Nexttech
Creating Generational Legacies
Friday, March 30, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Artificial Intelligence: What Educators Need to Know
Education Week Jan. 10, 2018
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/01/10/artificial-intelligence-what-educators-need-to-know.html
Editor's Note: This Commentary is part of a special report exploring game-changing trends and innovations that have the potential to shake up the schoolhouse.
Read the full report: 10 Big Ideas in Education.
Artificial intelligence is a rapidly emerging technology that has the potential to change our everyday lives with a scope and speed that humankind has never experienced before. Some well-known technology leaders such as Tesla architect Elon Musk consider AI a potential threat to humanity and have pushed for its regulation "before it's too late"—an alarmist statement that confuses AI science with science fiction. What is the reality behind these concerns, and how can educators best prepare for a future with artificial intelligence as an inevitable part of our lives?
General, widespread legislative regulation of AI is not going to be the right way to prepare our society for these changes. The AI field is already humming with a wide variety of new research at an international scale, such that blindly constraining AI research in its early days in the United States would only serve to put us behind the global curve in developing the most important technology of the future. It is also worth noting that there are many applications of AI currently under development that have huge potential benefits for humanity in the fields of medicine, security, finance, and personal services; we would risk a high human and economic cost by slowing or stopping research in those areas if we hastily impose premature, overbearing, and poorly understood constraints.
The most impactful way to shape the future of AI is not going to be through the regulation of research, but rather through understanding and correctly controlling the tangible impacts of AI on our lives. For example, it is our belief that AI should not be weaponized, and that humans should always have the ultimate "off switch." Beyond these obvious limitations, there are three rules we propose for AI that can be meaningfully applied now to mitigate possible future harm.
An AI system:
1) Must always respect the same laws that apply to its creators and operators;
2) Must always disclose that it is not human whenever it interacts with another entity;
3) Should never retain or share confidential information without explicit approval from the source.
These rules are a strong practical starting point, but to successfully navigate the new world AI will bring about in the coming decades, we're going to need to ensure that our children are learning the skills required both to make sense of this new human-machine dynamic and to control it in the right ways. All students today should be taught basic computer literacy and the fundamentals behind how an AI works, as they will need to be comfortable with learning and incorporating rapidly emerging new technologies into their lives and occupations as they are developed.
We will need our future scientists and engineers to be keenly aware that an AI system can only be as good as the data it is given to work with, and that to avoid dangerous bias or incorrect actions, we need to cultivate the right inputs to these systems that fairly cover all possible perspectives and variables. We will need policymakers who can successfully apply the rules suggested above as well as define the new ones we will need as AI continues to proliferate into the various aspects of our lives.
New and different opportunities and values will likely emerge for humans in the economy that AI creates. As AI makes more resources more widely available, we will find less meaning in material wealth and more value in the activities that are uniquely human. This means that occupations with creative and expressive qualities, such as chefs, tailors, organic farmers, musicians, and artists of all types will become more important in an age in which a real human connection is increasingly precious. Roles that directly affect human development and well-being, such as teaching, nursing, and caregiving, will be especially crucial and should be uplifted as excellent options for people whose vocations are otherwise replaced by AI systems. No AI can hope to match a human for true compassion and empathy, qualities that we should be taking extra care to cultivate in our children to prepare them to inherit a world where these characteristics will be more important than ever.
Background
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education
By Benjamin Herold
What will the rise of artificial intelligence mean for K-12 education?
First, AI and related technologies are reshaping the economy. Some jobs are being eliminated, many others are being changed, and entirely new fields of work are opening up. Those changes are likely to have big implications for the job market in 2030, when today's 6th graders are set to hit their prime working years. But the nation's top economists and technologists are sharply divided about whether AI will be a job killer or creator, presenting a big challenge for the educators and policymakers who must prepare today's students to thrive in a very uncertain tomorrow.
Second, artificial intelligence is changing what it means to be an engaged citizen. K-12 education has never been just about preparing young people for jobs; it's also about making sure they're able to weigh arguments and evidence, synthesize information, and take part in the civic lives of their communities and country. But as algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automated decisionmaking systems are being woven into nearly every aspect of our lives, from loan applications to dating to criminal sentencing, new questions and policy debates and ethical quandaries are emerging. Schools are now faced with having to figure out how to teach students to think critically about the role these technologies are playing in our society and how to use them in smart, ethical ways. Plus, in the age of AI, students will likely have to develop a new communication skill: the ability to talk effectively to intelligent machines. Some economists say that skill could be the difference between success and failure in the workplace of the future.
And third, artificial intelligence could play a powerful role in the push to provide more personalized instruction for all students-and in the process change the teaching profession itself. Intelligent tutoring systems are making inroads in the classroom. New educational software and technology platforms use algorithms to recommend content and lessons for individual students, sometimes pushing teachers away from the front of the classroom and into the role of "coach" or "facilitator." And schools are being flooded with data about their students, information that educators and administrators alike are increasingly expected to use to make real-time decisions and adjustments in the course of their day-to-day work.
Some educators see the rising role of AI as a threat to their existence and a danger to student-data privacy. Others take a more positive view, seeing it as having the potential to free them from mundane tasks like lecturing and grading, creating rich opportunities for continuous improvement, and opening the doors for more meaningful trial-and-error learning by students.
Whatever the perspective, there is one thing most everyone seems to agree on: Now is the time for the K-12 field to start wrestling with the promises and perils of AI.
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Why Businesses Need Artificial Intelligence For Marketing
From the team at https://www.websitesthatsell.com.au/about-us/
The ways that businesses operate today is not the same as 30 years’ ago.
Today, businesses operate based off data-driven reasoning.
With that, one of the most effective means to generate revenue growth is through marketing.
Now, if a company wants to take their success to new heights, they need to begin using AI for marketing.
Here are five reasons behind how AI marketing can transform your marketing efforts.
1. Chat Bots
Have you ever been interested in a product before on a website and noticed that the brand offered a “Live Chat” system? So, in hopes of finding an answer to your question, you send a message to whom you thought was an employee of the company. Now, to the surprise of many, chances are, it’s an AI powered bot. These intelligent robots are sophisticated and designed to provide consumers with the answers they need so your business can secure a sale.
2. PPC Advertising
In the digital marketing industry, PPC campaigns are one of the most popular techniques towards generating new, quality leads. Now, in most campaigns, human beings are the ones who are overseeing and handling the marketing efforts. AI powered systems can transform the way that PPC campaigns are performed, eliminating the time a business may typically spend on these efforts. As a result, these AI systems can track vital data and information, utilizing this to increase and optimize the marketing objective. This effectively can improve the overall success of the campaign, generating more quality leads while also freeing up time otherwise spent studying algorithms and data.
3. Churn Prediction And Bounce Rates
When it comes to marketing, one important data measure that is difficult to predict is whether a consumer is going to bounce or perhaps disengage. This is where an AI powered system can make a difference in a company’s marketing game. Only through an AI system can a business begin to track and predict consumer behaviours on a website with such a high degree of accuracy. In doing so, a business can begin to create a marketing plan to keep consumers on the website or retarget previous customers.
4. Customer Preferences
Any successful marketing campaign begins with understanding the target audience. While a digital marketing can spend the time developing a customer profile, it can be time consuming. When you also include the margin for error, it can prove to be counterproductive for some businesses. An AI system can track and analyze customer preferences, making easier and less time consuming to develop custom customer profiles. Businesses could use this information to create better and more defined digital marketing campaigns, leading to more quality leads and sales.
5. Image Recognition
In recent years, image recognition technology has quickly begun to transform the marketing industry. Through utilized AI software, businesses can begin to understand a deeper level of consumer behavior in one of the most advanced ways. This software can recognize consumer faces and match it with custom data from each time they visit a specific store. From here, businesses can create consumer profiles and understand their behavior given specific circumstances, including sales, price fluctuations, and more!
Reference Links:
Friday, March 23, 2018
Rich Arnold on Crypto Currencies
Crypto currencies:
Enough friends have asked for my thoughts that I finally wrote them down in as brief a form as I was able:
Crypto currency is still a tulip bulb bubble at present as the prices are all based on the greater fool theory.
Blockchain is a great technology and will be here for a very long time with a major impact on how business is done, but the value is in the network, not in the currencies which only have momentary value as they facilitate transactions.
We will definitely have “virtual currencies” in the sense that I may one day own (say) an electronic token (ie a crypto currency) that represents a certain percentage interest in a building, or a seat right in the Warriors’ new stadium, or a bottle of wine in storage somewhere, or a given number of kilowatt hours of electric energy.
But currencies that are not representative of real value, only coinage, can be created infinitely. Bitcoin alone has a constrained total circulation, but there are already over 1,500 different ones of those currencies, so in buying one of those currencies as an investment asset one is betting on which will be a major facilitator of commerce and that is a very high risk bet.
Bitcoin, for example, has two primary disadvantages—(1) the underlying technology requires too many computer transactions per trade so there is both a “latency” problem (ie a speed of completion problem) and a “bandwidth” problem (ie a quite low theoretical limit on the number of simultaneous trades the global network can accommodate), and (2) the total amount of power consumed for all those computer processes creates an unsustainably high global cost that is so far being ignored since it is made up of millions of tiny bits of cost shared by all network participants.
Two currencies that I think have “legs” for very different reasons are Ripple and Unikoin. Ripple is getting good traction as the liquidity currency on global inter-bank networks and has good underlying technology. Unikoin is a small currency dedicated to being used on the global betting platform for e-sports.
End of rant!
Thursday, March 22, 2018
AI will outperform humans in all tasks in 45 years time!
Fyi: A short video from World Economic Forum forecasting when Robots will overtake Humans in their ability to perform a range of tasks and jobs. Spoiler alert: Forecasts a 50% chance AI will outperform humans in all tasks in 45 years time!
Tx for the heads up Kimberly King)
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
How the Banks are handling Job Disruption
There was an Australian Senate Inquiry on what we are doing as a nation to secure our jobs - as we face massive disruption from automation , ai , machines and Business Process Outsourcing.
Labor's Ed Husic said 3.5 million workers are under threat of having their jobs disrupted by technology.
The banking sector is in the running for massive disruption and Paul Smith from the AFR (fin review ) spoke to the CEOs of ANZ, Westpac and NAB to see what they were doing to prepare!
Banks are already using robot technology on a large scale in its processing centres and this trend will continue.
The banks need to plan for this change effectively, onboard skilled personnel (or upskill existing) and communicate with their employees, what this means and better explain how this benefits our customers.
NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn announced its plans for the first 1000 of 6000 jobs it will make redundant over three years, and at the same time as it is looking to bolster its workforce with 2000 technology specialists. These Specialists will probably need to be “imported in” - not sure what will happen to the 1000!
Thorburn said that NAB needs to ensure that they have the right people with the right skills and capabilities as the world continues to change. “We are committed to up-skilling people where it suits their aspirations and business needs, but there are limits," he said
Westpac’s CIO Dave Curran warned that
workers aged over 35 risked being left in the blocks by the wave of automation and new technologies, unless management philosophy in large organisations adjusts to adapt to the changing world. We recognise that the bank has a responsibility to work with its staff to ensure they enhanced their employability.
They need to be upskilled in jobs that are not repetitive and done by machines in a fraction of the time!
Westpac’s CEO Brian Hartzer said they were doing this in a number of ways, including partnering with industry experts and tertiary institutions to design development programs to deliver recognisable credentials to employees.
"Automation and AI have well and truly arrived and there's no point pretending that technology isn't going to affect jobs, but it can be a net positive for the economy if we embrace it," Mr Hartzer said.
"We need to re-skill people and grow new jobs off the back of what technology can do so people can find new jobs." Said ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott. “Automation is not new to banking - the introduction of automatic teller machines is a case in point, where the industry embraced a more efficient way of operating, and now the rapid adoption of mobile banking as a more recent example of how institutions need to recalibrate to match customer demand.
To say nothing of blockchain and Fintech!
Here’s the real question - will banks survive in its current form?
Saturday, March 17, 2018
What if your daughter were 1000 x more intelligent than you ?
Let’s take a child, your child perhaps. Let’s imagine that she is growing in intelligence in front of your eyes and that her intellectual growth is following Moore’s law. By sixteen she is at your level and everything looks pretty good. However, by the age of thirty-two, her memory and knowledge would be approximately one thousand time yours and she would also think one thousand times faster.
What does it mean and what would the impact be on you and society?
The rise of intelligent machines
It is difficult to grasp fully the speed, depth, and overall impact of the digital and fourth industrial revolutions with, as a major component, the rise of intelligent machines.
The challenges and opportunities are unprecedented, and organisations and employee lives are at the frontline. How to start thinking about speed of change and impact on management and people in this emerging future (futuristic?) environment?
Exponential growth – what if your daughter were 1000 times more intelligent than you?
We are all familiar with the words: intelligent machines, robotics, global connectivity, sensors everywhere, virtual reality, augmented reality.
We are also familiar with the early applications of these technologies: personal agents, analytics, robots, autonomous vehicles to name but a few.
We can also read in the press the impact of these technologies on jobs and organisations. What is more difficult to grasp is what the future has in store in the medium to long term. A simple extrapolation won’t do.
The reason is that the human mind tends to extrapolate linearly (see references); it has difficulty with a fundamental aspect of all these technologies: exponential growth. In a sense we are used to it, with Moore’s law being well known.
Moore’s law is used to describe the doubling of transistors on a computer chip every eighteen months and the growth in bandwidth of communication networks.
Computing power, memory and connectivity are increasing exponentially and their cost is also reducing exponentially. Up until recently, the benefits could be described as benign from a human perspective; that is, mostly beneficial with few apparent disadvantages.
Who would object to cheaper laptops, cheaper smart phones, cheaper phone plans, video streaming, etc. Exponential growth seems to bring convenience and material advantages that are easy to grasp.
It is a different matter when we start to think of intelligence. Let’s take a child, your child perhaps. Let’s imagine that she is growing in intelligence in front of your eyes. Initially, as you would expect the child will grow and it is rewarding, and you’re pleased. But then, as she reaches her teenage years her intellectual capacity keeps doubling every eighteen months, in speed of thinking, breadth and depth of knowledge, and sophistication of analysis. By sixteen, say, she is at your level. By the age of thirty-two, her memory and knowledge would be approximately one thousand time yours and she would also think one thousand times faster.
What does it mean and what would the impact be on you and society? And what if all children were to become like your daughter? We think it is safe to say that we have no idea about the implication on us and our society. You might say that artificial intelligence is not like human intelligence or that it may not grow quite as fast. True, but it does not change the outcome, we still have no idea. We have trouble understanding exponential growth and its implications.
What we can say, is that we are entering the age of turbulence. This means that unpredictable, rapid change in and from multiple directions will challenge us at every turn.
These changes will produce huge waves that will collide and create massive upheavals. There will be disruptions, in technology, the economy and society. Change will happen to us and we will have to transform and adapt. There are great opportunities but there are also great risks. We are entering the ‘age of disruptions’.
Impact on management thinking
Most of our current management thinking was developed in pre-Internet time, and most definitely pre-AI. Let’s call this ‘legacy management’. The question is: what type of management will be needed to cope with the ‘age of disruptions’? What will be the role of the individual, the team, the organisation, the business leaders and society? We will endeavour to address these questions in future blogs.
We’ll do it in two ways: by taking a high-level view and also by considering practical aspects and solutions that could be applied now. We want to enlarge thinking if we can but we also want to be and stay relevant and practical today. Stay tuned!
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/levymr/papers/EGBLab.pdf
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