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Russia Rages After Son of Putin Official Is Nabbed on U.S. Charges

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

The Kremlin is threatening retaliatory action after authorities arrested Artyom Uss, the son of a top Russian official, at the United States request, for allegedly participating in a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme.

Uss, who was detained in Milan, was charged in relation to a scheme to unlawfully obtain U.S. military technology and sanctioned Venezuelan oil in order to support Russias war effort in Ukraine, according to charges unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice this week.

We are categorically against this and we condemn the practice of these kinds of arrests of Russian citizens, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Uss father, the governor of Russias Krasnoyarsk Krai region, Alexander Uss, has suggested the arrest is politically motivated, according to TASS.

Another Russian government spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Moscow would not leave the United States search for Russians unanswered and accused the U.S. of taking hostages for political purposes, TASS reported.

These Top Putin Cronies Vowed to Fight in Ukraine Themselves. So Where Are They?

Uss wasnt the only one charged in the money laundering and smuggling scheme. Uss co-owned a trading company called Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH) which he and co-conspirators allegedly used as a front to ship U.S. defense technology to Russia.

Uss and co-conspirators are accused of using NDA GmbH to ship advanced semiconductors and microprocessors for fighter aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, radar, and satellites to Russiasome have been found in weapons used in the war in Ukraine.

Some of the same electronic components obtained through the criminal scheme have been found in Russian weapons platforms seized on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Department of Justice said in an announcement, adding that the accused developed a sophisticated network of schemes that undermined security, economic stability and rule of law around the world.

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The group of co-conspirators also allegedly shipped hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela to Russian and Chinese entities, including at least one sanctioned oligarch.

The 12-count indictment charged five Russian nationals in total, including Yury Orekhov, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin, and Sergey Tulyakov. Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce and Juan Carlos Soto were also charged with setting up illegal oil deals for Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

One of the co-conspirators openly acknowledged that NDA GmbH was working for a sanctioned oligarch, according to court documents.

He [the oligarch] is under sanctions as well, Orekhov said. Thats why we [are] acting from this company [NDA GmbH]. As fronting.

Russia has long helped Venezuela evade sanctions around the globe. But the latest charges expose the multiple layers of sanctions the United States has imposed on both Russia and Venezuela.

The United States has been sanctioning Venezuela for more than 15 years, and in recent years has imposed restrictions on Venezuelas state oil company and other entities in order to try to pressure Venezuelan dictator Nicols Maduro to leave power.

Sanctions on Russian banks in recent months, which the United States and other nations have levied in an attempt to try to isolate Moscow on the world stage while it assaults Ukraine, have likely hurt Venezuelas ability to access its assets, according to the Congressional Research Service. But higher oil prices from Russias invasion of Ukraine appear to be driving a semblance of economic recovery for Venezuela, according to the CRS.

Task Force KleptoCapture, the Department of Justice group established earlier this year with the aim of punishing Russia for the war in Ukraine and enforcing sanctions on Russian oligarchs, announced the charges alongside other DOJ entities.

Stamping out evasion of export controls on military technology is among the Task Forces highest priorities, Andrew Adams, the director of Task Force KleptoCapture, said in a statement. Webs of shell companies, cryptocurrency and an international network of fraudsters failed to shield Orekhov and his cronies from apprehension by U.S. law enforcement.

Its not clear what Russia will be doing in response to Uss arrest.

When asked Thursday if Uss arrest is related at all to the negotiations to release Brittney Griner from Russia, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to speculate.

The President is willing to take extraordinary lengths to bring Americans home, Jean-Pierre said in a briefing with reporters.

Russia Maps & Facts – World Atlas

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

As the world's largest country in total area, Russia showcases a wide diversity of landforms. In general terms, it is divided into some very specific geographical zones.

The broad European Plain, or Volga River Plain extends from the Ural Mountains to its western borders with Europe.

The central and southern areas of Russia include large fertile areas, marsh, steppes (plains without trees) and massive coniferous forests.

Siberia is a combination of frozen tundra, with rolling hills rising to plateaus, punctuated by scattered mountain ranges.

Mountains Mountain ranges are found across Russia, with many of the major ones stretching along its southwestern, southeastern and eastern borders

In the far southwest the Caucasus Mountains slice across the land. The country's highest point, Mt. Elbrus at 18,481 ft. (5,633 m), is located there. It has been marked on the map above by a yellow upright triangle.

Making up the natural border between European Russia and Asia, the Ural Mountains extend from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan's northern border.

The Kolyma Mountains in far northeastern Russia extend about 1,126 km (700 mi) north and south to the east of the Kolyma River and roughly parallel to the coast of Siberia. Some rise to over 6000 feet (1830 meters).

Rivers Russia has more than 100,000 rivers with a length of 7 miles, or greater. Some of the world's longest rivers flow through the vast lowland plains that dominate the Russian landscape.

Significant rivers include the Volga, Dnieper and Dvina (west), the Lena, Ob, and Yenisey (central) and the Amur in the far east.

At 1,642 m (5,387 ft), Lake Baikal (marked on the map) is the deepest and among the clearest of all lakes in the world. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world.

Steppe Long characterized as the typical Russian landscape, the steppe region displays a broad range of treeless, grassy plains punctuated by mountain ranges, and provides the best conditions for human settlement.

Taiga Accounting for over 60% of Russia, this forested region extends from its western borders then east towards the Pacific Ocean. Russia contains the world's largest reserve of coniferous wood, however, due to extensive logging the supply is steadily on the decrease; as well, to make way for agriculture, much of the forested zone has been cleared.

Tundra Stretching 4,349 miles (7,000 km) from west to east, the Russian Arctic is a vast treeless and marshy plain, and is well-known for its white nights (dusk after midnight, and dawn fairly soon after) through summer and days of near total darkness through winter.

Russia has 46 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respubliki, singular - respublika), 4 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnyye okrugi, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 9 krays (kraya, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (goroda, singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast')

The oblasts are:Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl';

The 21 republics are: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas), Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk);

Autonomous okrugs: Chukotka (Anadyr'), Khanty-Mansi-Yugra (Khanty-Mansiysk), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard);

Krays: Altay (Barnaul), Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm', Primorskiy [Maritime] (Vladivostok), Stavropol', Zabaykal'sk [Transbaikal] (Chita);

Federal cities: Moscow [Moskva], Saint Petersburg [Sankt-Peterburg];

Autonomous oblast: Yevreyskaya [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)

Russia, the world's largest country by area, stretches from Northern Asia to Eastern Europe. The Arctic Ocean borders Russia to the north and the Pacific to the east. The country also has a short coastline on the Baltic Sea in the northwest. The exclave of Russia, Kaliningrad also borders the Baltic Sea as well as Lithuania and Poland. The southern borders of Russia are with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, North Korea, and Mongolia. The western and southwestern borders of Russia are with Finland, Norway, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia.

Russia Bordering Countries: Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Azerbaijan, North Korea, China.

Regional Maps: Map of Asia

The above map represents the largest country in the world, Russia. The map can be downloaded, printed, and used for coloring or map-pointing activities.

The above map represents Russia, the world's largest country.

This page was last updated on February 24, 2021

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Russia Maps & Facts - World Atlas

Live updates | Russia-Ukraine War

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

Provided by The Associated Press People queue up to wait a ration food from World Central Kitchen organisation in the center of Mykolaiv, Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. As Ukraine crosses the mark of eight months anniversary since the start of full-scale war, the residents of southern Mykolaiv, who suffer shelling almost every night, are determined to fight as long as it takes to liberate all the regions. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraines president said Monday that Kyiv has been able to defend the independence of the country in the eight months of the war waged by Russia.

In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the eight-month anniversary of the invasion and noted that the Ukrainian forces are advancing in the partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions and also intend to retake the Zaporizhzhia region and the annexed Crimea.

Ukraine is breaking the so-called second army of the world, Zelenskyy said. Now Russia can only be a beggar. It is begging for something in Iran, trying to squeeze something out of Western states, inventing various tales about Ukraine, intimidating, deceiving.

Zelenskyy warned that the coming winter will be the most difficult in history.

We have no right to relax. We still have to go the way to the Ukrainian victory. It is a difficult road, the president said.

____

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

Ukraine reports success in shooting down 70% of drones launched by Russia

Ukraine hospitals staff fight dark memories of occupation

Ukrainian womans quest to retrieve body of prisoner of war

Macron: Ukraine to decide time, terms of peace with Russia

EXPLAINER: What would retreat from Kherson mean for Russia?

___

ZAGREB, Croatia -- U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Iran is making a big mistake by supplying Russia with drones that are targeting Ukraines infrastructure.

Weve been trying for a while now to have a nuclear agreement with Iran so that we can make the world a safer place and now theyre going off aiding the Russians and making the world a less safe place, Pelosi said in Zagreb, Croatia.

The United States and key Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian-made drones to attack civilians and power plants in Ukraine. Iran has denied it is supplying Russia with the explosive-laden missiles but the distinctive triangle-shaped drones have been seen.

First of all, we have to be able to counter the drones, Pelosi said at a joint press conference with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. It is a dangerous technology and it must be stopped.

Pelosi was in Croatia to attend an international forum aimed at supporting Ukraines independence in the face of the Russian aggression.

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MOSCOW A senior Russian official says that authorities have taken steps to boost weapons production amid the fighting in Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russias Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said he visited the countrys top tank factory in the Ural Mountains city of Nizhny Tagil on Monday to discuss ways of increasing output.

Medvedev noted that foreign observers have predicted that Russia would run out of its weapons stockpiles soon, adding that such forecasts were bound to fail.

He said that production of weapons and equipment from tanks and cannons to precision missiles and drones is increasing many fold.

You just wait, he said.

___

MOSCOW Russia's military says it has discussed with its British counterparts the alleged threat of Ukraine using a dirty bomb.

According to a statement Monday by Russias Defense Ministry, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, discussed the situation related to the possible use of a dirty bomb by Ukraine with Britains Chief of the Defense Staff Admiral Tony Radakin.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu first made the claim over the weekend in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu voiced concern about possible Ukrainian provocations involving a dirty bomb, a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste. It doesnt have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.

The U.S., Britain and France responded by saying in a joint statement that our countries made clear that we all reject Russias transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus Hungarys foreign minister says his counterparts in other European Union countries are seized by a rhetoric of war thats pushing the prospect of peace in war-torn Ukraine farther away.

Pter Szijjrt says his country has been calling for an immediate ceasefire and for peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials as soon as possible. Europes security, economy and energy supply will increasingly suffer the longer the war continues, he said Monday.

Szijjrt said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart that the EUs sanctions on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine have failed, driving up inflation and bringing extremely high energy costs in Hungary because of reduced gas supply.

The top Hungarian diplomat urged the EU to embark on a search for new sources of energy and to harness newly found gas deposits off Cyprus, building new pipelines, new routes to make sure that the gas which is being found here can be available for the European market.

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MOSCOW The Russian military says it has readied its forces for the possible use of a dirty bomb by Ukraine in a false flag attack to be blamed on Russia. That claim that has been strongly rejected by the U.S. and its allies.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian militarys radiation, chemical and biological protection forces, said Monday that Russian military assets already had been prepared to operate in conditions of radioactive contamination.

Kirillov charged that Ukraine has abundant stock of radioactive waste accumulated at its nuclear power plants and waste storage facilities, as well as the necessary expertise to build a dirty bomb.

Speaking at a briefing, Kirillov claimed that a dirty bomb explosion could spew deadly radiation at distances of up to 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seconded the militarys allegations, saying Monday that the information has been checked via corresponding channels.

Its not an unfounded suspicion, we have serious reasons to believe that such things could be planned, he said at a news conference Monday.

Ukraine has rejected Moscows claims as an attempt to distract attention from its own plans to detonate a dirty bomb, and its Western allies also dismissed the Russian claims as transparently false.

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MOSCOW Russian authorities say Ukrainian troops fired rockets at a major hydroelectric power plant in the southern Kherson region.

Russian news agencies carried a statement from regional emergency services saying Monday that the Ukrainian military fired 19 rockets at the Kakhovka plant and scored three hits.

There was no immediate information about the casualties, and the damage was still being assessed.

Vladimir Rogov, a senior member of the Kherson region administration, said that the Kakhovka plant hadnt sustained serious damage and was still operating.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of plotting to blow up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plants dam to flood the mostly flat terrain as Ukrainian forces press their offensive on Kherson, which was captured by the Russian troops in the early days of the conflict.

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KYIV, Ukraine Ukraines top diplomat is urging the U.N. nuclear watchdog to immediately send an inspection team to the country to counter Moscows claim that Kyiv is preparing a provocation involving a dirty bomb.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday he made the request in a call with Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Kuleba said Grossi agreed to send a team of inspectors, adding that unlike Russia, Ukraine has always been and remains transparent. We have nothing to hide.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu alleged in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey that Ukraine was preparing a provocation involving a dirty bomb a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive material.

The U.S., Britain and France said in a joint statement that they reject Russias transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.

___

BERLIN German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says rebuilding Ukraine will be a task for a generation that no country, donor or international institution can manage alone.

Scholz spoke at a German-Ukrainian business forum on Monday, a day before he and the head of the European Unions executive Commission host a gathering of experts to help mobilize international support for Ukraines reconstruction.

The chancellor pointed to the EUs decision in June to make Ukraine a candidate to join the bloc. He said that this decision also sends a signal to private investors: anyone who invests in rebuilding Ukraine today is investing in a future EU member country that will be part of our legal community and our single market.

Scholz said its important not just to repair destroyed energy plants and networks, but to make them more efficient ultimately allowing an expansion of Ukrainian electricity exports to the EU and a step-by-step transition to climate neutrality.

He stressed the need for more transparency and an even more determined fight against corruption as Ukraine strives ultimately to join the EU.

Ukraines Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the forum that rebuilding will be a forward-looking process. He added that in the process of transformation, incredible opportunities for European companies will open up in the energy sector, in agriculture, in the military sector, in IT and all other (areas).

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MOSCOW The Kremlin is standing by its allegation that Ukraine may be preparing to detonate a so-called dirty bomb, which disperses radioactive material, though Ukraine, the United States, Britain and France have dismissed Moscows claim.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the claim in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu voiced concern about possible Ukrainian provocations involving a dirty bomb, a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive material.

Such a device doesnt have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.

The Russian Defense Ministry and the Kremlin didnt publicly offer any specific information to back up its claim.

But speaking during Mondays call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Shoigus warning reflected a real threat.

Their distrust of the information that has been provided by the Russian side doesnt mean that the threat of using such a dirty bomb doesnt exist, Peskov said. Such a threat exists, and the defense minister has given the information about it to his interlocutors. Its up to them whether to trust it or not.

Western allies said they reject Russias transparently false allegations and warned they would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.

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Live updates | Russia-Ukraine War

Live updates: Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

Ships carrying agricultural products could not leave Ukraine due to a suspicious mine-like object near port

An aerial view of the Turkish-flagged ship "Polarnet" carrying grain from Ukraine is seen at the Derince Port, Kocaeli, Turkiye on August 08, 2022.

Omer Faruk Cebeci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of grain from Ukraine said that no vessels were approved to leave the besieged country due to a "suspicious mine-like object."

The Joint Coordination Center said that it halted departures from Ukraine until an inspection of the suspicious object was completed. The group said that eight vessels will leave Ukrainian ports Thursday.

Since the inception of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal announced in July among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, more than 390 vessels have left Ukraine carrying a total of 8.8 million metric tons of grain and other crops.

Read more about theBlack Sea Grain Initiative here.

Amanda Macias

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby holds a press briefing at the Pentagon on May 09, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia.

Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

The U.S. is "not taking sanctions off the table" in response to Iranian arms transfers to Russia, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby declined to detail potential diplomatic or economic actions Washington would take.

Moscow has carried out several devastating missile and drone strikes against what Ukraine said were civilian targets and critical infrastructure such as energy facilities.

Iran and Russia's representatives at the United Nations havesharply denied reportsthat Tehran supplied Moscow with a fleet of drones for use in Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that it uses Iranian-made drones to target residential and other high civilian areas.

Amanda Macias

US' Women's National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, waits for the verdict inside a defendants' cage before a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, on August 4, 2022.

Evgenia Novozhenina | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. officials are still talking with their Russian counterparts about the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

"The conversations with the Russians continue, they haven't stopped," Kirby told reporters at the White House. He added that the Biden administration is working on the immediate release of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

Whelan was arrested in 2018 on charges of acting as a spy for the United States. At the time he was arrested, Whelan was visiting Russia to attend a wedding, according to his brother, David Whelan.

On Tuesday,a Russian court upheld Griner's nine-year prison sentence, a decision that will send the U.S. athlete to a penal colony.

Griner, who plays professional basketball in Russia during the WNBA offseason, was arrested in February after Russian authorities found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

Amanda Macias

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier meet, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 25, 2022.

Jesco Denzel | BPA | via Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his country's forces have downed nearly 250 Russian helicopters.

"Russia will not be able to restore these losses. I thank all our fighters for such a gradual and irreversible demilitarization of the enemy," Zelenskyy said in a nightly Telegram address, according to an NBC News translation.

He also said that there is "fierce fighting" in the Donetsk region. He called Ukrainian troops holding positions in the area "simply heroes."

Amanda Macias

A war crimes prosecutor examines the damage in a destroyed building, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, following shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, in this handout picture released on July 31, 2022.

Press Service of the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office | Via Reuters

A number of efforts are underway to investigate Russian crimes committed in Ukraine, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general.

"The SecretaryGeneral believes that, in all conflicts, there needs to be accountability," Dujarric told reporters at the United Nations. "And so, there are a number of processes underway, including the Commission of Inquiry set up by the Human Rights Council."

"We also know that the International Criminal Court has had prosecutors on the ground to collect information. We believe that these processes should move forward," he said.

The Kremlin has previously denied that its forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure.

Amanda Macias

This photograph taken on April 26, 2022 shows the New Safe Confinement at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant which cover the number 4 reactor unit, on the 36th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images

Russian state media claimed that Ukraine has made a dummy rocket to deploy a "dirty bomb" near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.

The U.S. and its allies have previously denied Russian allegations that Ukraine is planning to use a "dirty bomb" in order to escalate the conflict.

The report in Russia's RIA Novosti alleges that Ukrainian forces are planning to fill the rocket with radioactive material and blame an explosion on Russian forces.

Amanda Macias

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about US policy towards China during an event hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, DC, on May 26, 2022.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. and its allies will continue to hold Russia accountable despite some concerns from lawmakers over the mounting financial burden.

"You can't simply go in and seize territory from another country, you can't change the borders of another country by force, you can't try to erase its independence and sovereignty from the map," Blinken said during an event hosted by Bloomberg.

"If we allow that to go unchecked, if we allow them to proceed with impunity, it opens Pandora's box around the world for the would-be aggressors," he added.

Blinked added that in his conversations with "members of Congress, Republicans, Democrats, House and Senate, there's a shared conviction" to stick with Ukraine.

Amanda Macias

The Russian Navys Kilo-class submarine Rostov-na-Donu B-237 enters the Bosphorus Strait en route to the Black Sea on Feb. 13, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dia Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Ukrainian navy said that Russian forces have approximately 19 vessels on combat duty in the Black Sea and Azov Sea off of Ukraine's coast, as well as the surrounding Mediterranean Sea.

In a Facebook post, the country's navy said that there are about eight Kalibr cruise missile carriers also in the waters, according to an NBC News translation.

Amanda Macias

Russia returned the body of an American citizen who died fighting for Kyiv to Ukrainian forces, the State Department confirmed.

"Out of respect for the privacy of the family, we will not release further details," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Price reiterated that U.S. citizens should still not travel to Ukraine and urged all Americans currently in the war-weary country to "depart immediately."

"U.S. citizens who travel to Ukraine, including to participate in the fighting there, face significant risks and the United States cannot guarantee their safety," Price added.

Ukraine identified the American citizen as Joshua Jones, a former U.S. service member, who went to Ukraine with his friends to join the fight against Russian forces.

Amanda Macias

This photograph taken on September 25, 2022, shows empty graves after exhumation of bodies in the mass grave created during the Russian's occupation in Izyum, Kharkiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | AFP | Getty Images

About 1,000 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in recently liberated territories of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian forces.

Of those, about 450 bodies were exhumed in Izium in what was described as one of the largest mass graves.

"The shocking facts of the atrocities committed by the occupiers are revealed: there are not only military personnel but also civilians adults and children among the dead," said Ukraine's Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, according to an NBC News translation.

The ministry said that it was still investigating the mass graves.

Amanda Macias

Mariya, 77, whose daughter and son-in-law died under the rubble of a building destroyed by Russian shelling, cries, amid Russia's invasion on Ukraine in Borodyanka, in Kyiv region, Ukraine April 8, 2022.

Gleb Garanich | Reuters

Ukraine's Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization report that at least 10 million people will need psychosocial support due to the trauma from Russia's conflict in Ukraine.

"This includes women and girls suffering sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence, children hearing warning sirens daily, families who have been separated, or people just trying to survive every day," said Denise Brown, the U.N. Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, in remarks before the United Nations Security Council.

Brown added that civilians in recently liberated areas of Ukraine are particularly vulnerable as they have "witnessed or experienced terrible violations" committed by Russian forces.

Amanda Macias

Russian President Vladimir Putin seen during the plenary session of the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) Summit, on October 14, 2022 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said it is unlikely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will deploy a nuclear weapon in his fight with Ukraine, but called the Kremlin's recent rhetoric concerning.

"There is a lot of concern given how Putin has escalated [the conflict]," Wormuth told CNBC's Morgan Brennan when asked about Western fears that Russia could resort to nuclear warfare in its armed conflict with Ukraine.

"Certainly there is a concern," Wormuth said, adding that despite Putin's threats to use such a weapon against its ex-Soviet neighbor, it is "still an unlikely event."

President Joe Biden told reporters yesterday that Russia would be making "an incredibly serious mistake" if Moscow used a tactical nuclear weapon in its fight with Ukraine.

"I'm not guaranteeing that it's a false flag operation," Biden said, referencing Russian allegations that Ukraine is planning to use a "dirty bomb" in order to escalate the conflict.

"It would be a serious serious mistake," Biden added.

The United States and Russia hold the lion's share of the world's nuclear weapons.

Amanda Macias

A man holds his child as families, who fled Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, wait to enter a refugee camp in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on March 3, 2022.

Nikolay Doychinov | Afp | Getty Images

More than 7.7 million Ukrainianshave become refugees and moved to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates.

Nearly 4.4 million of those people have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western European countries, according to data collected by the agency.

"The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance," the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote.

Amanda Macias

U.S. President Joe Biden pictured in London on September 18, 2022. Biden said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, his most explicit statement so far on the issue.

Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images

President Joseph Biden congratulated Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on her appointment as Italy's first woman leader.

"The leaders underscored the strong relationship between the United States and Italy and expressed their readiness to work together within the transatlantic alliance to address common challenges," a White House readout of the call said.

The two spoke about additional ways to offer aid to Ukraine in its months-long fight against Russia. Biden and Meloni discussed the importance of holding Russia accountable for its aggression.

Amanda Macias

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a closing press conference during the second of two days of defence ministers' meetings at NATO headquarters on October 13, 2022 in Brussels, Belgium.

Omar Havana | Getty Images

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear rhetoric "dangerous," adding that "it is reckless and irresponsible."

Stoltenberg, speaking from the U.S. aircraft carrier U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, said that Russia "falsely claims Ukraine is preparing to use a radiological dirty bomb on its own territory."

Stoltenberg said NATO allies reject the false allegation.

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Live updates: Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Putin says risk of world conflict is ‘high’; Moscow official calls for ‘de-Satanization’ in Ukraine – CNBC

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

Putin says risk of world conflict is 'high'; Moscow official calls for 'de-Satanization' in Ukraine CNBC
Putin Repeats Unsupported Dirty Bomb Claim, Fueling Fears of Escalation The New York Times
WATCH LIVE: State Department holds news briefing as Russia continues dirty bomb rhetoric PBS NewsHour
Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 246 of the invasion The Guardian
Putin Ally Shuts Down Russia's Claim Ukraine Plans to Unleash Dirty Bomb The Daily Beast
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Putin says risk of world conflict is 'high'; Moscow official calls for 'de-Satanization' in Ukraine - CNBC

Lee County does not have timeline as to when beaches will reopen – FOX 4 News Fort Myers WFTX

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

Lee County does not have timeline as to when beaches will reopen FOX 4 News Fort Myers WFTX

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Lee County does not have timeline as to when beaches will reopen - FOX 4 News Fort Myers WFTX

HEALTH ADVISORY FOR DELRAY BEACH AND OTHER BEACHES THROUGHOUT PALM BEACH COUNTY | City News – City of Delray Beach

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Danzig

HEALTH ADVISORY FOR DELRAY BEACH AND OTHER BEACHES THROUGHOUT PALM BEACH COUNTY | City News City of Delray Beach
Health advisory issued for several Palm Beach County beaches WFLX Fox 29
No-swim advisories issued for multiple area beaches 850 WFTL 850 WFTL
Poor Water Quality Reported At Several Area Beaches Boca Post
CLOSED BEACH LIST GROWS TO 9 IN PALM BEACH COUNTY, RISING BACTERIA LEVELS BocaNewsNow.com
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HEALTH ADVISORY FOR DELRAY BEACH AND OTHER BEACHES THROUGHOUT PALM BEACH COUNTY | City News - City of Delray Beach

AI fact vs fiction: AI biz decisions that really work (VB Live) – VentureBeat

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Danzig

As AI technologies multiply, how do you sort fact from fiction? Register now for our upcoming VB Live event and find out. Well be tackling the AI legends and the AI realities, breaking down the potential that AI has for your bottom line, and giving you a glimpse of the future of AI for business.

Gartner has placed artificial intelligence right at the top of its 10 major strategic technology trends for 2017 because weve reached a tipping point. There are AI use cases in almost every industry, service, application, and more, and a feeling of urgency in the air as the technology becomes more sophisticated, more ubiquitous, and more available from the hundreds of vendors popping up to take advantage of your Fear of Missing Out.

IDC forecasts that worldwide revenues for cognitive and artificial intelligence systems will reach $12.5 billion in 2017 thats an astounding increase of 59.3 percent from 2016. And as companies jump faster and faster on board, the research firm says well see compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54.4 percent through 2020, when revenues will be more than $46 billion.

Frankly, thats kind of nuts. In a good way. Cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and deep learning are are completely transforming how consumers and enterprises work, learn, and play in a million different, fascinating ways.

Perhaps more importantly, cognitive and AI systems are also quickly becoming one of those differentiators that mean the difference between staying competitive and getting left completely behind. Its one of those watershed moments where youll invest, or youll spend the next five years kicking yourself.

So, you need to make it a key part of IT infrastructure. And thats where conviction ends, and confusion and complexity rises up to take its place. Cognitive and AI software platforms provide the tools and technologies to analyze, organize, access, and provide advisory services based on a range of structured and unstructured information. But how will that work for you? Where does it fit into your organization? Can you fire all your employees and replace them with chatbots?

The tech is omnipresent, but its still early-days enough that making that investment is very much taking a step into the unknown. Dont go it alone join this VB Live event where well dive into the myths and realities of artificial intelligence, figuring out what you need and where to start, and what the future holds for AI. Dont miss out!

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AI fact vs fiction: AI biz decisions that really work (VB Live) - VentureBeat

AI Can Now Tell If You’re Lying – Geek

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Danzig

Benjamin Franklin allegedly once said that there were only two certainties in life death and taxes. In the modern era that might well be modified to include data/identity theft. Its a huge problem and an apparent unavoidable evil these days, but a group of Italian researchers think they might have a solution and it involves AI.

Online its tough to prove someone is who they say they are. In person, you can at least match someone to a photo ID, but online anyone could fill in boxes on an Amazon order. But what if an AI could read a users mouse movements and determine if they were being truthful? That was the question Giuseppe Sartori, a forensic neuroscientist and study author wanted to answer.

To test this, he asked a number of volunteers to either memorize a fake identity or be truthful about themselves. Subjects were then asked a series of yes-or-no questions on as computer test. The questions were simple like Were you born in [year]? But, mixed in with those simple ones, were slightly more complex ones Is [x] your zodiac sign?

The hope is to throw off would-be identity thieves just by catching them off guard. A fraud might memorize the basics name, birthdate, address but not connecting thoughts. If you were born in Oklahoma and youre pretending to be someone in California, and someone asks you the capital of your home state, youll have to stop to think for a moment. That hesitation was evident in cursor movements.

Experimenters found that when they fed their machine learning algorithms data on the subjects mouse paths, they were able to catch liars an incredible 95% of the time. Its a lot like Googles new I am not a robot button. Many bots tend to move in straight, clean lines, while humans are a lot more imprecise. By reading basic cursor data, its not hard to sort out the humans from the software. Similarly, if the team can get it just a bit more accurate, this could be a valuable new tool in the fight against identity theft. And, for once, I think I wont make the panicky case against allowing AI research to develop. Ill just let this be a relatively happy story. That is until this tech gets adapted for use in robo police, who will no doubt use it to oppress the populace by enforcing laws too strictly. Then well find ourselves in a dystopic police state rules by the mach oh shit, I did it again. Dammit, Im really sorry. Bots just freak me out.

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AI Can Now Tell If You're Lying - Geek

The Importance of Latinx Participation in the AI Community – Grit Daily

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

The importance of Latinx participation in the AI community and for the people of Latin America can not be underscored

I recently hosted a panel discussion with Laura Montoya and Benito Berretta during the AI Show Biz Summit to discuss this topic. Laura, who has roots in Colombia, is CEO of Accel.ai. Benito is the GM for Hyper Island and based out of Brasil.

Laura and Benito provided contrasting examples for why it is important to bring in diversity into AI, particularly from the perspective of the Latinx community.

If AI is science-based, why does diversity matter? Laura points out that there is in fact a problem with diversity in technology, the STEM industry, and the problem is an underrepresentation of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. The goal of Lauras organization, Accel.AI is to make the Latinx community more visible across the AI ecosystem and at industry conferences.

Benito defines diversity in two dimensions, ethical and one with return in investment. He argues that we need to embrace diversity in both to make a better world for all. The first step to this is for homogeneous groups to first come to an awareness that those gaps exist and then they can start their journey to find more diversity.

AI can be a tool to be a facilitator for this, especially in identifying who isnt being included in collaborative work. AI can monitor dialogue in real-time, model who is getting the most air time, and act as a facilitator to ensure that there is space for other voices to participate.

To improve diversity of thought in work settings, AI can play a role in making space for diverse voices, understanding who it is that gets to put content out in the world, and ultimately shining a light on the content that is missing.

There are universities and institutions throughout Latin America that have been leading work in machine learning, but in contrast to high profile US universities such as Stanford, are not associated with the AI industry and are often left without recognition.

Barriers to digitalization in Latin America include funding, changing institutional practices, and working with old languages or systems. Benito remarked, If you want to have an understanding, for example of the Amazon, then you need to go there and not lean on a statistical average. We need to be cautious in trusting data. In the Latin American context, generating data, as Laura outlined, may also include the risk of disrupting indigenous societies and structures.

The term Latinx is full of rich history in both South and Central America. Latinx people share similarities but are also from different countries, races, and indigenous histories. Regardless of how one may want to slice it, AI with the Latinx diversity is rich.

There were two main themes behind what the future holds for Latinx AI communities, predictive and behavioral change.

Media and AI is a representation of the community. There are social inequalities in how the media represents Latinx even within Latin America, often Afro-Latinx and Indigenous-Latinx characters are represented in jobs as a janitor or service industry. Having algorithms for facial recognition that pick up on some qualities and not others can cause damage in the future stated Laura.

On the other hand, Benito brought up the perspective of changing behavior for Latinx. Modeling efficiencies such as when you have the most productive time using AI can help people change behaviors, and while we share many similarities, the mates, coca teas, or cocoa consumption throughout the Latinx world vary.

Beyond fair representation, there is a business case for having Latinx at the decision tables of the AI industry. Latinx in AI is important for Latin America because we have our own knowledge bases, scientific practices, and languages, that only we can translate into automation that works for our communities.

The exchange of ideas is pivotal for innovation, and it is special occasions like this session that allow for the Latinx community to share perspectives and collaborate.TheHarvard Business Review recently found that diverse teams are able to solve problems faster than teams of cognitively similar people and that when diverse teams made a business decision, they outperformed individual decision-makers up to 87% of the time.

It is always a pleasure to faciliate these fascinating conversations, thank you to AI Show Biz for having me on as a host. The entire conversation can be found here.

Accel.ai is Bay Area based non-profit in the mission to lower the barriers to entry in engineering artificial intelligence. They focus on integrating AI and Social Impact through consulting, workshops, and research on ethical AI development and applied AI engineering.

Hyper Island designs learning experiences that challenge companies and individuals to grow and stay competitive in an increasingly digitized world. They have over 5000 alumni, online programming, and locations around the globe.

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The Importance of Latinx Participation in the AI Community - Grit Daily

Personalization at Scale: Is AI the Most Realistic Way Forward? – CMSWire

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Danzig

PHOTO:Shutterstock

Todays brands are producing an enormous amount of highly personalized content. The reason according to research by Adobe is that 67% of consumers want brands to tailor content to them, and 42% even get annoyed when content isnt personalized.

The sheer amount of content and the complexity of matching this content to various audiences, however, could be too much to handle manually for most brands. Does that mean artificial intelligence (AI) is the only realistic way forward?

We asked marketing experts why they need large scale personalization and how theyre scaling the personalization strategies at their companies.

It seems strange to talk about large-scale personalization, when the very idea of personalization is to narrowly focus on an individuals needs or desires, stated Geoff Webb, VP of strategy PROS, yet that is exactly the challenge that faces businesses now. Todays consumers want their individual needs met immediately, and dont want to be treated as just another member of a businesss broader target market.

Vendors must now be able to demonstrate a clear response to a specific need in a buyer, while doing so at scale, Webb explained, across many buyers, globally, through multiple purchasing channels. This need for personalization goes for B2B markets as well, which have buyers willing to pay more for solutions that meet their specific business needs. Failing to do so risks losing individual deals to a more nimble competitor, warned Webb, and ultimately the buyer themselves entirely.

Related Article: Why the Time Is Right for Personalization

When you consider the scale of many businesses the number of products, customers, configurations, options, sales channels, price points and so on, said Webb, it becomes clear that the volume of information that must be consumed and analyzed is simply too great for human methods. Even if companies do attempt to grind through the data manually, it often takes too long to offer the responsiveness consumers expect.

AI has therefore become one of the central pillars in delivering personalization at scale and speed, continued Webb. AI technologies paired with a good customer dataset can spot trends and make discoveries faster and better than humans in many cases. B2B business of the future will be masters of analytics and extracting insight from oceans of data, very, very quickly, Webb stated. For this, he believes AI will play a critical role.

Jeffrey MacIntyre, principal at Bucket Studio, however, believes the smartest teams know that information architecture (IA) is far more critical than AI. There is no scale without structure, he explained, you cannot afford to forego understanding the data around your customer journey and the contextual delivery of content. The reality is that content creation and design are prerequisites to algorithms that machines simply cannot deliver.

For Webb, personalization shouldnt be the end goal itself, but a means for supporting the companys overall sales and customer engagement strategy. We personalize so that we can achieve exactly the right outcome for the customer and the vendor together, he said. That means for brands to foster personalized interactions, they first need to listen to their customers and then engage with them.

The truly transformative part of this, Webb continued, is that the process of engaging with a customer enables us to learn more about their desires. Every interaction is an opportunity to learn more about the customer, which can be factored into the next interaction. It becomes a virtuous, reinforcing cycle in which the relationship moves from transactional to long-term, Webb explained. When this happens, both the buyer and the vendor derive more value from the relationship.

AI is not the sensible way forward for most organizations to scale personalization efforts. added MacIntyre. He believes personalization doesnt need to be launched on every platform at once, but should be slowly implemented over time. Incrementalism is not just smart scoping with personalization, its oftentimes the best way to generate learnings, momentum and a sponsor's confidence.

AI is able to deliver the right kind of advice, insight and information to shape how businesses deliver exactly what a customer wants, said Webb. But brands with the most successful personalization strategies need to know how to feed AI the right data.

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Personalization at Scale: Is AI the Most Realistic Way Forward? - CMSWire

AI System Finds Another Game to Dominate Humans – Futurism

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Danzig

In Brief

AI has been quietly invading our lives. From ouroperating roomsto our roads, and even our homes. Still, we never expected AI to infringe on onething in particular, our Super Smash Brothers. If you havent heard of Super Smash Brothers, do yourself a favor.

Super Smash Brothers is a popular video game series spanning multiple generations of gaming consoles. Unlike what we have seen AI do before with professional players inchess,poker, and the ancient game ofGo Super Smash Brothers is a particularly tricky game for AI.

In order to win, players must take full advantage of their environment, their character, and their enemys weaknesses. Players must be quick to weaken their enemies without taking too much damage so that they can knock their opponent off the stage, a feat demanding a proper strategy and a certain sense of ruthlessness.

So how did the AI do it? Software named Phillip was created by a Ph.D. student at MIT with the help of his friend from NYU. The pair constructed an AI that at first wasnt too great at the game, but eventually, after a week of consistent practice, the AI was able to react 6 times quicker than a normal human. Clocking in reaction times at 33 milliseconds compared to 200 milliseconds human reaction time, Phillip was in his own alternate reality in the game.

Phillip faced off against a tenured, five-year champion, named Gravy. In a harrowing match, Phillip bested him 8 5.

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AI System Finds Another Game to Dominate Humans - Futurism

AI: The Future Of Digital Marketing (And Everything Else) – MediaPost Communications

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Danzig

The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, and from movies to games, has now found a home in the mainstream. We are not yet at the point where computers are starting to plot the overthrow of humanity, but through AI, computers are beginning to understand our fellow human beings better than we may understand ourselves.

At least, advertising and marketing platforms that integrate AI into their processes are crunching numbers much faster than we ever could, and deriving insights that marketers use to better target and understand the end user and consumer.

Starting simple with AI technologies, there are recommendation engines: "Early low-hanging fruit for brands to harness the power of AI is in content discovery, Glenn Hower, senior analyst at Parks Associates, told attendees at the "A.I. Meets Media: Innovation Summit" presented by Ooyala.

Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube have all been tweaking their recommendation engines for years. Ingesting user data and predicting what each consumer is most likely to want to watch sounds relatively simple -- but getting it right is a different story.

Moving further into AI capabilities, marketers can learn to connect disparate video ads based on themes, personalities and tone. This is where AI can really impress.

Microsoft Azures cloud computing product, which has been integrated into Ooyalas Flex platform, takes video content and boils it down to natural language -- covering people, colors, actions, logos, even the type of event on screen -- using the data to inform what paid media would be appropriate to serve against the content.

With near-immediate access to words spoken in any broadcast setting, marketers and advertisers can develop a deep understanding of themes present in a newscast, TV show or other video event, explained Martin Wahl, the principal product manager for Microsoft Azure. For example, Sinclair pays employees up to $85 an hour to transcribe all shows on its properties, said Wahl. AI can do the same job [and] link related words, making everything immediately searchable for a tenth or hundredth of the price it costs to have a human do it.

Even translations can be done in next to real time, opening up a completely new opportunity for international distribution of live content. Importantly, it can open up opportunities for national advertisers to expand into the international space more seamlessly.

These capabilities will save both time and money, providing marketers with immediate insights on what kinds of ad creatives are most appropriate to serve after a particular segment. With robust metadata, the AI can even suggest which ads to buy.

As Wahl put it, these capabilities are a strong start, but the real difference-maker will be how marketers decide to use the collected insights in novel ways that are yet to be discovered. That is when we will begin to see the true value of AI in marketing. Beyond artificial intelligence, human intelligence will continue to play a central role in harnessing AI.

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AI: The Future Of Digital Marketing (And Everything Else) - MediaPost Communications

Humans Can’t Expect AI to Just Fight Fake News for Them | WIRED – WIRED

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Danzig

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Originally posted here:

Humans Can't Expect AI to Just Fight Fake News for Them | WIRED - WIRED

AI (Artificial Intelligence): What We Can Expect In The New Year – Forbes

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Danzig

AI, Artificial Intelligence concept,3d rendering,conceptual image.

As I covered in a recent post for Forbes.com, this year has seen notable breakthroughs in AI (Artificial Intelligence).They have included innovations about algorithmslike GANs or Generative Adversarial Networksas well as advances in categories like NLP (Natural Language Processing), just to name a few.

Then what can we expect in 2020?Well, it seems likely that the innovations will continue at a rapid pace.

So heres a look at what we may see:

Anand Rao, the Global and US Artificial Intelligence Leader at PwC:

2020 will be the year of practical AI: using cool technology to solve boring problems. Business leaders are recalibrating their ambitions, with just 4% intending to scale AI across the organization. Instead, many are focusing on functional areas like finance, compliance, HR, and tax and universal pain points like extracting data from forms. In our survey, executives ranked using AI to operate more efficiently and increase productivity as the top-two benefits they expect from AI in the coming year.

Sanjeev Katariya, the VP/Chief Architect of eBay AI & Platforms:

From an ecommerce lens, AI will continue to grow, building adaptive and highly personalized markets and bridging borders while extending itself to places on the planet that need to see explosive growthwho in 2020, will gladly join the ecommerce revolution.

Michael Kopp, the Head of Data Science at HERE Technologies:

Deep Learning goes industrial. Dedicated DL chipsets are accelerating trial and error opportunities across industries, allowing diverse fields to build critical new models and AI components that solve real-world data problems.

Bryan Friehauf, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Software, ABB:

In 2020, AI will be the mainstream recommendation engine for the industrial sector. In energy management in particular, there is a huge opportunity. AI can provide facility managers with accurate power consumption predictions, which enables them to take timely action to reduce unplanned consumption spikes through rescheduling or switching off non-critical loads. AI will be the technology that takes simulations to the next level, helping to locate unstable areas of the grid and increase safety for workers in the field.

Steve Grobman, the Chief Technology Officer at McAfee:

In general, adversaries are going to use the best technology to accomplish their goals, so if we think about nation-state actors attempting to manipulate an election, using deepfake video to manipulate an audience makes a lot of sense. Adversaries will try to create wedges and divides in society.

Jake Saper, a Partner at Emergence Capital:

"In 2020, we will see the tech industry shift its focus away from using AI to drive automation and move it towards employing AI for augmentation. We'll realize that human-to-human jobs, which most often include dynamic input and feedback, are at their core still best performed by humans. In those cases, AI is ideally suited to augment, and not replace, human jobs."

Andy Ellis, the Chief Security Officer at Akamai:

What well see in many spaces is folks starting to understand the limitations of algorithmic solutions, especially where those create, amplify, or ossify bias in the world; and companies buying technologies will really need to start understanding how that bias impacts their operations.

Steve Wood, the Chief Product Officer at Boomi, a Dell Technologies business:

Overzealous data analyses have brought many companies face to face with privacy lawsuits from consumers and governments alike, which in turn has led to even stricter data governance laws. Understandably concerned about making similar mistakes, businesses will begin turning to metadata for insights in 2020, rather than analyzing actual data.

Jay Gurudevan, the Principal Product Manager of AI/ML at Twilio:

Well see more enterprises and businesses leverage AI tools and automated communication to better understand the entire customer journey. As consumers become more comfortable interacting with AI agents, Natural Language Processing will become more accurate and advanced and implementation will expand.

Avon Puri, the CIO of Rubrik:

An ecosystem of technologies will emerge that leverage intelligence, such as RPA technologies, and will provide new efficiencies in business processes that werent possible before. Next year is when new intelligent technologies will really take off, and RPA will lead automated intelligence in the enterprise.

Umesh Sachdev, the CEO and co-founder of Uniphore:

Speech analytics tools were an important bridge to support automation, and the same AI aiding humans behind the scenes will aid bots and enable the era of platforms. In 2020, heres where were going to see the most progress: anticipating intent by layering emotion and sincerity with historical data in real time. We'll be able to determine things like the likelihood of person paying their past-due bill.

Rama Sekhar, a partner at Norwest:

2020 will usher in the year of AI in the Enterprise. AI will get an upgrade from being an ingredient to a first class citizen as CIOs will introduce AI-first initiatives, just as they adopted cloud-first initiatives five years ago. Companies will have to justify why theyre not using AI in their own software, processes, and workflows in 2020.

Stefan Nandzik, the Vice President of Product & Brand Marketing at Signifyd:

In 2020, well see a spate of lawsuits filed by aggrieved consumers who have been wrongly barred from returning goods to retailers, or buying goods from ecommerce merchants, or renting home shares, or benefiting from Uber rides by algorithmically driven screening schemes. And well see the first significant pieces of legislation codifying consumers rights when it comes to AIcreating demand for liable machines.

Dr. Hossein Rahnama, the CEO of Flybits:

Startups are realizing that no matter how good their algorithm is, big companies aren't comfortable just handing over their sensitive datasets and core assets. So as the industry continues to mature over the next year, AI entrepreneurs will recognize that they have to shed their grad school mindset of give me the data and Ill do my work because that is no longer the case. This realization will force AI entrepreneurs to focus on more than just algorithms and shift their attention toward solidifying a data strategy that includes governance, management, encryption and tokenization. Because at the end of the day, without a strong data strategy, your AI strategy means nothing.

Chris Nicholson, the CEO of Pathmind:

One of the most promising areas of AI applications in 2020 will combine different, powerful forms of AI. Deep learning is used in a lot of perceptive tasks that answer the question: what am I looking at? For example, deep learning could recognize a grizzly bear in a photograph. Reinforcement learning is used in a lot of strategic tasks that answer the question: what should I do? For example, should I run away, stand in place or play dead? If you combine the two, then you get a powerful sequence of machine learning decisions you can combine. In this example: Given that I see a grizzly bear ahead of me, I should play dead. (Pro tip: grizzlies can run 35 miles per hour, but they do not eat carrion.) So those combinations of smart perceptions combined with smart actions vastly extend the value of AI. We move beyond simple classification into much higher ROI tasks that have implications for businesses, robotics, self-driving cars and video games.

Dr. Alex Liu, the Chief Data Scientist for IBM and the founder of RMDS Lab:

There will be more exploration of causality, which is the next generation of data analysis. It will be going from what to why. This will be crucial in improving the success rate of AI, which is still fairly low.

Tom (@ttaulli) is the author of the book,Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction.

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AI (Artificial Intelligence): What We Can Expect In The New Year - Forbes

First-Party Data, AI Technology Will Sharpen Programmatic Ad Targeting: OMD’s George Manas – BeetTV

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Danzig

Next year will bring more innovation in audience targeting, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology combined with first-party consumer data support programmatic buying among a wider variety of media channels. Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning will make the technologies a more central part of reaching consumers among devices including smartphones, tablets and connected TVs.

Media buyers can expect to see the application of more advanced algorithms to optimize programmatic media much more holistically, George Manas, president and chief media officer at OMD USA, a unit of Omnicom Group, said in this interview with Beet.TV. Thats bringing a degree of precision, scale and automation that is truly new and unique in the programmatic marketplace.

Artificial intelligence describes a range of technologies that enable machines to handle more advanced problem-solving tasks, while machine learning refers to algorithms that improve automatically through experience. When applied to media buying, the technologies can help to analyze vast quantities of data and make quicker decisions on shifting budgets quickly, especially in an automated environment of programmatic ad placements.

With the convergence of digital and linear in this new streaming world, there are more opportunities in these streaming environments to execute programmatically, Manas said. That is going to open up tremendous opportunities for advertisers who historically may have been overly dependent on much more of a fixed, static video trading model. Programmatic is going to become the way that all media gets traded and transacted moving forward.

To hone their targeting and improve personalization of their messaging, advertisers are undertaking massive efforts to collect more first-party, deterministic data about consumers. The need for opt-in data has taken on a greater urgency as consumer privacy laws get stricter, exposing marketers, media channels and technology companies to the possibility of facing billion-dollar fines.

Apple, whose U.S. market share in smartphones and tablets is about 40%, next year will ask customers for permission to provide device identifiers to third parties, a necessary step in tracking viewing habits in apps for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV streaming device. Because most consumers are likely to opt out of sharing their Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), tracking will become more difficult. Meanwhile, Google announced plans to end support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, a key way for millions of U.S. consumers to reach the internet, as early as 2022.

Source: MarketingCharts.com, Merkle

Weve got a little saying: Theres no party like first party. That is a foundational piece to this new reality, Manas said. In addition to first-party data, theres a wealth of other available data sources and signals that can help fill the holes and gaps that historically have been occupied by IDFA or cookie. Location data is a really great example of a data signal that is extremely valuable for advertisers, especially those that are operating both in an offline and online commerce approach.

Advertisers also have more ways to reach consumers through programmatic media buys as content providers offer a broader range of placements among premium quality content instead of remnant inventory thats deeply discounted.

Were seeing more top-tier publishers and inventory providers make more of their content available programmatically, Manas said.

You are watching Media In Transition: How AI is Powering Change, a Beet.TV leadership video series presented by IBM Watson Advertising. For more videos,please visit this page.

Wearable AI is the next hot tech trend – VentureBeat

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Danzig

It wasnt long ago that personal computers were the height of technology. While significantly smaller than the industrial-sized mainframes of the past, modern desktop PCs are still bulky objects that take up a lot of space. Laptops and notebooks are considerably more portable, but even these are becoming a hassle for the on-the-go minimalist.

If youre in that crowd, you might want to take a look at some of the latest in wearable technology.

Smartwatches are quickly becoming the preferred option for those who want to enjoy the latest in IT without having to lug around a laptop computer. Industry analysts are predicting 18 percent growth in the smartwatch market by 2021. This amount of growth, according to the experts, is a result of increasing smartwatch functionality as well as lower prices across the board.

App developers are even starting to turn away from traditional smartphones in favor of smartwatches. Researchers with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT recently engineered a Samsung smartwatch with next-gen AI, effectively giving it the ability to provide social coaching to those who suffer from severe anxiety or Asperger syndrome.

Although the utility is currently limited to a very specific model of watch, the MIT team hopes to make the app available on other popular market options.

Kiwi, a new tech startup that specializes in AI, recently developed an app known as Cue. Designed to help users quit smoking, the tool provides a program that works over the course of time. By sensing exactly when and where you engage in the habit, Cue makes it possible to set your own goals and keep track of your progress toward quitting smoking for good.

Although the number of cigarette smokers in the U.S. is at an all-time low, the marriage of wearable tech and highly useful apps can help reduce these figures even further.

And smartwatch apps arent just for consumers. The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport launched a trial to explore the usefulness of smartwatches within their day-to-day operations. Theyve outfitted their entire janitorial team with wearable tech that gives them instant alerts when an area needs cleaning or servicing.

The app being used, called TaskWatch, is coupled with Bluetooth sensors in the restrooms that count the overall number of guests. An automated alert is sent to the janitorial team after 150 customers have passed through. Janitors who respond to the alert will earn points that can supplement their income. The airport hopes for an official rollout of the technology in 2018.

Enterprises across the globe are forecasted to spend over $140 billion on cloud services by 2019. Representing a massive increase from the $70 billion spent in 2015, the top cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are set to see substantial profits in the next few years.

As smartwatches and many other tech devices support cloud connectivity, were even seeing companies that are interested in moving entire data centers to the cloud. Not only would this make it easier for consumers to integrate wearable tech data into infrastructure like the cloud and the Internet of Things, but cloud-based data centers would also make it easier to automatically collect, track, and collate enterprise data. The collected data could be used to ensure the performance of individual staff members or entire teams, forecast timelines for future projects, and reward achievements to top-performing employees.

But there are some considerations to make before investing in the cloud, either as a business or an individual. With three different cloud platforms to choose from, including private, public, and shared options, its not always easy to find the one that best meets your needs.

Private cloud frameworks are often best suited for large-scale corporations and global enterprises. As the name implies, the files stored within the cloud are viewable only by you. The public cloud lives up to its label by making all of your files available to anybody on the cloud. Shared cloud servers let you control who has access to your data.

Youll also need to pick a cloud service provider. As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud are among the most popular options for enterprises and corporations. Services like Dropbox, iCloud, and Mega are included among the most popular providers for personal cloud storage.

Nobody can deny the progress that mobile technology has made, and its done so in a remarkably short amount of time. With smartwatches among the most popular options in wearable tech, other devices, including smart eyeglasses, are just on the horizon. Exactly what well see next in the form of wearable IT is anybodys guess, but the innovation is certainly here to stay.

Kayla Matthews is a technology and energy IT writer whose work has appeared on Motherboard, MakeUseOf and Triple Pundit.

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Wearable AI is the next hot tech trend - VentureBeat

South Korea Turns to AI and 5G to Revive Economy From COVID-19 Induced Slump – DirectIndustry e-Magazine

Posted on July 31, 2020 by Danzig

South Korea announced a project 'New Deal' in June 2020 to revive the countrys economy by focusing on digitalization (iStock)

By GlobalData

South Korea announced a project New Deal in June 2020 to revive the countrys economy by focusing on digitalization. Technologies such as 5G network and artificial intelligence (AI) are set to become the key players in supporting Koreas economic recovery plan and placing the country among the leading technology countries post-COVID-19, says analytics company GlobalData.

For Urte Jakimaviciute MSc, Senior Director of Market Research,

South Koreas telecom operators were one of the first adopters of 5G launching the services more than a year ago in April 2019. The government-backed New Deal will give an additional boost to the expansion of the 5G. With the EU and North American countries turning away from Chinas Huawei, South Koreas Samsung may become an alternative.

While the development and expansion of 5G infrastructure are becoming a critical tool to facilitate the data collection, transmission and exchange, AI becomes a critical component in 5Gs evolution by creating network intelligence and automation, Jakimaviciute continues:

Koreas Samsung Medical Center became the worlds first hospital to use 5G technology for on-site medical procedures establishing itself as a 5G smart hospital powered by AI and other digital technologies.

Global concerns over the virus transmittance in public places, together with emerging safety regulations and social distancing norms are giving a surge to touch free economies with technologies starting to play more important role than ever. Technological advancement has made it possible to aggregate the data from various digital tools and technology networks such as wearables, virtual reality devices and mobile apps.

The convergence of 5G and AI has the potential to bring a lot of possibilities across various industries including transportation, defense and healthcare. For example, Koreas Samsung Medical Center became the worlds first hospital to use 5G technology for on-site medical procedures establishing itself as a 5G smart hospital powered by AI and other digital technologies.

Jakimaviciute concludes:

By announcing national strategy for AI at the end of 2019, Korea acknowledged AI as an important foundation to foster its future economic growth. While Korea still falls behind countries such as the US, the UK and China in AI competitiveness, its success in controlling COVID-19 outbreak may give it the confidence to accelerate the adoption of AI. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), Koreas economy is set to contract by 2.1% in 2020. Nevertheless, South Korea is expected to do much better than the developed nations such as Japan, the UK and the US, which are expected to have far sharper declines.

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South Korea Turns to AI and 5G to Revive Economy From COVID-19 Induced Slump - DirectIndustry e-Magazine

This AI-powered robot can play the marimba, the least threatening of instruments – The Verge

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Danzig

If AI and robots are going to take our jobs, at least they can do it in the most relaxing way possible. Just like Shimon here a four-armed marimba-playing robot designed by George Techs music technology center. Sure, Shimon is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI making music, but just listen to those jazz-fusion vibes.

Like many AI music experiments, the music Shimon is playing is generated by a method called deep learning. This essentially means mining a large amount of information (in this case, a dataset of some 5,000 songs) and looking for common patterns in the music. For example, if you have a sequence of notes F, G, A, what note will follow next? Deep learning will give you a good answer.

Shimon the robot has been around for a while now, playing alongside human musicians using preprogrammed songs. But now, its being used to play original compositions. The video above shows the first melody Shimon ever created, while the one below is melody number two a slightly faster number:

As weve seen with previous experiments, the actual musical output is a bit avant-garde. Researchers working in this field say this is because the deep learning systems we use to analyze music tend not to be so good at thinking about long-term structure. They analyze the music in short bursts, and the resulting melodies sound quite abstract. It is possible to program in artificial constraints so the programs will produce songs with traditional verse-chorus structures, but at that point its not really AI-created music, but AI-human collaboration.

So, although the marimba is a particularly non-threatening instrument, the melody itself is proof that machines have a way to go. For more information on Shimon, check out this interview with its teachers, Gil Weinberg and Mason Bretan, over at IEEE Spectrum.

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This AI-powered robot can play the marimba, the least threatening of instruments - The Verge

When Machines Design: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Aesthetics – ArchDaily

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Danzig

When Machines Design: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Aesthetics

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Are machines capable of design? Though a persistent question, it is one that increasingly accompanies discussions on architecture and the future of artificial intelligence. But what exactly is AI today? As we discover more about machine learning and generative design, we begin to see that these forms of "intelligence" extend beyond repetitive tasks and simulated operations. They've come to encompass cultural production, and in turn, design itself.

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When artificial intelligence was envisioned during thethe 1950s-60s, thegoal was to teach a computer to perform a range of cognitive tasks and operations, similar to a human mind. Fast forward half a century, andAIis shaping our aesthetic choices, with automated algorithms suggesting what we should see, read, and listen to. It helps us make aesthetic decisions when we create media, from movie trailers and music albums to product and web designs. We have already felt some of the cultural effects of AI adoption, even if we aren't aware of it.

As educator and theorist Lev Manovich has explained, computers perform endless intelligent operations. "Your smartphones keyboard gradually adapts to your typing style. Your phone may also monitor your usage of apps and adjust their work in the background to save battery. Your map app automatically calculates the fastest route, taking into account traffic conditions. There are thousands of intelligent, but not very glamorous, operations at work in phones, computers, web servers, and other parts of the IT universe."More broadly, it's useful to turn the discussion towards aesthetics and how these advancements relate to art, beauty and taste.

Usually defined as a set of "principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, aesthetics depend on who you are talking to. In 2018, Marcus Endicott described how, from the perspective of engineering, the traditional definition of aesthetics in computing could be termed "structural, such as an elegant proof, or beautiful diagram." A broader definition may include more abstract qualities of form and symmetry that "enhance pleasure and creative expression." In turn, as machine learning is gradually becoming more widely adopted, it is leading to what Marcus Endicott termed a neural aesthetic. This can be seen in recent artistic hacks, such as Deepdream, NeuralTalk, and Stylenet.

Beyond these adaptive processes, there are other ways AI shapes cultural creation. Artificial intelligence hasrecently made rapid advances in the computation of art, music, poetry, and lifestyle. Manovich explains that AIhas given us the option to automate our aesthetic choices (via recommendation engines), as well as assist in certain areas of aesthetic production such as consumer photography and automate experiences like the ads we see online. "Its use of helping to design fashion items, logos, music, TV commercials, and works in other areas of culture is already growing." But, as he concludes, human experts usually make the final decisions based on ideas and media generated by AI. And yes, the human vs. robot debate rages on.

According to The Economist, 47% of the work done by humans will have been replaced by robots by 2037, even those traditionally associated with university education. The World Economic Forum estimated that between 2015 and 2020, 7.1 million jobs will be lost around the world, as "artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and other socio-economic factors replace the need for human employees." Artificial intelligence is already changing the way architecture is practiced, whether or not we believe it may replace us. As AI is augmenting design, architects are working to explore the future of aesthetics and how we can improve the design process.

In a tech report on artificial intelligence, Building Design + Construction explored how Arup had applied a neural network to a light rail design and reduced the number of utility clashes by over 90%, saving nearly 800 hours of engineering. In the same vein, the areas of site and social research that utilize artificial intelligence have been extensively covered, and examples are generated almost daily. We know that machine-driven procedures can dramatically improve the efficiency of construction and operations, like by increasing energy performance and decreasing fabrication time and costs. The neural network application from Arup extends to this design decision-making. But the central question comes back to aesthetics and style.

Designer and Fulbright fellow Stanislas Chaillou recently created a project at Harvard utilizing machine learning to explore the future of generative design, bias and architectural style. While studying AI and its potential integration into architectural practice, Chaillou built an entire generation methodology using Generative Adversarial Neural Networks (GANs). Chaillou's project investigates the future of AI through architectural style learning, and his work illustrates the profound impact of style on the composition of floor plans.

As Chaillou summarizes, architectural styles carry implicit mechanics of space, and there are spatial consequences to choosing a given style over another. In his words, style is not an ancillary, superficial or decorative addendum; it is at the core of the composition.

Artificial intelligence and machine learningare becomingincreasingly more important as they shape our future. If machines can begin to understand and affect our perceptions of beauty, we should work to find better ways to implement these tools and processes in the design process.

Architect and researcher Valentin Soana once stated that the digital in architectural design enables new systems where architectural processes can emerge through "close collaboration between humans and machines; where technologies are used to extend capabilities and augment design and construction processes." As machines learn to design, we should work with AI to enrich our practices through aesthetic and creative ideation.More than productivity gains, we can rethink the way we live, and in turn, how to shape the built environment.

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When Machines Design: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Aesthetics - ArchDaily

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