Artificial intelligence and the future of national security — from news.asu.edu
Excerpt:
Artificial intelligence is a “world-altering” technology that represents “the most powerful tools in generations for expanding knowledge, increasing prosperity and enriching the human experience” and will be a source of enormous power for the companies and countries that harness them, according to the recently released Final Report of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
This is not hyperbole or a fantastical version of AI’s potential impact. This is the assessment of a group of leading technologists and national security professionals charged with offering recommendations to Congress on how to ensure American leadership in AI for national security and defense. Concerningly, the group concluded that the U.S. is not currently prepared to defend American interests or compete in the era of AI.
Also see:
EU Set to Ban Surveillance, Start Fines Under New AI Rules — from bloomberg.com by Natalia Drozdiak
Excerpt:
The European Union is poised to ban artificial intelligence systems used for mass surveillance or for ranking social behavior, while companies developing AI could face fines as high as 4% of global revenue if they fail to comply with new rules governing the software applications.
Also see:
Wrongfully arrested man sues Detroit police over false facial recognition match — from washingtonpost.com by Drew Harwell
The case could fuel criticism of police investigators’ use of a controversial technology that has been shown to perform worse on people of color
Excerpts:
A Michigan man has sued Detroit police after he was wrongfully arrested and falsely identified as a shoplifting suspect by the department’s facial recognition software in one of the first lawsuits of its kind to call into question the controversial technology’s risk of throwing innocent people in jail.
Robert Williams, a 43-year-old father in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, was arrested last year on charges he’d taken watches from a Shinola store after police investigators used a facial recognition search of the store’s surveillance-camera footage that identified him as the thief.
Prosecutors dropped the case less than two weeks later, arguing that officers had relied on insufficient evidence. Police Chief James Craig later apologized for what he called “shoddy” investigative work. Williams, who said he had been driving home from work when the 2018 theft had occurred, was interrogated by detectives and held in custody for 30 hours before his release.
Williams’s attorneys did not make him available for comment Tuesday. But Williams wrote in The Washington Post last year that the episode had left him deeply shaken, in part because his young daughters had watched him get handcuffed in his driveway and put into a police car after returning home from work.
“How does one explain to two little girls that a computer got it wrong, but the police listened to it anyway?” he wrote. “As any other black man would be, I had to consider what could happen if I asked too many questions or displayed my anger openly — even though I knew I had done nothing wrong.”
Addendum on 4/20/21:
Travel from home: 13 virtual museums and galleries to tour — from millionmilesecrets.com by Cynthia Paez Bowman; with thanks to Tatiana Rosado Vidal for this resource
Excerpt:
Museums, movie theaters, concerts and other events have all taken a hit since COVID-19 emerged. Luckily, the creative world has gotten — creative — and found new, alternative ways to provide virtual cultural and educational experiences during these challenging times. If you’re hankering for a little art immersion, there are a variety of virtual museum tours you can take, all from the comfort of your home. Best of all, you won’t have to navigate a sea of crowds and selfie sticks to get a closer look at a Van Gogh or Monet.
…
The following list of virtual museums and galleries are organized based on interest:
Virtual Art Museums
Virtual Tour for Kids
Virtual Natural History and Science
Weird Virtual Museums
From DSC:
THIS is incredible technology! Check out the Chroma-keying technology and the handwriting extraction feature of the Sony Analytics appliance.
From Sony’s website (emphasis DSC):
No matter where the speaker is standing, the Handwriting Extraction feature ensures that any words and diagrams written on a board or screen remain in full view to the audience — via AR (augmented reality).
Even if the speaker is standing directly in front of the board, their ideas, thinking process, and even their animated presentation, are all accessible to the audience. It’s also easy for remote viewers and those playing back the presentation at a later date to become immersed in the content too, as the presenter is overlaid and the content is never compromised.
Also, the chroma keying tech can be useful/engaging as well.
I saw this at IUPUI’s recent webinar/tour of their new facilities. Here’s further information on that webinar from last Friday, 1/29/21:
Designing Large Active Learning Classrooms webinar/tour on 1/29/21 from the Mosaic Program at Indiana University; also features rooms/staff at IUPUI.
Digital Trends Top Tech of CES 2021 Awards — from digitaltrends.com
Excerpt:
CES 2021 proved that the technology industry is uniquely suited to carry on in an all-digital environment. These are the companies that invented half the tools, after all. Press conferences went off without a hitch, companies shipped us prototypes to play with, and Digital Trends’ unique CES Experience Center made it possible to virtually come together as an editorial team and share our impressions with you, even from afar.
Oh, and the gadgets. Companies rose to the occasion with the usual spate of outrageous concepts, COVID-fighting devices to meet the moment, and new technologies we’ve been waiting ages for. So naturally, we had to pick the best of the best. Here they are.
6 Key Themes Driving Headlines At CES 2021 — from forbes.com by Daniel Newman
2021 Trend: Pandemic Tech — from web-strategist.com by Jeremiah Owyang
CES 2021: Home health havens — from intelligence.wundermanthompson.com by Emma Chiu
Addendums on 1/18/21:
Start the New Year off Right With Thought Provoking Content From CuriosityStream — from futurism.com
It’s the streaming service for people who love to learn.
Excerpt:
With the arrival of the New Year, it’s time to make your New Year’s resolutions. And if one of your New Year’s resolutions is to learn more about the world and its wonders, you’re in luck. CuriosityStream is a streaming service for people who love to learn. It hosts numerous award-winning, thought-provoking educational content covering history, science, technology, and sports. Offering everything from documentaries about the Declaration of Independence to the life of an oak tree, CuriosityStream is guaranteed to transform your binge-watching habit into an entertaining educational experience. And best of all, CuriosityStream offers a “sneak peek” so you can sample everything CuriosityStream has to offer.
Also see:
From DSC:
While I haven’t used this service, I find it incredibly interesting! So while I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the content, it reminds me of the Learning from the Living [Class] Room vision.
What does Innovation look like in robotics? See the SVR 2020 Industry Award winners — from robohub.org by Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
23 Greatest Engineering Highlights from 2020 — from interestingengineering.com by Christopher McFadden
These are some of the greatest engineering highlights from 2020.
From DSC:
Our oldest daughter showed me a “Bitmoji Classroom” that her mentor teacher — Emily Clay — uses as her virtual classroom. Below are some snapshots of the Google Slides that Emily developed based on the work of:
My hats off to all of these folks whose work laid the foundations for this creative, fun, engaging, easy-to-follow virtual classroom for a special education preschool classroom — complete with ties to videoconferencing functionalities from Zoom. Emily’s students could click on items all over the place — they could explore, pursue their interests/curiosities/passions. So the snapshots below don’t offer the great interactivity that the real deal does.
Nice work Emily & Company! I like how you provided more choice, more control to your students — while keeping them engaged!
From DSC:
I also like the idea of presenting this type of slide (immediately below, and students’ names have been blurred for privacy’s sake) prior to entering a videoconferencing session where you are going to break out the students into groups. Perhaps that didn’t happen in Emily’s class…I’m not sure, but in other settings, it would make sense to share one’s screen right before sending the students to those breakout rooms and show them that type of slide (to let them know who will be in their particular breakout group).
The students in the different breakout sessions could then collaboratively work on Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides and you could watch their progress in real-time!
Also see:
17+ Futuristic Car Designs from Visionaries of the Past — from by Christopher McFadden
Here are 17+ interesting futuristic car designs from the past that will bring a smile to your face.
