Australian Study: Not Likely to Be Popular at Apple
June 12, 2020
Australia’s News.com published “Study Casts Doubt on School iPad Benefits.” Although narrow, the information appears to confirm what DarkCyber has believed for a long time: A technology bandage does not fix underlying systemic failures. Example: Students without a home, a knowledge supporting peer group, and capable human instructors may not magically learn when equipped with a computing device. Bummer. Silver bullets, magic wands, and next big things are just supposed to solve problems. At least, that is how the logic appears to go when apparently educated people try to remediate the things schools do wrong.
The write up states:
New research has found using iPads and other technology in schools may not support brain development particularly in young children, according to James Cook University’s Professor Helen Boon.
Yikes. The write up continues:
The study found the technology did not enhance specific school learning areas such as mathematics, English, and science.
“Some studies have suggested that mobile technology promotes collaborative learning, communication and access to information,” Dr Boon said. “On the other hand, the potential for mobile technology to be a distraction in the classroom has also been frequently reported.” Dr Boon says another concern is the effect their physical use has on young brains.
Imagine. Books, paper, pencils, drills, and old-fashioned methods may deliver skills while computing devices teach distraction.
The fix? Order up more Chromebooks, iPads, and smartphones.
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2020
Microsoft: Some Employees Express Discontent
June 12, 2020
Microsoft — yep, the outfit which cannot update its Windows 10 operating system without killing some computers — has another hillock obscuring its vision of cloud dominance. The obstruction is not Redmond’s other friendly jungle environment Amazon.
The mound of woe may be composed of employees objecting to whom and which entities the masters of JEDI sell the ever-reliable and entertaining digital products and services. Taking a less than 365 view, “Microsoft Employees Urge Nadella to Cancel Contracts with Police” reports:
Several Microsoft employees have written a letter to CEO Satya Nadella, urging the company to cancel contracts with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and other law enforcement agencies in the wake of police brutality episodes during the Black Lives Matter protests. The internal email with the subject line “Our neighborhood has been turned into a warzone” seen by the portal OneZero, nearly 250 Microsoft employees have asked the tech giant to formally support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and calls for the resignation of the Seattle mayor.
Interesting. Similar employee “suggestions” have been respectfully and not-so-respectfully submitted to other high-technology outfits.
The basic idea is that employees either perceive the right to influence what the company sells and to whom and which entities.
DarkCyber wants to note:
- Employees may have a hand in creating software like Windows 10 which, when updated, fails. It seems reasonable that [a] the employees cannot do work that “works” or managers cannot manage so that products and services “work”.
- A company with internal difficulties is likely to find itself vulnerable to sabotage or work slowdowns on certain projects which staff determine do not deserve full commitment. If this assertion is accurate, some entities may lose confidence in the Redmond outfit, assuming that confidence has not begun to erode due to other factors. (Possibly the Zune effect?)
- An operating environment which increases uncertainty can undermine stakeholder confidence. The appearance of “management effectiveness” is necessary to prevent feedback which escalates uncertainty. Such uncertainty can influence the behaviors of partners, shareholders, prospects, existing customers, and employees. (Yikes, employees.)
Net net: A small perturbation may presage a larger seismic event. To be frank, it is more difficult to envision worse news that Forbes’ Magazine publishing “Microsoft Confirms New Windows 10 Upgrade Warnings.” Imagine a news service for business people warning that a forced upgrade will kill devices and services like Internet connectivity.
Didn’t Microsoft roll out Bob (a graphical interface for Windows) and the big, bright, and failed Windows Phone?
Yeah. Management, governance, confidence — a trifecta.
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2020
Super Ethical Uber Wants to Determine If AI Can Be Ethical: Pot Calling Kettle What?
June 12, 2020
I spotted this headline: “Uber Researchers Investigate Whether AI Can Behave Ethically.” I immediately asked this question:
Can ethical Uber hire ethical engineers who can ethically decide if smart software can be ethical?
Then I had to sit down with a cool cloth on my forehead. The question caused me to develop a slight stitch in my side and a headache.
Uber is an interesting outfit, and I wonder if it would be the expected high-tech wonderland to delve into philosophical questions. Some Uber drivers have appeared agitated when faced with ethical decisions. Allegedly shooting, shouting, and assaulting passengers do not seem particularly difficult to resolve in terms of Kentucky ethicalities. Then Uber had a founder who engaged in interesting behavior. He is now creating the future elsewhere and presumably refining his management skills. I don’t want to overlook the triviality of the Google-Uber Lewandowski affair. That too was something which may have caught the attention of Aristotle if he were alive today and updating his Nicomachean Ethics for the with-it world of Silicon Valley.
Remarkable goal the Uber professionals have set for themselves. One assumes an Uber artificial intelligence expert will reveal the learnings from this bold initiative.
On the other hand, we might wait to see if an Uber AI equipped automobile runs over a chipmunk or a 77 year old blogger in Kentucky.
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2020
Amazon Facial Recognition: Hit Pause for One Year. Is the Button Wired Up?
June 11, 2020
Quite a bit of interest in the announcement from the online bookstore about facial recognition. The story appeared in Dayone (that’s the Amazon official blog). The story’s title was “We Are Implementing a One Year Moratorium on Police Use of Rekognition.” Like IBM’s “we’re not doing facial recognition” announcement, the coverage of the news seems to have ignored some nuances.
First, Amazon has been investing like a wealth crazed MBA on Wall Street to beef up its policeware capabilities. Because bad actors are often humans, the technology required to identify these humans is important. And facial recognition and other types of policeware are expensive to develop. Thus, the word “moratorium” is important.
Second, some of the activities in which the online bookstore is engaged are covered by different types of agreements, contracts, and statements of work. As dramatic and newsy are “From this day forward” statements are, certain projects are likely to continue. Extrication from an underway government project is not just pushing the button. That button has to be connected to the operative system in order to work. Think of this as a dial on a thermostat in a hotel room. The guest thinks the dial works, but the device is a psychological play so the guest “thinks” he or she is in control. Ho, ho, ho.
Third, with infrastructure in place and data being processed, indexed, and stored, government entities have legal tools to obtain access to certain information. Whether one “stops” or not, the legal mechanisms are often deaf to such statements, “We don’t do this anymore.” That works exactly how often?
Net net: DarkCyber believes that more information about the precise meaning of moratorium in the context of Amazon’s usage of the word. Discarding a substantive investment? Maybe. Maybe not.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
IBM Watson: To the Dogs?
June 11, 2020
Okay, a pandemic, a financial meltdown, increasing border tensions between China and India, protests in the US, and dog matching.
Wait! Dog matching.
DarkCyber noted a write up which struck the research team as weirdly out of tune in an already discordant symphony.
“270B Partnered With Avocados From Mexico to Create an Innovative Digital Campaign for the 2019 Big Game, Winning a Prestigious Reggie Award for Digital Innovation” includes this factoid which would be humorous if it were not for the litany of crises which humanity faces:
One of the main draws of the site was the integration of IBM Watson technology into the Match Dog Com experience. This technology analyzed the user’s personality via their Tweets and then paired them with real adoptable dogs with complementary personality traits by breed. In the short length of the campaign, it generated 3.2 Billion social impressions. By partnering with national dog adoption organization, Adopt-A-Pet.com, the integration of information from their system provided information on real dogs that were ready to adopt.
IBM. Watson. Dog adoption. Amazing. By the way, what was the outcome of IBM Watson’s health care and Covid contribution? Right. A list. But dog matching? No problem. Again: Amazing.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
Poking Artificial Intelligence Methods Reveals Clunky Methods
June 11, 2020
DarkCyber loves the word “clunky.” Herewith, the research team declares that flawed AI methods like those used for the Eurovision AI song writing contest are clunky. (You can get more information about the impression machine generated music made on two professional musicians at this link. Yeah, that’s a human puppeteer pulling the strings.)
The article with this information has a juicy, SEO title too:
“AI Has a Big Data Problem. Here’s How to Fix It. Supervised algorithms require lots of data, and often result in shaky predictions. Is it time for the next stage of AI?”
The main point of the write up seems to be:
Speaking at the CogX 2020 conference, British mathematician David Barber said: “The deployment of AI systems is currently clunky. Typically, you go out there, collect your data set, label it, train the system and then deploy it. And that’s it – you don’t revisit the deployed system. But that’s not good if the environment is changing.”
Yikes. Change derails smart software. Is that why DeepMind is good at games which are closed systems following specific rules?
The expert added:
“The AI won’t tell you when it actually isn’t confident about the accuracy of its prediction and needs a human to come in,” said Barber. “There are many uncertainties in these systems. So it is important that the AI can alert the human when it is not confident about its decision.”
Interesting. Two musicians figures out the problem listening to one song. Experts have required years to face up to an underlying problem with human intelligence: Ability to react to change.
Who was that old philosopher who said?
Time changes the nature of the whole world;
Everything passes from one state to another
And nothing stays like itself.
We could ask IBM Watson? Oh, right. Wait. IBM’s cloud fell over. Just like some other over-hyped systems and methods perhaps? No, I won’t mention that AI’s contributions to resolving the pandemic have been less than revolutionary.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
Are High-Technology Companies Obstructionist?
June 11, 2020
When one talks about high-technology companies, the conversation skips over outfits like Siemens, China Mobile, and Telefónica. The parties to the conversation understand that the code “high tech” refers to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and similar outfits. Baidu and TenCent type outfits cooperate in some countries, just less so in other countries.
“ASIO Chief Hits Out at Obstructive Tech Companies” is an amplification of US Department of Justice calls for providing enforcement officials with backdoors when data are encrypted. Australia’s intelligence agency is called the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, shortened to ASIO. The article points out hat in December 2018 laws came into effect that added “encryption busting powers.”
The bulk of the article consists of statements made by Australia’s spy agency chief Mike Burgess. The selected comments make clear that some high-technology companies have been slow to cooperate. The write up reports:
“As a society, whether we know it or not, we’ve accepted the fact that the police or ASIO can get a warrant to bug someone’s car or someone’s house. Why should cyberspace be any different? “Yet every time we have these conversations with the private sector companies they kind of push back and say, ‘Uh, no, we’re not so sure about that’.”—Mr. Burgess.
The main point is that high-technology companies often adopt the apocryphal mañana approach when minutes count.
DarkCyber anticipates increased requests for encryption backdoors from other members of the Five Eyes. Some of those involved with this group are not amused with going slow.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
Amazon: Public Sector Services Attract Attention
June 11, 2020
DarkCyber is not 100 percent certain that the information in “Amazon Urged by Petition to Break Ties with Police.” Petitions can be tricky information gathering mechanisms. With that in mind, consider this statement:
A coalition of racial justice groups on Tuesday launched an online petition calling for Amazon to cut all ties with police and US immigration officials. The petition takes aim at Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit’s “Rekognition” facial recognition technology and Ring surveillance cameras used for home security.
The goal is:
The groups want Amazon to sever ties with police departments and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
How will Amazon respond? The company’s policeware business is not well understood, and it could be poised to become a more significant factor in Amazon’s business strategy. I will be delivering a talk about Amazon’s services and activities for law enforcement at the July 2020 US National Cyber Crime Conference. Interest in the subject is increasing, just slowly.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
AI: The Future Will Be Invented Where? APAC? What Is That?
June 10, 2020
Bad news for those who believe that certain innovations are the exclusive domain of a certain nation state. And what is that nation state? Perhaps a country that defines a game played mostly within the confines of the country describes its playoff as “the world series”? Maybe? What do you think? In the sociology class I mostly slept through, there was a word for this, but I don’t recall.
“APAC Will Be the Epicentre of Global AI Development” asserts:
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is expected to emerge as the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) growth, due in large part to widespread government support and policies.
That’s according to new data from GlobalData, which has recorded progress in the region when it comes to leveraging AI to enhance productivity – and while countries in the region differ in their approaches, ‘all of them want to leverage their strengths to emerge either as AI innovation drivers or leaders’.
Okay, APAC means stuff west of Silicon Valley. Am I excluding Hawaii? Have you ever been to Hawaii and seen the volcanoes? Right, I don’t rely on that outpost as having sticking power? I am not a rock star or a surf crazed person who is young at heart.
The write up points out:
AI is not a new technology in the APAC region, as it is for others. Many countries in the region have had significant AI policies in place for at least the last five years.
Japan’s Artificial Intelligence Technology Strategy seeks to develop the power of AI and harness it for use in industrialisation and manufacturing, while South Korea boasts a US$21 billion budget just for the development of science and technology and AI sectors. China is currently in the midst of the first development phase of its New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, with the second phase to begin in 2025 and the final to commence in 2030. India’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence is focused on five key areas: agriculture, mobility, healthcare, transportation and urban/smart-city infrastructure. Thailand’s newly created AI ethics guidelines aims to boost the country’s competitiveness on the regional and global stage, as well as push sustainable development.
Interesting. And suggestive. Will innovations and applications infused with smart software flow? Yep.
Stephen E Arnold, June 10, 2020
A Somewhat Grim Factoid: Internet Speed
June 10, 2020
Many in the US can check email and suck up online video. Internet life seems wonderful. However, if the data in “ANALYSIS: US Falls Out of Top 10 Average Internet Speeds Globally in 2020, but Global Speeds Faster Than Ever” are accurate, the US is not just falling in math rankings, America is the proud possessor of slowing Internet speeds.
The write up states:
The United States had been consistently ranking between 8th and 10th for top average internet speeds globally over the last 24 months, but has recently fallen out of the rolling average top 10 to the 11th position on the list. While broadband expansion and improvement has been a focus of US government agencies over the past decade, the roll out has lagged behind anticipated growth.
The zippiest Internet is in Singapore. The US, pegged at number 11, is behind Romania and Hungary.
Stephen E Arnold, June 10, 2020
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