Skafos.ai appoints Jody Stoehr as Chief Revenue Officer as part of surging sales growth – PR Web

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Skafos.ai allows brands to authentically connect with their customer similar to a brick and mortar experience.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (PRWEB) July 20, 2020

Skafos.ai, the worlds leading interactive guided shopping platform for the eCommerce industry, today announced the executive appointment of Jody Stoehr as Chief Revenue Officer.

After meeting the team at Skafos.ai, and their customers, I quickly realized the Companys innovations in interactive UX, Visual AI, and deep machine learning were allowing brands to authentically influence the preferences and the personal intent of each shopper, said Jody Stoehr, Chief Revenue Officer at Skafos.ai. Its evident that Skafos.ai is the only next-gen eCommerce product available that simplifies the online shopping experience in an interactive, highly visual, and personal manner and allows brands to authentically connect with their customer similar to a brick and mortar experience. Im proud to join this amazing team.

Stoehr brings more than 25 years of sales and consultative retail marketing experience to Skafos.ai, where she will leverage her deep retail industry expertise and network to lead and coordinate Skafos.ais sales and business development functions.

Previously, Stoehr served as the VP of Client Engagement at Reflektion where she was responsible for building a cross-functional team designed to assist some of the worlds notable retailers in the adoption and expansion of the companys personalization solutions. She also was the Managing Director of R2integrateds (R2i) Seattle office where she was responsible for the office profitability, growth, and development of full-service marketing solutions for Fortune 1000 companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and Bluetooth. She also held prominent sales and growth positions in other notable companies such as Marconi, Bell Atlantic Mobile, and Fujitsu/DMR Consulting.

Jodys depth and breadth of experience assisting major retail brands will help further our engagement with customers and the retail industry at large, said Michael Prichard, CEO, Skafos.ai. Jody brings tremendous value to the Skafos.ai team. Were excited to have her on board and value her leadership as we continue to rapidly grow.

In addition to her executive career, Stoehr has served as an advisor, board member, and committee chair for various tech startups and organizations including R2integrated and Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI). She and her teams have received numerous awards for extraordinary performance including the SIIA CODiE Awards, Adobe Marketing Cloud Partner of the Year Award, Top Seattle Digital Agency, Best Marketing Engagement Campaign, and Pulse Award in Integrated B2B, among others.

About Skafos.ai

Skafos.ais interactive guided shopping platform helps online retailers improve sales conversion, increase basket size, and authentically connect with their shoppers through interactive guided experiences and real-time personalization. Founded in 2017, by pioneers in user experience, mobile, visual AI, and deep learning, Skafos.ai is a venture-backed company bringing the next generation of authentic personalization to online shopping. Its platform uniquely combines individual shopper preferences, visual AI and deep learning to create more intimate and impactful commerce experiences throughout the shopping continuum.

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Skafos.ai appoints Jody Stoehr as Chief Revenue Officer as part of surging sales growth - PR Web

Lunchclub raises $4M from a16z for its AI warm intro service – TechCrunch

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There are apps out there that help you find friends, find dates and find your distant family histories, but when it comes to growing your professional network, the options are shockingly bad, were talking LinkedIn here.

Lunchclub is a startup thats looking to help users navigate finding new connections inside specific industries. The company has recently closed a $4 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz with other investments coming in from Quoras co-founder, the Robinhood cofounders, and Flexports cofounders.

The app follows in the footsteps of others that aimed to be dating app-like marketplaces for growing out your professional network via 1:1 lunch and coffee meetings. Lunchclub is more focused on setting up a handful of meetings for users that have a specific goal in mind. Lunchclub is aiming to be your warm intro and connect you with other users via email that can assist you in your professional goals.

When youre on-boarded to the service, you are asked to highlight some objectives that you might have and this is where the app really makes its goals clear. Options include, raise funding, find a co-founder or parter, explore other companies, and brainstorm with peers. These objectives are pretty explicit and complementary, i.e. for every raise funding objective, theres an invest option.

There isnt a ton being asked for on the part of the user when it comes to building up the data on their profile, Lunchclub is hoping to get most of the data that they need from the rest of the web.

Our view is that theres tons of data already out there, Lunchclub CEO Vlad Novakovski told TechCrunch in an interview. Anything that comes from the existing social networks, be in things like Twitter, be it things that are more specific to what people might be working on, like Github or Dribble or AngelList all of those data sources are in the public domain and are fair game.

Lunchclubs sell is that they can learn from what matches are successful via user feedback and use that to hone further matches. Novakovski most previously was the CTO of Euclid Analytics which WeWork acquired in 2017. Previous to that, he led the machine learning team at Quora.

The web app, which currently has a lengthy-waitlist, is available for users in seven cities including the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Austin, Seattle and London.

Co-founders Vlad Novakovski, Scott Wu and Hayley Leibson

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What Will a World Governed by AI Look Like? – Futurism

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Artificial intelligence already plays a major role in human economies and societies, and it will play an even bigger role in the coming years. To ponder the future of AI is thus to acknowledge that the future is AI.

This will be partly owing to advances in deep learning, which uses multi layer neural networks that were first theorized in the 1980s. With todays greater computing power and storage, deep learning is now a practical possibility, and a deep-learning application gained worldwide attention in 2016 by beating the world champion in Go. Commercial enterprises and governments alike hope to adapt the technology to find useful patterns in Big Data of all kinds.

In 2011, IBMs Watson marked another AI watershed, by beating two previous champions in Jeopardy!, a game that combines general knowledge with lateral thinking. And yet another significant development is the emerging Internet of Things, which will continue to grow as more gadgets, home appliances, wearable devices, and publicly-sited sensors become connected and begin to broadcast messages around the clock. Big Brother wont be watching you; but a trillion little brothers might be.

Beyond these innovations, we can expect to see countless more examples of what were once called expert systems: AI applications that aid, or even replace, human professionals in various specialties. Similarly, robots will be able to perform tasks that could not be automated before. Already, robots can carry out virtually every role that humans once filled on a warehouse floor.

Given this trend, it is not surprising that some people foresee a point known as the Singularity, when AI systems will exceed human intelligence, by intelligently improving themselves. At that point, whether it is in 2030 or at the end of this century, the robots will truly have taken over, and AI will consign war, poverty, disease, and even death to the past.

To all of this, I say: Dream on. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is still a pipe dream. Its simply too difficult to master. And while it may be achieved one of these days, it is certainly not in our foreseeable future.

But there are still major developments on the horizon, many of which will give us hope for the future. For example, AI can make reliable legal advice available to more people, and at a very low cost. And it can help us tackle currently incurable diseases and expand access to credible medical advice, without requiring additional medical specialists.

In other areas, we should be prudently pessimistic not to say dystopian about the future. AI has worrying implications for the military, individual privacy, and employment. Automated weapons already exist, and they could eventually be capable of autonomous target selection. As Big Data becomes more accessible to governments and multinational corporations, our personal information is being increasingly compromised. And as AI takes over more routine activities, many professionals will be deskilled and displaced. The nature of work itself will change, and we may need to consider providing a universal income, assuming there is still a sufficient tax base through which to fund it.

A different but equally troubling implication of AI is that it could become a substitute for one-on-one human contact. To take a trivial example, think about the annoyance of trying to reach a real person on the phone, only to be passed along from one automated menu to another. Sometimes, this is vexing simply because you cannot get the answer you need without the intervention of human intelligence. Or, it may be emotionally frustrating, because you are barred from expressing your feelings to a fellow human being, who would understand, and might even share your sentiments.

Other examples are less trivial, and I am particularly worried about computers being used as carers or companions for elderly people. To be sure, AI systems that are linked to the Internet and furnished with personalized apps could inform and entertain a lonely person, as well as monitor their vital signs and alert physicians or family members when necessary. Domestic robots could prove to be very useful for fetching food from the fridge and completing other household tasks. But whether an AI system can provide genuine care or companionship is another matter altogether.

Those who believe that this is possible assume that natural-language processing will be up to the task. But the task would include having emotionally-laden conversations about peoples personal memories. While an AI system might be able to recognize a limited range of emotions in someones vocabulary, intonation, pauses, or facial expressions, it will never be able to match an appropriate human response. It might say, Im sorry youre sad about that, or, What a lovely thing to have happened! But either phrase would be literally meaningless. A demented person could be comforted by such words, but at what cost to their human dignity?

The alternative, of course, is to keep humans in these roles. Rather than replacing humans, robots can be human aids. Today, many human-to-human jobs that involve physical and emotional caretaking are undervalued. Ideally, these jobs will gain more respect and remuneration in the future.

But perhaps that is wishful thinking. Ultimately, the future of AI our AI future is bright. But the brighter it becomes, the more shadows it will cast.

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Human + Machine Collaboration: Work in the Age of AI – Interesting Engineering

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In this age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are witnessing a transformation in the way we live, work, and do business. From robots that share our environment and smart homes to supply chains that think and act in real-time, forward-thinking companies are using AI to innovate and expand their business more rapidly than ever.

Indeed, this is a time of change and change happens fast. Those able to understand that the future includes living, working, co-existing, and collaborating with AI are set to succeed in the coming years. On the other hand, those who neglect the fact that business transformation in the digital age depends on human and machine collaboration will inevitably be left behind.

Humans and machines can complement each other resulting in increasing productivity. This collaboration could increase revenue by 38 percent by 2022, according to Accenture Research. At least 61 percent of business leaders agree that the intersection of human and machine collaboration is going to help them achieve their strategic priorities faster and more efficiently.

Human and machine collaboration is paramount for organizations. Having the right mindset for AI means being at ease with the concept of human+machine, leaving the mindset of human Vs. machine behind. Thanks to AI, factories are now requiring a little more humanity; and AI is boosting the value of engineers and manufacturers.

The emergence of AI is creating brand new roles and opportunities for humans up and down the value chain. From workers in the assembly line and maintenance specialists to robot engineers and operations managers, AI is regenerating the concept and meaning of work in an industrial setting.

According to Accenture's Paul Daugherty, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, and H. James Wilson, Managing Director of Information Technology and Business Research, AI is transforming business processes in five ways:

Flexibility: A change from rigid manufacturing processes with automation done in the past by dumb robots to smart individualized production following real-time customer choices brings flexibility to businesses. This is particularly visible in the automotive manufacturing industry where customers can customize their vehicle at the dealership. They can choose everything from dashboard components to the seat leather --or vegan leather-- to tire valve caps. For instance, at Stuttgart's Mercedes-Benz assembly line there are no two vehicles that are the same.

Speed: Speed is super important in many industries, including finance. The detection of credit card fraud on the spot can guarantee a card holder that a transaction will not be approved if fraud was involved, saving time and headaches if this is detected too late. According to Daugherty and Wilson, HSBC Holdings developed an AI-based solution that uses improved speed and accuracy in fraud detection. The solution can monitor millions of transactions on a daily basis seeking subtle pattern that can possibly signal fraud. This type of solution is great for financial institutions. Yet, they need the human collaboration to be continually updated. Without the updates required, soon the algorithms would become useless for combating fraud. Data analysts and financial fraud experts must keep an eye on the software at all times to assure the AI solution is at least one step ahead of criminals.

Scale: In order to accelerate its recruiting evaluation to improve diversity, Unilever adopted an AI-based hiring system that assesses candidate's body language and personality traits. Using this solution, Unilever was able to broaden its recruiting scale; job applicants doubled to 30,000, and the average time for arriving to a hiring decision decreased to four weeks. The process used to take up to four months before the adoption of the AI system.

Decision Making: There is no secret to the fact that the best decision that people make are based on specific, tailored information received in vast amounts. Using machine learning and AI a huge amount of data can be quickly available at the fingertips of workers on the factory floor, or to service technicians solving problems out in the field. All data previously collected and analyzed brings invaluable information that helps humans solve problems much faster or even prevent such problems before they happen. Take the case of GE and its Predix application. The solution uses machine-learning algorithms to predict when a specific part in a specific machine might fail. Predix alerts workers to potential problems before they become serious. In many cases, GE could save millions of dollars thanks to this technology collaborating with fast human action.

Personalization: AI makes possible individual tailoring, on-demand brand experiences at great scale. Music streaming service Pandora, for instance, applies AI algorithms to generate personalized playlists based on preferences in songs, artists, and genres. AI can use data to personalize anything and everything delivering a more enjoyable user experience. AI brings marketing to a new level.

Of course, some roles will come to an end as it has happened in the history of humanity every time there has been a technological revolution. However, the changes toward human and machine collaboration require the creation of new roles and the recruiting of new talent; it is not just a matter of implementing AI technology. We also need to remember that there is no evolution without change.

Robotics and AI will replace some jobs liberating humans for other kinds of tasks, many that do not yet exist as many of today's positions and jobs did not exist a few decades ago. Since 2000, the United States has lost five million manufacturing jobs. However, Daugherty and Wilson think that things are not as clear cut as they might seem.

In the United States alone, there are going to be needed around 3.4 million more job openings covered in the manufacturing sector. One reason for this is the need to cover the Baby Boomers' retirement plans.

Re-skilling is now paramount and applies to everyone who wishes to remain relevant.Paul Daugherty recommends enterprises to help existing employees develop what he calls fusion skills.

In their book Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, a must-read for business leaders looking for a practical guide on adopting AI into their organization, Paul Daugherty and H. James Wilson identify eight fusion skills for the workplace:

Rehumanizing time: People will have more time to dedicate toward more human activities, such as increasing interpersonal interactions and creativity.

Responsible normalizing: It is time to normalize the purpose and perception of human and machine interaction as it relates to individuals, businesses, and society as a whole.

Judgment integration: A machine may be uncertain about something or lack the necessary business or ethical context to make decisions. In such case, humans must be prepared to sense where, how, and when to step in and provide input.

Intelligent interrogation: Humans simply cant probe massively complex systems or predict interactions between complex layers of data on their own. It is imperative to have the ability to ask machines the right smart questions across multiple levels.

Bot-based empowerment: A variety of bots are available to help people be more productive and become better at their jobs. Using the power of AI agents can extend human's capabilities, reinvent business processes, and even boost a human's professional career.

Holistic (physical and mental) melding: In the age of human and machine fusion, holistic melding will become increasingly important. The full reimagination of business processes only becomes possible when humans create working mental models of how machines work and learn, and when machines capture user-behavior data to update their interactions.

Reciprocal apprenticing: In the past, technological education has gone in one direction: People have learned how to use machines. But with AI, machines are learning from humans, and humans, in turn, learn again from machines. In the future, humans will perform tasks alongside AI agents to learn new skills, and will receive on-the-job training to work well within AI-enhanced processes.

Relentless reimagining: This hybrid skill is the ability to reimagine how things currently areand to keep reimagining how AI can transform and improve work, organizational processes, business models, and even entire industries.

In Human + Machine, the authors propose a continuous circle of learning, an exchange of knowledge between humans and machines. Humans can work better and more efficiently with the help of AI. According to the authors, in the long term, companies will start rethinking their business processes, and as they do they will cover the needs for new humans in the new ways of doing business.

They believe that "before we rewrite the business processes, job descriptions, and business models, we need to answer these questions: What tasks do humans do best? And, what do machines do best?" The transfer of jobs is not simply one way. In many cases, AI is freeing up to creativity and human capital, letting people work more like humans and less like robots.

Giving these paramount questions and the concepts proposed by Daugherty and Wilson, giving them some thought might be crucial at the time of deciding what is the best strategy you should take as a business leader in your organization in order to change and adapt in the age of AI.

The authors highlight how embracing the new rules of AI can be beneficial at the time businesses are reimagining processes with a focus on an exchange of knowledge between humans and machines.

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VC Investments In Enterprise Tech And AI – Forbes

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According to Toptal, the venture capital sector has grown by 12.1% annually since the financial crisis. The same source tells us that the amount of capital raised per year has grown by 100% over the decade.

Hundreds of venture capitalists are backing up startups and entrepreneurs with billions of dollars each year. Many businesses rely on these VC investments and entire economies depend on it.

When choosing to back up projects, most investors look for innovation, expertise, and profitable opportunities. Im going to take a look at some of the top tier venture capitalists and their investments in the field of enterprise tech and AI.

Companies with a focus on AI have collected over 9.3 billion dollars in the US during 2018. The number of venture capital investments keeps growing on a global scale, opening up new opportunities for startups and entrepreneurs who are looking for their golden ticket to the enterprise tech and AI space.

As stated on Kurtosys, venture capital deals ranged between $10 million and $25 million in the US ten years ago. Today, there is a trend of $50 million plus deals getting a greater share of total investment.

Top tier macro venture capitalists in the startup ecosystem include Benchmark, Index Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and Union Square Ventures.

Even micro and local venture capitalists such as Northstar Ventures and Base Ventures are hitting these large numbers. On the local micro VC side, Aybuben Ventures, the first Pan-Armenian venture capitalist fund focused on Armenian tech entrepreneurs.

With a fund of over $50 million, Aybuben Ventures is not limited to people in Armenia only. On the contrary, the fund is open to Armenians all over the world who are engaged in enterprise tech business and development. Armenians live all over the world and they are proud of their culture and dont want to lose their identity. Potentially this creates a huge global pool of entrepreneurs, professionals, capital, companies and knowledge which can be leveraged and scaled in any of the world's economies. That said, we welcome interest in our foundation, from any organization and without regard to nationality, said Alexander Smbatyan, one of the founding partners of Aybuben Ventures.

Overall, the venture capital space keeps growing, providing technology startups with sufficient funding for growth and expansion. There is an innate disposition to develop companies that make extensive use of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, biotechnology and more, Smbatyan added as one of the reasons why it is worth to invest in the space of enterprise tech and AI.

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How Apple reinvigorated its AI aspirations in under a year – Engadget

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Well, technically, it's been three years of R&D, but Apple had a bit of trouble getting out of its own way for the first two. See, back in 2010, when Apple released the first version of Siri, the tech world promptly lost its mind. "Siri is as revolutionary as the Mac," the Harvard Business Review crowed, though CNN found that many people feared the company had unwittingly invented Skynet v1.0. But for as revolutionary as Siri appeared to be at first, its luster quickly wore off once the general public got ahold of it and recognized the system's numerous shortcomings.

Fast forward to 2014. Apple is at the end of its rope with Siri's listening and comprehension issues. The company realizes that minor tweaks to Siri's processes can't fix its underlying problems and a full reboot is required. So that's exactly what they did. The original Siri relied on hidden Markov models -- a statistical tool used to model time series data (essentially reconstructing the sequence of states in a system based only on the output data) -- to recognize temporal patterns in handwriting and speech recognition.

The company replaced and supplemented these models with a variety of machine learning techniques including Deep Neural Networks and "long short-term memory networks" (LSTMNs). These neural networks are effectively more generalized versions of the Markov model. However, because they posses memory and can track context -- as opposed to simply learning patterns as Markov models do -- they're better equipped to understand nuances like grammar and punctuation to return a result closer to what the user really intended.

The new system quickly spread beyond Siri. As Steven Levy points out, "You see it when the phone identifies a caller who isn't in your contact list (but who did email you recently). Or when you swipe on your screen to get a shortlist of the apps that you are most likely to open next. Or when you get a reminder of an appointment that you never got around to putting into your calendar."

By the WWDC 2016 keynote, Apple had made some solid advancements in its AI research. "We can tell the difference between the Orioles who are playing in the playoffs and the children who are playing in the park, automatically," Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi told the assembled crowd.

The company also released during WWDC 2016 its neural network API running Basic Neural Network Subroutines, an array of functions enabling third party developers to construct neural networks for use on devices across the Apple ecosystem.

However, Apple had yet to catch up with the likes of Google and Amazon, both of whom had either already released an AI-powered smart home companion (looking at you, Alexa) or were just about to (Home would be released that November). This is due in part to the fact that Apple faced severe difficulties recruiting and retaining top AI engineering talent because it steadfastly refused to allow its researchers to publish their findings. That's not so surprising coming from a company so famous for its tight-lipped R&D efforts that it once sued a news outlet because a drunk engineer left a prototype phone in a Palo Alto bar.

"Apple is off the scale in terms of secrecy," Richard Zemel, a professor in the computer science department at the University of Toronto, told Bloomberg in 2015. "They're completely out of the loop." The level of secrecy was so severe that new hires to the AI teams were reportedly directed not to announce their new positions on social media.

"There's no way they can just observe and not be part of the community and take advantage of what is going on," Yoshua Bengio, a professor of computer science at the University of Montreal, told Bloomberg. "I believe if they don't change their attitude, they will stay behind."

Luckily for Apple, those attitudes did change and quickly. After buying Seattle-based machine learning AI startup Turi for around $200 million in August 2016, Apple hired AI expert Russ Salakhutdinov away from Carnegie Mellon University that October. It was his influence that finally pushed Apple's AI out of the shadows and into the light of peer review.

In December 2016, while speaking at the the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Barcelona, Salakhutdinov stunned his audience when he announced that Apple would begin publishing its work, going so far as to display an overhead slide reading, "Can we publish? Yes. Do we engage with academia? Yes."

Later that month Apple made good on Salakhutdinov's promise, publishing "Learning from Simulated and Unsupervised Images through Adversarial Training". The paper looked at the shortcomings of using simulated objects to train machine vision systems. It showed that while simulated images are easier to teach than photographs, the results don't work particularly well in the real world. Apple's solution employed a deep-learning system, known as known as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), that pitted a pair of neural networks against one another in a race to generate images close enough to photo-realistic to fool a third "discriminator" network. This way, researchers can exploit the ease of training networks using simulated images without the drop in performance once those systems are out of the lab.

In January 2017, Apple further signaled its seriousness by joining Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft in the Partnership on AI. This industry group seeks to establish ethical, transparency and privacy guidelines in the field of AI research while promoting research and cooperation between its members. The following month, Apple drastically expanded its Seattle AI offices, renting a full two floors at Two Union Square and hiring more staff.

"We're trying to find the best people who are excited about AI and machine learning excited about research and thinking long term but also bringing those ideas into products that impact and delight our customers," Apple's director of machine learning Carlos Guestrin told GeekWire.

By March 2017, Apple had hit its stride. Speaking at the EmTech Digital conference in San Francisco, Salakhutdinov laid out the state of AI research, discussing topics ranging from using "attention mechanisms" to better describe the content of photographs to combining curated knowledge sources like Freebase and WordNet with deep-learning algorithms to make AI smarter and more efficient. "How can we incorporate all that prior knowledge into deep-learning?" Salakhutdinov said. "That's a big challenge."

That challenge could soon be a bit easier once Apple finishes developing the Neural Engine chip that it announced this May. Unlike Google devices, which shunt the heavy computational lifting required by AI processes up to the cloud where it is processed on the company's Tensor Processing Units, Apple devices have traditionally split that load between the onboard CPU and GPU.

This Neural Engine will instead handle AI processes as a dedicated standalone component, freeing up valuable processing power for the other two chips. This would not only save battery life by diverting load from the power-hungry GPU, it would also boost the device's onboard AR capabilities and help further advance Siri's intelligence -- potentially exceeding the capabilities of Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa.

But even without the added power that a dedicated AI chip can provide, Apple's recent advancements in the field have been impressive to say the least. In the span between two WWDCs, the company managed to release a neural network API, drastically expand its research efforts, poach one of the country's top minds in AI from one of the nation's foremost universities, reverse two years of backwards policy, join the industry's working group as a charter member and finally -- finally -- deliver a Siri assistant that's smarter than a box of rocks. Next year's WWDC is sure to be even more wild.

Image: AFP/Getty (Federighi on stage / network of photos)

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Descripts new podcast editor includes an AI voice double for dubbing over mistakes – The Verge

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Multimedia editing and transcription provider Descript is today announcing a redesigned version of its audio editing software thats geared toward podcast producers. The product, officially called Descript Podcast Studio, features a lot of the forward-thinking approaches to audio editing the company, created by Groupon founder and former CEO Andrew Mason, was founded on.

Most prominently, that includes the ability to easily edit an artificial intelligence-generated transcription of your audio file as if you were editing a word document. Essentially, Descript turns your audio into text, broken up by whos speaking, and it then lets you manipulate those audio files as if you were editing on a text version of the script in a word processor. Delete a sentence or two, and Descript will automatically shorten the file to make the recording sound smooth and natural.

The service has been available for roughly two years in a beta-like state since Mason spun it out of his walking tour app Detour, which he created after being unceremoniously shown the door as Groupons chief executive. Since then, Descript has worked with professional audio editors at NPR and other outlets to improve the design and feature set ahead of todays official 1.0 release.

With Descript Podcast Studio, the companys software now supports simultaneous and collaborative multitrack editing in the style of Google Docs, with changes synced in real time to the cloud. Descript can also just be used as a transcription service, with the company providing pro-grade transcription that includes both AI and human-aided audio-to-text services at 15 cents a minute for free users and 7 cents a minute for those who subscribe to its $10-a-month plan.

But Descripts new podcast product will also come with an all-new unique AI tool that Mason says can completely overhaul the editing process. Its called Overdub, and it will allow you to create what Descript is calling an AI voice double that can be used to overdub flubbed words or phrases and can even generate entirely new sentences all on its own in your voice. It relies on technology developed by a Montreal-based AI startup called Lyrebird, which Descript says it has acquired and transformed into its AI research division.

Lyrebird was founded by a trio of PhD students at the MILA research institute In Canada, and the companys technology can create a convincing replica of your voice by training a series of machine learning algorithms on organic voice data. Descript has turned Lyrebirds tech into Overdub, which will create your AI voice double by asking you to read out loud a series of randomly generated sentences. Mason says this can only be done for your own voice and only after going through the live data gathering process. That way, it cant be used to create convincing audio deepfakes of other people.

Were very lucky in the same way Apple has a business model that allows them to take a customer-friendly stance on privacy, our business model is such that we can take a socially friendly civically friendly approach to the issue of deepfakes, Mason tells me. The reason we wanted to build it was to solve our own problem or the problem anyone has experienced when they want to record something, which is that the process of getting it right is incredibly tedious. Wouldnt it be great to make editorial corrections to the audio content youve recorded as it is to do that with text?

Mason says Overdub will only be useable if youre editing audio of your own voice or you have the permission of the owner of the voice to make those kinds of edits to the audio recording. The goal is to make the process of fixing a brief but noticeable stumble or correcting an obvious error much less time-intensive. Mason says the point of Overdub is saving you a trip back to the recording booth.

Audio is the easiest medium of content to create but one of the hardest to edit. Going back in there and recording a new take and splicing it back in so it sounds good is a time-consuming process, he says. To ensure its making its approach to this type of controversial AI-based technology clear, Descript has an ethics policy published on its website outlining how Overdub works and the limitations Mason says will prevent it from being abused.

Overdub is just one standout feature as part of Descripts Podcast Studio software. The companys entire approach treating audio editing as if it were as easy as word document editing means the Descript app is stuffed full of interesting tricks for fast and efficient audio manipulation.

In true Google Docs style, the collaborative editing tools include commenting and annotation, and for audio nerds, Mason says Descript Podcast Studio will come with a head-spinning amount of editing features you get with pricier software like Adobe Audition and Pro Tools. That includes non-destructive editing, crossfading, volume automation, loudness normalization, and track groupings, to name a few. Descript also supports exporting to programs like Audition, Final Cut Pro, and Pro Tools, for those who rely on any of that software for their professional workflow.

Descript is available now for Mac and Windows, and Mason hopes its unique approach to audio editing, combined with the truly next-generation Overdub feature, will ease the editing pain for the scores of new podcast makers entering the scene. Weve seen podcasting entering a golden age and more and more people and companies... are creating audio content, Mason says. But they still need to get an audio engineer involved to do anything good. This makes it so much more accessible.

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GANs and NFTs: AI Artists in the Crypto Space ARTnews.com – ARTnews

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When Christies hosted its first Art + Tech Summit in 2018, the topic was the blockchain. The second edition, in June 2019, focused on artificial intelligence. Blockchain and AI are two big, buzzy topics, and they have intersected in unexpected ways, especially during this years crypto art boom. Artists whose work uses generative adversarial networks (GANs) algorithms that pit computers against each other to produce original machine-made output approximating the human-made training datahave turned to crypto platforms not only to sell their work, but also to explore ways of critically and creatively engaging the blockchain.

People who make creative work with AI tend to be self-taught, as artists or engineers or both. Theyre drawn to new technologies and ideas taking shape at the margins of culture. Theres a provocative friction between the figure of the tinkering outsider and the reputations of AI and blockchains, in the popular imagination, as rapidly growing forms of technological infrastructure with massive resources invested in them, behemoths that are transforming the shape of everyday life by digitizing more and more of it. Artists who sell their work as NFTs have been criticized for contributing to an ecologically destructive, toxically libertarian culture; artists who make work with AI have drawn fire for normalizing the technologies that enable corporate surveillance and predictive policing. The artists who take up these tools despite the problems associated with them arent utopians. However, they see firsthand the reality that new technologies are not monoliths but evolving systems, rife with flaws and potentials.

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GANs and NFTs: AI Artists in the Crypto Space ARTnews.com - ARTnews

Hellobike unveils trifecta of innovative shared mobility AI technologies at WAIC2020 – Yahoo Finance

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SHANGHAI, July 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hellobike, China's two-wheel transport industry leader, has unveiled three revolutionary shared mobility AI technologies at the 2020 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC2020), taking place virtually between 9 and 11 July. In line with the conference theme, 'Intelligent Connectivity, Indivisible Community', Hellobike showcased its independent research and development into solutions that enable cities to create convenient, greener urban transportation ecosystems.

Hellobike's non-motorized vehicle safety management system

During its presentation on 10 July, Hellobike unveiled three innovative technologies that leverage AI, big data, cloud infrastructure and the IoT: the Hermes road safety system, non-motorized vehicle safety management system, and fixed-point return. Hellobike's participation in WAIC2020 follows its highly successful debut at the conference last year, where the company unveiled exciting AI projects including the Hello Brain smart transportation OS and the Argus visual interaction system.

Hellobike's new model A40

"We are honored to take part in WAIC2020 for the second year running. As the shared bike industry leader, WAIC2020 is the ultimate platform for us to demonstrate how we harness AI technology and work hand-in-hand with the state to build the city of the future," said Li Kaizhu, President of Hellobike.

Hellobike's latest technologies usher in the 3.0 era of China's bike-sharing industry: a new model that sees shared bicycles organically integrated into the urban public transportation ecosystem. Through strengthened cooperation between transport providers and municipal governments, the 3.0 era provides a systematic mechanism to help Chinese cities tackle unique operational challenges, address parking management, and streamline shared bike deployment and distribution.

Hellobike's Hermes road safety system integrates AI algorithms to provide users with a better, safer shared transport experience. Built as a scenario-based solution, Hermes automatically performs failsafe tests on both user behavior and the bike at the beginning, middle and end of their riding journey. If the system detects technical issues, dangerous operation or user violations, Hellobike delivers a risk warning to the user through the bike's built-in speaker.

Based on insights gathered from mining big data, Hellobike also found that the use of non-motorized vehicles can lead to chaotic, unsafe road conditions. To address this, Hellobike has partnered with local governments to develop non-motorized vehicle safety management systems tailored to each city's unique traffic conditions. Using video AI technology for data collection and situation analysis, as well as spatial data, Hellobike helps cities establish new vehicle management systems built upon data visualization, intelligent data processing and smart decision-making applications.

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Furthermore, Hellobike has cooperated with city officials to promote improved traffic safety, simplified parking and enhanced city appearance through a shared bike management operation plan. Hellobike has established a number of convenient fixed-point return locations using electronic fencing, Bluetooth road studs, AI and the IoT. Fixed-point return encourages users to park at designated locations, while making it easier for staff to locate and redistribute vehicles across the city.

Hellobike President Li Kaizhu and Chief Scientist Liu Xingliang will also take part in WAIC2020's AI TALK and big data forum alongside entrepreneurs from leading local and global tech companies to discuss the applications of AI technology. In addition, Hellobike plans to host its first Technology Open Day on 31 July at its Shanghai headquarters, where users can tour the space, test new vehicles, and discover the technological innovations behind Hellobike.

About Hellobike

Hellobike has continuously built user-friendly and sustainable transport services in sectors such as shared bicycles, shared e-bikes and car-pooling. As a business leader in two-wheeled transport, users have taken more than 12 billion trips on Hellobike vehicles over the past three years. Hellobike now operates in more than 360 Chinese cities.

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200710/2854753-1-a Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200710/2854753-1-b

SOURCE Hellobike

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Hellobike unveils trifecta of innovative shared mobility AI technologies at WAIC2020 - Yahoo Finance

Google TV is getting parent-controlled watchlists and AI-powered suggestions for kids – TechCrunch

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Google is bringing a set of new kids-focused features such as parent-controlled watchlists and AI-powered suggestions to Google TV, the latest in a series of efforts from the Android-maker as it attempts to broaden the offerings of its TV operating system for family consumption.

The company said it is adding these features to the kids profiles to improve content recommendation and exploration. Parents can directly push titles to the must watch lists for kids from their profiles (by just tapping the watchlist button on the titles they came across and pressing add), the company explained in a blog post.

Image Credits: Google

The company is also introducing AI-powered recommendations for kids because Google loves AI. Children can now look at popular shows and movies on their Google TV home screen based on installed apps and parent-defined ratings levels. If they dont like a title that has been recommended to them and dont wish to see it again, they can press and hold the select button and then tap hide to remove the suggestion from the list.

Image Credits: Google

The new additions are Googles ongoing efforts to make its services more appropriate for kids.Google introduced supervised accounts for YouTube last year that helps children migrate from YouTube Kids to the main YouTube app in a safe manner.

Parents can additionally create restrictions on content exploration. It allows guardians to define three levels of access: Explore for content suitable for viewers 9 and above; Explore more for viewers 13 and above; and Most of YouTube to enable access to all videos sans the age-restricted content.

Image Credits: YouTube

The search giant said it is also bringing this supervised experience to Google TV so kids can access the main YouTube app with appropriate content restrictions. Notably, when parents set up these supervised accounts, they provide consent for the collection and use of data collection from kids profiles for COPPA compliance a U.S. privacy law that defines limits for websites providing services to children.

The company first introduced kids profiles on Google TV last year that allows parents to set limits on app access and screen time.

Google said these features are rolling out starting today on the Chromecast with Google TV (both 4K and HD variants) and other Google TV devices from manufacturers like Hisense and Philips, Sony and TCL.

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Google TV is getting parent-controlled watchlists and AI-powered suggestions for kids - TechCrunch

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

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

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

Medical Research

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

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

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

Navigating New Data Regulations

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

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

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

National Security

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

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

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

AI in the IoT

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

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

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

An AI Revolution Is Coming Soon

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

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

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

Surprise: Samsung is building a Bixby-powered AI speaker – Engadget

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Very little beyond the Vega name is known about the development -- according to WSJ its features and specs are yet to be decided, and there's no sign of a release date. To stand out in an already squeezed market it'll certainly need to boast something impressive.

In a blog post from March, Samsung executive vice president Injong Lee laid out the company's aspirations for Bixby, and it seems likely Vega will be incorporated into these ambitious plans.

"Starting with our smartphones, Bixby will be gradually applied to all our appliances. In the future, you would be able to control your air conditioner or TV through Bixby. Since Bixby will be implemented in the cloud, as long as a device has an internet connection and simple circuitry to receive voice inputs, it will be able to connect with Bixby," Lee wrote.

However, Bixby has proven something of a headache for Samsung so far. Despite centering a lot of its marketing around the feature during the launch of the Galaxy S8, Samsung eventually released the phone without Bixby in the US -- it's only gradually being rolled out now, and is unlikely to be completed before the second half of July, according to WSJ sources.

If Samsung can get on top of its existing Bixby issues and offer something unique with its debut smart speaker, then Vega could be a hit. The market is crowded, but there is demand. The number of Americans using voice-activated speakers will reach about 36 million this year, according to eMarketer -- over double last year's figure.

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Surprise: Samsung is building a Bixby-powered AI speaker - Engadget

Totally Not Fake News: Battle Red Helmets and How We Got There – Battle Red Blog

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Houston - This season, the NFL is allowing teams to wear alternate helmets, with the premise that it will allow teams to sell more over-priced merchandise to fill the coffers of a multi-billion dollar businessoh, wait, what? Oh, we meant to say that it will allow teams to demonstrate a different look for fans to watch as they cheer on their favorite teams on the field of play. So far, the reaction have beenok. [That will get edited out, right? Right???]

Hey, the idea is kinda cool. It can be fun to show off the different logos and designs. Dont know if it will help us out, but thats why we play the games, noted Texans WR Brandin Cooks.

What Cooks referred to was the release of a new helmet design, which will be part of the Texans Battle Red uniform, now slated for the Battle Red home game against the Philadelphia Eagles on November 3rd.

[Easterby], it cant hurt us. Aint never beaten the Eagles since Ive been here. Not sure I can recall if the city has ever beaten the Eagles in pro footballand Ive seen a few things grumbled veteran Jon Weeks. He was about to offer up some more sage wisdom about the helmets, but was interrupted by new offensive guard Kenyon Green, who once against asked Weeks what it was like to practice with Earl Campbell when the Campbell first played as a pro. Weeks told the young whippersnapper to get the [Easterby] off of his lawn.

Yet, the design of the helmet didnt start out that way. There were quite a number of design concepts leading up to the call to just take a red helmet and slap a logo on to it.

Oh, when the Texans started mulling the concept, you knew that it was just a matter of time before the all-powerful Executive Vice President of Football Operations was going to get involved sighed one unnamed Texans staffer.

When he heard about our plans, man, he jumped right in, offering at least 24 designs within the first 20 minutes of discussion continued the staffer.

Look, the wearing of the uniform is a big part of football operations, which I am the Grand Master/Overlord/Ayatollah. So, when I got word about the discussions of an alternate helmet, of course that is in my purview and therefore, my overall responsibility to resolve. This is all part of my job responsibilities, and has nothing to do with the fact that I have a LOT more time on my hands or that my previous responsibilities seem to be shifted over to other people lectured the Executive Vice President of Football Operations Jack Easterby.

So, once I saw my chance to regain my influence, er, help out the organization, I stepped in. So many divinely inspired ideas. Here is just a sampling:

Hey, I have gigabytes of these things. Wanna see more?

Our reporter politely declined, and once he left the office, immediately sprinted away.

Still, it didnt quite answer our question about just how the Texans came to this decision about the helmet.

Well, ok, we did take all of the designs, er, excuse me, the divinely ordained messages from the enlightened EVP of Football Operations. We were ordered to run them up to [Texans CEO] Cal [McNair]. He was busy, as usual. Still, we did manage to sneak a minute into his office. Anyway, he took a glance over at a few of the ideas. Not sure he was all that impressed. When we pressed him for a decision, especially since the uniform/helmet designers needed that information, he was really annoyed.

[Easterby] it! Cant you see that I am busy on this Fortnite Level!!! Oh, great, now you made me lose to those punks from Alvin! 5th graders!!!! And I thought I finally had them!!!! [Easterby]!!! Back to playing 2nd graders...and to the bottle to soothe the pain. Ok, now that you [Easterbyed] up my work, what do you have for me?

Well, we showed him the design concepts and logos. His response:

Who...who...whodesignedthosethings [belch]?? Thats gonna (hic)...thats gonna (hic)...cost money. MONEY!!! We doin this for Battle Red Day, or whatever we call it? [Easterby] it! Just slap our logo on a red helmet and be done with it.

Never would have guessed, but Cal actually made a brilliant call. The best part, well, other than he forgot to fire us in the post-gamer hangover, is that we will make a lot of money from people buying these silly helmets. As if anyone not playing for the Texans that day would ever buy them. Still, people still spend money on this franchise. Who are we to stop them?

We tried to reach back out to Jack Easterby, who informed us that we could submit the question through his new and improved website, but, er, there were some problems...

Until next time, it will bear watching to figure out just how many people will fork over the money for the new Battle Red helmets, and/or just how these uniforms will be the key to any potential Texans success against the Eagles.

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Totally Not Fake News: Battle Red Helmets and How We Got There - Battle Red Blog

#WorldPRDay: The public relations industry must lead the fight against fake news – TheCable

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BY FATIHAH AYINDE, OYINDAMOLA ABDULFATAI AND EDWARD ISRAEL-AYIDE

The prevalence of social media has revolutionised the dissemination rate of fake news. With social media becoming the easiest way for the public to consume information, we have witnessed the propagation of fake news on a scale only comparable to the days of yellow journalism.

Fake news, spin, and disinformation spread through online channels, which eventually land offline, shape global issues as they did in the 19th century. For example, consider the difficult terrain in which world leaders and medical experts found themselves when they recognised the necessity to confront the twin epidemics of coronavirus and fake news.

In Kano, Nigeria, 74.2% of respondents in a study agreed that social media aided the spread of fake news on Covid-19. To stem the tide, communication and public awareness campaigns such as Stop The Spread (developed by the WHO and the UK Government) and the Afghan governments Citizens Charter program were designed to counter the spread of false information regarding Covid-19.

The fight against fake news is urgent

Information travels faster and has become ubiquitous; this is what the world feeds on to shape perspectives. Claire Wardle, PhD of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that the biggest shift (today) is everybody is completely overwhelmed by information. We are taking in so much more information than we ever used to. In a news-saturated society, Wardle believes consumers have an inherently limited ability to distinguish between correct and false information.

To tell the difference, Richard Hillgrove suggests looking at other credible news outlets to ascertain the validity of the information. If it stands alone in a vacuum, theres a good chance its a manufactured lie. He, however, warns that the content might be lifted from a credible source and then de-plagiarised by being slightly rewritten. This is the gravity of the war the public relations industry is up against.

It is why as communicators, we must exercise extreme vigilance when it comes to fake news. While speaking on a World PR Day panel, Wimbart PR CEO Wimbart Hope asked PR professionals to interrogate the brief to avoid being conduits for fake news. Her point is well taken because public relations experts are increasingly likely to be misled into creating or disseminating bogus information on behalf of clients.

We must fight fake news because it harms PR

Although some will not agree, the art of planned persuasion and relationship building will never die. Indeed, one of the most notable public relations functions is fostering engaging conversations that result in meaningful change. The power of this industry is required in the fight that we advocate.

Because the public relations industry is a critical media stakeholder, the profession will suffer severely if the threat of fake news is not handled. As a result, when it comes to fake news, there is no circumstance in which staying on the fence is a good move. As stakeholders, we must build the defences that help the public rebuild trust in the media.

Rachel Gilley of Clarity PR was right when she said, To fight fake news and the spread of misinformation, as an industry, we need to uplift the content we know to be quality and ensure we look at stories with a critical lens. As we partner with clients and brands to tell their narratives, we need to take a collaborative approach with reporters, only working with the trusted publications, so we are not fuelling fake news hubs.

In the Pedagogy of Freedom, Paulo Freire calls our attention to ethics, democracy, and civic courage and responsibility in a way that demands that citizens have a moral duty to speak against acts perpetuated with the motive to cause unrest. Anyone can call him or herself a PR practitioner, but the mark of an ingenious public relations practitioner is in their ability to conscientise society.

Apart from the moral obligation, another ground for the fight against fake news is that it directly affects the PR market, so much so that when it comes to publishing media content on mainstream media, for example, the public relations practitioner is limited since the public has come to associate certain media stations with fake news.

Preserving the sanctity of what constitutes authentic information tends to have a positive ripple effect on the public relations industry. Knowing that critics of public relations associate public relations with propaganda as it is, it is indefensible not to take a stand against fake news.

To present a case for fake news, consider the authoritarian government systems in many countries. Fake news is an obvious outcome of censorship and restrictions on access to information to fact-check news. Regardless, PR practitioners cannot afford a declining public trust in traditional journalism and, by extension, new media.

The public relations industry needs to realise that fake news has the power to dismantle structures and platforms used by public relations practitioners to reach audiences. Without these platforms returning to their original state, the use of crisis communications to assist organisations, clients, individuals, and others in dealing with crises will lose effectiveness.

Freire believed that the prevalent ideas of a society are always the ideas of those groups who hold power. It is therefore naive to think that the public relations industry can combat this threat to the profession and society on its own. This necessitates collaboration with regulatory agencies to ensure due diligence and act as fact-checking bodies before fake news and content go viral.

The public relations industry must recognise the importance of addressing this issue. It must acknowledge it as a global issue and understand that it will not be resolved overnight. We must continue to hold one another accountable in the industry to reinforce that fake news and misinformation have no place in our profession or the media.

Ayinde, Abdulfatai and Israel-Ayide of Carpe Diem Solutions Ltd write from Lagos, Nigeria

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#WorldPRDay: The public relations industry must lead the fight against fake news - TheCable

Annuar: Viral video on PMs goreng pisang statement in Parliament fake news, MCMC to act against TikTok creator – Malay Mail

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The video depicted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as saying that goreng pisang sellers cannot use the subsidised packet cooking oil as it is meant for domestic use only. Bernama pic

By Radzi Razak

Tuesday, 19 Jul 2022 1:55 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is looking into claims that an individual from a political party spread fake news on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa revealed the matter today as he expressed his disappointment over the sharing of a video of Ismail Sabri talking about subsidised packet cooking oil being used illegally by goreng pisang (banana fritter) sellers without context.

I was told that MCMC had identified an individual making a TikTok posting in his account, and we asked MCMC to act.

The individual is not an MP, but he holds a position in a certain political party, he told a press conference in Parliament today.

The video depicted Ismail Sabri as saying that goreng pisang sellers cannot use the subsidised packet cooking oil as it is meant for domestic use only.

However, Annuar said the video was cut short and it depicted Ismail Sabri as making an example out of such sellers because it would be difficult to ban restaurants and hawkers from using the oil.

Yesterday, Ismail Sabri told the Dewan Rakyat that the government risked incurring public backlash if it sent enforcement officers from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry after hawkers who used the subsidised cooking oil for commercial purposes.

If the enforcers fine them or seize the cooking oil packets from them, we will be labelled as acting cruelly towards the poor.

There are many things that the government needs to consider, but believe me, the government will not stay silent. We will do our best for the country, he said.

He was responding to a question from Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Port Dickson-PH) on targeted subsidies during Question Time.

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Annuar: Viral video on PMs goreng pisang statement in Parliament fake news, MCMC to act against TikTok creator - Malay Mail

Islamists, Congress leaders spread fake news that Hindus posed as Muslims to offer namaz at Lulu Mall: The reliance on conspiracy theories to shield…

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Earlier last week, a controversy erupted in Lulu Mall, Lucknow, after a video of Muslims offering namaz inside the mall premises went viral on the internet. Following the incident, a conscious effort is undertaken by sympathisers of Islamists to peddle an alternative theory that Hindus were the ones who had offered the namaz inside the mall.

Social media platforms are awash with conspiracy theories saying that people who offered namaz in Lulu Mall were Hindus and not Muslims. They cited the arrest of Hindus in a different case to allege that those who were offering namaz inside the mall were not Muslims, but Hindus.

Ahmed Khabeer, Editor of the Islamist propaganda portal The Jamia Times, shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Lucknow Police to allege that Hindus posing as Muslims had offered namaz in the mall.

The screenshot of the tweet posted by DCP Lucknow carried the press note of the police about the arrests made in connection with the offering of unauthorised religious activities inside the Lulu Mall. The press note was about the arrest made on July 15 of youths who had gathered outside the mall for the recitation of Sundar Kand.

However, in his bid to malign Hindus, Khabeer conveniently ignores to share the complete details of the case. The four men arrested in the case were taken under custody on July 15 after they had gathered outside the Lulu Mall to recite Sundar Kand to oppose the offering of namaz inside the mall, videos of which had gone viral on the internet on July 13, two days before their arrest. One Arshad Ali was also arrested by the police on July 15 after he had gone to the mall to offer namaz.

But Khabeer used the press report of their arrest to weave a twisted narrative that depicted Hindus as villains for defaming Muslims by assuming their identity and offering namaz in a public place. The group of Muslims offered namaz on July 12, while the arrests of Hindu youths for gathering outside the mall for the recital of Sundar Kand took place on July 15. But Khabeer expediently muddled the facts to assert that the Hindu men arrested by police were held for offering namaz.

As it turned out, Khabeer was just a cog in the wheel of the giant and rampant propaganda effort aimed at shielding Muslims who offered namaz inside the mall and placing its blame at the feet of Hindus. The well-oiled Congress ecosystem also partook in the efforts to malign Hindus as imposters who posed as Muslims and offered namaz inside the mall premises.

Congress supporter Dr Pooja Tripathi quoted the UP polices tweet on men arrested for reciting Sundar Kand, claiming that they posed as Muslims to offer namaz in the mall. Pawan Khera, chairman of the media and publicity department of the All India Congress Committee, also participated in this disinformation campaign as he quoted Tripathis tweet and lent his support to the insidious propaganda that entailed misrepresenting police communication of Hindus arrested as taken under custody for offering namaz.

Congress leader Salman Nizami also shared the fake news that said Hindu men posing as Muslims were arrested by the police. However, after being called out over his fake news, Niazi promptly deleted the tweet.

Radio Mirchis Sayema, who has often displayed little hesitation in promoting fake news that serves to bolster Islamist propaganda, also shared the misinformation being peddled about the arrest of Hindu men. Sayema quoted Khabeers tweet and promoted the misinformation that Hindu men posed as Muslims to offer namaz inside the mall.

Islamist website Siasat, too, played its part in perpetuating the warped propaganda that men who offered namaz in the mall are not Muslim. In an article, the portal claimed that the CCTV evidence confirmed that it was a purposeful prank intended to tarnish the mall and incite communal hatred. Interestingly, the article offers no evidence to substantiate the claim that CCTV footage from the mall proved that those who offered namaz were not Muslims.

Realising how the propagandists were using the news of the arrest of Hindu men to fuel disinformation, the official Twitter account of Lucknow Police issued a clarification, stating that the claims made on social media that men were arrested for offering namaz are misleading and baseless.

For a long time now, apologists have either shifted the blame on the victims or appropriated their identity to shield their Islamist brethren. A certain section of the Muslim fundamentalists and their supporters loves peddling such conspiracy theories as it shows Hindus in a bad light while whitewashing the crimes of the Islamists.

While the intellectuals resort to twisting facts and weaving an alternate reality to absolve the Muslim fundamentalists and frame Hindus as the guilty, their allies in the form of Islamists and Islamic terrorists use Hindu disguises while carrying out attacks to shield their coreligionists from the fallout.

For instance, during the Godhra Train burning incident, the propagandists tried to deflect the blame of the tragedy on the Hindus, promoting preposterous theories to claim that the conflagration took place from within the bogey and the Islamists did not attack the train from the outside.

Even during the 9/11 attacks, the Islamists and their supporters had tried to play down the involvement of Muslim fundamentalists, alleging that the terror attack was a result of sabotage carried out by Americans and pinned on the Islamists to justify the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.

In India, too, such conspiracy theories blaming everyone but the Islamists have taken root, especially in the immediate aftermath of the incidents when factual details are scarce. After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, a section of propagandists pushed conspiracy theories linking the lone terrorist captured alive, Ajmal Kasab, to Hindu organisations, citing the Kalwa he wore as a symbol of his Hinduness.

However, the plan to implicate Hindus as terrorists went awry after Mohammed Ajmal Kasab shed light on their nefarious plan to portray the attack as a case of a Hindu terror attack. It came to light that fake Hindu identities and Hindu symbols were deliberately attached to the terrorists, to project the attack as a handiwork of Hindu terrorists.

Nevertheless, it did not stop the Congress party from linking the terror attack to Hindus. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh released a book that blamed RSS for the terror attack, whitewashing the Pakistani antecedents of the terrorists and pinning the blame of the tragedy on Hindus.

It is worth noting that Congress was the first one to invent the Hindu Terror bogey in the wake of the 2006 Malegaon blasts as a parallel to Islamic terrorism. With this imaginary construct, the Congress party wanted to assert that terror has no religion. However, their real intention was to shield Islamic extremism that was responsible for a string of terror attacks in the tumultuous decade between 2000 to 2010. The Congress party then wrongly implicated Sadhvi Pragya to firm up their Hindu Terror fabrication.

More recently, the same methodology was once again employed to assassinate Hindu samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari. Two assassins, Farid-ud-Din Shaikh and Ashfaq Shaikh came dressed in saffron kurtas at Tiwaris office-cum-residence at Lucknow andassassinatedhim. They carried sweet boxes in which they had concealed weapons with which they killed the Hindu leader. They were able to get close to Kamlesh Tiwari by the virtue of being dressed in saffron robes, which attracted little suspicions about their possible intentions to make the visit.

Similarly, earlier last year, a foiled assassination plot to kill Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, the chief abbot of the Dasna Devi Temple, revealed how the Islamists planned to use Hindu disguises to execute their nefarious designs. The terrorist who was planning to kill Yati Narsighanand Saraswati was caught and the police recovered a Bhagwa kurta, a Kalava, a Mala and a Chandan-tika from the terrorist, highlighting how he was working straight out of the Islamist playbook that ordains radicals to commit the acts of terror under Hindu disguises.

As the controversy over namaz offered inside the Lulu Mall erupted, the left-liberal intelligentsia and the Congress party resorted to distorting facts and using the arrest of three Hindu youth for the recital of Sundar Kand to propagate fake news that they had been arrested for offering namaz in the mall.

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Islamists, Congress leaders spread fake news that Hindus posed as Muslims to offer namaz at Lulu Mall: The reliance on conspiracy theories to shield...

OPINION: Honor our lost loved ones by ending the war on drugs – HubcitySPOKES.com

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My son, Robert, passed away in January 2017. He died of an accidental overdose of opioids. For me and my family, the last five years have been filled with minutes, hours, and days of tremendous sadness with grief gripping every ounce of us. How can we use our horrific loss and heartbreak? We can wield it in anger and bitterness, or we can use it to support life-giving solutions.

Recently I recalled some of my thoughts from the night of Roberts death. I thought of all the moms who lost their sons and daughters in war. Someone had appeared at their doorstep with the horrific life-altering news that their precious child had died in battle. The one held most dear to their heart had passed from this world. I remember thinking they died for a cause.

Our present-day battle is the War on Drugs, where we are using our criminal justice system to handle a health crisis. For the loved ones we lost in its collateral damage, bringing an end to it is perhaps the best way to honor them.

I can't help but wonder what our lost loved ones would say if they were able to speak. Would their message be for more jailing to heal the problem? Would their message be for long sentences? Or would it be listening to the stories of people using drugs and in addiction?

Would our loved ones want more and more punitive reactions? Or would they want us to look for the best way to keep people in the struggle alive and functioning?

What would those who have died want for other people using drugs who are still here?

Perhaps they would challenge us to sit in on an open AA meeting or any support group, coming face to face with people who are in the struggle. Those who are walking the walk. The people in these groups are real people exposing their thoughts and fears. Each one can share and is understood. Being able to totally relate gives strength and courage.

I pray those we have lost have not died in vain. And their legacy collectively can be for more understanding and compassion and less shame. Maybe they will be known in years to come as trailblazers in the fight against the War on Drugs. And their lives will be viewed as a sacrifice to upend the old way of using the criminal justice system to tackle our drug problems. Maybe this is part of the battle. Maybe our loved ones have died for a cause. I feel that would be the most amazing blessing that could develop from this tragedy that is being played out before us.

Will apathy progress us? Will turning a blind eye advance solutions? Will the same old path of punishment lead us to a better place? It hasn't yet. How can we fight for the betterment of those still on earth, those still enveloped in the struggle? I think I know what our loved ones would say. Let's give them a voice.

Lee Malouf is an advocate for health-centered responses to drug use. She can be reached at missyazoo@aol.com

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OPINION: Honor our lost loved ones by ending the war on drugs - HubcitySPOKES.com

The New War on Drugs Will Be Fought With Trade Policy – The Wall Street Journal

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Regarding your editorial Bidens Missing Trade Agenda (July 6): What should have been a precondition to the Trump administrations trade talks with China, and what should now be a precondition to the Bidens administrations decision to lift tariffs, is a demand that China stops the production and export of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, and their precursor chemicals. Concerns about prices of pork, soybeans and solar panels are small beer in light of this scourge, which is now responsible for the annual deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

Chinese manufacturers make this stuff. The Chinese Communist Party knows this and knows who they are. It allows the material to be shipped to Mexico for distribution by the drug cartels, enabled by a porous southern border. This is the new war on drugs. Fight it with trade policy. China fought the same war against the British opium trade for the same reasons.

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The New War on Drugs Will Be Fought With Trade Policy - The Wall Street Journal

‘One Pill Can Kill’: How Fentanyl changed the war on drugs – – KUSI

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SAN DIEGO (KUSI) The fentanyl epidemic in the US is unprecedented, and the DEA has seized enough fentanyl to give a lethal dose to every person in America.

San Diego is the gateway for the majority of those pills coming over the border, and the special agent in charge of the DEA says everyone in the community needs to be aware of the fentanyl epidemic, before you make a deadly mistake.

KUSIs Ginger Jeffries has spent endless hours getting to the bottom of this epidemic, getting facts on how it is impacting Americans, specifically our children.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. It was originally developed for pain management applied in a patch on the skin. However, because of its high-powered ability drug dealers started to add it to heroin to either increase the potency or even disguise it as a cheap alternative.

It works by binding the areas of the brain that control pain. Someone on fentanyl will experience sedation, often confusion, and extreme emotions. A lethal dose is as small as 3 granules of salt.

The DEA launched the One Pill can Kill public awareness campaign in September of last year, to attack this growing problem on every level.

The majority of the counterfeit drug production is happening in other countries, mainly China and Mexico, and then trafficked here to the US.

Common emojis for fake prescription drugs include, a blue dot, or a banana for Oxy and Percocet.

Other signs to watch out for is how a dealer will try to advertise by using the plug or money bag and how potent a batch is and if they have a lot or a little.

As a parent, knowing what your kids are communicating about could be the difference between life and death!

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'One Pill Can Kill': How Fentanyl changed the war on drugs - - KUSI

A welcome retreat in the drug war – Toronto Star

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Most wars are easier to start than to end, and the misguided and often malevolent War on Drugs is no exception.

Little by little, however, that dubious campaign is in sensible and overdue retreat.

As the Stars Jacques Gallant reported this week, Canadians with criminal records for drug possession will see them effectively vanish within two years after the federal governments criminal justice reform bill becomes law, a measure that could affect hundreds of thousands of people.

The landscape has changed.

Cannabis is now legal in Canada. Drug addiction is widely seen as a health rather than criminal issue. There is greater support for harm-reduction strategies and safe-injection sites. And, recently, selected exemptions were granted for possession of small amounts of harder drugs for personal use.

But largely owing to the stigma attached to drug use and addiction, each step has been controversial, fiercely opposed, and slow in coming.

Drug laws in Canada and elsewhere have been deeply tinged with racism, disproportionately affecting and incarcerating racialized individuals, Indigenous people and those living in poverty.

A study published last year looking at arrest data in five Canadian cities found an over-representation of Black and Indigenous people arrested for cannabis possession in all but one.

The consequent burden of a criminal record, which hugely impedes chances of employment, housing, travel and increases likelihood of future criminality, flies in the face of fairness and the pretence of the justice system as concerned chiefly with rehabilitation.

The proposed bills automatic sequestration of drug possession records which means they wont show up on a criminal records check was made possible due to a New Democratic amendment to the Liberal governments Bill C-5.

Randall Garrison, NDP justice critic, said the government has assure him that in two years from the passage of the bill criminal records for personal possession for all drugs will disappear.

The bill, to be studied by a Senate committee this fall after passage by the Commons in June, would also repeal mandatory minimum sentence for all drug offences, expand the use of conditional sentences, and require police and prosecutors to use their discretion to keep drug possession cases out of the courts.

It's estimated that as many as 250,000 Canadians may have drug-possession convictions stemming from cannabis possession alone when it was still illegal.

Three years ago, the government launched a revamped pardon application process, but Garrison said only a few hundred people have been successful because of the convoluted, expensive process involved.

The bill stops short of decriminalizing drug possession, a step health advocates have long called for.

The opioid epidemic that has hit communities across the country and is especially lethal in Vancouver and Toronto has changed the views on how drug crises should be seen and tackled.

The moralizing tough on crime rhetoric so favoured by conservative politicians, and so dismissive of public health and harm reduction approaches, no longer resonates quite so viscerally with those encountering addiction in their own neighbourhoods and families.

By legalizing cannabis, the federal government admitted that 100 years of prohibition of the drug in Canada was at the very least unwarranted, and more bluntly put a huge injustice against hundreds of thousands of people.

The Garrison amendment is a good step in the large project of righting the lifelong consequences of damage done by what was essentially a war not on drugs, but on people.

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A welcome retreat in the drug war - Toronto Star