Since time immemorial, technological innovations have shaped the structure of commerce and trade. The discovery of electricity encouraged mass production and the advent of steam engines ushered in an era of mechanized production. 
From information to communication, technology has been used everywhere to make life easier. For this reason, blockchain technology has been tapped by many as the next big thing, considering its use cases which cut across numerous industry verticals.
Mainly used in keeping records of transactions, blockchain technology is a type of distributed ledger technology.
Blockchain makes a difference
According to Statista, blockchain makes keeping data records easier, more transparent, and even more secure. Owing mostly to its resistance to alteration, blockchain offers time-based information on transactions, whether they are between private individuals, corporate entities, supplier networks or even an international supply chain.
It is also a common notion that blockchain is only a technology for Bitcoin (BTC). However, that assumption could not be more wrong. While the technology emerged alongside Bitcoin in 2008, however, today, its use cases have evolved far beyond cryptocurrencies. From finance to e-commerce, food safety, voting exercises and supply-chain management, its applications cut across virtually all sectors of the global economy, including areas directly or indirectly linked to international trade.
The value chain attached to international trade is a notably complex one. While its transactions involve multiple actors, its other aspects like trade financing, customs administration, transportation and logistics all benefit from the adoption of blockchain technology.
According to Statista, cross-border payments and settlements account for the largest use cases of blockchain technology, especially considering how there have been numerous past efforts to digitize trade transactions.
As of today, the potential of blockchain to enhance the efficiency of trade processes is already being explored. For instance, the blockchain project Open Food Chain is working to improve food security via its Komodo Smart Chain.
Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer of Komodo — technology provider and open source workshop — told Cointelegraph:

“Blockchain’s biggest advantage is immutability, meaning data can’t be deleted or edited after it’s on the ledger. For international trade, this provides an opportunity for more transparency across several major industries.”

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Stadelmann explained that the technology ensures that foods can be tracked from their origin (i.e., a farm in another country) to the consumer’s local supermarket. He said this can help improve food security around the globe by tackling issues like food contamination outbreaks as 600 million — almost 1 in 10 people in the world — fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year, according to the WHO. 
Blockchain can streamline the complex documentation processes that are prevalent in international trade. Zen Young, CEO of noncustodial web authentication infrastructure Web3Auth, told Cointelegraph:
Continue reading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-blockchain-technology-can-revolutionize-international-trade

There are 2.9 billion people worldwide who do not have internet access or the opportunities to engage in the digital economy. Despite the technological advancements, the digital divide continues to affect all aspects of life, from banking to healthcare, education, communications and media.
Two years ago, on September 21, 2022, world leaders recognized the importance of technology as a fundamental global issue in the General Assembly declaration on the commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations. The world pledged to improve digital cooperation and maximize digital technologies.
But, digital inclusion is more than just about closing gaps. It is an opportunity to build a fair and equitable society and a thriving economy.
The World Economic Forum reported in May 2022 that with 95% of the world’s population residing within the mobile broadband network range, the digital divide is less about connectivity and more about a combination of a lack of digital know-how and limited devices. Even those with the internet struggle to get good quality services at affordable prices. Only 53% of the world’s population has access to high-speed broadband.
While the digital divide is more substantial in rural areas and disproportionate for certain groups, for example, affecting more women than men, it still impacts both developed and underdeveloped countries. About half of the U.S. population does not have access to broadband speed due to a lack of coverage or skills, Harvard Business School says.
TechRepublic spoke to Jonathan Wong, chief of technology and innovation of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and Anna Osbourne, head of marketing and communication at Good Things Foundation in the U.K., to understand the challenges of digital inclusion and the technology driving opportunities.
Osbourne explained that from saving money to improving job prospects and the ability to work flexibly, “there are numerous benefits to society, organizations, and individuals from digital inclusion.”
“On a societal level, organizations and government can benefit from channel shift, the ability to deliver more efficient services, and a skilled workforce,” Osbourne added.
Cutting people from easy access to information, learning and essential services translates into billions lost.
Continue reading: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-opportunities-of-digital-inclusion-and-the-tech-behind-it/

It is quite staggering that even in 2022, we still have a technology sector that is grossly underrepresented by women. Although this is a global issue and quite concerning for a sector that prides itself on being one step ahead of everyone else, it is probably no surprise that the gender gap in the South African tech sector is even wider than international statistics.
Women hold less than 25% of tech jobs, despite the sector enjoying steady growth. The problem is not with the tech companies who are in no way against women. In truth, they are desperate to close the gender gap and advance gender diversity across the sector. 
Tech companies know they need women, and lots of them if they are ever to change the image of their sector. Many tech companies and businesses have already committed to aggressive campaigns to recruit, hire, retain and promote female talent and most of the larger tech companies have made countless diversity pledges several years earlier to change systemic problems such as pay inequality and workplace culture issues. Yet, the needle is still moving too slowly.
One of the main reasons progress is so sluggish is that tech companies continue to face an uphill battle in attracting and retaining the right women with the right skills. We have known for some time that South African women tend not to gravitate towards Stem-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees at university level. Even though this is concerning as it significantly limits the pool of skilled female talent available to fill essential jobs in South Africa’s information and communications (ICT) technology sector, little has been done to fix it.
A career in ICT never crossed my mind when I was embarking on my studies, and it was only after completing a diploma in marketing and advertising, and then working for Dynamic Technologies that I fully realized how valuable an IT qualification could be in paving the way to more exciting and rewarding careers. 
From working on the internet and designing software and apps to implementing cyber security systems and coding trendy games, the career opportunities are endless (and pay checks just as great) but women need to have the right qualifications and experience first. 
I am determined to change the belief that a career in ICT leads to boring male jobs and to upskill as many of South Africa’s underprivileged and unemployed women aged 15 to 34 as possible. That is why I am so passionate about the purpose of Dynamic DNA — to drive investment in learner ships and provide scarce IT & business skills to create a better future for women. 
Continue reading: https://mg.co.za/opinion/2022-08-01-invest-in-women-to-close-the-tech-gender-gap/

Until recently, the tech industry was one big boys club. Gender bias, right from recruitment to employment terms ensured that few women thrived in the sector and even fewer rose up the rank to the coveted C-suite.
But now companies are employing several strategies to boost their appeal to women and reap the benefits of a diverse workplace. And it appears to be paying off.
A survey done by audit, consulting, tax, and advisory firm Deloitte showed that women's share in the overall global tech workforce increased by 6.9 percent between 2019 and 2022 while their share in technical positions grew by 11.7 percent.
But it is at the top level where big changes are taking place, promising to make the industry more inclusive.
Catherine Muraga, the managing director (MD) of Microsoft Africa Development Centre is among the women correcting the industry’s gender imbalance. Her love for tech, she says, started from a young age.
“Curiosity played a big role when I was young, wondering about gadgets and systems and what made them work – from a simple watch on my hand to household equipment,” she says.
She knew her life was technology and technology was her life. She enrolled for a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. After finishing her studies, she started a career as a network engineer for an internet service provider (ISP) in 2003.
She says that working for ISP Kenya jump-started her entry into a bigger tech space, opening opportunities in Kenya’s leading firms such as Kenya Airways, Stanbic Bank Kenya, and Sidian Bank in different senior information technology positions.
Her tenacity paid off in April 2022, when Microsoft Africa Development Centre, which is Microsoft’s engineering hub in Nairobi that nurtures local innovations and solutions, named her the new MD. “Now that I have access to resources and capacity to drive change, I aim to continue guiding growth and mentorship in the technology space,” she tells the Business Daily.
Continue reading: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/technology/women-breaking-into-boys-club-and-thriving-in-tech-3898320

Over the past two years, we have all drastically reassessed our relationship with work. Am I doing what I really love? Am I inspired each day? Do I feel supported by my company? For Martina Wetterhorn, strategy managing director for Accenture in Sweden, landing a career she adores has been a long road, paved with hard work and strategic decision making. She is precisely the kind of woman ELLE loves to speak to: one who has built a career in tech – a traditionally male-dominated industry – with the help of mentors and sponsors, and who is now using her platform to support an inclusive and diverse team.
We picked Wetterhorn’s brain for her tips on making it in the competitive, high-stakes world of technology – from the importance of embracing collaboration to the complicated art of achieving a healthy work-life balance.
Embrace collaboration
As a strategy managing director at Accenture, Wetterhorn is often juggling multiple high-priority tasks at any given time. The key to productive time management, she says, is to embrace collaboration. This can be done through simple methods, such as promoting ongoing dialogue with your team via chat forums and other instant-messaging technology. But it can come from bigger changes too.
‘I think it’s a big time-saver to share your thinking with your team instead of keeping it to yourself,’ Wetterhorn says. ‘Being open and transparent ahead of time means you get useful feedback early, which will allow you to easily course-correct where needed.’ This often means trusting your team with projects, and avoiding any dreaded micromanaging. ‘Collaborating openly with your peers and colleagues is key,’ she says.
Seek out the right workplace
You can be the most talented person in the room but it won’t matter if your workplace isn’t set up to recognize your potential. That’s why Wetterhorn says finding a company with values that align with yours – one that prioritizes your career development – is essential.
Continue reading: https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/a39309962/accenture-career-advice-martina-wetterhorn/

A recent study found that 37% of American workers fear losing their jobs to automation and artificial intelligence (AI).
But it’s not all doom and gloom. While AI will eliminate some jobs, it will also create new opportunities and transform many businesses. Here are five ways AI can transform your business.
1. Improve Customer Service
Traditional customer service involves a human agent talking to a customer on the phone or in person. It can be time-consuming and expensive.
With AI, you can use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to provide 24/7 customer service. IVR is a computer system that interacts with customers through voice and touch-tone keypad input.
IVR can handle simple tasks like providing information about your business or taking a customer’s order. It can also route calls to the appropriate human agent.
Using IVR frees your human agents to handle more complex tasks and can help you improve customer service while reducing costs.
There are many IVR providers you could choose from. To find the best IVR companies for your business, review the features and services they offer.
2. Automate Appointment Scheduling
Appointment scheduling can be a time-consuming and tedious task. But with AI, you can automate this process.
There are many AI-powered appointment scheduling tools on the market. These tools use a variety of factors to find the best time for your meetings, such as the availability of all attendees, the location of the meeting, and your company’s schedule.
Using an AI-powered appointment scheduler can save you time and help you avoid double-bookings and other scheduling conflicts.
Continue reading: https://www.influencive.com/how-artificial-intelligence-can-transform-your-business/

Artificial intelligence is one of the most revolutionizing technologies. It has been in development for the last decade and is finally here. Almost everything uses AI to generate the most accurate results in this digital age. This includes AI in Google’s traffic data to sort your emails, Facebook to have a face recognition feature, and social media platforms to alter your product recommendations. Just like all the other aspects of our lives, AI is also revolutionizing the finance industry and how investments are being made across the globe. 
AI started contributing to the finance industry by enabling mobile check deposits, helping top investors make the right investment decisions today. It is being employed by various financial institutions today to help their clients invest smarter. Here is how Artificial Intelligence can improve your decision-making as an investor too:
1. Better Forecasts
AI and machine learning have enabled investors and expert asset managers to integrate new information more quickly and easily into their investment portfolios. With increased computing power, volumes of data regarding the potential investors can be used, and statistical models of AI can help predict more accurate results in terms of the outcome of each investment. This enables investors to improve the allocation of their assets into the most profitable opportunities and mitigate the overall risk associated with investments.
2. Decreased Emotional Biases
Emotional biases can disturb investors’ ability to make the right decisions. In fact, behavioral finance has concluded numerous times that investors are usually not the most rational when making investment decisions. This includes retail investors, institutional investors, and individuals looking for investment options without prior experience. They are all susceptible to biases, which can easily cloud their judgment. One of the best examples of this is the University of Chicago’s sale of equity in 2008, which resulted from aversion bias. AI tools help reduce and eliminate such irrational human tendencies by ensuring that all results are based on data. AI results in evidence-based decision-making, which can improve the chances of successful investment. 
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/how-can-artificial-intelligence-improve-your-investment-decision-making/

In part one of this series, I explained the broader challenge businesses face in using years of data on past performance to inform AI-level predictions and analytics. That challenge coincides with a shortage of data scientists and the need for better approaches to reaching, engaging, acquiring and retaining customers.
Much of the business intelligence (BI) domain is stuck in the 2000s, not yet embracing the advancements and capabilities of data science. But today, companies want to progress from business logic analysis to AI-driven analytics that can identify patterns that are hard to see in a dashboard or spreadsheet.
To start leveraging their BI data and make the leap to AI predictions, companies should consider these steps toward maximizing their data and their team’s potential.
1. Start with the question in mind. Focus on which business needles you want to move and have a concrete understanding of how you’ll use the model’s predictions to make that happen. If a customer hasn’t purchased something recently, it’s important to incentivize them to do so, but finding the right combination of incentive and channel can be tricky. This is a problem that AI can help solve. For example, data analysts can employ a predictive model-based scoring system to automate the identification of customers who may respond to a bigger discount and be retained longer. That capability means you can predict and shape future customer outcomes with a deeper understanding of what makes each customer come back.
2. Don’t stress about “perfect” data. A new data project can require weeks of validation and data preprocessing. If you have business analysts on your team who employ tools like Looker and Tableau, you probably have plenty of data for them to analyze. You don’t need to make sure every data point is accounted for. You can use the data you already have to create predictive analytics. How? Use your BI-ready data, which means the data is already in a state in which you can drive classic analytics, and select a predictive analytics solution that automates time-consuming data preparation to create an AI-ready dataset. It could save you months of data preprocessing—before any feature engineering can take place and a single model is created.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/08/02/building-a-bridge-between-artificial-intelligence-and-business-intelligence-to-maximize-business-outcomes-part-two/?sh=d89006d4ef56

The global artificial intelligence (AI) market is expected to reach the trillion-dollar mark by 2030, and just as it has done with the global automotive industry, Tesla looks set to absorb a considerable amount of market share. This is all thanks to Dojo, the supercomputer set to drive the most sophisticated (and fastest) AI training machine to date.
What is Project Dojo, and why does it matter?
Necessity breeds innovation: Tesla’s million-plus fleet of vehicles generates huge amounts of data, and the self-driving systems behind them require vast sums of real-world data. The computational demands for training these neural nets are huge, and since Tesla didn’t want to be limited by the general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) available, it decided to build something better.
It would be difficult to understate the significance of Tesla’s decision to go in-house. Not only is the company now developing bespoke hardware tailor-made for its specific needs, but it also represents a bold statement of intent to the tech monopolies currently dominating the AI hardware market. There’s a new kid on the block, and the speed of its development is a sight to behold.
Dojo was unveiled at Tesla’s AI Day last year, where Elon Musk implied it has the potential to reach exascale: 1 quintillion (1018) floating-point operations per second (flops), or 1,000 petaflops. In supercomputing terms, it’s the milestone to reach for.
Let’s start crunching numbers.
Let’s put these numbers into perspective. The earliest supercomputer (the 1964 Control Data Corporation 6600) could handle up to 3 million flops. It was remarkable for the time, yes, but approximately 147 billion times slower than the fastest known supercomputer today, with its capacity of up to 442 petaflops.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/08/03/advancing-artificial-intelligence-and-creating-the-technology-of-the-future/?sh=1503aaab4bd2

Artificial Intelligence has helped automate several marketing processes. But could it take over content marketing as well?
AR and marketing automation has transformed digital marketing processes for good. As far as content marketing is concerned, AR helps you gain a competitive advantage in the saturated digital marketing landscape. With various tools and technologies, marketers can automate time-consuming tasks and focus more on the creative aspects of content marketing.
Today, marketers can successfully transcribe their content in various formats. Some advanced solutions based on NLP can write articles on their own. AR and machine learning help you learn more about customers and build lasting relationships with them. According to a report by Salesforce, high-performing marketing teams are at least two times more likely to use AI in their marketing campaigns than underperformers.
Let us now look at how we can implement AI in content marketing and the benefits of AI in the marketing field.
AI in Content Marketing
Content marketing has evolved since its inception. According to the latest statistics, approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day. With the rise of social media and IoT devices, this number is expected to rise further. To gain a competitive advantage, you need to stay on top of these changes. This is where artificial intelligence meets content marketing.
The role of AI in boosting content marketing varies from collecting and analyzing huge amounts of data to personalizing user experiences and more.
Some of the major benefits include:
Creating automated content
Giants like Yahoo and Fox are using bots to create content. It is due to AI they can cover the latest updates and news so fast. Artificial Intelligence offers content marketers opportunities to focus on challenging tasks without hindering publishing consistency.
Continue reading: https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/staff-writers/the-future-of-ai-and-content-marketing/

Machine learning in business is not a novelty anymore. The volumes of data only grow, and people cannot process so much information swiftly. Business entrepreneurs start thinking about getting prediction machines to help analyze that data.
If you are an entrepreneur who wants to get started with machine learning but doesn’t know where to begin, let us elucidate!
What is Machine Learning?
Machine learning means teaching AI to learn from data and boosting their prediction accuracy. Many business doers ask for machine learning services to train their robots properly. Yet, later the owners deal with the robot’s “education” alone. As a result, a system automatically improves performance at some tasks by learning from experience1.
Simply put, it is about making your machine work smarter by continuously learning from the new data it encounters.
Why Use Machine Learning?
The advantages of using machine learning for business are obvious, but only to programmers. And let us simplify what a business doer gets after implementing AI:

• Prediction machines help you automate decision-making processes;
• AI and machine learning for business reduce the need for human intervention;
• They improve prediction accuracy;
• They contribute to security (for instance, top proxies help with DDoS attack mitigation or 100% prevention);
• AI might find new business opportunities you’ve never heard of;
• Machine learning will help you stay ahead of the competition (as they also might be using prediction machines);
• Gives a vast plus to understanding the business, as you get structured analysis results.

There are innumerable types of machine learning. Yet, they all aim to reduce the need for human intervention in decision-making and improve prediction accuracy.
Continue reading: https://goodmenproject.com/business-ethics-2/how-to-get-started-with-machine-learning-in-your-business/

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications are becoming ubiquitous in organizations across industries. Here are three key pandemic-related trends that hastened its adoption
The need for organizations to quickly create new business models and marketing channels has accelerated AI adoption throughout the past couple of years. This is especially true in healthcare, where data analytics accelerated the development of COVID-19 vaccines. In consumer-packaged goods, Harvard Business Review reported that Frito-Lay created an e-commerce platform, Snacks.com, in just 30 days.
The pandemic also accelerated AI adoption in education, as schools were forced to enable online learning overnight. And wherever possible, the world shifted to “touchless” transactions, completely transforming the banking industry.
Three technology developments during the pandemic accelerated AI adoption:

• Continued inexpensive computing power and storage
• New data architectures
• Availability of new data sources

Pros and cons of AI developments
Let’s look at the pros and cons of these developments for IT leaders.
1. Continued inexpensive computing power
Even 60 years after Moore’s Law, computing power is increasing, with more powerful machines and more processing power through new chips from companies like NVidia. AI Impacts reports that “computing power available per dollar has probably increased by a factor of ten roughly every four years over the last quarter of a century (measured in FLOPS or MIPS).” However, the rate has been slower over the past 6-8 years.
Continue reading: https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2022/8/artificial-intelligence-pandemic-accelerated-adoption

Enjoy this female perspective article written by Emily Hines, documenting her experience behind the scene's at the 2nd largest airshow in the United States. Three woman working for Starlight Aerial Productions orchestrated a light show using 75 drones in front of an audience of 100,000 people April 9 2022. Click this LINK TO READ THE ARTICLE

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have become increasingly widespread over the last decade. As the use of AI has become more common and the performance of AI systems has improved, policymakers, scholars, and advocates have raised concerns. Policy and ethical issues such as algorithmic bias, data privacy, and transparency have gained increasing attention, raising calls for policy and regulatory changes to address the potential consequences of AI (Acemoglu 2021). As AI continues to improve and diffuse, it will likely have significant long-term implications for jobs, inequality, organizations, and competition. Premature deployment of AI products can also aggravate existing biases and discrimination or violate data privacy and protection practices. Because of AI technologies’ wide-ranging impact, stakeholders are increasingly interested in whether firms are likely to embrace measures of self-regulation based on ethical or policy considerations and how decisions of policymakers or courts affect the use of AI systems. Where policymakers or courts step in and regulatory changes affect the use of AI systems, how are managers likely to respond to new or proposed regulations?
AI-RELATED REGULATION
 
In the United States, the use of AI is implicitly governed by a variety of common law doctrines and statutory provisions, such as tort law, contract law, and employment discrimination law (Cuéllar 2019). This implies that judges’ rulings on common law-type claims already play an important role in how society governs AI. While common law often involves decision-making that builds on precedent, federal agencies also engage in important governance and regulatory tasks that may affect AI across various sectors of the economy (Barfield & Pagollo 2018). Federal autonomous vehicle legislation, for instance, carves out a robust domain for states to make common law decisions about autonomous vehicles through the court system. Through tort, property, contract, and related legal domains, society shapes how people utilize AI while gradually defining what it means to misuse AI technologies (Cuéllar 2019). Existing law (e.g., tort law) may, for instance, require that a company avoid any negligent use of AI to make decisions or provide information that could result in harm to the public (Gallaso & Luo 2019). Likewise, current employment, labor, and civil rights laws imply that a company using AI to make hiring or termination decisions could face liability for its decisions involving human resources.
Policymakers and the public also consider new legal and regulatory approaches when faced with potentially transformative technologies, as these may challenge existing legislation (Barfield & Pagollo 2018). The Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2022 is one proposal to deal with such perceived gaps. The Algorithmic Accountability Act was first proposed in 2019 to regulate large firms through mandatory self-assessment of their AI systems, including disclosure of firm usage of AI systems, their development process, system design, and training, as well as the data gathered and used.
Continue reading: https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-does-information-about-ai-regulation-affect-managers-choices/

Artificial intelligence is not a future spectacle anymore. These days, we can see inventions like driverless vehicles and helpful robots such as Alexa from Google. In the coming years, AI will enhance the quality of our lives through its intelligence and efficiency. Where humans can make errors and show incompetency, AI will ideally be programmed to perform and yield positive outcomes. In this article, we will be discussing how AI will affect different fields in the future. 
Better Healthcare Services
AI will be crucial in helping to prevent a large percentage of errors in the healthcare sector. AI in healthcare will help democratize the industry for the betterment of patients and healthcare professionals while reducing costs and improving accuracy through predictive treatment. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are used to analyze patients’ history better through different elements like their birthplace, dietary habits, and local air quality. Future healthcare systems driven by AI may also be able to predict when an individual will acquire a chronic illness and offer preemptive treatment to stop it before it worsens.
The development of AI-powered apps to assist doctors in diagnosing and treating patients is also the subject of several studies. This technology will undoubtedly revolutionize how patients receive better medical treatment. As robots communicate with patients, monitor their health, and assess whether or not a doctor’s appointment is still necessary for the future, you may anticipate an entirely new future for healthcare. While doctors will always be needed, AI will make our life easier by improving the efficiency of the diagnostic medical data we require.
Efficient Retail Services
Future drones driven by AI could deliver items weighing up to five pounds in about 30 minutes. These drones are not yet available for commercial purposes, but people might be able to see driverless delivery of products and food using drones within the next 10 years.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/how-artificial-intelligence-will-impact-our-lives-in-the-coming-decades/

According to the 2022 IBM Institute for Business Value study on AI Ethics in Action, building trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) is perceived as a strategic differentiator and organizations are beginning to implement AI ethics mechanisms.
Seventy-five percent of respondents believe that ethics is a source of competitive differentiation. More than 67% of respondents who view AI and AI ethics as important indicate that their organizations outperform their peers in sustainability, social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion.
The survey showed that 79% of CEOs are prepared to embed AI ethics into their AI practices, up from 20% in 2018, but less than a quarter of responding organizations have operationalized AI ethics. Less than 20% of respondents strongly agreed that their organization's practices and actions match (or exceed) their stated principles and values.
Peter Bernard, CEO of Datagration, says that understanding AI gives companies an advantage, but Bernard adds that explainable AI allows businesses to optimize their data.
"Not only are they able to explain and understand the AI/ML behind predictions, but when errors arise, they can understand where to go back and make improvements," said Bernard. "A deeper understanding of AI/ML allows businesses to know whether their AI/ML is making valuable predictions or whether they should be improved."
Bernard believes this can ensure incorrect data is spotted early on and stopped before decisions are made.
Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, says that explainable AI also furthers scientific discovery as scientists and other business users can explore what the AI model does in various circumstances.
"They can work with the models directly instead of relying only on what predictions are generated given a certain set of inputs," said Litan.
But John Thomas, Vice President and Distinguished Engineer in IBM Expert Labs, says at its very basic level, explainable AI are the methods and processes for helping us understand a model's output. "In other words, it's the effort to build AI that can explain to designers and users why it made the decision it did based on the data that was put into it," said Thomas.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2022/07/28/explainable-ai-is--trending-and-heres-why/?sh=1409fcba2008

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has dominated the headlines of late. Every day, a new breakthrough is reported, furthering the notion that new AI-enabled capabilities are poised to revolutionize the enterprise. Despite many of these claims having no obvious business application, the pomp and circumstance around them have successfully captured the attention of the C-suite.
Where AI was once considered a bleeding-edge capability, a growing number now see it as a business imperative and a necessary part of their technology toolkit. Consider the following:

• AI expenditure is projected to increase by 200% to $291.5 billion between now and 2026.
• Two-thirds of CDOs view AI as a top priority.
• More than half (56%) of enterprises report AI adoption in at least one function.

The fervor around AI is eerily similar to past technology adoption cycles (e.g., the web boom) and follows a predictable pattern. First, there's an exuberant rush by early adopters, followed by a growing recognition of its complexity, then a slower and more thoughtful adoption by the mainstream as capabilities mature and standards emerge.
What we’re seeing now is the complexity of AI in its many forms creating an ever-growing disconnect between its promise and reality. AI is challenging and business leaders need to approach it with thorough due diligence and eyes wide open.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/07/28/how-to-approach-ai-decisions-with-eyes-wide-open/?sh=2eba0f0f49e1

Only 20 percent of computer science and 22 percent of engineering undergraduate degrees in the U.S. go to women. Women are missing out on flexible, lucrative and high-status careers. Society is also missing out on the potential contributions they would make to these fields, such as designing smartphone conversational agents that suggest help not only for heart attack symptoms but also for indicators of domestic violence.
Identifying the factors causing women’s underrepresentation is the first step towards remedies. Why are so few women entering these fields? A common explanation is that women are less interested than men in computer science and engineering. This explanation is technically accurate and supported by women’s and men’s own responses. But, it is incomplete in problematic ways, and worsens the very disparities it seeks to explain.
Ending with an explanation that women currently have lower interest in these fields is shortsighted. A better solution is to understand how the cultures of these fields dissuade many women and young girls from becoming interested in this important work. Focusing the explanation on currently existing interests suggests that girls and women are deficient and need to change. Instead, we think that changing the male-oriented image and cultures of engineering and computer science will draw more young women into these fields. The status quo makes it clear that these fields and societal institutions still have a long way to go.
Continue reading: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/there-are-too-few-women-in-computer-science-and-engineering/

First, companies began using artificial intelligence (AI) to transform drug discovery. Now, they are jumping into the robotics race. With robots running labs, there can be more experiments performed faster and in parallel, generating high-quality data that strengthens AI’s ability to make accurate hypotheses and validate those hypotheses. Ultimately, that means new drugs can get to market faster where they can start helping patients.
Analytics Insights reports that robotics in pharma and drug discovery is expected to grow from a $2.05 billion industry in 2019 to $4.87 billion in 2023. Driving this investment is the need for the industry to solve the major roadblocks to successful novel drug discovery: namely, slow speed, high cost and excessive failure rates in the final stages.
On average, it costs over $1 billion and can take over a decade to bring one drug to market—and a whopping 90% of drug candidates fail during clinical trials, per an oft-cited statistic.
Barriers To Finding New Targets And Drugs
In drug discovery, scientists comb through what’s known as “omics” data—data related to the human genome, including DNA and RNA. Diseases are tied to specific genes, and scientists analyze data related to hundreds of thousands of human genomes to try to pinpoint which genes are associated with which disease. They then need to identify proteins coded by the gene in question that has the potential to be drugged. Currently, 40% of the human genome has yet to be explored, and just 10% of human proteins have been identified as druggable.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/07/27/ai-from-drug-discovery-to-robotics/?sh=1d5c084d3d7f

Artificial intelligence is rapidly upending how people do business across industries, and yet skeptics still abound. But is there really a reason to fear AI?
AI will change how we work and do business, and its impact is already being felt. Still, that doesn’t mean it is something to fear. On the contrary, business managers and leaders who embrace AI and harness its potential now have everything to gain.
Making Sense Of AI
According to IBM, at its most basic, AI is anything that “leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind.” But not all AI is built alike. There are two types of AI: narrow AI and strong AI.
Narrow AI is trained to perform specific tasks. A bot that can carry out a conversation with a potential customer is an example of narrow AI but is more robust. Strong AI, which is what we’re moving toward, is AI that can perform all the complex tasks and decision-making processes of a human (e.g., an emotionally intelligent machine that can make tough decisions, reflect on their impact, and recalibrate accordingly). Whether strong AI is just another flying car is yet to be seen.
From Flying Cars To AI
As history has repeatedly shown, some visions of the future simply never come to pass. The first patent for a flying car was issued in 1918, and over a century later, we’re still not battling aerial car crashes. This hasn’t prevented people from dreaming and worrying about a future where skyways replace roadways. As a cofounder of a business powered by AI, my best guess is that AI is today’s flying car.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/07/27/the-benefits-and-risks-of-embracing-ai/?sh=138bf1a044b4

Executives from throughout the hi-tech industry gathered during the first inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit to share their knowledge and experience with female entrepreneurs.
“Let's start by establishing that hi-tech is really the best place for women,” began Dorit Dor, Chief Product Officer for Checkpoint, during a panel at Tuesday night’s first inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit from The Jerusalem Post and WE (Women’s Entrepreneurship). During the event, executives from throughout the hi-tech industry gathered to share their knowledge and experience with female entrepreneurs across the country.
Dor elaborated on the juxtaposition between the many good opportunities for women in hi-tech and the relative lack of their presence in the sector. “As well as learning technology, it's the best opportunity for getting paid. It's the best opportunity for life balance because you could work from home in all the hi-tech industry, it's the best for every reason you could think of to work in high tech - and still very few select this,” she said.
“We have an issue,” she continued and explained why she believes the current branding of hi-tech is repulsive for diverse groups of workers. “For example, in cyber, you wear a hoodie and drink a lot of coke, or the men doing it in high school are not socially acceptable,” she said. These impressions make women fearful that they wouldn’t be socially accepted if they were in the industry, Dor suggested.
Besides problematic branding, the hi-tech industry offers several other hurdles for women, explained Dor, including the requirement to “opt in” in order to achieve success and the need to loudly self-advocate for themselves. “Usually women don't do this very well,” she said.
In an effort to correct these issues, Checkpoint runs initiatives helping young kids choose high tech and mentoring women to speak up for themselves and pursue promotion. “In the end, if you had a whole list of [mid-level employees] that are women, maybe that would help as well.”
Continue reading: https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-713172

A company’s success is intricately linked to its marketing strategies in a highly competitive consumer market. The CMO Survey demonstrated that 72% of marketing chiefs felt that ‘the importance of marketing in their companies increased’ significantly in 2020-21.
It also highlighted that traditional advertising recorded a negative growth at -0.2% while digital ad spending increased by 17%.
The need for efficient marketing is thus evident. But the final word on the best marketing strategy is yet to come. Perhaps there will never be an answer carved in stone. Nevertheless, word-of-mouth (WoM) is a promising contender in this race – one of the most effective marketing strategies, if not the most.
To put things in perspective, the Nielsen 2021 Trust in Advertising Study found that 88% of global respondents favor recommendations from friends and family over other forms of advertising. Corroborating Nielsen’s findings, 64% of marketing executives also consider WoM the most effective advertising form. On the flip side, though, only six percent of these executives have mastered WoM marketing enough to implement it effectively.
Some Web 3.0 protocols are, thus, innovating disruptive but practical WoM marketing solutions. This makes WoM more accessible for businesses, strengthening their marketing arsenal and return on investments (ROIs). Indeed, it’s as though WoM and Web 3.0 are made for each other.
The power of word-of-mouth marketing
Spreading information through word of mouth is perhaps as old as human civilization. Humans have a fundamental tendency to share their opinions and offer advice about the most impressionable things around them.
In addition, cultural practices like food, clothing and customs have often traveled from one region to another by word-of-mouth. This innate connection with human existence makes WoM such a powerful marketing strategy.
Scholars have formed multiple theories to understand WoM thoroughly. Some explanations attribute its success to empathy or altruism, while others refer to psychological dynamics of influence and control. Based on these understandings, market researchers have experimented to find the best possible combinations for optimizing marketing ROIs.
Continue reading: https://dailyhodl.com/2022/07/20/web-3-0-can-scale-new-heights-with-word-of-mouth-marketing-its-perfect-for-blockchain-native-protocols/

Web 3 has led to numerous innovations and a number of real-world problem-solving solutions. However, their true potential cannot be realized until the new technology is fully integrated into the web infrastructure.
Says Dileep Seinberg, founder and CEO of MuffinPay, a crypto fintech platform, “We are now entering the third era of the internet, also used in the tech buzzword web 3. This is primarily possible because of its decentralized nature, community-driven aspect, and data ownership by people instead of a few companies. It will combine four technologies: IoT (Internet of things), artificial intelligence/machine learning, data science and blockchain, and 5G telecom capabilities.”
Web 3 Adoption In India
India has been one of the early proponents of Web3 technology. It was also ranked first in terms of global crypto adoption, according to a survey conducted by Finder, a global research platform, in July 2022. Additionally, according to the Cryptotech Industry in India 2021 report by NASSCOM and WazirX, India is home to more than 230 Web 3 start-ups already.
“India has been a frontrunner in IT & Software, and right now, global investors are investing huge capital in Indian-made crypto and blockchain ventures. I believe India will be a significant player in building the future of the Internet though some caution on the policy side will be required. Web3 in India can simultaneously flourish with the right people (founders), investments and the policy,” says Seinberg.
But the new technology comes with its pros and cons.
Pros Of Web 3.0
Faster And Fairer: As more people invest in cryptocurrency, they would want to use it for the full range of transactions that fiat currently allows, such as lending and borrowing, investing in assets, and making payments.
In June 2022, Chainanalysis, a blockchain data firm, released The Chainalysis State of Web 3 report which mentioned that web 3 will enable faster and more convenient transactions. For instance, in today's world, borrowers must go through a time-consuming mortgage application process that heavily relies on human judgement. In a web 3 world, this process becomes faster and fairer. Borrowers can simply link their wallets and an algorithm could instantly give them a “yes or no” based solely on their financial profile and transaction history as represented on a blockchain. 
Continue reading: https://www.outlookindia.com/business/web-3-0-know-the-pros-and-cons-of-the-new-technology-news-211642

Investors worldwide have swarmed on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, lured by the promise of quick riches regardless of the risks. Bitcoin's success has fueled legions of follow-on projects, imitators, and fans. Thieves, not to be left out, discovered opportunities as well—because where there is a promise of riches, there is an opportunity to steal it.
There are weaknesses that hackers can exploit, which means your cryptocurrency can be hacked; however, it can only be done in certain scenarios. So, how can you protect yourself and your investments?
Blockchain Security
Bitcoin launched in 2009—it is a decentralized digital currency, meaning it is not overseen or regulated by an administrator, group, government, or other entity. Peer-to-peer transactions fueled the rise of digital currency, which transitioned into a digital landscape where anything could be represented by a blockchain token.
Cryptocurrency blockchains are public ledgers that record and verify all transactions in a blockchain network. Everyone can see transactions, the pseudonymous addresses involved, and how much was transferred. However, these public ledgers do not allow anyone to access them and submit or change entries; this is done automatically by scripts, programming, and an automated transaction validation process.
How Is a Blockchain Secured?
Security is addressed in a blockchain through cryptographic techniques and consensus mechanisms. Blockchains use encryption to encode transaction information and include the data from previous blocks in each following block. The entire ledger is chained together through encrypted data. Each newly created block makes it more secure.
An existing blockchain, therefore, cannot be hacked in the traditional sense of "being hacked," where malicious code is introduced into the chain or someone "hacks" into the network with brute force and begins making changes.
Continue reading: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/032615/can-bitcoin-be-hacked.asp

How to Protect Your Digital Assets
When investing in cryptocurrencies, the most important thing to know is, how to maintain your crypto wallet safely. Once you deposit cryptocurrencies in your wallet, it is essential to remember that all types of cryptocurrency wallets, even the most secure hardware wallets (cold wallets), can be hacked and emptied.
Although blockchain technology produces a data structure with innate security qualities and the blockchain database is “virtually indestructible,” human error or physical device issues (i.e., social engineering and physical security) can still occur. The risks of crypto wallets vary from situation to situation and often change. As a 101 guide, I will explain the common reasons for the sudden disappearance of cryptocurrency inside the wallet.
Password-Stealing Malware
Password-stealing malware scans your computer or mobile device's hard drive to steal your private key. You may allow malicious programs to invade your device when you browse suspicious websites, click on links provided by scammers, open unsafe email attachments, or download software from untrusted sources,
Suppose you do not enable two-factor authentication to protect your crypto wallet; in that case, hackers who manipulate malware can hack into your account in seconds and transfer assets instantly after they have obtained your private key. Therefore, enabling two-factor verification settings is one of the significant security measures to protect encrypted wallets.
Trojan Horse
Trojans are another type of password-stealing malware, but instead of actually “stealing” our cryptocurrency, Trojans scan your hard drive for cryptocurrency holdings. The Trojan will then encrypt your hard drive and send you a ransomware email, threatening to format your hard drive if the ransom is not paid within a certain period. Unfortunately, even well-protected exchanges can still encounter these types of ransomware, and users are often only instructed to pay the ransom.
Continue reading: https://hackernoon.com/crypto-wallet-security-101