Recent advances in deep learning have rekindled interest in the imminence of machines that can think and act like humans, or artificial general intelligence. By following the path of building bigger and better neural networks, the thinking goes, we will be able to get closer and closer to creating a digital version of the human brain.
But this is a myth, argues computer scientist Erik Larson, and all evidence suggests that human and machine intelligence are radically different. Larson’s new book, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do, discusses how widely publicized misconceptions about intelligence and inference have led AI research down narrow paths that are limiting innovation and scientific discoveries.
And unless scientists, researchers, and the organizations that support their work don’t change course, Larson warns, they will be doomed to “resignation to the creep of a machine-land, where genuine invention is sidelined in favor of futuristic talk advocating current approaches, often from entrenched interests.”
Continue reading: https://bdtechtalks.com/2021/09/20/myth-of-artificial-intelligence-erik-larson/

Drone technology could be a new frontier for farmers looking to keep a watchful eye on the health of their crops.
Connecticut Public Radio's Patrick Skahill recently trekked through Belltown Hill Orchards in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, to learn how the future of farming might be overhead.
Listen in: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/09/20/drones-farmers-crops

Female co-founders and founders of dynamic, fast growth start-ups were amongst the winning 50 including Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder & CEO of food sharing app OLIO and Melinda Nicci, sports psychologist founder and CEO of Baby2Body, the health and wellbeing coaching app for pregnancy and motherhood.
The Inspiring Fifty awards exist to spotlight women excelling in technology careers across the UK and take place at London Tech Week, the largest and most influential tech event in Europe, from 20th – 24th September.
The Inspiring Fifty are important role models for encouraging more girls and women in technology, as well as inspiring future leaders and entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps. 
Supporters of Inspiring Fifty, both men and women, champion women and minorities in tech and value the positive impact that increased diversity has on everything from business growth and innovation to culture and productivity.
Says Elka Goldstein, Interim co-CEO at accelerateHER:
Continue reading: https://www.techdigest.tv/2021/09/top-50-uk-women-in-technology-announced.html

In terms of belongingness and the feeling of value, women feel less compared to their male counterparts, according to a new survey by The Achievers Workforce Institute 2021 Culture Report.
The recently published 2021 Culture Report shows that more than a quarter (26 percent) of global participants reported a strong sense of belonging in the workplace. However, this number increases to almost a third for men (31 percent) while only about one in five (22 percent) for women. There were more than 3,500 employed respondents globally. Additionally, the survey correlated a strong sense of belonging with higher engagement, job commitment, productivity, and a host of other factors.
Continue reading: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/265576/20210919/women-don-t-feel-belong-workplace-new-survey-reveals.htm

One would think that in a world turned upside down by a global pandemic, upskilling oneself would lead to better labor force participation.
Well, this may be true — unless you’re a woman, apparently. 
More women than men upskilling during the pandemic
A report released by Coursera earlier this month highlighted some sobering — but arguably unsurprising — yet, promising insights into the Malaysian and global labor markets affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. 
The Coursera Women and Skills Report 2021 found that during the pandemic, women globally have been upskilling and reskilling themselves through online learning — at a higher rate than men. The following numbers are important because these were significant increases catalyzed by the pandemic. 
During the height of the pandemic in 2020, 54% of all new enrollments on Coursera were by women, whereas it was 45% in 2019. 
In 2019, 38% of all course enrollments were by women. In 2021, it rose seven percent to 45%. Enrollments from women in entry-level Professional Certificates increased from 25% in 2019 to 37% in 2021.
Continue reading: https://techwireasia.com/2021/09/despite-more-upskilling-women-still-punished-by-growing-employment-gender-gap/

Are we moving towards the feminization's of work? And could this lead to a more balanced workplace and economy? I believe the answer to both of these questions is yes.
The idea seems antithetical in the face of the “she-cession,” in which women dropped out of the workforce during the pandemic at higher rates than men in order to buffer a sudden loss of childcare and shoulder the burdens of home-schooling.
But I think this is a coronavirus-related blip that will correct as schools reopen and life returns to some semblance of normal. Most women have to work, economically. In the US, it’s nearly impossible to support a family on the median income of $67,521 if they don’t. Many, of course, simply want to.
The bigger trend is that over the coming years, women will also dominate and redefine much of the labor market.
Consider that female students now represent 59.5 per cent of all college attendees. That trend has been brewing for some time, but it received a big tailwind from Covid-19. While many mothers stayed at home with children, more men dropped out of college than women, in part to support families. In a few years, those college-educated women will have a leg up in the job market. 
Continue reading: https://www.ft.com/content/23031dc0-8225-49de-b78f-c1d331db5c54

While work from home has generated a whole new level of security threats, the Internet of Things (IoT) promises to up the ante even further.
Think about the havoc caused by hundreds of millions of people suddenly working from home. This severely weakened and, in some cases, overwhelmed corporate security defenses. IoT could magnify such challenges. 
IoT may not be top of mind right now due to the scourge of ransomware. But it will no doubt rise again as the number of connected things grows exponentially.  
5 Trends In IoT Security
1. Another Major Expansion Of The Organizational Perimeter
The IoT magnifies the threat level by several orders of magnitude. We are talking here about tens of billions of connected devices.
IDC estimates that 41.6 billion connected IoT devices or things will be generating 79.4 ZB of data by 2025. Every one of them opens a door to the enterprise.  
Vendors have already come out with some IoT security-related tools. But the market remains largely in its infancy. Once the threat becomes more real, vendor offerings will multiply and grow in sophistication. For organizations, this all adds up to them having to secure an ever-widening net. 
Continue reading: https://www.datamation.com/security/iot-security-trends/

Unleash Live has teamed up with Optus, Amazon Web Services and electricity provider Endeavour Energy in a technology trial it is hoped will convince aviation authorities to relax laws limiting the ways drones can be used to monitor critical infrastructure.

The Sydney-based start-up, which recently scored an $8 million investment from SafetyCulture, will use its AI-based video-recognition platform to identify damage to Endeavour Energy’s power lines in real time, using machine learning (ML) to analyze high-resolution videos shot by drones flying above and around the powerlines.
CASA rules require trained drone pilots stay within line of sight of any drones, preventing their automated use in patrolling infrastructure like power lines. 
Scott Ryan, chief assets & operating officer at Endeavour Energy, said Unleash Live’s ML system will be used to identify problems such as cracked insulators, loose tie wires or missing parts on the power poles: problems that could lead to outages or even bushfires if they are not found and fixed quickly.
Ultra High-Definition videos shot by the drones will be live-streamed over Optus’ 5G network, back to Unleash Live’s ML system, which is hosted on Amazon Web Services.
The year-long trial is backed by a $648,000 grant from the federal government, as part of the government’s “5G Innovation Initiative” that is designed to generate demand for 5G networks in industry sectors including agriculture, mining, construction and manufacturing.
Continue reading: https://www.afr.com/technology/will-drones-be-allowed-to-monitor-critical-infrastructure-20210919-p58t19

Planes used to be the only aircraft crisscrossing the sky. Now there are drones, more frequent rocket ships and — soon — flying taxis, elbowing their way into the National Airspace System.
Why it matters: Managing the congestion up above is becoming an urgent mission for America's traffic cops in the sky. While the Federal Aviation Administration has a stellar safety record when it comes to commercial aviation, its challenge is infinitely more complex today.
State of play: The FAA manages about 45,000 flights per day, including commercial airlines, cargo carriers and private planes.

• At peak moments on any given day, it could be handling as many as 5,400 flights at once, an agency spokesman tells Axios.
• It's fascinating to watch these flight patterns in real time on sites like flightaware.com or flightradar24.com.
• But that's just the beginning.

By the numbers: There are roughly 870,000 registered drones in the U.S. — four times the number of commercial and private planes.
Continue reading: https://www.axios.com/air-traffic-drones-airplanes-skies-crowded-11208585-265c-461a-bb7b-e673b11160ca.html

The adoption of blockchain technology has been lower compared to other emerging technologies mainly due to the difficulty in understanding the technology. Blockchain as a service (BaaS) holds the key to driving mainstream adoption of the technology as it enables companies to experiment with blockchain-based applications.
Listed below are the key technology trends impacting the blockchain theme, as identified by GlobalData.
BaaS
BaaS is a type of software as a service (SaaS) hosted in the cloud that allows businesses to rent rather than build a blockchain platform. It functions as a fully managed blockchain service ranging from project creation to full deployment. BaaS gives companies the possibility to experiment with blockchain applications and smart contracts and take advantage of the benefits of blockchain, such as improved transparency and data security, without worrying about developing expensive in-house competencies and resources.
BaaS is particularly appealing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The BaaS model is dominated by cloud service giants like IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Continue reading: https://www.verdict.co.uk/blockchain-technology-trends/

Corruption is one of the several unwanted constants around the world every year. According to an annual report created by Transparency International, in 2020, corruption was still widely prevalent—and, in several nations, rampant—across the world. What’s worse, the study also found that corruption affected and, in many cases, slowed down the global response to Covid-19. Unfortunately, the point about corruption and catastrophes feeding off each other still holds true to this day. While corruption in certain countries may be higher than in others, it is still everybody’s problem to solve. Eliminating it completely is impossible as it is too ingrained in our social fabric now.
Modern technology provides some hope in our collective crusade against global corruption. For example, the usage of AI in smart cities shows how governments can disperse citizen services efficiently with minimal to non-existent corruption present in the process. The potential of AI to detect and, eventually, reduce corruption in various places of power is high. Therefore, a problem like corruption needs to be handled with AI, along with other elements to support it.
Data Mining to Combat Corruption
Unsurprisingly, if AI is used as an anti-corruption tool, big data and analytics will contribute heavily towards the process too. Here’s a summary of how big data can assist AI with combating corruption: Initially, big data will play a significant role in collecting and compiling corruption-related information from various sources. This information is then fed into AI systems for processing and predictive analysis.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/naveenjoshi/2021/09/19/can-ai-be-used-as-an-anti-corruption-tool/?sh=7d18cad87569

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offer profoundly important strategic benefits and hazards for global businesses and government agencies. One of AI’s greatest strengths is its ability to engage in behavior typically associated with human intelligence — such as learning, planning, and problem solving. AI, however, also brings new risks to organizations and individuals, and manifests those risks in perplexing ways.
It is inevitable that AI will soon face increased regulation. Over the summer, a number of federal agencies issued guidance, commenced reviews, and sought information on AI’s disruptive and, sometimes, disorderly capabilities. The time is now for organizations to prepare for the day when they will need to demonstrate their own AI systems are accountable, transparent, trustworthy, nondiscriminatory, and secure.
There are real and daunting challenges to managing AI’s new risks. Helpfully, organizations can use some recent agency initiatives as practical guides to create or enhance AI risk-management frameworks. Viewed closely, these initiatives demonstrate that AI’s new risks can be managed in many of the same established ways as risks arising out of human intelligence. Below, we’ll outline a seven-step approach to bring a human touch to an effective AI risk-management framework. But before that, let’s take a quick look at the various related government activity over the summer.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/19/want-to-develop-a-risk-management-framework-for-ai-treat-it-like-a-human/

When it comes to AI, algorithmic innovations are substantially more important than hardware — at least where the problems involve billions to trillions of data points. That’s the conclusion of a team of scientists at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), who conducted what they claim is the first study on how fast algorithms are improving across a broad range of examples.
Algorithms tell software how to make sense of text, visual, and audio data so that they can, in turn, draw inferences from it. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-3 was trained on webpages, ebooks, and other documents to learn how to write papers in a humanlike way. The more efficient the algorithm, the less work the software has to do. And as algorithms are enhanced, less computing power should be needed — in theory. But this isn’t settled science. AI research and infrastructure startups like OpenAI and Cerberus are betting that algorithms will have to increase in size substantially to reach higher levels of sophistication.
The CSAIL team, led by MIT research scientist Neil Thompson, who previously coauthored a paper showing that algorithms were approaching the limits of modern computing hardware, analyzed data from 57 computer science textbooks and more than 1,110 research papers to trace the history of where algorithms improved. In total, they looked at 113 “algorithm families,” or sets of algorithms that solved the same problem, that had been highlighted as most important by the textbooks.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/20/improved-algorithms-may-be-more-important-for-ai-performance-than-faster-hardware/

We all know how artificial intelligence has solidified its presence in many spheres of human activity. The technology has been receiving a huge amount of recognition from industry players, investors, and businesses who initiated to equip their machines with intelligence, deploy automation and employ robots to do carry out works.
Even though the applications of artificial intelligence are out in the light, a lot of facts about the technology are still kept in the shadow.
Analytics Insight unravels some interesting facts about artificial intelligence that are less spoken.
A considerate number of AI bots are female
Even though the tech space is lacking women employees, it is noted that most of the AI bots are female. When we talk to Siri, Alexa or Cortana, we get the reply in a female voice. The reason behind this is that both men and women are attracted to female’s voices.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/interesting-but-less-spoken-facts-about-artificial-intelligence/

It’s likely no surprise that women are still massively underrepresented in the tech industry today. Even with a push over the last few years for more women to pursue careers in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—they still make up a tiny percentage of those working in the field. Data shows that of those doing STEM-focused research around the world, less than 30% are women.
Unfortunately, when you narrow the focus down to women working specifically in smart tech and machine learning, the numbers get even smaller. You might wonder why it matters who is behind the data and code creation when it’s essentially a non-gendered machine or robot doing all of the processing, but it does. Machines aren’t inherently biased, but humans are, and when humans are teaching machines how to learn and what to do, our biases naturally become part of the code.
Our computers, phones, and any other smart devices that we use today utilize technology that mimics our thought and decision-making processes. So if the majority of people working with smart tech such as artificial intelligence are men, then anything that utilizes AI will skew towards the male perspective.
Continue reading: https://womenlovetech.com/women-artificial-intelligence/

• Developing an interoperable network will grow blockchain implementation efforts and expansions.
• Blockchain ecosystems need to be flexible and willing to interact across ecosystems for the technology to be adopted.
• Efforts to develop an interoperable network are still in the early stages.

Developments focused on blockchain innovation are rapidly changing as blockchain’s popularity increased over the years. As blockchain is rapidly disrupting more than just the financial markets, demand for agnostic/cross-chain developments is essential. Prioritizing developments is negotiated by projects, each hoping to solve one crucial element and increase mass adoption.
More Than Just a $2 Trillion Stake
The current market capitalization is $2 trillion despite blockchains behaving as singular and self-reliant blockchains. Unfortunately, this creates communities that damage the industry’s natural growth: Dogecoin’s creator labelled the crypto mentality as a get-rich-quick scheme that benefits only the wealthy, simply because the current behaviors of both investors and developers are focused on their projects’ success.
Interoperability will de-scrutinize the industry’s stigma of being a means for speculation. Naveen Joshi, director at Allerin Process Automation, highlights that interoperability will make adoption at the business level easier, decreasing its technological and implementation barrier. Thus, developing a blockchain agnostic protocol or blockchain will only help normalize the decentralizing technology.
Interoperability Wheels Are in Motion
Existing leading smart contract ecosystems lack the innovative energy to explore more ways to improve their network, as they already focus on scalability. Blockchains like Solana are dabbling with the idea of cross-chain transactions by creating a communication process; however, they are limited. Interoperability entails complete heterogeneity from current developments, facilitating a bidirectional communication order between two autonomous blockchain codes.
In a survey on blockchain interoperability, Rafael Belchior, Ph.D., Researcher at Universidade de Lisboa, illustrates the existence of multiple DLT approaches to interoperability. Belchior notes that “different categories” approach interoperability differently, but all strive for the same end goal of creating blockchain data congruence.
Most of the developments undertaken are between two blockchains; each project has its own approaches, whether it is Wanchain’s non-custodial cross-chain layout connected with Avalanche C-Chain or Solana’s wormhole.
Continue reading: https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/the-push-for-blockchain-interoperability-2619945

It’s become impossible to not have the attention of cryptocurrency and the technology supporting the industry. It’s become mainstream and there seems to be no clear stop of the disruption. It can feel like there are new cryptocurrency projects up popping every day, and that might be because they are. Entrepreneurs are quickly recognizing opportunities to build within this wild west-type financial technology landscape.
A new wave of possibilities for entrepreneurs has risen and the rush to innovate creative solutions for business sectors is just starting. Cryptocurrency and the industries surrounding it have paved the way for real-world contributions, calling for even more disruption in industries that have lacked technological progression in the past. This innovation is everywhere and it’s enabling flows of information and calling for more transparent and secure business solutions.
Now more than ever is the time to be building cryptocurrency application solutions. Entrepreneurs are not acting slowly on real-world change, rather they are expediting how business is being connected across all industry sectors around the globe. These contributing factors are proving real-world use cases in the world of business.
 Let’s explore how blockchains are enabling decentralized applications on the internet today.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
These digital social tokens have become the latest craze. From collecting the most valuable artwork to raising money for charities, NFTs have facilitated the commoditization of media assets. NFTs are digital assets which represent digital content on blockchains. Currently, the most common NFT use cases are media assets such as artwork, music and in-game items. They are minted or created and then can be traded, bought and sold either person to person or through marketplaces. The digital media assets are stored on whichever blockchain they are deployed and are held within a person’s digital cryptocurrency wallet. 
Continue reading: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/380855

By some estimates, there are around 10 billion IoT devices operating in the world today. By 2025, there will be more than 25 billion — a huge increase in so-called “attack surfaces” potentially vulnerable to infiltration. 
And the main culprit for this explosion in vulnerable targets? There are many, from home Wi-Fi networks in a work-from-home world to a lack of two-factor authentication. But one of the biggest sources of potential weakness has come from the proliferation of connected devices — the so-called Internet of Things. 
One example of this newly connected world comes from Impinj, which creates wireless, battery-free RAIN RFID chips that allow producers, distributors and logistics teams to track any kind of consumer product through globe-spanning supply chains. VP of Advanced Technology Megan Brewster explained to Built In that her company’s research and development teams are constantly monitoring the industry and its adjacent threat landscape to ensure they’re always using security best practices. 
To dig deeper into the security issues facing IoT networks — and the strategies used against them — check out our interviews with Brewster and Balbix’s CTO, Vinay Sridhara.
Continue reading and listen to the interviews: https://builtin.com/iot-internet-things/iot-security

Apart from producing food, farmers also protect natural resources - soil, water, and biodiversity. They are also innovators. Since the inception of agriculture, farmers have had to change, adapt and create new ways of cultivating crops, coping with difficult terrain, and enduring extreme climatic conditions and ag weather events. Currently, agriculture is the world's largest industry in terms of people employed and foods produced. Most importantly, it occupies around half of the Earth's habitable land to provide habitat and food for numerous species. That is why sustainability is so critical in farming.
The future of our food and agriculture needs to recognize the successful innovations that farmers are already adopting and help spread them to other farmers. We need to scale up innovation across agriculture to feed a growing and increasingly urbanized population.
Innovation is not limited to interesting ideas, and it is much more than technology. Simply put, innovation is the process by which individuals or organizations first engage new or existing products, processes, or ways of organizing. Sustainable technology in agriculture allows for preservation and restoration of habitats, soil health and water quality improvement. And the need for such tech is especially urgent now when the demand for food is rapidly rising.
In this piece we will break down the main innovations in modern farming that enable sustainable development of this sphere.  
Yield Monitoring
The system for monitoring (mapping) crop yield is one of the stages of introducing precision farming technology, which allows for determining the result of the work from the introduction of all other stages through fixing the heterogeneity of the crop within the boundaries of each field. With the help of special sensors and controllers installed on combines, as well as using displays for precision farming and GPS receivers during harvesting, it is possible to obtain spatially oriented maps of yield and grain moisture. Obtaining such maps is an integral part of precision farming technology and enables yield management and prediction for the next season.
Each field has a different type of soil, a different nutrient composition, and a different amount of moisture. To interpret this data, yield maps are used to analyze the high and low yield zones in each field, hence the most productive field areas. Yield data is the basis of precision farming and allows farmers to make informed decisions at all stages of the introduction and use of precision farming technology.
Yield monitoring subsystems include:

• Creation of yield and moisture maps based on satellite data
• Collection, analysis, storage of yield data for each field, crop and year
• Data processing - identification of different field zones based on various parameters (soil content, moisture, etc)
• Creation of maps for VRA approach application

Information for yield on the same field for several years allows for investigating the factors affecting the yield to make the necessary changes for future yield improvement.
Farm Management
Today, the use of IT in agriculture is not only about the use of computers. Digital technologies enable remote control over the full cycle of crop or livestock production. Smart devices measure and transmit the parameters of soil, plants, microclimate, etc. All this data from sensors, drones and other equipment is analyzed by a particular farm management software. Mobile or desktop applications aid farmers in determining the right time for planting or harvesting, calculating the fertilizer amount, predicting the harvest, analyzing moisture levels for planning irrigation, and much more.
Continue reading: https://www.latinpost.com/articles/152008/20210918/tech-innovations-in-farming-for-sustainable-future.htm

While artificial intelligence (AI) is already effectively assisting human developers at every level of the development process, software development will only get better as it is about to undergo a huge change.
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way developers work, resulting in significant productivity, quality and speed increases. Everything — from project planning and estimation to quality testing and the user experience — can benefit from AI algorithms.
The impact of AI on software development
AI will undoubtedly impact how developers create applications and how users interact with them in the modern environment. As organizations become more interested in AI technologies, artificial intelligence will certainly affect the future of software development.
Moreover, it is predicted that roughly 80% of businesses are investing in AI, with 47% of digitally advanced companies already defining AI strategies. Even more amazingly, AI tools should provide $2.9 trillion in corporate value in the foreseeable future.
To implement an AI strategy, companies must first comprehend the function of AI in software development by examining what may be changed.
AI: Reshaping the roles of software developers
The software developer's role is already changing, and it may look very different in ten years than it does now. However, it is important to remember that technology will not be able to replace developers anytime soon. The world is still a few years away from AI being able to write code on its own.
Instead, software developers are more likely to execute different activities and establish skills to work effectively with AI on the job. As a result, developers will be needed even more in the future, implying that AI and software development will certainly rise in tandem.
AI: Solving common software development challenges
As established, AI has already been supporting and helping software developers address different software development challenges by doing the following:
Automated code quality through code review and code optimization
Artificial intelligence will become a tool that software developers use to obtain new knowledge, optimize procedures, and, ultimately, produce better code rather than replacing them.
Continue reading: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/380767

Following an artificial intelligence (AI) report published by the United Nations (UN), UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for a moratorium on the sale and use of AI systems that pose a serious risk to human rights until safeguards are put in place. AI applications that cannot be used in compliance with international human rights law should be banned, Bachelet said.
The UN Human Rights Office report analyses how AI, including profiling, automated decision-making and other machine-learning technologies, affects people’s privacy rights. The report details how AI systems rely on large data sets, with information about individuals collected, shared, merged and analyzed in multiple ways. It also cites the risk posed by data breaches as a serious privacy issue.
Continue reading: https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/96123-un-calls-for-facial-recognition-and-artificial-intelligence-moratorium

Artificial intelligence is only a tool, but what a tool it is. It may be elevating our world into an era of enlightenment and productivity, or plunging us into a dark pit. To help achieve the former, and not the latter, it must be handled with a great deal of care and forethought. This is where technology leaders and practitioners need to step up and help pave the way, encouraging the use of AI to augment and amplify human capabilities.
Those are some of the observations drawn from Stanford University's recently released report, the next installment out of its One-Hundred-Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, an extremely long-term effort to track and monitor AI as it progresses over the coming century. The report, first launched in 2016, was prepared by a standing committee that includes a panel of 17 experts, and urges that AI be employed as a tool to augment and amplify human skills. "All stakeholders need to be involved in the design of AI assistants to produce a human-AI team that outperforms either alone. Human users must understand the AI system and its limitations to trust and use it appropriately, and AI system designers must understand the context in which the system will be used."
AI has the greatest potential when it augments human capabilities, and this is where it can be most productive, the report's authors argue. "Whether it's finding patterns in chemical interactions that lead to a new drug discovery or helping public defenders identify the most appropriate strategies to pursue, there are many ways in which AI can augment the capabilities of people. An AI system might be better at synthesizing available data and making decisions in well-characterized parts of a problem, while a human may be better at understanding the implications of the data -- say if missing data fields are actually a signal for important, unmeasured information for some subgroup represented in the data -- working with difficult-to-fully quantify objectives, and identifying creative actions beyond what the AI may be programmed to consider."  
Complete autonomy "is not the eventual goal for AI systems," the co-authors state. There needs to be "clear lines of communication between human and automated decision makers. At the end of the day, the success of the field will be measured by how it has empowered all people, not by how efficiently machines devalue the very people we are trying to help." 
The report examines key areas where AI is developing and making a difference in work and lives:
Discovery: "New developments in interpretable AI and visualization of AI are making it much easier for humans to inspect AI programs more deeply and use them to explicitly organize information in a way that facilitates a human expert putting the pieces together and drawing insights," the report notes. 
Continue reading: https://www.zdnet.com/article/artificial-intelligence-success-is-tied-to-ability-to-augment-not-just-automate/

As the IoT market continues to grow, new kinds of sensors and ways to utilise and drive value from them are frequently coming to fruition. This has resulted in more and more sectors investing in the space to drive further value from data more efficiently.
“There is a plethora of devices in the market, most of which have existed before the term IoT was coined,” said Hassan Sherbaz, IoT solutions architect at Connexin.
“Anything which can be measured from air quality to particulate contamination of diesel, to footfall in a town centre, has probably been around for decades. This is because the physical measuring principles were developed, but the benefit of IoT is the drop in price of semiconductors which makes measuring such variables much more affordable.
“Couple that with advances in low power communication networks and denser batteries, deploying sensors becomes a much more cost effective business case.”
In this explore, we take a look at the different types of IoT sensors that are present in the market today, and what they entail for businesses.
Individual vs system sensors
IoT sensors have proved useful for individuals, as well as ultilisation across company networks, allowing for fast, clear and accurate delivery of data in both scenarios.
“Sensors, in all their forms, are playing a pivotal role in enabling peak asset performance across all IoT applications. They provide a direct line of sight into everything happening in our spaces,” explained Hugues Meyrath, chief product officer at ServiceChannel.
Meyrath believes that IoT needs to be considered in two parts:

1. Individual sensors: “These provide specific information through single purpose sensors: temperature, humidity, CO2, air quality, pressure, vibrations, and presence people in a room.”
2. A “system to call home”: “This includes HVAC unit, energy monitoring, lighting system, and ovens. In this context, the system generates alerts that can take into account not just one sensor or multiple sensors, it can also report on its health which is a combination of things. That’s where it becomes more interesting.
   [/LIST=1]
   “The key difference is that for type 1 you report that temperature is too hot. But for type 2, you could suggest a course of action and part to be replaced.”
   Continue reading: https://www.information-age.com/main-types-of-iot-sensors-in-market-today-123496767/

According to data from PitchBook, the funding for AI deals has continued its furious pace. In the latest quarter, the amount invested came to a record $31.6 billion. Note that there were 11 deals the closed more than $500 million.
Granted, plenty of these startups will fade away or even go bust. But of course, some will ultimately disrupt industries and change the landscape of the global economy.
“To be disrupted, you have to believe the AI is going to make 10x better recommendations than what’s available today,” said Eric Vishria, who is a General Partner at Benchmark. “I think that is likely to happen in really complex, high dimensional spaces, where there are so many intermingled factors at play that finding correlations via standard analytical techniques is really difficult.”
So then what are some of the industries that are vulnerable to AI disruption? Well, let’s see where some of the top VCs are investing today:
Software Development: There have been advances in DevOps and IDEs. Yet software development remains labor intensive. And it does not help that its extremely difficult to recruit qualified developers.
But AI can make a big difference. “Advancements in state-of-the-art natural language processing algorithms could revolutionize software development, initially by significantly reducing the ‘boilerplate’ code that software developers write today and in the long-run by writing entire applications with little assistance from humans,” said Nnamdi Iregbulem, who is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Consider the use of GPT-3, which is a neural network that trains models to create content. “Products like GitHub Copilot, which are also based on GPT-3, will also disrupt software development,” said Jai Das, who is the President and Partner at Sapphire Ventures.
Cybersecurity: This is one of the biggest software markets. But the technologies really need retooling. After all, there continues to be more and more breaches and hacks. 
“Cybersecurity is likely to turn into an AI-vs-AI game very soon,” said Deepak Jeevankumar, who is a Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital. “Sophisticated attackers are already using AI and bots to get over defenses.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2021/09/17/ai-disruption--what-vcs-are-betting-on/?sh=69a7a6c17754

Brick-and-mortar real estate may seem like the only tangible thing left in an increasingly virtual world, but it too is being taken over by artificial intelligence.
Some of the biggest names in the business, such as Compass, Zillow and LoanSnap, are now employing AI to help find buyers the perfect mortgage and the perfect home. And for real estate agents, it may already be a game-changer.
Most real estate data is public, from land records to title documents, purchase price and even mortgage liens. The trouble was it was an onerous process to go to local offices and obtain all the information. Not anymore. Computer algorithms can now go through millions of documents in seconds, looking through property values, debt levels, home renovations, and even some of a homeowner’s personal information.
At LoanSnap, a San Francisco-based mortgage lender, AI is used in various steps of the mortgage process, from finding the perfect loan type for a borrower to finding the right investor for the loan.
First the borrower’s financial information is put in. Then the system “takes all that information, forecasts it out into the future and looks at thousands and thousands and thousands of options,” said Karl Jacob, CEO of LoanSnap. “That’s different ways of paying off debt, different loan options, and this is one of the first times AI has been turned into something that helps consumers versus harms consumers.”
And for refinances, he said, “We’re building a financial model for someone, and showing them exactly how much money they’re losing on a monthly and yearly basis, and then showing them how they could potentially fix that issue and save money in the future. Again, in seconds.”
Jacob admits that pretty much every company now claims to use AI in some respect but said not all are really applying it to its full potential.
Continue reading: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/17/what-artificial-intelligence-means-for-homebuyers-real-estate-market.html