Dr. Carrie Madej: why vaccines alter the human DNA – Stop World Control

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This list is a mere starting point for you, to do your own research. Dr. Madej studied this for twenty years, so the actual basis of her knowledge is much larger than this list.

https://pubs.rsc.org/--/content/articlelanding/2015/ra/c5ra01508a#!divAbstract

Why “Operation Warp Speed” Could Be Deadly

https://www.facebook.com/1780584826/posts/10213711458378968/?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232869/

https://kenfm.de/bill-gates-predicts-700000-victims-from-corona-vaccination/

https://www.national-geographic.com/science/2020/05/moderna-coronavirus-vaccine-how-it-works-cvd/?fbclid=IwAR1EFM74n4ulVp8pEufYOA9vN13CCyYeKoXdnWpk-R_0gZoDgflr3w5N0T4#close

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2020/07/29/modernas-mysterious-coronavirus-vaccine-delivery-system/#2226d81562d9

Gene Drive Files Expose Leading Role of US Military in Gene Drive Development.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/11/30/gene-drive-research-fight-diseases-can-proceed-cautiously-un-group-decides/

https://youtu.be/iMl0ty6evhU https://steemit.com/life/@pranavsinha/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-kicked-out-of-india

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=ksEVaO806Oo

https://youtu.be/Ofdd4ILdpVY https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=biotech.2011.136.148

http://ir.inovio.com/news-releases/news-releases-details/2020/INOVIOs-COVID-19-DNA-Vaccine-INO-4800-Demonstrates-Robust-Neutralizing-Antibody-and-T-Cell-Immune-Responses-in-Preclinical-Models/default.aspx

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232740966_What_you_always_needed_to_know_about_electroporation_based_DNA_vaccines

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/article-astrazeneca-to-be-exempt-from-coronavirus-vaccine-liability-claims-in/

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/20-things-you-didn't-know-about-dna

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/gene-editing-moderna-and-transhumanism/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200715095500.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC33911/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-potential-coronavirus-vaccine-could-be-as-easy-as-sticking-on-a-bandage-2020-04-08

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3675524/#!po=0.446429

https://www.genengnews.com/topics/drug-discovery/quantum-dots-deliver-vaccines-and-invisibly-encode-vaccination-history-in-skin/

https://newatlas.com/snake-fang-microneedle-patch/60868/

Scientists Propose ‘Tattoos’ To Solve Vaccination Issues

https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/references/gibco-cell-culture-basics/transfection-basics/introduction-to-transfection.html

Injectable Body Sensors Take Personal Chemistry to a Cell Phone Closer to Reality

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2017/11/20/transhumanism-and-the-future-of-humanity-seven-ways-the-world-will-change-by-2030/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200715095500.htm

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/invisible-ink-could-reveal-whether-kids-have-been-vaccinated/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338044557_Biocompatible_near-infrared_quantum_dots_delivered_to_the_skin_by_microneedle_patches_record_vaccination

https://sciencebusiness.technewslit.com/?p=36802

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Dr. Carrie Madej: why vaccines alter the human DNA - Stop World Control

Transhuman – Wikipedia

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Transhuman, or trans-human, is the concept of an intermediary form between human and posthuman.[1] In other words, a transhuman is a being that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans. These abilities might include improved intelligence, awareness, strength, or durability. Transhumans appear in science-fiction, sometimes as cyborgs or genetically-enhanced humans.

In his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri coined the word "trasumanar" meaning "to transcend human nature, to pass beyond human nature" in the first canto of Paradiso.[2][3]

The use of the term "transhuman" goes back to French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote in his 1949 book The Future of Mankind.

Liberty: that is to say, the chance offered to every man (by removing obstacles and placing the appropriate means at his disposal) of 'trans-humanizing' himself by developing his potentialities to the fullest extent.[4]

And in a 1951 unpublished revision of the same book:

In consequence one is the less disposed to reject as unscientific the idea that the critical point of planetary Reflection, the fruit of socialization, far from being a mere spark in the darkness, represents our passage, by Translation or dematerialization, to another sphere of the Universe: not an ending of the ultra-human but its accession to some sort of trans-humanity at the ultimate heart of things.[5]

In 1957 book New Bottles for New Wine, English evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley wrote:

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature. "I believe in transhumanism": once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.[6]

One of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School of New York City in the 1960s, used "transhuman" as shorthand for "transitional human". Calling transhumans the "earliest manifestation of new evolutionary beings", FM argued that signs of transhumans included physical and mental augmentations including prostheses, reconstructive surgery, intensive use of telecommunications, a cosmopolitan outlook and a globetrotting lifestyle, androgyny, mediated reproduction (such as in vitro fertilisation), absence of religious beliefs, and a rejection of traditional family values.[7]

FM-2030 used the concept of transhuman as an evolutionary transition, outside the confines of academia, in his contributing final chapter to the 1972 anthology Woman, Year 2000.[8] In the same year, American cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger contributed to conceptualization of "transhumanity" in his book Man into Superman.[9] In 1982, American Natasha Vita-More authored a statement titled Transhumanist Arts Statement and outlined what she perceived as an emerging transhuman culture.[10]

Jacques Attali, writing in 2006, envisaged transhumans as an altruistic vanguard of the later 21st century:

Vanguard players (I shall call them transhumans) will run (they are already running) relational enterprises in which profit will be no more than a hindrance, not a final goal. Each of these transhumans will be altruistic, a citizen of the planet, at once nomadic and sedentary, his neighbor's equal in rights and obligations, hospitable and respectful of the world. Together, transhumans will give birth to planetary institutions and change the course of industrial enterprises.[11]

In March 2007, American physicist Gregory Cochran and paleoanthropologist John Hawks published a study, alongside other recent research on which it builds, which amounts to a radical reappraisal of traditional views, which tended to assume that humans have reached an evolutionary endpoint. Physical anthropologist Jeffrey McKee argued the new findings of accelerated evolution bear out predictions he made in a 2000 book The Riddled Chain. Based on computer models, he argued that evolution should speed up as a population grows because population growth creates more opportunities for new mutations; and the expanded population occupies new environmental niches, which would drive evolution in new directions. Whatever the implications of the recent findings, McKee concludes that they highlight a ubiquitous point about evolution: "every species is a transitional species".[12]

Examples of transhuman entities in fiction exist within many popular video games. For example, the Bioshock media franchise depicts individuals receiving doses of a substance called ADAM, harvested from a fictional type of sea slugs, able to give the user fantastical powers through genetic engineering. Thus, previously standard humans can gain the ability to summon ice, wield lightning, turn invisible, and commit other seeming miracles due to their enhancement.[13]

A 2014 article from Ars Technica speculated that mutating clumps of mobile genetic elements known as "transposons" could possibly be used as a semi-parasitic tool to raise people to a higher status in terms of their abilities, making at least part of the game's scenario theoretically plausible.[13] Similar commentary later occurred from gamers with the advent of CRISPR gene editing.

Transhumans also have played a major role in the Star Trek media franchise. For example, in "Space Seed", the twenty-second episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series that initially aired on February 16, 1967, a charismatic and physically intimidating genius called Khan Noonien Singh attempts to take control of the Enterprise operated by the show's protagonists. The selectively bred individual had advanced beyond simple human status and nearly succeeds. The starship's crew opt to exile the leader and his league of similar beings to a habitable but isolated alien planet instead of assigning a true punishment per se, a ruling which he accepts without protest. Played by Ricardo Montalbn, Khan returns in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which broadly serves as a sequel to the episode. References to "Space Seed" appear in episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, and the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness as well.

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Transhuman - Wikipedia

Kath Soucie – Wikipedia

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YearTitleRole1986Rambo: The Force of FreedomAdditional voices19861987My Little PonyPrincess Tiffany / Princess Starburst19861989The SmurfsAdditional voices1987Pound PuppiesArf / Mrs. VanderspiffFoofurAdditional voices19871991The Real GhostbustersJanine Melnitz / Jabberwock / First Technician / Poodle Starlet / Dixie / Insect Ghosts / Pie-Face / Kid #3 / Screaming Woman / Magician's Assistants / Scabitha / Spectral Mother / Second Kid / Spectral Mass / Space TV Announcer / Spook / Crowd / Ghoul Crowd / Dockworkers / Bully Leader / Bullies / Fans / Crowd (2) / Kid (5) / Mrs. Beagle / Ghostworld Jury / Operator (2) / Factory Worker / Chuckie's Mom / Chuckie / Upperclass Lady / Customers / Janine (Ghost) / Sun Bathing Ghost 2 / Female Bootician / Woman #21988JemIngrid "Minx" KrugerA Pup Named Scooby-DooPrestinaThe New Yogi Bear ShowLittle Yog19881990Denver, the Last DinosaurCasey / Heather / Marsha Mylar / Joy / Jeremy's Crush / Betty / Mrs. Baxter / HeidiThe Adventures of Raggedy Ann and AndyRaggedy Cat1989X-Men: Pryde of the X-MenKitty Pryde19891990Dink, the Little DinosaurJerry / Melodi19891991Adventures of the Gummi BearsPrincess Marie19901991TaleSpinClementine Clevenger / Princess Lotta L'Amour / Phonograph VoicesFox's Peter Pan & the PiratesThe Girl in the MoonWake, Rattle, and RollCindy BearTimeless Tales from HallmarkTeddy Bear / Rapunzel's mother / Baby Rapunzel19901992Attack of the Killer TomatoesTara Boumdeay / Mary Jo Nagamininashy / additional voicesWidget, the World WatcherBrian / Kristine / Nat ElephantPretty PiggiesPatricia19901993Tom & Jerry KidsBabysitter / Baby / Mom / Sugar Belle19901995Tiny Toon AdventuresFifi La Fume / Li'l Sneezer / Margot Mallard / Bimbette / Mother of Li'l Sneezer (as Kath Souci)19901996Captain Planet and the PlaneteersLinka[5]1991Toxic CrusadersYvonne1991, 1999Little DraculaMrs. Dracula / Millicent19911992Darkwing DuckMorgana MacawberYo Yogi!Cindy Bear / Secret SquirrelJames Bond Jr.Goldie Finger / Barbella / Marcie BeaucoupSpace CatsYvette Meow / Lollipop19912004RugratsPhil DeVille / Lil DeVille / Betty DeVille / Alyssa Carmichael / Buster Carmichael / Squeaky Chicken Girl / Shawna / Girl (1) / Woman (2) / Builder / Crybaby / Sondra / Nurse (2) / Belinda / Feldman Batterries / Crowd Members / Ms. Trencherman / Dotti / Edie / Morgana / Frances / Girl / Loudspeaker / Bird / Tiffany / Tullulah / Boy (1) / Bodhi / Rich Kid #1 / Barnaby / Woman #2 (2) / Germs / Diana / Anchorwoman / Kid #1 / Toddler / Saleswoman / Elderly Lady / Friends / Kid / Superhero / Cheerleaders / Goth Teens1992Raw ToonageGirlThe Plucky Duck ShowFifi La Fume19921993Goof TroopDebbieWild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo MesaCarly19921993Super DaveAdditional voices19921994The Little MermaidAttina / Flo1993AnimaniacsFifi La Fume19931994Mighty MaxBeaSonic the HedgehogSally Acorn / NICOLE[6]199319952 Stupid DogsMartha / Granny Fanny / Youngest Daughter19931996SWAT Kats: The Radical SquadronTurmoilThe Pink PantherThelma / Cleopatra1994Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?Maria, Claire E. Net, Cora Net19941995AladdinPoor village motherBeethovenAlice Newton / Teacher 2 / Teacher 3Superhuman Samurai Syber-SquadElizabeth CollinsThe CriticOld Lady / Billy / Paulina Simms / Madonna / Faye Dunaway / Rosie Perez Robot1994-1996Phantom 2040Jenna / Analytical / Food-Tube Machine / Zoo Greeter / Biot / Maria Aguilar / Actress / Newscaster / Lynn Wu / Warning System / Woman / Biot Guard / Security Biot / Biot Tech / Driver19941997Aaahh!!! Real MonstersDusty / Stewardess / Boy (1) / Whiney BoyGargoylesCornelia Stallman / Maggie "the Cat" Reed / Ophelia / Princess Katherine / The Weird Sisters / Princess Elena / Mary1995Biker Mice from MarsHarley19951996Dumb and DumberWaitress / Allie Mae / # 27Savage DragonAlex Wild / MaThe Hot Rod Dogs and Cool Car CatsBaby Bumper / Spare PartsEarthworm JimPrincess What's-Her-Name / Evil Princess / Johnny's mom19951997The Cartoon Cartoon ShowBubbles / Ms. Keane / Dexter's Mom / Reporter / Screaming Baby / Girl / Alien #1 / Nadine / MargeryThe Mask: Animated SeriesEvelyn / Dragon Lady19951998Timon & PumbaaLara / Suzie1996Quack PackDaisy Duck / Agent X / Nelly The Dragon19961997Mighty Ducks: The Animated SeriesLucretia DeCoyBruno the KidGrace19961998The Spooktacular New Adventures of CasperKathleen "Kat" Harvey / Marilyn KrumpJungle CubsWinifred / Leah / Mother Duck / Mother Mouse / Mountain Sheep19962000Adventures from the Book of VirtuesAnnie Redfeather / Aurora the Red-tailed Hawk / George Washington / Aunt Polly / Joshua / Mouse / Peter's Children / Lars / Queen Vashti / Snake-Child / Dick / Kara / Morning Star / The Lass / Emma / The Little Girl / Tiberius Gracchus / Caius Gracchus / Chip / Dedrich / Helen Keller / Guillermo's Son / Toshi19961999, 20012003Dexter's LaboratoryDexter's Mom / Quadraplex T-3000 Computer / Agent Honeydew / Lee Lee / Pony Puff Princess / Becky / Oceanbird / Darbie / Teacher #1 / Rat / Kid #3 / Kid #4 / Susan Storm / Newslady / Susie / Mom / Ghost / She-Thing / Sofie / Girl / Alien Mom / Kid / Book Boy / Queen Ant / Waitress / Midge / Lunch Lady / Librarian / Girl (2) / Neighbor Lady / Amoebae #1 / Vicky / Bus Driver / Katka / Snack Buyer / Granny / Kids / Woman #2 / Baby / Little Girl / Woman (2) / Muffins / Baby (2) / Boy (2) / Queen (2) / Old Woman (2) / School Counselor / Girl (4) / Science Mom / Mom #2 / Timothy's Mom / Candi / Girl #1 (2) / Spastic Sister / Scientist #3 / Betty Rubble / Dance Instructor / Receptionist / Lil Girls / Lady (2) / Mrs. Morris / Old Lady / Girl #1 (3) / Girl #2 (3) / Great Aunt Dextamina / Girl #4 / Girl #6 / Empowering Penny Doll / Worker Aliens / Sue / Girl (7) / Secretary (2) / Doll / Girl (8)19962004Hey Arnold!Miriam Pataki / Marilyn Berman / Mrs. Vitello (only in episode "The Vacant Lot") / Nancy / Baby Oskar / Yolanda / Hillary / Real Cecil / Mrs. Ryle / Nancy Woman / Lunch Lady / Woman (2) / Danny / Agent / Mother (2) / Old Lady / Clowns / Old Woman / TV Announcer / Parasail Girl / Dispatcher (2) / Customer / Nun19971999Todd McFarlane's SpawnCyan Fitzgerald101 Dalmatians: The SeriesCadpig / Rolly / Anita Dearly / Young Cruella (in episode, "A Christmas Cruella")Cow and ChickenSquirrel (2) / Additional voices19972000Pepper AnnCissy Rooney / Mrs. Little19972001RecessButch / Cindy / Jeffery / Baby / Various Kindergartners19972004Johnny BravoBabe #2 / Queen (1) / Cashier (1) / Little Girl (2) / Woman (5) / Award Presenter / Harem Girl #1 / Queen (2) / Robot (1) / Woman #2 (1) / Judge (2) / Oonta / Perfume Lady / Social Worker / Aunt Katie / Sheila / Mountie / Inspector Jeanine / Captain Nemo / Train Company Executive19972006Space GoofsHank's Wife1998ToonsylvaniaAshley DeadmanInvasion AmericaRita Carter / Sonia LearI Am WeaselTimmy's Mom / Squirrel19981999The Secret Files of the Spy DogsCollar Communicator VoiceThe MagicianMona / AngelHerculesAndromeda / Additional Voice Talent19982000CatDogLorraineOh Yeah! CartoonsDot / Tooth Fairy / Secretary / Grande / Mother / Angela / Terry / Cat / Woman / Librarian / Baby Duck / Wife1999The Powerpuff GirlsJulie Smith / Maryanne Smith / Reporter / additional voicesThe Kids from Room 402Desk Clerk / ReporterCourage the Cowardly DogLittle Muriel / Carmen the SerpentMickey Mouse WorksClarabelle's Instructor19992000Mike, Lu & OgMargery / Pig19992013FuturamaCubert Farnsworth / Albert / Nina / Punk Kid2000; 2002Clerks: The Animated SeriesLady with the dead baby / Jay's granddaughter20002001Buzz Lightyear of Star CommandKid #3 / Flon / School Teacher / Miss Harper / Villager #2 / Galaxy / Villager #6 / PA Voice2000-2011God, the Devil and BobAndy Alman20002002Baby BluesRodney Bitterman / Megan Bitterman20002003Clifford the Big Red DogJetta Handover / Mrs. Handover / MaryAs Told by GingerBlake Gripling / 9th Grade Girl / Reporter / Check in Girl / Cinnamon Ann / Cute Girl #1 / Ms. Conners / Euphrasia Weinstein / Diva / Bethany / Karina / Cop (2) / Reporter (2)20002004The WeekendersPedratishkovna "Tish" Katsufrankis / Ruby / Fashion Commentator / Totie Weems / Digital Girl / Actor #2 / Juliet / Twin Girl #1 / Twin Girl #2 / Trooper Sue2001Time SquadAdditional voices20012002Grim & EvilOld LadyCrayon Shin-chan (Vitello Dub)Shinnosuke Nohara,[7] Misae Nohara (name changed to "Mitsy")20012003House of MouseBimbettes / PerditaThe Book of PoohKanga20012004Samurai JackOlivia / Sandals Boy's Mother / Kid A / Daughter #1 / Daughter #2Totally Spies!Stella / Jason Hightower / Toll / Shirley Rogers / Barber / Redhead Girl2002ChalkZoneYadda Yadda YetiWhat's New, Scooby-Doo?Susan Dinwiddie2002-2003Butt-Ugly MartiansAngela Young / Shaboom Shaboom / Mrs. Ellis20022006The Cramp TwinsLucien Cramp / Mrs. Phelps / Innocent GirlThe Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy GeniusBetty Quinlan20022007Kim PossibleKaitlin / Co-pilot / French girl / Moopey Girl / Spirit Squad Weekly Interviewer / Rocket Booster #12003Ozzy & DrixNaurine / Celly KatzDuck DodgersHandmaiden20032006Clifford's Puppy DaysDaffodil / GeorgeLilo & Stitch: The SeriesTrick or Treater20032007Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley WinksMillie / Missy Sue20032009My Life as a Teenage RobotXJ-2 / XJ-4 / XJ-5 / Man 1 / Kid (2) / Machine Voice (2)20032008All Grown Up!Phil and Lil DeVille / Betty DeVille / Beverly Jones / Friend #12004The BatmanYelena Klimanov and Young Artie / Young Artie BrownStatic ShockEl GataDetroit DoconaSuzy Anders20042005Stroker & HoopAshley Brittany / Brittany Ashley / Doctor20042006Justice League UnlimitedAdditional voicesW.I.T.C.H.Nerissa / Sandpit20042007Danny PhantomMaddie Fenton / The Lunch Lady Ghost / Avatar Maddie / Box Lunch / Sales Girl / Connie / Concessions Kid / Geek Kid / Brenner / Ida / Little Girl / She-Wolf / Walla 2 / Girls on Beach / Girl 2 (2)ToonamiSARA 22005The Grim Adventures of Billy & MandyHappy Huggy Stuffy Teddy Bear20052007The Life and Times of Juniper LeeRay Ray / Speed Demon / Reggie / Old Woman / Ashley / Gigi / Jean-Claude's groupie / Heather / Dog Show Worker / Bombat / Laundromax / Gym Teacher / Henchman #220052008Ben 10Edwin Smith / Little Boy / Tiffany / Joan / Teen 2 / Cowgirl2006Ben & IzzyIzzy20062007My Gym Partner's a MonkeyDeidre Koala / Deb ApeLola & VirginiaHaide20062009The ReplacementsKaren "Agent K" Daring / additional voices20062011Handy MannyDusty / Mrs. Bouffant / Steven / Kevin / Junior20062015Curious GeorgeMrs. Renkins / Mrs. Quint2007Codename: Kids Next DoorLizzie's sister ("Operation: "G.I.R.L.F.R.I.E.N.D.")20072009Transformers: AnimatedProfessor Princess / Dispatcher / Trisha20072010My Friends Tigger & PoohKanga20082009The Spectacular Spider-ManDr. Martha Connors / Anna Watson / Trina the Waitress20082013Star Wars: The Clone WarsMon Mothma / Mina Bonteri / Jek2009ChowderMs. Butterscotch / Pelican Lady / Unicorn / Lady20102013Scooby-Doo! Mystery IncorporatedNan Blake / Waitress / Vampire / Female Parent #1 / Female Parent #2 / Female Tourist / additional voices2011Generator RexMouse / Female Party Goer2011-2021Young JusticeJoan Garrick / Lori Lemaris / Queen Mera / Artur20112012Winx ClubCountess Cassandra20112013Pound PuppiesFlip / Blip / Sexy Woman / Trixie / Babette / Greasy / Yorkie #1 / Passenger #1 / Ginger / Mom (3) / Girl / Dot's Mom / Mrs. Beasley / Molly / Kay / Jilly / Simon / Molly (2) / Gail / Checkers / Winnie (2) / Additional voices2012Special Agent OsoDusty20122013MadRainbow Dash / Starfire / Magic Magic Marker Boy / Wyatt Bernstein20122016Transformers: Rescue BotsProfessor Anna Baranova / Celine Greene / Dr. Elma Hendrickson / Lady of Griffin Rock / Ghost Cook / Mrs. Neederlander (Young) / Technician 2 / Ms. Lima2014Doc McStuffinsCeleste20142021The Tom and Jerry ShowTuffy / Mimi / Aunt Claire / Cozette / Gigi20142018Star Wars RebelsMinister Maketh Tua / Mira Bridger2015Transformers: Robots in DisguiseTour GuideGoldie & BearTwigsBear in UnderwearRossman2015-2018Lost in OzCyra / Huckster #5 / Dandelion Seed #2 / Traffic Flower / Quadling Woman / Female Bun Person / Nome / Tineth / Toofah20152020New Looney TunesLola Bunny / Sniffles / The President / Little Kid / Claudette Dupri / Pampreen2016KulipariRainbow Serpent / Pippi / Additional voices2017The Lion GuardFujo's MomOK K.O.! Let's Be HeroesPeej / Gnarlio Jr.2018The Loud HouseMrs. Vaporciyan / Club ManagerStretch Armstrong and the Flex FightersSandy Violette2019If You Give a Mouse a CookieMail Lady2021Star Wars: The Bad BatchJek2021presentRugratsPhil DeVille / Lil DeVille

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Kath Soucie - Wikipedia

Overwatch Transhuman Arm | HL2RP Wiki | Fandom

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The Overwatch Transhuman Arm, or OTA (as it is commonly abbreviated to) is the military backbone of the Combine-unlike Civil Protection. They are infrequently seen within city limits. (colloquially referred to as Combine Soldiers) are transhuman infantry units, well-armored with Pre-War Ceramic Plate Armor, heavily augmented, and conditioned into post-human killing machines.

Most of the time, OTA units will remain garrisoned in stasis, and are only deployed when necessary.

Unmodified CW:HL2RP will give you 150 health and 150 armor to start. This makes you difficult to kill; yet remember that you are still vulnerable alone. As a result, it is best to coordinate with your allies and use tactics such as flanking and suppression fire to defeat enemies in S2K or S2RP engagements. But remember that Rebels have the critical advantage of surprise and guerrilla warfare to counter you in-turn.

The Overwatch Transhuman Arm is composed of several different divisions, also known as detachments. Each detachment either serves a different purpose, or possess different weaponry and attributes.

ECHO units are standard Overwatch Soldiers, and are usually armed with an MP7, OICW, or AR2. Most of the time, they will remain garrisoned in stasis, only being deployed in critical situations.

DAGGER/MACE units are Overwatch Soldiers that wield a shotgun. They operate similarly to standard Overwatch Soldiers and bear reddish-brown armor instead of the usual dark blue. On certain servers, MACE is a division of the MPF.

HURRICANE/AIRWATCH is an Overwatch detachment that is responsible for the control of Combine gunships and hunter-choppers. Instead of a standard Overwatch helmet, they will wear a helmet outfitted with a visor.

RANGERs specialize in long-range combat, serving as the sniper division of the transhuman arm. They wield an OSR, though weaponry can depend on server.

GHOST/PHANTOM units are deployed for stealth operations where their deadly accuracy and efficiency are required. Most servers will use GHOST and PHANTOM as MPF divisions.

X-RAY is simply a medical division that are usually armed with standard weaponry.

The SENTINEL division are usually Overwatch Elites that guard the highest ranking members of the Combine, such as the Earth Administrator. They will often wield an AR2.

KINGs are Overwatch Elites that command standard OTA ECHO squads. They are highly trained and skilled combatants.

Add OTA Shotguner in Mace and Elite on King photos

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Overwatch Transhuman Arm | HL2RP Wiki | Fandom

What Is Surrealism? | Artsy

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During the 1936 International Surrealist Exposition, held in London, guest speaker Salvador Dal addressed his audience costumed head-to-toe in an old-fashioned scuba suit, with two dogs on leashes in one hand and a billiard cue in the other. Mid-lecture, constrained by the scuba mask, the Spanish artist began to suffocate and flailed his arms for help. The audience, unfazed, assumed his gesticulations were all part of the performance. As art legend has it, the Surrealist poet David Gascoyne eventually rescued Dal, who upon recovery remarked, I just wanted to show that I was plunging deeply into the human mind. Dal then finished his speechand his accompanying slides, to no ones surprise, were all presented upside down.

This anecdote underscores the most absurdist, even clownish, elements of the Surrealist movement, epitomized by Dalwho was considered something of a joke figure by the early 20th-century art establishment. But the art movement was actually far more diverse than is widely known, spanning various disciplines, styles, and geographies from 1924 until its end in 1966.

Founded by the poet Andr Breton in Paris in 1924, Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement. It proposed that the Enlightenmentthe influential 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement that championed reason and individualismhad suppressed the superior qualities of the irrational, unconscious mind. Surrealisms goal was to liberate thought, language, and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism.

Breton had studied medicine and psychiatry and was well-versed in the psychoanalytical writings of Sigmund Freud. He was particularly interested in the idea that the unconscious mindwhich produced dreamswas the source of artistic creativity. A devoted Marxist, Breton also intended Surrealism to be a revolutionary movement capable of unleashing the minds of the masses from the rational order of society. But how could they achieve this liberation of the human mind?

Automatism, a practice that is akin to free association or a stream of consciousness, gave the Surrealists the means to produce unconscious artwork.Surrealist artistAndr Massons mixed-media canvasBattle of Fishes(1926) is an early example of automatic painting. To begin, Masson took gessoa tacky substance typically used to prime supports for paintingand let it freely fall across the surface of his canvas. He then threw sand over it, letting the grains stick to the adhesive at random, and doodled and painted around the resulting forms. Artists employing automatic methods embraced the element of chance, often to surprising results. Massons end product features two prehistoric fish, jaws dripping with blood, fighting it out in the primordial ooze: an unconscious demonstration of the inherent violence of nature.

Not every Surrealist chose to create such abstract works, however. Many Surrealists recognized that the representation of a things actual appearance in the physical world might more effectively conjure associations for the viewer wherein a deeper, unconscious reality revealed itself. Artists like Dal and the Belgian painterRen Magrittecreated hyper-realistic, dreamlike visions that are windows into a strange world beyond waking life. MagrittesLa Clairvoyance(1936), for instance, in which an artist paints a bird in flight while he looks at an egg sitting atop a table, suggests a dreamscape or a hallucinatory state.

Though Surrealism is indeed most associated with such flamboyant and irreverent figures as Dal, Breton recruited a wide group of artists and intellectuals already active in Paris to write for and exhibit under his banner.

Building on the anti-rational tradition ofDada, Surrealism counted among its members such major Dada figures asTristan Tzara,Francis Picabia,Jean Arp,Max Ernst, andMarcel Duchamp. By 1924, this group was augmented by other artists and literary figures, including the writers Paul luard, Robert Desnos, Georges Bataille, and Antonin Artaud; the paintersJoan MirandYves Tanguy; the sculptorsAlberto GiacomettiandMeret Oppenheim; and the filmmakers Ren Clair,Jean Cocteau, and Luis Buuel.

But Breton was notoriously fickle about who he admitted to the movement, and he had a habit of excommunicating members who he felt no longer shared his particular view of Surrealism. Desnos and Masson, for example, were tossed out of the group via Bretons Second Manifesto of Surrealism in 1930 for their unwillingness to support his political aims. Bataille, whose Surrealist viewpoint differed considerably from Bretons, went on to form his own influential splinter group, the College of Sociology, which published journals and held exhibitions throughout the 1930s.

As an interwar movement beginning in Paris in the 1920s, Surrealism responded to a post-World War I period that saw the slow reconstruction of major French cities, the height of the French colonial empire abroad, and the rise of fascism across Europe.

By 1937, however, most of the major figures in Surrealism had been forced to leave Europe to escape Nazi persecution. Max ErnstsEurope After the RainII(194042) reflects this fraught moment with a post-apocalyptic vision created at the height of World War II. A partially abstract work formed by decalcomaniaa technique that entailed painting on glass, then pressing that painted glass to the canvas to allow chance elements to remainEurope After the Rainsuggests bombed-out buildings, the corpses of humans and animals, and eroded geological formations in the aftermath of a great cataclysm.

The emigration of Surrealists to various sites of refuge during World War II did, however, spread the movements influence across the Atlantic, where it would take firm root in the Americas. As Surrealism gained traction in the 1930s and 40s, it brought automatic practices and an interest in psychology and mythology to a new generation of artists.Jackson Pollocks Surrealist-inspiredGuardians of the Secret(1943) exists somewhere between his earlierSocial Realistworks and the later drip paintings that would make him famous: it includes a recumbent jackal, two totemic forms, and a frieze of calligraphic pseudo-script.

In Latin America, Surrealism found its voice in the work of artists likeFrida Kahlo, whose highly personal artistic style paralleled aspects of Surrealism without owing it any specific intellectual debt. InArbol de la Esperanza(1946), which translates to tree of hope, Kahlo doesnt depict an actual tree, but rather a dual self-portrait set in an unfamiliar landscape, a tableau that suggests both the 1925 bus accident that rendered her infertile, and the possibility of renewal. While its depiction of fantastic subject matter is reminiscent of works byMagritte or Dal, Kahlos painting celebrates the everyday artistry of traditional Mexicanex votopainting.

The psychological and mythological underpinnings of Surrealism also enabled non-European artistslikeWifredo Lam, a painter of Afro-Cuban and Chinese descent who studied in Madrid and Paris in the 1920s and 30sto delve into the native traditions of their own countries. LamsLes Noces(1947) intricately weaves the Cubist-Surrealist forms of artists likePablo Picassoand Joan Mir into a representation of the Afro-Cuban ritual Santera.

Surrealism represents a crucible of avant-garde ideas and techniques that contemporary artists are still using today, including the introduction of chance elements into works of art. These methods opened up a new mode of painterly practice pursued by theAbstract Expressionists. The element of chance has also proven integral to performance art, as in the unscriptedHappeningsof the 1950s, and even to computer art based on randomization. The Surrealist focus on dreams, psychoanalysis, and fantastic imagery has provided fodder fora number of artists working today, such asGlenn Brown, who has also directly appropriated Dals art in his own painting.

Surrealisms desire to break free of reason led it to question the most basic foundation of artistic production: the idea that art is the product of a single artists creative imagination. As an antidote to this, Breton promoted the cadavre exquis, or exquisite corpse, as a technique for collectively creating art, one that is still played as a game widely today. It involves starting a sentence, sketch, or collage, and then giving it to another person to continuewithout letting that person see what has already been written, drawn, or placed. The term derived from a simple game of creating collective prose that resulted in the sentence, The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine.

Given the methods embrace of chance and tendency to produce humorous, absurd, or unsettling images, it soon became a viable technique for creating exactly the type of unconscious, collective work that the Surrealists sought. Exquisite Corpse 27 (ca. 2011), a work completed by Ghada Amer, Will Cotton, and Carry Leibowitz, is a contemporary example of the sort of stylistically and thematically disconnected work that can arise from this Surrealist method.

The historian and music critic Greil Marcus has gone so far as to characterize Surrealism as one chapter in a series of revolutionary attempts to liberate thought that stretches from the blasphemies of medieval heretics up to the 1960s and beyond. In this light, Surrealism can be understood as the progenitor of the later, Marx-inspired art movement Situationism, 1960s countercultural protests, and even punk: a project of breaking down the rational order that society imposes on individuals.

Header image: Salvador Dal, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Salvador Dal, Fundaci Gala-Salvador Dal, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016. Image courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.

Photographs of Joan Mir and Max Ernst via Wikimedia Commons.

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Difference Between Empiricism and Rationalism

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August 5, 2011 Posted by koshal

Empiricism and rationalism are two schools of thoughts in philosophy that are characterized by different views, and hence, they should be understood regarding the differences between them. First let us define these two thoughts. Empiricism is an epistemological standpoint that states that experience and observation should be the means of gaining knowledge. On the other hand, Rationalism is a philosophical standpoint that believes that opinions and actions should be based on reason rather than on religious beliefs or emotions. The main difference between the two philosophical standpoints is as follows. While rationalism believes that pure reason is sufficient for the production of knowledge, empiricism believes that it is not so. According to empiricism, it should be created through observation and experience. Through this article let us examine the differences between the two philosophical thoughts while gaining a comprehensive understanding of each standpoint.

Empiricism is an epistemological standpoint that states that experience and observation should be the means of gaining knowledge. An empiricist would say that one cannot have the knowledge about God by reason. Empiricism believes that all kinds of knowledge related to existence can be derived only from experience. There is no place for the pure reason to get the knowledge about the world. In short, it can be said that empiricism is a mere negation of rationalism.

Empiricism teaches that we should not try to know substantive truths about God and the soul from reason. Instead, an empiricist would recommend two projects, namely, constructive and critical. Constructive project centers on commentaries of religious texts. Critical projects aim at the elimination of what is said to have been known by the metaphysicians. In fact, the elimination process is based on experience. Thus, it can be said that empiricism relies more on experience than pure reason.

David Hume was an empiricist

Rationalism is a philosophical standpoint that believes that opinions and actions should be based on reason rather than on religious beliefs or emotions. The rationalist would say that one can get the knowledge of God by mere reason. In other words, pure reason would suffice for one to have a thorough understanding of the Almighty.

Even when it comes to their acceptance of the sources of knowledge, these two standpoints are different from one another. Rationalism believes in intuition, whereas empiricism does not believe in intuition. It is important to know that we can be rationalists as far as the subject of mathematics is concerned, but can be empiricist as far as the other physical sciences are concerned. Intuition and deduction may hold good for mathematics, but they may not hold good for other physical sciences. These are the subtle differences between empiricism and rationalism.

Plato believed in rational insight

Empiricism is an epistemological standpoint that states that experience and observation should be the means of gaining knowledge.

Rationalism is a philosophical standpoint that believes that opinions and actions should be based on reason rather than on religious beliefs or emotions.

An empiricist would say that one cannot have the knowledge about God by reason. Empiricism believes that all kinds of knowledge related to existence can be derived only from experience.

The rationalist would say that one can get the knowledge of God by mere reason.

Empiricism is a mere negation of rationalism.

Empiricism teaches that we should not try to know substantive truths about God and the soul from reason.

An empiricist would recommend two projects, namely, constructive and critical.

Rationalism would ask to follow pure reason.

Empiricism does not believe in intuition.

Rationalism believes in intuition.

Images Courtesy:David Humeand Plato via Wikicommons (Public Domain)

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Difference Between Empiricism and Rationalism

The Inaugural AI for Good Global Summit Is a Milestone but Must Focus More on Risks – Council on Foreign Relations (blog)

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The followingis a guest post by Kyle Evanoff,research associate for International Economics and U.S. Foreign Policy.

Today through Friday, artificial intelligence (AI) experts are meeting with international leaders in Geneva, Switzerland, for the inaugural AI for Good Global Summit. Organized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a UN agency that specializes in information and communication technologies, and the XPRIZE Foundation, a Silicon Valley nonprofit that awards competitive prizes for solutions addressing some of the worlds most difficult problems, the gathering will discuss AI-related issues and promote international dialogue and cooperation on AI innovation.

The summit comes at a critical time and should help increase policymakers awareness of the possibilities and challenges associated with AI. The downside is that it may encourage undue optimism, by giving short shrift to the significant risks that AI poses to international security.

Although many policymakers and citizens are unaware of it, narrow forms of AI are already here. Software programs have long been able to defeat the worlds best chess players, and newer ones are succeeding at less-defined tasks, such as composing music, writing news articles, and diagnosing medical conditions. The rate of progress is surprising even tech leaders, and future developments could bring massive increases in economic growth and human well-being, as well as cause widespread socioeconomic upheaval.

This weeks forum provides a much-needed opportunity to discuss how AI should be governed at the global levela topic that has garnered little attention from multilateral institutions like the United Nations. The draft program promises to educate policymakers on multiple AI issues, from sessions on moonshots to ethics, sustainable living, and poverty reduction, among other topics. Participants will include prominent individuals drawn from multilateral institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and academia.

This inclusivity is typical of the complex governance models that increasingly define and shape global policymakingwith internet governance being a case in point. Increasingly, NGOs, public-private partnerships, industry codes of conduct, and other flexible arrangements have assumed many of the global governance functions once reserved for intergovernmental organizations. The new partnership between ITU and the XPRIZE Foundation suggests that global governance of AI, although in its infancy, is poised to follow this same model.

For all its strengths, however, this multistakeholder approach could afford private sector organizers excessive agenda-setting power. The XPRIZE Foundation, founded by outspoken techno-optimist Peter Diamandis, promotes technological innovation as a means of creating a more abundant future. The summits mission and agenda hews to this attitude, placing disproportionate emphasis on how AI technologies can overcome problems and too little attention on the question of mitigating risks from those same technologies.

This is worrisome, since the risks of AI are numerous and non-trivial. Unrestrained AI innovation could threaten international stability, global security, and possibly even humanitys survival. And, because many of the pertinent technologies have yet to reach maturity, the risks associated with them have received scant attention on the international stage.

One area in which the risk of AI is obvious is electioneering. Since the epochal June 2016 Brexit referendum, state and nonstate actors with varying motivations have used AI to create and/or distribute propaganda via the internet. An Oxford study found that during the recent French presidential election, the proportion of traffic originating from highly automated Twitter accounts doubled between the first and second rounds of voting. Some even attribute Donald J. Trumps victory over Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election to weaponized artificial intelligence spreading misinformation. Automated propaganda may well call the integrity of future elections into question.

Another major AI risk lies in the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). After the release of a 2012 Human Rights Watch report, Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots, the United Nations began considering including restrictions on LAWS in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Meanwhile, both China and the United States have made significant headway with their autonomous weapons programs, in what is quickly escalating into an international arms race. Since autonomous weapons might lower the political cost of conflict, they could make war more commonplace and increase death tolls.

A more distant but possibly greater risk is that of artificial general intelligence (AGI). While current AI programs are designed for specific, narrow purposes, future programs may be able to apply their intelligence to a far broader range of applications, much as humans do. An AGI-capable entity, through recursive self-improvement, could give rise to a superintelligence more capable than any humanone that might prove impossible to control and pose an existential threat to humanity, regardless of the intent of its initial programming. Although the AI doomsday scenario is a common science fiction trope, experts consider it to be a legitimate concern.

Given rapid recent advances in AI and the magnitude of potential risks, the time to begin multilateral discussions on international rules is now. AGI may seem far off, but many experts believe that it could become a reality by 2050. This makes the timeline for AGI similar to that of climate change. The stakes, though, could be much higher. Waiting until a crisis has occurred to act could preclude the possibility of action altogether.

Rather than allocating their limited resources to summits promoting AI innovation (a task for which national governments and the private sector are better suited), multilateral institutions should recognize AIs risks and work to mitigate them. Finalizing the inclusion of LAWS in the CCW would constitute an important milestone in this regard. So too would the formal adoption of AI safety principles such as those established at the Beneficial AI 2017 conference, one of the many artificial intelligence summits occurring outside of traditional global governance channels.

Multilateral institutions should also continue working with nontraditional actors to ensure that AIs benefits outweigh its costs. Complex governance arrangements can provide much-needed resources and serve as stopgaps when necessary. But intergovernmental organizations, as well as the national governments that govern them, should be careful in ceding too much agenda-setting power to private organizations. The primary danger of the AI for Good Global Summit is not that it distorts perceptions of AI risk; it is that Silicon Valley will wield greater influence over AI governance with each successive summit. Since technologists often prioritize innovation over risk mitigation, this could undermine global security.

More important still, policymakers should recognize AIs unprecedented transformative power and take a more proactive approach to addressing new technologies. The greatest risk of all is inaction.

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InveniAI Enters Strategic Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Focused Collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare -…

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GUILFORD, Conn., July 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InveniAI LLC, a global leader in pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce a strategic collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, a science-led global healthcare company with a mission to help people to do more, feel better and live longer, and one of the worlds leading over-the-counter (OTC) medicines company. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare will leverage AlphaMeld, an AI and ML platform that empowers internal teams to efficiently evaluate and navigate emerging innovation spanning the Companys key focus areas. The three-year collaboration will grant full access to InveniAIs AI Innovation Lab that encompasses the Consumer Healthcare Module of AlphaMeld and an internal team of cross-functional experts to facilitate accelerated access to innovation.

Michael Keane, Director, Search and Evaluation, GSK Consumer Healthcare, said, At GSK Consumer Healthcare, patients and consumers are central to what we do, and it is their needs that drive innovation and product development at GSK. Our heritage in the pharmaceutical industry ensures that all our products are backed with science and associated data. To unlock and prime innovation, we are always listening and engaging with the consumer to ensure that all our products meet a demand. In doing so, the data that we accumulate is large, broad, and complex. InveniAI has helped us look at tasks that are datacentric across technology road-mapping, search and evaluation, and identifying and understanding new science. AI and ML have helped create efficiencies that shave 4-5 years off the innovation cycle as well as eliminate human biases in identifying innovation.

Aman Kant, InveniAIs Chief Business Officer, said, We are excited about this unique collaboration that will help GSK utilize the power of an AI-driven platform to identify and develop innovative life-changing healthcare products for their consumers. This customized platform delivers tremendous business value by not only rapidly assimilating large volumes of disparate data sets to facilitate a first-mover advantage, but also releases expert human resources at GSK to focus on higher-value tasks. For GSK, the platform enables innovation to be captured as early as patent filing, project funding, or even social media sentiment across several focus areas. He added, We are seeing how this technology can provide industries with a tremendous force-multiplier for rapidly sourcing innovation opportunities.

About GSKGSK - a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better, live longer. For further information, please visit http://www.gsk.com.

About InveniAIInveniAI LLC, based in Guilford, Conn., is a global leader pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development by identifying and accelerating transformative therapies for diseases with unmet medical needs. The Company leverages AI and ML to harness petabytes of disparate data sets to recognize and unlock value for AI-based drug discovery and development. Numerous industry collaborations in Big Pharma, Specialty Pharma, Biotech, and Consumer Healthcare showcase the value of leveraging our technology to meld human experience and expertise with the power of machines to augment R&D decision-making across all major therapeutic areas. The company leverages the AlphaMeld platform to generate drug candidates for our industry partners and internal drug portfolio. For more information, visit http://www.inveniai.com.

Contact InformationAnita Ganjoo, Ph.D.Corporate Communications InveniAIT: +1 203 273 8388 E: aganjoo@inveniai.com

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How AI is reinventing the onboarding process for HR – TechHQ

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Seamless hiring and onboarding is central to stability in an otherwise tumultuous job market. While, like in many other sectors, artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to prove a boon to Human Resources, some applications of the intelligent, process-expediting technology arent yet watertight.

A recent Sage report titled The changing face of HR consulted organizations on their propensity to adopt the latest tech for HR functions. 43% of respondents believed their firms will not keep up with tech changes over the coming decade. This creates a somewhat troubling outlook.

For starters, overseeing a traditionally (and inherently) human set of functions, HR teams are perhaps prone to lag when it comes to adopting the latest technology. But discussions around AI in HR also conjure images of recruitment bias, where algorithms under the hood of predictive hiring tools have demonstrated bias against African-American-sounding names and female applicants.

According to that report, 24% of quizzed companies are already using AI for talent acquisition (in the form of automation), while 56% claim they will adopt such tech in the coming year.

But there are signs of increasing uptake of technologies in HR, and applications of AI go a lot further in the recruitment and onboarding process than just filtering through thousands of applications.

The stages from interview to offer to negotiation to acceptance and the ease with which you fly through these tells you a whole lot about the business youve just agreed to join. In fact, onboarding is (to many) something of a magic moment, in which new employees decide to stay engaged or become disengaged.

AI steps up to simplify tasks (negating the need for manual document back-and-forths), automating otherwise arduous account setups, and providing feedback on the whole affair to make the next hire smoother. It can track tasks, prompt responses, and even answer questions that may arise from new hires. Here are a few use cases in more detail:

Document generation: Using natural language processing (NLP), organizations can auto-generate offer letters, contracts, and other vital documents with employees. A human still needs to validate the output and ensure that it is signed properly, though.

FAQ chatbots: Most new recruits will have a lot of basic questions (regarding connecting to the office WiFi, setting up an email account, or log-off/screen-lock protocols, among others). A chatbot is a strong way of addressing FAQs whilst retaining a sense of back-and-forth. It can also be continuously tweaked and upgraded as new queries arise.

Networking: Building relationships with peers and team members is crucial for new hires to integrate into an organization, increase productivity, and become engaged employees. Using organizational network analysis (ONA), organizations can understand which relationships new employees must cultivate to be productive, and introduce new hires to critical points of contact in their team and in the organization.

Feedback analysis: Like with literally any process on planet earth (and, Id envisage, beyond), feedback and insight are key to continuous improvement. In order to know how to fine-tune the path through recruitment, AI can provide HR professionals with the tools to understand direct and indirect feedback. Using NLP again, HR managers can extract quality insights from large quantities of textual feedback. This can allow HR managers to gauge themes, employee sentiment, and the overarching effectiveness of HR processes.

Where AI really comes into its own is in its ability to (quickly) adjust what information is required, presented, and completed, based on the specific job in question. For any firm with a sizeable employee base, these nuances can give rise to lag times, inaccuracies, and otherwise poor practice. An intelligent system can give proper permissions, schedule meetings required to understand a role, and even develop tools to help that understanding.

With AI, onboarding doesnt have to happen within regular business hours or at a fixed office location. AI and chatbots can work around the clock, guiding a new hire through all aspects of onboarding and answering questions as they arise. With HR teams busier than ever in coordinating and responding to remote working issues, the onboarding process is one space where tech can really come in handy, allowing new hires to integrate more quickly [] even before their first day on the job, says Susan Power, founder and CEO of Power HR.

Gamification can be one way to utilize AI and set apart your onboarding procedure in one fell, albeit intricate swoop. Adding competitive, enjoyable, game-like elements to the onboarding process can make it easier for human minds to absorb and retain information. AI can help this customized experience both in the recruitment process (with cognitive ability/competency tests) and afterward.

Covid-19 has disrupted many companies typical routine when it comes to onboarding employees. Cognitive automation tools can simplify the process for new hires that may start remotely, and lessen the alienation that can come from limited face-to-face training time.

The crux of the matter is not actually a crux at all, but rather an ongoing navigation of the intersection between human involvement and AI efficiencies. This will indeed change from company to company. The fact is that you cant take the human out of Human Resources. People will remain integral to a robust, personable HR strategy. You can, however, add AI technology at intelligent onboarding touchpoints, diverting human time away from inane clerical tasks to forming real bonds with candidates and growing teams in the most positive of ways.

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Enlisting AI in our war on coronavirus: Potential and pitfalls | TheHill – The Hill

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Given the outsized hold Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has acquired on public imagination of late, it comes as no surprise that many are wondering whatAI can do for the public health crisis wrought by the COVID-19 coronavirus.

A casual search of AI and COVID-19 already returns a plethora of news stories, many of them speculative. While AI technology is not ready to help with the magical discovery of a new vaccine, there are important ways it can assist in this fight.

Controlling epidemics is, in large part, based on laborious contact tracing and using that information to predict the spread. We live in a time in which we constantly leave digital footprints through our daily life and interactions. These massive troves of data can be analyzed with AI technologies for detection, contact tracing and to find infection clusters, spread patterns and identify high-risk patients.

There is some evidence that AI techniques analyzing news feeds and social media data were not too far behind humans in originally detecting the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. China seems not only to have used existing digital traces but also enforced additional ones; for example, citizens in Nanjing are required to register their presence in subway trains and many shops by scanning QR codes with their cellphones. Singapore, lauded for its effective containment of the virus without widespread lockdowns, has used public cameras to trace the interaction patterns of the infected, and even introduced a crowd-sourced app for voluntary contact tracing. In the U.S., research efforts are underway to mine body temperature and heart-rate data from wearables for early detection of COVID-19 infection.

It is widely feared that COVID-19 cases, at their peak, will overwhelm medical infrastructure in many cities. Evidence from Hubei, China, and Lombardy, Italy, do indeed support this fear. One way to alleviate this situation is to adopt novel methods of remotely providing medical help. The basic infrastructure for telemedicine has existed for a long time but has been a hard-sell from consumer, provider and regulatory points of view until now. Already, the U.S. has waived regulations to allow doctors to practice across state boundaries; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also announced that it will not levy penalties on medical providers using certain virtual communication tools, such as Skype and FaceTime, to connect with patients.

AI technologies certainly can help as a force-multiplier here, as front-line medical decision support tools for patient-provider matching, triage and even in faster diagnosis. For example, the Chinese company Alibaba claims rapid diagnostic image analytics for chest CT scans; China also has leveraged robots in disinfection of public spaces. Remote tele-presence robots increasingly could be leveraged to bring virtual movement and solace to people in forced medical quarantines.

AI technologies already have been enablers of, and defenders against, fake news. In the context of this pandemic, our incomplete knowledge coupled with angst has led to an infodemic of unreliable/fake information about coping with the outbreak, often spread by well-meaning (if gullible) people. AI technologies certainly can be of help here, both in flagging stories of questionable lineage and pointing to more trusted information sources.

AI also can be used to distill COVID-19-related information. A prominent example here is a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy-supported effort to use natural language-processing technologies to mine the stream of research papers relevant to the COVID-19 virus, with the aim of helping scientists quickly gain insight and spot trends within the research. There is some hope that such distillation can help in vaccine discovery efforts, too.

Suppression by social distancing has emerged as the most promising way to stem the tide of infection. It is clear, however, that social distancing like sticking to a healthy diet runs very much counter to our natural impulses. Short of draconian state enforcement, what can we do to increase the chances that people follow the best practices? One way AI can help here is via micro-targeted behavioral nudges. Like it or not, AI technologies already harvest vast troves of user profiles via our digital footprints and weaponize those for targeted ads. The same technologies can be readily rejiggered for subliminal micro-targeted social distancing messages that could include distracting us from cabin fever. There already is some evidence that mild nudging can even reduce the sharing of misinformation.

Lockdowns and social distancing measures are affecting the education of millions of schoolchildren. Tutoring services assisted by AI technologies can help significantly when students are stuck at home. China reportedly has relied on the help of online AI-based tutoring companies such as Squirrel AI to engage some of its millions of schoolchildren in lockdown.

And while self-driving cars remain a distant dream, delivering essential goods to people via deserted streets certainly could be within reach. Depending on how long shelter-at-home continues, we might rely increasingly on such technologies to transport critical personnel and goods.

Some of these potential uses of AI are controversial, as they infringe on privacy and civil liberties or reflect the very type of applications that the AI ethics community has resisted. Do we really want our personal AI assistants to start nudging us subliminally? Should we support increased cellphone tracking for infection control? It will be interesting to see to what extent society is willing to adopt them.

Indeed, our readiness to try almost anything to fight this unprecedented viral war is opening an inadvertent window into how we might handle the worries surrounding an AI-enabled future. Ideas such as universal basic income (UBI) in the presence of widespread technological unemployment, or concerns about diminished privacy thanks to widespread AI-based surveillance all are coming to the fore.

China has mobilized state resources to feed its quarantined population and used extensive cellphone tracking to analyze the spread of the virus. Israel is reportedly using cellphone tracking to ensure quarantines, as did Taiwan. The U.S. is considering UBI-like ideas e.g., providing thousand-dollar checks to many adults effectively unemployed during the pandemic and is reportedly mulling cellphone-based tracking to get people to follow social distancing guidelines.

Once such practices are adopted, they will no longer just be theoretical constructs. Some or all of them will become part of our society beyond this war on the virus, just as many Great Depression-era programs became part of our social fabric. The possibility that our choices in this time of crisis can change our society in crucial ways is raising alarms and calls for circumspection. Yet, to what extent civil society is likely to pause for circumspection at the height of this execution imperative remains to be seen.

Subbarao Kambhampati, PhD, is a professor of computer science at Arizona State University and chief AI officer for AI Foundation, which focuses on the responsible development of AI technologies. He served as president and is now past-president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and was a founding board member of Partnership on AI. He can be followed on Twitter@rao2z.

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DeepMind AI teaches itself about the world by watching videos – New Scientist

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Lions roar: video clips beat labels for AIs seeking knowledge

OE KLAMAR/AFP/Gettyvide

By Matt Reynolds

To an untrained AI, the world is a blur of confusing data streams. Most humans have no problem making sense of the sights and sounds around them, but algorithms tend only to acquire this skill if those sights and sounds are explicitly labelled for them.

Now DeepMind has developed an AI that teaches itself to recognise a range of visual and audio concepts just by watching tiny snippets of video. This AI can grasp the concept of lawn mowing or tickling, for example, but it hasnt been taught the words to describe what its hearing or seeing.

We want to build machines that continuously learn about their environment in an autonomous manner, says Pulkit Agrawal at the University of California, Berkeley. Agrawal, who wasnt involved with the work, says this project takes us closer to the goal of creating AI that can teach itself by watching and listening to the world around it.

Most computer vision algorithms need to be fed lots of labelled images so it can tell different objects apart. Show an algorithm thousands of cat photos labelled cat and soon enough itll learn to recognise cats even in images it hasnt seen before.

But this way of teaching algorithms called supervised learning is cheating, says Relja Arandjelovi who led the project at DeepMind. Instead of relying on human-labelled datasets, his algorithm learns to recognise images and sounds by matching up what it sees with what it hears.

Humans are particularly good at this kind of learning , says Paolo Favaro at the University of Bern in Switzerland. We dont have somebody following us around and telling us what everything is, he says.

Arandjelovi created his algorithm by starting with two networks one that specialised in recognising images and another that did a similar job with audio. He showed the image recognition network stills taken from short videos while the audio recognition network was trained on 1-second audio clips taken from the same point in each video.

A third network compared still images with audio clips to learn which sounds corresponded with which sights in the videos. In all, the system was trained on 60 million still-audio pairs taken from 400,000 videos.

The algorithm learned to recognise audio and visual concepts, including crowds, tap dancing and water, without ever seeing a specific label for a single concept. When shown a photo of someone clapping, for example, most of the time it knew which sound was associated with that image.

This kind of co-learning approach could be extended to include senses other than sight and hearing, says Agarwal. Learning visual and touch features simultaneously can, for example, enable the agent to search for objects in the dark and learn about material properties such as friction, he says.

DeepMind will present the study at the International Conference on Computer Vision which takes place in Venice, Italy, in late October.

While the AI in the DeepMind project doesnt interact with the real world, Agarwal says that perfecting self-supervised learning will eventually let us create AI that can operate in the real world and learn from what it sees and hears.

But until we reach that point, self-supervised learning might be a good way of training image and audio recognition algorithms without input from vast amounts of human-labelled data. The DeepMind algorithm can correctly categorise an audio clip nearly 80 per cent of the time, making it better at audio-recognition than many algorithms trained on labelled data.

Such promising results suggest that similar algorithms might be able to learn something by crunching through huge unlabelled datasets like YouTubes millions of online videos. Most of the data in the world is unlabelled and therefore it makes sense to develop systems that can learn from unlabelled data, Agrawal says.

Journal reference: arxiv.org

Read more: Curious AI learns by exploring game worlds and making mistakes

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DeepMind AI teaches itself about the world by watching videos - New Scientist

Watch Out: You’re in Ai Weiwei’s Surveillance Zone – The New York … – New York Times

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Not just humans, AI too is getting used to the new normal – Gadgets Now

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Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are built using lots and lots of data, most of it historical. When hundreds of pictures of cats are shown to an AI system, it learns what a cat is and what isnt a cat. AI systems in retail learn from historical data what are, for instance, the buying patterns in one store, how it changes over months/seasons, how it is different in another store in another location. That enables it to make predictions.

When something like Covid-19 happens and changes many historical patterns dramatically, AI systems are as unprepared as humans. And they require fresh training, rewriting of the algorithms.

Bengaluru-based AI solutions provider Manthan works with many global retailers. One of the companys fashion retail customers in the US saw almost all its 700 stores shutting down at the end of March. The companys chief product officer Sameer Narula says they had to rework their algorithms to handle the short-term and longer-term impact of the event. For the short-term, we had to quickly build new models, within weeks, which could use e-commerce data to identify changing patterns and trends and mash it with geo-spatial data to predict the demand in stores when they reopened, he says.

The pandemic event-specific data is still limited and evolving to be useful in calibrating the longer-term impact of it

Sameer Narula, chief product officer, Manthan

For the longer term, its more difficult. Narula says the pandemic event-specific data is still limited and evolving to be useful in calibrating the longer-term impact of it. Weve been working on incorporating several new micro and macro economic signals like consumer sentiment index, economic optimism index into our demand forecasting models to bring in more permanent and generic adaptability to deal with the impact of such kind of exceptional events in future, he says.

We used AI to check for compliance of mask usage by delivery partners, and to stop delivery of non-essential items

Dale Vaz, head of engineering and data science, Swiggy

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An AI affair fuels a midlife crisis in the eerie science fiction drama Auggie – The Verge

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If a time-traveler from just 15 years ago leaped into our present, theyd probably be baffled by a world where its socially acceptable to wander around in public, continually staring at glowing rectangular screens. Thats how retiree Felix (Richard Kind) feels in the science fiction movie Auggie as he rounds a corner at the grocery store and sees a middle-aged woman in high-tech glasses, chatting away to a virtual assistant that only she can see.

Felix knows just enough about the Auggie virtual companion program to have some frame of reference for whats going on as she playfully swats the air, teasing her Auggie for encouraging her to indulge in a pint of ice cream. But its still a weird, comical sight until Felix tries on his own Auggie glasses. Suddenly, chatting away with a virtual confidante is the most natural thing in the world. How did he ever live without her?

Though on the surface, Auggie seems to share a lot of DNA with Spike Jonzes AI love story Her, it bends that DNA toward a different aim. While Her optimistically explored the idea of how AI might develop sentience and build relationships, Auggie never questions whether Felixs virtual assistant is more than a program. Director Matt Kane and his co-writer Marc Underhill are more interested in what technology has to say about human nature than in how technology itself might realistically evolve. That makes Auggie feel a bit like a feature-length episode of Black Mirror, both for better and for worse. It doesnt have enough substance to fill its runtime, but it explores some intriguingly thorny ideas along the way.

Felix is gifted his pair of Auggie glasses at his retirement party, although hes initially too bitter about being forced out of his company to pay them much attention. Later, however, he watches a glossy online tutorial and learns that Auggie analyzes its users subconscious desires, then projects the image of whatever they want whether thats a personal assistant, a friend, or something more. (Kane absolutely nails the tech worlds aspirational advertisements and sleek packaging.) When Felix slips on his glasses for the first time, he sees a beautiful, doe-eyed, eager-to-please young woman named Auggie (Christen Harper) whos pointedly much closer in age to Felixs 20-something daughter Grace (Simone Policano) than to him or his wife Anne (Susan Blackwell).

At first, Felix is surprised and a bit embarrassed by what his Auggies appearance suggests about him. She sits somewhere between an Instagram model, a cam girl, and a phone sex operator. On the other hand, since no one can see Felixs Auggie but him, she represents a low-stakes way to carry out the beginnings of an affair from the comfort of his own home. Kane films their conversations in dreamy point-of-view shots that emphasize the intimate appeal of the Auggie program, which provides an intimate, dedicated companion. But Kane also punctures the illusion with wide shots that remind us that, like that woman in the grocery store, Felix is ultimately just alone in a room talking to himself. (There are some niggling logistical questions about how Felix can hear Auggie, but theyre mostly easy to ignore since the simplicity of the glasses-based technology is so visually appealing.)

In many ways, Auggie is a familiar midlife crisis story dressed up with some light science fiction elements. With Felixs wife flourishing in her career, his grown-up daughter moving in with her boyfriend, and no job to fill his days, he boosts his ego in the virtual arms of someone young and beautiful. But Auggie also brushes up against bigger questions about how technology isolates people even as it sells the illusion of connectedness. The Auggie system is a flexible metaphor that speaks to everything from the fantasy of porn to the appeal of carefully curated social media feeds. When Felix starts rejecting real-life social events to spend time with Auggie, it doesnt feel too far removed from someone who cancels plans only to spend the evening scrolling through Twitter or goes out for coffee with a friend but spends the whole time looking at their phone.

At its best, Auggie taps into some appropriately chilling ideas about the pitfalls of technology. When Anne tries on a pair of Auggie glasses, she makes the cringe-worthy mistake of describing what shes seeing, not realizing its a projection of her specific subconscious desires, rather than a preprogrammed image. A scene where Felixs Auggie encourages him to take their relationship to the next level raises fascinating questions about the intersection of technology and capitalism. Is she actually catering to his cravings or just pushing the companys latest product, a pair of stimulating underwear called Auggie Touch?

Unfortunately, as the film goes on, its clear Kane is more interested in exploring the Auggie-as-an-affair metaphor than in unspooling the ethical and technological questions the premise raises. Felixs life starts to implode in ways that have cropped up on-screen countless times before: he grows distant from his loved ones and misses out on important events because he lost track of time while with his new girlfriend. Even at a brisk 81 minutes in length, the film is stretching for time by its third act. Auggie probably wouldve worked just as well, if not better, as a short film.

Still, even where it doesnt live up to its full potential, Auggie has some appreciably pointed things to say about heterosexual masculine desires. Richard Kind is brilliant casting for Felix precisely because hes such an amiable presence. For the most part, Felix seems to be a genuinely good guy, which only makes his secret desire for a docile sex object more unsettling. Young, beautiful, and brainless, Auggie has none of the burdensome opinions, feelings, boundaries, or agency of a real-life woman. Though Felix ultimately learns that virtual perfection isnt all its cracked up to be, Auggie raises chilling, perpetually timely questions about what men really want from women.

Auggie will be released simultaneously in select theaters and on VOD on September 20th, 2019.

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One Partner’s Experience Using AI To Measure Customer Satisfaction – CRN: The Biggest Tech News For Partners And The IT Channel

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Cloudbakers, a system integrator focused on supporting cloud services and migration for its 500 clients, began measuring customer satisfaction using artificial intelligence a few years ago and has since successfully identified patterns and smoothed out problem areas.

"We see our job as 50 percent human, 50 percent tech. For us, monitoring our customer's happiness is a critical success factor," Eric Lannert, CTO of Chicago-based Cloudbakers, told MSPs at The Channel Company's NexGen 2019 conference.

Solution providers can harness AI technologies like sentiment analysis gain deeper insights into topics that are trending, and positive and negative feedback from their customers, Lannert said.

[Related: AI Explosion: How Solution Providers Are Cashing In Big]

Cloudbakers is a Google Cloud Premier Partner, so the firm selected Google's machine learning natural language API to automatically compute sentiment analysis for its cloud licenses it resells. The industry average response rate to satisfaction surveys typically runs around 30 percent, but CloudBakers wanted to see what would happen if they used AI APIs to innovate on the data it was collecting from its ticket system.

Google's sentiment analysis gave Cloudbakers a quantitative, emotional scoring on a 1-10 basis of text from their customers through the tickets by recognizing specific words and phrases.

"As a reseller, provisioning is usually a sticking point for customers, and we learned that amazingly, that was the most positive with our customers," Lannert said. "Interestingly from a problem-solving standpoint, PDFs were having an issue, which turned out to be a common theme across clients dealing with cloud syncing. The technology is helping us diagnose customer patterns across many different clients."

Today, Cloudbakers is considering reselling AI to track satisfaction as an offering for its clients, rather than only continuing to use it in-house, Lannert said. The firm is talking to its customers to learn which insights they'd pay more or less for, and how much analysis will the customer expect of Cloudbakers.

"This is giving us a good idea to build a pretty big offering set, he said.

Vistem Solutions, Inc. (VSI), an Irvine, Calif.-based MSP, specializes in supporting hospitality and labor union customers, as well as the shipping industry on the Pacific Coast. VSI has its own development team, so the firm can do data integration and software modifications to help disparate systems communicate with each other. VSI is interested in using AI to measure customer satisfaction for its hospitality clients to use during their guests' transactions, not after their experience is over, said Keith Nelson, vice president of technology for VSI.

"Customers like convention centers are very big into guest satisfaction, so I'm interested in tracking satisfaction and surveying along the process, versus at the end," he said. "Having a customer say they're mad afterward doesn't accomplish much."

VSI is in the process of evaluating several new cloud partners for development, including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, Nelson said.

MSPs interested in offering an AI-based solution to track satisfaction should take advantage of cloud platforms for building scripts that allow these solutions to be deployed in one click and automatically billed, lannert said. Channel partners will also have to identify the right customers within their base that will be open evolving their businesses, he added.

"Your potential early adoptions are people who are interested in machine learning," he said. "This is an example of moving from the procurement of hardware to the procurement of solutions, with the same level of automation and customer experience surrounding it."

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European Patent Office Rejects Worlds First AI Inventor – Forbes

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The European patent authorities have rejected an attempt to register an AI as an official inventor.

The possibility's been a subject of debate for some time, and last summer a group of legal experts decided to force the issue. The group, led by Professor Ryan Abbott of the University of Surrey, submitted designs developed by an AI to the authorities in the US, UK and Europe, and later Germany, Israel, Taiwan and China.

The AI concerned, named Dabus, was created by Stephen Thaler, and is described as a connectionist artificial intelligence.

According to its inventors, it 'relies upon a system of many neural networks generating new ideas by altering their interconnections. A second system of neural networks detects critical consequences of these potential ideas and reinforces them based upon predicted novelty and salience.'

It came up with two concepts submitted for patent approval: a new type of drinks container based on fractal geometry, and a device based on a flickering light for attracting attention during search and rescue operations.

"In these applications, the AI has functionally fulfilled the conceptual act that forms the basis for inventorship. There would be no question the AI was the only inventor if it was a natural person," said Abbott.

"The right approach is for the AI to be listed as the inventor and for the AIs owner to be the assignee or owner of its patents. This will reward innovative activities and keep the patent system focused on promoting invention by encouraging the development of inventive AI, rather than on creating obstacles."

However, the European Patent Office failed to agree.

"After hearing the arguments of the applicant in non-public oral proceedings on 25 November the EPO refused EP 18 275 163 and EP 18 275 174 on the grounds that they do not meet the requirement of the EPC that an inventor designated in the application has to be a human being, not a machine," it concluded.

Legal attitudes to AI inventors vary subtly around the world. In the UK, for example, the programmer who came up with the AI is the inventor; in the US, it's the person who came up with the original idea for the invention, with the programmer deemed simply to be facilitating it.

Patent ownership also involves certain responsibilities that an AI would struggle to satisfy, such as renewing patents, updating government records and keeping licensees informed.

While the EU did at one time consider adding 'electronic personality' to the two categories of potential patent owner allowed - 'natural person' and 'legal entity' - it abandoned the idea after receiving a strongly worded letter from more than 150 experts in AI, robotics, IP and ethics.

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Cooper, the grocery assistant with AI, gives concierge service – Mail and Guardian

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Swedish supermarket Coop Sweden has a retail grocery assistant on its websites. Cooper, as the assistant is called, can help you with dietary requirements, suggest recipes and provide nutritional information. The idea behind Cooper is to increase interaction with consumers while providing a seamless shopping experience.

As consumers move online, implementing the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is becoming more crucial. Cooper is an example of the 4IR in practice. These technologies are changing the way we work, commute, communicate and, as Cooper will tell you, even shop. The 4IR is based on high-level technology such as artificial intelligence, automation, biotechnology, nanotechnology and communication technologies that permeates society. It is a combination of various technologies that can communicate with humans and interact with other devices and programs.

The lockdown necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic has been an important yardstick for understanding behavioural changes in consumers as online options become more commonplace. A recent Nielsen study found that 37% of South Africans say they are shopping more online in this period. As Gareth Paterson, a lead retail analyst at Nielsen South Africa, put it, Amid the strange new world of Covid-19, online grocery shopping has been a lifeline for many South African consumers who have desperately sought out safe and secure shopping alternatives amidst the uncertainty of lockdown living. As a result, available online shopping platforms, especially for groceries, medicines, and other necessary items, have seen a surge in usage over the last few weeks as consumers prefer not to venture into stores and have increasingly opted for these reduced touchpoint alternatives.

According to data from the survey, Nielsen is anticipating that options such as click and collect and online personal shopping will grow exponentially, resulting in prolonged behavioural changes. Retailers have been quick to cotton on to this shift and have responded in innovative and effective ways. For instance, Checkers has launched an app called Checkers Sixty60, which has groceries delivered to you in 60 minutes. There are 5 000 groceries to choose from and options to substitute products if your first choice is not available.

In various industries, the coronavirus has been an important lesson where we are well equipped to deal with the 4IR and where we still have gaps. This will undoubtedly signal a shift in consumer behaviour and many will not return to traditional brick-and-mortar retail. We will increasingly see more retailers adapt to this way of operating. In fact, a report by global management consultancy Accenture last year suggested that South African retailers would see a knock to a business if they did not embrace e-commerce. The emphasis on traditional stores, Accenture argues, means that many retailers are losing out on the potential profits that come with online offerings. Yet, interestingly enough, the current pandemic may subvert this.

This is not to say that online shopping has not had somewhat of a watershed moment in recent years. Perhaps the best example that provides a holistic user experience is the Mr Price app. With it, you can shop online, find the stock in stores and even upload a picture of something you like for it to suggest similar items available on the app through the snap and shop feature. For instance, I could either take or upload a picture of a pair of brown formal shoes that I saw a colleague wear. The app will then pull any stock available at Mr Price that looks similar and provide a list of suggestions accompanied by pictures.

The starkest instance of the popularity of online retail is Black Friday, which has gained popularity in South Africa in the last few years. It is probably the biggest day of the year for retailers, particularly online retailers. In the week leading up to it, consumers receive hordes of massive Black Friday discounts. Some of them may have put together wish lists to check out at the stroke of midnight while others may have used their phones to search for discounts.

AI is tailoring the online experience and it is determining prices, inventory and making distribution far more efficient for your favourite retailers. Another example of this on Instagram is the move to online shopping with a new AR shopping feature that is being rolled out, which allows consumers to try on products digitally before buying them. For example, using your phone you could try on the latest shade of Mac lipstick to see how you would look. This followed a rollout of a checkout feature that allowed you to buy products directly on Instagram without ever leaving the app.

The try-on feature is limited to certain brands and is still in a trial phase, but it is as easy to use as the filters when you create a story that could give you dog ears and a tongue or freckles and blue eyes. The long-term vision is to roll this out with all retail, so, for example, you could see what a couch looks like in your living room. This is not the only technology Instagram has adopted. AI influencers have been introduced, which have been surprisingly popular.

According to consumer insight website LendEDU, three years ago 52.9% of millennials said Instagram has the most influence on them when making shopping decisions. For instance, many followers use the website LIKEtoKNOW.it, which sends a direct link to a product after a shopper likes a post. Creating completely digital influencers is a whole new avenue. Miquela is an AI influencer with 2.4-million followers. Just like any other influencer, her posts are perfectly planned, she has a themed feed, has sponsored content and gives her followers useful advice and brand recommendations. But she does not actually exist she is run with AI technology. This has not stopped her career from taking off.

Last year, she collaborated with Prada for Milan Fashion Week by posting 3D-generated gifs of herself at the Milan show venue wearing the spring/summer 2018 collection. On Pradas Instagram account, she gave their followers a mini-tour of the space, just like any influencer would for a brand. She is not an outlier there are many more like her. Balmain recently announced a Balmain Army made up entirely of computer-generated imagery (CGI) models. There is also a dedicated modelling agency for digital models called The Digital.

Amazon, the largest online retailer by revenue, has 45 000 robots at its warehouses to fulfil orders and a fleet of airborne drones into service for fast deliveries. It is not just online that retail is transforming with the 4IR. There is room to implement this kind of technology at brick-and-mortar level. The introduction of robotics has streamlined checkout processes, for instance. In the United Kingdom, you can self-checkout at grocery stores that weigh your goods to prevent theft. Similarly, there are robots akin to sales assistants in stores in the United States they can help you find an item either verbally or through the touch screen. Some robots can perform real-time inventory tracking.

Best Buy, the US-based electronics store, has an automated system much like the claw machine at the arcade that can retrieve products from shelves. There is scope to streamline and automate processes that will prove to be cost-effective for retailers in the long run. Accelerated adoption of technology will be a key strategic move that could lift retailers margins significantly. Retailers can introduce digital technologies and automation into their operations to reduce costs and enhance the customer experience. They can turn e-commerce from a threat to a growth opportunity, a McKinsey and Company report on the future of work in South Africa reads.

One of the grim realities of this era we are moving into is that there will be knock-on employment, particularly of low-skill workers. The caveat is that there will be demand for graduates and employees with higher skills levels, and we need to meet the demand for graduates not to fall into an even deeper unemployment crisis.

From a retail perspective, there is so much to be done that can augment consumers experiences. As industries vie to be a step ahead in the ever-changing context, consumers and business owners have to be open to these experiences and shifts. As physicist William Pollard once said: Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Johannesburg and deputy chair of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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Cooper, the grocery assistant with AI, gives concierge service - Mail and Guardian

Google’s AI Vision May No Longer Include Giant Robots – The Ringer (blog)

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(Getty Images/Ringer illustration)

Good news for the deeply paranoid among us: If the apocalypse arrives via giant anthropomorphic robots, they probably wont be bankrolled by Google. On Thursday, Googles parent company, Alphabet, announced that it was selling Boston Dynamics, its premier robotics division, to the Japanese telco giant SoftBank for an undisclosed sum. The deal also includes a smaller robotics company called Schaft.

Boston Dynamics was less a moonshot than a sci-fi horror brought to life. Even before being acquired by Google in 2013, the 25-year-old company had already developed a Beast Warsstyle squadron of robot predators with names like BigDog and WildCat, as well as a humanoid model called Atlas. The machines were often developed for the Pentagon under contracts with agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Google and the government both said the robots were being tested for disaster-relief scenarios, but that never stopped the stream of headlines describing them as scary, nightmare-inducing, or evil.

Whether Googles ultimate plans were benign or nefarious, they never properly got off the ground. Both Boston Dynamics and Schaft were part of a months-long spending spree Google bankrolled to appease Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, who was looking to robots as his next frontier for innovation. But Rubin left Google in 2014, creating a leadership vacuum as the company struggled to get its various robotics acquisitions headquartered around the world to work in tandem. Under Rubin, Google reportedly had plans to launch a consumer robotics product by 2020, but that timeline seems in doubt now. (Alphabet still owns several smaller robotics startups that specialize in areas such as industrial manufacturing and film production.)

In the years since the Boston Dynamics acquisition, Google has shown that it doesnt need to build a robot butler (or soldier) to create a future dominated by artificial intelligence. Machine-learning algorithms now guide most of the companys products, whether recommending YouTube videos, identifying objects in users photo libraries, or whisking people around in driverless cars. The company is partnering with appliance manufacturers like General Electric so that people can control their ovens via voice commands to Google Home. And most ambitiously, at this years Google I/O, the company unveiled a suite of new products related to its machine-learning framework, TensorFlow. Developers will soon be able to make use of the same AI engines that power Googles products to improve their own offerings via the companys cloud-computing platform.

In the companys ideal future, every human-machine interaction will be powered by Google, even if a specific app or appliance doesnt have Googles name on it. Terminator-style robots (OK, hopefully Jetsons-style) may one day be part of that vision, but the company can easily build an AI army with the products that fill our homes and garages today.

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For The First Time Ever, A Drug Developed By AI Will Be Tested In Human Trials – Forbes

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In a world first, a medicine developed by artificial intelligence may be used to treat patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The news is remarkable and hints that in the future, AI may help drug development become faster and more efficiently than ever before.

The first non-man made drug molecule, DSP-1181, has now entered Phase 1 clinical trials, European Pharmaceutical Review reported. The molecule is a long-acting potent serotonin 5-HT1A receptor agonist and was developed using AI that was the product of a partnership between Japans Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Exscientia in the UK. The compound was developed in a remarkable time, with AI able to complete in 12 months what typically takes five years.

We are very excited with the results of the joint research that resulted in the development of candidate compounds in a very short time, said Toru Kimura, Senior Executive Officer and Senior Executive Research Director of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. We will continue to work hard to make this clinical study success so that it may deliver new benefits to patients as soon as possible.

The drug was created by using algorithms, which AI was able to sift through faster than any human could.

Binary code symbols are seen on a laptop screen in this photo illustration on October 15, 2018 in ... [+] Warsaw, Poland. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"There are billions of decisions needed to find the right molecules and it is a huge decision to precisely engineer a drug," Exscienta chief executive Prof Andrew Hopkins told the BBC. "But the beauty of the algorithm is that they are agnostic, so can be applied to any disease," he added.

This is not the first time that AI has played a hand in medicine, as increasing research shows AIs ability to accurately diagnose disease, sometimes even better than doctors. For example, in the case of breast cancer diagnoses, a publication in the journal Nature showed that a computer model using an algorithm was more successful than radiologists reading mammograms, the BBC reported. The study concluded that the AI was as good as the current system, which uses two doctors to reach a single mammogram, but better than a single doctor. The AI also had fewer false negatives than the doctors, which is important as undiagnosed cancer is serious.

In the case of developing drugs, DSP-1181 may have been the first but scientists are convinced it is far from the last.

"This year was the first to have an AI-designed drug but by the end of the decade all new drugs could potentially be created by AI," said Hopkins, BBC reported.

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For The First Time Ever, A Drug Developed By AI Will Be Tested In Human Trials - Forbes