Half of the farmers in the biggest corn, soybean, and wheat states employ precision agriculture in their operations — from GPS guidance of tractors and combines to deploying drones to scout fields or monitor livestock — twice the national average, said a USDA report on computer usage on Wednesday. Far more farms have a cellular internet connection than broadband; 18% have no internet access at all.
Earlier this year, two Purdue economists said that adoption rates for precision agriculture technology “have been very high during the past 10 years, and given the increased venture capital devoted to developing these technologies, [are] likely to continue at an accelerated pace.” For crops, precision agriculture uses computers to track production in each section of land on a farm and tailor seed, fertilizer, and pesticide usage accordingly. Large-scale operators were both the most keenly interested in the technology and the most pleased with the results of using it, said a 2019 Purdue survey.
Continue reading: https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/senate-confirms-moffitt-as-agriculture-undersecretary-for-marketing

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) have been widely used to treat agricultural crops throughout the world, and spray against disease-carrying pests like mosquitos. Now researchers are expanding trial use of drones to control harmful insects by dropping enemy species on them.
Bug vs. bug crop protection technique delivered by drone
The use of bug against bug is not new, but is expanding in terms of degree and sophistication, according to a report in the June edition of the Entomological Society of America’s Journal of Economic Entomology. DroneDJ has written about other drone applications in the battle against harmful insects, but not the research now gaining speed in North America. That involves deploying specialized agricultural craft to drop natural enemies of destructive pests in appropriate situations, and thereby limit or entirely eliminate the need for traditional insecticides.
The technique could have bigger payoffs than most observers might suspect. Harmful insects inflict more than $100 billion in damage to crops each year in the US alone. Agriculture’s lucrative organic sub-sector is particularly vulnerable, since rules determining what can be sold as naturally grown are generally strict, but particularly draconian when it comes to pesticides. So specialists are looking to multiply applications of their equation “harmful pests + enemy insects = fewer bugs all around.”
Continue reading: https://dronedj.com/2021/08/19/drones-airdrop-enemy-bugs-on-harmful-insects-in-crops/

Earlier this month, hackers nabbed over $600 million in crypto from decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Poly Network in one of the biggest crypto heists ever. The cyberattack comes hot on the heels of several major hacks throughout the year, including the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline that led to brief gas shortages on the East Coast. The company paid the hackers a ransom of 75 bitcoin, or about $4.4 million at the time. 

• In 2020, $406.3 million was paid out in cryptocurrency ransoms, 337% more than the previous year. This year’s ransom payments are on pace to pass seven figures as well, according to Chainalysis.

But crime on the blockchain isn’t just a problem for big companies: Nearly 7,000 individual investors lost a collective $80 million to cryptocurrency scams from October 2020 to March 2021, according to the FTC—almost 1,000% more than in the same period the year prior.  
Illicit activity on the blockchain is heating up, from minor scams to elaborate ransomware attacks to...faking your own death? That’s what Kimberly Grauer, director of research at Chainalysis, told us is happening. Read on to hear more from Grauer about the unique challenges of fighting crypto crime.
Continue reading: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2021/08/23/blockchain-expert-fights-crypto-crime

People often ask if Bitcoin is a safe investment not because of the market's legendary volatility, but because they're worried about the security of the digital asset. Bitcoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world and has been around since 2009. Since then, in over a decade, the network has proven to be very resilient and powerful in protecting vital information. In recent years, the blockchain technology that Bitcoin runs on has become increasingly prevalent as cryptocurrency has begun to take center stage in many markets.
Blockchain technology that runs the virtual currency is known for its unparalleled security. It's one of the main reasons for its rapid adoption, with Bitcoin being one of the biggest success stories of the technology.
What is blockchain technology and how does it work?
Blockchain is associated with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, as a platform for digital money transactions. It's a database of all cryptocurrency transactions worldwide. However, this technology has also been used to store other types of data like medical records, data on humanitarian aid, and more.
Blockchain technology is like a ledger that is digital and open to the public. It provides a secure way of making and recording transactions. All transactions made using cryptocurrency are recorded and saved as data on blocks. All this information is time-stamped.
Continue reading: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/cryptocurrency/features/how-secure-is-bitcoin-blockchain-cryptocurrency-technology-2516405

Crypto leaders have long said blockchain has great potential in entertainment. Decentralized Pictures marks the most significant vote of confidence in that to date.
For those outside the tight-knit circle of cryptocurrency devotees, the buzz around blockchain technology can feel like an impenetrable collection of technobabble — maybe nothing more than a passing fad. But early adopters of these decentralized data systems have long said blockchain is poised to change everything from finance to transportation and, yes, even entertainment.
Now, the potential of blockchain in the film industry has earned a major vote of confidence from one of Hollywood’s most influential families. The nonprofit Decentralized Pictures — co-founded by Roman Coppola, tech and entertainment veteran Leo Matchett, and American Zoetrope exec Michael Musante and led by a board that includes Sofia and Gia Coppola — plans to go live in the fall with a mission to discover and support underrepresented filmmakers using a blockchain-powered web platform.
“In a sense, this is a democratically selected film fund,” Musante told IndieWire. “Instead of a boardroom of executives, it’s our community that decides, that gives their opinion and tells people what they like.”
Continue reading: https://www.indiewire.com/2021/08/decentralized-pictures-blockchain-coppola-1234655602/

Women in the AI field are making research breakthroughs, spearheading vital ethical discussions, and inspiring the next generation of AI professionals. We created the VentureBeat Women in AI Awards to emphasize the importance of their voices, work, and experience and to shine a light on some of these leaders. In this series, publishing Fridays, we’re diving deeper into conversations with this year’s winners, whom we honored recently at Transform 2021. Check out last week’s interview with a winner of our AI responsibility and ethics award. 
For many people, nothing sounds more tech-y than AI and machine learning. But the field is of rising interest in social sciences, too. Arezou Soltani Panah, a computer scientist and the winner of VentureBeat’s Women in AI rising star award, has made strides using AI technologies to tackle complex social problems such as loneliness, family violence, and social stigma. She’s even created novel machine learning techniques for this work, specifically.
“Traditional social science is a territory mostly occupied with qualitative researchers and empirical scientists, and perhaps they’re less aware of the benefits of AI for their field,” she told VentureBeat. “But the marriage between AI and social science has already been established and is evolving.”
An immigrant to Australia from Iran, Soltani Panah’s work focuses on social inequality and disempowerment. And it’s cross-discipline in every way, often requiring collaboration with government policy advisors and subject matter experts like social scientists.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/08/20/how-ai-can-tackle-complex-social-problems-from-loneliness-to-stigma/

Struggling to get your Artificial Intelligence initiative past the early stages? Consider these lessons from teams that have successfully implemented and scaled AI strategies.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly seen as a must-have technology that enables businesses to become agile and innovate at scale. IDC predicts global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) systems will increase from US $50 billion in 2020 to US $110 billion in 2024.
But Gartner research estimates that 50 percent of AI implementations are struggling to get past the proof-of-concept stage and be implemented at scale. The reasons vary from overhyped expectations and lack of vision to inadequate data infrastructure and lack of skilled resources.
Another important factor is the team that’s working on the AI programs. While AI teams may have the requisite tools and technologies, many lack other key capabilities – like mining for the right use cases and optimizing decision-making – that are essential for success.
Continue reading: https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2021/8/artificial-intelligence-ai-4-characteristics-successful-teams

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. But if I asked you: “What is it exactly?” could you answer confidently?
Four years ago I thought I could answer that same question. I was about to start studying machine learning and deep learning with the hopes of finding a job. I was naïve enough to think what I was seeing from the outside was what I’d encounter on the inside.
But looks are deceiving. And artificial intelligence, surrounded by hype and flooding in funding is the best example today. There are interests beyond science and engineering that blurry and obscure the real work people are doing.
The field is extremely attractive regardless. It’s growing and evolving incredibly fast and it promises to keep this pace for some time. There will be more AI-related jobs in the coming years. And, let’s be real, it’s way more exciting and interesting than most other fields out there — we’re trying to solve intelligence after all.
That’s why many of you may benefit from knowing what to expect. Here are four things I wish I knew before starting on AI. I’d have been mentally prepared for what I was about to experience and would have had a finer, deeper perspective on the present and future of the field. Enjoy!
Continue reading: https://towardsdatascience.com/4-things-i-wish-i-knew-before-starting-in-the-ai-industry-5458c6bf48b9

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics in marketing right now. Raj Venkatesan and Jim Lecinski recently published a book entitled “The AI Marketing Canvas: A Five-Stage Road Map to Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Marketing”. To better understand what an AI marketing canvas is, I sought insight from Raj Venkatesan, a professor at the Darden School of Business. In full disclosure, I work with Raj and find his research and work fascinating. Below is insight on the AI marketing canvas.
Kimberly A. Whitler: Why did you and Jim write this book?
Raj Venkatesan: We heard and experienced the rise of data and algorithms. Marketing professionals had started to pay attention to this, and they wanted to invest in this new technology. But they were struggling with the why and the how questions. They needed guidance on the ultimate objective of using AI in marketing, i.e., how is marketing—and  customer relationships—going to improve from using AI. There were books written at a very high level regarding whether machines would take over. You know, is the Matrix going to take over, or for the younger people, are we all going to be in Halladay’s game, the Oasis, like Ready Player. On the other hand, there were books written around 10 steps to better email marketing. Very granular, but again not at the strategic level a senior marketing profession would want to use AI. So, we set out writing a book, that we feel is like the goldilocks solution, not too high, and not too granular.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2021/08/21/the-ai-marketing-canvas-a-roadmap-to-implementing-artificial-intelligence-in-marketing/?sh=63f6b81271ec

Your company has a team monitoring your finances on a day-to-day basis, right? That's a standard business practice. Leaders should approach their diversity, equity and inclusion goals in the same manner. If teams aren’t monitoring their DEI metrics as regularly as the finance team, they're at risk of missing business goals.
Organizations that prioritize DEI are almost two-times more likely to meet or exceed financial goals, according to a 2021 Deloitte report.
Implementing a strong DEI strategy isn't optional. To move the needle on building a more diverse workforce, organizations need to listen to those from historically excluded groups and tailor the hiring experience to be more inclusive. Plus, to counter the unconscious bias that all humans have, companies can take extra measures to help ensure a fair and equitable experience for candidates from HEGs, such as implementing AI capabilities or anonymizing resumes.
Forty-seven percent of organizations have implemented technology to help reduce unconscious bias in their recruiting and hiring, a recent report from Talent Board and iCIMS found. Although 53% have not implemented such technology, one-third of them plan to do so in the future. These practices can help to boost organizations’ DEI results when done correctly.
Continue reading: https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/3-ways-analytics-can-help-improve-your-recruiting-pipeline-and-meet-your-dei-metrics

Women account for only 29% of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) labor force and 34.5% of STEM faculty at the nation’s colleges and universities. Women of color are even more underrepresented — making up 4.8% of the STEM workforce and 3.8% of STEM faculty. For decades, researchers have told us that “Girls and women are systematically tracked away from science and math throughout their educations, limiting their training and options to go into these fields as adults.” The challenge is how early do educators and parents need to start with girls in order to eliminate this gender gap.
Middle school student Sriya Tallapragada decided to take on this challenge. According to Sriya, “When the coronavirus pandemic shut down my school, I found myself stuck at home with nothing but my computer as company. Luckily, as a 14-year old STEM aficionado and introvert, this was all I needed. I found the large amounts of time on my hands to be the perfect opportunity to meet my goal of working to close the gender gap in STEM.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethgasman/2021/08/23/want-more-women-in-science-start-early-and-listen-to-girls/?sh=45e71dc77f85

For all of us who are in a certain way related in one way or another to technology, the term Internet of things is at least known, but not all of us know exactly what it means. That is why this blog tries to cover some basic concepts on this subject, as well as advantages and disadvantages of the IoT.
According to Wikipedia: IoT is a concept that refers to a digital interconnection of everyday objects with the internet. It is, in short, the internet connection more with objects than with people. It is also often known as the internet of all things or the internet in things.
In short, IoT is something connected to a network, such as the internet, or to other machines so that they work autonomously, without requiring human intervention. The other concepts describe things that are possible thanks to the Internet of Things. The terms of home, car or anything else connected refer to that, in some way, they are connected to a network.
Is it just this? Yes, it really is. Don't be put off by the new terminology. The IoT concept is that simple, at least for consumers.
There was a time when knowing, from a distance, how many bottles of Coke were left in a vending machine was revolutionary. This is how the Internet of Things (IoT) was born: when Carnegie Mellon University students, tired of walking to the machine without knowing if there would be soft drinks, connected it to an ARPANET network. Four decades later, that discreet milestone proved prescient. Today there are about 10 billion connected objects around the world. And it's only the beginning. There will come a day when we have a 100% connected life and can remotely control everything around us. The IoT consists of connecting objects to the internet so that they interact and share information.
Continue reading: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-what-could-possibly-go-wrong-ignacio-chitnisky/?trk=articles_directory

Digital transformation has accelerated across the board. In a recent report, McKinsey referred to this technological “tipping point” as the quickening, suggesting the adoption of digital technologies has jumped forward by several years in the space of mere months. One of those technologies is edge computing, and it’s here for the long haul. From smart city infrastructure to in-hospital patient monitoring, edge computing’s potential is unfathomably immense. Yet, the technology is now becoming so accessible that the industry is exploring innovative applications a little closer to home. Could edge computing be the missing ingredient to keep children safe in the kitchen?
Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than three-quarters of all generated data will be “created and processed outside of a traditional centralized data center or cloud,” and that could now include your kitchen. The kitchen is the most complex room in any home. It’s the place where water, electricity, gas, heat, fire, and sharp objects are regularly thrown into the mix together. More than 300 children end up in hospital every day in the US alone, with burn injuries sustained in the kitchen and more than 55% of all accidents in India happen in the kitchen. It’s little wonder so many organizations continuously campaign to raise awareness about kitchen safety.
Living on the Edge
Smart technology and edge computing go hand-in-hand. As we discover bigger and better applications for artificial intelligence, augmented reality and machine learning, it follows that we also need more computing power wherever the action is happening. That’s what edge computing sets out to achieve, coupling each device with the processing power it needs to make rapid-fire calculations in near real-time, instead of having to depend on remote cloud processing. 
Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/careful-with-that-how-iot-is-keeping-children-safe-in-the-kitchen

Research conducted by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that commonly available solar PV technology used indoors can power building IoT devices.
The study was aimed to test the ability of solar PV cells to absorb indoor light and opens the way for harvesting some of this light for low power devices with low capacity batteries such as smoke alarms, security cameras and temperature sensors.
The researchers tested three different materials, gallium indium phosphide (GaInP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), which are geared toward white LED light, and silicon, a less efficient but more affordable and commonplace material.
The modules were tested with white LED light with a fixed intensity comparable to light levels in a well-lit room. For the silicon and GaAs PV modules, the indoor light proved less efficient than sunshine, but the GaInP module performed far better under the LED than sunlight.
Continue reading: https://www.powerengineeringint.com/news/solar-pv-can-power-indoor-iot-devices-study/

BEIJING   -  China is willing to share its experience and help integrate information technology and agriculture to being about green revolution in Pakistan.
Facing the common challenge of climate change, pandemic, and population growth, a smarter agriculture is the way forward for many countries including China.
“The integration of information technology and agriculture will bring about the third green revolution: agricultural digital revolution,” said Zhao Chunjiang from China’s National Engineering Research Centre for Information Technology in Agriculture. “By 2025, China’s digital agro economy will exceed a USD 100 billion.”
In the past, farmers laboured for hours in the fields. But now farm work can be done with internet systems, said a staff member of the exhibitor, Ningxia Green Pioneer (Lvxianfeng) Agricultural Mechanical Services Company, which has transformed local farming model with drones, precision hole-sowing machine, driverless harvesters and plant protecting devices, remote surveillance equipment, etc supported by the Internet of things, cloud technology, big data, etc.
“Spraying at a speed of 4.5 meters a second, each drone can complete what was used to be done by 25-30 workers per day, saving 80 percent water, 30 percent cost of plant protection, and 20 to 25 percent pesticides,” company staff introduced to China Economic Net (CEN). “They can be used in rice, wheat, and maize. Take rice as an example, about USD 60 can be saved for each hectare.” 
Continue reading: https://nation.com.pk/23-Aug-2021/digital-farming-essential-for-smart-agriculture-revolution-in-pakistan

Google Wing delivery drones could soon be picking up packages from Australian shops rather than asking retailers to co-locate in the tech giant’s distribution centres.
Jesse Suskin, the business’ head of government relations, hinted the significant development could happen within six months and said the “complicated” challenge is now “solvable”.
Wing launched commercially in Canberra and Logan in 2019 and currently allows for the delivery of packages that weigh less than 1.5 kilograms from a variety of vendors who sell household and perishable goods, including coffees and sandwiches.
Australia has quietly become the epicentre of Google’s global plans for conquering the drone delivery industry in recent years, with Wing conducting more deliveries here than in any other country worldwide.
Continue reading: https://australianaviation.com.au/2021/08/exclusive-google-drones-to-pick-up-packages-from-australian-shops/

In the world of cryptocurrencies, every time a transaction takes place it gets logged in to a blockchain — a distributed ledger that makes the information globally available on a real-time basis. That does not mean a user or investor gets an automatic update about each successful transaction. It's more like the data is stored and updated on the digital ledger but anyone who wants to check details has to look for it. But how do you do that? That is done with the help of tools that work as a sort of “Google” for cryptocurrency.
What about cross-platform data? Meaning if a Bitcoin blockchain user wants to check the details of a transaction related to, say, the Ethereum blockchain, how to do it? That can also be done by the same process. These tools are called blockchain explorers. Most of them provide services for more than one blockchain.
What are blockchain explorers?
Simply put, a blockchain explorer is a type of software that pulls data from a blockchain and creates a database for users to search for particular information from the available resource. They allow users to see details related to various cryptocurrency transactions, including the amount transacted, the source and the destination of the transfers, and the status of transactions.
Continue reading: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/cryptocurrency/features/cryptocurrency-transactions-blockchain-explorer-data-search-bitcoin-ethereum-cardano-2516328

Bitcoin and blockchain first initially suggested in 2008 by an individual using the nickname Satoshi Nakamoto, who detailed whether cryptography and an openness smart contract might be coupled to create a digital payment software. At initially, bitcoin's extraordinary volatility and many governments' views regarding its difficulty limited its growth slightly, but the benefits of the ledger, bitcoin's operating system, drew increased attention. Among the benefits of blockchain technology are its bitcoin transaction, decentralization, capacity building, tamper-resistant design, and availability. As a result, the advancement of blockchain technology has been gradual.
Blockchain technology is now classified as Bitcoin 1.0, 2.0, through 3.0, depending on its intended use. The Supplement contains more information on the three decades of cryptocurrencies. From digital money to banking, bitcoin has progressively expanded into medicare, project management, research and analysis, industrial IoT, and copyright infringement. In addition, numerous academic areas have examined blockchain technology. For instance, several academics have examined the blockchain's operating systems, including tiered applications, mentoring networks, authentication, infinite scalability, and negotiation methods. The purpose of this research is to undertake a thorough and impartial evaluation using information collected and evaluated. In addition, numerous experts have investigated the additional value of blockchain technology.
They argue that human tasks may be successfully reduced by using blockchain technology to speed transactional and settlement procedures. For example, in the health care industry, blockchain technology may be critical for centralizing research data, preventing prescription medicine fraud, and lowering administrative costs. In the music business, blockchain technology can dramatically enhance the quality and availability of copyright data and the transparency of the value chain. Finally, swan illustrates the financial benefits of cryptocurrency via four representative application fields: software platform repositories, acceleration computing, long-tail customized telecommunication providers, and enfranchisement and social banking.
Continue reading: https://www.state-journal.com/sponsored/how-blockchain-technology-is-beneficial-for-business/article_8fef491c-041a-11ec-9ae3-a366762bfb18.html

As the infrastructure bill that brought a great deal of attention to Washington D.C. on the regulatory oversight of crypto, the 117th Congress now has seen 18 bills that have been introduced that directly impact cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, or central bank digital currencies.
Last Congress, the main focus was around the introduction of Facebook’s new Libra project - renamed Diem - with an intense focus on the potential impact of stablecoins. Back in 2019, the Blockchain Association did an outstanding effort on the Hill with helping to differentiate between Bitcoin and other more centralized cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, the birth of a digital dollar or central bank digital currency (CBDC) made a splash in the crypto community, while Coin Center, the leading think tank in Washington D.C. on policy matters related to cryptocurrency, presented the dangers of losing privacy in moving forward with a U.S. digital dollar.
This article seeks to lay out for those newly interested in crypto regulation what some of the legislation is about that has been introduced. The sections will be divided into bills that cover bills that aim at providing regulatory clarity for crypto, the technology underlying bitcoin called blockchain, and consideration of a U.S. CBDC.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2021/08/22/congress-has-introduced-18-new-bills-on-crypto-and-blockchain-in-2021/?sh=1e518035263b

It’s not a secret AI Is everywhere, but it’s not always clear when you’re interacting, not to mention which particular technique is working. But one subset is easy to recognize. If the experience is intelligent and includes photos and videos, or is somehow visual, computer vision may be working behind the scenes.
Computer vision is a subfield of AI, especially machine learning. If AI allows machines to “think,” computer vision allows them to “see.” More technically, it enables machines to recognize, understand, and respond to visual information such as photos, videos, and other visual inputs.
In the last few years, computer vision has become a major driver of AI. This technique is widely used in industries such as manufacturing, e-commerce, agriculture, automotive and medical. Power everything from interactive Snapchat lenses to sports broadcasts, AR-based shopping, medical analytics, and self-driving capabilities. And by 2022, the global subfield market projection It is expected to reach $ 48.6 billion annually, up from just $ 6.6 billion in 2015.
The story of computer vision follows the story of the entire AI. A slow rise full of technical hurdles. A big boom made possible by a large amount of data. Rapid proliferation. And there is growing concern about bias and how technology is being used. To understand computer vision, it is important to understand how computer vision works and is used, and both the challenges it has overcome and the challenges it still faces.
Continue reading: https://illinoisnewstoday.com/how-computer-vision-works-and-why-it-suffers-from-prejudice/343390/

"Life is like a game of chess, where every move you make has an impact on the rest of your game," Kathy Gong Xiaosi said, looking radiant. Sitting in the open area outside her office in downtown Beijing, Gong, once the youngest national chess champion, recounted how her third startup survived a near collapse.
Called Wafa Games, her company uses cutting-edge tech to create fun and dignified gaming experiences. Venturing into the gaming industry requires massive investments and courage to withstand the risk of bankruptcy. But Gong chose to go against the grain.
The 35-year-old woman from the southwestern city of Chengdu founded the company in 2017 with a partner she got to know through playing games. "I'm a gamer, but I found most games boring or even disagreeable since female characters are designed mainly to appeal to male players, with scant clothing and sexualized bodies." For decades, most video games around the world have portrayed female characters as manifestations of male fantasies with hourglass curves and skinny waists. In hot pants or tiny skirts, they prance around to help, support and take care of their male teammates. Either that or they are framed as ditzy love interests needing to be rescued.
Gong developed her deep affection for games during a lonely period while studying in New York, so she decided to fight against this stereotype by creating well-rounded female protagonists, especially for women gamers such as her. "I like hardcore games where you use strategic thinking as you do on the chessboard," she said.
Continue reading: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-08-23/No-game-no-life-A-young-woman-s-trailblazing-entrepreneurship--12XitKkZQ9G/index.html

Artificial intelligence has been a steady presence in businesses around the world for quite some time now. The transformative powers and abilities of AI have boosted the ease of business operations as well as the ROI for organizations. Now, edge AI represents the next phase of the technology’s development.
Most filmmakers and authors face a problem commonly known as the sophomore slump while attempting to create a follow-up to their first movie or book. The dreaded slump is associated with the inevitable dip in quality that usually accompanies their second film or novel, especially if the debut effort was genuinely amazing. After all, how do you top something that was (and continues to be) loved by the masses and critics alike? It is hard to improve a project or concept that is near-perfect in every way. A concept that has changed the game with its levels of innovation and ingenuity. In other words, a concept such as artificial intelligence. Despite its few weaknesses, AI continues to have a positive impact on the work quality and productivity in several organizations around the world. Automation on a large scale can be achieved by AI-powered systems in any industry, be it healthcare, national defense, or e-commerce.
So, what is edge AI? It consists of AI models and algorithms that process data locally on a standalone hardware device. In short, AI technology is local, smaller in size, and more accessible for common people. The AI algorithms in such devices use data generated locally for real-time machine learning purposes. The data to be processed locally is sent and received through transmitted signals and sensors on such devices. Such 'endpoint' AI systems do not need to be digitally connected to a cloud for performing tasks and operations locally. Instead, they possess the ability of processing data and making decisions independently. As stated earlier, edge computing, which brings the powers of AI to your personal devices, needs the presence of inbuilt microprocessors and receptors to attain processable data.
Continue reading: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/edge-ai-next-step-evolution-naveen-joshi/?trk=articles_directory

Enterprises have long sought AI for its ability to supercharge a workforce, picking up slack through automated tasks and a cost-effective option for repetitive labor, compared to humans. 
The next act in enterprise AI sees the technology becoming a standalone maker. The technology generates synthetic data to train its own models or identify groundbreaking products as solutions mature and adoption widens, as showcased in Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2021 report, published Monday.
Called "Generative AI,", the technology is set to reach the plateau of productivity in the next two to five years. Commercial implementations of generative AI are already at play in the enterprise and, as the technology advances through the hype cycle, non-viable use cases will fade, according to Brian Burke, research VP at Gartner.
Generative AI works by using algorithms to create a "realistic, novel version of whatever they've been trained on," Burke said. Algorithms can identify new materials with specific properties and technologies that generate synthetic data to augment research, among other use cases.
Continue reading: https://www.ciodive.com/news/gartner-hype-cycle-2021-generative-AI/605338/

By 2030, AI will likely no longer be getting adopted with simple scenarios and applications. It will be expected to detect life-threatening diseases in the nascent stage, predict weather conditions of a large area over several months and become a digital collaborator to the human race. These are just a few possibilities of the potential impact of AI on life and work in the coming years. The pace of change has been unprecedented in the sector, and it promises to continue in the same vein in the years to come.
With rapid learning and adoption, AI is no longer a crystal ball technology but something that humans now interact with in nearly every sphere of life. In fact, the transformation led by AI has been so pervasive that it is deeply influencing user experience and how humans interact with brands and technologies. The way things are trending, AI will soon become an undeniable part of human life and society.
This widespread adoption and a variety of new use cases will come from the rapidly evolving nature of AI. It is already achieving faster computation, higher accuracy and lower computation and infrastructure costs. Today, AI is evolving across all three dimensions — compute, data and algorithm — which sets the context for its adoption across all realms of life and work by 2030. Here is the direction that I see AI moving within these categories.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/08/23/the-possibilities-of-ai-in-2030-transformation-across-dimensions/?sh=fa0186a6b67a

As power grids fill up with renewable energy, electric vehicle charging stations and customer-owned generation, they will become too complex and fast-moving for their human operators to keep up with, a group of international researchers warns.
The humans will need help from smart machines — high-performance computers running decision making software systems built with artificial intelligence — according to researchers at France’s grid operator RTE, the U.S. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and other partners.
With the proliferation of low-carbon options, "the grid becomes exponentially more challenging to operate," said Jeremy Renshaw, EPRI’s AI director. "Grid operators are already stretched to the limit. Getting AI resources to help is going to be critical."
That judgment has been reinforced, Renshaw says, by an ongoing international competition called L2RPN (for "Learning to Run a Power Network") challenging AI developers to invent software that keeps a simulated power grid from crashing in emergencies.
The stakes are high: Maintaining grid stability is already a knife-edge task as operators juggle climate hazards, cyberthreats, and an avalanche of connected devices like rooftop solar panels and smart appliances. But in the conservative electric power industry, AI will have to prove itself, Renshaw said. “It’s going to be anywhere from five to 15 years before we see widespread adoption,” Renshaw said in an interview with E&E News.
In the meantime, the race is on to create AI programs savvy enough to steer the future grid. The second round of the L2RPN competition last year attracted 300 contestants worldwide, including teams from the U.S., China, Russia, Colombia and Singapore. A new, expanded round is underway.
More interest in embedding advanced computer decision making into the grid was evident in a recent virtual EPRI conference that brought together a cross-section of U.S. utilities and developers of computer systems, EPRI says.
But entrusting computers and AI to make split-second operating decisions in grid emergencies is still a tall order, Renshaw said.
"It’s very optimistic to say we’d be ready to deploy [that capability] in five years. This is really cutting-edge stuff,” he said.
“Trustworthiness in AI is a huge issue,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Koroush Shirvan, speaking at the EPRI conference in May.
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