RESULTS ARE IN: HERE ARE THE 15 LEGAL TECH WINNERS OF THE 2022 ABA TECHSHOW STARTUP ALLEY COMPETITION — from techshow.com

Excerpts:

After nearly 32,000 votes, the results are in. Readers have been voting to select the 15 legal technology startups that will get to participate in the sixth-annual Startup Alley at ABA TECHSHOW 2022, taking place March 2-5, 2022.

These 15 will face off in an opening night pitch competition that will be the opening event of this year’s TECHSHOW, with the conference’s attendees voting to pick the top winner. The first-place winner gets a package of marketing and advertising prizes.

Here are the winners in order of their vote tallies. The descriptions were provided by each company.

 

Companies are making serious money with AI — from sloanreview.mit.edu by Thomas Davenport and Randy Bean

Excerpt:

Just a few years later, things are beginning to change. In the 2022 survey of senior data and technology executives by NewVantage Partners (where Randy Bean is CEO and cofounder, and Tom Davenport is a fellow), 92% of large companies reported that they are achieving returns on their data and AI investments. That’s up markedly from 48% in 2017. The same percentage (92%) said that they are increasing investments in data and AI, equaling last year’s percentage.

 

9 emerging tech trends IT leaders need to watch — from enterprisersproject.com by Stephanie Overby
As CIOs focus on enabling their businesses for the future, these key technologies will be front and center in 2022 and beyond

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Keeping on top of the newest new thing is fast becoming a tall order. At the same time, it’s never been more important to IT and enterprise success. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of IT leaders told IEEE that determining what technologies are needed for their company in the post-pandemic future will be challenging.

Looking at 2022 and beyond, CIOs charged with outfitting hybrid workplaces, enabling more resilient and flexible supply chains, and continuing the digital transformation march will be eyeing multiple new capabilities in concert. “Rather than single technologies, CIOs will have to focus on confluence of these to drive transformation,” says Yugal Joshi, who leads Everest Group’s digital, cloud, and application services research practices.

Also from enterprisersproject.com, see:

What does it mean to have a team when no two members are working in the same room? In one of Gartner’s more eye-popping predictions for 2022, they stated that “by 2024, 30% of corporate teams will be without a boss due to the self-directed and hybrid nature of work.”

 

Google wants 20,000 Americans to have higher-paying jobs — from protocol.com by Amber Burton
Google’s Career Certificate Fund is aimed at creating a sustainable model of support for American job seekers.

Excerpt:

The program is designed for students to pay zero upfront costs for the three to six-month courses, but Google certificate students are expected to repay program costs if they land a job that pays at least $40,000 annually. While the exact amount of the monthly payments was not shared in the announcement, Google said it will be low no-interest payments for Social Finance to reinvest in the program for additional participants.

Our new $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund — from blog.google by Sundar Pichai

It’s another promising example of how the entire ecosystem — from private companies to nonprofits — can work together to help more Americans access economic opportunities.

Addendum on 3/2/22:

 

AI Foundation Models for the Rest of Us — from future.a16z.com by Elliot Turner

Excerpt:

While 2012’s state-of-the-art systems could be trained on a $700 video game card, today’s state-of-the-art systems – often referred to as foundation models – likely require tens of millions of dollars in computation to train.

The emergence of these massive-scale, high-cost foundation models brings opportunities, risks, and limitations for startups and others that want to innovate in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

 

Data-Informed Learning Design and the Shift to Online — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

The pandemic has been a testament to the progress that has been made in the use of technology to support online learning, but it has also revealed how poorly traditional course design translates to a digital experience. And that’s an opportunity for institutions to become more sophisticated in leveraging digital learning environments to go beyond what’s possible in a brick-and-mortar classroom. That’s according to Luyen Chou, chief learning officer at 2U. Here, we talk about transforming online pedagogy, the potential of emerging technologies, the beauty of simple data, essential human skills and more.

 

The Future Of Law? Legal Data — from techlaw.co.il by Adv. Zohar Fisher

Excerpt:

In an increasingly digital world, data is being leveraged – and collected – in novel ways. The legal field, known for being extremely risk-averse, has a real opportunity to utilize digital tools for many aspects of legal practice to achieve a wide variety of goals, including increasing revenue and expediency.

The legal technology industry, colloquially dubbed ‘Legal Tech,’ has been fueled by a flood of recent investments, including $1.5 billion in 2020 alone. As part of this tidal wave, legal data analysis is an integral part of this rapid growth. In fact, according to the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Survey, 58% of participants used web-based software to aid their practice.

These programs rely on different types of data including internal data derived from the activity of a firm (such as tracking billable hours), individual data collected from cookies and web traffic, as well as industry data (from publicly available legal sources), can be used and combined to give various forecasts and insights.

 

Feds’ spending on facial recognition tech expands, despite privacy concerns — from by Tonya Riley

Excerpt:

The FBI on Dec. 30 signed a deal with Clearview AI for an $18,000 subscription license to the company’s facial recognition technology. While the value of the contract might seem just a drop in the bucket for the agency’s nearly $10 billion budget, the contract was significant in that it cemented the agency’s relationship with the controversial firm. The FBI previously acknowledged using Clearview AI to the Government Accountability Office but did not specify if it had a contract with the company.

From DSC:
What?!? Isn’t this yet another foot in the door for Clearview AI and the like? Is this the kind of world that we want to create for our kids?! Will our kids have any privacy whatsoever? I feel so powerless to effect change here. This technology, like other techs, will have a life of its own. Don’t think it will stop at finding criminals. 

AI being used in the hit series called Person of Interest

This is a snapshot from the series entitled, “Person of Interest.
Will this show prove to be right on the mark?

Addendum on 1/18/22:
As an example, check out this article:

Tencent is set to ramp up facial recognition on Chinese children who log into its gaming platform. The increased surveillance comes as the tech giant caps how long kids spend gaming on its platform. In August 2021, China imposed strict limits on how much time children could spend gaming online.

 

A Move for ‘Algorithmic Reparation’ Calls for Racial Justice in AI — from wired.com by Khari Johnson
Researchers are encouraging those who work in AI to explicitly consider racism, gender, and other structural inequalities.

Excerpt:

FORMS OF AUTOMATION such as artificial intelligence increasingly inform decisions about who gets hired, is arrested, or receives health care. Examples from around the world articulate that the technology can be used to exclude, control, or oppress people and reinforce historic systems of inequality that predate AI.

“Algorithms are animated by data, data comes from people, people make up society, and society is unequal,” the paper reads. “Algorithms thus arc towards existing patterns of power and privilege, marginalization, and disadvantage.

 

 
 

Python, Java, Linux and SQL: These are the hot tech skills employers are looking for — from zdnet.com by Owen Hughes
Programming languages continue to dominate jobs specs, with employers keen to build up their tech teams and deliver on expanding digital programmes.

In Q3, job listings in the tech industry suggest that organizations are on the lookout for technology professionals “who understand the core concepts of software development and project management” and possess technical skills in Linux, as well as programming languages Java, Python and SQL.

 

AI bots to user data: Is there space for rights in the metaverse? — from reuters.com by Sonia Elks

Summary

  • Facebook’s ‘metaverse’ plans fuel debate on virtual world
  • Shared digital spaces raise privacy, ownership questions
  • Rights campaigners urge regulators to widen safeguards

 

 

Americans Need a Bill of Rights for an AI-Powered World — from wired.com by Eric Lander & Alondra Nelson
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is developing principles to guard against powerful technologies—with input from the public.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Soon after ratifying our Constitution, Americans adopted a Bill of Rights to guard against the powerful government we had just created—enumerating guarantees such as freedom of expression and assembly, rights to due process and fair trials, and protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Throughout our history we have had to reinterpret, reaffirm, and periodically expand these rights. In the 21st century, we need a “bill of rights” to guard against the powerful technologies we have created.

Our country should clarify the rights and freedoms we expect data-driven technologies to respect. What exactly those are will require discussion, but here are some possibilities: your right to know when and how AI is influencing a decision that affects your civil rights and civil liberties; your freedom from being subjected to AI that hasn’t been carefully audited to ensure that it’s accurate, unbiased, and has been trained on sufficiently representative data sets; your freedom from pervasive or discriminatory surveillance and monitoring in your home, community, and workplace; and your right to meaningful recourse if the use of an algorithm harms you. 

In the coming months, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (which we lead) will be developing such a bill of rights, working with partners and experts across the federal government, in academia, civil society, the private sector, and communities all over the country.

Technology can only work for everyone if everyone is included, so we want to hear from and engage with everyone. You can email us directly at ai-equity@ostp.eop.gov

 

Higher Education Needs to Move Toward Mass-Personalization — from fierceeducation.com by Susan Fourtané

Excerpt:

Every industry, from health sciences to marketing to manufacturing, is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate the delivery of mass-personalization, yet education has been slow in its adoption. These smart systems create personalized solutions targeted to meet the unique needs of every individual.

Artificial Intelligence-based technologies have the potential of serving as tools for educators to provide personalized learning. However, for mass-personalization to work, institutions first need to align their leadership. In his feature session What Is It Going to Take to Move from Mass-Production to Mass-Personalization?, during the recent Online Learning Consortium virtual event, Dale Johnson, Director of Digital Innovation at Arizona State University, addressed the issue of mass personalization in higher education.

Johnson reinforced the idea that with mass-personalization professors can deliver the right lesson to the right student at the right time.

Mass-personalization software does not replace the professor. It makes the professor better, more focused on the students.

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian