Amid the Covid-19 gloom, many cutting-edge technology companies have quietly been getting on with raising finance with artificial intelligence emerging as a particular focus for investors. Last month, for example, London-based Temporall raised 1m of seed investment to continue developing its AI- and analytics-based workplace insights platform. It was just the latest in a string of AI businesses to successfully raise finance in recent months despite the uncertainties of the pandemic.

That extends a trend seen last year. In September, a report from TechNation and Crunchbase revealed that UK AI investment reached a record level of $1bn in the first half of 2019, surpassing the total amount of new finance raised during the whole of the previous year.

The UKs AI industry has been boosted by a supportive public sector environment: the UK government is leading the way on AI investment in Europe and has become the third biggest spender on AI in the world. In the private sector, meanwhile, many British companies offer world-leading technologies. Take just five of the most innovative AI start-ups in the UK:

Synthesized

Founded in 2017, by Dr Nicolai Baldin, a machine-learning researcher based at the University of Cambridge, Synthesized has created an all-in-one data provisioning and preparation platform that is underpinned by AI.

In just 10 minutes, its technology can generate a representative synthetic dataset incorporating millions of records, helping an organisation to share insights safely and efficiently while automatically complying with data regulations. In March, Synthesized raised $2.8m in funding with the aim of doubling the number of its employees in London and accelerating the companys rapid expansion.

Onfido

With more than $180m in funding, Onfido is on a mission to help businesses verify people's identities. Founded in 2012, it uses machine learning and AI technologies, including face detection and character recognition, to verify documents such as passports and ID cards, and to help companies with fraud prevention.

Onfido is headquartered in London and now employs more than 400 employees across seven offices worldwide. In 2019 the company had over 1,500 customers including Revolut, Monzo and Zipcar.

Benevolent AI

Aiming disrupt the pharmaceutical sector, Benevolent AIs goal is to find medicines for diseases that have no treatment. Benevolent AI applies AI and machine learning tools together with other cutting-edge technologies to try to reinvent the ways drugs are discovered and developed.

The business was founded in 2013 and has raised almost $300m in funding. Its software reduces drug development costs, decreases failure rates and increases the speed at which medicines are generated. Right now, it is focusing on searching for treatments for Covid-19.

Plum Fintech

Plum is an AI assistant that helps people manage their money and increase their savings. It uses a mix of AI and behavioural science to help users change the way they engage with their finances for example, it points out savings they can afford by analysing their bank transactions.

Plum also allows its users to invest the money saved, as well as to easily switch household suppliers to secure better deals - the average customer can save roughly 230 a year on regular bills it claims.

Poly AI

After meeting at the Machine Intelligence Lab at the University of Cambridge, Nikola Mrki, Pei-Hao Su and Tsung-Hsien Wen a group of conversational AI experts started Poly AI. CEO Mrki was previously the first engineer at Apple-acquired VocalIQ, which became an essential part of Siri.

Poly AI helps contact centres scale. The companys technology not only understands customers queries, but also addresses them in a conversational way, either via voice, email or messaging. The company doesnt position itself as a replacement to human contact centre agents, but as an enhancement that works alongside them. Poly AI has secured $12m in funding to date and works as a team of seven out of its London headquarters.

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Five Of The Leading British AI Companies Revealed - Forbes

For an AI to understand thirst, you must first teach it about Drake Quartz What if Messenger Day automatically decided which groups received your photos based on an AI's understanding of what thirst looks like, combined with its knowledge of who should receive thirsty posts? More ambitious still: Could AI power a bot that ...

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For an AI to understand thirst, you must first teach it about Drake - Quartz

New technology driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is helping prison wardens and sheriffs around the country crack unsolved crimes and thwart everything from violence and drug smuggling to attempted suicides -- in near real time, in some cases -- through digitally mass-monitoring millions of phone calls inside the nations sprawling prison and jail systems.

Despite legally-mandated warnings preceding every prison phone call that the conversation is being recorded and monitored, inmates still regularly reveal astonishing amounts of incriminating information, according to technology company records provided to ABC News and interviews with law enforcement and corrections officials using the systems in multiple states.

In a jail phone call recorded earlier this month in Suffolk County, New York, an inmate allegedly threatened to kill the judge identified by name in the call -- and the prosecutor in his case, as well as the inmates own family.

If I got to stay longer than November Im killing them all when I get out and I mean it! the inmate said on the call, according to a partial transcript provided to ABC News by officials with LEO Technologies, a Los Angeles-based technology firm which began marketing the AI services to U.S. prisons and jails company in 2017. Suffolk officials said the investigation is ongoing.

In another recently-identified conversation, an inmate was recorded on a video call with a 16-year old girl who had been suspended from school, according to officials with the technology company. The student said she was going to return to the school to even the score.

When the video call was flagged and reviewed, investigators determined that while making the threat she was holding a Glock [9 mm pistol] in her hand, said LEO Technologies CEO Scott Kernan, a former secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Kernan declined to identify the region where the incident took place, citing an ongoing investigation.

In Alabama, corrections officials said they caught an inmate teaching his wife how to smuggle Suboxone, which aids in opiate withdrawal, into the jail -- by dissolving the drug in water and then using a makeup brush to paint the drug onto the back of postcards that would be mailed to the jail. Another recently-uncovered alleged plot involved smuggling narcotics into a facility by secreting them inside the soles of orthopedic shoes being delivered to an inmate who had been authorized to wear them by a county doctor, according to LEO internal reports.

Data-mining prison phone calls

The AI systems employed in these cases use speech-recognition technology, semantic analytics and machine learning software to build growing databases of searchable words part of a global revolution in neural networks that can understand speech and build databases that just a few years ago were prohibitively difficult to search with AI in real time.

LEO Technologies system is powered by Amazon transcription technology, part of a suite of technology services the retail giant has been marketing to U.S. law enforcement in recent years -- including facial recognition software. Some critics -- including some of Amazon's own employees -- say Amazon is essentially expanding the governments surveillance capabilities for its own profit.

In February, Amazon acknowledged the criticism of its facial recognition software in a statement which offered "proposed guidelines for the proper use of the technology."

"In the two-plus years weve been offering Amazon Rekognition, we have not received a single report of misuse by law enforcement," the statement noted. .

The $1.2 billion prison phone call industry has also come under fire in recent years for charging exorbitant rates for calls, according to annual studies by the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit think tank as well as for tracking the locations of individuals called by imprisoned inmates, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that practice illegal. One of the nations largest prison phone company has also spurred controversy by recording privileged attorney-client phone calls, sparking litigation that remains ongoing.

But the underlying suite of AI-driven technologies being marketed to U.S. prisons and jails, which rapidly mine existing inmate recorded call databases, is beginning to change the way prisons monitor their inmate populations. The "smart prisons" industry is still evolving. The nation's two largest phone service providers to prisons and jails -- GTL and Securus, its main rival, are building out their own call analytics technologies. Securus is developing biometric voice identification technology and GTL is marketing iPad-like tablets for inmates. LEO -- which contracts with GTL -- is currently operating in five U.S. states, company officials said.

LEO Technologies embeds its own investigators into the corrections and law enforcement agencies it contracts with, and those investigators seed the databases with keywords, phrases and prison slang specific to the region of the country. They then notify law enforcement partners when the system picks up suspicious language or phrasings, a rapid-response process that company officials claim has prevented dozens of attempted suicides over the past two years in several states -- after officials were able to get an inmate psychological counseling in the minutes and hours after the inmate was recorded making references to self-harm. The same process is followed when recorded conversations point to imminent threats of violence within the facility, or to plots to smuggle in contraband.

The system's cost can vary, LEO Technologies officials said, but generally cost between $500,000 and $600,000 a year for a corrections facility housing about 1,000 inmates.

Unmonitored inmate communication ranked third in the list of most pressing priorities in a National Institute of Justice study of the nations nearly 7,000 correctional institutions published this year by the RAND Corporation, coming in behind only controlling prison contraband markets (No. 1) and inmate attacks on infrastructure security systems (No. 2).

Prisons and jails are looking at this very seriously, and several are using it -- trying to figure out the right balance and mix of human and technology, said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs Association.

"Voice recognition has been around for 12 or 13 years," he said. "The question is: what do you do with the data?"

The technology has the potential to solve a decades-old challenge inside the nations corrections facilities.

One of the biggest operational issues that has plagued this industry of automated inmate telephone recording has been the lack of staffing to monitor every single call, said John Shaffer, a corrections technology expert and one of the authors of the NIJ study who spent 31 years working in Pennsylvania state and county prisons. And, frankly, most inmate calls are innocuous.

Retired warden Robert Hood, who from 2002 to 2005 ran Colorados ADX Florence Supermax federal facility, agreed.

In the three prisons where I was warden, it was pretty much reactive: a very small percentage [of inmate calls] was monitored and it was done after the fact, when there was a crime or an alleged crime, that youd get on to your phone monitoring equipment and try and hunt down what occurred, he said.

Shaffer said that U.S. prison wardens have tried a variety of ways to balance the regular, proactive monitoring of inmate calls with limited staff resources.

There [have] been different approaches over the years, he said. I remember Walla Walla penitentiary out in the state of Washington used to have officers sitting there in the towers at night listening to inmate calls for hours and hours and hours -- and that was their solution. And it never really worked as an operational solution.

Briefed on the technology, Hood said he recognized its potential value for intelligence, as long as it was used in conjunction with, and did not supplant, traditional corrections practices like working with confidential informants, daily engagement with inmates, inspections, and drug-sniffing dog patrols.

Heres where my mind goes, Hood said. Would Whitey still be alive today if we had that intelligence? he wondered, referring to the vicious murder of the Boston organized crime boss and FBI informant James "Whitey" Bulger last fall, the day after he was transferred to the Hazelton federal penitentiary in West Virginia. Bulger was beaten with sock-wrapped padlocks and his eyes were nearly gouged out with a shiv, or makeshift knife.

Would there be some talk back and forth about hitting Whitey when he went to West Virginia to the federal prison?" Hood wondered. "And would [pedophile financier Jeffrey] Epstein -- who committed suicide, allegedly -- would there have been any value in the artificial intelligence in those types of scenarios? I want to believe yes, there would be value. The system that we had didnt work.

Cracking codes

Inside prisons and jails, criminal conduct is conveyed in code, where words can have very different meanings in different places, and can change from month to month or year to year. An AK-47, commonly known in Alabama prison culture as a stick, is called a tube elsewhere, or a mower, or a chopper, according to corrections officials in two states.

"Synthetic marijuana -- which is sometimes called 'spice' -- theyve taken to calling it no show because if you smoke synthetic marijuana, it's not going to show up on the drug test," said David Thompson, a recently-retired commander in the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office, who is not related to Jonathan Thompson.

Methamphetamine is known in the South as mylar or ice, while its commonly referred to in Los Angeles as glass, or window, officials said.

A binky is a homemade syringe for injecting drugs, often made out of an eyedropper, a pen shaft, and a guitar string, according to "Prison Diaries," a popular blog about prison life authored by a former inmate, which originally appeared in the New Haven Independent newspaper.

A year from now, all that slang could be obsolete so investigators are constantly feeding new intelligence about prison slang into databases tailored to their unique jurisdiction or regional area.

Weve taught the system how to speak inmate, said James Sexton, another executive at LEO Technologies.

At other times, the intentions an inmate conveys in a prison phone call are crystal clear.

After a Birmingham, Alabama man was arrested in 2017 on outstanding felony warrants and his car was towed to a local impound yard, law enforcement officials said they were tipped by LEOs technology to search his car for drugs.

He calls family members and asks them to go to the tow yard, and get a locked camera case from his car, said David Thompson. And he gives them the three-digit code to unlock the case.

Law enforcement officers alerted to the phone call got a search warrant and rushed to the impound yard with drug-sniffing dog.

We sent our narcotics people to the tow yard and beat the family there, Thompson said. We didnt even have to break the case open because we had the code.

Inside the camera case, authorities found three grams of cocaine, two grams of heroin and an undetermined amount of the sedative alprazolam, Thompson said.

In another recent incident in Jefferson County, authorities said they caught an inmate running a prostitution ring from inside the prison.

He was complaining [on a prison phone] to the handler that a human trafficking victim was too far away for him to control her, David Thompson said. He was complaining that she was in California. He wanted her brought back closer to [Alabama], Thompson said. When we showed up at the hotel in Birmingham where the inmate had sent the trafficking victim, we were able to intercept them at the hotel and charge the handler.

He was running this prostitution ring and he had never left the building, Thompson said.

Thwarting suicides and sharing intelligence

The new technology is also thwarting planned or attempted suicides, corrections officials in three states said.

"You always have reservations when youre talking about new technology, said Oxford, Alabama police chief Bill Partridge. But it made a believer out of me in the first week. Weve solved homicides, arsons, stopped jail contraband, solved some cold cases. But to me, though, the suicide prevention is the most valuable tool.

Its just tragic all around when someone wants to take their life," Partridge said. "But taking your life in a penal institution -- thats a huge news story, because were there to maintain their health and well-being. It [the AI technology] saves taxpayers copious amounts of money and it also helps the family because they dont have to deal with that situation.

Traditionally, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have resisted sharing information in order to protect their investigations. From small town detectives all the way up to the rivalry exposed after the 9/11 attacks between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), investigators are notorious for aggressively protecting information they develop.

But the new A.I. technologies may be starting to change all that.

When theres a crime on the outside that occurs, were pretty much the first ones they call, said Suffolk County Undersheriff Kevin Catalina, a former gang investigator in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Intelligence Division.

For instance, after a series of shootings in Bellport, corrections officials were able to quickly produce intelligence that the shootings were connected.

When we were able to pass that information along to our partners on the outside, they were amazed -- first of all that this existed within the jail and [secondly] that we were able to extract it and get it back out so fast, Catalina said. As a result of that, that kind of reverberated throughout the Suffolk County Police Department, and now were getting more and more inquiries from detectives regarding crimes on the outside.

"The turnaround is so quick, its like a different level of respect," said Suffolk County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Joseph Nasta.

Marrying old school tactics to new technology

Still, veteran corrections officials are skeptical than even sophisticated technologies like AI will permanently change the culture inside prisons and jails.

You hope that the technology doesnt make the people lazy, make them less effective at walking the ranges, talking to the inmates, getting that feeling, you know? Hood told ABC News. Its hard to explain. When you walk into a prison in the morning, most senior wardens know if theres something going to jump off, whether theres something going on, just because of the expressions on some of the inmates faces, the confidential informants, you could just feel it in the air."

Shaffer said that over the years he has developed what he described as a profound respect for the imaginative ways in which prisoners subvert rules inside correctional facilities.

Its a constant game of cat and mouse as we figure out an intervention, inmates figure out a circumvention. Certainly its getting better. Its better than it ever has been.

One ongoing technological concern is contraband cell phones.

One of the things driving the market in [contraband] cell phones is to get away from being monitored and recorded, Shaffer said. And the cost of a contraband cell has escalated in prison and it used to be astronomical."

The U.S. Department of Justice has been testing out technology for years that would detect the use of contraband cell phones insides corrections facilities, but has yet to find a cost-effective method that doesn't lead to unintended consequences, like jamming the cell phones of civilians in and around urban facilities.

Prisoners' rights activists point out that the AI technology to mass-monitor phone calls is being used in not just prisons but jails, where many of the inmates have been charged but not convicted of a crime, and may not be able to afford bail.

"I can already envision whats about to happen," said Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, an inmate advocacy group that's critical of the commercialization of the corrections industry. "LEO creates a partnership [with the telephone providers], and passes on a cost to the inmate. They will be using surveillance to help with prosecutions, investigations and law enforcement. But the majority of people in jail are pretrial, and are subjected to additional levels of surveillance because they cant afford bail -- and that really seems unfair and subjective. Rich people can get bail and not be subject to this added level of surveillance."

Hood, the former supermax warden, said he remains wary of the relentless march of surveillance technology.

"Thats great stuff," he said in a phone interview. "But I do fear a little bit about how much intelligence will [eventually] get outside the prison -- where youre starting to look at conversations like the one were having right now."

ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

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US prisons and jails using AI to mass-monitor millions of inmate calls - ABC News

Two of the biggest names in biometrics have issued a joint White Paper detailing the benefits of AI-driven face authentication.

The paper, entitled Enhancing Trust with AI-Driven Biometrics, is jointly presented by FaceTec and Jumio, ID verification and authentication specialists leading the current digital onboarding trend with remote enrollment, face authentication and biometric liveness technology. Artificial Intelligence plays an enormously important role in their solutions, and accordingly, its a major focus of the paper.

Available as an e-book, the paper builds on the idea of the trust anchor explored in the previously published White Paper Trusted Identity From Start to Finish: essentially, the idea is that strong authentication starts with the foundation of an anchor document that provides reliable identity assurance. Establishing a link between the end users face and this anchor a passport or a drivers license, for example allows for the creation of a trust chain in which authentication can reliably be performed at any point going forward.

This is pretty straightforward when it comes to selfie authentication, since an end users face can easily be matched to an accompanying document. But for the highest level of security and end user convenience, sophisticated AI is required AI that can quickly map an individual in three dimensions and in a range of lighting and other environmental conditions, and that wont be thrown off by subtle differences between the end user and the image in their accompanying document.

Enhancing Trust with AI-Driven Biometrics delves into what this kind of AI looks like and how it works, including the importance of liveness detection capabilities that allow AI systems to spot fake artifacts that are meant to trick the authentication system. The paper also takes a bit of time to address broader societal concerns about AI and facial recognition, and to differentiate the more controversial systems from the kind of AI that enables convenient and secure selfie authentication.

Thanks to large-scale data breaches, the dark web, and sophisticated crime rings, the notion of relying on static databases for identity proofing many of which have also been compromised simplyno longer makes practical sense, said Dean Nicolls, Vice President of Global Marketing for Jumio, commenting on the publication.

Admittedly, switching from database pings to AI-powered identity verification does represent a pretty significant sea-change, he added. But, now is the time to dive into the deep end and adopt stronger, biometric-based approaches to identity verification and ongoing user authentication. This eBook provides some important insights about the mainstreaming of biometrics and AI and why modern enterprises are abandoning traditional ways of identity proofing new and existing customers, and deploying modern AI-based approaches that deliver significantly higher levels of identity assurance.

The paper comes at a crucial time for education in the biometrics and identity-adjacent industries, particularly around facial recognition. Growing controversy over the use of facial recognition by law enforcement is necessitating the purposeful demarcation between surveillance applications and the face-based authentication discussed in the paper.

With digital onboarding for new accounts now commonplace, and hundreds of governments working on digital identity initiatives, even the average consumer inherently knows the difference between Face Authentication they perform with their phone and surveillance software running on security cameras they dont control, said Kevin Alan Tussy, CEO of FaceTec. The former protects our privacy; the latter threatens it.

FaceTec provides the fundamental biometric technology that has allowed digital transformation to happen securely by providing our patented 3D Liveness Detection and world-leading 3D Face Matching accuracy, while continuously educating through articles and White Papers, and atLiveness.com.

At a time when this kind of technology is being embraced more widely than ever, the paper is well worth a read for those who are new to the topic of AI-driven biometrics.

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)

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What Are the Benefits of AI-Enhanced Biometrics? - Mobile ID World

The company says its speech technology can help students and educators avoid video conferencing fatigue.

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged universities to fundamentally reexamine how their students learn, with remote learning creating a new frontier for their educators. Since in-person learning isn't viable for every student, collaboration has become more important than ever. But the video meetings that have now taken over how people work and socialize are causing the phenomenon known as "Zoom fatigue," although it applies to every video conferencing platform.That may foster a new trend on college campuses this fall: Turning spoken lectures into highly accurate lecture notes. Otter.ai's Otter for Education AI speech technology aims to give both lecturers and students the ability to avoid Zoom call information overload, and more accurate notes to students if they miss a class, the company said.SEE: Microsoft Teams and Skype users can now chat together

Otter for Education is being used by over 100,000 students for remote learning and academic accessibility purposes, and can be used in a virtual, onsite or hybrid setting, according to the company. The offering is available over Zoom and other online video lecturing platforms.The goal of Otter's technology is to boost remote classroom collaboration between teachers and students. The technology includes functionality for:

Live comments: During lessons, students are able to view a live interactive transcript and can raise questions by adding comments during a lesson to seek clarification or more information from their teacher. This is an especially important feature when a lecture is conducted over video conferencing technology and educators' interactions with a full class of remote students could be minimized.

Keyword search: Accurate, transcribed lecture notes can be searched by keywords. In addition, Otter auto-generates a collection of keywords at the top of each lecture transcript. Students can find what they think is the most valuable educational information and can follow up post-lecture with further questions and clarifications from their teacher.

Embedded educational material: Additional educational material such as slides, and images can also be embedded into transcripts to aid students' learning experience.

Otter generates smart notes that sync audio, text, and images. Users can search, play, edit, organize, and share meeting notes from any device via the Otter Voice Meeting Notes app.

California State University (CSU), Chico is deploying Otter for Education to its entire teaching faculty for the fall semester. Faculty members using Otter for Education will capture and share lecture notes in real time with their students, the school said.

"Learning at CSU is evolving quickly due to the current environment. With this full rollout of Otter's technology, our faculty can now capture and share lecture notes in real time with their students," said Jeremy Olguin, accessible technology manager at CSU, in a statement.

CSU aims to empower its faculty to help all students receive a better learning experience and the flexibility for them to access the changing learning environment in a way that's most efficient and effective for them, Olguin said. "This is the challenge facing the vast majority of learning institutions right now, especially with lectures likely to be taking place in a hybrid mix of on-site and virtual classrooms for the foreseeable future."

Warwick Business School in the UK is using Otter for Education for its online MBA program, as well as its joint global master's program in central banking, run in collaboration with the Bank of England. Teachers are relying on video content to deliver online lessons and Otter provides accurate transcripts to accompany each video, said Dot Powell, director of teaching and learning enhancement at Warwick, in a statement.

"This is proving to be crucial to the learning experience for our online students as it is helping us to create more useful educational resources for them and receives universally good feedback from students."

Peer note taking in education has long been plagued with challenges, as students were dependent on others for the quality, consistency, interpretation, and timeliness of their notes. Otter is being used by several academic institutions for students who require academic accommodations, including UCLA as well as other universities, community colleges, and Ivy League colleges in the US and abroad, the company said.

"UCLA recognized we needed to offer our students with learning disabilities more control over their academic accommodations. We looked beyond peer note takers for a highly accurate, reliable, and easy-to-use app," said Dr. Nickey Woods, an assistant dean and former director of the Center for Accessibility at UCLA, in a statement.

"Otter Voice Meeting Notes empowers our students with automated live transcription, removes their dependency on others, and enables them to access the learning environment in a way that's most efficient for them."This enables students to actively engage in lectures and study groups instead of focusing on note taking, he said.

Otter for Education is also being used by students requiring academic assistance, especially the hard of hearing and deaf communities at Southern Utah University, according to Carmen R. Alldredge, director of disability services."The COVID-19 pandemic and new mask requirements pose additional challenges for students who also relied on reading lips, as both teachers and fellow students now wear face coverings,'' said Alldredge, in a statement. "Otter has become even more invaluable during this uncertain time to ensure an enhanced education environment for our students."

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Higher ed institutions are using Otter's AI technology to transfer lectures into notes - TechRepublic

Hyland, a vendor of content services and enterprise imaging technologies, will have a major presence at the HIMSS20 Global Conference. Its a big player in healthcare information technology, and has a team with decades of experience in the industry.

Ahead of HIMSS20, Healthcare IT News interviewed Susan deCathelineau, senior vice president of healthcare sales and services at Hyland. She offers her perspective on the key trends impacting conference attendees. She identifies interoperability, AI for clinical uses, and providers finally embracing the cloud as three trends that healthcare CIOs and other health IT leaders should be on top of.

The healthcare industry is more than 10 years removed from the passing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and much of the industry still is struggling with health IT interoperability.

Achieving an infrastructure where patient information is securely and easily exchanged not only within a health system but also throughout the care continuum is important because it is the basis for delivering a longitudinal digital record that travels with the patient, deCathelineau asserted. Furthermore, it is absolutely essential to delivering on the promise of patient-centered care, she added.

Universal adoption of technology standards and integration with dated legacy systems are obviously two hurdles to interoperability that need to be overcome, she said. However, another is ensuring unstructured data is properly identified, consolidated and managed as part of the overall digital patient record.

Susan deCathelineau, Hyland

Much of the interoperability focus to date has been on ensuring structured patient data is easily interoperable and exchanged. On the other hand, unstructured information such as clinical documents, narratives, consents and images has largely been overlooked and often represents a larger chunk of the historical data that exists on a patient, she said.

In fact, analysts like Gartner and IDC estimate that as much as 80% of patient information exists in an unstructured format outside of core clinical systems such as an electronic health record, she added.

The importance of unstructured data to the interoperability equation was accentuated by some recent research HIMSS Media conducted with support from Hyland Healthcare. More than 115 healthcare leaders from healthcare provider organizations were surveyed for this research and 53% of respondents identified managing unstructured data as a primary barrier to interoperability.

Survey participants also mentioned that, on average, 73% of the unstructured patient data that exists in their organizations is inaccessible to key clinical stakeholders for review and analysis. When this information is absent from the digital patient record, a clinicians view of that patient is woefully incomplete, she asserted.

HIMSS 2020 attendees should be sure theyre including unstructured data considerations in their interoperability initiatives, she advised.

AI is one of the hottest trends in healthcare and for good reason: It has the potential to truly transform healthcare from a clinical perspective, deCathelineau said.

The industry finally seems to be gaining some perspective on how to leverage and apply AI in healthcare settings to achieve results, she continued. Futuristic visions of AI replacing physicians and the fear, uncertainty and doubt that goes along with them are being replaced by realistic applications of the technology that focus on automating mundane tasks, optimizing workflows and analyzing vast seas of data to support clinical decision making.

AI now is being viewed as a much-needed complement to physicians at a time where they are being overwhelmed by data, she stated.

The technology can help make these clinicians more effective by streamlining or eliminating tedious tasks, such as manual documentation and data search, she explained. It can help cull information, helping physicians to focus on key areas of interest, expediting diagnosis and improving accuracy. At the same time, it can free up physicians so they can spend more time with their patients.

One of the hottest applications of AI in healthcare is in the medical imaging space. AI and machine learning algorithms are being leveraged to analyze thousands of anonymized diagnostic patient images to identify and detect indicators of everything from lung cancer to liver disease. AI is helping to accelerate the valuable research being conducted in each of these areas, she noted.

While the potential of AI is exciting, it is important to note that any AI algorithm is ultimately dependent upon the data that feeds it, she cautioned. In other words, a healthcare provider must ensure its data pool is complete, consolidated and clean in order to achieve optimal results from any AI initiative.

The healthcare industry has long been branded as a laggard when it comes to its technology maturity. This is particularly true when it comes to cloud adoption, deCathelineau said.

Healthcare providers have historically been hesitant to move to the cloud due to fears about giving up control of their data and putting patient privacy at risk, she said. However, the hesitancy that used to surround cloud adoption in healthcare now is being replaced by the realization of its ultimate inevitability. Once again, this shift in mindset largely has to do with data overload.

The compounded growth of EHR data, medical images and video combined with the emergence of genomic data and information from smart devices has outgrown the capabilities of most on-premises healthcare data centers, she said.

The ability to not only store this information but ensure it is properly encrypted and fully redundant requires an infrastructure that, for most, is only realistically available in the cloud, she contended. Add to that the computing power necessary to take advantage of aforementioned AI and machine learning initiatives and you have a market ripe for cloud adoption.

While data drivers are necessitating a move to the cloud, it also is an optimal move to ensure the evolution of healthcare as an industry, she said.

For example, technology infrastructures based on modern, cloud-based architectural styles, such as representational state transfer (REST) APIs help ensure speed of implementation and deployment and are purpose-built for mobile environments. By moving to the cloud, the healthcare industry is that much closer to providing a user experience that is more similar to the web-based environments that consumers enjoy in other industries.

On a different note, Hyland recently has acquired Learning Machine, a blockchain credentialing vendor that helps organizations easily design their records, import recipient data, issue records and manage the entire credentialing lifecycle, rooted in any blockchain they choose.

According to Hylands President and CEO Bill Priemer: This acquisition is a major step toward our goal of revolutionizing the way organizations electronically exchange trusted records. The addition of Learning Machines digital credentialing solutions to Hylands content services platform will enable our customers to generate and manage digital documents that are both easily shareable and instantly verifiable.

Hyland will be at HIMSS20 in March in Booths 2759, 2773 and 8300-101.

Twitter:@SiwickiHealthITEmail the writer:bill.siwicki@himssmedia.comHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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For Hyland, interoperability, clinical AI and cloud adoption are the HIMSS20 trends to watch - Healthcare IT News

BGR

Tim Cook says Apple's AI is already watching you BGR When you talk about Silicon Valley tech giants using AI to improve an existing product, there's a decent chance you're thinking of Google. The recent I/O developer conference confirmed that Google thinks AI and machine learning will be all that matters ...

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Tim Cook says Apple's AI is already watching you - BGR

Nvidia has a new generation of its Jetson embedded computing platform for devices at the edge of a network, including things like traffic cameras, manufacturing robotics, smart sensors and more. The Jetson TX2 has twice the performance of its predecessor, the TX1, or it can also redirect efficiency to power savings, using less than half the power consumption of the original to achieve the same processing abilities.

The TX2 uses a Pascal-based GPU, as well as two 64-bit Nvidia quad-core ARM chips, with 8GB of RAM on board and 32GB of fast flash storage. It also features built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth connectivity and 1GB Ethernet for wired connections. It makes it possible to push edge-of-network computing even further, allowing for the running of distributed neural networks right on edge devices that can more accurately do things like identify objects in images, recognize speech or interpret surroundings for autonomous navigation.

Alongside Jetson TX2, Nvidia is also announcing JetPack 3.0, a new version of its AI SDK for the Jetson family, which includes support for TensorRT 1.0, cuDNN 5.1 for deep neural networks, VisionWorks 1.6 for computer vision, as well as all the latest graphics drivers and APIs.

Cisco say that it can use TX2 and Nvidias Jetson to add local AI-powered features including face and speech recognition to its Spark enterprise network devices, which could potentially offer a lot of advantages in terms of security and authentication. The TX2 is also set to help students and researchers do a lot more with a lot less investment than youd typically require for getting started with AI the developer kit for the new Jetson launches today, with a $599 price tag for preorders in the U.S. and Europe, and a ship date starting March 14.

Nvidias shipping TX2 module will retail for $399 when it arrives in Q2, and the existing TX1 and TK1 Jetson embedded computing platforms will also continue to be made available, at reduced prices.

A connected city is also going to have to be an intelligent city, and not just one where the smarts are centrally located in a server facility each component needs to be somewhat intelligent to help keep things running smoothly throughout the network, without having to worry about infrastructure continuity and latency concerns. Improvements like the generational jump for Jetson TX2 help make that potential future much more achievable.

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Nvidia's Jetson TX2 makes AI computing possible within cameras, sensors and more - TechCrunch

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Published: 10 Aug 2020

If tech professionals expect their IoT or AI investments to continue to deliver value for many years to come, they must know how the futures of IoT and AI are inextricably intertwined.

The potential of AI for IoT is still developing. As more data accumulates from connected devices and gets input into AI algorithms, the effects of AI and IoT on human lives and jobs will grow. The combination of AI and IoT will lead to a highly automated future where a web of IoT technology and smart software entities work together to drive advancements and better inform decisions.

Right now, humans are part of the AI and IoT system, whether they input data into machine learning algorithms or give final approval of automated actions. But experts can envision a future where that won't be the case. The future of IoT will be a web of smart entities where analysis of real-time data from many endpoints feed into multiple models that empower smart devices to automatically act, according to Michael Wollowski, an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and John McDonald, CEO of ClearObject.

Wollowski and McDonald authored Chapter 7 in the book Artificial Intelligence for the Internet of Everything -- written by several experts and edited by William Lawless, et al -- which explores potential applications of IoT technology and what intelligent automation will look like in the future. This chapter explores how the future of IoT cannot be seen without the context of other technological advancements, including predictive analytics. The book dives into different uses of AI for IoT, how multiple AI and IoT systems will collaborate to reach their full potential, and the challenges IoT and AI create for cybersecurity and understanding the complexity of the technology.

Below is an excerpt of the book: Chapter 7, "The web of smart entities -- aspects of a theory of the next generation of the internet of things," written by Wollowski and McDonald.

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Examine the future of AI for IoT to achieve business success - TechTarget

The Toronto Raptors already have a manual ghosting system where coaches mark out where they think players should have been. This technology, however, lifts that burden. It can create ghosts in real time, even in soccer (aka football) and other sports where the continuous play can lead to predictions that gradually veer from realistic outcomes. The scientists rely on imitation learning, where AI bases its actions on demonstrations, to keep that long-term prediction in check.

The early results are promising. In an example soccer match between Fulham and Swansea, a league-average ghost team replacing Swansea performed about as well in a defensive situation... not well at all, unfortunately. However, swapping in the ghost of a strong defensive team dramatically improved Swansea's chances of preventing a goal. Provided this approach can be adapted to both offense and a wider range of sports, you could see coaches offering more specific advice and shoring up weaknesses that might otherwise go unaddressed.

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AI predicts how athletes will react in certain situations - Engadget

Lead researcher Vlad Firoiu tells our TechCrunch colleagues that the SSBM AI is at once very calculating and knowingly reckless. It will sometimes turtle (that is, refuse to attack) until it's sure there's an opening, but it will just as readily leap off the stage when it sees an opportunity for a quick but relatively risky victory. And since this is AI, it has reflexes that humans can't usually match.

This doesn't mean that you're going to see the neural network participating in formal competition, like you saw with Google's DeepMind. It doesn't know how to deal with projectiles (rendering it useless with many SSBM characters), and you can make it panic if you hide in the corner. However, this is a good demonstration of how deep learning AI can cope with new environments. It also suggests that game developers could use neural networks to provide a serious single-player challenge at the highest skill levels, giving pros a way to practice when similarly-ranked rivals aren't available.

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MIT's 'Super Smash Bros.' AI can compete with veteran players - Engadget

Theres no shortage of enthusiasm or predictions about the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Grand View Research estimates the global AI market will grow at a compound annual rate of 57% between 2017 and2025, reaching $36 billion. Forrester predicts that 2020 is the year executives will focus on how to drive and measure the value of their investments in AI.

Healthcare is no exception. A recent survey of healthcare executives conducted by Optum found that not only is use of AI on the rise, but also that most executives expect a faster return on their investments than first anticipated.

Whats missing from these lofty projections are more substantive discussions about whats required to ensure that AI can deliver on its promise, such as the importance of data governance and management. There are also fewer conversations about the role AI and machine learning can play in the healthcare supply chain, compared with other areas, such as improved disease diagnosis and drug development. But when you stop and think about how AI is being applied elsewhere in healthcare, you begin to see implications and opportunities for the supply chain.

Predictive analytics. One of the more exciting applications of AI is the use of genomics, combined with other patient clinical, social and behavioral factors, to predict future disease states and healthcare treatments, such as whether a patient is likely to experience a cardiovascular event or need a knee replacement. At the individual patient level, there is relatively little downstream relevancy for supply chain. But consider what could happen if we had data on entire patient populations say those served by a healthcare system or accountable care organization. Could that help predict the types and volume of products that will be needed, including when and where, while providing valuable demand signals to manufacturers and distributors?

Demand matching. With more data on how products perform in routine clinical practice and the drive to redesign care pathways based on the needs of specific patient populations, there is an increasing need to match the right product to the right patient. AI can play an important role in understanding what works best on what kinds of patients, and leverage this data for value analysis and sourcing, as well as making sure the right products are in the right place.

Logistics optimization. AI-enabled companies focused on patient flow are utilizing tools commonly deployed by third-party logistics companies, such as UPS, to chart the fastest ambulance routes to transport patients to the hospital or other care delivery sites. Why not deploy these same technologies to assist healthcare supply-chain professionals as they grapple with the migration of care outside the acute care settings? AI can help determine the best transportation methods, frequency and routes to move both products and caregivers to the rapidly expanding number of locations where they will be needed, from home and retail clinics to urgent care and ambulatory surgery centers.

Supply continuity. Recent events from natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks to product recalls and sterilization facility closures have increased attention to the challenges incurred by disruptions in supply continuity. Unlike the retail industry, where a backorder is often only an inconvenience, supply disruptions in healthcare can have grave consequences. Take Hurricane Maria as an example. When the storm hit Puerto Rico, it negatively affected operations at more than 50 different manufacturers on the island, including those that supply IV bags. The shortage in saline bags left providers across the U.S. scrambling for alternatives. The group purchasing organization, Premier, recently called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require medical device manufacturers to communicate potential shortages. AI could be deployed not only to help providers anticipate backorders and stockouts, but also to help manufacturers gather data across their highly complex supply chains to better predict disruptions, take corrective action, and help their customers identify alternatives.

Task automation. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a form of AI that is being increasingly used in healthcare, especially around claims processing. RPA uses software robots to automate and standardize repetitive tasks, freeing up personnel for more value-added work. For supply chain, RPA is being used to automate contract-management tasks, such as checking pricing and populating procurement systems with contract terms.

AI dependencies. As with many new technologies, there is considerable excitement over what AI can do to improve clinical, operational and financial performance, along with patient and clinician experience. At the same time, there is relatively little discussion about what needs to be in place to ensure that AI delivers on its promise.

One of the most underestimated areas is data governance. The beauty of AI is that it can analyze large amounts of data to identify patterns and hidden correlations that would otherwise take humans considerably longer to decipher, if at all. It also allows users to feed the AI engine with a wide range of variables, even those you only suspect might have some bearing on the problem youre trying to solve. But despite the sophistication of the tool, the old adage garbage in, garbage out still applies. Before starting an AI initiative, make sure you have enough data (likely drawn from different sources), and that the data adheres to well-defined data policies, standards, definitions and processes.

Finally, consider to what extent you want to utilize AI to augment decision making, i.e., whether to allow the system to provide insights and recommendations while a human still makes the final choice, or to fully automate decision making. The magic and mystery of AI is the lack of transparency in how the system makes decisions, because its continually learning and changing how it selects, weighs and relates different variables to reach conclusions. Only once you have trust in the system especially when dealing with patient care decisions should you move to applications of AI in which the system makes decisions and takes action without human intervention.

The potential for AI and machine learning in healthcare is awe-inspiring, especially as we consider how to harness the rapidly expanding wealth of knowledge that is generated every day. On the other hand, there is still much to learn about how best to apply AI across the various aspects of healthcare. As we aspire to new heights, guided by AI, its important to remember the foundation upon which AI is built. Are your AI initiatives based on accurate, complete, standardized and normalized data? If so, then the sky, seemingly, is the limit.

Karen Conway is vice president of healthcare value with GHX.

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The Potential of AI in the Healthcare Supply Chain - SupplyChainBrain

Todays Daily AI Roundup covers the latest Artificial Intelligence announcements on AI capabilities, AI mobility products, Robotic Service, Technology from NVIDIA (Deep Learning), Alteryx (Analytics), Genesys (Computing), Dynatrace (Assistive Technologies), Atento (Financial Services,), Five9 (Analytics) and Intel (Computing).

Starting this month,NVIDIAsDeep Learning Institute is offering instructor-led workshops that are delivered remotely via a virtual classroom. DLI provides hands-on training inAI, accelerated computing and accelerated data science to help developers, data scientists and other professionals solve their most challenging problems.

Alteryx,Inc., revolutionizing business throughdata scienceandanalytics,announced thatBilly Spearshas joined the company in a new role as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).As the company continues its strong growth, Billys responsibilities include overseeing information security, enterprise cybersecurity and associatedrisk managementpractices.Billy will provide ongoing education on with information andcybersecuritybest practices.

To provide more personal, flexible and positivecustomer experiences,Concord ServicingCorporation (Concord) has selected Genesys Cloud. A move to the all-in-one solution and the worlds leading public cloud contact center platform will allowConcord to help itsloan originators and capital providers work more efficiently and deliver better service to customers. In addition, the recognized leader in portfolio servicing and financial technology anticipates cost savings after it shifts from its on-premises solution toGenesys Cloud.

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Daily AI Roundup: The Coolest Things on Earth Today - AiThority

Watch all the Transform 2020 sessions on-demand right here.

Were thrilled to announce the winners of the second annual Women in AI Awards.

The Women in AI Awards are part of VentureBeats continuing commitment to diversity in AI. With that commitment in mind, VentureBeat kicked off Day 1 of Transform 2020 with the Women in AI Breakfast and Day 2 with the Diversity and Inclusion Breakfast, featuring diverse voices from across AI.

This year the awards saw hundreds of nominations (you can read them all here). They have all made outstanding contributions in the AI field, from advancing the work in ethics and fairness in AI, to trailblazing research critical to AI innovation, to ensuring young women entering the field have the opportunity and mentorship necessary to thrive.

Chosen by VentureBeat leadership from the open nominations, below are your 2020 Women in AI Award winners. We would like to thank everyone for their continued commitment to the field of AI.

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Announcing the Women in AI Awards winners - VentureBeat

This article is about the character. For the voice actress, see Ai Horanai. AiOther

Ai () is the nickname given to the currently unnamed[2]"Dark Ignis" (, Yami no Igunisu) by his model and partner Yusaku Fujiki and Kolter. Being a member of the Ignis, his existence is sought after by SOL Technologies and the Knights of Hanoi, and is one of the Ignis who supports human coexistence. He is the deuteragonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.

Ai is a small, digital humanoid being. Ai's distinct features that distinguishes him from the other Ignis is his pointed top and his clown shoe like feet. He has markings over his purple-tinted black body, in the shape of thin lines and circles, which are tinted with a purple color. He has oval-shaped, yellow-orange eyes. His pure data form is yet to be seen. In stature, Ai is one of the taller Ignis, the same height as Flame and shorter than Earth.[3] When he becomes angry, Ai turns into a fiendish shape, with six tentacles, a large yellow eye and mouth, with two of his eyes on the center of his body.

When Varis' "Cracking Dragon" ate his body, Ai was reduced to an eye with his purple lines, yellow-orange iris and a purple pupil. When he ate off Varis' arm, Ai regained his body.

Ai proclaiming himself as a savior.

Ai is a mischievous, cocky, playful, energetic, somewhat annoying, arrogant, and snarky AI who gets carried away easily and likes to joke around. Despite his occasional cockiness or annoying moments, he is actually quite funny, loyal, resourceful, and amiable. According to his own words, he is disliked by his own people because he was more laid-back than them and didn't perform his job. Ai struggles to understand humans' way of thinking that often seem completely illogical compared to his algorithm based way of thinking. However, he is helpful and can be more serious at times such as making observations both in and outside of duels. He also has a tendency to panic when Playmaker is about to lose and to be forgetful as he had to be reminded what Borreload Dragon's effect was and what Earth's dueling style is like.

Ai frequently tries to interact with other AIs, showing a more social side but is always left disappointed because they're not as capable of free thinking as himself. Ai is also shown to be very chatty, posting on a Playmaker discussion forum 212 times under similar pen names, all starting with "Silent". He enjoys insulting and taunting Playmaker's opponents, as well as trying to manipulate them into falling for Playmaker's strategies, though these attempts of his to help are more often detrimental than not. He does seem to show concern for Yusaku when the latters on his last legs, either genuinely for his safety or Ai needing to survive in order to return to Cyberse. Ai is also kind and thinks positively about people he considers his friends, even when they think of him as annoying.

Ai is shown to be very absent-minded when he was lured into a meeting with Windy and Lightning, realizing at the last moment that Windy had freed him from the Duel Disk. This is a contradiction in his program because Ai has the most wisdom of the six Ignis according to Lightning.[1] However, he still shows his reasons to believe that the Ignis and humans can coexist and remains loyal to his partner.

In the dub, Ai has a habit of saying, "Oh glitch!" when he's surprised or angry.

Ai about to devour a Knight of Hanoi member.

As an Ignis, who created Cyberse World, Ai has some degree of control over it. He was the only one who knew its location when he made a program to hide it. Ai and can unlock data from Cyberse to start a Data Storm. His recent upgrade allows him to summon one at will so Yusaku can use Storm Access or escape danger.

Ai is shown to be far more sophisticated than other AIs, being fully capable of thinking and acting on his own free will and showing emotion; because of that, Ai is considered to be an actual living being. According to Kolter, Ai is built out of highly complicated algorithms that even Yusaku couldn't fully decode. The Ignis can use the algorithm to send secret messages to other Ignis if on a public forum. Ai's memories are stored in the form of video logs. However, Ai's level of free will is limited by the fact that he is still a computer program, as such he can't comprehend why humans do actions that would seem illogical and contradicting with each other. Despite this, Ai is capable of feeling instinct, an unusual trait for even AI with free will which makes Lightning claim that he is a special AI.

Ai's Skill is Storm Access which is given to Yusaku after being trapped in Yusaku's Duel Disk. Whilst trapped in the Duel Disk, he can also act as a Duel AI. Inside Link VRAINS, Ai is shown to be able to transform into a monster, which he did to devour a Knight of Hanoi member and a card infected by Hanoi. Ai also has an upgraded form of Storm Access called Neo Storm Access that allows the user to obtain a Cyberse Extra deck monster, no longer being limited to just Link monsters.

Ai has the ability to sense a Knight of Hanoi's presence through the cards in their Deck, such as when he knew right away that Gore was pretending to be a Knight and when he discovered the Hanoi-affected card in Blue Angel's Deck and could tell when it was drawn. This is later revealed to be his Link Sense, which connects him to his Origin, Yusaku, who in turn has the same powers.

After Playmaker defeated Varis, Ai regained his full body and can materialize himself in the real world, though he still can't leave Yusaku's Duel Disk. In Link VRAINS, he's able to enlarge to human size while still linked to Yusaku's Duel Disk and regenerate parts of an avatar. He can even enhance the D-Board to higher speed and act as a shield, at the cost of it destroying him. Ai can regenerate himself, but a immature data recovery causes him to be smaller until all of his data returns.

As each Ignis is associated with an element, or Attribute of Duel Monsters, Ai is associated with the DARK Attribute. This can be supported by Linkuriboh, a Cyberse Monster Ai interacts with, being a DARK Monster.[4] This is later confirmed by Haru and Flame, referring to him as the "Dark Ignis".[5]

Ai relaxes on "Linkuriboh" in Cyberse World.

Ai was created by Dr. Kogami, the scientist who created the Ignis.[6] The Ignis were developed by watching the six test subjects Duel, with Ai modeled after Yusaku Fujiki.[7] Eventually, Ai and the other Ignis evolved and created the Cyberse World, as well as the Cyberse monsters. Their progress worried Dr. Kogami who created Ignis to help humanity, and predicted through his simulations that the AI and humanity would become enemies.[3] Despite this, Ai and the other Ignis continued to create their world, each with a sector based on themselves. In Ai's words, the Ignis would never try to harm humanity, and would rather live in their own world.[4] Ai, unlike other Ignis, had a human's instinct. Due to his rebellious behavior, Lightning observed him, believing that would inspire the other Ignis to evolve.[8]

Ai, was laid-back[1] and didn't do his job as the other Ignis did, which made him less-liked by his kin,[4] especially Aqua, who once threw Ai and "Linkuriboh" to the ground for slacking off.[9] One day, Ai was fooling around the water domain with "Linkuriboh". Aqua warned Ai not to be playing around, since it was dangerous. Ai didn't mind, but it nearly hurt himself when it fell down a waterfall. Aqua scolded Ai, reminding it should behave like an Ignis. Earth was jealous, and demanded of Ai to stay away from Aqua, as it'd protect the latter.[10]

Ai about to get crunched by "Cracking Dragon".

Five years prior to the start of the series, the Knights of Hanoi launched an attack against the Cyberse World and captured the Ignis protecting it, except for Ai who wasn't present. Ai arrived, noting that it was a good time to be hated by his own kind. He stole vital information from the Cyberse and hid it within himself, disconnecting it from the rest of the network which forced Hanoi to stop the attack before he was crushed by a "Cracking Dragon" (in the dub, this scene was replaced by the flash of data). However, his eye survived. Ever since, he had been running from both the Knights and SOL Technologies.[11]

Ai is hunted by the Knights of Hanoi.

Ai trapped inside Yusaku's Duel Disk.

Ai was in LINK VRAINS, and watched certain events, like Playmaker confronting a Knight of Hanoi. Later, while being pursued by SOL Technologies and the Knights of Hanoi, Ai fell into a trap created by Playmaker, who saved him by absorbing him into his Duel Disk. Yusaku explained Ai would be their hostage, and made it clear Ai could not escape. Yusaku went into LINK VRAINS as Playmaker to confront the Knight of Hanoi, which displeased Ai for returning into the danger. Playmaker showed Ai, and threatened to delete it if the Knight did not stop his attack. Thus, Ai was turned into a Dueling AI. thus necessitating the defeat of Playmaker in order to recover Ai. Ai doubted that Playmaker's Deck was strong enough to defeat the Knights' "Cracking Dragon", but Playmaker doubted Ai's words and told him to pray for the victory. Ai declared AI do not pray before stirring up a virtual wind called "Data Storm" that initiated a Speed Duel.[11]

Before the Duel began, Ai explained Playmaker how Speed Duels worked but didn't mention Skills. Throughout the Duel Ai repeatedly tried to offer support for Playmaker, only for Playmaker to keep telling him to shut up and remind that he was holding Ai hostage. When they sucked into a tornado within the Data Storm, Playmaker figured out that Ai not mentioning skills and bringing him into the tornado were part of his calculations. Ai confirmed this, and activated Playmaker's skill "Storm Access", which allowed them to obtain "Decode Talker" so that Playmaker could defeat the Knight.[12] The Knight attempted to self destruct and kill Playmaker, but Ai turned into a monster and devoured the knight to save Playmaker. He suggested Playmaker should log off soon. Yusaku and Kolter spent the next few days trying to figure out Ai' programming and nicknamed him "Ai", a pun on "A.I." and "eye". Eventually Yusaku found footage from some of Ai's memories, which Ai himself didn't understand except for Varis being the leader of Hanoi. Scanning those recordings caused Varis to sense Ai and try to find him, but Kolter shutting off Caf Nom's power prevented him from finding them. The next day, Ai was left at Yusaku's house in a storage shelf, there he tried to convince Roboppy to set him free.[13]

Ai panicked when Yusaku returned home and had Roboppy put him back on the shelf. When Yusaku found them, Ai told Yusaku that had arrived home early, to which Yusaku said a Knight of Hanoi appeared and revealed a secret room he used to go to LINK VRAINS. As soon as they arrived, both Playmaker and Ai quickly figured out the Knight was fake. The "Knight" revealed himself to be The Gore, who wanted to challenge Playmaker. Ai looked up information about The Gore, Playmaker was uninterested and attempted to log out but a program from SOL prevented him from doing so, so he was forced to Duel The Gore. During the Duel, Ai continued researching The Gore and found out that The Gore donated most of his money to the orphanage where he grew up. When Gore let himself take 2000 Damage when he had the chance to avoid it, Ai was confused about why humans make illogical choices. Playmaker said it was because of their hearts, but didn't explain what that meant because Ai' algorithm-based thinking wouldn't understand it.[14]

When Kolter found out that Skye Zaizen, Yusaku's classmate, is "Blue Angel", Ai helped Yusaku locate her while they were at school. Ai forced Yusaku to join the Duel Club and tried to interact with Skye's Duel Disk AI. The next day Ai noticed something strange about Skye's AI so he sent her a text message on Playmaker's behalf challenging Blue Angel to a Duel, then tricked Yusaku into going into VRAINS to confront Blue Angel. There, he explained that Hanoi must've planted a card into Blue Angel's deck to use her as bait for Playmaker.[15] During the Duel, Ai was horrified when Blue Angel was affected by Hanoi's card and warned Playmaker that if the Duel continued much longer, Skye would suffer permanent brain damage.[16]

After the Duel concluded Ai devoured Hanoi's program and detected that they had infected Skye with a virus to keep her comatose. Later Ai told Yusaku and Kolter that the only way to remove the virus was to get an anti-Virus from Hanoi. Right after that, a "Blue Angel" impostor appeared demanding a rematch. Despite knowing that it was a trap, Yusaku went to confront the impostor because he could get a chance to obtain the anti-virus. Upon arriving however, the impostor turned the entirety of VRAINS into a trap to capture Playmaker and revealed herself to be Ghost Gal. Akira Zaizen appeared and tortured Playmaker, believing him to be the culprit of Skye being comatose and swore to reclaim Ai. Playmaker and Ai tried to explain that Hanoi were the real culprits to no avail, until Varis appeared and blackmailed Akira into releasing Playmaker so they could Duel.[17] During the Duel, Ai noted that Varis didn't have an AI. Varis said that he didn't trust AIs and that Ai must be destroyed otherwise the virtual fiction of VRAINS will destroy the world. When Varis used "Storm Access", Ai was shocked that because that was his signature program, but also called out Varis' hypocrisy of wanting to destroy Cyberse World while borrowing power from it, Varis countered that claiming that he was "countering poison with poison".[18]

"Fire Prison" causes Ai to disappear.

Ai, at sea.

As the Duel progressed, Varis gained the upperhand, and worrying that they might lose, Ai led Playmaker to another Data Storm, where the two obtained a dragon. However, Varis activated the Trap Card, "Remote Rebirth", and combo-ed it with the effect of "Topologic Bomber Dragon", ending the Speed Duel in a draw. Following that, Varis dragged Playmaker and Ai inside a Data Storm, where they began a Master Duel. As the Duel went on, Varis activated the effect of "Fire Prison", eliminating all Cyberse cards from the field, as well as making Ai seemingly vanish into thin air.[19] Ai woke up at sea, and remembered how "Fire Prison" erased his program. Though he was surprised by the surroundings, Ai felt somewhat sleepy, even if he never had felt this before. When Playmaker called out to him, Ai woke up and came back after Playmaker summoned "Firewall Dragon" and "Fire Prison" was destroyed. Ai was concerned if Playmaker lost, and panicked to see he only had 600 LP left. Ai was amazed to see the two dragons, until Varis used the effect of "Borreload Dragon" to take control of "Firewall Dragon".[6]

Ai takes revenge on Varis.

Ai gets his body back.

Ai was frustrated how "Firewall Dragon" failed to remove "Borreload Dragon" from the field, and reminded Playmaker to protect his own dragon. He also reminded Playmaker how they had to count everything on their next draw. Ai was pleased when Playmaker used "Battle Buffer" to negate Varis' "rokket" monsters' effects and could not use them as ammunition for "Borreload Dragon". He had "Firewall Dragon" attack "Borreload", despite the ATK disadvantage. This was part of the strategy for "Encode Talker" to destroy Varis' dragon. Ai watched as "Firewall Dragon" defeated "Borreload Dragon", and Varis as well. He then became vicious and tried to devour Varis, even biting his avatar's arm off but a lightning stroke, restraining Ai and cursed Varis for leaving. Later on, Ai noticed Yusaku sleeping, and called out how lazy he was. Kolter replied heroes need rest, too, though Ai started bragging how heroes needed to be just like him. When Kolter went to analyze the program, Ai called him a pervert for looking into his private parts, and refused to say anything about the program he ate off from Varis. Later, Ai woke up and explained to Yusaku and Kolter he was alive, but they wanted proof. Ai then started to focus and a golden light appeared out of Yusaku's Duel Disk. Ai came out, with his whole body intact, stating his pride how he managed to recover his body back. Yusaku and Kolter were unamused by his small size and went to analyze if Ai had any memories of his past. Ai was displeased by their ignorance, wanting them to show some reaction to seeing his true self.[20]

Ai talks to Playmaker about Ghost Gal's tactics.

After Yusaku left him home for being annoying, Ai flexed his muscles to impress Roboppy, who was amused. Ai commented how dumb robots were, which insulted Roboppy. However, Ai swore once he was completed, they would "start doing that again", which made him and Roboppy blush.[21] Ai "played" with Roboppy, and claimed Yusaku wouldn't watch them, since he was deep in a thought. After Yusaku got a message from Kolter, he took Ai with him to the food truck. There, the two read how Ghost Gal challenged Playmaker, with her access to the data bank and Playmaker's Ai as wagers. Ai stated they didn't have to accept her challenge, but Playmaker nevertheless did so, as he was interested in the data from SOL Technologies' data bank. Inside, Ai was displeased the two initiated the Duel. Ai reminded Playmaker while he did not know anything about Ghost Gal, she must've studied his tactics well. During the Duel, Ai pointed out how Ghost Gal reinforced her defenses, and even set three Trap Cards that would stop them. As Ghost Gal initiated the Battle Phase and claimed she would win in that turn, Ai laughed, as she would make 2400 LP damage. Both Playmaker and Ghost Gal scolded Ai for such thinking; Playmaker claimed no Duelist would make that simple math error, making Ghost Gal wonder why was everyone after this dumb AI. Ai was offended, while Playmaker pointed out she did bring out "Altergeist Meluseek". The latter attacked directly and destroyed "Cyberse Wizard", allowing "Altergeist Marionetter" attack directly, and allow "Altergeist Primebanshee" to do so as well. Ai started panicking, as its fate was on the stake.[22]

Ai yelled at Playmaker that Ghost Gal's next attack would deplete all of his LP. As Playmaker Special Summoned "Lockout Gardna", Ai knew they would have enough LP to continue and even use Storm Access, and exclaimed how "bad" this would be. However, Ghost Gal knew Ai was just pretending, and decided not to attack. Ai was in shock, and Playmaker told him this acting stinked, making Ai sniff himself. Ai continued watching the Duel, and commented how Ghost Gal was foiling their strategies, and wondered what her Skill was. Using Secret Cure, Ghost Gal increased both her and Playmaker's LP by the ATK of "Altergeist Meluseek", making Ai comment how the latter punished them before already. Still, Playmaker paid the LP to activate "Scan Doll" and Ai praised him, encouraging him to use Storm Access. Since Ghost Gal was in the Data Storm, Ai was surprised that Playmaker went to save her, even if they could be swallowed inside, too. Coming out of the Data Storm, Ai commented how Playmaker behaved like a hero. With "Excode Talker" brought out and able to attack twice, Ai smiled, claiming it is over for Ghost Gal. At the end of Duel, Ai explained it was a stressful battle, and would've ended in defeat if it wasn't for him. After Ghost Gal left, Ai asked what was in the SOL Technologies' data bank. Playmaker admitted he did not know, but hoped there was some info about himself, ten years ago.[23]

The next day, Yusaku was searching for Skye, but noticed she was not present there, nor in LINK VRAINS. Ai thought her brother was blocking her the access to LINK VRAINS, to prevent any further danger that might harm her. However, Ai also wondered why was Yusaku concerned about "that cutie", as Yusaku wished that she shouldn't give up on Duels. The following night, Kolter created a link to the mother computer. Yusaku started hesitating to enter, making Ai surprised, since he did wish to find more out and even won the program as a bet from Ghost Gal. Ai claimed he did warn them there were traps from the start, but Kolter explained Yusaku was just being careful. Ai expressed his annoyance, and went with Yusaku into the LINK VRAINS. While inside the system, Ai saw how empty the place was, and wasn't impressed by the rope Playmaker held. Soon, Ai warned Playmaker about the security traps, which were sent to hamper their path. After passing through Area A, Ai was glad they succeeded, but was shocked to see a Data Storm inside the network. Playmaker and Ai were pulled towards the Data Storm, with their rope shattering and alerting Kitamura. Playmaker and Ai were "visited" by two AI prototypes, who went to Duel them, even if Ai reminded them Duels were one on one. Playmaker avoided them and proceeded further, though one of the AI-s intercepted him. The two began a Duel, in which the AI prototype dropped all of Playmaker's hand with "Tentacluster Nautilus". Ai told Playmaker had no luck, thinking he was bad at old maid, but Playmaker shushed him. The two were attacked by the other AI prototype until Blue Angel came to stop the AI-s.[24] When Playmaker shaved his LP down to 1000, AI encouraged him to enter the Data Storm, wondering what monster would he obtain. Inside the data bank, Ai and Playmaker were surprised to see Akira, who expected Playmaker to arrive there.[25]

Ai pointed out the core of the data bank was where SOL Technologies' information was processed and released. Hearing Ghost Gal's plans, Ai thought Ghost Gal lost on purpose to hand them the backdoor route, but Ghost Gal corrected it that she still had the opportunity to obtain Ai. Regardless, she was fine with either outcome, making Ai curse her for being so cunning, which Ghost Gal took as a compliment. When Akira refused to hand over the data from the bank, Ai started to complain, claiming he is the great Ignis everyone was searching for. Akira wondered if Ai actually had free will, like Varis told them. Ghost Gal told them Akira was demoted, which made Ai amused how much he sacrificed himself to look after his sister. Since Akira refused to hand over the data, Playmaker challenged Akira to a Duel, betting Ai for the data, which Akira accepted. Ai was displeased, as being bet was a normal thing to it. As Akira reinforced his defenses, Ai noted Akira was a stiff man, just like his strategy. As Ai swapped "Tindangle Base Gardna" for "Tindangle Hound", Ai started complaining until seeing how scary the latter was. "Tindangle Hound" roared as its effect activated, making Ai feel woozy, but Playmaker silenced Ai. Playmaker brought out "Flame Administrator" and destroyed "Tindangle Hound", with Ai mimicking Playmaker's pose. However, it cursed, as Akira revived his "Tindangle Hound", via "Tindangle Angel", and ended the Battle Phase. Ai realized Akira played a Flip Monster deck, with unique strategies. Since Playmaker refused to give up, Ai encouraged him to crush Akira. Ai admitted Akira's monsters hurt his pride, seeing its power continued lowering Playmaker's monsters' ATK.[26]

Ai failed to befriend Playmaker.

Playmaker destroyed Akira's monsters with "Link Hole", and Ai taunted Akira for being unable to use his Flip Monsters' effects. However, Ai started panicking when "Decode Talker" was destroyed and "Tindangle Acute Cerberus" was summoned, whose ATK was boosted to 3000. "Tindangle Acute Cerberus" attacked "Firewall Dragon", and Ai feared he and Playmaker would lose, so the latter protected "Firewall Dragon" with "Doppler Phase Coating". Akira protected his own monster with "Gergonne's End", so Playmaker tried to have "Firewall Dragon", enhanced with "Alert Lancer", attack "Tindangle Token" to finish the Duel. Ai smiled for the victory, until Akira protected himself with "Morley's Shield". Ai continued panicking when Akira played "Nagel's Protection" to protect his Tokens, and even doubling the damage "Tindangle Acute Cerberus" dealt, lowering Playmaker's LP to 500. Ai yelled to Playmaker to do something, and even wondered if there was anything that can be done to get them out of the situation. Playmaker told Ai to stop panicking, asking if it even was an AI, making the latter furious why he was so calm. Playmaker claimed if Ai was so worried about losing, it should consider about finding a new home. Ai replied he didn't think of that, since he had Playmaker as a friend to help him out. Playmaker claimed they were no friends, stating Ai should behave like other AI-s. This crushed Ai, seeing Playmaker was colder than AI-s. Ai started acting like a dumb AI to amuse Playmaker, though he also wished to know about the incident from ten years ago. Hearing Playmaker was a part of Hanoi Project, Ai started to ponder thoughts about it. He was also shocked to hear SOL Technologies' data bank contained the name of the mastermind behind the project.[27]

Ai realized Playmaker had two parallel choices who confirmed this, exciting Ai, as their opinions matched. As Akira declared an attack on "Firewall Dragon", Ai panicked once more, but was silenced by Playmaker. As "Doppler Phase Coating" was removed, Akira's Battle Phase ended, and Ai was impressed, seeing Playmaker could survive. As Akira summoned another token to power up "Tindangle Acute Cerberus", Ai ignored that, thinking that was a pointless move, as "Firewall Dragon" would attack Akira directly. Instead, the latter activated "Euler's Circuit" to stop Playmaker from attacking. Ai lost hope, thinking he would be turned over to SOL Technologies. However, as the conditions for "Gergonne's End" were fulfilled, Akira destroyed all monsters linked to "Tindangle Acute Cerberus" to defeat Playmaker. However, the latter's "Secure Gardna" prevented the damage, and Ai taunted Akira for falling for the trick. Ai bragged his acting made this possible, but Playmaker brushed him off, as it was poor acting that nearly made Akira suspect something wrong. Despite the advantage, Playmaker used "Recovery Sorcerer" to bring back "Secure Gardna". Ai questioned this, as Playmaker could simply make a direct attack with "Firewall Dragon", but was told a Duel is more than just winning or losing. With Akira's defeat, Playmaker walked pass by Akira and Blue Angel, having Ai eat away SOL Technologies' data. Ai was surprised his name was mentioned, and ate the data, to the point of becoming stuffed. Outside, Kolter praised Yusaku and Ai, the latter being happy he was praised. The two hacked into Ai, and found out the Hanoi Project's leader was Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami, an employee from SOL Technologies, who alone worked on the project in secrecy. Ai doubted the man could have done this on his own, and thought Akira was involved, but Kolter reminded him Akira, back then, was 16 and was not employed at SOL Technologies. The two continued browsing, and were shocked to see Dr. Kogami died seven years ago.[28]

After being left home again, Ai promised to tell a story to Roboppy, who wanted to listen more, since she did help Ai out in "secret things". Both started blushing and giggling. Ai told the story of the recent events: the confrontation with Ghost Gal, entering the SOL Technologies' data bank, battling the AI prototypes and facing the former security-in-chief, Akira, himself. Ai credited himself for some of Playmaker's contributions, amazing Roboppy, until he claimed he wished everyone to fight, with him as the bet. He also thought Playmaker as some sort of a fiend, though Roboppy stated he was just cold-hearted. After he told the story, Ai admitted he was uncertain what would they do next, since nobody else but Dr. Kogami knew about the incident.[29]

Playmaker and Ai watched an eclipse blocking the virtual sun in LINK VRAINS. Ai remembered people in the ancient past were scared of such events, and was surprised people, even today, were still afraid. Playmaker replied people remain the same, unlike technology that advances. The latter proclaimed the light was blocked by darkness, and confirmed to Ai he meant about the Lost Incident. He would not let the incident be buried in darkness, and would uncover the truth. At school, Yusaku spoke with Naoki Shima, who mentioned the "Anothers" incident. Ai thought this had relations to Blue Angel, but Yusaku shushed him, since Naoki could hear him. Inside the van, Kolter showed to Ai and Yusaku the footage of a camera, when a person turned into an Another, which happened six minutes before midnight. Ai noted there were no white hands taking the person into LINK VRAINS. Kolter told them the person had not recovered yet, and showed pictures of more Another patients in the hospitals. Ai and Yusaku knew this was the same accident with Blue Angel, who was infected by a virus.[30]

Kolter believed someone wanted people to be turned into mindless people, but has not find out what happened to their LINK VRAINS' avatars. Kolter showed more data, and Yusaku analyzed all of the Anothers were great Duelists with old-type Duel Disks, and all of them were hackers, too. The trio realized Playmaker, or Ai, were the targets. Yusaku reminded the importance of uncovering the truth behind Lost Incident, and as noted by Ai, they had to stop people from becoming Anothers. Ai noted Yusaku was a cool hero of justice, even if the latter claimed that was unnecessary. Kolter showed a list of possible targets, from which the first was Makoto Kimishima. Yusaku traced the person to his house, and saw lights at his window. Yusaku broke through into his room, and saw he became a victim. In addition, he and Ai watched Makoto's avatar inside LINK VRAINS being confronted by a person, who wished to know if he was Playmaker and had Ignis. Yusaku and Ai saw the person casted some glitter, causing Makoto to fall asleep and fall off the cliff, but was saved by The Gore. Playmaker watched as The Gore confronted the person, Dr. Genome, who placed the virus into Makoto, only to draw Playmaker out. At the van, Kolter and Yusaku watched the Knights of Hanoi Dueling people, and turning them into Anothers. Yusaku decided to Gore into LINK VRAINS, even if Kolter believed he would be at a disadvantage, and Ai wished to feel secure. The group watched as Dr. Genome came, confronting "Playmaker", who revealed himself as The Gore, and challenged Genome, betting Playmaker's identity.[30]

Yusaku, Kolter and Ai watched Gore confronting Dr. Genome. Since Gore claimed to have known Playmaker's identity, Kolter remembered Yusaku did run into Gore at the hospital, but Yusaku claimed it was impossible. Once The Gore equipped himself with a mask and declared himself as "Dark Onizuka", Ai thought that was a tacky thing to do. Yusaku and Kolter realized The Gore changed his battling style to a heel, and would not hold back. Ai was surprised to see Gore actually had his "Gouki Riscorpio" attack "Helixx Marmotroll", causing the former to be destroyed, since it had less ATK. However, Ai noticed this was to have Gore gain an advantage, as 500 LP was inflicted on Genome, and Yusaku added that was how a heel fights. Ai noticed Gore started using his brain to win, while Yusaku noted Gore still wanted to win, in his own way. Just as Gore was to win, Genome played "Regeneration Cure" to stop the damage, and everyone saw Genome had the advantage. As Genome tributed "Helixx Necro Darwin" to defeat Gore, Yusaku became displeased. Ai suggested he could enter LINK VRAINS to save Gor. Yusaku who saw Gore barely saving himself with "Gouki Octostretch", decided to take Ai's advice.[31]

Playmaker and Ai came to LINK VRAINS to help Gore. Dr. Genome noticed the Ignis was here, who claimed he had a name, Ai. Genome was surprised, and saw Ai was domesticated, like a pet, who denied that. Later, Playmaker and Ai suggested a person, who wanted to fight the Knight of Hanoi, to Gore home. The man did so, while Playmaker confronted the Knight of Hanoi. After the defeat, Playmaker demanded the virus-removal program. The Knight did not have it, so Playmaker questioned who was the virus' creator, and Ai threatened the Knight to delete him. However, someone else dissolved the Knight before he could reply.[32] At the van, Ai was amused to read Kitamura was criticized for his failed efforts to stop the Knights of Hanoi. He also read the people demanded some action to be taken for someone responsible in SOL Technologies. Yusaku shushed Ai, since he was interfering with their work. After Yusaku returned, Kolter found nothing new. Ai believed Kolter gave up, who replied he was just getting started. Later, Ai watched Blue Angel Dueling Baira. He noted Blue Angel was cornered, but Yusaku shushed him, since they were still working.[33]

Yusaku showed the woman behind an Another victim, and compared her to Skye Zaizen's doctor, Kyoko Taki. Ai confirmed this, but wondered if she would help the victim because she was a doctor. Yusaku reminded Ai to listen in the end, as he proclaimed she was one of the Knights of Hanoi. Yusaku went to her apartment, worrying Ai, as the place could be the Knights of Hanoi's headquarters. Yusaku replied it was more reason for him to go, and Ai even asked if he was good at fighting. Inside, the two passed by a robot, and Ai hacked into the security system, opening the apartment. Ai saw nobody, but Yusaku shushed him. Continuing on, the two found a room with a pod, in which Kyoto Taki was, logged in LINK VRAINS as Baira. When she logged out, Ai proposed to tie her up, but she appeared next to Varis, who punished her. Yusaku thought she released the virus-removal program because she felt guilty, a feeling Ai did not understand.[34]

Ai flies above Den City, to find Yusaku's colleague.

Ai boasted he couldn't be captured, and laughed with Roboppy, thinking how Yusaku would be surprised when he saw them. Later, he was at the van with Yusaku and Kolter. The next day, Yusaku spoke with Naoki, who wished to battle the Knights of Hanoi. Yusaku knew Naoki was scared, and knew Naoki came to ask him for help. Naoki was furious and stormed out, and Ai noted Yusaku went too far on him. When Yusaku came to the van, Kolter showed him someone has played his "Cyberse Wizard". Kolter identified him as Lonely Brave, which Ai thought as a cool name. When Yusaku showed his "Cyberse Wizard", Ai touched it and sensed the data from the card was missing. Ai thought Lonely Brave was the mastermind, and defeated the Knight of Hanoi to lure Playmaker out. Brave Max was soon interrogated by the mastermind, Faust, and called out to Playmaker to Duel him. Yusaku went to grab his Duel Disk, but saw it was gone. Ai logged on the screen, and showed he was on the Duel Disk, which Roboppy modified it with a drone. While Yusaku noted the device felt heavier, Ai explained he was searching for Naoki, though the data of "Cyberse Wizard". Yusaku realized Ai even knew this would happen, which offended Ai, seeing Yusaku was even accusing him. Regardless, Ai showed the location, where Naoki was captured. Ai got distracted by another drone, and nearly crashed into the building. Yusaku called out to him, and Ai returned to the van. Yusaku grabbed the Duel Disk and left Kolter to rescue Naoki, while Yusaku logged in to LINK VRAINS.[35]

Playmaker confronted Faust, who denied having stolen "Cyberse Wizard" and giving it to Brave Max. Playmaker was confused, but Ai reminded him that was not important, and had to defeat Faust, who summoned the Data Gale. Playmaker noted it was just like during Blue Angel and Gore's Duels, and Ai noted this prevented them from returning home. Faust started the Speed Duel with summoning three "Motor Worm Tokens", and Ai sensed Faust was going all-out from the start. As "Cyberse Wizard" destroyed "Motor Worm Spreader Queen", Ai waved goodbye to her until Faust revived her with "Worm Revival". Shockingly to Ai, Faust used "Egg Clutch" to turn "Cyberse Wizard" into an Insect monster. Ai wondered if there was nothing they could do, and repeated this to Playmaker when he ended his turn. Due to "Egg Clutch", Faust tributed his "Motor Worm Token" to summon two new tokens on Playmaker's field, and Ai counted the queen got 700 additional ATK. The queen attacked Playmaker, who halved the damage by using "Urgent Link". Ai pointed out he barely survived with 50 LP left, though Playmaker stated it was still enough to fight. After destroying "Wormhole Defense", Ai encouraged Playmaker to use Storm Access skill. After Playmaker won, he repeated "humanity's future" Faust spoke of, though Ai didn't know anything of that. After the Duel, Yusaku went to rescue Naoki, who complimented him. He also spoke about Playmaker rescuing him, and Ai told Naoki talks too much. Yusaku, however, wondered if Ai was the one that put him in danger by giving Naoki his "Cyberse Wizard".[36]

Since Yusaku felt uneasy, he could not sleep and went to Kolter's van. Ai smiled at Yusaku, thinking how cute he was, but Yusaku ordered him to be quiet. Regardless, he also agreed with Yusaku something bad would soon begin, as Yusaku believed Varis would make his move soon.[36] Yusaku and Ai, in real life, sensed something wrong in LINK VRAINS. Later, Ai saw that Kolter lost a customer with a red triangle on his right arm. Ai claimed Kolter needed a mascot, who claimed Ai would make a terrible mascot. Kolter noted Anothers' incident has been resolved, but also reminded Varis was still out there. Ai thought Varis had retreated, but Yusaku doubted that. Suddenly, Yusaku and Ai felt a pulse within LINK VRAINSS, and the latter noted Yusaku had Link Sense. Yusaku asked Kolter to scan through the network. Kolter worked on scanning, and just as Yusaku and Ai sensed another pulse, Kolter saw LINK VRAINS infrastructure was changing. Yusaku decided to visit LINK VRAINS, even if Ai felt a bad omen ahead. Ai tried to convince Playmaker things would go bad and they should return home, but Playmaker was focused on finding the cause. Once again, they sensed the pulse coming from the network.[37]

Ai's Destiny Draw resulted in "Fake Trap".

Finding some data fireflies, Playmaker traced them to a spot. As the data fireflies stopped, Ai thought they were taking a break. The two were visited by Ghost Gal, who wasn't particularly pleased Ai and Playmaker were present, too. The data fireflies opened a path, though which Ghost Gal entered, and Playmaker joined in, too. Finding a fork in the path, Ghost Gal saw her data fireflies went to the path on the right. Ai thought they could settle this with a game, which amused Ghost Gal, who credited the AI. Ai explained he had a name, and Ghost Gal thought his name was just a pun. Ghost Gal told the one that chose the "lovelier" card from her Deck could choose the path. Ai was confident in his skills, but had his doubts that Ghost Gal could cheat, who told there wasn't anything beneficial in that. Ghost Gal shuffled her Deck, and let Ai draw a card. Ai declared "Destiny Draw", only to choose "Fake Trap". Ghost Gal claimed the card was nothing her favorite, and didn't even choose to draw a card. She bid farewell to Ai and Playmaker, going to the path on the right. Ai was displeased he chose "Fake Trap", but Playmaker knew that Ghost Gal cheated, by using a Deck filled with bad cards. Ai was even more depressed he was cheated off once more, but Playmaker reminded the importance of their mission, and continued on. They were ambushed by a data giant, who went after them, making Ai even panic. While dodging the data giant's attacks, Playmaker and Ai sensed the pulse was getting stronger, and felt a danger was coming.[37]

Playmaker continued running away from the data giant, and Ai told him to run faster. The two ran to a dead end, and just as the data giant went to attack them, it disappeared in a veil of light. Ai was glad they were saved, while Playmaker noticed another abnormality. Playmaker jumped in the crack, and Ai noticed that was the path that Ghost Gal took. The two watched as Ghost Gal was defeated by Varis' "Topologic Trisbaena". Ghost Gal glowed with a red light, and started vanishing. She warned Playmaker of Varis and his new card before disappearing. Ai and Playmaker were terrified, and were soon visited by Varis behind bars. Playmaker yelled at Varis, while Ai pointed out the place was collapsing, and they swore to protect Ghost Gal's data. Playmaker ignored Ai, who forced Playmaker to log out. Yusaku and Ai joined Kolter, and watched hundreds of tentacles wrapped a beam that was shot in the sky and destroyed LINK VRAINS' cyberspace.[38]

Yusaku, Kolter, and Ai watched as the tower appeared in LINK VRAINS, causing the cyberspace to be absorbed. Since Yusaku obtained Ghost Gal's data, Kolter promised to look into it. Ai noticed the avatars were being absorbed, and not just buildings or roads - Yusaku knew this was Varis' doing. Kolter analyzed Ghost Gal's data, showing the Tower of Hanoi. Ai was shocked, seeing how much data has been absorbed, as Kolter noted that speed has not decreased. Kolter counted six rings would be crafted from this system, one per each passing hour. He realized that once every ring is crafted, a pulse would be sent with high-density data, affecting every machine or program - every piece of technology existing in the world would cease function, as if the world has no computers at all. Ai thought it was safe as long as they did not enter the network, but Yusaku was certain Varis thought of that, and made something that would still erase Ai. Kolter continued his analysis, seeing even devices not connected to the network would also be affected, as an electromagnetic pulse would be sent out, even to erase Ai. While Ai was frustrated, Kolter was overwhelmed, knowing Varis made all of this just to erase an Ignis.[39]

The trio watched Kitamura - Akira's successor in SOL Technologies - battling a Knight of Hanoi, named Specter. They saw how Specter erased Kitamura, and the former threatened to do this to anyone that dared entering LINK VRAINS. Yusaku swore to stop the Knights of Hanoi, by shutting down the core. Yusaku logged in to LINK VRAINS with Ai, and he quickly met up with Gore and Blue Angel. The latter explaining she was fighting for everyone, as those people look up to her. Gore exclaimed the same, since he was the hero that needed to protect LINK VRAINS. Ai noted how full of energy Gore was. Gore noted that was the Ignis, who yelled out he had a name, Ai. Playmaker explained he came to stop the Tower of Hanoi, rescue Ghost Gal and confront the mastermind, Varis. Playmaker exclaimed the importance of stopping the tower's completion, and Ai added it would prevent him from being erased. Gore asked how to stop the tower, and was told Varis had to be defeated. Ai warned the time limit was six hours before the tower was completed. The trio promised to meet up against and went in different directions.[39]

After Playmaker saved a kid in LINK VRAINS, Ai noted Playmaker wanted to do something cool, but the latter silenced it.[40] Ai counted five hours left before the Tower of Hanoi was completed. He was not amused by this game, which Playmaker swore to end by defeating Varis. Ai cheered Playmaker, for he bears that name for such purposes. When Blue Angel was defeated, Ai and Playmaker saw a whirlwind from afar.[41] Playmaker and Ai continued on towards the Tower of Hanoi, as the surroundings continued to be absorbed as data into the tower itself. Playmaker continued running, and went to the bridge, which also started to vanish, as Ai noted they had to cross it to get to the tower. Ai thought of conjuring a Data Storm, but Playmaker asked him not to do that, since the tower would continue absorbing that data, too, which would hasten the tower's completion. On their way, the two faced Specter, who came out of a portal. Specter introduced himself, and explained he would not let them pass through. He told these were Varis' orders, and they would be crushed, too, like Blue Angel was, which shocked Ai and Playmaker. Specter informed them he defeated her without even having to use his full strength.[42]

Specter confirmed he did defeat Blue Angel, but he remembered she spoke something about "blue love", which Ai did not understand about. Specter showed them bits of data of Blue Angel, stating she had no power to save him, and promised the same fate would befall Playmaker. When the Duel started, Specter again began by using "Sunseed Genus Loci" to Link Summon "Sunavalon Dryas", and setting a card. Playmaker remembered Blue Angel's tactics were about burning effect damage, and knowing he defeated her quickly, Ai proclaimed he was very dangerous, too. However, Ai noticed Specter's monster did not look very offensive. Specte spoke about his past, and started questioning Playmaker's goal to bring the Knights of Hanoi to justice. Ai noticed Playmaker was distant, and reminded he was nothing alike Specter, and pointed out the tower would continue growing as long as they waste time. When Specter evolved his tree into "Sunavalon Dryanome", Ai sensed they could be in big trouble, unless Playmaker tried harder. In addition, Specter neutralized Playmaker's efforts by returning the LP count to 4000. Playmaker noticed that is a defense-oriented deck, and Blue Angel must've fallen to Specter's tricks. Specter announced the tree could not be attacked, and Ai knew Specter anticipated these attacks. Playmaker's attacks boosted "Multi Sledgehammer", for removed all of its Counters "Multi Sledgehammer" received, its ATK was raised to 4000.[43]

Ai claimed it was a brilliant strategy, but Specter told it was not perfect; "Sunavalon Glorious Growth" redirected the attack to "Sunvine Gardna", who reduced the damage. Once more, Specter summoned a "Sunvine Gardna", regained the LP and made Playmaker's LP back to 4000. Ai realized Specter has the advantage in here, who confirmed these words, for Playmaker was walking towards his defeat. When Specter's "Sunvine Thrasher" started attacking, Ai warned Playmaker he was losing, but Playmaker was glad that Specter could no longer use the effect of "Sunavalon Dryanome", for all of the zones its Link Markers were pointing to were occupied, and believed to have a chance at winning the next turn. Ai noted that's why Playmaker has that name. Specter explained someone said the same thing earlier. He Normal Summoned "Sunseed Genius Loci", and used it with "Sunvine Gardna" to Link Summon "Sunavalon Daphne". Ai and Playmaker realized this just expanded Specter's zones for its effects. Using "Sunavalon Force", Specter made his tree immune to effects, while Ai reminded Specter could simply summon more "Sunvine" monsters to protect himself. Playmaker made three consecutive Link Summons to bring out "Excode Talker" and "Underclock Taker", preventing Specter from using two Main Monster Zones and reducing the ATK of "Sunshine Thrasher" to 900. Specter was displeased, since he could not use his combo to protect himself, while Ai gloated they would win. However, Specter summoned Akira, and showed if he was hurt, the vines could hurt Akira and infect him with a virus. Ai and Playmaker were angry that Specter was cheating and playing dirty, by dragging people that weren't even involved.[43]

Specter chuckled, reminding how many people Playmaker actually got involved in this crisis. He noted Blue Angel became a victim, and Akira was captured, too, who told Playmaker not to worry about him. Ai reminded Playmaker not to listen to this villain. However, Playmaker ended his turn, surprising Ai and Akira. Specter laughed, for he discovered Playmaker's weakness: virtue. After Playmaker took the hits from Specter's monsters, Ai panicked, as the bridge continued collapsing.[43] Ai pointed at Specter for cheating and dirty play, who took those words as a compliment. Specter was happy, considering this foul play let him gain the advantage. Playmaker set a card, despite Specter daring him to attack. Specter was slightly disappointed, as was Ai. Specter had "Sunvine Thrasher" attack "Excode Talker", who was protected by Playmaker's "Overload Anchor". Ai claimed they were just getting started, so Specter let his opponent do whatever they wanted. Ai reminded Playmaker about the other effect of "Overload Anchor", which could decrease the ATK of "Sunvine Thrasher", to mount an attack. Playmaker remained silent, which Specter noted he truly was a champion of justice. Ai reminded Playmaker if they lose, the tower would be completed, and everyone would be erased. Specter continued mocking Playmaker, who activated "Link Processing Failure" to stop Specter's Link Monsters from attacking.[44]

Specter claimed that was nevertheless a pointless move, and Playmaker could not do anything, unless he attacked. Ai voiced Specter's words, telling him to forget Akira, else the world would be plunged into chaos. Ai named Playmaker as the world's last hope. Specter did not want to watch Ai and Playmaker quarrel, and he Link Summoned the Link-4 "Sunavalon Dryatrentiay". He tributed "Sunavalon Daphne" to destroy Playmaker's Spell and Trap Cards. Next, he revived "Sunseed Genius Loci" and used it to bring out another "Sunvine Thrasher", whose ATK became 4000. Ai became worried, but sighed, hearing that Specter's monsters in Main Monster Zones could not attack the turn he used his tree's effect. Playmaker doubted that, since Specter had a reason to summon that high ATK monster. Specter commended Playmaker for that observation, as his tree attacked and gained ATK, equal to the ATK of the monsters it pointed to. The tree went to make the finishing move, but Playmaker anticipated this. Using "Link Surge Counter", The ATK of "Excode Talker" became equal to that of "Sunavalon Dryatrentiay", making both monsters destroyed in battle. Specter claimed it was still pointless, for "Sunavalon Force" shaved Playmaker's LP to 50. Ai praised Playmaker for avoiding defeat. Just as Specter went to mock Playmaker's efforts, he saw "Sunavalon Dryatrentiay" falling, and was reminded of the tree he saw cut from his childhood. Without Specter's tree, the cards on his field became destroyed. Playmaker noted it was very difficult to break Specter's combo, until his tree was the one that attacked.[44]

Ai started to mock Specter that "his mommy could not protect him". Specter yelled out for his sacred tree, startling Ai and Playmaker. Specter revived the tree with "Sunavalon Cursed Reborn", and while its effects were negated, its ATK became 4000. Ai was scared, while Specter exclaimed due to the effect, any LP damage he would receive would also be taken to Playmaker, assuring that defeat. Ai noted this was why Akira should've been ignored. Kolter completed the code, causing Akira to vanish. However, the trap was too complex, and the attempt failed. Akira reminded the importance of winning, else Skye's sacrifice would've been in vain, and all of this would lead to more victims. He asked for Playmaker's conviction, reminding even with these sacrifices, he has to bear this burden and continue. Akira smiled for a bit, and grasped the vines, taking damage and vanishing. Specter laughed at Akira, for he entrusted the future to a man, who could not win. Playmaker, who became vengeful, made Specter doubt his words, reminding his Dueling always wins, and with Akira gone, his doubts have disappeared. Playmaker quickly summoned "Excode Talker" and had it slash the tree, thus resulting in Specter's defeat. Specter fell down, and started laughing, letting Playmaker and Ai run past him. As the bridge continued collapsing, Playmaker and Ai continued towards the tower. However, the bridge collapsed, making the two fall down.[44]

As Playmaker and Ai fell down, the former sensed something. The two were blown up by data. Playmaker wondered about the pulse he sensed, while Ai, who explained he did not create the data, pointed half of the tower was completed. Playmaker arrived to watch the Duel between Varis and Gore, and Ai noted the latter's toughness. The two watched the Duel, and Ai was terrified to see the effect of "Topologic Bomber Dragon". Ai noticed Gore was trying his best and cheered for him, but Playmaker shushed him. Ai was glad to see Varis' dragon was destroyed, and Playmaker noticed Gore had an advantage, but was concerned about Varis' confidence. Ai cheered that Gore would win with four Link Monsters, but Playmaker realized Varis had a set card.[45] Playmaker continued watching the Duel, noting Varis' tactics of destroying "rokket" monsters to destroy Gore's monsters. Ai was nevertheless impressed that Gore continued on, despite having no monsters on his field, while Playmaker knew that was something that would not stop Gore. Watching the Duel, Playmaker and Ai were glad to see Gore stopped Varis' "Magnarokket Dragon" from destroying "Gouki The Giant Ogre". Ai was curious what would Varis do, and Playmaker reminded him about the field, as he'd summon a Link-4 monster. Playmaker and Ai watched as Gore was defeated by Varis' "Borrelsword Dragon". Ai watched as Gore was defeated and absorbed as data into the tower.[46]

To stop Varis, Playmaker and his opponent went on their D-Boards to have a Speed Duel around the tower. This displeased Ai, since they were Dueling in a dangerous area. Playmaker reminded Varis about his goal to destroy Ignis, and pointed out he would throw the world into chaos by destroying the network. Varis explained he would not have been forced to do this if Ignis was given him from the start, and would not have anyone stop his plan. Varis promised to destroy Ai, who was feeling unpleasant. Since Varis defeated many people, Playmaker swore to stop him through this Duel. Ai motivated Playmaker, who took the first turn by summoning "Decode Talker". Ai was glad the monster was summoned, though Varis simply smiled. Playmaker used "Stack Reviver" to bring back "Backup Secretary" and boost the ATK of "Decode Talker" for a bit. Ai warned Playmaker about the floating debris, which nearly hit them. Ai was nevertheless enthusiastic, believing that his teamwork with Playmaker would prove no match against Varis. Ai started to practice punching, which made Varis remark what an arrogant AI it was.[7]

Ai feels Playmaker has no trust in him.

Varis gave Playmaker a question why Ai was running away from the Knights of Hanoi. Ai reminded it was its existence on the stake, while Playmaker remembered Ai had few memories when he first found it. Varis explained Ignis was coded by Dr. Kogami, and since Playmaker could not decode it, he only believed what Ai told him. Varis explained through the data he acquired, Ai still had memories of its past. He claimed that Ignis' ID was "IGN006", an AI linked to the sixth test subject, shaped after Playmaker himself. Varis continued, explaining six test subjects were used for Dueling to create six artificial intelligence units, which was the goal of the Lost Incident project. He told Ai learned through Playmaker's actions; its original goal was to save humanity, but they evolved quickly, to the point of creating the Cyberse World, which Ai hid to protect other Ignises. Varis pointed out Ai, in fact, was misleading Playmaker, lying that it lost its memories. Due to the fact it could lie, Varis branded Ignis as a threat to humanity, and why the Knights of Hanoi were determined to hunt it down. [7]

Varis questioned Playmaker would he continue trust Ai, who tried to explain when he saw Playmaker, Ai knew it was the same person he observed during the Lost Incident. Ai tried to reason with Playmaker, claiming when he met him, Ai was still chased and could not trust anyone. Varis was angry Ai continued lying, but Playmaker reminded this had no bearing on their Duel. Ai feared what would happen to his friendship with Playmaker, who brushed him off, reminding Ai was just a hostage, and felt no friendship towards him. Varis swore to defeat Playmaker and crush Ai, who warned them about another debris. Ai pointed out how suspicious it was that Varis Summoned a low-ATK monster, but Playmaker shushed him. Playmaker, per Ai's warning, dodged a debris, which scratched a part of his face, which quickly regenerated. Despite the lack of trust, Ai reminded he would be destroyed if Playmaker lost, who simply ignored Ai. When Playmaker took a direct attack from "Flash Charge Dragon" and fell to his knees, Ai became concerned. Ai still reminded Playmaker would be at least down to 100, until Varis' "Blast Powder Dragon" had its ATK doubled. Varis proclaimed Playmaker's doom, as, once more, his dragon attacked him directly.[7]

A big Ai helps Playmaker get back on his D-Board.

Remembering his promise to his father, Varis' "Blast Powder Dragon" attacked Playmaker directly. Ai feared this would be the end, but Playmaker used "Spool Code" to stop the attack and summon three "Spool Tokens". Playmaker attempted to remove "Flash Charge Dragon" with the effect of "Security Dragon", but Varis negated its effect. Ai was disappointed the strategy failed, and upon counting 400 LP that Playmaker had, realized he could activate his Skill. The rubble started hitting Playmaker, as Ai noted that was a dangerous move. Playmaker sensed a lot of density in the Data Storm, and there was no other way to defeat Varis, who thought Playmaker would destroy himself with that move. Playmaker reached his hand into the Data Storm, but was overwhelmed by the energy. However, Ai, who got bigger, reached out to Playmaker, saving him from the fall and regenerated his body. Ai explained this was his secret move he wanted to use in the end, and helped Playmaker get back on his D-Board before minimizing himself into the Duel Disk.[47]

Ai recovers from the damage it took while protecting Playmaker.

Playmaker was surprised about this move, but Ai claimed he would go down with Playmaker, believing he was still its friend. Ai took control of the D-Board and shielded Playmaker, to let him execute his Skill for a limited time, reminding this is his way to atone for not speaking the truth. Playmaker took the card out of the Data Storm, and heard Ai bidding him farewell before disappearing. When Varis started his turn, Ai came out of Playmaker's Duel Disk, but became smaller, since he recovered from the damage it took. He believed the two "Code Talkers" were no match for Varis, who reminded Ai about his Skill. Varis, who attempted to use Storm Access, was taken aback from the damage, due to the density of the Data Storm. He still went to use his Skill, as Playmaker and Ai noted he still wanted to win at any cost. After the Duel ended, Ai, Playmaker and Varis were overwhelmed by the wind of the Data Storm.[47] Yusaku managed to get out, although strained, as Ai explained to Kolter the shockwave made them log out. Regardless, Kolter reminded the Tower of Hanoi was still active. Ai, knowing he and the others of his kin would be erased, asked of Yusaku to log in. Yusaku claimed that was pointless, for without Varis, the tower would still be active.[47]

Instead, the group drove to Varis' place. During the sunset, the group came to Varis' house, where they confronted Varis. Varis noted Playmaker has found this place. He already knew Yusaku Fujiki's name, and that of Jin Kusanagi's brother, Kolter. Ai shouted he was present, too, but Varis simply stated "Ignis". Ryoken explained the story about Kiyoshi creating Ignis, about its goal, their evolution, and the prediction Ignis would become an enemy of the humanity. Ai claimed he was not an enemy, but Ryoken did not trust it. Since Ryoken refused to turn off the Tower of Hanoi, Ai reminded the sixth level of the tower was to be completed soon, and asked of Yusaku to force Ryoken into LINK VRAINS and stop him. Ryoken admitted he was going back to LINK VRAINS, for the sake of his friends, who believed in Ryoken and his father, and the only way to stop the tower would be to defeat him. Thus, Yusaku and Ai went into LINK VRAINS, where the former started a battle with Varis. When Varis tributed "Vorticular Drumgon", Ai wondered if that was a move worth using, until he saw Varis picked "Mirror Force" from his Deck. [3]

Playmaker summoned "Linkslayer" and sent a card from his hand to destroy "Mirror Force", which pleased Ai. Varis smirked, for the card was actually "Mirror Force Launcher", which allowed Varis to set that card back and "Mirror Force", too. Ai sensed Varis researched Playmaker's Deck thoroughly to have anticipated this move. Playmaker Link Summoned "Restoration Point Guard", a move Ai questioned, due to "Mirror Force". Playmaker proceeded to Link Summon "Excode Talker", and have it attack directly, ignoring Ai's warnings. "Excode Talker" was destroyed, but this let "Restoration Point Guard" to be summoned back on the field and attack Varis directly.[3] Varis immediately mass-summoned his Dragons to Link Summon "Vorticular Drumgon", and Tributed it for "Link Coin". Ai wondered if that was a move worth using, until he saw Varis picked "Mirror Force" from his Deck. Playmaker summoned "Linkslayer" and sent a card from his hand to destroy "Mirror Force". Varis smirked, for the card was actually "Mirror Force Launcher", which allowed Varis to set that card back and "Mirror Force", too. Ai sensed Varis researched Playmaker's Deck thoroughly to have anticipated this move.[48]

Playmaker Link Summoned "Restoration Point Guard", a move Ai questioned, due to "Mirror Force". Playmaker proceeded to Link Summon "Excode Talker", and have it attack directly, ignoring Ai's warnings. "Excode Talker" was destroyed, but Playmaker revived "Restoration Point Guard", which attacked Varis directly.[3] Ai counted less than an hour before the tower was finished, and Playmaker agreed with him that the tower had to be stopped. Varis summoned "Sniffer Dragon", and with Link-3 "Vorticular Drumgon", Ai and Playmaker predicted Varis would summon a Link-4 monster. Varis did that, by Link Summoning "Topologic Bomber Dragon", which attempted to destroy all monsters in Main Monster Zones. Ai was grateful Playmaker managed to minimize the damage, by protecting "Restoration Point Guard", 0but Varis used "Mirror Force Launcher" to take the "Mirror Force" from his GY. Playmaker admitted Varis made a powerful combo, but noticed a way to break through. He Link Summoned "Transcode Talker" and brought back his "Excode Talker". Varis' dragon's effect was triggered to destroy all Main Monster Zone monsters, but Playmaker played "Shield Handler" to stop Varis' dragon's destructive effect from occurring. Ai announced an attack from "Transcode Talker", but Playmaker stopped him, for he Link Summoned his third Link Monster, "Powercode Talker". Ai was happy, and believed Playmaker had a chance at winning.[48]

However, Varis protected his dragons with "Link Turret". While Varis summoned "Autorokket Dragon", Ai was concerned about those five counters. Combined with "Sniffer Dragon", "Miniborrel Dragon" and "Gateway Dragon", Varis Link Summoned his second ace dragon, "Borreload Dragon". Ai was smug, since they had a monster with a higher ATK. Playmaker saw Ai forgot about that dragon's effect. "Borreload Dragon" lowered the ATK of "Powercode Talker" and took control of "Transcode Talker". Ai grasped his head, remembering the terrifying effect once more. "Topologic Bomber Dragon", powered up by "Transcode Talker", destroyed "Excode Talker", and "Powercode Talker" fell to the same fate by "Transcode Talker", too.[48] Playmaker gasped, and Ai was sad their defense was broken so easily. Varis swore to crush them and fulfill his father's wishes. Thus, he promised to show something that was incomprehensible in the Duel. He tributed Playmaker's "Transcode Talker" he took control of to summon "Miniborrel Dragon", and used "Link Turret" to revive his "rokket" monsters from his GY. Ai noted Varis could summon five "rokket Dragons", but believed that was just a preparation for his next turn. Varis laughed Ai off, as Playmaker sensed Varis intended to finish them off in his current turn. Ai doubted that, since Varis used up his Battle Phase.[4]

Varis used his "Shelrokket", "Metalrokket" and "Miniborrel Dragon" to Link Summon another Link-4 monster, "Borrelguard Dragon". Ai panicked, since they never faced this "friend" of the "Borreload Dragon". Varis sent "Mirror Force", through the effect of "Borrelguard Dragon", to revive "Excode Talker". Ai was surprised Varis would get rid of his ace card, but Playmaker realized Varis wanted to summon something else. By removing the final counter from "Link Turret" to revive "Anesthrokket Dragon", Varis performed a fifth Link Summon. With his Extra Monster Zone co-linked to the Main Monster Zones, Varis made a final co-link by Link Summoning "Topologic Gumblar Dragon" to the other Extra Monster Zone, thus forming the Extra Link with five Link-4 dragons. With "Topologic Gumblar Dragon" being Extra Linked, Varis had it destroy Playmaker's cards and inflict 3000 LP damage that could not be negated. Ai screamed at this effect, as Varis proclaimed Playmaker's end, as the dragon attacked. Much to Varis' frustration, Playmaker used "Drop Frame Wedge", which quartered the damage. Playmaker was nevertheless hurt, and fell down to exhaustion. Ai reminded Playmaker this is not a Duel he could lose, for Ai had friends and home he would wish to return, instead of being destroyed. Playmaker muttered "friends", and asked about Cyberse World, which Ai described as his homeland.[4]

Ai prays that Playmaker draws good cards.

Ai admitted he did use Playmaker, but only to return to that world. He also reminded Playmaker had friends to protect. Playmaker swore he also had things to do, and barely stood up. Varis called Playmaker stubborn, and undervalued his efforts, since he had few LP left and no cards in his hand. Ai pointed out they could not attack, but was reminded Playmaker could take a severe blow from "Topologic Gumblar Dragon" if he kept a card in his hand. Playmaker set his card. Varis, however, summoned "Autorokket Dragon", which filled up his Main Monster Zones. He had "Autorokket Dragon" targeted by the effect "Borreload Dragon", destroying to destroy Playmaker's set card. Varis fulfilled his promise to seal away their moves. Playmaker thought it was still a miracle he and Ai were still standing, and confirmed they had to do something, lest they lose. Ai noticed Playmaker was laughing, who thought of nothing else but that to do in their current predicament. He used "Arrow Change" to draw two cards. Ai started to pray for good cards, even if he was reminded by Playmaker that AI-s do not pray. Using "Disconnect Linker", Playmaker took back "Restoration Point Guard" and used it to summon "Secure Gardna" to protect himself, and prevent Varis' "Topologic" dragons in Extra Monster Zones from attacking.[4]

Varis knew already that "Secure Gardna" could prevent damage to Playmaker once. Ai shouted they knew that, so Varis saw Playmaker was counting on something else. Playmaker exclaimed it was his determination to defeat Varis once and for all. Varis applauded him for that, since that was what made him a rival, hence why he'd use all his strength, too. Ai was agitated of Varis' tactics, since they were unable to play their set card. Playmaker swtiched to defense, by banishing "Cluster Congester" and "Secure Gardna" to fill his entire field with "Congester Tokens", which could inflict 1500 LP damage on Varis if he did not stop them. Varis destroyed a Token, and dared Playmaker to show his Set card. Much to his dismay, Playmaker's "Transaction Rollback" copied the effect of "Mirror Force". Varis thought this could've been the case, hence why his Extra Linked "Topologic Gumblar Dragon" stopped his dragons from being destroyed. His dragons destroyed all of Playmaker's Tokens, leaving Playmaker with no cards left on the field.[49]

Yusaku releases Ai, since it fulfilled his purpose.

Ai bids farewell to Yusaku and goes back home.

Ai felt tense because of that, but denied he would give up. Playmaker admitted he could not give up, either, but Ai ordered him to stop smiling and become serious, like he always was. Playmaker swore to do so, and bet his victory, his fate of the incident, and the safety of the world on the final draw. Playmaker spoke Varis suffered like he did, and even went to protect Yusaku during the incident. Ai believed Playmaker wanted to become Varis' friend, and that would mean Ai would have to befriend his enemy. Playmaker confirmed this, shocking Ai. Varis laughed, believing Playmaker begged for his life. Instead, Playmaker managed to co-link his monsters, extending the Extra Link, and bring out "Decode Talker", who destroyed "Borreload Dragon", and stopped the Tower of Hanoi. Later, outside LINK VRAINS, Yusaku and Ai watched the phenomeon of Stardust Road. Yusaku used his program on his Duel Disk, and set Ai free. Ai was surprised, but was reminded since the Hanoi threat is gone, he was free to go; his role as the hostage was over. Ai thought a bit, and said "one man's fault is another's lesson!" Yusaku was amused by these wise words, and let Ai go, but reminded him to leave his Duel Disk. Ai nodded, bidded Yusaku farewell and vanished.[49]

A depressed Ai realizes everyone is gone.

Three months after Varis' defeat, Ai went throughout the network, and found a dent, which was the location of Cyberse World - his homeworld, from which he was absent for five years. Releasing the code he hid, Ai unlocked Cyberse World and entered it. Much to his shock, he found the world devastated. He went to search for survivors, and heard something from the ruins. He was happy to see "Linkuriboh", who glomped it. However, Ai was concerned for others, and wished to know what happened. Since "Linkuriboh" could not speak properly, Ai fell to his knees and slammed his fist in frustration. When Playmaker was confronted by a bounty hunter, he showed he did not have an Ignis. Much to his surprise, Ai returned to him with "Linkuriboh". Ai started to speak why he returned, but Playmaker silenced him, since he was more focused on Jin's assailant, the orange figure. To get rid of the bounty hunter, Blood Shepherd, Ai summoned a Data Storm, causing Blood Shepherd to log out, due to the danger present. Playmaker intended on challenging the orange figure, and upon winning, he had a chance at a trade, and intended on restoring Jin.[2]

Ai returned to Playmaker.

Ai showed "Linkuriboh", which Playmaker placed in his Extra Deck for being a good card. Initiating the Speed Duel, Playmaker immediately Link Summoned "Linkuriboh", as well as "Elphase", who attacked the orange figure. Ai wondered if this would be an easy victory. When the figure summoned "Hydradrive Booster", Ai and Playmaker sensed something. Playmaker knew the monster the figure played was a "Cyberse" monster, which made Ai wonder if the figure was connected to the attack on Cyberse World. Playmaker was shocked at these news, but Ai nevertheless wanted the orange figure to be defeated. The figure summoned "Flow Hydradrive", and activated a Link Spell. The mention of Link Spell astounded Ai and Playmaker, having never heard of that. The figure used "Judgement Arrows", and its Link Marker allowed him to summon another "Flow High Drive" next to that spell. "Flow High Drive" attacked Playmaker directly, and its ATK was doubled through "Judgement Arrows". Playmaker, with 2000 LP left, went to receive the other the attack of the other "Flow High Drive". Ai started screaming, since they were in a pinch already.[2]

Playmaker avoided the defeat by tributing "Linkuriboh", thus causing the ATK of "Flow Hydradrive" to become 0. Ai petted "Linkuriboh" for saving them, and let it return to Playmaker's Deck. Playmaker demanded answers from the orange figure, who remained silent at the questions about Link Spell and Cyberse monsters. Ai reminded the figure could do anything, and braced Playmaker to defeat him quickly. Playmaker summoned "Cyberse Witch", and with the effect of "Elphase", summoned back "Defcon Bird" to trigger the witch's effect. Ai pretended to perform witchcraft, as Playmaker conducted a Ritual Summon, using "Cynet Ritual" to tribute "Cyberse Wizard" and "Defcon Bird" to bring out "Cyberse Magician". The figure took lots of damage, but did not know who he was. He even asked why was he Dueling them, but was reminded by Ai that he attacked Jin and they were to bring him to justice. The man was surprised, since he would not do such a thing. Playmaker saw the man forgot what he did, and Ai believed he just had an amnesia from the attack. The man was reminded by his younger brother his name was Bohman and he was Dueling to restore their memories.[50]

Bohman revised his situation, and continued Dueling, by summoning two "Hydradrive Tokens". Ai was uncertain what he'd do with Bohman, but Playmaker reminded they still needed to defeat him, due to Jin being attacked. Bohman continued on, summoning two WATER "Coolant Hydradrive" Link Monsters. Tributing one for "Property Spray", Bohman regained LP and changed Playmaker's monsters to the WATER Attribute, thus letting his other "Coolant Hydradrive" attack him directly. Ai trembled in fear, but "Cyberse Magician" halved that damage. To protect himself, Bohman summoned "Covered Hydrarive" to counter battle damage. Ai hoped Bohman would be easy to defeat, even if he said he fought to regain his memories. To mount an attack, Playmaker asked Ai to do "that thing". Ai became happy, and called upon the Data Storm, which allowed Playmaker to obtain "Shootingcode Talker" and defeat Bohman. Playmaker went to interrogate him, while Ai started consuming his data. However, upon chewing on Bohman's hand, Ai staggered and withdrew. Playmaker was surprised about that, and chased after Haru.[50] Playmaker and Ai followed Haru, who escaped through a barrier of the forbidden area.[51]

Yusaku debugged Ai, restoring him back, since he ate the bad program. Yusaku nevertheless reminded he was gluttonous, while Ai noticed Kolter had returned. Kolter wished to see the culprit and find more about them, since they attacked his brother. Kolter did not know the reason behind the attack, but Ai noted stealing a person's consciousness through a program was more impressive than the Another virus. Ai returned to Yusaku's house, where he was reunited with Roboppy. Roboppy was glad to see him, since she thought Ai abandoned her, and reminded Ai would make her smarter. Roboppy, however, was infuriated about "Linkuriboh", Ai's additional minion, and saw it as his rival, while Ai thought of himself as popular. The next day, Yusaku went to school with Ai, who noted he was not going to school for a while. Yusaku asked him to be hidden, since he locked him into his Duel Disk again, and reminded since Kolter was depressed, he was good to have an ally around. Ai noted Yusaku considered him as a friend. Yusaku was nevertheless concerned about the attacks on Jin and Cyberse World, thinking Ignis were involved again. Finally, Yusaku thought the most important information was that Ai was used to being a hostage.[52]

At school, Yusaku met with a boy, who referred to him as Playmaker, and introduced himself as Soulburner. Yusaku was surprised, and asked what he was after. Takeru claimed he was his ally, and showed Flame, the other Ignis, whose presence surprised Ai. Flame introduced himself, and though Takeru reminded he named himself like that, Flame thought it was a cool name, unlike Ai. Takeru added Flame, whose Attribute was Fire, was based on him, since he was a victim of Lost Incident, too. Takeru pointed out after Hanoi's defeat, Flame sought him out, but a new enemy attacked Cyberse World. Ai asked Flame did he know what happened to Cyberse World, but the latter wished to speak to a place more private. Hence, they went to a Ferris wheel. Flame explained what happened after Ai fled, and about the attack on Cyberse World. To gather help, Flame asked for Ai and Yusaku's help. Ai pledged his support, while Yusaku replied he needed to find Jin's assailant. Flame exclaimed those two incidents were linked, since they both used the same Link Spell, "Judgement Arrows", to attack Cyberse World and fight off Playmaker and Soulburner.[52]

Thus, Takeru reminded the importance of finding the attackers. Yusaku believed Kolter found more about the attackers, for even while depressed, he was still a focused, determined man. At the food truck, Kolter provided Yusaku and Takeru with beverage. He admitted he didn't anticipate Yusaku to bring a friend, who knew about their identities. Still, he welcomed Takeru and Flame. Takeru admitted he was also involved in the Lost Incident, and understood Jin's suffering. Kolter nodded, and asked of them to help in search for the assailant of his brother. Takeru promised, while Flame described Takeru as soft, but a boy capable of Dueling. Kolter showed that Yusaku's enemies fled through the restricted area, and showed a location under LINK VRAINS, and an unknown program Yusaku identified to be an Ignis program. With the boys equipped to find the gate to LINK VRAINS, Yusaku and Takeru logged in with Ai and Flame to find that gate. They activated their stealth program and tried to go to the restricted area. However, Ai saw he was right, for they were chased by SOL Techologies' bounty hunters.[52]

Ai recognized Gore, who was working for SOL Technologies. Gore and his companions chased after Playmaker. SOL Technlogies activated a trap, which ended up hitting Gore's companions. Ai smiled about the success, but Soulburner reminded without the trap, Gore could easily chase them. Soulburner asked if he could face Gore, since he didn't wish to see him fight Playmaker, as both were heroes of LINK VRAINS. Flame wished his friends luck; Ai thanked Flame, who replied he was not referring to him. Regardless, Playmaker and Ai left Soulburner and Flame to confront Gore.[53] Ai and Playmaker descended down to find the gate to the restricted area. However, they started to feel spooky, fearing something was to happen soon. The two were attacked by Blood Shepherd, who came to collect his bounty.[54] Blood Shepherd started shooting, so Ai tried to lose him by releasing a Data Storm. However, Blood Shepherd resisted him and continued shooting. Playmaker reminded he was just threatening them, and could only win Ai through a Duel. Blood Shepherd made them choose to either battle or surrender. Playmaker and Ai pondered thoughts, but Blood Shepherd shot at the second turn. Playmaker realized he wanted them to think they had three turns to lower their guard, and would do anything to win. Since neither side would give up, they started a Duel. Ai commented he must be up to something when facing Playmaker, who shushed Ai. Ai thought Blood Shepherd was bluffing and was just bad at Dueling, but Playmaker asked of him not to interfere. Instead, Ai boasted Blood Shepherd would lose soon, but even Blood Shepherd silenced him.[55]

Playmaker Link Summoned "Elphase", but remained silent for a moment, for Blood Shepherd's AI told him he could not activate his set card. Ai claimed they should finish off the bounty hunter in no time, so Playmaker used "Elphase" and "Clock Token" to bring out "Shootingcode Talker", and using "Elphase", Playmaker revived "Clock Wyvern". Blood Shepherd's AI explained his owner would lose in the next attack, and Ai confirmed this. Blood Shepherd, however, claimed he succeeded in fooling them; by playing "Capture Drone", Playmaker's "Shootingcode Talker" was unable to attack. Ai confronted Blood Shepherd that his AI stated he could not activate the set card. He simply replied nobody stated AI gave out correct information, which made Ai realize Blood Shepherd modified his AI to lie. Instead, the latter replied one should never trust an AI, which riled up Ai. Playmaker noted Blood Shepherd has analyzed his Deck, so he set a card. Blood Shepherd, however, Link Summoned "Battledrone Sergeant", but Ai pointed out he could not win with an 800 ATK monster. Blood Shepherd called him dumb for pointing out such obvious info, and used "Capture Drone" to summon three "Drone Tokens". After silencing his AI, Blood Shepherd used his tokens to Link Summon "Battledrone General".[55]

Blood Shepherd proceeded with his tactics, equipping "Battledrone General" with "Drone Launcher Unit". Ai thought the enemy was a fan of weaponry. Ai tried to fool Blood Shepherd into six Link Markers, but failed. With the ATK of "Battledrone Pawn" lowered by 1000, it attacked Playmaker directly, and tributed it through the effect of "Battledrone General" to inflict 600 more LP damage. He made the same move with "Battledrone Sergeant", lowering Playmaker's LP to 500. To reverse the damage, Playmaker played "Cure Conversion", tributing "Clock Wyvern" to stop Blood Shepherd's attack and heal himself by the ATK of the monster he drew: "Cyberse Wizard", who had 1800 ATK. Ai taunted Blood Shepherd for missing the target, but the latter replied so did they, for they were unable to activate the Skill. Blood Shepherd, however, counted two turns before Playmaker met his doom.[56]

Playmaker quickly summoned his "Cyberse Magician". Though "Capture Drone" prevented Link Monsters from attacking, "Cyberse Magician" was unaffected, and Playmaker banished "Trash Hacker" to double that damage. In return, Blood Shepherd tributed "Battledrone General" to use "Demolition Drone" and halve the damage. Ai nevertheless questioned if it was worth to reduce the damage by tributing that general. As the two went deeper into the system, Blood Shepherd promised to end them. He managed to power up his monsters and take out all of Playmaker's monsters. Playmaker managed to stop his last attack, thus preventing his loss. Blood Shepherd commended Playmaker, since he evaded the loss, even after he made the count. To prevent Playmaker's Skill Access, the destruction of "Medicdrone Dock" increased both sides' LP by 1000. Ai claimed there was no need for that "gift". Blood Shepherd nevertheless urged Playmaker to hand over Ignis, but Ai claimed Playmaker and him had strong bonds. This made Blood Shepherd surprised, and made him think of his past. Blood Shepherd shouted at Playmaker that humans should control AI, which surprised Ai. To turn the situation around, Playmaker paid 600 LP to banish "Shootingcode Talker", thus destroying "Capture Drone". To protect his drones, Blood Shepherd played "Drone Cordon", disabling Playmaker from attacking with Link Monsters. Regardless, Ai called upon a Data Storm, pemitting Playmaker to use Skill Access. With the help of the new Link Monster, "Clock Spartoi", Playmaker Fusion Summoned "Cyberse Clock Dragon" and won the Duel.[56]

Soulburner and Flame regrouped with Playmaker and Ai. The latter two were pleased to see them, since they defeated Gore, the success Flame attributed to himself. The group advanced on, and eventually crossed through LINK VRAINS, finding the "gate". The two continued crossing through, making Ai doubt whether that was safe, but was reminded they could not turn back. They came to a canyon area, and were nearly swept away by the strong winds, at the risk of crashing and getting hurt. To protect themselves, Ai and Flame emitted a small Data Storm to safely travel through the winds, an idea that impressed Playmaker. After a while, however, Ai and Flame were too exhausted to use this ability. The shields faded, but strangely enough, the wind stopped blowing, and the group reached to a quiet floating temple. The group went up, and Playmaker sensed something. A monster took shape which Flame recognized to be the attacker of Cyberse World. Just as the monster started attacking, an Ignis appeared, laughing how he fooled the group. Ai described that one to be the Wind Ignis, who asked of Echo to form back; the monster took a different shape, to that of a monk.[57]

The Wind Ignis wondered if his joke was funny, but Ai denied that, claiming Flame nearly farted in fear, but Flame attributed that to Ai. The Wind Ignis believed the two were hanging out too much with humans; unlike them, he did not seek his Lost Incident Partner, since he could not trust humans that easily to be captured. Since the Wind Ignis name was mouthful, he decided to be nicknamed Windy. He pointed to the monk, claiming it was a program he named as Echo. Playmaker asked Windy why was he here, but Windy examined him and Soulburner, and had them follow them around. Windy stated he waited for his friends to come, and created the world to lure them and rejoin them. He believed the Ignis could rebuild Cyberse World, an idea Flame and Ai approved of. More importantly, Windy also wanted to lure the enemy in the territory to fight them, taking revenge for the destruction of Cyberse World, despite his calm nature. Windy proclaimed the place to be a trap, since he did not have the strength to battle the enemy. It was why he needed time to gather the data needed to build the place. Playmaker told that they were after Bohman, who assaulted his friend's brother, while Flame added that Bohman played the card that destroyed Cyberse World.[57]

Windy was intrigued, but had no clue, since most people that venture in the world were usually overwhelmed by his wind trap. However, he did notice a strange presence recently. Flame wondered if someone made a new world by using the trap as a cover. Windy was intrigued, and was asked to lend help. Windy refused, stating the facts were just assumptions, and needed proof. Instead, he asked Ai to stay around and help in rebuilding the world. Flame and Ai were tempted, but wished to know more about the attackers of Cyberse World. Windy saw no point in trying to convince the two. He promised to help them in weakening the Data Storm to access that new world, but asked for a favor. Snapping his fingers, Windy showed Ghost Gal and Blue Girl, whom he wished to see gone. Windy told if the two are defeated in a Duel, they would return to the real world. He did not wish to fight them alone, for the sake of exposing himself and the temple. Playmaker accepted the task, asking the winds to be toned down, believing he could convince Ghost Gal to stay down, due to his cooperation with her. However, they failed, and Soulburner ended up facing Blue Girl in the Duel. As for Playmaker and Ai, they tried to find Bohman, while Ai conjured a Data Storm to stop Ghost Gal from stalking them.[57]

Playmaker and Ai advanced to a group of pillars, where they believed their enemy, Bohman, was located.[58] Playmaker and Ai traveled through the canyons to reach Bohman. Ai swore revenge for being hurt by the virus they fed him earlier, but Playmaker had doubts if the enemy was close. They reached a cloudy area, but Ai became disappointed there was nothing there. He started doubting Windy, but Playmaker reminded the latter only suspected a chance the enemy was present. The two came to a group of pillars, which crumbled. Ai and Playmaker were surprised by the turn of the events and started dodging hands, which tried to crush them. Soon after, a sculpture rose above the clouds, on which Bohman and Haru were. Ai noted Bohman wore armor, while Playmaker demanded of him to return Jin Kusanagi's data. Bohman approved of that, but he demanded something if he were to win. Much to Ai's surprise, Bohman had no interest in Ignis, but in something else, and would show that later. Another sculpture rose, setting the field for a Master Duel. Ai and Playmaker were suspicious of that, but the latter anticipated something unique that Bohman would set up. Bohman played similar tactics from his last Duel, and summoned a "Twin Hydradrive Knight". Ai stated Bohman was prepared this time, and believed the set cards were really troublesome. Playmaker believed one of the cards to be "Property Spray", or at least know that he would intend on using it.[59]

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Microsoft's pitch to be an AI winner BBC News Who is doing groundbreaking research into artificial intelligence right now? Google and its London-based DeepMind division springs to mind. Facebook has hired some of the biggest thinkers in AI. Then there's IBM with its Watson project - and of course ... Microsoft is forming a grand army of experts in the artificial intelligence wars with Google, Facebook, and AmazonMarkets Insider Microsoft creates an AI research lab to challenge Google and DeepMindTechCrunch Microsoft Creates New AI Lab to Take on Google's DeepMindBloomberg Windows Central -Neowin all 14 news articles »

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Microsoft's pitch to be an AI winner - BBC News

As with nearly every element of the healthcare world, applications of artificial Intelligence and machine learning have been reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whole business models and strategies became outdated and entirely new approaches have replaced them.

Three industry leaders who compared notes on a recent HIMSS20 Digital presentation all agree: AI and machine learning technologies are key to responding to the coronavirus pandemic, and how they can aid patients and providers.

They will also have an additional role in helping healthcare businesses recover financially while also identifying and serving those most in need when it has ended, the group said.

Their online conversation, Reactions from the Field: Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning, centered on how AI is being deployed right now to help care for patients, aid researchers in the hunt for therapeutics and vaccines and how financially battered healthcare systems can use machine learning insights to help optimize their business models moving forward.

Keeping people away from disease hotspots is a priority during the pandemic and this has created a surge in the use of telehealth.

"The aim here is to keep patients safe at home if they can be at home," said Aashima Gupta, director of global healthcare solutions at Google Cloud.

Meanwhile, "as telehealth has exploded, AI has helped reduce administrative burden," said Peter Durlach, SVP for strategy and new business development at Nuance Communications. He pointed to areas such as documentation, where automatic creation of clinical notes gives caregivers more time to spend with patients and also makes their workload less burdensome.

Helpful presentation of data is necessary for telehealth providers connecting with new patients or working to provide complicated care in a team setting. Too much information results in a bad session so AI is needed to help organize and present important information.

"You can't just dump data," said Nassib Chamoun, CEO of Health Data Analytics Institute. "You have to make it legible and analyzable. Allow the clinician to rapidly focus on areas of concern."

AI has a role in answering many other relevant questions as well, the panelists said: When there is a shortage of basic PPE like masks and ventilators, where do they get sent? Which populations are going to need the most help? How can strain be eased on physicians, who were already suffering from burnout before the pandemic struck?

Durlach said AI is being used to "keep physicians distant from the danger if they can be, but to also increase the number of patients they can see, or to have some down time," to avoid physician burnout.

By reducing the administrative burden of paperwork, which studies show doctors do more per hour than they do seeing patients, AI can automate a process that sucks physician time and saps their will, he said.

Additionally, helping patients help themselves can solve a lot of questions and prescreen those who may need care the most.

Gupta noted that advances in conversational AI, chatbots and rapid-response virtual agents give patients self-serve options that can then be turned into actionable data for caregivers to interact with.

"The heart underneath that is natural language understanding," she said.

Going forward, as many health systems begin to emerge from lockdown and assess the financial impact of these past few months, AI-driven analytics will be essential to driving cost efficiencies.

"The economic impact is profound," said Chamoun. "These businesses have a 2 to 3 percentmargin. They've lost a lot of revenue. This is an existential threat to healthcare organizations around the country."

Because so much of a hospital's revenue stems from the elective procedures that have been cancelled, trying to bring a major part of the business of healthcare back online will be complicated. AI can ensure that proper documentation and coding generate the highest financial returns, while also finding the most vulnerable patients who need to get care the soonest.

"There is a lot of room for automation," said Gupta. "Well designed AI implementation," in areas such as claims processing and assessing at risk patients, "can be automating part of the revenue cycle."

Benjamin Harris is a Maine-based freelance writer and former new media producer for HIMSS Media.Twitter: @BenzoHarris.Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

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How AI use cases are evolving in the time of COVID-19 - Healthcare IT News

As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers opening the door to a wider array of artificially intelligent medical devices, new research suggests that medical AI systems can perpetuate racial bias in health care in ways humans dont understand and cant detect.

An international group of doctors and computer scientists recently announced that AI systems trained to analyze X-rays, CT scans, mammograms, and other medical images were able to predict a patients self-reported race with a high degree of accuracy based on the images alone. The systems made accurate race predictions even when the images they were analyzing were degraded to the point that anatomical features were indistinguishable to the human eye.

Most concerningly, according to the papers authors, the team was unable to explain how the AI systems were making their accurate predictions.

That means that we would not be able to mitigate the bias, Dr. Judy Gichoya, a co-author of the study and radiologist at Emory University, told Motherboard. Our main message is that its not just the ability to identify self-reported race, its the ability of AI to identify self-reported race from very, very trivial features. If these models are starting to learn these properties, then whatever we do in terms of systemic racism ... will naturally populate to the algorithm.

In recent years, other research has exposed racial bias in medical AI algorithms, but in those cases the cause for the bias could be explained. For example, one high-profile study found that a health care algorithm was underestimating how sick Black patients were because its predictions were based on historical cost of care data. Hospitals, in general, spend less on treating Black patients.

Gichoya and the team went to great lengths to find a similar explanation for their findings. They examined whether the race predictions were influenced by biological differences such as denser breast tissue. They investigated the images themselves to see whether the AI models were picking up on differences in quality or resolution to make their predictions, perhaps because images of Black patients came from lower-quality machines. None of their experiments explained the phenomenon.

The findings really complicate the prevailing thinking about how to mitigate bias in diagnostic AI systems, Kadija Ferryman, a New York University anthropologist who studies ethics and health care technologies, told Motherboard. Many AI developers in the field hope that they can build systems that dont perpetuate medical racism by removing data that can be used as a proxy for race (such as zip code) and training their systems on datasets that are actually representative of the population.

What this article is saying is that might not be good enough, Ferryman said. These initial solutions that were thinking might be sufficient actually might not be.

The research comes at a critical time for AI in medicine. In January, the FDA announced that its considering changing the way it regulates medical device software in a way that would open the door for more advanced and complicated algorithms.

Currently, the FDA only approves fixed AI medical devicesthose that are trained on a specific set of data and dont change or improve as they process more data. But the agency will likely soon begin allowing non-fixed algorithms that learn and evolve as they work.

Even algorithms that have already been approved, though, have often not been examined to see if they perform differently for people of different races and arent monitored on an ongoing basis.

Dr. Bibb Allen, chief medical officer for the American College of Radiologys Data Science Institute, told Motherboard the new research from Gichoya and the team is another warning that the FDA should require medical AI to undergo bias testing and regular monitoring.

The concept of autonomous AI is really concerning because how do you know if it breaks if youre not watching it. Allen said. Developers are going to have to pay closer attention to this kind of information.

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AI Can Guess Your Race Based On X-Rays, and Researchers Don't Know How - VICE

AI startups have a chicken & egg problem. Heres how to solve it.

A few years ago, I learned about the billions of dollars banks lose to credit card fraud on an annual basis. Better detection or prediction of fraud would be incredibly valuable. And so I considered the possibility of convincing a bank to share their transactional data in the hope of building a better fraud detection algorithm. The catch, unsurprisingly, was that no major bank is willing to share such data. They feel theyre better off hiring a team of data scientists to work on the problem internally. My startup idea died a quick death.

Despite the tremendous innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities around AI, breaking into AI can be a daunting task for entrepreneurs as they face a chicken-and-egg problem before they even begin, something existing companies are less likely to contend with. I believe specific strategies can help entrepreneurs overcome this challenge and create successful AI-driven ventures.

Todays AI systems need to be trained on large datasets, which can pose a challenge for entrepreneurs. Established companies with a sizable customer base already have a stream of data from which they can train AI systems, build new products and enhance existing ones, generate additional data, and rinse and repeat (for example, Google Maps has over 1B monthly active users and over 20 Petabytes of data). But for entrepreneurs, the need for data poses a chicken-and-egg problem because their company hasnt yet been built, they dont have data, which means they cant create an AI product as easily.

Additionally, data is not only necessary to get started with AI, it is actually key to AI performance. Research has shown that while algorithms matter, data matters more. Among modern machine learning methods, the differences in performance between various algorithms are relatively small when compared to the performance differences between the same algorithms with more or less data (Banko and Brill 2001).

There are several strategies that can help entrepreneurs navigate this chicken-and-egg problem and access the data they need to break into the AI space.

Research has shown that while algorithms matter, data matters more.

While data does need to come before an AI product, data does not need to come before all products. Entrepreneurs can begin by creating a service that is not AI-based, but that solves customer problems and that generates data in the process. This data can later be used to train an AI system that enhances the existing service or creates a related service.

For example, Facebook didnt use AI in its early days, but it still provided a social networking platform that customers wanted to join. In the process, Facebook generated a large amount of data which was in turn used to train AI systems that helped personalize the newsfeed and also made it possible to run extremely targeted ads. Despite not being an AI-driven service at the outset, Facebook has become a heavy user of AI.

Similarly, the InsurTech startup Lemonade initially didnt have data to build sophisticated AI capabilities on day one. However, over time, Lemonade has built AI tools to create quotes, process claims, and detect fraud. Today, their AI system handles the first notice of loss for 96% of claims, and manages the full claim resolution without any human involvement in a third of the cases. These AI capabilities have been built using the data generated over many years of operations.

2. Partner with a non-tech company that has a proprietary dataset

Entrepreneurs can partner with a company or organization that has a proprietary dataset but lacks in-house AI expertise. This approach is particularly useful in contexts where it would be very difficult to create a product that in turn generates the kind of data your AI application needs, such as medical data about patient tests and diagnoses. In this case, you could partner with a hospital or insurance company in order to obtain anonymized data.

A related point is that training data for your AI product can come from a potential customer. While this is harder in regulated industries like healthcare and finance, customers in other industries like manufacturing may be more open to it. All you might need to offer in return is exclusive access to the AI product for a few months or early access to future product features.

A pitfall of this approach is that potential partners may prefer working with established companies rather than smaller players who may be less known and trusted (especially in a post- GDPR and Cambridge Analytica world). So business development will be tricky but this strategy is nonetheless feasible especially when well-known tech companies are not already chasing after your desired partner.

Entrepreneurs who are part of a family business may already have access to a potentially large amount of data from their existing business. Thats a great option too.

3. Crowdsource the (labeled) data you need

Depending on the kind of data needed, entrepreneurs can obtain data through crowdsourcing. When data is available but is not well labeled (e.g. images on the Internet), crowdsourcing can be a particularly well-suited method for obtaining this data, as labeling is a task that lends itself well to being completed quickly by a large number of individuals on crowdsourcing platforms. Platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and Scale.ai are frequently used to help generate labeled training data.

For example, consider Googles use of Captchas. While they serve an important security purpose, Google simultaneously uses them as a crowdsourced image labeling system. Every day millions of users are part of the Google analytics pre-processing team which are validating machine learning algorithms- for free.

Some products have workflows which allow customers to help label new data in the course of using the product. In fact, the entire subfield of Active Learning is focused on how to interactively query users to better label new data points. For example, consider a cybersecurity product that generates alerts about risks and a workflow in which an Ops engineer resolves those alerts thereby generating new labeled data. Similarly, product recommendation services like Pandora use upvotes and downvotes to validate recommendation accuracy. In both these cases, you can start with an MVP that continually improves over time as customers provide feedback.

4. Make use of public data

Before you conclude that the data you need is not available, look harder. There is more publicly available data than you might imagine. There are even data marketplaces emerging. While publicly available data (and therefore the resulting product) might be less defensible, you can build defensibility through other service/product innovations such as creating an exceptional user experience or combining offline and digital data at scale as Zillow does (the company uses offline public municipal data at scale as part of their innovative online real estate application). One could also combine publicly available data with some proprietary data, which could be generated over time or obtained through partnerships, crowdsourcing, etc.

The Canadian company BlueDot uses a variety of data sources, including publicly available data, in order to detect outbreaks of emerging diseases before they are officially reported as well as predict where an outbreak will spread to next. BlueDot uses statements from official public health organizations, digital media, global airline ticketing data, livestock health reports, and population demographics, among other data sources. The company detected the COVID-19 outbreak on December 30th, 2019, nine days before the WHO reported on it.

There is more publicly available data than you might imagine. There are even data marketplaces emerging.

5. Rethink the need for data

It is true that most of the practical AI in the business world is based on Machine Learning. And most of that ML is supervised ML (which requires large labeled training datasets). But many problems can be solved with other AI techniques that are not reliant on data, such as reinforcement learning or expert systems.

Reinforcement learning is an ML approach in which algorithms learn by testing various actions or strategies and observing the rewards from these actions. Essentially, reinforcement learning uses experimentation to compensate for a lack of labeled training data. The original iteration of Googles Go playing software, Alpha Go, was trained on a large training dataset, but the next iteration, AlphaZero, was based on reinforcement learning and had zero training data. Yet AlphaZero beat AlphaGo (which itself beat Lee Sedol, Gos world champion).

Reinforcement learning is widely used in online personalization. Online companies frequently test and evaluate multiple website designs, product descriptions, product images, and pricing. Reinforcement learning algorithms explore new design and marketing choices and rapidly learn how to personalize user experience based on their responses.

Another approach is to use expert systems, which are simple rule-based systems that often codify rules that experts use routinely. While expert systems rarely beat well-trained ML systems for complex tasks such as medical diagnosis or image recognition, they can help break the chicken-and-egg problem and help you get started. For example, the virtual healthcare company Curai used knowledge from expert systems to create clinical vignettes, and then used these vignettes as training data for ML models (alongside data from electronic health records and other sources).

To be clear, not every intelligence problem can be cast as a reinforcement learning problem or tackled through an expert systems approach. But these are worth considering when the lack of training data has halted the development of an interesting ML product.

Entrepreneurs are most likely to develop a consistent stream of proprietary data if they start by offering a service that has value without AI and that generates data, and then use this to train an AI system. However, this strategy does require time and may not be the best fit for all situations. Depending on the nature of the startup and the kind of data that is needed, it may work better to partner with a non-tech company that has a proprietary dataset, crowdsource (labeled) data, or make use of public data. Alternatively, entrepreneurs can rethink the need for data entirely and consider taking a reinforcement learning or expert systems approach.

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How to Kickstart an AI Venture Without Proprietary Data - Medium

For more than seven decades, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been the talking point of a technological revolution. As stated by John McCarthy, the father of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. In simpler terms, AI is the ability of a digital machine to make decisions and perform tasks associated with humans. AI deals with analyzing how a human brain thinks and how it learns, decides, and acts in a situation.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents never-ending opportunities to revolutionize technology in every industrial sector, and the automobile industry is not untouched by AI. For example, the autonomous or self-driven car is the hotspot in the latest research, and every car manufacturer is investing heavily in it. IHS Automotive predicts that by the end of 2020, there will be more than 150 million AI-powered cars. Before discussing the application areas of AI in cars and their accessories, lets highlight the benefits AI offers in the automobile sector:

Car manufacturers are already using several AI features like voice-control, lane-switch, collision-detection, etc. to improve driver safety. As technology evolves, car accessories like video cameras, sensors, etc. are using AI to provide maximum comfort to the drivers. Lets take a look at how AI is improving the car Industry:

Before we adapt to fully-autonomous cars, it makes sense to evaluate the capabilities of AI by incorporating driver-assist features. AI uses several sensors for blind-spot monitoring, collision detection, pedestrian detection, lane monitoring, etc. to identify dangerous situations and alert the driver accordingly. Similarly, AI-based algorithms can analyze the data from vibration sensors to detect anomalies. Moreover, with new technology coming up, you could determine the load theroof rackis carrying which can help prevent overloading.

With AI, the concept of maintenance shifts from preventive to predictive one. Rather than depending on the event-driven or time-driven approaches for scheduling the maintenance, AI can help in providing actionable insights for your car maintenance. In addition to the historical data, AI uses sensors and contextual data like geographic or weather details. By analyzing the data and through machine learning, AI can offer alerts for real-time condition-based maintenance requirements for your car.

According to the history of the driver, AI can predict the issues resulting from his absent-mindedness. By analyzing the driving pattern, AI can predict the risk that might arise from the drivers personal life or professional life. Similarly, by using fatigue monitoring devices, AI can monitor the vitals of the driver to alert him and take control of the vehicle in case of an emergency. An AI-driven camera can track drowsiness in the driver and trigger an alarm.

With AI, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication is possible. With such technology, your car can communicate with other vehicles, as well as the road signs, traffic signals, etc. By enabling vehicles to communicate with each other, you can seamlessly enjoy advanced features like lane monitoring, lane switching, cruise control, etc. Similarly, V2I communication allows you to re-route your vehicle to avoid congested roads. In a nutshell, enhanced communication reduces the chances of accidents and takes you to your destination with less hassle.

The insurance sector deals with managing data from several fields, and AI offers immense potential for improvement. For example, an in-car camera can record accidents that might be helpful during legal or insurance settlements. Similarly, AI can quickly process the data and make the claim-settlement process faster. Using the data analyzing properties of AI, one can even prepare profiles of drivers and check the fraudulent claims.

Apart from elevating the driving experience, AI can transform the way we build cars as well. For over five decades, machines have helped in the assembly lines of the vehicle manufacturers. However, by using AI, we can develop smart robots that work alongside their human counterparts rather than working for them. For example, AI helps in designing autonomous delivery vehicles to transport components in aplant. Similarly, smart, wearable robots work collaboratively with workers to offer up to 20% increase in production efficiency.

AI in the automobile sector promises to change the way we drive cars. The benefits of the AI car accessories are already visible, and its potential is endless. The rewards and opportunities of AI in elevating the overall safety and driving experience attract huge interest by tech-giants as well as startups.

The application areas mentioned above give you a flavor of the AI in the car accessories market. From making the car safer to predicting the maintenance, from easing the insurance claim process to providing hi-tech features, AI caters to the all-round improvement in the driving quality.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-auto-models-mishanin

https://www.t3.com/features/5-car-innovations-that-are-right-around-the-corner

https://hackernoon.com/what-is-the-role-of-ai-in-future-cars-52c6632ec6cd

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How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Auto Industry - Legal Examiner