Softies and SASers Team to Deliver Bigly Solutions
July 24, 2020
Microsoft and SAS are two of the biggest names in technology. They have decided to combine their powers to form a strategic, technological partnership. IT-Online shares the news in the report, “SAS, Microsoft Partner On Analytics And AI.”
SAS specializes in analytics software, while Microsoft popularized the personal computer. With this new partnership, their customers can expand SAS business solutions across Microsoft’s veritable product array. This specifically means:
“As part of the partnership, the companies will migrate SAS’ analytical products and industry solutions on to Microsoft Azure as the preferred cloud provider for the SAS Cloud. SAS’ industry solutions and expertise will also bring added value to Microsoft’s customers across health care, financial services and many other industries.”
The ultimate goal for Microsoft and SAS is to bolster their bottom dollar, but both clientele sets will gain many advantages. SAS will have easier access to the cloud and Microsoft gains access to powerful analytics software. The analytics software is of particular interest for Microsoft, because they want to integrate SAS technology into Azure and Dynamics 365 for new solutions.
Is this Cloud babble? You know: Blah, blah, flexibility. Blah, blah, scalability. It is a fancier way for both companies to enrich their product offerings for large organizations with inertia and a desire to move to the future of computing. Too bad Amazon.
Whitney Grace, July 24, 2020
A New Corporate Metric for the Rona Era: Cry for Happy
July 24, 2020
Businesses are all about numbers and how to make them higher or lower. These numbers determine whether or not a business succeeds or fails. Among these numbers, however, you will hardly find anything related to employee satisfaction. That could change says Livemint in the article, “Former Colors CEO Launches Happiness Quotient Tool For Corporates.”
The happiness quotient was developed by former CEO of Viacom18 Raj Nayak, who now heads House of Cheer. Nayak’s company recently released the proprietary tool Happyness.me designed to measure the happiness of corporations and their employees. The tool works using:
“Using behavioral psychology, neuroscience, and data-analytics, with inputs from experts in the field, the tool developed in partnership with human insights company The Happiness Index, will be used to measure the happiness quotient within an organization and to provide customized solutions that empower leaders and inspire teams, the company said in a statement.”
The Happiness Index is a two year program that measures employees’ emotional wellbeing and mental state. The data will show companies how happy their employees are and hopefully, based off the information, will prioritize their health. The Happiness Index will gather data from eighty countries in twenty-three languages, then it will be processed with AI and machine learning.
As the workplace changes in the coming century, tracking employees’ happiness will make or break a company. Usually companies are not that interested in keeping their workers happy, so maybe enhancing the program with brain implants and substances will be the Happiness Index’s next upgrade.
Whitney Grace, July 24, 2020
Zoom, Zoom, Meet, Meet, and Trust, Well?
July 24, 2020
We evolved to be social creatures—long, long before Zoom or MS Teams existed. That is why, as Canada’s CBC declares, “Video Chats Short Circuit a Brain Function Essential for Trust—and That’s Bad for Business.” Journalist Don Pittis writes:
“Canadian research on ‘computer-mediated communication,’ begun long before the current lockdown, shows video chat is an inadequate substitute for real-life interaction. The real thing, dependent on non-verbal cues, is extraordinarily more effective in creating rapport and getting ideas across. Not only that, but the familiarity and trust we currently feel with coworkers during the lockdown’s remote calls rests on connections remembered from back when we sat at a nearby desk or met for lunch. As the lockdown stretches out and the mix of colleagues changes, it may be almost impossible to establish healthy trusting working relationships using remote video chat tools alone. That’s bad for business, said organizational behavior specialist Mahdi Roghanizad from Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Business. The reason: getting a good reading on your fellow workers has been repeatedly shown to be essential for business efficiency, reaching common goals and establishing trust. It is why teams that worked remotely even before the pandemic lockdown always met periodically in person. The latest research shows human-to-human bonding is like a kind of intuitive magic.”
Researchers suggest several reasons for this “magic,” including pheromones, body language, and in-person eye contact. Some have found it is harder to detect when someone is lying across video. One social scientist, the University of Waterloo’s Frances Westley, likens video chat to talking with someone wearing sunglasses—it is less satisfying, and can even sap our energy.
For all these reasons, Pittis suspects the supposed work-from-home “revolution” may not last, as many had predicted. Businesses may find it more productive to summon workers back to the office once the danger is gone. In the meantime, Westley suggests, we should reinforce connections with the occasional (socially distanced, mask-augmented) in-person conversation.
Cynthia Murrell, July 24, 2020
The Cloud Becomes the New PC, So the Cloud Becomes the Go To Attack Vector
July 24, 2020
Cloud providers are not Chatty Cathies when it comes to some of their customers’ more interesting activities. Take malware, for example. Bad actors can use cloud services for a number of activities, including a temporary way station when deploying malware, delivering bogus or spoofed Web sites as part of a social engineering play, or just launching phishing emails. Major cloud providers are sprawling operations, and management tools are still in their infancy. In fact, management software for cloud operators are in a cat-and-mouse race. Something happens, and the cloud provider responds.
“Hackers Found Using Google Cloud to Hide Phishing Attacks” provides some information about the Google and its struggles to put on a happy face for prospects and regulators while some Googlers are reading books about dealing with stressful work.
The article reports:
Researchers at cybersecurity firm Check Point on Tuesday cited an instance when hackers used advanced features on Google Cloud Platform to host phishing pages and hide them. Some of the warning signs that users generally look out for in a phishing attack include suspicious-looking domains, or websites without a HTTPS certificate. However, by using well-known public cloud services such as Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure to host their phishing pages, the attackers can overcome this obstacle and disguise their malicious intent, improving their chances of ensnaring even security-savvy victims…
What’s the fix?
Obviously vendors of cloud management software, hawkers of smart cyber security systems, and bright young PhD track cyber specialists have ideas.
The reality may be that for now, there is no solution. Exposed Amazon S3 buckets, Google based endeavors, and Microsoft (no, we cannot update Windows 10 without crashing some machines) Azure vectors are here to stay.
Perhaps one should tweet this message? Oh, right, Twitter was compromised. Yeah.
Stephen E Arnold, July 24, 2020
Ah, Irony: Facebook, Meet Oedipus. Oedipus, Meet Jerome
July 23, 2020
I spotted an Axios article called “The Continuing Problem of AI Bias.” Therein was a line ripped from the lost scrolls of Sophocles. The line is:
GPT-3 can “easily output toxic language that propagates harmful biases.”
The updated version of Oedipus Tyrannus is loosely translated Zuckerberg Tractatori. The story concerns a brilliant person who created a social empire and failed to see that its technology consumed the world upon which the service was built. Irony? Cambridge Analytica? House testimony? Yes, the reality of working in one context and failing to see that “harmful biases” are what a social system generates. Which is worse? The mom thing or social erosion? Stay tuned for the next Quibi episode.
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2020
More about India App Banning
July 23, 2020
India and China are not likely to hold a fiesta to celebrate the digital revolution in the next month or two. “Government Said to Ask Makers of 59 Banned Chinese Apps to Ensure Strict Compliance” explains that India has some firm ideas about the potential risks of Chinese-centric and Chinese-developed mobile applications. The risks include actions “prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.”
The write up states:
If any app in the banned list is found to be made available by the company through any means for use within India, directly or indirectly, it would be construed as a violation of the government orders…
It is not clear what action the Indian government can take, but obviously the issue is perceived as important; specifically, the accusation relates to the:
stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.
Among the nearly 60 banned apps are:
- Club Factory
- TikTok
- UC Browser
- Xiaomi
Plus, some less high profile services:
- Bigo Live
- CamScanner
- Helo
- Likee
- Shein
There will be workarounds, of course. It is not clear if a citizen persists in using a Xiaomi phone and its baked in apps (some of which route interesting information through data centers in Singapore) what the consequences will be.
Censorship of the Internet is thriving and becoming an active measure in India and other countries. Why? Because Internet, of course.
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2020
Insider Security Risks
July 23, 2020
Let’s assume the Twitter security story is true. Insiders were engineered. Right. Insider security risks exist, and they are a potential sink hole. Fancy Dan cyber security systems can do some things well; most fail when it comes to handling the crazy stuff employees do, either intentionally or unintentionally.
“43 Percent of Employees Make Mistakes That Have Cybersecurity Implications” reports:
A quarter of employees confess to clicking on links in a phishing email at work, with distraction cited as a top reason for falling for a phishing scam by 47 percent of employees. This is closely followed by the fact that the email ‘looked legitimate’ (43 percent), with 41 percent saying the phishing email looked like it came from a senior executive or a well-known brand.
Other findings:
include 58 percent of employees admitting to sending a work email to the wrong person, with 17 percent of those emails going to the wrong external party. This simple error can lead to serious consequences for both the individual and the company, who must report the incident to regulators as well as their customers. In fact, a fifth of respondents say their company had lost customers as a result of sending a misdirected email, while one in 10 employees (12 percent) lost their jobs.
How valid are these data? Tough to say, but the Twitter slip up flashes a yellow caution light. And errant USB drives, snatched mobile phones, and stolen laptops? There are a number of human-centric risks and the consequences in our fractious times can be unpleasant.
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2020
Remember The Day Your Psych Professor Explained Affordance?
July 23, 2020
I read “A Concept in Psychology Is Helping AI to Better Navigate Our World.” That write up contained an explanation of the “Theory of Affordance,” whipped up by a psychology whiz named James J. Gibson.
To be candid, I have zero recollection of Psychology 101. Two tests. Bingo. Done! Because my class convened in a big lecture hall, I was able to do other work as the professor, who struck me as crazy as a Looney Toons cartoon character, talked and talked and talked.
So the Theory of Avoidance means:
when intelligent beings look at the world they perceive not simply objects and their relationships but also their possibilities. In other words, the chair “affords” the possibility of sitting. The water “affords” the possibility of swimming.
I think of this in terms of “context,” but I passed the course, ignoring the psychobabble. I might add that many of the students in that course developed and manifested a range of behaviors, often in lockstep with the wacko’s lectures. Go figure?
The article is about Google DeepMind. That unit of the world’s most loved enterprise is embracing the Affordance thing. Good move. AI remains useful in certain use cases. In others, AI is mostly handwaving and a joy ride for those whose parents wondered if their budding genius in math would ever get a job.
The write up states about the Googlers:
The researchers set up a simple virtual scenario. They placed a virtual agent in a 2D environment with a wall down the middle and had the agent explore its range of motion until it had learned what the environment would allow it to do—its affordances. The researchers then gave the agent a set of simple objectives to achieve through reinforcement learning, such as moving a certain amount to the right or to the left. They found that, compared with an agent that hadn’t learned the affordances, it avoided any moves that would cause it to get blocked by the wall partway through its motion, setting it up to achieve its goal more efficiently.
What’s next? More money, time, and development.
AI marches forward on a floor which affords the opportunity to step on a humanoid’s foot or possibly a crawling baby.
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2020
Google Channels IBM: Batter Up, Not Tennis, Anyone?
July 23, 2020
The me too approach to innovation is amusing. IBM applied its marketing genius and the possibly less sparkling Watson to tennis. Now the Google has embraced baseball. “Major League Baseball Scores a Home Run with Google Cloud to Improve Fan Experience” reports that:
The oldest major professional sports league in the US, Major League Baseball, is making better use of data with Google Cloud to personalize the fan experience.
How is that fan experience right now, sports fan? Oh, right. There are limited fan experiences. Baseball lovers can watch some games from exotic countries excluded from the US World Series. That’s a filler like the extra ingredients in hot dogs at some minor league teams’ baseball parks.
There’s another foul ball. The big leaguers will use iPads, not Chromebooks in the dugout. What’s up with that, ump?
But the interesting part of the write up is not about baseball. Here’s the passage which snagged my attention:
MLB also has a project underway called Fast Ball, which Gaedtke [baseball big wig] describes as a fundamentally new approach to video for the game of baseball and its fans.
Again, without real life games, a “new approach” may be necessary.
And there’s more:
MLB is also analyzing fan touch points using Google Cloud across all of its operations to help understand how it can better serve fans.
Isn’t a touch point, “take me out to the ball game”?
The Google Cloud is there to create the “new approach” which seems quite similar to the IBM approach: Marketing fault? Looks more like two strikes and no balls.
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2020
Physics Embraces AI: A Development for One Percent of the One Percenters
July 22, 2020
Say what you like about Newton. Teachers have made gravity “real” to indifferent students with the apple on the noggin metaphor.
Physics teachers today face a different challenge. The “old school” ideas are not going to win promotions, grants, or — even better — a prize. Cash! Fame! The cash thing may work among those who are work from home dads and colleagues without a tenure track ticket.
What can physicists who are the one percent of the one percenters? The answer is to combine esoteric mathematical concepts with the future forward concept “artificial intelligence.”
AI can do physics and “AI in Physics: Are We Facing a Scientific Revolution?” explains this shift. Now between you and me, there are a number of revolutions underway, but the “real life” stuff is of scant interest to physicists in my experience. Einstein anecdotes notwithstanding, physicists are an interesting chunk of the one percent’s one percenters.
Your homework? Verify the over density equation and show each step. No shortcuts! This is forward leaning physics with “real” representations, simulations, and predicted properties. No apple either.
The write up states with significant seriousness that symbolic regression:
can be used to derive mathematical formulas from the internally represented relationships in the network. Symbolic regression is carried out as a genetic algorithm. Equipped with variables and mathematical operators, the algorithm searches for the simplest mathematical formula with which known data can be reproduced.
Like many helpful mathy statements, this statement illuminates the process:
Their result clearly shows that the mixture of data, neural graph networks and symbolic regression is actually suitable for extracting mathematical formulas – in this case an already known natural law – from data with AI.
I enjoy the “clearly.”
But the future is not the stuff one can see, touch, feel, sniff, or think about in substantive ways. The future is tackling Dark Matter with AI.
I learned:
The researchers used the neural grapheme network again. Each node contains information about a dark matter halo such as position, speed and mass and is connected to other halos at a distance of 50 Mpc / h. The network was trained with data from the Quijote Dark Matter Simulation , a collection of generated dark matter structures.
And there is a payoff. Ready?
After the training, the GNN was able to predict the desired property of the halos more accurately than previous models. Using symbolic regression, the researchers were then able to produce a previously unknown mathematical formula that has a lower error rate than the currently most commonly used human-made formula for the same task. The resulting formula was also better able to deal with previously unknown data. For Cranmer, this is a clear sign that the mathematical formula generalizes much better than the neural graph network from which it was derived. This coincides with our previous experience in physics, says Cranmer: “The language of simple symbolic models describes the universe correctly.”
Forget the apple falling on Newton’s slightly addled brain carrier. Think in terms of this metaphor:
If AI is like Columbus, computing power is Santa Maria
And Big Data? Of course, of course. One percent of one percenters know this.
Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2020
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