Feeding the Google AI Beast and Keeping in Mind, You Are What You Eat
January 13, 2016
The article titled We are All SkyNet in the Googlesphere on Disinformation refers to the Terminator’s controlling A.I., SkyNet, who determines the beginning of a machine age in the movie, and the conspiracy that Google is taking on that role in reality. Is it easy to understand the fear of Google’s reach, it does sometimes seem like a gigantic arm with a thousand hands groping about in cyberspace, and collecting little pieces of information that on their own seem largely harmless. The article discusses cloud computing and its relationship to the conspiracy,
“When you need your bits of info, your computer gathers them from the cloud again. The cloud is SkyNet’s greatest line of defense, as you can’t kill what is spread out over an entire network. Since the magnificent expose of the NSA and their ability to (at least) access every keystroke, file or phone call and Google’s (at minimum) complicity in managing the data, that is to say, nearly all data being collected, it’s hard to imagine the limitations to what any such Google AI program could learn.”
The article ends philosophically with the suggestion that the nature of a modern day SkyNet will depend on the data that it gathers from us, that we will create the monster in our likeness. This may not be where we expected the article to go, but it does make sense. Google as a company will not determine it, at least if literature has taught us anything.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 13, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There Is a Hole in the Cloud
January 11, 2016
Everyone is running to the cloud to reserve their own personal data spot. Companies have migrated their services to the cloud to serve a growing mobile clientele. If you are not on the cloud, it is like you’re still using an old flip phone. The cloud is a viable and useful service that allows people to access their data anytime and anywhere. Business Insider reveals that cloud usage is heavily concentrated in the US: “Latest Data From The Valley’s Oldest VC Firm Shows One Big Flaw In The Hype Around The Cloud.”
Bessemer Venture Partners is the longest running venture capitalist company in Silicon Valley. To celebrate its 100th cloud investment, it surveyed where the company’s cloud investments are located. Seventy-six of the startups are in the US, eleven are in Israel, and four are in Canada.
“The fact that less than one-quarter of BVP’s cloud investments are in non-US startups shows the adoption of cloud technologies is lagging in the rest of the world. It’s also a reminder that, even after all these years of cloud hype, many countries are still concerned about some aspects of cloud technology.”
Cloud adoption around the world is slow due to the US invents a lot of new technology and the rest of the world must catch up. Security is another big concern and companies are hesitant to store sensitive information on a system with issues.
The cloud has only been on the market for ten years and has only gained attention in the past five. Cell phones, laptops, and using open source software took time to catch on as well.
Whitney Grace, January 11, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
IBMs CFO Reveals IBMs Innovation Strategy: Why Not Ask Watson
January 11, 2016
The article on TechTarget titled IBM CFO Schroeter on the Company’s Innovation Strategy delves into the mind of Martin Schroeter regarding IBM’s strategy for chasing innovation in healthcare and big data. This year alone IBM acquired three healthcare companies with data on roughly one hundred million people as well as massive amounts of data on medical conditions. Additionally, as the article relates,
“IBM’s purchase of The Weather Co.’s data processing and analytics operations brought the company a “massive ingestion machine,” which plays straight into its IoT strategy, Schroeter said. The ingestion system pulls in 4 GB of data per second, he said, and runs a lot of analytics as users generate weather forecasts for their geographies. The Weather Co. system will be the basis for the company’s Internet of Things platform, he said.”
One of many interesting tidbits from the mouth of Schroeter was this gem about companies being willing to “disrupt [themselves]” to ensure updated and long-term strategies that align technological advancement with business development. The hurtling pace of technology has even meant IBM coming up with a predictive system to speed up the due diligence process during acquisitions. What once took weeks to analyze and often lost IBM deals has now been streamlined to a single day’s work. Kaboom.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 11, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Glass 2: A Good Question
January 10, 2016
I read “Would You Wear Google Glass If It Looked Like This?” The “this” is a pair of Revenge of the Nerds glasses.
The answer from me from my redoubt in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky is, “No.”
Why? I have a mobile phone which works just fine. When I do things, I want to concentrate on the task. I do not want to be distracted.
I had a pair of glasses like that in high school. Was I cool looking or what?
Stephen E Arnold, January 10, 2016
In Scientific Study Hierarchy Is Observed and Found Problematic to Cooperation
January 8, 2016
The article titled Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation on Nature.Com Scientific Reports discusses the findings of scientists related to social dynamics in human behavior. The abstract explains in no uncertain terms that hierarchies cause problems among human groups. Perhaps surprisingly to many millennials, hierarchies actually forestall cooperation. The article explains the circumstances of the study,
“Participants competed to earn hierarchy positions and then could cooperate with another individual in the hierarchy by investing in a common effort. Cooperation was achieved if the combined investments exceeded a threshold, and the higher ranked individual distributed the spoils unless control was contested by the partner. Compared to a condition lacking hierarchy, cooperation declined in the presence of a hierarchy due to a decrease in investment by lower ranked individuals.”
The study goes on to explain that regardless of whether power or rank was earned or arbitrary (think boss vs. boss’s son), it was “detrimental to cooperation.” It also goes into great detail on how to achieve superior cooperation through partnership and without an underlying hierarchical structure. There are lessons to take away from this study in the many fields, and the article is mainly focused on economic metaphors, but what about search vendors? Organization does, after all, have value.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 8, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Search and Cultural Representation
January 6, 2016
Google Search has worked its way into our culture as an indispensable, and unquestioned, tool of modern life. However, the algorithms behind the platform have become more sophisticated, allowing Google to tinker more and more with search results. Since so many of us regularly use the search engine to interact with the outside world, Google’s choices (and ours) affect the world’s perception of itself. Researcher Safiya Umoja Noble details some of the adverse effects of this great power in her paper, “Google Search: Hyper-Visibility as a Means of Rendering Black Women and Girls Invisible,” posted at the University of Rochester’s InVisible Culture journal. Not surprisingly, commerce features prominently in the story. Noble writes:
“Google’s algorithmic practices of biasing information toward the interests of the powerful elites in the United States,14 while at the same time presenting its results as generated from objective factors, has resulted in a provision of information that perpetuates the characterizations of women and girls through misogynist and pornified websites. Stated another way, it can be argued that Google functions in the interests of its most influential (i.e. moneyed) advertisers or through an intersection of popular and commercial interests. Yet Google’s users think of it as a public resource, generally free from commercial interest15—this fact likely bolstered by Google’s own posturing as a company for whom the informal mantra, ‘Don’t be evil,’ has functioned as its motivational core. Further complicating the ability to contextualize Google’s results is the power of its social hegemony.16 At the heart of the public’s general understanding and trust in commercial search engines like Google, is a belief in the neutrality of technology … which only obscures our ability to understand the potency of misrepresentation that further marginalizes and renders the interests of Black women, coded as girls, invisible.”
Noble goes on to note ways we, the users, codify our existing biases through our very interaction with Google Search. To say the paper treats these topic in depth is an understatement. Noble provides enough background on the study of culture’s treatment of Black women and girls to get any non-social-scientist up to speed. Then, she describes the extension of that treatment onto the Web, and how certain commercial enterprises now depend on those damaging representations. Finally, the paper calls for a critical approach to search to address these, and similar, issues. It is an important, and informative, paper; we suggest interested readers give it a gander.
Cynthia Murrell, January 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Magnetic Forensics Partners with In-Q-Tel to Battle Rising Cyber Crimes
January 6, 2016
The article on GCN titled In-Q-Tel Invests in Digital Forensics Firm discusses the recent addition of Magnetic Forensics to the In-Q-Tel investment portfolio. Digital forensics software is making large strides to improve the safety and security of data in a time when hackers seem unstoppable, and this is the area Magnetic Forensics’ applies expertise and innovation. In-Q-Tel is a technology investment firm that supports and coordinates with the CIA and Intelligence Community. The article explains,
Magnetic Forensics’ flagship product, Internet Evidence Finder, recovers unstructured data — such as social media, chat messages and e-mail from computers, smartphones and tablets — and structures the data for analysis and collaboration. It has been used by 2,700 public safety organizations in 92 counties to investigate cases related to cybercrime, terrorism, child exploitation and insider threats.
Given the almost daily reminders of the vulnerability of our data, investment in this sort of software is timely. Magnetic Forensics’ CEO Adam Belsher explained that IEF works by opening the pipeline of investigator workflow, organizing backlogs, and urgently absorbing the facts of the case to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand. Additionally, the partnership will enhance In-Q-Tel’s existing product line while allowing for the creation of new resources for cyber security.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
How Big Data Is Missing the Mark
January 5, 2016
At this point in the Big Data sensation, many businesses are swimming in data without the means to leverage it effectively. TechWeek Europe cites a recent survey from storage provider Pure Storage in its write-up, “Big Data ‘Fails Businesses’ Due to Access, Skills Shortage.” Interestingly, most of the problems seem to have more to do with human procedures and short-sightedness than any technical shortcomings. Writer Tom Jowitt lists the three top obstacles as a lack of skilled workers, limited access to information, and bureaucracy. He tells us:
“So what exactly is going wrong with Big Data to be causing such problems? Well over half (56 percent) of respondents said bureaucratic red tape was the most serious obstacle for business productivity. ‘Bureaucratic red tape around access to information is preventing companies from using their data to find those unique pieces of insight that lead to great ideas,’ said [Pure Storage’s James] Petter. ‘Data ownership is no longer just the remit of the CIO, the democratisation of insight across businesses enables them to disrupt the competition.’ But regulations are also causing worry, with one in ten of the companies citing data protection concerns as holding up their dissemination of information and data throughout their business. The upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation will soon affect every single company that stores data.”
The survey reports that missed opportunities have cost businesses billions of pounds per year, and almost three-quarters of respondents say their organizations collect data that is just collecting dust. Both cost and time are reasons that information remains unprocessed. On the other hand, Jowitt points to another survey by CA Technologies; most of its respondents expect the situation to improve, and for their data collections to bring profits down the road. Let us hope they are correct.
Cynthia Murrell, January 5, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Rethinking the J.D. As Artificial Intelligence Takes over Lawyers Work
January 5, 2016
The article titled Report: Artificial Intelligence Will Cause “Structural Collapse” of Law Firms by 2030 on Legal Futures posits that AI will take over legal practice in the near future. Jomati Consultants LLP released the report “Civilization 2030: The Near Future for Law Firms” which estimates that as population growth slows, legal work will be directed mainly toward the arena of geriatric advice and litigation. The article states,
“The report’s focus on the future of work contained the most disturbing findings for lawyers… By [2030], ‘bots’ could be doing “low-level knowledge economy work” and soon much more. “Eventually each bot would be able to do the work of a dozen low-level associates. They would not get tired. They would not seek advancement. They would not ask for pay rises. Process legal work would rapidly descend in cost.” The human part of lawyering would shrink.”
The article goes on in great detail about who will be affected. Partners will come out on top (no surprises there) but associates, particularly those doing billable work rather than client-facing work, will be in much less demand. This may be difficult for the hoards of young law school students produced each year as their positions are increasingly taken over by AI technology. Time to rethink that law degree and consider a career path tailored to human skills.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 5, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Information Technology Units to Do the Change Thing Now. Right Now!
January 1, 2016
I read “Report: IT Departments to Take on Digital Transformation in 2016.” Yep, wake up one day and say, “I will transform myself.” That works really well. How many New Year’s Resolutions have you created? None. How many have you carried out over a 12 month period? None.
The “report” is interesting because it suggests that organizations’ information technology units will undergo a digital transformation. In my experience, organizations’ IT departments are like a slow moving train. Slow moving trains can be tough to stop.
I highlighted this passage in plum crazy purple:
The report [from Pierre Audoin Consultants] claims digitalization will focus on two connected trends: customer experience and the Internet of Things (IoT). It also predicts that organizations will look to mature technologies like big data/ analytics, social media, mobility and cloud computing to create new products and services. However, new business models, processes and value chains after pioneers like Amazon, eBay, Booking.com, Uber and Spotify will continue to put existing businesses – and their IT departments – under greater pressure to rethink their business models.
To illustrate the firm’s prognosticative capabilities, there are 10 trends for 2016. Here you go:
- Digitization
- Cloud computing
- Two speed IT
- Industry 4.0/Internet of Things
- Big data / analytics
- Sourcing / skill management / offshore
- Standardization / automation / optimization
- Agile development / Dev Ops
- Vendor management
- Security.
Some of these trends are puzzlers; for example, two speed IT and Industry 4.0. Others strike me as “been there, done that” jargon; for example, standardization / optimization and vendor management.
I am not sure if IT outfits are going to wake up to a new world of change on January 1, 2016. In fact, my hunch is that change is likely to be like black ink spreading across the pocket of a white shirt. One notices and then reacts. Opportunism, knee jerk decision, cost controls, and the necessary adaptation to dwindling revenues characterize many outfits with which I am familiar.
Search and content processing vendors, for instance, have not change much in the last 30 or 40 years. The new terminology does not equate to technological innovation in many cases.
Stephen E Arnold, January 1, 2016
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
