prediction. Now that the Super Bowl is out of the way, Unanimous is eyeing the NHLs Stanley Cup and the NCAA March Madness tournament.

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Artificial Intelligence Correctly Predicted the Patriots' 34-28 Super ... - Digital Trends

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Why C-Levels Need To Think About eLearning And Artificial Intelligence Forbes ... proprietary Artificial Intelligence to analyze each learner's behavior, cognition, engagement and performance to predict learning and future performance, optimize learning content and to create a deep personalized individual and social learning ...

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Harmony AI, which is set to be released on April 15, will be a smartphone app andis reported tofeature a range of traits for customers to choose fortheir sex dolls,while the dolls will also be able to learn about their ownersand respond in different ways accordingly.

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We are developing the Harmony AI system to add a new layer to the relationships people can have with a RealDoll, said CEO Matt McMullen to Digital Trends. Many of our clients rely on their imaginations to a great degree to impose imagined personalities on their dolls. With the Harmony AI, they will be able to actually create these personalities instead of having to imagine them.

They will be able to talk to their dolls, and the AI will learn about them over time through these interactions, thus creating an alternative form of relationship, he continued. The scope of conversations possible with the AI is quite diverse, and not limited to sexual subject matter. We feel that this system, and this technology, will appeal to a segment of the population that struggles with forming intimate connections with other people, whether by choice or circumstance. Furthermore, it will likely attract those who seek to explore uncharted and new territory where relationships and sex are concerned.

Harmony AI will be the first product in a range of next-generation technologies coming from RealDoll over the next few years.

Other planned releases include robotic head systems, which are set to be released by the end of the year, followed by a virtual reality platform in 2018.

RealDoll isnt the first company to recognize the potential connection between sex and AI. This happens because people are lonely and bored It is a symptom of our society, said Robin Labs chief executive Ilya Eckstein, who claims that his companys virtual assistant Robin is used by teenagers and truckers without girlfriends for up to 300 conversations a day.

As well as the people who want to talk dirty, there are men who want a deeper sort of relationship or companionship, hecontinued, adding that some people wanted to talk for no particular reason and were just lonely or bored.

In an interview with Breitbart Tech last year, Futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson also predicted that sex with robots would be fully emotional in the future, addingthat people will eventually spendabout the same as they do today on a decent family-size car.

Artificial intelligence is reaching human levels and also becoming emotional as well, claimed Dr. Pearson. So people will actually have quite strong emotional relationships with their own robots. In many cases that will develop into a sexual one because theyll already think that the appearance of the robot matches their preference anyway, so if it looks nice and it has a superb personality too its inevitable that people will form very strong emotional bonds with their robots and in many cases that will lead to sex.

Charlie Nash is a reporterforBreitbart Tech. You can follow himon Twitter@MrNashingtonorlike his page at Facebook.

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RealDoll Creating Artificial Intelligence System, Robotic Sex Dolls ... - Breitbart News