AI Speed Bumps
March 5, 2018
If you read anything about artificial intelligence these days, it’s usually about how efficiency will go through the roof because of it. Either that, or how it’s the most destructive invention since the nuclear bomb. Both of those might be a moot point because the science behind AI is being seriously questioned. This came from a recent Science Magazine story, “Missing Data Hinders Replication of Artificial Intelligence Studies.”
According to the piece:
“The booming field of artificial intelligence (AI) is grappling with a replication crisis, much like the ones that have afflicted psychology, medicine, and other fields over the past decade. AI researchers have found it difficult to reproduce many key results, and that is leading to a new conscientiousness about research methods and publication protocols.”
The source stems from scientists’ need to publish quickly and get the upper hand in a competitive field. That means algorithms are not tested in every situation and that cracks begin to form in their theories. This feels like a growing pain for this rapidly expanding field. This comes on the heels of another study that claims we are thinking about AI all wrong. We humans tend to think of AI as working like a human brain, but it works like something totally different. We suddenly don’t have a lot of faith that scientists will get to the bottom of what that is, exactly.
As an example, the dust up between Elon Musk and Steven Pinker does little to reassure neutral observers about smart software.
Patrick Roland, March 5, 2018
Palantir Executive Reveals How Silicon Valley Really Works
March 5, 2018
I usually ignore the talking heads on the US television cable channels. I did perk up when I heard a comment made by Alex Karp, one of the founders of Palantir Technologies. The company’s Gotham and Metropolitan product lines (now evolved to a platform called Foundry), its licensing deals with Thomson Reuters, and the company’s work for commercial organizations is quite interesting. Most consumers and many users of high profile online services are unaware of Palantir. Some click centric outfits like Buzzfeed rattle the Palantir door knob with revelations about the super low profile company. The reality is that Palantir is not all that secret. In fact, a good online researcher can unearth examples of the company’s technology, including its plumbing, its interfaces, and its outputs. Dig further, and one can pinpoint some of the weaknesses in the company’s technology, systems, methods, and management approach.
In the CNBC interview, which appeared as an online story “CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: Palantir Technologies Co-Founder & CEO Alex Karp Joins CNBC’s Josh Lipton for Rare Interview Airing Today,” I noted several insights. Critics of Palantir might describes these comments in another way, but for me, I thought the ideas expressed were interesting and suggestive.
Here’s the first one:
I believe that Silicon Valley is creating innovation without jobs, and it’s really hurting our world.
I read this to mean that if one cannot get hired in a world infused with smart software, job hunters and seekers are dead in the water. Those homeless people, by extension, will replicate the living conditions in shanties in Third World countries. Most Silicon Valley cheerleaders sidestep what is a massive phase change in society.
The second statement I noted is:
Realize that most Silicon Valley companies don’t care and nor do they have a corporate responsibility to care.
For me, Mr. Karp is making clear that chatter from FAGMA (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple) about doing the right thing, trying to be better, and accepting the responsibility which falls upon the shoulders of quasi-monopolies is just that—chatter. Palantir, it seems, is a critic of the Silicon Valley way. I find this fascinating.
The third statement I circled is:
We are primarily a creative organization, so that means we create, we try not to look at what other people are doing, or obviously not overly.
This statement does not hint at the out of court settlement with i2 Group. The legal dust up, which I discussed in this post, was not mentioned by either the interlocutor or Mr. Karp. The omission was notable. I don’t want to be skeptical of this “creative organization” phrase, but like many people who emerged from the start up scene, the “history” of innovation often has an important story to tell. But unless the CNBC interviewer knows about the allegations related to the ANB file format and other Analysts Notebook functions, the assertion creeps toward becoming a fact about Palantir’s innovation. (Note: I was an adviser to i2 Group Ltd., before the company’s founders sold the enterprise.)
The original interview is interesting and quite revelatory. Today, I believe that history can be reshaped. It’s not fake news; it’s a consequence of how information is generated, disseminated, and consumed in an uncritical way.
Stephen E Arnold, March 5, 2018
Facebook Begins Censoring Content for Good and Ill
March 5, 2018
Facebook has been under a lot of scrutinies for fake news and propaganda lately. While the company has acknowledged its mistakes, the course it is taking to fix these problems should alarm people. We learned more on the social media giant’s censorship from a recent story in the Intercept, “Facebook Says It Is Deleting Accounts at the Direction of the U.S. and Israeli Governments.
According to the story:
Facebook has been on a censorship rampage against Palestinian activists who protest the decades-long, illegal Israeli occupation, all directed and determined by Israeli officials. Indeed, Israeli officials have been publicly boasting about how obedient Facebook is when it comes to Israeli censorship orders.
Shortly after news broke earlier this month of the agreement between the Israeli government and Facebook, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Tel Aviv had submitted 158 requests to the social media giant over the previous four months asking it to remove content it deemed “incitement.” She said Facebook had granted 95 percent of the requests.
This is a no-win situation for Facebook. By trying to keep questionable content off the net, it opens the door for censoring its users. A slippery slope, to be sure. If we were to guess, Facebook will make a few more missteps before correcting things appropriately.
Patrick Roland, March 5, 2018
Is the UK Approach to Security a Pathfinder?
March 4, 2018
The United States Government may face a dilemma. Citizens want the Internet to be safer and more accurate. However, the government wants those citizens to solve that problem themselves. The idea of government policing of the internet upsets a lot of folks. However, maybe there is a way to make everyone happy. The United Kingdom thinks it has the solution for government internet policing, as we learned from a recent GCN article, “How the UK Created Her Majesty’s Cyber Service.”
According to the story, one of the many elements of this plan, include:
“DMARC deployment in the public sector, which will make it more expensive or riskier for attackers to spoof messages that appear to come from the government. Getting all government domains to use Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance will demonstrate that the technology can be implemented at scale.”
However, it’ll be worth watching how these good intentions play out. Vietnam recently attempted to employ a similar internet policing strategy. Instead of employing a Great Firewall like China, the nation attempted has tried to respond when issues arise…and that’s not good. The Vietnamese government is unable to respond fast enough and the Washington Post is wondering whether their internet could actually fail. Strange crossroads many are at and worth monitoring.
What may be instructive is the UK’s approach. The Guardian story “MI5 Agents Can Commit Crime in UK, Government Reveals” indicates that Britain is making “exceptions” in order to fight crime. Which threat is larger: Criminals or legal authorities?
Patrick Roland, March 4, 2018
Self Regulation: Is This a Facebook Core Competency?
March 3, 2018
Recently, British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke out against the vengeful and often dangerous way in which social media has been utilized. According to one account she stood up for women and minorities and other groups being disenfranchised online. Good, right? Apparently, it was a little too late, as a fiery Guardian piece told us in, “Theresa May Thinks Facebook Will Police Itself? Some Hope.”
In typical British journalistic tradition, the piece heavily criticizes the PM’s statement:
“This is typical Mayspeak: it mimes determination but is devoid of substance. It’s like hoping that the alcohol industry will help to stamp out binge drinking or that food manufacturers will desist from encouraging childhood obesity. Neither industry will comply for the simple reason that their continued prosperity depends on people drinking more alcohol and consuming more sugar and fat.”
While a politician saying that they trust Facebook and social media to police themselves is laughable no matter what country you live in, it raises an interesting question. Wired recently took up the same topic with an interesting spin. While its author acknowledges Facebook’s attempts at correcting its mistakes and being a safer platform for users, it points out that there’s a really simple way to handle this: more transparency. Social media giants are shrouded in secrecy and until they can be more candid and open, all we’ll have is hot air from politicians and nothing more.
But Facebook may have the gift of governance: Both and art and a like?
Patrick Roland, March 3, 2018
IBM Wants Executives to Be Disruptors
March 2, 2018
I read “IBM Tells CIOs to Become Disruptors, Touts Cognitive Services Platform.” Now that’s pretty spectacular advice from IBM. I learned from an IBM executive named Luis Pineda:
We’re provoking them really to act now, before it’s too late, maybe to optimize and increase the agility of their data and cloud infrastructure to create an insight-driven organization. We’re doing this because we believe that only by radically re-imagining their roles as CIO will they become the disruptors, and not be the disrupted. And by doing so they will be able to drive meaningful innovation that will truly transform their business and organization.
Not surprisingly, the suggestion is that IBM Watson is the system which will disrupt.
So far IBM Watson has provided me with some laughs. For IBM it has generated revenues which did not meet the lofty revenue forecasts in the heady days of winning Jeopardy. For employees who have been RIFed, IBM has disrupted—thousands of lives.
What’s fascinating is that jargon and inability to leverage what IBM does that customers want seem to trip over one another. No mention about HAL going back into space, however.
Stephen E Arnold, March 2, 2018
Quote to Note: Silicon Valley and Substantive Content
March 2, 2018
I like the way the light shines after a person collects millions per year and then realizes that Silicon Valley reality is plastic fantastic. I read “Katie Couric Slams Her Time at Yahoo: It ‘Was Not Fulfilling’.” (No word on how fulfilling depositing the pay checks were, however.)
Here’s the quote I found notable:
Major tech companies seem to value content for clicks.
No fooling?
Stephen E Arnold, March 2, 2018
IBM Watson: Just When I Thought Big Blue Was Going to Sell Mainframes
March 2, 2018
I read and marveled at the report called “IBM Watson Is Heading to Space in an 11-Pound Smiling Orb Called CIMON.” I thought IBM went to space with HAL almost 50 years ago. Like IBM’s use of Charlie Chaplin, IBM dips into the past for its new ideas.
I learned:
The orb, dubbed CIMON, short for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion, will be taken to the ISS in June by German astronaut and scientist Alexander Gerst. It has been designed as an experimental assistance system to support astronauts in performing routine work.
Okay, none of that HAL stuff this time around. At least, that’s my assumption.
The write up added:
Manfred Jaumann, head of microgravity payloads at Airbus SE, which designed the hardware, said that “CIMON will be the first AI-based mission and flight assistance system,” a sort of “free flyer, a kind of flying brain” that will interact with, aid and learn from astronauts.
From Jeopardy to cancer to an astronaut’s digital Friday. Amazing.
As the song lyrics say:
You’ll take the lead on each trip we take
Then if I don’t do well
I will permit you to use the brake.
For me, I would pull the plug. Just as Dave did 50 years ago.
Stephen E Arnold, March 2, 2018
Facebook Floundering Again?
March 2, 2018
It is no shock to say that Facebook has had some rough months lately. Amidst controversy over their handling of fake news and algorithms that seem to avoid friends, the company’s biggest problems are actually internal. The social media giant’s culture is beginning to gain a lot of attention, and not for good reasons. We learned more in a Slashdot excerpt, “A Facebook Employee Asked Reporter to Turn Off Phone So Facebook Couldn’t Track its Location.”
One troubling part of the story said:
“According to his recounting of the meeting, she asked him if he had been in touch with Nunez (the Gizmodo reporter, who eventually published this and this). He denied that he had been. Then she told him that she had their messages on Gchat, which Fearnow had assumed weren’t accessible to Facebook. He was fired. “Please shut your laptop and don’t reopen it,” she instructed him.”
There is a lot of interesting stuff here and it links to a larger Wired piece that shows even more of the depths. This is at odds with other reports of the company, which claim it has a winning culture and that Facebook’s corporate environment is a success. We are inclined to believe the Slashdot look at things. Likely, these positive spins are PR related in the wake of so many rotten news pieces. Facebook has long been an innovator, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can revolutionize their culture.
Patrick Roland, March 2, 2018
Multi-purpose Search Tool Is Like Magic
March 2, 2018
The Internet of things has evolved from an entertaining gimmick to instantly access information to an indispensable tool for daily life. Search engines like Google and Duckduckgo make searching the Internet simple, but in closed systems like databases and storage silos, searching is still complicated. Usually, individual systems have their own out-of-the-box search engines, but its accuracy is so-so. Cloud computing complicates search even more. Instead of searching just one system, cloud computing requires search software that can handle multiple systems at once. The search technology is out there, but can it really perform as well as Google or even DuckDuckGo?
The Code Project wrote about a new, multi-faceted search tool in the post, “Multidatabase Text Search Tool.” Searching text in all files across many systems is one of the most complicated procedures for a search engine, especially if you want accuracy and curated results. That is what DBTextFinder was developed for:
DBTextFinder is a simple tool that helps you to perform a precise search in all the stored procedures, functions, triggers, packages and views code, or a selected subset of them, using regular expressions.Additionally, you can search for a given text in all the text fields of a selected set of tables, using regular expressions too.The application provides connections to MySQL, SQL Server and Oracle servers, and supports remote connections via WCF services. You can easily extend the list of available DBMS writing your own connectors without having to change the application code.
DBTextFinder appears to have it all. It is programmable, gets along well with other computer languages, and was designed to be user-friendly. What more could you ask for?
Whitney Grace, March 2, 2018
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