Bitcoin And Modern Soft Fork Activation – Bitcoin Magazine

Taproot, a proposed protocol upgrade that would improve Bitcoins privacy and flexibility, is in its late stages of development. Bitcoin Core contributors agree that the upgrade would benefit Bitcoin, and so far it generally appears to be welcomed by the wider Bitcoin ecosystem as well. Its therefore likely that Taproot will make its way into a Bitcoin Core release, with other Bitcoin implementations possibly to follow.

But one question remains: how should the Bitcoin network itself upgrade? Taproot is a consensus protocol change, which means that Bitcoin nodes must somehow switch from the old rules to the new rules without splitting the network into factions enforcing different rules. For various reasons, this has in the past sometimes proven to be a challenge.

Improved strategies to activate protocol upgrades are now being contemplated.

The good news is that Taproot will be a soft fork. This type of upgrade adds or tightens rules as opposed to a hard fork which removes or loosens rules. The nice thing about adding or tightening rules is that anything that an upgraded node considers valid, a non-upgraded node considers valid, too. (If an old node accepts both transaction types A and B, but new rules only allow transaction type A, the old node would remain compatible on a network enforcing the new rules.)

Bitcoins earliest soft forks were activated though flag days. Developers (in particular, Satoshi Nakamoto) embedded a future date in the code of a new Bitcoin software client release, specifying a point in time where upgraded nodes would enforce the new rules. Miners and users were encouraged to upgrade before that date to avoid network splits. (As an aside, in those days, miners and users were in these days more often than today the same people.)

Since non-upgraded nodes remain compatible with new rules, a handy benefit of soft forks is that if a majority of hash power enforces the upgrade, the entire Bitcoin network finds consensus on their version of the blockchain. This also means there is less of a pressing need for all nodes to be upgraded immediately when the new protocol rules are enforced, allowing users some flexibility. (Though users are encouraged to upgrade nonetheless; they are ultimately the ones enforcing the new rules by rejecting transactions and blocks that break them.)

Since about 2012, soft forks have increasingly utilized hash power as a coordination mechanism to coordinate a switch to new rules. By embedding a bit of data in their blocks, miners can signal to other miners and the rest of the network that they upgraded their software, and thus are ready to enforce the new rules. Once enough hash power signals support, all upgraded nodes are triggered to enforce the new rules.

Over the course of a few upgrades, this strategy evolved into Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 9 (BIP 9). BIP 9 was, for example, the mechanism used to activate Bitcoins last soft fork upgrade, Segregated Witness (SegWit). Miners were given a year to activate the upgrade, requiring 95 percent of blocks within any difficulty interval to include a readiness signal bit. If after a year this hadnt happened, the activation period would expire, and the upgrade would have failed. (It could then of course simply be tried again.)

For SegWit, however, BIP 9 did not play out smoothly. As with some of the previous upgrades, some miners probably didnt get around to upgrading for some time due to apathy: there often isnt a very big incentive for miners to upgrade fast. But a bigger problem was that some miners had come to understand the signaling process as a sort of vote on the upgrade, where instead of signaling readiness, they would (or would not) signal support for it. Worse, some miners ended up using this vote to block the upgrade in order to try and gain political leverage over the Bitcoin development process, and/or they voted against the upgrade in order to covertly benefit from a quirk in the Bitcoin protocol which the upgrade would fix.

After an extended period of intense drama, SegWit ultimately did activate, but only after alternative Bitcoin clients included new activation schemes. BIP 148, included in the BIP 148 client run by some users, was programmed to only accept blocks signaling support for the protocol upgrade starting on a flag day. Meanwhile, BIP 91, included in the btc1 client and run by miners just ahead of the BIP 148 flag day, effectively lowered the hash power requirement from 95 percent to 75 percent. Faced with a potential split network and a possible loss of income, the obstructing miners conceded. But for most Bitcoin Core developers, BIP 9 had revealed itself to be a suboptimal solution, and they started thinking of alternatives.

BIP 8 was an early alternative for BIP 9, proposed by BIP 148 author Shaolinfry and Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core contributor Luke-jr. It initially resembled BIP 9, but with one crucial difference: instead of the upgrade failing after a year of insufficient hash power support, it would do the exact opposite and activate the soft fork at that point in time. Similar to a flag day, all upgraded nodes would from then on start enforcing the new rules. Miners whod still have failed to upgrade would risk mining blocks that upgraded miners and users would reject.

The main idea behind BIP 9 is that assuming of course that users upgrade miners cant block the soft fork and therefore cant use this leverage to their benefit. They can speed activation up and help coordinate a smooth protocol upgrade, but the upgrade will eventually happen even if they dont activate it themselves.

A more recent draft of BIP 8 includes some notable changes. For one, BIP 8 allows nodes to be configured for two different policies when the signaling period is about to expire: forced activation, as explained in the previous two paragraphs, or no forced activation, like with BIP 9. Furthermore, instead of activating the upgrade itself, nodes (if so configured) actually enforce signaling for the upgrade. Blocks that do not signal support for the upgrade are then rejected, hence still guaranteeing the upgrade, at least for the upgraded nodes. The combination of these two changes has the interesting property that if a majority of all Bitcoin hash power is compelled to signal support for the upgrade, even BIP 8 nodes that arent configured to enforce signaling will go along with the upgrade,

An argument against BIP 8, and its forced signaling (or automatic activation) in specific, is that it can be risky, especially on a shorter timeline. If a hash power majority and at least some users dont upgrade, this scheme could split the network between upgraded and non-upgraded nodes. Assuming most users support the upgrade, this would likely resolve in favor of the upgraded part of the network eventually. But non-upgraded users would risk losing funds in the meantime, while non-upgraded miners would waste hash power to the detriment of Bitcoins security.

This risk is probably best countered by offering enough time to upgrade. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees on how much time is enough; some think forced signaling could start within a year, others believe it should take several years.

Another complication with BIP 8 is setting defaults for forced signaling. If forced signaling is switched off by default, users could find themselves uncoordinated, increasing the risk of network splits. If on the other hand forced signaling is chosen as the default in a Bitcoin Core release, the historically widespread adoption of Bitcoin Core virtually guarantees that the upgrade will happen. Some believe this would give Bitcoin Core developers too much influence over Bitcoins protocol rules. For this reason, BIP 8 coauthor Luke-jr prefers BIP 8 with forced signaling to exclusively be deployed through special clients, similar to the BIP 148 client.

Others argue that Bitcoin Core developers always release software to their best judgement, while keeping user demand in mind and avoiding contentious upgrades; setting BIP 8 defaults should be no exception to this policy. If anyone disagrees with the choices Bitcoin Core developers make after all, they can simply choose not to upgrade to a new release or even fork the Bitcoin Core code to launch a competing client altogether.

While Bitcoin Core developers indeed seek to take user demand into consideration and try to avoid contentious upgrades, not everyone is convinced this is always perfectly possible. Perhaps concerns about a proposed upgrade only surface when the software is deployed in a new release. Perhaps whole new issues arise after this release. Or perhaps Bitcoin Core developers simply missed something.

This is one reason why Bitcoin Core contributor Matt Corallo proposed a strategy dubbed Modern Soft Fork Activation. Modern Soft Fork Activation consists of three steps, together essentially realizing a combination of BIP 9 (or: BIP 8 without forced signaling) and BIP 8 with flag day activation (though forced signaling could be an option as well).

As the first step, BIP 9 would allow miners to activate the soft fork through hash power. If miners dont activate it in (say) a year, the first activation window expires. Then, as the second step, developers take some time to analyze why activation failed, and reconsider the proposal if they do find a concern with it. If they find there was no problem with the proposal, however, the third step is redeployment of the soft fork, this time using BIP 8 with flag day activation: miners get another chance to activate the proposal with hash power, but if they fail again, the soft fork activates when this second signaling period ends. (During this second signaling period, the hash power activation threshold could also be incrementally lowered over time, Bitcoin Core contributor AJ Towns suggests.)

By explicitly committing to BIP 8 redeployment if it turns out theres nothing wrong with the proposal, Corallo believes the strategy would offer the benefits of BIP 9 without the downside. The code is put out there during the first signaling period for everyone to consider, miners can coordinate a smooth upgrade if they so choose, and with no forced activation developers can take their time to reconsider the proposal if activation does initially fail. Meanwhile, miners would have much less to gain from blocking the upgrade for no good reason, as everyone knows it will eventually activate anyways.

The main argument against Modern Soft Fork Activation is that without miner cooperation, the process would take relatively long, and some consider the BIP 9 step a waste of time altogether. Corallos original proposal includes one year of BIP 9 signaling, followed by six months to reconsider, and finally two years of BIP 8 signaling before automated activation: a total of three-and-a-half years. While this timeline is of course not set in stone yet, shortening the different steps by too much would leave less time for reconsideration and/or upgrading (increasing the risk of network splits).

Due to the long time until potential forced activation, some also argue that miners can try and gain some political leverage after all: they can delay the upgrade for years.

Another, recent suggestion circulating through Bitcoins tech channels is perhaps best described as a bit of a merger between BIP 8 and Modern Soft Fork Activation, at least in spirit. The unnamed proposal would deploy a long BIP 8 signaling period, perhaps as long as Modern Soft Fork Activations three-and-a-half years, after which forced signaling triggers. However, if after (say) one year the upgrade didnt activate yet, developers would take some time to reconsider the proposal, like they would with Modern Soft Fork Activation.

If developers would find no problem with the proposal, and instead were to conclude that it simply hadnt activated due to miner apathy or another invalid reason, they could opt to deploy a new soft fork in the style of BIP 91, used during SegWit activation. This would effectively lower the hash power threshold for activation, presumably speeding up the process.

If, on the other hand, developers would find a problem with the proposal after all, they could deploy a new soft fork that would fix the problem, or even undo the original soft fork (in this case, Taproot) altogether. Assuming Modern Soft Fork Activations three-and-a-half-year timeline until forced signaling, there ought to be enough time left to take care of this.

The main argument against this proposal is probably that its not very elegant to deploy a soft fork that undoes another soft fork, if so needed. More concretely, it requires that miners and users upgrade to new releases before deadlines are reached, or risk splitting the network.

Finally, as a bit of an outlier proposal, Bitcoin Core contributor Jeremy Rubin suggested that a concept he invented called Probabilistic Bitcoin soft forks, or Sporks, might be an interesting alternative.

The heart of the problem of BIP 9, Rubin argues, is that miners can delay upgrades at no cost of their own. Simply refusing to signal readiness for an upgrade is free, while it potentially offers them political leverage.

With Sporks, the readiness signal is no longer taken from a bit of data that miners include in the blocks they mine, but derived from the block header hash: the randomly generated proof of work they produced by investing time and resources. Upgraded nodes would agree that a small subset of valid block header hashes statistically to only be found every six months or so would trigger the upgrade.

Per the randomness of hashes, a miner would not control whether he produces regular block header hashes or upgrade-activating block header hashes; hed statistically just happen to churn out one of the latter sporadically. So, if his invested resources happen to generate an upgrade-activating block header hash, hed have two choices. Either, publish it to the Bitcoin network, earn the block reward, and activate the soft fork. Or, withhold from publishing, delaying the soft fork by about six months on average in our example but in doing so also giving up the block reward. Delaying the upgrade would come at a significant cost.

The main problem with Sporks right now is probably that its a relatively new idea, that hasnt been developed yet let alone tested in the wild. While some do consider the concept interesting, its as of yet not the most likely contender for Taproot activation.

Authors note: The debate on soft fork activation (and Taproot activation in specific) is in flux; this is a non-exhaustive overview of the different upgrade proposals, especially when it comes to variants of the proposals with alternative parameters and other tweaks, and all their pros and cons.

Read the original:

Bitcoin And Modern Soft Fork Activation - Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Scammers Claim To Have Compromising Videos Of Victims – Rye Daily Voice

Bitcoin scammers have been threatening to expose sensitive videos of their victims if they are not paid off.

Fraudsters have been sending spam emails that allege they have recorded video of you getting yourself off, which they threaten to expose if they are not paid off.

The emails claim that the scammer is from out of the country, and cannot be targeted by local law enforcement.

Scammers allege that based on their potential victims visiting bad websites that infected computers with malware, they now have video of lewd acts that they threaten to share with friends and family.

In order to obviate the disgrace for the term of life, you should send 18 Dash coins to a certain address, and your prestige will not be damaged, the fraudsters wrote in an email to Daily Voice.

The scammers offer a 24-hour deadline to transfer the bitcoin, with the compromising video allegedly being disseminated within 48 hours.

The FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center said it has seen an increase in reports of online extortion scams during the current "stay-at-home" orders due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Because large swaths of the population are staying at home and likely using the computer more than usual, scammers may use this opportunity to find new victims and pressure them into sending money, they wrote in a report.

The scammers are sending emails threatening to release sexually explicit photos or personally compromising videos to the individual's contacts if they do not pay. While there are many variations of these online extortion attempts, they often share certain commonalities.

Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.

Go here to see the original:

Bitcoin Scammers Claim To Have Compromising Videos Of Victims - Rye Daily Voice

Bitcoin and Other Blockchain Networks May Not be Decentralized as Recent Cloudflare Outage led to Lower BTC Transaction Confirmations – Crowdfund…

San Francisco-based Cloudflare, a web-infrastructure and website-security firm, offering content-delivery-network services, DDoS mitigation, Internet security, and distributed DNS services, experienced downtime again on July 17, 2020.

Whenever Cloudflare goes down or has some other type of technical difficulties, it immediately affects millions of websites that use its software. The recent downtime also resulted in a considerable decline in the number of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions that could be confirmed.

Jameson Lopp, the CTO at CasaHODL, a Bitcoin security firm, noted via Twitter (on July 17, 2020):

The Cloudflare DNS [Domain Name System] outage can be seen reflected in the rate of Bitcoin transactions broadcast, presumably because popular web wallets became inaccessible.

Lopp shared a chart that confirmed that there was a significant decline in the number of BTC transactions being processed every second.

Cloudflares management had noted on the providers official website (at around 10 p.m. UTC on July 17, 2020):

This afternoon we saw an outage across some parts of our network, [however] it was not as a result of an attack. It appears a router on our global backbone announced bad routes and caused some portions of the network to not be available. We believe we have addressed the root cause and are monitoring systems for stability now.

At around 10:57 p.m. UTC, a final update confirmed that the issue had been resolved.

While the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain network itself did not experience an outage when Cloudflare went down, many traders or investors may not have been able to conduct transactions because crypto wallets and exchanges use Cloudflare (which is a centralized solution).

Centralized exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, and just about all others have to regularly go offline to perform scheduled or unscheduled maintenance work. One of the main value propositions of cryptocurrencies are that theyre decentralized, meaning theres no central authority that can step in to shut down a platform or system.

However, these types of events indicate that cryptocurrencies are not truly decentralized because they still depend on centralized infrastructure (like Cloudflare). Nearly all the so-called blockchain or crypto projects also use Github to upload their projects source code.

Github has a centralized management which has, on many occasions, restricted or denied access to users in certain parts of the world, like Iran. During an interview with Crowdfund Insider, Ray Youssef, the CEO at P2P Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, clarified that the platform was peer to peer but not decentralized. Thats because Paxful needs to follow strict KYC/AML guidelines, which are required by regulatory authorities across the globe.

It is highly unlikely that cryptos main value proposition, which promises decentralization, will ever become a reality. Many so-called decentralized platforms like IOTA, bZX, and dForce (among many others) have been launched so that users can participate in permissionless markets or platforms, however, many of them were hacked and their creators had to step in to address the issue. This means theyre not truly decentralized.

See the article here:

Bitcoin and Other Blockchain Networks May Not be Decentralized as Recent Cloudflare Outage led to Lower BTC Transaction Confirmations - Crowdfund...

Where’ve the butterflies gone? Our eco-system’s in danger, fixing it can also heal T&T’s anger issues – Wired868

Opposite West Mall, on the Western Main Road, a mysterious derelict colonial buildingrumoured to have been a churchstood like a prehistoric dinosaur skeleton peeking out from hectares of bush.

As a child, when adults said bush they always conveyed the idea of something unwanted and to be cut down so the land could be made useful. I suppose we inherited from those who colonised these islands the idea that land domination made you prosperous.

However, for me, the word bush always meant healing, adventure and discovery. I believe I must have once been a wild plant growing in neotropical bush myself.

On a whim I drove over and was greeted by preparations for the new West Parks openingscheduled for 2nd June for an invitation only of 50 guests. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was to symbolically turn the sod for the new Diego Martin Regional Complex and the Diego Martin Vehicular Overpass.

Elderly couples walked on the circular paved track, mothers with small children congregated, youngsters jogged solo or in pairs, others strenuously worked out. South-winds distanced the traffic on the Western main road and surrounding urban sprawl ceased to exist; only the salty caressing breeze blew softly while waving at the river glinting to the west.

Like tailgaters at a football game in the United States, car trunks were open and stacked with beverages in coolers, snacks ready to share, and pop up chairs occupied by peoplewith dogs on leashesfaced the wide open green fields in anticipation of a golden sunset to frame mountains that looked to the east while holding hands in the north.

Southern lapwings strolling along the waters edge took wing. Was this the same day, crowds of protesters burned tires, blocked traffic, and shut down the capital?

The protests had been triggered by the death of three men in Movant, due to inexcusable police fire; only to be followed by the gunning down of a pregnant mother of fiveallegedly by the policeduring the protests.

As I considered the disparities that exist all around us, I became distracted by a bouquet of white spider like petals fringed with delicate whiskery protrusions. Could it be Redwhisker clammyweed?

Suddenly, I found that my sandalled feet were on fire. Id never stood in an enraged ants nest before so I couldnt understand what this hot peppery flame was moving up my bare legs until I saw the tiny creatures.

I hobbled, bare footed, in my white daisy dress, out of the recently bulldozed area and threw my sandals, again and again, at the newly pitched walking path, to shake the ants off while doing a frantic fire dance.

A large colony of ants, possibly half a century old, or more, had had their world destroyed by an earth scrapper in preparation for lawn. No wonder they were angry.

I felt properly chastised and began to think about the new West Park from a different angle: A tiny case-study of what has been done by those who colonised this land centuries ago; and, now, we who continue to colonise nature in the 21st century.

Due to Covid-19 we learn how easily nature can decimate humanity, where our food comes from, and how what we do to our forests and wild life has consequences for the global environment. Neglect and lack of foresight can have alarming repercussions.

Those who live on the north-west peninsular have just been given the gift of a marvellous green space to relax and enjoy natures gifts. To do so, twenty five acres of bush had to be destroyed. Many essential, almost invisible creaturesoccupants of this land long before colonisationhave had to endure constant displacement, starvation and death.

I wondered how could we give some of it back?

Worldwide there is an alarming disappearance of butterflies and pollinators. While chatting about this to Wayne Simmons, one of the decorators for the event, he said as a child growing up in the mountains of Diego Martin he loved waking up in the morning to watch the butterflies in his yard.

You hardly see them anymore, he lamented.

This conversation is taking place worldwide: Where have the butterflies gone, the honey bee, the pollinators?

Mass extinction of native, irreplaceable, food plants for pollinators, is being caused by pesticides, herbicides, commercial fertilizers and land clearing. The bush we call weeds, such as Asclepias curassavica, is indispensable to the Queen butterfly (cousin to the northern monarch), as is Paragonia pyramidata to the Morpho butterfly.

Like our complex populations of Asian, African, and the entire hybrid-rainbow of people in between, much of our flora are transplants. We exist in a state of amnesia, as the majority of us have no pre-colonised memory of these islands. What we think of as local botany, and native, was brought in by Great Britain, Spain and France!

Native pollinators pre-existed all botanic immigration. They have not changed their reproductive habits nor have they changed the food their young eat.

Without them we could not grow food. In fact, without pollinators, 80% of trees and plant life worldwide would go extinct.

Sure, butterflies can feed from immigrant flowers; but to procreate the pre-colonial host plant is indispensable to prevent starvation and extinction. Their young cannot eat Ixora leaves because its a native to Madagascarnamed after Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, a British 19th century botanist who worked for the Royal Botanic Gardens, UK.

Bougainvillea is native to Brazil and named after Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French admiral and explorer during his voyage of circumnavigation in 1768. Botanists believe that the Hibiscus is a designer flower, whose ancestors were native to India, China, Mauritius, Hawaii, Fiiji, or Madagascar.

Flaming Torch ginger is native to Malaysia, where indigenous people eat its flowers as a garnish or use them in spicy fish broth called Assam laksa. The native ancestor of the anthurium flower from South America did not look like the version we have now, that was hybridized by Samuel Damon in Hawaii 1889 (Damons family had migrated to Hawaii in 1842 from the USA mainland).

It was then imported to other tropical places. Bird of Paradise flower is from South Africa, introduced to Kew Gardens, Britain, 1773. The list of outsiders is long and extends to many of our trees such as mango, coconut, orange and breadfruitall iconic trees to our understanding of self, but not native.

The following day, I went back to West Park hoping to find someone who I could talk to about what was missing from this beautiful space; the native plants that could feed the caterpillars of the missing butterflies.

Why not create on this scrapped canvas a commitment to plant flowers endemic to our island? We could plant them along the walking and running pathways.

In my minds eye, the chain-link fence along Western Main road was already full of Passion caterpillars, munching happily on climbing wild Passiflora vines. The seasonal pond could grow Bacopa monniera, so the White Peacock butterfly larva would have food.

Lavender blooming water hyacinths would be busy with dragon flies and the Scarlet Peacock butterfly, from my childhood, would proliferate in clouds celebrating our national flag of red, black and white.

Perhaps, we could ask our businesses and schools, to pair up with field naturalists, UWI students, interested neighbours, Amerindian botanists and communities.

Different groups could adopt a wildflower bed that would feed our pollinators. They in turn, would help pollinate our local gardens, farms, forests and foster bio-diversity for others, such as birds, vertebrates (lizards, toads, salamanders) and bats, etc.

Not only would our children learn how crucial the wellbeing of the small is to the well being of the big, and vice versa, but those who sponsor a bed can proudly display their names and information about the plants and pollinators.

Our citizens could learn about the place we call home. Additionally, native plants are cost-effective, they are dry weather resistant because it is in their DNA to expect dry season.

The saying you make your bed you lie in it applies to both flower-beds and the eco-systems that depend on them, and the beds of our childrens minds and hearts. By building community and cross-pollinating more privileged with less privileged, elders with youngsters, field naturalists with urban gardeners, architects with botanists, by coming together to create sustainability for all, we build goodwill.

Goodwill is infectious. It heals trauma.

My musings were suddenly interrupted by a man and woman who asked to have a word with me. They identified themselves as police and wanted to know why I was taking photographs on my walk around the periphery.

I explained that I was very excited about how wonderful the new park was and that I wanted to write about it. They requested my name and wrote it down. I asked if I looked dangerous?

They smiled at me, a middle aged woman, in my flowery skirt and sandals. They asked if I had been given permission? I said that I didnt know I needed permission because I had not planned on crashing their event.

Did they want me to leave?

The police referred me to UDECOTT and NIDCO officials who politely, but firmly, made it evident that my presence at the park was undesirableso I left.

But I knew I would return and the truth is, in starting a conversation with myself about our duty to the land I call home,I hope to continue this conversation on a national scale; for when we act as if we are above the laws of nature, like those who make laws and then put themselves above it, we endorse our own demise.

As a nation we need clarity on what it means to become one people with each other and with this lands indigenous biodiversity, to make it a place where hybrids like us can bloomand not at the expense of our environment, and each other, as those who brought us here did.

Original post:

Where've the butterflies gone? Our eco-system's in danger, fixing it can also heal T&T's anger issues - Wired868

How one successful venture changed the narrative of an entire ecosystem – Economic Times

MUMBAI: It takes just one startup to change the narrative of an ecosystem. Last week, Chandigarh-based PrepLadder became that startup, when the medical entrance test preparation platform was acquired by Facebook-backed educational technology company Unacademy for $50 million in a cash-and-stock deal.

The exit, hailed by founders and investors alike, is indicative of a fledgling startup ecosystem in Chandigarh, which a clutch of homegrown venture capital-backed companies in sectors such as ed-tech, agri-tech, content tech, Software as a Services (SaaS) and consumer goods call home.

The founders of these startups, both native to the city and outsiders, prefer Chandigarhs lifestyle to that of startup hubs like Bengaluru, with its traffic snarls, and Delhi-NCR, with its pollution woes.

According to startup analytics firm Tracxn, there are over 700 active startups in Chandigarh as of July 9 and more than one-third of these were founded in the last four years.

Read more:

How one successful venture changed the narrative of an entire ecosystem - Economic Times

Mesothelioma: What Is Malignant Mesothelioma Cancer?

Mesothelioma: What Is Malignant Mesothelioma Cancer?

Alert: We're here for you. Learn how COVID-19 may affect mesothelioma patients.

Mesothelioma is a malignant tumor that is caused by inhaled asbestos fibers and forms in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart. Symptoms can include shortness of breath and chest pain. The life expectancy for most mesothelioma patients is approximately 12 months after diagnosis. Treatment may improve prognosis and can include surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

Learn more about mesothelioma and the steps you can take to fight this disease.

Mesothelioma is an incurable, asbestos-related cancer that typically affects the lining of the lungs. However, mesothelioma tumors can develop in the lining of the abdominal cavity or heart.

Key Facts about Mesothelioma

Symptoms of mesothelioma appear when tumors spread, grow and press against the chest wall and the abdominal cavity. Chest pain and shortness of breath are the most common symptoms.

A balanced mesothelioma diet can help ease your symptoms and speed recovery. Get a free nutrition guide with quick and easy recipes that can help improve your quality of life.

A biopsy is the only mesothelioma test that confirms a diagnosis. Doctors may use additional diagnostic procedures. An early mesothelioma diagnosis may increase a patients eligibility for all treatment options.

Most people initially undergo a basic chest X-ray to check for any abnormalities. If an abnormal growth or fluid around the lung is detected, doctors will recommend a more detailed imaging scan such as a PET scan, CT scan or MRI.

If cancer is suspected, doctors will recommend taking a sample of tissue, also knowns as a biopsy. Doctors use this tissue sample to definitively confirm the presence of malignant mesothelioma cells.

Blood tests may be used but do not confirm the presence of mesothelioma. Researchers are evaluating if blood tests can aid in the early diagnosis of at-risk former asbestos workers.

Doctors use at least five staging systems to stage pleural mesothelioma. The IMIG staging system is preferred. No universal staging system exists for the other mesothelioma types.

Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of mesothelioma. People exposed to asbestos at home, work or in the military have a higher risk of developing the cancerous disease.

A person inhales or swallows microscopic airborne asbestos fibers.

The asbestos fibers become lodged in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart.

Embedded fibers damage mesothelial cells and cause inflammation.

Over time, tumors form on the damaged mesothelium, leading to mesothelioma.

People most at risk of developing mesothelioma handled asbestos for a prolonged period of time or were exposed to large amounts of asbestos as part of their career.

Secondhand exposure is also common, especially among the spouses and children of people who worked with asbestos.

Firefighters, construction workers, power plant workers, shipyard workers and others are among these types of workers.

U.S. Navy veterans are most at risk. Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard veterans also face health risks.

Spouses, children and others who lived with a person who was regularly exposed to asbestos fibers are at risk.

Experienced mesothelioma attorneys will help you get compensation for treatment costs, lost wages and other expenses.

The stages of mesothelioma range from 1 to 4 and are based on tumor size and location.

Early-stage mesothelioma is usually more confined to one site, while late-stage mesothelioma shows tumors spreading beyond the chest or abdominal cavity. Staging is an important part of determining treatment.

The cancer is localized. Surgery is most effective at this stage. Survival rate is higher. A patients median life expectancy at stage 1 is 22.2 months.

Tumors have spread from the original location and moved into adjacent structures. Surgery is still an option. Median life expectancy at stage 2 is 20 months.

Cancer has spread into the regional lymph nodes. Surgery is an option in select circumstances. The patients median life expectancy at stage 3 is 17.9 months.

Tumors have spread into distant organs. Chemotherapy and immunotherapy ease symptoms. Median life expectancy at stage 4 is 14.9 months.

The four types of mesothelioma cancer are identified by the location in the body where tumors develop. Pleural and peritoneal types of mesothelioma are the most common. Pericardial mesothelioma accounts for 1% of cases.

Prognosis, symptoms and treatment options vary by mesothelioma type.

There are three cell types of mesothelioma named for the cancerous cells found in the tumors: Epithelioid, sarcomatoid and biphasic. Some are more common and respond well to treatments. Others are rarer and more resistant to therapies.

These cells are the most responsive to treatment. This type of mesothelioma accounts for 70% of mesothelioma diagnoses. It also leads to improved prognosis and life expectancy.

Cells of this type are least responsive to treatment. Patients with these cell types have poorer diagnoses and shorter life expectancies. This mesothelioma type accounts for 10% of all cases.

This is a combination of epithelioid and sarcomatoid cells. Its less responsive to treatment. Prognosis and life expectancy depend on the ratio of both cell types. It accounts for 30% to 40% of cases.

Mesothelioma cancer is treated with conventional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. But not every patient is eligible for each type of mesothelioma treatment. Some patients also opt for emerging cancer treatments, including clinical trials, and alternative therapies.

This therapy is used for diagnosing, removing tumors or easing pain. It offers the greatest chance of survival for patients with strong health and limited cancer spread.

More than 70% of patients undergo chemotherapy. The therapys strong drugs shrink tumors and kill cancer cells, but it also presents severe treatment side effects.

The therapy can be used at any cancer stage. Doctors perform it to reduce pain and slow tumor growth. It is often combined with surgery and chemotherapy.

Researchers and doctors offer these experimental therapies across the nation to eligible patients. Clinical trials lead to new or improved treatments.

Most doctors have never encountered mesothelioma because it is a rare cancer. Doctors who focus on mesothelioma at specialty treatment centers provide patients the best chances of extending life and improving prognosis.

In fact, a 2009 Journal of General Internal Medicine study showed cancer care requires skills of specialty physicians such as medical oncologists, surgeons and radiation oncologists.

Mesothelioma specialists encompass a number of specialties, including surgery, medical and radiation oncology, radiology, pathology and palliative care. All can be part of a patients treatment plan. Working with an experienced mesothelioma doctor can make all the difference.

The most-regarded treatment centers attract people from across the country. Renowned for their cutting-edge technology and groundbreaking research, these centers can connect you with a multidisciplinary team of physicians with years of experience in treating asbestos-related diseases.

Research, get a second opinion from a mesothelioma specialist and dont be afraid to ask questions. You cant make an informed decision if you dont have the information.

Emily Ward

Pleural Mesothelioma Survivor

The prognosis for mesothelioma is not good. The life expectancy for most patients is about 12 months after diagnosis. Those who can undergo multimodal therapy, which is a combination of two or more treatments, have an improved prognosis.

Factors that most affect mesothelioma prognosis are stage and cell type. Age, gender and exposure history also affect outlook. Younger patients and women have a better mesothelioma prognosis than older men. People diagnosed with the peritoneal mesothelioma type also have a higher chance of survival.

Patients can improve prognosis by eating a nutrient-rich diet, staying healthy, undergoing cancer treatments and making healthier lifestyle choices such as quitting smoking.

Legal and financial options for mesothelioma patients and their families can provide financial compensation to pay medical bills, cover lost wages and other expenses. A mesothelioma lawyer can review your case, so you receive the highest compensation.

A mesothelioma patient can file a personal injury lawsuit. The estate of the patient who died from mesothelioma can file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Bankrupt asbestos companies established trust funds to provide compensation for people exposed to asbestos because of company negligence.

Because the U.S. military relied heavily on asbestos, veterans diagnosed with mesothelioma may be eligible for financial and medical benefits.

Many forms of support are available for mesothelioma patients, survivors, loved ones and families.

Mesothelioma survivors, caregivers and family members often need a place where they can share their ongoing struggles and amazing accomplishments. We offer a support group, hosted by a licensed mental health counselor, that offers a safe place for all mesothelioma survivors.

You and your loved ones can advocate for others who are going through the same cancer journey. Getting involved in the move to ban asbestos and raise mesothelioma awareness can have long-lasting and positive effects.

Request a comprehensive mesothelioma guide to gain a deeper understanding of the cancer and how you can help your loved one during this difficult time. We can provide you with a free must-read book that answers frequently asked questions about mesothelioma.

Our latest guide for patients and loved ones is shipped overnight and includes treatment information, legal resources, mesothelioma books and support wristbands.

Common Questions About Mesothelioma

Read more here:

Mesothelioma: What Is Malignant Mesothelioma Cancer?

Mesothelioma Patients Can Safely Get Treatment Through Telehealth and Video – MesotheliomaHelp.org

The COVID-19 virus has disrupted all of our lives and routines. Things that we always did and places we always went are no longer available. The pandemic has forced us to all look at things we routinely do and challenged us to do them differently.

Like in business, in medicine sometimes small disruptions can lead to larger innovative changes. In the treatment of malignant mesothelioma, disruptors have led the way. Over the years we have seen doctors challenging the previously held belief that there was no treatment for malignant mesothelioma time and time again. The treatment options and longer quality of life that many mesothelioma patients are now able to be part of was not an option 20 years ago.

Before the pandemic, having a doctors visit for the vast majority of people involved going to the office or clinic at an appointed time, waiting, and meeting with the doctor. Patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma had the option of travelling to a Mesothelioma Center of Excellence to consult with experts in the field. Since the pandemic, with social isolation and doctors offices and clinics closed to prevent the spread of the virus, there has been a surge of tele-health visits.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for the Advancement of Telehealth promotes the use of telehealth technology for health care. Their definition of tele-health is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.

In 2018, tele-health was 0.1 percent of all medical claims filed. Since the pandemic those numbers are exploding.

Tele-health has made possible consults and reviewing of scans and meetings with mesothelioma experts. As things are starting to open back up, so are the patients coming back to the mesothelioma centers for in-person consultations.

Like any new technology telehealth has pros and cons. Some people have commented that you have the MDs full attention without the distractions of an office and other responsibilities. Other people have missed the personal interaction and meeting in person with their doctor.

The coronavirus has brought to the forefront a technology that can benefit a lot of people as they search for the best advanced personalized care for themselves or loved ones with mesothelioma. Tele-health can help malignant mesothelioma patients connect with a mesothelioma center without having to travel. It will take awhile to assess how tele-health will be accessed and have the best results for patients. For patients, their satisfaction with tele-health will need to be studied and evaluated to continue to efficiently access tele-health with the best results.

If you or a family member is diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma reach out, either electronically or in person for the best possible care. Our experts can help connect you with both the medical and legal resources you need to move forward.

See the original post:

Mesothelioma Patients Can Safely Get Treatment Through Telehealth and Video - MesotheliomaHelp.org

California Asbestos Trials in the Age of COVID-19 – Lexology

We continue to monitor how various courts in California are handling asbestos trials. The situation is unsurprisingly fluid. Some courts have started trials and we are closely following those.

San Francisco assigned one case to a trial judge on June 26, 2020. Discussions of how that matter would proceed to trial were ongoing when the case resolved. Generally, remote jury selection was discussed. There were discussions about how to have the jurors in court socially distanced and having virtually all witnesses appear remotely.

In Alameda County (Oakland), jury selection is ongoing in two cases. These are both living mesothelioma cases with preference trial dates. Both cases had been initially set for trial in March. Jury selection is being conducted remotely with hardships and questionnaires done electronically and voir dire via Zoom. Both cases appear headed to a situation where the jurors are participating 100% remotely unless they do not have the technical ability to do so. It appears that all witnesses will appear remotely. Defendants have raised significant due process concerns, and in one case petitioned the Court of Appeal for a writ. The Court of Appeal denied the petition as premature, even while acknowledging that serious fairness issues were being raised.

Los Angeles County does not have any jurors available yet, but has just started re-issuing jury summonses. It is anticipated that all of the first wave of jurors will go to criminal cases. There are several preference cases pending trial that are being continued on a rolling 15-day basis (per the preference statute) until a jury pool is available. The court has urged parties to waive a jury (neither side has agreed) or consider smaller jury panels. The court is setting new preference trial dates in the fall, but noting that those trial dates are not realistic and the cases will likely be continued until there are juries available.

Low priority cases such as wrongful death cases and non-preference personal injury cases are being continued into 2021 in all three venues. When and how the courts will catch up on those remains to be seen.

All three of Californias primary asbestos courts are utilizing the MSC process to try to facilitate resolution of cases. Los Angeles and Oakland are ordering remote MSCs. San Francisco required counsel to appear in person. None of these courts are requiring client or carrier representatives to travel to appear in person.

Courts with very few cases (Fresno, Sacramento, Solano, etc.) do not seem to be treating asbestos cases any different than any other casesmeaning we do not anticipate trials before 2021.

Federal courts generally remain in operation but jury trials seem to be limited to criminal cases only. We are not aware of any Federal asbestos cases being called to start jury trials since the pandemic shut court operations down.

More:

California Asbestos Trials in the Age of COVID-19 - Lexology

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Creating NASA Mission Psyche: Mission to an Asteroid – SpaceCoastDaily.com

mission is moving from planning and designing to high-gear manufacturingPsyche, the NASA mission to explore a metal-rock asteroid of the same name, recently passed a crucial milestone that brings it closer to its August 2022 launch date. (NASA image)

(NASA) Psyche, the NASA mission to explore a metal-rock asteroid of the same name, recently passed a crucial milestone that brings it closer to its August 2022 launch date.

Now the mission is moving from planning and designing to high-gear manufacturing of the spacecraft hardware that will fly to its target in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Mission scientists and engineers worked together to plan the investigations that will determine what makes up the asteroid Psyche, one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt.

Scientists think that, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, Psyche is largely metallic iron and nickel similar to Earths core and could be the heart of an early planet that lost its outer layers.

In this image, an electric Hall thruster, identical to those that will be used to propel the Psyche spacecraft, undergoes testing at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The blue glow is produced by the xenon propellant, a neutral gas used in car headlights and plasma TVs.

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS

Read more:

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Creating NASA Mission Psyche: Mission to an Asteroid - SpaceCoastDaily.com

Air New Zealand wrongly claims NASA ‘added a new star sign to the zodiac’ – Newshub

A post on Air New Zealand's Grabaseat Facebook page has captured the attention of many, but not for the intended reason.

The post shows a chart with what are apparently new dates for the zodiac family of star signs, after - as the post claims - NASA added a new star sign to the family.

Ophiuchus, the 'new' sign of the zodiac, was recognised as a constellation by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1930.

The Grabaseat post says as a result of Ophiuchus' arrival, dates of the traditional star signs have changed.

NASA recently tweeted it had heard reports of a new star sign, and set to set the record straight.

"No, we did not change the zodiac. When the Babylonians invented the constellations 3000 years ago, they chose to leave out a 13th sign."

View post:

Air New Zealand wrongly claims NASA 'added a new star sign to the zodiac' - Newshub

MSNBC’s Joy Reid Makes Cable Network History With the Debut of "The ReidOut" – Vogue

The person who wrote those columns is not the person I got to know sitting across from her at a table in Tampa at Hooters, Capehart says of Reids previous LGBTQ remarks. I don't know that person. I don't know that person who wrote those pieces.

Look, he continues, do you know how many people would be out of my life if I did not, one learn to forgive, and two, give them the room to evolve?

Over the past few months, Reid has witnessed an entire nations belief system on race radically evolve. Following the killing of George Floyd in May and the worldwide protests that followed, America seems ready, finally ready, to take in the very things shes spoken on for years. Before the hoodie became a menacing totem for the alt-right in Florida, Reid fretted over her childrens clothes. She wasnt worried about other kids. She feared something else.

I think it's important to have somebody who looks like you, who can empathize with what you feel, Reid says. For the most part white Americans traditionally been very trusting of the police. The police are Barney Fife. Theyre your friend. They get your cat out of a tree.

Im a law abiding-citizen, she continues. Ive never been arrested or committed a crime. But when I see those blue lights, I feel sick. I feel my heart racing. Even though I know I havent done anything wrong, Im afraid of the police. Im successful. I work at a great company. I have health benefits. And Im afraid of the police.

Matthews swift retirement proved shock to the network. It also offered a reset. It allowed room for something, someone different in different times. In the months that followed, Reid was one of a series of people who held down the 7 p.m. hour as MSNBC sought out a replacement. But there remained no clear choice.

When Caesar Conde, the newly-minted chairman of the NBCUniversal News group called in mid-June, Reid says she thought little of it. After all, Conde, who took over in May, was speaking to a lot of people at the network. In that chat she laid out whats needed with coverage should either Trump or Joe Biden win in November. In one scenario, the press needed to be more proactive when faced with a nation teetering on the edge of authoritarianism. In another, they would see a new president walking into country crippled by a health crisis and social division. One that faces certain economic hardship and a lost standing in the world. Still, she told Conde, the media needed to hold a President Biden accountable, to make sure he met the demands of a country demanding systemic change.

Here is the original post:

MSNBC's Joy Reid Makes Cable Network History With the Debut of "The ReidOut" - Vogue

AOC on League of Legends: Right-wing Twitter is childs play compared to inting 13-year-olds – VG247

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, recently reached Silver III tier on League of Legends and apparently, playing League with 13-year-olds is childs play compared to dealing with right-wing Twitter.

Ocasio-Cortez, who is a US House candidate for NY-14 (Bronx and Queens) initially took to Twitter in order to share her accomplishment of reaching Silver III in League. Check out the tweet below.

AOC quickly received a deluge of responses from other League players all over the world, most of whom were delighted to see such a high-profile political representative openly addressing her affinity for playing video games.

Its a well-known fact that Ocasio-Cortez is exceptionally quick-witted, so the clever banter that ensued comes as no surprise.

Check out the tweet below.

Gotta know what role? asked one follower. AOCs response that her role is to support the people was pretty solid. I laughed.

My favourite response, though, was definitely this one.

Calling a video game ult the Medicare for All of said game at least in my case elicited more than the usual nostril exhalation that occurs after reading something funny on the internet. I full on laughed at that one, to the extent that I woke my dog up from his afternoon snooze. I felt a bit bad after, but Im sure he would have laughed too if he could read.

Renowned personalities from the games industry also responded to AOCs tweet. As you can see from the tweet below, SonicFox is dying to get her off the MOBA buzz so they can teach her how to play fighting games.

Anyway, the best part about all of this is that AOC went on to say that right-wing Twitter is like childs play compare to inting 13-year-olds. For those unacquainted with League lingo, inting means intentionally feeding, which in turn means purposely allowing players on the enemy team to benefit from attacking you.

It is genuinely refreshing to see a passionate politician publicly noting that alt-right trolls are less of a nuisance than League-loving 13-year-olds. That is an excellent display of conviction, and it makes me even happier that AOC managed to get Silver III.

If youre curious about who she mains, AOCsaid she won her promos on Sona, but also plays Janna, Lux, and Morg. Shes working on her Lulu, too.

In related news, Valorants new weapon skin bundle is $95. Dont reckon Ill be buying that.

See the original post:

AOC on League of Legends: Right-wing Twitter is childs play compared to inting 13-year-olds - VG247

Everybodys talking about an AI tool that does (almost) everything – The Hustle

Wordsmiths, get nervous.

OpenAI, the artificial-intelligence outfit backed by Elon Musk, recently opened up access to GPT-3, a new AI language model.

Its so powerful that it can produce text thats practically indistinguishable from human work.

That used to be true. People fed books and scripts to these programs and generated hilariously bad endings to episodes of Game of Thrones.

But while earlier models mimicked a humans vocabulary and writing style, GPT-3 is able to analyze context. One guy used GPT-3 to write an entire blog post, and he was surprised by the quality of the results.

And thats not all GPT-3 can do

The API currently is in beta, and you have to request access to use it. When the API becomes commercially available, OpenAI will use the proceeds to fund further research.

We at The Hustle will be nervously watching for future developments. Last week, Microsoft cut dozens of full-time MSN staffers in favor of news curation thats handled by AI.

Sam, look away.

We asked Trung Phan, one of our Trends analysts, what he thought of this powerful new toy. Heres what he told us not aided by GPT-3 (or was he?).

In the classic sci-fi movie Terminator 2, the villainous AI Skynet becomes self-aware at 2:14am ET on August 29th, 1997.

That prediction may have been 23 years too soon, but here we are. *nervous laughing*

More seriously, the potential threat of general AI is grounded in something more (seemingly) benign than killer robots (read: The Paperclip Maximizer article and for a deeper dive this book).

The purpose of OpenAI is to ensure the development of AI benefits all of humanity. Fingers crossed.

More:

Everybodys talking about an AI tool that does (almost) everything - The Hustle

Greater Acceptance of AI Has Resulted in Lower Satisfaction Levels – The Financial Brand

Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the use of digital technologies and has increased the application of artificial intelligence (AI) into all aspects of the consumer experience. As the pandemic continues to impact the way consumers interact with financial institutions and with each other, the demand for contactless or non-touch interfaces, such as chatbots, increases. This has forced organizations to find new ways to integrate advanced intelligence into the entire customer journey.

According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey from March and April of 2020, 77% of bank executives believed the the ability to extract value from AI will sort the winners from the losers in banking. AI platforms were the second highest priority area of technology investment, behind only cybersecurity, according to the survey. The importance of AI adoption is only likely to increase in the post-pandemic era.

Unfortunately, the increased focus on the potential and use of AI has not been reflected in higher levels of satisfaction. Instead, satisfaction levels with AI have actually decreased since 2018.

Read More:

( sponsored content )

According to a Capgemini study conducted in April and May of this year, more than half of consumers (54%) have daily AI-enabled interactions with organizations, including chatbots, digital assistants, facial recognition or biometric scanners. This was a significant increase over 2018 (21%). Even after lockdowns are lifted, consumers say they will still be looking to make increased use of touchless interfaces, including voice interfaces, facial recognition, or apps.

From a sector perspective, automotive (64%) and public sector (62%) were strong performers, followed by banking and insurance (51%). According to the research, close to half (45%) of consumers prefer voice interfaces when engaging with organizations followed by 30% who prefer chat interfaces and 15% who prefer AI systems built in websites/apps. But the choice of AI interactions varies during different stages of the customer journey.

The Capgemini research found that 41% of consumers prefer AI-only interactions for researching and browsing, up from 25% in 2018. As a consumer moves forward in their journey, AI is preferred less, with more humanized experiences gaining favor. Part of the reason for the drop in AI preference is caused by the drop in trust in AI later in the journey.

Read More:

Banking transformed webinar

Creating a Better Business Banking Experience for the Post COVID-19 World

Phase 5 will reveal the findings from its first ever State of the US Business Banking Experience survey, a study which identifies and measures the critical factors that drive loyalty.

TUESDAY, August 4TH at 2pm (ET)

Without trust, the acceptance of artificial intelligence by consumers will lag. The good news is that trust in AI interactions is increasing overall. In fact, according to the Capgemini research, more than two-thirds of consumers (67%) trust personalized recommendations. In addition, the share of consumers who do not trust machines with the security and privacy of their personal data has dropped to 36%, down from 49% in 2018.

Part of the improvement in trust can be attributed to enhanced regulations, such as GDPR. In addition, trust has been positively impacted by an improvement in fairness and transparency by organizations. For instance, in 2018, only 13% of organizations informed consumers about the presence of AI, compared to 66% in 2020.

In many research studies conducted around AI and improved customer experiences, including the research done by the Digital Banking Report in 2019 and also in 2018, consumers indicated that they wanted AI to display human-like capabilities including human-like voice. personality or understanding. If interactions were more human-like, consumers stated they would be more likely to use these AI applications and have greater trust in the company.

While 64% of consumers believed that their AI interactions are more human-like (compared to 48% in 2018), the bar for satisfaction has gone up as well, indicating that consumers are increasing their expectations from AI engagements.

According to Capgemini, the four actions that are required to improve the humanization of AI experiences include:

Despite higher levels of trust and humanizing capabilities, Capgemini found that customer satisfaction with AI interactions has actually decreased in the past two years. According to their research, 57% of consumers were satisfied with AI interactions in 2020, compared to 69% in 2018.

Most of this shortfall can be explained by an increase in consumer expectations as they become acutely aware of the potential of AI across all industry sectors. Some consumers mentioned the lack of a wow factor that was expected. In several instances, consumers did not feel there was a tangible benefit from AI.

While banking and insurance performed better than the average of all sectors, the two financial services industries, looked at together, also fell from higher levels in 2018. Only 36% of consumers believed that AI reduced effort, with the same percentage believing that AI provided faster resolution of support issues. And, while banking and insurance did better than any other industry in the areas of privacy and security, other benefits were lacking.

To move to the next level of AI deployment, consumers must realize tangible benefits beyond expectations. This equates to moving beyond the basics of privacy and security (table stakes) to value propositions that include predictive solutions that save money, time and effort. These solutions also must be scalable to be meaningful to the consumer and the financial institution.

To deliver an AI experience that delights customers beyond their expectations, they must be humanized at the appropriate stage of the journey and contextualized for each consumer and interaction. It will not be easy to rise above consumers increasing expectations, but the outcomes will increase engagements, trust, loyalty and relationship value.

Read more:

Greater Acceptance of AI Has Resulted in Lower Satisfaction Levels - The Financial Brand

How AI Can Help In A Recession – Forbes

Tal Yellin, CNN

This recession is deeper and more sudden than any other we have experienced. While we would all prefer this recession to be a short one, that is currently unlikely. A deep and prolonged recession puts tremendous pressure on CEOs and Boards of all but the most successful companies.

Let's assume this recession will last longer than we would like. In this recession, some companies will emerge as winners, and many companies will fail. How can AI help? Why would senior executives even think about AI at a time like this? Why invest now?

AI is more important and more transformative than any other type of technology because it can improve every day, all by itself. If you apply AI solutions to the right business opportunities, you can emerge as one of the winners out of this recession.

AI can make a meaningful impact on reducing costs, optimizing financial functions, and finding new revenue streams. Let's briefly examine each of these.

Reducing Costs

Some healthcare providers are using AI for registration-related tasks, like ensuring the availability of a patient's medical history. Removing this function from staff members not only increases their efficiency but dramatically reduces errors. Error reduction can be very costly as it can require staffers to re-do work. Oliveai is one company providing solutions in this area.

If AI replaces some employees, such as in customer service, the cost-savings can be profound. Not only can an AI chatbot work 24/7, but they are also less expensive than an employee, and can improve customer satisfaction. Examples include Liveperson, Ibenta, and Ada.

AI can reduce costs by focusing on predictive maintenance. Without AI, machine maintenance often uses a mean-time-to-failure analysis to estimate when to replace specific components. With AI, machines can report on what is happening with that particular machine, helping to target components that are likely to fail soon, and only replacing those parts in the devices that require replacement. Companies providing predictive maintenance capabilities include H20, Dataiku, and Industlabs.

Optimizing Financial Functions

Certain functions become more important than others in a recession. Imagine you can do real-time demand forecasting, inventory management, and accounts receivables using AI. You will be in a position to react extremely quickly to the changing environment. You will be able to predict where to allocate your funds as opposed to only responding to historical data.

What if you are charged with closing retail stores due to the pandemic? Without AI, decisions about which stores to close are likely to be based on individual store performance metrics and demographic analyses.

With AI, you can layer in much more intelligence in your store-closing decisions. For example, Accenture has built AI solutions that predicted what will happen with customers in the region being served by a particular store. Would those customers go to a more conveniently-located competitor, or would they shift their buying patterns to move online or even drive a little farther to stay loyal to that store brand?

AI creates better predictive models, enabling a higher level of confidence in the store-closing decision process.

AI can help manage bad debt decisions. In 2018, bad debt reduced profit margins by as much as 5% in many companies. In recessions, bad debt naturally increases as customers delay payments or go out of business.

AI can evaluate all relevant customer data, including credit rating, industry type, payment history, debt burden, hiring and firing practices, and geography, along with many other data points to determine the likelihood of a company not paying their bills. Armed with this information, an AI-based system can make real-time recommendations on payment terms for customers. Solutions include CognitiveScale, HighRadius, and YayPay.

Finding New Revenue Streams

AI can model expected consumer behavior to enable real-time promotions. (e.g., a discount on pool toys, high-quality computer screens, etc.)

Starting with historical results from promotions, AI can simulate buyer behavior by layering in new variables such as governmental regulations regarding shelter-in-place, the opening, and closing of retail locations and schools, political affiliation, the likelihood of a COVID-19 outbreak and more.

AI can even collect data from the success of one promotion in one geography and conduct lookalike modeling to suggest similar promotions based on real-time results in another location. Solutions include Revtrax, Antuit, and Vertica.

In addition to promotions, AI can help increase market share. Frito-Lay is in a constant battle for the consumer snack wallet. This is a fiercely competitive market. All competitors are trying to get the consumer to buy their bag of chips. To win over the consumer, they can offer a wide variety of choices, but to be truly innovative, they need AI.

AI can look at vast warehouses of data and identify patterns that humans can't see. AI can look at demographics, local consumer preferences, age, ethnicity, gender, income profiles, etc. and many other things to find patterns that humans can't see.

What AI discovered is that in Frisco TX, a town of fewer than 200K citizens, there was a high population of ethnic Indians. The AI knew that ethnic Indians liked curry-flavored food. The AI recommended that they offer a version of Cheetos previously only sold in India, curry-flavored Cheetos called Kurkure.

AI found a micro-market and recommended a product for that micro-market, and now Frito-Lay owns that market. The question you want to ask is - how many micro-markets are there in the broad markets you serve?

Many of the examples in this article represent AI getting smarter and smarter every day. If youre relying on humans to do the work that AI can do better, and your competitors are getting better and better every day, you will never catch up.

As you develop plans to come out of this recession, prepare for the competitive fight of your life. The winners will be using AI, and many companies that do not use AI will discover they have lost the battle.

See original here:

How AI Can Help In A Recession - Forbes

CFPB Explains How AI Interacts with Adverse Action of FCRA – ESR NEWS

Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn

On July 7, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) a government agency that helps businesses comply with federal consumer financial law published a blog addressing industry concerns about how the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) interacts with the existing regulatory framework, specifically the adverse action notice requirements in the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that regulates background checks.

The CFPB helps ensure that consumer financial products and services operate transparently and efficiently. Financial institutions are starting to deploy AI across a range of functions, including as virtual assistants that can fulfill customer requests, in models to detect fraud or other potential illegal activity, or as compliance monitoring tools. One additional area where AI may have a profound impact is in credit underwriting, the blog stated.

One area of innovation the CFPB is monitoring in consumer financial products and services is AI, particularly a subset of AI called Machine Learning (ML). However, industry uncertainty about how AI fits into the existing regulatory framework may be slowing its adoption, especially for credit underwriting. One important issue is how complex AI models address the adverse action notice requirements in the FCRA, according to the blog.

FCRA also includes adverse action notice requirements. For example, when adverse action is based in whole or in part on a credit score obtained from a consumer reporting agency (CRA), creditors must disclose key factors that adversely affected the score, the name and contact information of the CRA, and additional content. These notice provisions serve important anti-discrimination, educational, and accuracy purposes, the blog stated.

There may be questions about how institutions can comply with these requirements if the reasons driving an AI decision are based on complex interrelationships. Industry continues to develop tools to accurately explain complex AI decisions These developments hold great promise to enhance the explainability of AI and facilitate use of AI for credit underwriting compatible with adverse action notice requirements, the blog concluded.

In the wake of the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, Congress established the CFPB, an independent regulatory agency tasked with ensuring that consumer debt products are safe and transparent, as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Congress transferred the administration of 18 existing federal statutes to the CFPB, including the FCRA. The CFPB enforces the FCRA.

Employers using automated hiring platforms powered by AI in the belief that they are less biased and discriminatory than processes performed by humans will discover using AI technology in background screening will remain a work in progress even though it has potential, according to the ESR Top Ten Background Check Trends for 2020 compiled by leading global background check firm Employment Screening Resources (ESR).

AI has potential with screening, but is unlikely to be used as quickly as predicted. Between the myriad of federal, state, and local laws regulating screening, as well as discrimination and privacy concerns, the reality is going to be much different than many people predict from a purely technological viewpoint, explained Attorney Lester Rosen, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Employment Screening Resources (ESR).

Background checks impact the highly regulated area of employment that requires accuracy specific to the individual. Technology helps to some degree, but each individual is entitled to an individualized assessment, and the law and court cases weigh heavily against the mass processing and categorizing of people for employment, said Rosen, the author of The Safe Hiring Manual, a comprehensive guide to background checks.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) a leading global background check provider offers fast, accurate, and affordable background checks that comply with FCRA regulations that are enforced by the CFPB. In November 2019, ESR was named as one of the top pre-employment screening services for enterprise-level businesses by HRO Today Magazines Bakers Dozen. To learn more about ESR, visit http://www.esrcheck.com.

NOTE: Employment Screening Resources (ESR) does not provide or offer legal services or legal advice of any kind or nature. Any information on this website is for educational purposes only.

2020 Employment Screening Resources (ESR) Making copies of or using any part of the ESR News Blog or ESR website for any purpose other than your own personal use is prohibited unless written authorization is first obtained from ESR.

The rest is here:

CFPB Explains How AI Interacts with Adverse Action of FCRA - ESR NEWS

AI Predicts The Future – AI Daily

Although artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly popular, no one knows how far it can actually evolve, and although some people believe that it will become fully aware of our super-species, others believe that this is not possible and that AI will only support humans in the future.

There are still many ethical issues associated with artificial intelligence that companies do not need to address at present, such as the ethical implications of the future use of artificial intelligence.

In 2020, more than ever, AI assistants will be arranging their calendars, planning their journeys, ordering pizza and more. AI is really woven into our lives today, so much so that most people don't think for a second that when they search Google or watch Netflix, highly accurate AI-driven predictions are at work that make the experience flow. They interact with us and help us make more informed decisions about our daily lives and activities.

As these services learn to anticipate our behavior and better understand our habits, they become increasingly useful to us as we age.

This will lead to a glorious utopia if people follow more meaningful aspirations in their lives, rather than let economic necessity dictate what they spend their time on. There is no doubt that the economic and social changes that AI promises to bring, and in some cases threatens to bring, go beyond anything imagined in previous technological revolutions. A future in which machines do physical labor, just as they did during the Industrial Revolution, but where decisions are made, work is thought and done by machines, not by humans.

This is an outcome that continues to be hotly debated and is not likely to be achieved until 2020. As AI technology and machine learning applications improve, we are likely to see more tools like GPT 2.0 making more and better predictions for the future. Asking it to predict our future based on the past curated by Reddit is certainly something new, but it's certainly not the end of the line.

In smart cities, AI chips will help locate missing people and search for stolen vehicles. The same idea must be applied to car accidents, as cars learn to break laws and driving rules when it means saving more lives. AI chips will also improve our ability to process visual data more efficiently, paving the way for autonomous vehicles of the future.

Because AI can read and synthesise a huge dataset much faster than we can, it can be used to predict all sorts of things, from virus outbreaks to crimes. By processing data from any source, chips can provide more privacy and reliability as well as lower costs in the future.

If we continue to improve, we will probably be able to make more and better predictions about the future. In the meantime, the model railway lets us train on what we can expect in weeks, months or years. I think asking us to philosophise about our future, based on the past curated by Reddit, is new, but I'm glad we did.

Read more from the original source:

AI Predicts The Future - AI Daily

Which Military Has the Edge in the A.I. Arms Race? – OZY

The race to be the new Big Brother is powered by robotics. Can the U.S. keep up with its rivals?

Think of artificial intelligence, and the mind often goes to industrial robots and benign surveillance systems. Increasingly, though, these are steppingstones for Big Brother to enhance capabilities in domestic security and international military warfare.

China has co-opted a controversial big data policing program into law enforcement, both for racial profiling of its Uighur minority population and for broader citizen surveillance through facial recognition. Wuhan has an entirely AI-staffed police station. But experts say Chinas artificial intelligence research is also being adapted for unconventional military warfare in the countrys bid to dominate the field over the next decade.

AI could form an important pillar of the new cold war brewing between the U.S. and China over trade, technology and geopolitical influence. From the U.S. to Russia and American allies like Israel, military researchers are embedding AI into cybersecurity initiatives and robotic systems that provide remote surgical support. Theyre using it for combat simulation and data processing.

By 2030, a third of the combat capacity of Russia, Americas archrival, is expected to be driven by artificial intelligence, say experts, including AI-guided missiles with the ability to change target midflight. Israel has adopted a networked sensor-to-shooter system to aid the Israel Defense Forces in remotely patrolling the many contentious regions under their control. Other countries, including the U.K., Brazil, Australia, South Korea and Iran, are also investing in research into AI-powered weapons, tanks and other armed platforms.

We owe it to the American people and our men and women in uniform to adopt A.I. principles that reflect our nations values of a free and open society.

Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director, Joint Artificial Intelligence Center

All of this has prompted the U.S. to accelerate its own AI research to preserve its status as the worlds sole military superpower. Department of Defense researchers are building a robotic submarine system that will detect underwater mines and other anti-submarine enemy action without putting the lives of American soldiers at risk. Where the U.S. is trying to market itself as different is when it comes to the targets of its military AI capabilities.

We owe it to the American people and our men and women in uniform to adopt AI principles that reflect our nations values of a free and open society, Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told journalists in February. This runs in stark contrast to Russia and China, whose use of AI tech for military purposes raises serious concern about human rights, ethics and international norms.

Not everyone is buying that. In April 2018, more than 3,000 Google employees urged CEO Sundar Pichai in an open letter to discontinue working on the Pentagons Project Maven. They argued that the tech giant should not be in the business of war because we cannot outsource the moral responsibility of our technologies to third parties. Pichai and Google pulled out of the program.

Meanwhile, this May, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison received a prototype of a jet-powered drone from Boeing Australia to flank and protect its manned combat aircraft. Brazil and India have set up panels for their militaries to work with cutting-edge labs on developing artificial intelligence. Britains Ministry of Defense has launched its own AI lab, as has the South Korean army, which has also used a sentry robot in the Demilitarized Zone along the border with North Korea.

Fenced in by U.S. sanctions, the Iranian government is funding the countrys AI tech. An international conference on robotics in Tehran two years ago discussed, among other things, using drones. Researchers in the country have proposed a new Ministry of Artificial Intelligence. And last October, the Iranian military released images of miniature robots that can slide under enemy tanks.

The U.S. knows it cant let up. The DOD spent $7.4 billion on AI, cloud computing and big data in 2017, and requested $927 million for AI alone in 2020.

Thats just a fraction, though, of the commercial spending by companies on research into autonomous systems development, says Mary Cummings, director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University and one of Americas first female naval fighter pilots.The future of AI in military systems is directly tied to the ability of engineers to design autonomous systems that can demonstrate the ability to act and react on their own with the level of sophistication that humans bring through their knowledge and reasoning, she explains.

China is one step ahead of the U.S. there. While the DODs Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has struggled to develop a drone that can transport troops, Cummings says, China is believed to have designed a commercial drone that can transport passengers. The tech space is clearly leading the charge, and the military is playing catch-up, says Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at Sydneys New South Wales University.

For the U.S., its a race against time to commandeer influence in this new global arms race. Win or lose, its a high-stakes game to be the new Big Brother.

View original post here:

Which Military Has the Edge in the A.I. Arms Race? - OZY

What Does the Next Wave of AI Innovation Look Like? – TechDay News

Technology may shape the way people live, but sometimes the inverse is also true. In many ways, the issues of 2020 will drive the innovations of 2021, especially in AI. You can determine what AI research and development will look like by looking at where it needs to go from here.

AI expert Mark Gorenberg predicts that the pandemic will spur an AI revolution, just as the Great Recession did for big data. As the outbreak and subsequent recession reveal the world's shortcomings, AI will rise to fix them. The next generation of AI will be one that addresses the problems of today.

Medical Research

If the pandemic has highlighted one area of need, it's the health and medicine sector. Healthcare systems need better tools to be able to predict and respond to any outbreaks in the future. The predictive power of AI offers a solution.

Researchers are already using AI to find drugs that could potentially fight COVID-19. A National Science Foundation-funded supercomputer program is using machine learning to run simulations about how the virus interacts with different compounds. Using the results from these simulations, scientists could find potential vaccines to start testing.

As people recognize the value of systems like these, it will lead to further research and development. In the coming years, you'll see a broader emphasis on healthcare technologies in the AI industry. AI could help scientists predict and prevent outbreaks or treat them faster if they do occur.

Navigating New Data Regulations

As big data becomes more of standard practice, data governance is a more pressing concern. People are becoming more aware of how companies are gathering their information, which will likely lead to more data regulations. In response, companies will turn to AI to ensure they don't violate any privacy laws with their data use.

AI solutions can help institutions balance convenience for their customers with privacy and security. With the help of AI, organizations like banks can manage data across multiple platforms, keeping customer information safe while still making it accessible. Handling these things manually could make it more challenging to stay within increasing guidelines.

Automating data management will become increasingly critical to businesses as both data and regulations grow. AI that can understand and follow restrictions like the GDPR will become a necessity.

National Security

The past couple of years have also brought new emphasis to the importance of cybersecurity. AI in cybersecurity is nothing new, and many organizations employ it already, but you don't see it on a national level. As cyber-risks have become more prominent, though, AI will play a more significant role in national security.

Government adoption of technology is typically slower than that you see in the private sector. AI has already established itself in the commercial world, so the logical next step is the government. For national security agencies to implement these technologies, though, AI will have to prove its reliability and security.

Governments in the U.S. and Europe experienced several cyber attacks from threat actors like North Korea this year. To combat these rising threats, agencies will have to turn to AI. As a result, cybersecurity AI will evolve rapidly over the next few years.

AI in the IoT

The convergence of separate technologies is a natural step in development. One of the most noteworthy you'll see in the future is the marriage of AI and the IoT. As the IoT grows, so will AI functionality in these devices.

The IoT is a provides AI with the landscape necessary for it to see wider adoption and implementation. AI technologies like self-driving cars will need to take advantage of edge computing, which requires the IoT. AI development in the coming years will shift towards IoT platforms.

AI-enabled IoT devices will also make smart cities a possibility. In the face of growing environmental and sociological concerns, that's a needed improvement. You can already see this trend starting to take place, and it will only increase from here.

An AI Revolution Is Coming Soon

The world stands on the cusp on a technological revolution. AI may not be new technology, but it's still growing, changing, and driving innovation. In the next few years, AI will see much wider adoption and an unprecedented period of advancement.

Technological shifts typically follow significant cultural or societal events. The tumultuous period that has been 2020 will spur the next wave of AI technologies.

Original post:

What Does the Next Wave of AI Innovation Look Like? - TechDay News

DGWorld Brings the Future of AI and Digitization with WIZO – Business Wire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DGWorld, the leading AI and Digitalization Company, has launched the new version of its humanoid robot at the Ai Everything Summer Conference held on July 16, 2020 at the Dubai World Trade Center.

WIZO serves a multi-functional purpose in pushing beyond the boundaries and limitations of a service robot with big data analysis & management, centralized control system, safe & secure database, multimodal interaction, flexible movement, facial recognition, speech engine, proprietary SLAM technology for autonomous navigation, and automatic docking & recharging.

Eng. Bilal Al-Zoubi, Founder and CEO at DGWorld said: DGWorld aims to create sustainable solutions by utilizing the power of AI. The new and improved WIZO will make a positive impact on the way business is done and optimize the human experience. By delegating standard tasks to the robot, employees can focus on human qualities that allow them to excel and flourish.

Hardware and software features can be added to the humanoid robot to meet the business needs. Temperature checking, Payment system and Integration with mobile apps to name a few. The flexibility in customization makes WIZO versatile in a wide variety of industries like Retail, Healthcare, Education, Transportation, Hospitality, Entertainment, and Government services.

As life is slowly going back to normal with the current pandemic, some of the precautions taken are here to stay. Limiting human contact will limit the spread of any virus. Deploying WIZO at entry check-points, reception desk, or to take care of specific tasks will result in work efficiency and more importantly help people stay safe. We all know robots are part of the future. The future has already started. Eng. Bilal-Al-Zoubi continued.

This is the third version of humanoid robots that DGWorld has developed. The first two versions were 3D printed and completely manufactured by the company including all hardware and software. With the latest WIZO, DGWorld wanted to reduce costs, save manufacturing time and increase the quality, therefore, the company chose a reliable vendor to work with and enable the intelligent features.

For more information:

Website http://www.dgworld.com

YouTube youtube.com/dgworld

Facebook facebook.com/DGWorlds/

Instagram instagram.com/dgworlds/

LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/digiroboticstechnologies

Twitter twitter.com/DGWorld3

*Source: AETOSWire

Continue reading here:

DGWorld Brings the Future of AI and Digitization with WIZO - Business Wire