Machine Learning to Estimate Breast Cancer Recurrence | CLEP – Dove Medical Press

Introduction

Cancer recurrence is considered to be an important cancer outcome metric to measure the burden of the disease and success of (neo)adjuvant therapies. Despite this, high-quality breast cancer recurrence rates currently remain unknown in most countries, including Belgium. To date, cancer recurrence is not systematically registered in most population-based cancer registries, due to the difficulty and labor-intensity of registering follow-up for recurrences.

Recurrence definitions used for registration purposes differ among countries, due to the lack of consensus regarding a standardized clinical definition. Defining recurrence clinically is a challenge, since various methods exist to detect recurrences after (neo)adjuvant treatments of a patient such as physical examination, pathological examination, imaging, or tumor markers. Unlike the guidelines and definitions that currently exist in the clinical trial setting,1,2 no guidelines are set to correctly and consistently register a recurrence in a patient with stage IIII breast cancer at diagnosis.

Real-world recurrence data could give an estimation of cancer burden and efficacy of cancer treatment modalities outside a conventional clinical trial setting, which could eventually lead to improvements in quality of care.3,4 Administrative data from health insurance companies on medical treatments and procedures, also known as bill claims, and hospital discharge data could represent an alternative source for the assessment of disease evolution after breast cancer treatment.

Recently, machine learning algorithms based on classification and regression trees (CART) have been developed to detect cancer recurrence at the population level using claims data.5 However, only in a limited number of countries, research teams were able to successfully construct algorithms to detect breast cancer recurrences, and only for a small number of centers (USA,6,7 Canada,8,9 Denmark10,11 and Sweden)12 Our aim was to develop, test and validate an algorithm using administrative data features allowing the estimation of breast cancer recurrence rates for all Belgian patients with breast cancer.

To construct and validate an algorithm to detect distant recurrences, female patients with breast cancer diagnosed between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2014 were included from nine different centers located in all three Belgian regions. We did not include patients with stage IV breast cancer at diagnosis, patients with a history of cancer (any second primary cancer, multiple tumors, and contralateral tumors), or patients who could not be coupled to administrative data sources. All breast cancers, regardless of molecular subtype, were included. Among the nine centers were centers from the Flemish region (University Hospitals Leuven, General Hospital Groeninge, Jessa Hospital, Imelda Hospital, and AZ Delta), Brussels-Capital region (Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc and Institut Jules Bordet) and Walloon region (CHR Mons-Hainaut and CHU UCL Namur). For all nine centers, 300 patients were included per center, by randomly selecting from the study population 50 patients per incidence year. The study population of six centers was divided by randomization (6040% split-sample validation) into a training set to develop the algorithm, and an independent test set to perform an internal validation.13 The algorithm was additionally validated with an external validation set of the three remaining centers, to check reproducibility of the algorithm in a dataset with patients from other centers.

For the selection of the nine centers, we aimed for a reasonable variety of center characteristics based on teaching vs non-teaching hospital, the spread across the three regions in Belgium, and center size.

For each patient in the study population, recurrence status (yes, no, unknown) and recurrence date (day, month, year) were extracted and collected from electronic medical files and reviewed by trained data managers from each of the nine hospitals. Recurrence was defined as the occurrence of a distant recurrence or metastasis between 120 days after the primary diagnosis and within 10 years of follow-up after diagnosis or end of study (December 31, 2018). Data managers were instructed to consider death due to breast cancer in our definition of a recurrence. Loco-regional recurrence, was not considered as an outcome in our study. Both patients with a progression (without a disease-free interval) and patients with a recurrence (with a disease-free interval) were considered as outcome in our definition of recurrence. Patients with an unknown recurrence status, due to the lack of follow-up for example, were excluded from the analysis. Patients with a recurrence within 120 days were considered de novo stage IV and therefore excluded because interference of first-line treatment complicates recurrence detection. Starting from diagnosis to detect recurrent disease might cause more false positive recurrence cases due to the treatment of the initial breast cancer overlapping with the immediate first-line treatment due to metastatic disease. Recurrence diagnosis date was the time-point (described in day, month, and year), confirmed by pathological examination, imaging (CT, PET-CT, bone scintigraphy or MRI scan), or defined by physicians in the multidisciplinary team meeting (MDT).

In the course of an extensive data linking process with pseudonymization of the patient data, the recurrence data from the hospitals (i.e., gold standard) were linked to several population-based data sources. These included cancer registration data from the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR), and administrative data sources, including claims or reimbursement data (InterMutualistic Agency, IMA),14 hospital discharge data (Technische Cel, TCT),15 information on vital status (Crossroads Bank for Social Security, CBSS)16 and cause of death (Agentschap Zorg en Gezondheid, Observatoire de la Sant et du Social de Bruxelles-Capitale, and Agence pour une Vie de Qualit AVIQ).17 Information on data sources and data used is presented in Appendix 1.

To build a robust algorithm to detect distant recurrences, pre-processing and extraction of features were performed. Expert-driven features to potentially detect recurrences in administrative data were created based on recommendations from breast oncologists (P.N. and H.W.). First, a comprehensive list of reimbursement codes for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and medications was selected, and code groups were created based on their relevance for the diagnosis and/or treatment of distant metastasis in breast cancer patients (See Appendix 2).

Potential features were further refined based on the exploration of data from patients with a recurrence, including time-frames starting from time points after diagnosis (0 days, 90 days, 160 days, 270 days, and 365 days after diagnosis). We assessed different time-frames to obtain the most accurate feature to detect recurrences, and because starting from the date of diagnosis might result in noise from the treatment of the initial breast cancer. We additionally created features based on count of codes, by assessing the maximum number of codes per year or per pre-defined time-frame (starting from 0, 90, 160, 270, and 365 days after diagnosis) (Table 1). The best performing time-frame was selected for each feature by maximizing the Youdens J index:18

Table 1 List of Potential Markers for Recurrence (Available Within Administrative Data) Based on Recommendations from Breast Oncologists

After a feature list was obtained (as described in previous section), this list was narrowed down based on the ensemble method of bootstrapping.19 In total 1000 bootstrap samples were used to generate 1000 classification and regression trees (CART) using the same training set, and to select best-performing features based on the frequency of the features.19,20

Cost-complexity pruning was applied for each bootstrap sample, to obtain the best performing model and avoid over-fitting of the model to the dataset.20 CART inherently uses entropy for the selection of nodes or features. The higher the entropy, the more informative and useful the feature is.20 A 10-fold cross-validation was also performed to ensure robustness of the model in different training sets. Collinearity of the selected features was accounted for by the one standard error (1-SE) rule, to eliminate redundant features. The 1-SE rule selects the least complex tree that is within 1 standard error from the best performing tree.21

Based on the selected features from the bootstrapping, a principal CART model was built to classify patients as having a recurrence or not by using the complete training set.

Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and classification accuracy was calculated for evaluating and comparing the performance of the principal CART model. All models were created and trained in SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA) within the SAS Enterprise Guide software (version 7.15 of the SAS System for Windows).

Data for a total of 2507 patients could be retrieved from nine Belgian centers and were included in the final dataset to train, test and externally validate the algorithm (Figure 1 and Table 2). The mean follow-up period was 7.4 years. For the split sample validation, the patients from six centers were split into the training set (N = 975 of which 78 distant recurrences, 8.0%) and internal validation set (N = 713 of which 56 distant recurrences, 7.9%). The external validation set consisted of three independent centers with 819 patients, of which 82 had distant recurrences (10.0%). The training, internal validation, and external validation sets did not have differences in distribution of baseline tumor and patient characteristics (Table 2).

Table 2 Baseline Patient and Tumor Characteristics

Figure 1 Patient inclusion flow diagram.

Based on bootstrap aggregation, 1000 CART models were built using the following features: (1) Presence of a follow-up MDT meeting, starting from 270 days after diagnosis (feature present in 975 out of 1000 CART models), (2) Maximum number of CT codes present (with a moving average over time) of 5 or more times a year (851 CART models), and (3) Death due to breast cancer (412 CART models) (see Supplementary Figure 1). Afterwards, the final CART model was constructed with these three features and calculated by using all data of the training set (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Final CART model to detect recurrences based on the three selected features after bootstrapping. Nodes represent selected features by the algorithm to classify patients.

Abbreviations: MDT, multidisciplinary team meeting; CT, computed tomography scan.

The sensitivity of the principal CART model to detect recurrences for the training set was 79.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] 68.887.8%), specificity was 98.2% (95% CI 97.199.0%), with an overall accuracy of 96.7% (95% CI 95.497.7%) (Table 3), and an AUC (area under the curve) of 94.2%. After 10-fold cross-validation within the training set, we found a sensitivity of 71.8% (95% CI 66.486.7%), specificity of 98.2% (95% CI 96.398.5%) and overall accuracy of 96.1% (95% CI 94.797.2%). The internal validation (i.e. based on test set) resulted in a sensitivity of 83.9% (95% CI 71.792.4%), a specificity of 96.7% (95% CI 95.098.9%), and accuracy of 95.7% (95% CI 93.997.0%). After external validation was performed on three additional centers, the sensitivity was 84.1% (95% CI 74.491.3%), with a specificity of 98.2% (95% CI 97.099.1%) and accuracy of 96.8% (95% CI 95.497.9%).

Table 3 Performance of Training Set, Cross Validation, Internal Validation Set and External Validation Set

In this study, we were able to successfully develop a machine learning algorithm to detect distant recurrence in patients with breast cancer, achieving accuracy of 96.8% after external validation in multiple centers across Belgium. The final list of detected parameters were presence of a follow-up MDT meeting, CT scan (max 5 times a year), and death due to breast cancer. Recurrence data are lacking in many population-based cancer registries due to the cost and labor-intensity of registration.3 True incidence of cancer recurrence should be known across age groups and regions in Belgium, to measure burden of illness and eventually improve quality of care. Current recurrence numbers are often extrapolated from clinical trials, which typically exclude older and frail patients. Older patients are more susceptible to receive under-treatment and to recurrences22,23 and recurrence numbers could therefore be underestimated.

The administrative data sources used in our algorithm virtually cover all residents of Belgium,14 which was useful to achieve population-based recurrence data. We were also able to accomplish a multi-centric study by developing the training model and performing an external validation based on data of multiple centers. Likewise, it is highly important to have a relatively large population and reliable gold standard to develop and train a machine learning model in these studies, to avoid prolonging and complicating the feature selection process due to conflicting recurrence and treatment data occurrence.

The definition of a distant recurrence in medical files was the occurrence of a distant recurrence or metastases after a period of 120 days. This time-frame until detection of recurrence varied among previous studies.2427 Most common exclusions were done either from 120 days (Chubak et al 2012) or 180 days after diagnosis (Amar et al 2020). Disease progression can be difficult to measure accurately and can be overestimated because of timing of therapeutic procedures that might be delayed. The limitation of our study was that we could not make a distinction between disease progression and disease recurrence. Defining medical recurrence in the clinic is a challenge, which makes it more difficult to define recurrence with a proxy based on administrative data.28 Therefore, setting a clear definition of window of treatment and the time-frame for detection of recurrence is considered important for future studies.

We chose to restrict our definition to distant recurrences to achieve a straightforward feature selection. We included death due to breast cancer as an outcome in our definition of recurrences. Cause-specific death and accurate source of cause of death is of utmost importance when studying recurrences, since recurrence and death are closely related to each other.29

The machine learning algorithm used in this study was a decision tree, i.e. the Classification And Regression Tree (CART) with the ensemble method. Ensemble learning combines multiple decision trees sequentially (boosting) or in parallel (bootstrap aggregation). The key advantages of using bootstrap aggregation are: better predictive accuracy, less variance, and less bias than a single decision tree. Similarly, latest studies more often make use of ensemble methods.7,9,12

Within the recurrence detection features that were selected from the bootstrapping method for the cohort of six different Belgian centers, no treatment features were selected, which could indicate that there are more inter-center similarities for diagnostic regimens and more differences in terms of treatment regimens. During pre-processing of the features, we did additional checks of features to improve accuracy of the model. For instance, we generated a treatment feature that only included metastases-specific chemotherapy agent codes. However, this feature was not included in the final model. Next, we tried out a model without diagnostic features, but this did not improve accuracy. Previous studies mostly make use of metastatic diagnosis codes (secondary malignant neoplasm or SMN code from ICD-9 or ICD-10) in their algorithm, which would be useful if highly reliable. We also checked subgroups by testing out different models for patients younger or older than 70 years, and different incidence years. We applied the algorithm on subgroups based on age or incidence years, to check if the algorithm accuracy performed better in specific subgroups. As expected, we found higher performance in younger patients (Supplementary Table 1).

Our algorithm performance was comparable to previous studies using decision trees.9,12,24,3032 We found greater accuracy compared with the pooled accuracy of previous algorithms.5

Although algorithms with highest overall accuracy are often sought-after in earlier studies, some studies also provide multiple algorithms to choose from based on their preference, e.g. high-sensitivity or high-specificity algorithms.6,10,24,26,30 Finally, we also investigated the false negative cases from University Hospitals in Leuven to explain why these cases were misclassified. We found that in most false negative cases, the patients were missed due to the lack of attestation of the claims or management of the patients procedures. These cases were most likely patients for which there was a decision to withhold treatment because of comorbid disease, older age, the prognosis of the recurrence, or patients treatments were reimbursed by the sponsor of a clinical trial.

Previously, algorithms based on administrative claims data to detect breast cancer recurrences at the population level have been established.5,710,12 For example research groups from the USA, Canada, and Sweden have built algorithms to detect recurrences in a delimited region within a population. Recent results from these groups have proven that machine learning algorithms based on administrative data can be used to detect recurrences, in the absence of systematic registration. These studies, however, only encompassed a few centers and were thus not validated in a larger cohort of a population. Moreover, most of these algorithms included complete metastasis-specific International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-codes to detect recurrences. Since metastasis-specific codes are not complete in our database, we were not able to use this code in our algorithm. Particularly, the Danish registry has actively collected recurrence information in the Danish Breast Cancer Group (DBCG) clinical database, which they were able to use to construct and validate population-based recurrence-algorithms to complete their recurrence database.10,11 Additionally, they were able to look into long-term recurrences beyond 10 years after incidence date.4,33

The objective of this study was to develop an algorithm that could be used on a nation-wide level to estimate population-wide distant recurrences. Compared with other studies, we used a large sample size and reported both internal and external validation, which was hardly reported in earlier studies.5 Another strength of our study was that unlike many other studies from the USA using Medicare claims,3438 we were able to include all eligible patients with a breast cancer diagnosis, and not just patients older than 65 years.

Although we used different diagnosis and treatment code sources, it should be noted that treatment regimens often change over time and adaptation of the features should be performed for later use. Adapting the algorithm based on changes in diagnosis or treatment regimens might be necessary to obtain accurate recurrence rates of more incidence years in the future. Ideally, we would also prefer to have long-term follow-up and claims data for patients to detect long-term recurrences. However, due to regulations and the large bulk of data that is generated, a longer follow-up of the codes was not possible within the current study. Longer follow-up of recurrences and administrative data would likely improve the accuracy and lead to a more robust algorithm.

In conclusion, our machine learning algorithm to detect metastatic breast cancer recurrences performed with high accuracy after external validation. Claims data are available for medical procedures and medications, hospital discharge data, vital status and cause of death data on the whole population level, which allows the development of models for Belgium. This substantiates the feasibility to develop and validate recurrence algorithms at the population level and might encourage other population-based registries to develop recurrence models or actively register recurrences in the future as these become progressively important. These rates are valuable to gain more insights about recurrences outside the clinical trial setting and might unveil the importance of active registration of recurrences.

AUC, Area under the curve; ATC, Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification; AVIQ, Agence pour une Vie de Qualit; BCR, Belgian Cancer Registry; CA15-3, Cancer antigen 15-3; CART, Classification and regression tree; CBSS, Crossroads Bank for Social Security; CT, Computed tomography; FN, False negatives; FP, False positives; ICD, International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems; IMA, InterMutualistic Agency; MDT, Multidisciplinary team meeting; MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging; MZG, Minimale Ziekenhuis Gegevens; NPV, Negative predictive value; PPV, Positive predictive value; PET-CT, Positron emission tomography computed tomography; SE, Standard error; SMN, Secondary malignant neoplasm; TN, True negatives; TP, True positives.

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request. The data can be given within the secured environment of the Belgian Cancer Registry, according to its regulations, and only upon approval by the Information Security Committee.

This retrospective chart review study involving human participants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of University Hospitals Leuven (S60928). Informed consent for use of data of all participants was obtained.

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

This work was supported by VZW THINK-PINK (Belgium).

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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Machine Learning to Estimate Breast Cancer Recurrence | CLEP - Dove Medical Press

Securing weak spots in AML: Optimizing Model Evaluation with … – Finextra

Manually evaluating transaction monitoring models is slow and error-prone, with mistakes resulting in potentially large fines. To avoid this, banks are increasingly turning to automated machine learning.

Regulators increasingly expect banks and financial institutions to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of their transaction monitoring systems.

As part of this process, banks need to evaluate the models they use and verify (and document) that theyre up to the task. Institutions that fail to maintain a sufficiently effective anti-money laundering program arefrequently hit with huge fines, including several that have totaled over USD1 billion.

Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general at the US Department of Justice (DoJ) while announcing arecent fine for Danske Bank, said to expect companies to invest in robust compliance programs. Failure to do so may well be a one-way ticket to a multi-billion-dollar guilty plea.

Such threats are putting added pressure on smaller banks and FIs. While the larger institutions often will struggle less because of their army of data scientists, model validation and evaluation can be a burden for players with more limited resources.

What is a model?

In the US, banks commonly monitor transactions using a rule-based system of parameters and thresholds. Common rules detect the value of transactions over a period of time or an increase in the volume or value of transactions. If sufficient conditions are met, an alert is triggered.

Even in their simplest incarnation, regulators consider such systems to be models. According to supervisory guidanceOCC 2011-12, a model is defined as any quantitative approach that processes inputs and produces reports. In practice, a typical rule-based transaction monitoring system involves multiple layers of rules.

Regardless of complexity, banks must manage model risks appropriately. There are three main types of model risk that banks need to consider:

These are easy questions to ask, but answering them can be extremely challenging. The OCC supervisory guidance stipulates that banks should manage model risks just like any other type of risk, which includes critical analysis by objective, informed parties who can identify model limitations and assumptions and produce appropriate change.

This guidance states that banks should ensure their models are performing as expected, in line with their design objectives and business uses. It defines the key elements of an effective validation framework as:

Regulatory compliance

Regulators have continued to raise the bar as the US seeks to restrict access to sanctioned countries and individuals, as well as cracking down on financial crime in general.

Since 2018, the New York State Department of Financial Services has required boards or senior officers to submitan annual compliance finding that certifies the effectiveness of an institutions transaction monitoring and sanctions filtering programs.

Taking this a step further, the DoJ announced in 2022 that it was considering a requirement for chief executives and chief compliance officers to certify the design and implementation of their compliance program. With continued geopolitical tensions as the war in Ukraine drags on, the potential cost of a compliance failure is only going to increase.

The regulation of models comes under these broad requirements for effective risk controls. While the approach that banks take to evaluate models will vary on a case-by-case basis, the general principles apply equally.

Similarly, the frequency of model evaluation should be determined using a risk-based approach, typically prompted by any significant changes to the institutions risk profile, such as a merger or acquisition, or expansion into new products, services, customer types or geographic areas. However, regulators increasingly expect models to be evaluated as often as every 12-18 months.

Model evaluation challenges

Rule-based models are being asked to do much more as the nature and volume of financial transactions has evolved. As new threats have emerged, models have become more and more complex (though not more effective). Unfortunately, many are not up to the task.

In many cases, the model has become a confusing black box that few people within the institution understand. Over the years, changes to data feeds, scenario logic, system functions, and staffing can mean that documentation explaining how the model works is incomplete or inaccurate. All of this can make evaluation very difficult for smaller banks. A first-time assessment will almost certainly be time-consuming and costly, and possibly flawed.

However, the challenges are not going away. Changes in consumer behavior, which accelerated during the pandemic, are here to stay. Banks and FIs have digitized their operations, vastly increasing their range of online services and payment methods. Consumers are also showing greater willingness to switch to challenger banks with digital-first business models.

These changes have created more vulnerabilities. Competitive pressures are putting compliance budgets under pressure, while the expansion of online services has created more opportunities for AML failures. To keep up, FIs need to respond quickly and flexibly to new threats.

Better model evaluation with Automated Machine Learning

This process of model evaluation can be optimized using automated machine learning (AutoML). This allows models to be evaluated continuously (or on short cycles) with a standardized process, which leads to higher quality evaluations. By contrast, the manual approach is slow and very error prone.

AutoML models take huge sets of data, learn from the behaviors encoded in that data and reveal patterns that indicate evidence of money laundering. The rapidly changing landscape of AML regulations, in combination with the growing number of transactions and customers, leaves almost no room for a traditional manual project-by-project approach. That is why the industry is increasingly looking at a more disruptive approach:models that are trained with customers' good behavior. The results of this non-traditional method in combination with AutoML let banks adaptto the new reality and stay ahead of almost any new criminal pattern.

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Securing weak spots in AML: Optimizing Model Evaluation with ... - Finextra

IEEE Computer Society Emerging Technology Fund Recipient … – Benzinga

Presentation at The Eleventh International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) debuts new findings for end-to-end neural network Trojan removal techniques

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., May 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at the virtual Backdoor Attacks and Defenses in Machine Learning (BANDS) workshop during The Eleventh International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), participants in the IEEE Trojan Removal Competition presented their findings and success rates at effectively and efficiently mitigating the effects of neural trojans while maintaining high performance. Evaluated on clean accuracy, poisoned accuracy, and attack success rate, the competition's winning team from the Harbin Institute of Technology in Shenzhen, with set HZZQ Defense, formulated a highly effective solution, resulting in a 98.14% poisoned accuracy rate and only a 0.12% attack success rate. This group will be awarded the first-place prize of $5,000 USD.

"The IEEE Trojan Removal Competition is a fundamental solution to improve the trustworthy implementation of neural networks from implanted backdoors," said Prof. Meikang Qiu, chair of IEEE Smart Computing Special Technical Committee (SCSTC) and full professor of Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Science at Dakota State University, Madison, S.D., U.S.A. He also was named the distinguished contributor of IEEE Computer Society in 2021. "This competition's emphasis on Trojan Removal is vital because it encourages research and development efforts toward enhancing an underexplored but paramount issue."

In 2022, IEEE CS established its Emerging Technology Fund, and for the first time, awarded $25,000 USD to IEEE SCSTC for the "Annual Competition on Emerging Issues of Data Security and Privacy (EDISP)," which yielded the IEEE Trojan Removal Competition (TRC '22). The proposal offered a novel take on a cyber topic, because unlike most existing competitions that only focus on backdoor model detection, this competition encouraged participants to explore solutions that can enhance the security of neural networks. By developing general, effective, and efficient white box trojan removal techniques, participants have contributed to building trust in deep learning and artificial intelligence, especially for pre-trained models in the wild, which is crucial to protecting artificial intelligence from potential attacks.

With 1,706 valid submissions from 44 teams worldwide, six groups successfully developed techniques that achieved better results than the state-of-the-art baseline metrics published in top machine-learning venues. The benchmarks summarizing the models and attacks used during the competition are being released to enable additional research and evaluation.

"We're hoping that this benchmark provides diverse and easy access to model settings for people coming up with new AI security techniques," shared Yi Zeng, the competition chairof the IEEE TRC'22, research assistant atBradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., U.S.A. "This competition has yielded new data sets consisting of trained poisoned pre-trained models that are of different architectures and trained on diverse kinds of data distributionswith really high attack success rates, and now developers can explore new defense methods and get rid of remaining vulnerabilities."

During the competition, collective participant results yielded two key findings:

These findings point to the fact that for the time being, a generalized approach to mitigating attacks on neural networks is not advisable. Zeng emphasized the urgent need for a comprehensive AI security solution: "As we continue to witness the widespread impact of pre-trained foundation models on our daily lives, ensuring the security of these systems becomes increasingly critical. We hope that the insights gleaned from this competition, coupled with the release of the benchmark, will galvanize the community to develop more robust and adaptable security measures for AI systems."

"As the world becomes more dependent on AI and machine learning, it is important to deal with the security and privacy issues that these technologies bring up," said Qiu. "The IEEE TRC '22 competition for EDISP has made a big difference in this area. I'd like to offer a special thanks to my colleagues on the steering committeeProfessors Ruoxi Jia from Virginia Tech, Neil Gong from Duke, Tianwei Zhang from Nanyang Technological University, Shu-Tao Xia from Tsinghua University, and Bo Li from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaignfor their help and support."

Ideas and insights coming out of the event, along with the public benchmark data, will help make the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence safer and more dependable. The team plans to run the competition for a second year, and those findings will further strengthen the security parameters of neural networks.

"This is precisely the kind of work we want the Emerging Technology Fund to fuel," said Nita Patel, 2023 IEEE Computer Society President. "It goes a long way toward bolstering iterative developments that will strengthen the security of machine learning and AI platforms as the technologies advance."

For more information about the Emerging Technology Grants Program overall, visit https://www.computer.org/communities/emerging-technology-fund.

About IEEE Trojan Removal CompetitionThe IEEE TRC'22 aims to encourage the development of innovative end-to-end neural network backdoor removal techniques to counter backdoor attacks. For more information, visit https://www.trojan-removal.com/.

About IEEE Computer SocietyThe IEEE Computer Society is the world's home for computer science, engineering, and technology. A global leader in providing access to computer science research, analysis, and information, the IEEE Computer Society offers a comprehensive array of unmatched products, services, and opportunities for individuals at all stages of their professional careers. Known as the premier organization that empowers the people who drive technology, the IEEE Computer Society offers international conferences, peer-reviewed publications, a unique digital library, and training programs. Visit computer.org for more information.

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Computer science research team explores how machine learning … – The College of New Jersey News

Services like Google Translate can help millions of people communicate in over 100 languages. Users can type or speak words to be translated, or even translate text in photos and videos using augmented reality.

Now, computer science professor Andrea Salgian and Ben Guerrieri 26 are working to add one more language to the list: American Sign Language.

Using computer vision and machine learning, the researchers are setting out to create a program to serve as a Google Translate tool for ASL speakers to sign to the camera and receive a direct translation.

Right now, were looking at recognizing letters and words that have static gestures, Salgian said, referring to letters in the ASL alphabet with no hand movement. The program will act more like a dictionary at first. The pair will then develop the automated translation, she explained.

Salgians research utilizes a free machine-learning framework called Mediapipe, which is developed by Google and uses a camera to detect joint locations in real time. The program tracks the users movements, provides the coordinates of every single joint in the hand, and uses the coordinates to extract gestures that are matched to ASL signs.

Computer science major Ben Guerrieri 26 discovered Salgians project shortly after arriving at TCNJ and is now working alongside her in this AI research.

Its such a hands-on thing for me to do, he said of his contribution to the project, which consists of researching and developing the translator algorithms. We get to incrementally develop algorithms that have super fascinating real-time results.

This project is part of Salgians on-going interest and research into visual gesture recognition that also includes applications to musical conducting and exercising.

ASL is a fascinating application, especially looking at the accessibility aspect of it, Salgian said. To make communication possible for those who dont speak ASL but would love to understand would mean so much, Salgian said.

Kaitlyn Bonomo 23

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Computer science research team explores how machine learning ... - The College of New Jersey News

From machine learning to robotics: WEF report predicts the most lucrative AI jobs – The Indian Express

Its happening already. Following Dropboxs move to lay off 500 employees as it shifts its focus to AI, IBM now plans to replace 7,800 jobs with AI technology and pause hiring for roles that could be automated. Company CEO Arvind Krishna stated that most back-office positions, such as HR and accounting, will be replaced.

Layoffs due to AI were inevitable, but amid lingering job losses, new jobs are also being created. A report by the World Economic Forum states that demand for AI and machine learning specialists will grow at the fastest rate in the next five years. The organisation has also listed a number of AI jobs that are expected to see massive growth in the coming years. Lets take a look at them.

AI and machine learning specialists: These are professionals who design, develop, and implement AI and ML systems and applications. They use various tools and techniques to analyse data, build models, and optimise algorithms. The demand for AI and machine learning specialists will grow at the fastest rate in the next five years, the WEF report says.

Big data specialists: They specialise in managing, analysing and interpreting large and complex data sets. They use cutting-edge technologies to organise, store, and retrieve vast amounts of information, turning it into valuable insights that can drive business decisions. They work with a variety of industries such as healthcare, finance, and technology, to help them understand and leverage the power of data.

Data engineers: They are responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the data infrastructure that supports an organisations data management and analytics needs. They develop and manage data pipelines, work with large datasets, and ensure that data is available and accessible to those who need it. They also work with other data professionals to design and implement data architectures that meet the needs of the organisation.

Data analysts and scientists: These are experts who collect, process, and interpret large and complex datasets to generate insights and solutions for various problems and domains. They use statistical methods, programming languages, and visualisation tools to manipulate and communicate data. Data analysts and scientists are expected to see a 32% growth in demand by 2023.

Apart from the aforementioned jobs listed by the World Economic Forum, heres a list of other jobs AI is expected to create in the near future.

AI trainers: They are responsible for teaching machines to learn from data effectively. They also help to ensure that the AI models accurately interpret the data, providing businesses with valuable insights that can drive informed decisions.

AI ethicists: They use their expertise to ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed responsibly. They also identify potential ethical concerns related to privacy, fairness, and transparency, and work to address them through policy and guidelines.

AI user experience designers: They create interfaces and experiences that are intuitive and user-friendly for AI-driven products and services. They also work to ensure that users can easily interact with AI systems, making their experiences more enjoyable and productive.

AI security analysts: They focus on ensuring the safety and integrity of AI-driven solutions. They also identify potential threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks that could compromise AI systems and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Robotics engineers: They design, build, and program autonomous machines that can perform a wide range of tasks, from assembly line work to surgical procedures. By incorporating AI capabilities such as computer vision and natural language processing, they create intelligent machines that can work alongside humans in new and exciting ways.

Of course, these are just a few examples of the new jobs that AI is expected to create. As AI continues to evolve and become more integrated into various industries, its likely that even more new job opportunities will emerge.

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First published on: 03-05-2023 at 19:39 IST

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From machine learning to robotics: WEF report predicts the most lucrative AI jobs - The Indian Express

A machine learning method for the identification and … – Nature.com

GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 web tool

We start by providing a high level overview about the capabilities of the GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 web tool. The web application initially allows the user to browse through a ranked list of potential targets generated using six bulk RNA-Seq and three single cell RNA-Seq datasets applied to a lung specific proteinprotein interaction (PPI) network reconstruction. Our website is also equipped with several filtering options to allow the user to quickly obtain the most relevant results. The candidate targets were ranked using a machine learning algorithm, GuiltyTargets19, which aims to quantify the degree of similarity of a candidate target to other known (candidate) drug targets. Further details about GuiltyTargets are outlined in the Methods section of this paper.

The user can retrieve a consensus ranking of any combination of datasets desired (Fig. 1). For each protein listed, its level of differential gene expression (upregulated, downregulated, no differential expressed) is displayed using a color coding system in addition to its association with COVID-19 as described in the literature. This latter feature is accomplished using an automated web search of scientific articles from PubMed that mention the protein in combination with COVID-19.

Though we provide nine different RNA-Seq datasets to explore, our tool also allows one to upload their own gene expression data. Uploaded data is sent through the GuiltyTargets algorithm and, after a short period of time, a ranking of candidate proteins is made available to the user to download and explore.

To further elucidate their linkage to known disease mechanisms, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 enables one to explore the neighborhood of any given candidate target within the lung tissue specific PPI network reconstruction (Fig. 2). The network is labeled with information about known disease associations in humans in addition to virus-host interactions.

Importantly, in order to present the user with a list of possible drug candidates for a given protein, we parsed the ChEMBL database to generate a mapping of known ligands for each of the prioritized proteins and included this information in our web application. Direct links to the ligands description pages were added to GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 so that researchers can quickly explore the each compounds profile.

To point out potential target related safety issues, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 includes a list of adverse effects for each target-linked compound, all of which were derived from the NSIDES database20. By making this information readily available, the user can quickly decide which compounds for a given target are most viable.

Altogether, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 implements a comprehensive workflow involving computational target prioritization supplemented with annotations from several key databases.

Screenshot of the GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 web application available at https://guiltytargets-covid.eu/.

In the following sections, we demonstrate the utility of GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 based on the analysis of 6 bulk RNA-Seq and 3 single cell RNA-Seq datasets. A detailed overview of the data and workflow can be found in the Differential gene expression section of the Methods. In brief, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 maps differentially expressed genes in each of these datasets to a lung tissue specific, genome-wide PPI network, which was constructed using data from BioGRID21, IntAct22 and STRING23 (see PPI Network Construction in Methods). Users can choose a combination of these datasets and the tool will present a ranking of each protein for each selected dataset based on its similarity to known drug targets. Additionally, a consensus ranking is also calculated if multiple datasets were selected.

For our analysis, we initially performed a ranking for each individual dataset. This ranking was performed using the GuiltyTargets positive-unlabeled machine learning algorithm19, which combines a PPI network, a differential gene expression (DGE) dataset, and a list of included nodes that are labeled as putative targets. Based on these results, GuiltyTargets then quantifies the probability that a candidate protein could be labeled as a target as well. In order to create a usable model, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 was trained using a set of 218 proteins targeted by small compounds extracted from ChEMBL. This set of proteins was previously found to be involved in cellular response mechanisms specific to COVID-19 that have been shown to be transcriptionally dysregulated in several bulk RNA-Seq datasets15. The set of 218 proteins may thus be regarded as an extendable set of candidate targets. We chose this approach as there are currently very few approved drugs for COVID-19 (7 as of December 2022 in the European Union), hence making a machine learning model based ranking with respect to only known targets of approved drugs rather questionable.

In order to maximize transparency, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 also reports the ranking performance of the GuiltyTargets machine learning algorithm that is calculated using the cross-validated area under receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC). As show in Fig. 6, the cross-validated AUCs found for each of the nine datasets used in this work were found to be between 85% and 90%, which align with the results reported in19. Additional details regarding the algorithms performance can be found in the Methods Section.

First degree neighbors of the (a) AKT3 and (b) PIK3CA proteins. Nodes are colored according to their associations: light orange means no virus or human association was found, dark orange indicates only human association, purple signifies viral association, and and dark blue nodes are proteins with associations to both viral mechanisms and human processes. The neighboring proteins and their associations for AKT3 and PIK3CA are outlined in Supplementary Data S1 and S2, respectively.

For our use case, we focused on proteins with a predicted target likelihood higher than 85% in each of the nine datasets. This resulted in 5167 candidate targets for each of the bulk RNA-Seq datasets and 4565 candidate targets for each of the scRNA-Seq datasets. By enabling the filter option novel in our web tool, we can select for those prioritized targets that are not among the original set of 218 proteins labeled as known targets and used for training the model.

Among these prioritized targets, there was a considerable difference between the analyzed bulk RNA-Seq data, with only a single protein target appearing among the top candidates for all 6 datasets: AKT3 (Fig. 3). AKT3 is of great interest in COVID-19 research as the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway plays a central role in cell survival. Moreover, researchers have observed an association between this pathway and coagulopathies in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients24. It has been suggested that the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway can be over-activated in COVID-19 patients either by direct or indirect mechanisms, thus suggesting this pathway may serve as a potential therapeutic target25.

To better understand the relationship of AKT3 with known COVID-19 disease mechanisms, the user can also download a CSV file comprised of the direct (first-degree) neighbors of AKT3 in the lung tissue specific PPI network used for our analysis. Each first-degree neighbor is additionally annotated to indicate whether the corresponding protein is associated with either the disease or with the virus itself. Figure 2a provides a visualization of the AKT3 neighbor network generated using Cytoscape 3.9.126.

Interestingly, a larger number of shared prioritized protein targets can be found among the scRNA-Seq data. Based on the 17 cell types identified in the three datasets, four common target candidates were identified: AKT2, AKT3, MAPK11, and MLKL. The presence of AKT3, as well as its isoform AKT2, in our list of prioritized targets supports the predicted association of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway with COVID-19 as observed in our analysis of the bulk RNA datasets. Interestingly, our analysis of the single-cell datasets revealed two additional proteins of interest, MAPK11 and MLKL. MAPK11 is targeted by the compound losmapimod, which was tested against COVID-19 in a (terminated) phase III clinical trial (NCT04511819). The trial ended in August 2021 due to the rapidly evolving environment for the treatment of Covid-19 and ongoing challenges to identify and enroll qualified patients to participate (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04511819). MLKL is a pseudokinase that plays a key role in TNF-induced necroptosis, a programmed cell death process. Recent evidence suggests that it can become dysregulated by the inflammatory response due to SARS-CoV-2 infection27. According to the DGldb database28 (which is cross-referenced by GuiltyTargets-COVID-19), the protein is also druggable and thus may serve as a therapeutic target.

Overall, these results demonstrate that GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 has the capability of identifying candidate targets with a clear disease association as well as assessing their potential druggability.

Venn diagram of the number of prioritized targets from the bulk RNA-Seq datasets.

After analyzing the top ranked protein targets shared by each group of RNA-Seq data, we next sought to characterize those candidates found in unique cell types (Table 1). Interestingly, we found that PIK3CA was only ranked among the top therapeutic candidates in goblet cells. Goblet cells are modified epithelial cells that secrete mucus on the surface of mucous membranes of organs, particularly those of the lower digestive tract and airways. Dactolisib is a compound targeting PIK3CA that has been tested in a phase II clinical trial for its ability to reduce COVID-19 disease severity (NCT04409327). The trial was terminated due to an insufficient accrual rate (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04409327). Figure 2b depicts the PIK3CA protein and its first-degree neighbors as defined by the PPI network used in the GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 algorithm.

Another interesting drug we identified during our analysis is the compound varespladib, a compound that is currently being tested in a phase II clinical trial (NCT04969991) and which targets PLA2G2A, a potential protein target that primarily affects NKT cells (Table 1). To better support the user in finding more information about the disease context of such candidate targets, GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 also includes links to PubMed articles in which the protein and its roles in COVID-19 are discussed. Identification of relevant articles is discussed in the the Methods section.

Altogether, these results demonstrate that the tool presented here can be used for cell type specific target prioritization as well as aiding in characterizing the proteins in the context of COVID-19.

GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 also includes a feature for identifying small compound ligands from the ChEMBL database with reported activity (pChEMBL > 5) against candidate targets. In our use case, we were able to identify 186 ligands for AKT3, the top prioritized target across bulk RNA-Seq datasets. Furthermore, 126 ligands were mapped to the four candidate targets that were found among all single cell RNA-Seq datasets. A complete report of the number of ligands mapped to protein targets unique for a given cell type can be found in Table 2. We observed a high imbalance of mapped ligands for different cell types with secretory cells being targeted by the vast majority of compounds.

In total, these results demonstrate the ability of GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 to efficiently identify active ligands against candidate targets, thus supporting researchers in rapidly identifying potential new drugs for therapeutic intervention or repurposing.

An important factor that must be taken into consideration with new target candidates are the adverse events which are associated with the drugs targeting these proteins. To better assess the suggested therapeutics, we mapped significant adverse effects from the NSIDES database (http://tatonettilab.org/offsides) to the extracted ChEMBL compounds. Hence, each protein can be visualized in tandem with the ligands that target it, as well as any side effects found to be associated with the linked compounds. To showcase this feature, Fig. 4 depicts the AKT3 protein as well as its associated ligands and their side effects as shown in the GuiltyTargets-COVID-19 web application.

Screenshot of part of the adverse effect network for the AKT3 protein.

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How Capital One is democratizing machine learning to curb fraud – Banking Dive

Credit providers have grappled with fraudsters since long before mobile banking. In a modern landscape, financial services businesses dedicate ample resources to thwart fraud attempts.

As fraudulent actors get smarter, machine learning can help companies stay one step ahead. But first, organizations need access to those tools.

Capital One is democratizing access to ML tools, encouraging workers to contribute to a common shared ecosystem to provide practitioners with easy access to ML and spur innovation. In the process, Capital One found opportunities for cross-unit collaboration and improved how the company detects fraud.

"The future is here," said Zach Hanif, vice president and head of enterprise machine learning models and platforms at Capital One. "But, historically, it hasn't always been distributed evenly."

ML tools keep humans focused on the tasks that require their attention, prioritizing resources through technology. Artificial intelligence capabilities are finding a role in financial services in particular.

Four in five companies in the sector have up to five AI use cases at work in their organization, according to an NVIDIA reportpublished in February. Nearly one-quarter are using AI to help detect fraud.

Hanif's team worked alongside the card fraud division to build homegrown and open-source ML algorithms and technologies. With ML tools, the company can quickly determine whether a transaction is benign or if it needs further investigation because of potential fraud.

"We were able to get these teams on the same stack and focused on collaboration, which made sure that we were able to bring down some silos," Hanif said. "We were able to prioritize the development of reusable components so when one team would build a component of their pipeline, other teams were able to immediately begin leveraging it and save themselves the time of that initial development."

Machine learning gives the company a way to quickly determine whether something needs to be investigated, Hanifsaid.

Picking a technology and spreading it throughout the organization isn't a turnkey task.

There are several barriers to easing access to ML throughout any organization, according to Arun Chandrasekaran, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner.

The top barriers are security and privacy concerns and the black-box nature of AI systems, as well as the absence of internal AI know-how, AI governance tools and self-service AI and data platforms, Chandrasekaran told CIO Dive in an email.

Despite the advancement of AI tools in the enterprise, activities associated with data and analytics including preparation, transformation, pattern identification, model development and sharing insights with others are still done manually at many organizations.

"Demands for more data-driven and analytics-enabled decision making, and the friction and technical hurdles of this workflow, limit widespread user adoption and achieving better business outcomes," Chandrasekaran said.

But changing how companies operate is a human problem as much as it is a technical one. Cultural factors can determine whether or not a company succeeds at democratizing the use of a technology tool such as ML.

"To be able to drive change across a large organization, you're trying to make a cultural alteration," Hanif said.

Leaders need to encourage employees to imagine what they can do with specific tools, he said. With that mindset, fear of change falls away and employees begin to think about how a new technology can be contextualized within the existing problem space.

"Standardizing a platform allows everyone to have a common operating environment and runbook," Hanif said. "That way, they can start and engage in that process in a standard, well-understood way. That makes so many different things inside of the organization go smoother, go faster, and reduce the overall risk."

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How Capital One is democratizing machine learning to curb fraud - Banking Dive

Machine Learning And NFT Investment: Predicting NFT Value And … – Blockchain Magazine

May 3, 2023 by Diana Ambolis

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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded in popularity over the past year, with many investors seeking to capitalize on this emerging market. However, with NFT values often fluctuating rapidly, it can be difficult for investors to know when to buy or sell. Machine learning offers a potential solution to this problem, providing investors with insights and

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded in popularity over the past year, with many investors seeking to capitalize on this emerging market. However, with NFT values often fluctuating rapidly, it can be difficult for investors to know when to buy or sell. Machine learning offers a potential solution to this problem, providing investors with insights and predictive models that can help inform investment decisions and maximize returns.

Machine learning algorithms can be trained to analyze a range of data points and variables that are relevant to NFT value. This could include factors such as the artists reputation, the rarity of the NFT, the size of the NFT market, and even social media sentiment around a particular NFT. By analyzing this data, machine learning algorithms can identify patterns and correlations that can be used to predict the future value of a given NFT.

Determining the true value of an NFT can be challenging, with many factors to consider, including the artists reputation, the rarity of the NFT, and social media sentiment around a particular NFT. Machine learning offers a potential solution to this problem, providing investors with insights and predictive models that can help determine the value of NFTs. In this article, well explore the top 10 benefits of using machine learning to determine NFT value.

Machine learning offers a range of benefits for investors seeking to determine NFT value. By providing accurate predictions, improving efficiency, and reducing bias, machine learning can help investors make more informed decisions about NFT investments. As the NFT market continues to evolve, it is likely that machine learning will become an increasingly important tool for investors seeking to capitalize on this emerging market.

Also, read The Top 5 Best NFT Products So Far: A Closer Look

One of the key benefits of using machine learning for NFT investment is that it can help investors make more informed decisions about which NFTs to buy or sell. By providing insights and predictions about future value, machine learning algorithms can help investors identify undervalued NFTs that have strong potential for growth, as well as overvalued NFTs that may be at risk of declining in value.

Another benefit of using machine learning for NFT investment is that it can help investors manage risk. By providing predictive models and insights, machine learning algorithms can help investors understand the potential risks and rewards associated with a given NFT investment, allowing them to make more informed decisions about how to allocate their resources.

There are also potential drawbacks to using machine learning for NFT investment. For example, the accuracy of predictive models can be influenced by a range of factors, including the quality and quantity of data used to train the algorithm. In addition, the NFT market is still relatively new and untested, making it difficult to predict how the market will behave over time.

Despite these potential drawbacks, many investors are turning to machine learning as a way to inform their NFT investment decisions. As the NFT market continues to grow and evolve, machine learning is likely to become an increasingly important tool for investors seeking to capitalize on this emerging market.

Machine learning has the potential to revolutionize the world of NFT investment, providing investors with new insights and predictive models that can inform investment decisions and maximize returns. By analyzing a range of data points and variables, machine learning algorithms can identify patterns and correlations that can be used to predict NFT value and manage risk. While there are potential drawbacks to using machine learning in this context, the benefits are significant, and it is likely that this technology will become an increasingly important tool for investors seeking to capitalize on the emerging NFT market.

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Machine Learning And NFT Investment: Predicting NFT Value And ... - Blockchain Magazine

How the GPT Machine Learning Model Advances Generative AI – Acceleration Economy

In episode 105 of the AI/Hyperautomation Minute, Toni Witt provides clarity behind generative AI, its underlying technology the GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) machine learning model and how its evolving.

This episode is sponsored by Acceleration Economys Generative AI Digital Summit, taking place on May 25. Registration for the event, which features practitioner and platform insights on how solutions such as ChatGPT will impact the future of work, customer experience, data strategy, cybersecurity, and more, is free. To reserve your spot, sign up today.

00:26 While there are many conversations about generative AI, those outside of the tech field may still have a misunderstanding of the underlying technology and how its evolving.

01:03 Toni clarifies that ChatGPT is an web-based tool that gives access to GPT-3, which is the underlying machine learning model. GPT-3 is a word predictor. Its a form of deep learning with capabilities that are essentially a subset of what machine learning and AI can do.

01:37 Machine learning started with prediction and classification. Most AI applications that give returns to companies are these classification or predictor models, Toni explains. The Netflix recommender algorithm is an example of this, as it uses data from previous movies and shows that youve liked in the past to recommend what to watch next.

02:12 GPT-3 is a transformer model. Theres a pretty big debate going on whether these transformer models are going to be the ones that reach what you might call AGI, or artificial general intelligence, that basically matches the intelligence level of a human, Toni says.

02:57 Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, pointed out a trend that there will be base-level models. The GPT series is already an indication that models will help train other models. Think of it like a tech stack, says Toni.

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The AI Revolution is Upon UsAnd UC San Diego Researchers Are … – University of California San Diego

We want to have the results within a week, so that we can really accelerate decision-making for climate scientists, said Yu, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering and the Halcolu Data Science Institute.

Ambitious? Yes. But thats where artificial intelligence comes in. Thanks to a $3.6 million grant awarded in 2021 by the Department of Energy, Yu and two UC San Diego colleagues, Yian Ma and Lawrence Saul, have teamed up with researchers at Columbia University and UC Irvine to develop new machine learning methods that can speed up these climate models, better predict the future, and improve our understanding of climate extremes.

This work comes at a crucial time, as it becomes increasingly important that we develop an accurate understanding of how climate change is impacting our Earth, our communities and our daily livesand how to use that newfound knowledge to inform climate action. To date, the team has published more than 20 papers in both machine learning and climate science-related journals as they continue to push the boundaries of science and engineering on this highly consequential front.

To increase the accuracy of predictionsand quantify their inherent uncertaintythe team is working on customizing algorithms to embed physical laws and first principles into deep learning models, a form of machine learning that essentially imitates the function of the human brain. Its no small task, but its given them the opportunity to collaborate closely with climate scientists who are putting these machine learning methods into practical algorithms in climate modeling.

Because of this grant, we have established new connections and new collaborations to expand the impact of AI methods to climate science, said Yu. We started working on algorithms and models with the application of climate in mind, and now we can really work closely with climate scientists to validate our models.

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The AI Revolution is Upon UsAnd UC San Diego Researchers Are ... - University of California San Diego

10 Best Ways to Earn Money Through Machine Learning in 2023 – Analytics Insight

10 best ways to earn money through machine learning in 2023 are enlisted in this article

10 best ways to earn money through machine learning in 2023 take advantage of the early lifespan and its adoption may then leverage this into other apps.

Land Gigs with FlexJobs: FlexJobs is one of the top freelance websites for finding high-quality employment from actual businesses. Whether you are a machine learning novice or a specialist, you may begin communicating with clients to monetize your skills by working on freelancing projects.

Become a Freelancer or List your Company to Hire a Team on Toptal: Toptal is similar to FlexJobs in that it is reserved for top freelancers and top firms wanting to recruit freelance machine learning programmers. This is evident in the hourly pricing given on the site as well as the caliber of the programmers.

Develop a Simple AI App: Creating an app is another excellent approach to generating money using machine learning. You may design a subscription app in which users can pay to access certain premium features. Subscription applications are expected to earn at least 50% more money than other apps with various sorts of in-app sales.

Become an ML Educational Content Creator: You can make money with machine learning online right now if you start teaching people about machine learning and its benefits. To publish and sell your course, use online platforms that provide teaching platforms, such as Udemy and Coursera.

Create and Publish an Online ML Book: You may create a book to provide extraordinary insights on the power of 3D printing, robots, AI, synthetic biology, networks, and sensors. Online book publication is now feasible because of systems such as Kindle Direct Publication, which provides a free publishing service.

Sell Artificial Intelligence Devices: Another profitable enterprise to consider is selling GPS gadgets to automobile owners. GPS navigation services can aid with traffic forecasting. As a result, it can assist car users in saving money if they choose a different route to work. Based on everyday experiences, you may estimate the places likely to be congested with access to the current traffic condition.

Generate Vast Artificial Intelligence Data for Cash: Because machine learning can aid in the generation of massive amounts of data, you can benefit from providing AI solutions to various businesses. AI systems function similarly to humans and have a wide range of auditory and visual experiences. An AI system may learn new things and be motivated by dynamic data and movies.

Create a Product or a Service: AI chatbots are goldmines and a great method to generate money with machine learning. Creating chatbot frameworks for mobile phones in the back endand machine learning engines in the front end is an excellent way to make money quickly. Making services like sentiment analysis or Google Vision where the firm or user may pay after making numerous queries per month is another excellent approach to gaining money using ML.

Participate in ML Challenges: You may earn money using machine learning by participating in and winning ML contests, in addition to teaching it. If you are a guru or have amassed a wealth of knowledge on this subject, you may compete against other real-world machine-learning specialists in tournaments.

Create and License a Machine Learning Tech: If you can develop an AI technology and license it, you can generate money by selling your rights to someone else. As the licensor, you must sign a contract allowing another party, the licensee, to use, re-use, alter, or re-sell it for cash, compensation, or consideration.

Excerpt from:
10 Best Ways to Earn Money Through Machine Learning in 2023 - Analytics Insight

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Machine learning and statistical classification of birdsong link vocal ... - Nature.com

Editorial: When is free speech not free on college campuses? – TribLIVE

Freedom of speech is a frustrating thing to embrace.

I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, said biographer Evelyn Beatrice Hall of Voltaire, paraphrasing his work.

Voltaire may have been a French philosopher, but that do-or-die attitude toward free speech is one that is frequently ascribed to patriots and Founding Fathers.

Unfortunately, when it comes to real-life free speech, people are much more concerned with their rights and can be dismissive of their neighbors freedoms.

Thats how we get book bans and pushes for eliminating a class or a play in our public schools something that is being seen right now from those on the conservative side.

But it is definitely not an exclusively right-wing behavior. If you want to see it play out on the left, look to universities.

A Change.org petition signed by more than 11,000 people asked the University of Pittsburgh be held accountable in protecting LGBTQ individuals. A university should be responsible for keeping its students, staff, faculty and visitors safe from abuse and unfairness.

At issue, however, was a slate of speakers this spring. The petition called the three events a platform of hate and transphobia. Two appearances by Riley Gaines and Cabot Phillips were sponsored by the Pitt chapter of the conservative student group Turning Point USA. The universitys College Republicans and the International Studies Institute coordinated a debate with Daily Wire host Michael Knowles.

The issue of gender identity and expression is loaded and volatile. The speakers in question were going to provoke opposition. But does that mean they shouldnt speak?

The Knowles event Tuesday prompted what the university described as a public safety emergency. There was an incendiary device. A dummy with Knowles face was burned in the street. This is no way to counter an argument.

College students are often adamant about free thinking and open minds. They need to realize an exchange of ideas has to involve everyone having a chance to speak even if you dont agree.

For one thing, minds are never changed by a refusal to communicate. Second, if you dont want to hear a speaker, thats a reason for you not to attend the speech. It doesnt mean you get to prevent other people from hearing it. Thats always the point made with book bans. Dont like it? Dont read it.

But stopping a message should not degenerate to violence.

Penn State had that happen in October when an event with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes was canceled at the last minute. Things turned ugly quickly.

Penn State has now canceled two April events by controversial speakers self-titled troll Alex Stein and cultural critic James Lindsay. Both were done very differently this time. They werent disrupted by protesters but by scheduling conflicts over venues and dates. And thats how it should be.

The best way to show that a speaker doesnt represent the students as many protesters have said is for the students to decide for themselves. Thats free speech.

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Editorial: When is free speech not free on college campuses? - TribLIVE

‘Shawshank Redemption’ star Tim Robbins rips ‘lack of freedom of assembly,’ speech that COVID mandates brought – Fox News

"The Shawshank Redemption" actor Tim Robbins held nothing back in a searing take down of government leaders that promoted COVID-19 lockdown policies in a recent interview.

The movie star claimed those who foisted the mandates upon citizens over the past three and a half years have contributed to a "lack of freedom of movement, lack of freedom of assembly," and a "lack of freedom of speech" in America.

Robbins also lamented that Americans seem to have just forgotten that their freedoms were curtailed, adding that if people dont recall what the politicians did, "were gonna repeat it again. Itll happen again."

ACTOR TIM ROBBINS BACKS WOODY HARRELSON ON ENDING COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: TIME TO END THIS CHARADE

Tim Robbins attends the "Dark Waters" premiere at Walter Reade Theater in New York City on Nov. 12, 2019. (John Lamparski/WireImage)

Robbins made the comments while talking to Hollywood outlet Variety about his new Apple TV+ show, "Silo." The series is about a post-apocalyptic world with people living underground in silos.

According to the outlet, Robbins plays a silo leader who crushes any dissent or protest with swift violence.

The actor told Variety that some of the oppressive subject matter in the show was inspired by real-world events, namely the government crackdown over COVID-19. He began by stating, "Ive always been curious about what goes on in leaders heads when they have to do something that is morally compromising for what they consider the greater good."

Robbins added, "I always look at that as a terrible no-win situation. And I often wonder if those measures that they take, that are immoral, are necessary."

The heavy thoughts prompted the outlet to ask if he was thinking about anything specific. He responded, saying, "Im talking about politicians that compromise themselves and make decisions that they believe are for the good of people, but those decisions involve censorship or lying or deception of some kind that leads to people getting hurt."

As Robbins continued, he became less cryptic: "And I wanted to play that guy, I want to deal with that moral complexity in trying to understand where the human being is. I think weve been through three and a half years of extraordinary and questionable choices made by people that are supposed to be leading their countries."

MEDIA SCOLDED, LAMPOONED FOR DISMISSING NOW-LIKELY COVID LAB LEAK THEORY AS MISINFORMATION

Security enforces a lockdown at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Aug. 4, 2022. Police in Minnesota confirm that gunshots were fired at the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, but say no victim has been found. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)

The interviewer then asked if Robbins was referring to pandemic lockdowns. He affirmed so, saying, "Yeah, Im talking about that. Im talking about a whole bunch of stuff, lack of freedom of movement, lack of freedom of assembly, lack of freedom of speech. You want to keep going?"

The actor did keep going, underscoring what he believes to be the significant chilling effect of COVID mandates on American freedom and rebuking people for trying to move on from it like it's not big deal.

Robbins said, "I mean, you know, something just happened, and I think theres a tendency where people just want to move on and think, Well, you know, it happened and lets just move on. I think thats really unwise. We have to deal with what happened in a deep and profound way, its traumatic for many people."

"And just ignoring it, as we know with trauma, does not solve a problem," he cautioned, adding, "In fact, it makes it worse. And so until we have the guts to look at what really happened and we question and maybe even hold people accountable for irresponsible leadership, if we dont do that, were gonna repeat it again. Itll happen again."

Robbins mentioned his own theater in Hollywood and voiced his concerns over losing the right to assemble there. He claimed, "I run a theater in Los Angeles it is something that has always existed. Even in the worst, oppressive societies, theres been assembly allowed. Sometimes those assemblies are monitored and so its not safe."

He added, "But supposedly, in a free society, one should be able to collectively gather with others."

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Robbins then noted the importance of such a right, stating, "The reason why thats important to collectively gather with others is that becomes a forum. You dont know that everyone in the same room as you agrees with you. So, therefore, its an essential part of living with other human beings. You have to work through differences."

"And instead we were separated and became more and more distanced from each other, and more and more angry with each other," he declared.

A man adjusts his American flag face mask on a street in Hollywood, California, on July 19, 2021. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

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'Shawshank Redemption' star Tim Robbins rips 'lack of freedom of assembly,' speech that COVID mandates brought - Fox News

Free speech protections are under threat in Texas Legislature – The Dallas Morning News

The free speech of all Americans is protected by the First Amendment. But anyone who has ever spoken up against the powerful knows that freedom of speech isnt as simple as that.

There is more than one way to silence people, and dragging them into costly lawsuits has long been a tried and true method.

In 2011, Texas passed a robust law known as the Texas Citizens Participation Act that provided protections against what are known as SLAPP suits strategic lawsuits against public participation. Such lawsuits quash speech by making it too risky to speak up for fear of being sued.

The TCPA gives parties in lawsuits the opportunity to get an automatic stay of costly discovery and other legal proceedings while an appellate court reviews the matter.

Unfortunately, the state Senate has embraced an overreaching bill that is supposedly aimed at curing abuses to the TCPA.

While there are genuine concerns that the act has been used to stay proceedings in meritorious suits, it is far from clear that such cases are common enough to warrant a major revision of the act that could gut critical public protections.

The bill in question would diminish the TCPA by removing the automatic stay of proceedings under three conditions: If a motion under the act was denied because it was not filed in a timely way, was frivolous or was denied under existing exemptions to the act.

Those amendments might seem innocuous. But they are open to broad interpretation and could be misinterpreted or misunderstood by a trial court, leading to legal costs that would chill free speech.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, will chair a hearing in the state House Wednesday morning on this bill. Leach has offered us assurances that the bill will not pass the House in its current form and that he will not accept a bill that impedes the TCPAs protections.

The bill debate has ignited a good conversation around this important issue and Im hopeful we can reach a workable compromise building on our success in 2019 on the major TCPA amendments, Leach wrote to us.

That was encouraging, but a substitute bill Leach is proposing does not appear to resolve serious concerns. Leachs proposal attempts to strike a middle ground by creating a 45-day stay on legal action once a trial court rules on a TCPA motion. But that will only add pressure on appellate courts that already struggle to rule quickly on these matters.

Leach said the substitute was laid out to set up discussion at Wednesdays hearing and is unlikely to be the version that passes.

Make no mistake: We will aggressively protect the First Amendment protections ensured by our anti-SLAPP laws, he said.

Time will tell. The trouble is that even a well-intended amendment could lead to a huge setback for speech. This law is under persistent pressure from powerful interests that want to see it rolled back. Each legislative cycle seems to bring another threat to the laws core.

If that continues to happen, all Texans will become less free to say what they think.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here.

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Free speech protections are under threat in Texas Legislature - The Dallas Morning News

How do you handle free speech issues in higher education, popular … – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Lena Shapiro is a clinical assistant professor of law and the inaugural director of the College of Laws First Amendment Clinic, supported by The Stanton Foundation. Shapiro, an expert in free speech issues, spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the current state of the First Amendment in higher education and popular discourse.

Theres an increasing trend on college campuses of students shouting down speakers they disagree with. How would you characterize the current state of the First Amendment in higher education?

Theres an ongoing battle between those who say they want to advance freedom of speech for everyone versus those who want to drown out voices that they dont agree with. The latter group wants to have it both ways: freedom of speech only for their opinions as well as those whose opinions are the same as theirs.

In other words, freedom of speech for me, but not for thee.

What that does is lower the level of discourse that all people have, which is harmful on a college campus because were supposed to be teaching students how to enhance their debate skills and analytic abilities. And when you say, essentially, I dont want this person here because theyre harmful, I find them offensive or They demean the rights of a number of groups of people you can certainly express those views, but that doesnt mean you can take it a step further, as many want to, and remove that speaker from campus. You cant unilaterally deprive others of that speech. Thats the hecklers veto.

If you are diametrically opposed to what this speaker stands for or has to say, you show up and counter protest. You hold another event, or you sit in the room and challenge the speaker with questions real, substantive questions that you want to debate on.

What you dont want are ad hominem attacks or protests that prevent speech from occurring entirely, which is antithetical to the free exchange of ideas.

What is the danger of the hecklers veto?

The danger is you dont actually change anyone elses mind. And having not changed their mind, you dont change their behavior. Youre also not minimizing the injustice that you believe results from that speakers speech and/or actions and the speaker who you think was perpetuating that injustice just goes on about their day.

Many students, like those at Stanford Law School who showed up to protest Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, want to speak out and advocate on behalf of issues that are deeply personal to millions of Americans. But by exercising the hecklers veto, those individuals didnt actually change any opinions on those issues, certainly not Judge Duncans.

Some believe if they yell loud enough, and if they scare off enough speakers, then it will just rid the world of the injustices that go on. But thats just not how the world works, right? If you want to change hearts and minds, you have to convince them.

The First Amendment is unique in that it allows misinformation and outright lies to flourish under the guise of the free exchange of ideas. Should the government continue to protect the speech of liars, even though they can inflict damage on society?

We saw that issue play out in the various defamation lawsuits against Fox News. And Fox News paid a big price for the misinformation they aired regarding Dominion Voting Systems, so the system does have checks in place to protect against misinformation. Generally, the news media is granted a wide berth to report on issues as they see fit.

If you start to set stricter standards and start to go after what you perceive to be a lie or misinformation on, say, a social media site, youre first going to have define what a lie is. But as we can see from todays environment, nobody can agree on anything so being able to properly define what a lie is will be challenging.

This is why we have the First Amendment. When people see things they perceive as lies, they are allowed to respond accordingly. I noticed a difference in news coverage late in the Trump administration when reporters on broadcasts across a number of different news outlets would report something that President Trump said and then explain why it wasnt true. Thats the way to deal with lies, misinformation and half-truths. If you think somebody is perpetuating an untruth, then bring your evidence forward. It makes us a better and a smarter society to do it that way.

So I dont think we can regulate what we deem or what someone else deems a lie, aside from some rare exceptions. Its just not realistic, and, ultimately, it harms the First Amendment protections that we have in the U.S.

I know people get upset and have a visceral reaction about various issues in the news. But I just dont know that such reactions change hearts and minds.

Its probably better to focus more on why a certain issue or story isnt true, as opposed to accusing the other side of stupidity, mendacity or malice. I am an advocate for always having more speech. Its why we have free speech in the first place.

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How do you handle free speech issues in higher education, popular ... - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Florida House approves bill that would change rules around campus … – WUFT

TALLAHASSEE The Florida House on Wednesday passed a measure that would put new requirements on universities related to debates and other campus forums, with supporters saying it would bolster free speech but critics arguing it could have unintended consequences.

The Republican-controlled House voted 82-34 along near-party lines to approve the bill (HB 931), which still needs to pass the Senate before it could go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The proposal (HB 931) also would prevent state colleges and universities from requiring students and staff to complete political loyalty tests as a condition of admission or employment.

Under the bill, each university would be required to establish an Office of Public Policy Events, which would be responsible for organizing, publicizing and staging at least four debates or forums per year.

Such debates and group forums must include speakers who represent widely held views on opposing sides of the most widely discussed public policy issues of the day and who hold a wide diversity of perspectives from within and outside of the state university community, the bill says.

But several House Democrats criticized the bill for not defining widely held views. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, argued that leaving the issue open to interpretation could benefit some groups over others.

I think its hard to dictate what is a widely held view. That often can take the shape of who is in political power at that time, who is the biggest donor to a university, whos the biggest donor to the governor. I just am very concerned that we actually are not creating an environment with freedom of speech, because some speech will be preferred over others, Eskamani said.

Supporters of the bill, however, argued that it would help protect campus free speech. Rep. Doug Bankson, R-Apopka, called higher-education institutions a crucible of free thought.

It is our foundational right to have freedom of speech. This great bill protects those things. It makes sure that all voices can be heard. Because truth has its own legs, it can stand on its own when its given the chance to be heard, Bankson said.

Rep. Rita Harris, D-Orlando, contended that not all arguments deserve equal airtime.

Im sorry but Nazism, there is no pro (side), there is no flip-side to the coin, Harris said.

Bill sponsor Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers Republican, pushed back on Harris argument.

I would argue that Nazism is not a widely held idea. But let me ask you this if a speaker came onto campus advocating that we should reinstitute slavery; that we should exterminate the Jewish population, I would say this, So what? And I will quote our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, when he said, The best way to expose a fool is to allow him to rent out a hall and put forth his ideas to his fellow citizens, Roach said.

The measure also would require that, if a schools Office of Public Policy Events cant readily find an advocate from within the state university community who is well-versed in a perspective, the office would invite a speaker and provide a per-diem and a reimbursement for travel expenses.

Democrats also questioned why the measure did not include a cap on how much money could be provided to invited speakers.

The part of the bill that seeks to prohibit political loyalty tests defines such tests as compelling, requiring, or soliciting a person to identify commitment to or to make a statement of personal belief in support of things such as a specific partisan, political, or ideological set of beliefs.

Such tests also could not require statements of support for any ideology or movement that promotes the differential treatment of a person or a group of persons based on race or ethnicity, including an initiative or a formulation of diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond upholding the Constitution.

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Florida House approves bill that would change rules around campus ... - WUFT

What are True Threats Under the First Amendment? – Podcast … – National Constitution Center

Last week, the Supreme Court heard a case about a Colorado man, Billy Ray Counterman, who was sentenced to over four years in prison for stalking due to threatening Facebook messages that he sent to a singer named C.W. Counterman argued that the charges violated his speech rights and that his messages were not true threats, which is a kind of speech not protected under the First Amendment. The issue in the case is whether or not his messages actually constituted under true threats (or if conduct like stalking should be distinguished); and if so, how should courts determine what a true threat is? In this episode, we dive into the facts and issues in theCounterman v. Colorado case, the history of true threats doctrine under the First Amendment, and recap the oral arguments, including whether the justices might decide that true threats should be determined by an objective test, such as if a reasonable person would regard the statement as a threat of violence; or whether they might find that it depends on the speakers specific intent.Genevieve Lakierof the University of Chicago andGabe Waltersof FIRE join hostJeffrey Rosento discuss.

Please subscribe toWe the PeopleandLive at the National Constitution CenteronApple Podcasts,Stitcher,or your favorite podcast app.

Todays episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Bill Pollock, and Sam Desai. It was engineered by Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by Sam Desai.

Participants

Genevieve Lakieris a professor of law and Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, where she teaches and writes about freedom of speech and constitutional law, including the fight over freedom of speech on social media platforms. She coauthored a brief in support of the respondent, the state of Colorado, in theCountermancase.

Gabe Waltersis an attorney at FIREthe Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He joined FIRE after nine years with the PETA Foundation, where he litigated freedom of speech and freedom of information cases in federal and state courts across the country. He and FIRE filed a brief in support of the petitioner, Bill Ray Counterman, in theCountermancase.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

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Ronald Collins and Ronnie Marmo: Comedy clubs are free speech … – Independent Record

On Nov. 24, 1964, the Illinois Supreme Court did what no other state high court had ever done it vindicated Lenny Bruces free speech right to perform provocative routines in comedy clubs.

But the freewheeling comedian was not so lucky in New York, where a state court thereafter convicted him of obscenity for his comedic bits. It was just one of such prosecutions, the others being in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The New York conviction stood since Bruce died before he could appeal.

Twenty years ago, however, New York Gov. George Pataki posthumously pardoned the outspoken comedian. Freedom of speech is one of the greatest American liberties, and I hope this pardon serves as a reminder of the precious freedoms we are fighting to preserve.

As First Amendment lawyer Robert Corn-Revere then put it in his petition seeking the New York pardon: Today, comedy clubs are considered free speech zones, and the monologues that prompted New York to prosecute and convict Lenny Bruce would never be considered obscene.

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While that is true insofar as the law of free speech is concerned, today the culture of free speech is increasingly succumbing to censorship. This is why comedy clubs must stand up and boldly reclaim their role as free speech zones and antidotes to cancel culture. Hence, the Bruce story takes on renewed meaning in a nation gone mad with silencing anything that offends anyone in any way.

The comedian was preparing for his performance at The Comedy Zone when a man entered the building shortly after 9pm and brandished a gun. Robinson and those inside the venue were evacuated, after which the suspect discharged his weapon. A spokesperson for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) released a statement confirming that the suspect had been detained and nobody was injured. On Sunday, Robinson thanked staff at the comedy club and CMPD officers for the way they handled the situation.

To draw again from Corn-Revere: Lenny Bruce was in the vanguard of the transformation of the stand-up comic from jokester to social critic, and his routines covered a wide range of topics including racism,organized religion, homosexuality, and social conventions about the use of language. In the early 1960s, that got him arrested for acts he performed in several comedy clubs.

Bruce was the last of comedians to be criminally prosecuted for word crimes in a comedy club. It was as if the specter of his persecution forever changed the course of American law even without a Supreme Court ruling. After he died on the run, his spirit resurrected: Uninhibited comedy flourished with the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers and Margaret Cho. In time, both the law and culture of free speech coalesced in ways that gave meaningful breathing room to a robust measure of speech freedom.

Today, however, though the law of free speech is vibrant, the culture is increasingly threatened by the chilling effects of censorship on the left and right. For one thing, some of Bruces comedy could not be performed on college campuses because it would be deemed offensive. Then there is the recent fiasco at Stanford Law School in which boisterous hecklers vetoed a talk to be given by a conservative federal judge invited to speak there. Additionally, conservatives in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis state have heartily endorsed censorship of all kinds.

Countless other troubling examples reveal much the same. In the words of the late historian Nat Hentoff, it all comes down to free speech for me, but not for thee.

Toleration is an anathema to those easily offended by anything that runs counter to their categorical beliefs. So too, being open-minded is not an option for those whose absolute truth is espoused by their preferred cable station. In such a world, mouths are silenced, and minds are closed. It all makes for a society rife with hypocrisy a sacred cow Bruce delighted in slaughtering.

After comedian Dave Chappelles show in Minneapolis was canceled for being offensive, Jamie Masada, owner of comedy club chain the Laugh Factory, told Fox News Digital that the comic stage is their sanctuary. We have to protect the First Amendment. We cant dilute it. We have to be able to laugh at ourselves. Not only should that sanctuary be preserved, but it must also be enriched to exemplify the vital values of free speech zones.

Carlin said Bruce prefigured the free-speech movement and helped push the culture forward into the light of open and honest expression.

More than ever, that light needs to shine brightly, first in and then out of Americas comedy clubs those last safe havens of free speech in a democracy. So let the free speech campaign begin in comedy clubs across the land, those free speech zones where censorship is bum-rushed out the door.

Collins is a retired law professor and co-author, with David Skover, of The Trials of Lenny Bruce. Actor and playwright Ronnie Marmo portrays Lenny Bruce in his hit one-man show Im Not a Comedian ... Im Lenny Bruce.

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Troy, Alabama A&M receive poor ‘red’ rating from campus free … – 1819 News

Nonprofit civil liberties group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) rated two public four-year schools in Alabama "red" for having some of the most restrictive speech codes in the country.

Of the 13 public four-year schools in the state, 10 were labeled "yellow." Only one received a "green" score.

FIRE, formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, used to focus exclusively on defending free speech on campus. However, the organization underwent a $75 million expansion to also focus on First Amendment advocacy elsewhere.

Nevertheless, FIRE still maintains a database of free speech complaints from universities and evaluates the institutions' speech codes.

The Alabama Free Speech Act (AFSA) went into effect in 2021. It states that trustees at public Alabama campuses must adopt policies on free expression that allow students, administrators and faculty to take positions on controversial topics and not prohibit the use of outdoor space on campus for free speech purposes, among other requirements.

Even with the AFSA, FIRE pointed out how Alabama schools can still restrict the free speech of their students and faculty.

Troy University and Alabama A&M University received "red" scores from FIRE. According to FIRE, each school has at least one policy that "substantially restricts freedom of speech."

Specific sections of Troy's student handbook received "red" rankings, including its housing and residence policy, policy on harassment and discrimination and technology use policy. FIRE cited problems with how the policies define harassment, sexual harassment and "cruelty, obscenity, crudity and offensiveness."

FIRE included just one case from Troy from 2005 when Troy was one of several universities sued by FIRE around that time. FIRE charged Troy with enacting harsh punishments for what they called "indecent expression" or "any activity that creates a mentally abusive, oppressive, or harmful situation for another." The lawsuit also charged Troy with a breach of contract, unlawful conditions placed on the receipt of state benefits and denial of due process and equal protection of the law.

The case was marked a "FIRE Victory" on FIRE's website.

FIRE did not include a recent incident at Troy covered by 1819 News in which Troy trustees attempted to "vet" research at a free-market think tank associated with the university, citing complaints from Alabama Power and the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) about comments made at an event hosted by the think tank that was critical of economic incentive programs, according to leaked emails.

FIRE gave Alabama A&M a "red" score for its definition of sexual harassment, which includes "sexual overtones that the victim deems offensive" and "unsolicited, deliberate or repeated sexual flirtation, advances or propositions." It also cited Alabama A&M's definition of harassment in its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Responsible Use of University Computing and Electronic Communications Resources policy.

In 2019, FIRE ranked Alabama A&M as one of its "10 Worst Colleges For Free Speech," along with the University of North Alabama (UNA), which has since earned a "yellow" ranking.

The University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), the University of Alabama (UA), the University of South Alabama (USA), the University of Montevallo, the University of West Alabama (UWA), the University of North Alabama (UNA), the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH), Alabama State University (ASU), Auburn University Montgomery (AUM) and Jacksonville State University (JSU) were all rated "yellow."

Recently, UAH settled a lawsuit with the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (ACLL) and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) over a speech policy that limits most student speech to small "speech zones" and requires that students obtain permits to speak on campus three business days in advance. The university agreed to reverse the policy as part of the settlement.

Though not cited by FIRE, a former UA professor claimed he received pushback from the university for raising questions about the efficacy of the university's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Of all 13 Alabama public universities, Auburn University was the only school to receive a "green" score. Auburn worked with FIRE in 2018 to revisit several speech codes and obtain one of the highest ratings for free speech in the country.

Currently, FIRE ranks Auburn as the 22nd best college for free speech in the country.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Troy, Alabama A&M receive poor 'red' rating from campus free ... - 1819 News