Artificial Intelligence: Time to Surf, Folks
October 17, 2016
I read a remarkable article in Fortune Magazine: “Google Artificial Intelligence Guru Says AI Won’t Kill Jobs.” I had a Dilbert moment mixed with a glimpse of bizarro world.
The main point of the write up is that smart software is the next big thing. Unlike other big things such as outsourcing work from the US to other countries with lower cost labor, work will not be “killed.” Strong word.
I highlighted this statement from the prognosticating write up:
humanity is still “many decades away from encountering that sort of labor replacement at scale.” Instead, the technology is best used to help humans with work-related tasks rather than replace them outright.
Sounds great. Zooming to the subject of Google, the write up reported:
Google has “developed techniques to safely deploy these systems in a controllable way,” countering fears that A.I. systems are left to run on their own accord.
I assume that’s the reason a consortium of folks are going to gather together to figure out how to make artificial intelligence work just right.
I spoke with a person who drives a truck for a living. He was interested in robot driven trucks. He said, “There won’t be much demand for guys like me, right?”
I reassured him. The truth is that “guys like him” are definitely going to lose their jobs. The same full time equivalent compression will operate in law firms, health care delivery, and dozens of other areas where labor is one or the if not the biggest expense. Leasing a system able to work without taking vacations, calling in sick, or demanding a pension will be embraced. Cost control, not work for humans, is the driving factor.
Online may benefit. Think of those folks who lose their jobs and the free time they have. These people will be able to surf the Web, talk to Alexa, and binge watch.
Informationization (a word I first heard in the early 1990s at a conference in Japan) means disruption. Work processes will change. There will be more online consumers. I am not sure what these folks will do for a living.
Unlike the individuals who work in certain types of companies, the guys like the trucker, the legal researcher, the librarian, etc. are going to have plenty of time to be social on Facebook.
Fortune Magazine seems to buy into the baloney that “A.I. will help humans with their jobs, not replace them.” How’s that working out in traditional publishing?
Stephen E Arnold, October 17, 2016
Knowledge Management: Dazed and Confused?
October 16, 2016
I read an interview posted by TallyFox. If you are not familiar with the company, TallyFox provides a collaboration and content management system. The idea is that a company’s real and off site workers can share information. The company states on its LinkedIn page:
TallyFox’s intelligence platform, makes knowledge sharing fun and dynamic. With our proprietary algorithm SmartMatchPro, access to expertise is facilitated, collective knowledge becomes accessible, and you can benefit from it right now, anywhere in the world.
The TallyFox interview with Dr. Nancy Dixon (Common Knowledge, a non profit and a book) is interesting. I noted these factoids and assertions:
- almost 50% of workers are virtual, or “distributed”
- people who are communicating only virtually tend to lose the sense of purpose of what the organization is about.
- A challenge is “to motivate our experts to share tacit knowledge to make the knowledge from inside of a project available to the team of another project.”
- “Collective Sensemaking is a piece of the process which will show us how to take advantage of the virtual and still stay connected in a human way. We are doing it by crowdsourcing, by Innovation Jams, by Working Out Loud, and all of those ways are bringing back the Human Side into the Virtual.”
- “People don’t offer their knowledge because they don’t know what the other person needs…”
Sounds good.It strikes me that Facebook’s Workplace may be encroaching on the collaboration segment. Does Facebook embrace knowledge management?
Stepping back: Knowledge management leaves me dazed and confused about what, how, where, and why? Perhaps knowledge management should become knowledge “Kumbaya” with people online and posting to Facebook while sitting around a Mac with a fireplace screensaver.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2016
IBM Watson in the Third Grade, Doing Math
October 5, 2016
The IBM Watson PR hyperbole machine seems to have been idling. Summer’s over. IBM Watson marketers are back at their work stations.
I read “Next Target for IBM’s Watson? Third-Grade Math.” Keep in mind that you may have to pay to read this bit of PR inspired content. That’s not my fault, gentle reader.
The write up reveals:
For the past two years, the IBM Foundation has worked with teachers and their union, the American Federation of Teachers, to build Teacher Advisor, a program that uses artificial-intelligence technology to answer questions from educators and help them build personalized lesson plans.
When I was a student, sleeping, talking, and day dreaming had a high priority. I didn’t have a mobile device to distract me.
The idea is that IBM Watson is going to make the students of the 21st century drop their mobile phones and learn mathematics.
How will IBM Watson pull off this trick? I learned:
For teachers, one thing Watson will do is help them digest the Common Core standards and incorporate them into daily lessons. The standards are learning goals, a map of what students should be able to do at a given level. Third graders should be able to measure area, for example, by counting out units, like square centimeters or square inches. But rather than just listing a group of skills, Watson serves up the prerequisites those skills are built upon and a set of exercises to break down the standard.
Sounds darned good. I am confident that IBM Watson will make learning today a really fun experience. Great assumption. However, I think schools may find that IBM Watson could end up with a dunce cap or texting with friends. IBM may be sitting next to the innovator who predicted that Apple iPads would energize Los Angeles’ classrooms. How did that work out? Oh, I remember. Not too well.
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2015
Singularity 1on1: Fund Raising Event
September 22, 2016
Editor’s note: To donate to Singularity 1on1, click this link[.
In a conversation with Nikola Danaylov, the engaging entrepreneur behind Singularity 1 on 1, has tallied more than four million downloads. When I first met him, he referenced Socrates, the Athenian philosopher. Danaylov’s approach to information is based on questions. My thought is that he is the modern counterpart to the individuals who learn and cause others to learn via rigorous questioning. The remarkable video interview series has been featured on BBC, ArteTV, and TV Japan, among other high impact outlets.
The service, available at this link, is a conversation about exponential growth, accelerating change, artificial intelligence and ethics – because technology is not enough.
The main idea is that we are not experiencing a shift in technology but rather a shift in humanity. So everything that we know for certain is certainly going to change if we are to survive the 21st century; for example, political processes, economics, law, religion, and the very meaning of what it means to be human.
Danaylov told me:
The blog is not meant to provide definitive answers, but rather, to ask the tough questions in an attempt to generate discussion, provoke thought and stir the imagination. It aims to spark a conversation about the impact of technology, exponential growth and artificial intelligence where everyone’s opinions and participation are greatly encouraged.
He added:
So while I do not shy to provide my opinion but place no claim on its superiority because the goal is to get the audience actively involved in the ever-evolving conversation about the future of humanity.
From my vantage point, Singularity Weblog’s value may be not so much in the answers it provides, but in the Questions it raises — the kind that everybody could or should be asking.
In addition to the video interviews, Singularity Weblog:
- Publishes relevant articles by Socrates and his friends.
- Posts interviews with the best scientists, writers, entrepreneurs, film-makers, journalists, philosophers and artists.
- Brings attention to relevant news stories, films, media and scientific developments.
- Provides an online discussion forum where readers and supporters can start a conversation on issues important to them.
- Gives people a platform to write and share your own great content.
Danaylov is deeply in love with learning but keenly aware that his personal knowledge is always going to be dwarfed by his ignorance: a man who knows that he doesn’t know; a man with many questions and few answers of his own… Thus Singularity Weblog is, and will always remain to be, an open and collaborative work in progress. And Nikola is, and will remain to be, a student and a host, rather than a teacher or an owner.
Yet, I learned that Danaylov is of the strong belief that we can attain profound insights by asking challenging questions in the company of good people, gathered within an open, informal and interactive symposium. Danaylov hopes to be the midwife, and Singularity Weblog – the setting, where you come to examine the questions, search for your answers, challenge, be challenged and, ultimately, give birth to your own ideas.
It is for this reason that, having spent the past six years producing over 900 articles and interviewing more than 190 of the world’s best known experts, Danaylov has made his treasure trove of information available without charge.
He has a crowd funding campaign underway. Beyond Search readers can support his work at InterviewTheFuture.com.
I asked him what’s next for Singularity 1on1 and the Web log. He replied:
After doing 200 interviews I have learned that it is perhaps best to keep those secret until they are totally recorded, edited and ready for publishing. So you will have to subscribe to the Singularity 1on1 podcast to find out.
As part of my support for Danaylov’s information service, I noted this statement from Darian Wawer:
“There are probably only three things that have impacted my life to such an extent. Carl Sagan with his love for science, Elon Musk and his dedication to improving the quality of the world we live in and finally, the third person would be… Nikola Danaylov with his website Singularity Weblog. Obviously, there are a thousand people whose work I deeply appreciate (Kurzweil, Natasha-More, and so forth) but you are the hub that allows us to stay connected. You have also committed and sacrificed a lot to do so. You are the real deal.”
For more information about Danaylov’s impact, see https://www.singularityweblog.com/testimonials.
Stephen E Arnold, September 22, 2016
Open Source Log File Viewer Glogg
September 21, 2016
Here is an open source solution for those looking to dig up information within large and complex log files; BetaNews shares, “View and Search Huge Log Files with Glogg.” The software reads directly from your drive, saving time and keeping memory free (or at least as free as it was before.) Reviewer, Mike Williams tells us:
Glogg’s interface is simple and uncluttered, allowing anyone to use it as a plain text viewer. Open a log, browse the file, and the program grabs and displays new log lines as they’re added. There’s also a search box. Enter a plain text keyword, a regular or extended regular expression and any matches are highlighted in the main window and displayed in a separate pane. Enable ‘auto-refresh’ and glogg reruns searches as lines are added, ensuring the matches are always up-to-date. Glogg also supports ‘filters’, essentially canned searches which change text color in the document window. You could have lines containing ‘error’ displayed as black on red, lines containing ‘success’ shown black on green, and as many others as you need.
Williams spotted some more noteworthy features, like a quick-text search, highlighted matches, and helpful Next and Previous buttons. He notes the program is not exactly chock-full of fancy features, but suggests that is probably just as well for this particular task. Glogg runs on 64-bit Windows 7 and later, and on Linux.
Cynthia Murrell, September 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
Online Searching Proves Shakespeare Ripped Off Words and Phrases
September 16, 2016
Original phrases? Bah. Neologisms? Poppycock. William Shakespeare, like Mozart, ripped off other people. Imagine that. Listening to people, noting interesting turns of phrases, and learning new words from those around him. Where was the DCMA and copyright when we really needed them?
I read “The Game Is Up: Shakespeare’s Language Not As Original As Dictionaries Think.” My first reaction was, “Do dictionaries think?” I thought dictionaries were compilations of the work of individuals who chased down the meanings of words. Who am I but a lonely recluse in rural Kentucky? I know that real journalists know much more about dictionaries than I. So think they do.
But the guts of the story is that a person working at a university ran online queries across the digitized text of early British texts. Guess what? When running a query for the phrase “It’s Greek to me”,
the academic points out that searching for it in the digital resource Early English Books Online throws up its usage in Robert Greene’s The Scottish History of James the Fourth, printed in 1598 but possibly written in 1590.
Who said Shakespeare was a wordsmithing genius? The answer, gentle reader, are those folks who compile dictionaries.
But that’s not the only rip off performed by the guy who wrote plays loved by students the world over. He stole “wild goose chase.”
The article pointed out that the Bard seems to have saddled up his imagination and actually created the phrase “to make an ass of oneself.”
The repercussions from this discovery are significant. The lively and flexible editors of the Oxford English Dictionary will hop to making the necessary changes. I will have to replace my copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in due course. What if I learn that “wild goose chase” is not a coinage of a fellow suspected of being a closet Catholic.
Online is good for something. “Lord, what fools these mortals be.” No wonder creating a link is a violation of the law. If a recusant does not own up to the source, punishment is needed. Bad Sharkespeare.
Stephen E Arnold, September 16, 2016
Think of the Children! Kids and Unsupervised iPads
September 1, 2016
I hear this complaint everyday: people, especially children, are spending too much time attached to a screen. The belief is that we, as a society, are not establishing strong connections or relationships with each other. When it comes to children, the common conception is that too much screen time hinders their development growth. The Daily Mail spoke with modern parents to figure out what their concerns are concerning kids and iPad usage in the article, “’He Could Be Talking To A 60 Year Old Man:’ Parents Reveal Their Fears As They Admit Allowing Their Children As Young As Four to Use iPads Unsupervised.”
Parents are allowing their children to use iPads for entertainment, such as watching videos and playing games. Tablet is the dream tool that all parents have wanted for years when they needed to keep children occupied as they did chores or had a busy day running errands. While the iPad is a good tool to keep kids occupied, parents are concerned their offspring could access inappropriate material. One parent is concern that her child could communicate with an adult stranger. Another is worried that her progeny will create social media profiles and be at risk.
The biggest concern is stranger danger, which is a valid argument. However, most of these children using an iPad do not know how to read or write yet, so how could they contact anyone without those abilities? There are also settings on an iPad that limit how apps are touched and instill parental controls. From personal experience, there are always ways around parental controls that kids discover. Kids circumnavigate the parental controls to view taboo contact. Parents view the Internet:
The Internet is seen as a potential minefield by parents and whatever support site owners can give to prevent children seeing or buying what they shouldn’t would be welcomed. The government is currently pushing ahead with age verification protections for pornographic sites, but clearly parents have a much broader set of online content and services that cause them concern.
Also take into account each family raises their kids differently, so what qualifies as inappropriate content is subjective. The best way to raise children with an iPad is to be aware of what they are watching, how they use it, teach them on what they are allowed, and accept that there will be mistakes. All of the hullabaloo is the same as allowing kids to watch too much TV, videogames, comic books, and (way, way back) novels. It is a new medium, but same argument.
Whitney Grace, September 1, 2016
HonkinNews for August 30, 2016, Now Available
August 30, 2016
If you want to learn how Beyond Search sends secure messages, view Honking News, August 30, 2016. Stories include IBM in Scotland and a possible new recipe for haggis with tamarind, Microsoft and its inability to change China, the US Army’s math challenge, and frisky algorithms. The program for August 30, 2016, is located in this YouTube cubby. We have added a video player to the Beyond Search blog too. Bet your bots — er, bet your boots — on that.
Kenny Toth, August 30, 2016
Libraries Continue to Stay Awesome by Renting Out the Internet
August 26, 2016
The article on The Seattle Public Library titled SPL HOTSPOT offers library patrons a great option for “checking out” a mobile hotspot for up to 21 days for free with a valid library card. This is an excellent service for those of us without reliable Internet (thanks, Time Warner Cable) or who are travelling within the United States. More than anything, though, this service provides low-income Internet access. The article explains,
“The SPL HotSpot is an easy-to-use, mobile hotspot that keeps your tablet, laptop and other Wi-Fi–enabled devices connected to the Internet.
You can connect up to 15 devices to 4G LTE and 3G networks, and also charge external devices… You can return the hotspot to any Library location or book drop, just like other items. You must return the device with all the original packaging and accessories. Please fully charge the battery before you return the device.”
There are a few drawbacks: there is a $199 fine is the device is not returned on time, and according to user responses, the wait time is current up to 2 months. But due to the Internet monopolies by massive corporations, the cost of access is increasing; while at the same time so is our collective dependence on the Internet. Can you imagine going even a day without having it available? This is an invaluable service that will hopefully catch on elsewhere!
Chelsea Kerwin, August 26, 2016
Technology: The New Dr. Evil in the Digital Dark Age
August 9, 2016
When I ride my mule down the streets of Harrod’s Creek, I marvel at the young folks who walk while playing with their mobile phones. Heading home after buying oats for Melissa, I look forward to my kerosene lamps.
Technology does not frighten me. I find technology and the whiz kids amusing. I read “Technology Is Now Pop Culture’s Favorite Enemy.” Goodness. I find gizmos and bits fun. The write up suggests that fun loving, top one percenters in education and wealth are finding themselves at the wrong end of a varmint trap.
I find it interesting that technology, which some folks in big cities believe is the way out of a gloomy tunnel, is maybe not flowers, butterflies, and rainbows. (The unicorns have taken to the woods it seems. No unicorns at the moment.)
I learned:
The ubiquitous nature of futuristic technology has lead to an exponential increase in our distrust of each other and the products we use, but most interesting, has taken away some of the blame from government bodies and corporations. We no longer fear agency bodies as much as we fear the physical technology they use.
That seems harsh. I like the phrase, “We’re from the government and here to help you.” Don’t you?
The write up adds a philosophical note:
Despite us being more savvy of how to use social media or despite us having a better understanding of how computers work in general, most of us still aren’t fluent in how it all fits together. We give so much of ourselves over to our devices, and we don’t ask for much in return. When we give something that inanimate that much control over us, it’s terrifying to think that we’re willingly giving up our freedom.
Let’s think about technology in terms of public Web search. One plugs a query into a system. The system returns a list of results; that is, suggestions where information related to the query may be found.
But what is happening is that the person reviewing the outputs does not have to ask, “Are these results accurate? Are they advertising? Are they comprehensive?” There is another question as well, “Is the information objective?” And what about, “Is the information accurate; that is, verifiable?”
The search systems perform another magic trick. The user becomes a content input. This means that the person with access to the queries as a group or the query subset related to a particular individual has new information. In my experience, knowledge is power, and the folks using the search system do not generally have access to this information.
Asymmetry results. The technology outfits offering service have more information than the users. Search does more to illuminate the dark corners of those using the search system than the results of a search illuminate the user’s mind.
Without the inclination to figure out what’s valid and what’s not or lacking the expertise to perform this type of search results vetting, the users become the used.
That sounds philosophical but there is a practical value to the observation. Without access and capability, the information presented becomes a strong influence on how one thinks, views facts, and has behavior influenced.
My thought is, “Welcome to the medieval world.” It is good to be a king or a queen. To be an information peasant is the opposite.
Giddy up, Melissa. Time to be heading back to the digital hollow to think about the new digital Dr. Evil.
Stephen E Arnold, August 9, 2016
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