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Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Blockchain, and Analytics, 2019: Advances in AI, Blockchain, and Business Intelligence -…

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Blockchain, and Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This edition of IT, Computing and Communications (ITCC) TechVision Opportunity Engine (TOE) provides a snapshot of the emerging ICT led innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud, and analytics. This issue focuses on the application of information and communication technologies in alleviating the challenges faced across industry sectors in areas such as banking, oil & gas, healthcare, life sciences, and industrial sectors.

ITCC TOE's mission is to investigate emerging wireless communication and computing technology areas including 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Big Data, cloud computing, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, virtualization and the Internet of Things and their new applications; unearth new products and service offerings; highlight trends in the wireless networking, data management and computing spaces; provide updates on technology funding; evaluate intellectual property; follow technology transfer and solution deployment/integration; track development of standards and software; and report on legislative and policy issues and many more.

Innovations in ICT have deeply permeated various applications and markets. These innovations have profound impact on a range of business functions for computing, communications, business intelligence, data processing, information security, workflow automation, quality of service (QoS) measurements, simulations, customer relationship management, knowledge management functions and many more.

Key Topics Covered:

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/x8spy9

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Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Blockchain, and Analytics, 2019: Advances in AI, Blockchain, and Business Intelligence -...

Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, IoT, and Analytics, 2019 Study – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, IoT, and Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This edition of IT, Computing and Communications (ITCC) TechVision Opportunity Engine (TOE) provides a snapshot of the emerging ICT led innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and advanced analytics. This issue focuses on the application of information and communication technologies in alleviating the challenges faced across industry sectors in areas such as retail, BFSI, manufacturing, supply chain and industrial sectors.

The Information & Communication Technology cluster provides global industry analysis, technology competitive analysis, and insights into game-changing technologies in the wireless communication and computing space. Innovations in ICT have deeply permeated various applications and markets. These innovations have profound impact on a range of business functions for computing, communications, business intelligence, data processing, information security, workflow automation, quality of service (QoS) measurements, simulations, customer relationship management, knowledge management functions and many more.

Key Topics Covered

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2v1ek7

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Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, IoT, and Analytics, 2019 Study - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence – Ethics Project Now Funded – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

How maythe moral integrity and agency of military personnel be preserved and enhanced when artificial intelligence is implemented in practices of war?

Congratulations to Greg Reichberg on funding from the SAMKUL project of the Research Council of Norway for a four-yearproject with th title: Warring with Machines:Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence and the Relevance of Virtue Ethics. The PRIO team also consists of Henrik Syse and Mareile Kaufmann, and in addition a full time PhD position.

Artificial intelligence plays an ever-expanding role in the context of war. This project aims to determine how the moral integrity and agency of military personnel may be preserved and enhanced when artificial intelligence is implemented in practices of war.

The project will pursue this goal from the perspective of virtue ethics, philosophy of action and mind, and applied military ethics, in close dialogue with institutional stakeholders as well as technologists and representatives from cognitive neuroscience. Its three main research questions are as follows:

The project is built up around a unique institutional collaboration between leading national and international research institutions within the fields of military ethics, the philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence research, as well as key military training institutions and technology manufacturers.

In addition to the PRIO team, the project will have the following externalmembers:

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Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence - Ethics Project Now Funded - Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

Tech experts agree its time to regulate artificial intelligence if only it were that simple – GeekWire

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

AI2 CEO Oren Etzioni spakes at the Technology Alliances AI Policy Matters Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)

Artificial intelligence is here, its just the beginning, and its time to start thinking about how to regulate it.

Those were the takeaways from the Technology Alliances AI Policy Matters Summit, a Seattle event that convened experts and government officials for a conversation about artificial intelligence. Many of those experts agreed that the government should start establishing guardrails to defend against malicious or negligent uses of artificial intelligence. But determining what shape those regulations should take is no easy feat.

Its not even clear what the difference is between AI and software, said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, on stage at the event. Where does something cease to be a software program and become an AI program? Google, is that an AI program? It uses a lot of AI in it. Or is Google software? How about Netflix recommendations? Should we regulate that? These are very tricky topics.

Regulations written now will also have to be nimble enough to keep up with the evolving technology, according to Heather Redman, co-founder of the venture capital firm, Flying Fish Ventures.

Weve got a 30-40 year technology arc here and were probably in year five, so we cant do a regulation that is going to fix it today, she said during the event. We have to make it better and go to the next level next year and the next level the year after that.

With those challenges in mind, Etzioni and Redman recommend regulations that are tied to specific use cases of artificial intelligence, rather than broad rules for the technology. Laws should be targeted to areas like AI-enabled weapons and autonomous vehicles, they said.

My suggestion was to identify particular applications and regulate those using existing regulatory regimes and agencies, Etzioni said. That both allows us to move faster and also be more targeted in our application of regulations, using a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer.

He believes the rules should include a mandatory kill switch on all AI programs and requirements that AI notify users when they are not interacting with a human. Etzioni also stressed the importance of humans taking responsibility for autonomous systems, though it isnt clear whether the manufacturer or user of the technology will be liable.

Lets say my car ran somebody over, he said. I shouldnt be able to say my dog ate my homework. Hey I didnt do it, it was my AI car. Its an autonomous vehicle. We have to take responsibility for our technology. We have to be liable for it.

Redman also sees the coming tide of A.I. regulation as a business opportunity for startups seeking to break into the industry. Her venture capital firm is inundated with startups pitching an A.I. and M.L. first approach but Redman said there are two other related fields, or stacks as she describes them, that companies should be exploring.

If you talk to somebody on Wall Street, they dont care what tech stack theyre running their trading on theyre looking at new evolutions in law and policy as big opportunities to build new businesses or things that will kill existing businesses, she said.

From a startup perspective, if youre not thinking about the law and policy stack as much as youre thinking about the tech stack, youre making a mistake, Redman added.

But progress toward a regulatory framework has been slow at the local and federal level. In the last legislative session, Washington state almost became one of the first to regulate facial recognition, the controversial technology that is pushing the artificial intelligence debate forward. But the bill died in the state House. Lawmakers plan to introduce data privacy and facial recognition bills again next session.

Redman said shes disappointed Washington state wasnt a first-mover on AI regulation because the company is home to two of the tech giants consumers trust most with their data: Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon is in the political hot seat along with many of its tech industry peers but the Seattle tech giant has not been implicated in the types of data privacy scandals plaguing Facebook.

We are the home of trusted tech, Redman said, and we need to lead on the regulatory frameworks for tech.

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Tech experts agree its time to regulate artificial intelligence if only it were that simple - GeekWire

Artificial Intelligence might be a factor behind the Climate Change – Digital Information World

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Artificial Intelligence is being accused of fueling inequality and climate change as revealed by a new report.

Recently, a paper was published by the AI Now Institute with a title AI Now 2019 Report and it is highlighting the societal impacts of artificial intelligence and is also putting in front some recommendations for the tech industry and policymakers.

The artificial intelligence is being controlled by the people who already have power and is promoting inequality, and disempowering people who lack power.

According to the claims by AI Now, the artificial intelligence industry is promoting the mistreatment and discrimination of workers as the tech companies are moving more towards facial recognition technologies and ignoring the facts that these energy-running A.I. systems are the reason behind the increase of carbon dioxide in the environment.

According to the co-founder of AI Now Kate Crawford, her organization is concerned about the effects of the recognition technology that is promoting to determine the personality or emotional state of a person via their facial expression and this type of technology is being used by vet job applicants, to track students and to gather data on the emotional states of shoppers inside the stores. So the organization is asking for a ban on this technology before it can be used in furthermore critical decisions like hiring.

In this report AI NOW 2019, the researchers also recommend Senator Bernie Sanders to make a ban on police facial recognition as a part of his presidential campaign to help stop the misuse before its too late.

Another major concern raised via this report is the impact of power-hungry artificial intelligence programs on the environment and AI Now also displayed a report of a group of University of Massachusetts, Amherst which determined that the energy consumed by A.I. training model produced 600,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and due to this reason the only solution provided by the researchers of AI was to put completely end the usages of carbon dioxide emitting technology to stop the increase of climate change.

This report also highlights the issue of Biometric Information Privacy as it can be used to track a person easily so the recommendations also include the enabling of the Biometric Information Privacy act so that legal action can be taken against the collection of biometric information by a person or company without consent.

Another issue raised in this report was the lack of diversity in the tech industry, as the tech industry is slowly squeezing out the involvement of human employees which means the tech works cant speak about the ethical concerns regarding their work to A.I. enabled systems as most of the department decisions are now being down by the A.I. enabled systems which are inaccessible to the workers and the public.

According to the report, three municipalities in the United States have already banned the use of facial recognition from the government and the San Francisco, Oakland, and Somerville, Massachusetts have stalled its use so far.

KENGKAT via Getty Images

Read next: The Emerging Jobs to look out for in 2020 According to LinkedIn

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Artificial Intelligence might be a factor behind the Climate Change - Digital Information World

Innovations in Radar-on-Chip, Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Systems, Artificial Intelligence, and In-vehicle Sensing Solutions, 2019 Study -…

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

The "Innovations in Radar-on-Chip, Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Systems, Artificial Intelligence, and In-vehicle Sensing Solutions" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This Mobility TechVision Opportunity Engine (TOE) profiles advancements in radar-on chip, electric vehicle charging, AI chipsets, 5G communication, wearables, in-vehicle sensing and LiDAR solutions, autonomous vehicles, connected vehicles, and cybersecurity.

The purpose of the Mobility Technology TOE is to raise awareness of global technology innovations in self-propelled ground-based mobile platforms that are not only technically significant but potentially offering commercial value. Each monthly TOE provides subscribers valuable descriptions and analyses of 10 noteworthy innovations. The main focus is on highway-licensed motor vehicles (light, medium and heavy).

Passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, scooters and railway locomotives are within the product scope, energized by any fuel. Many of the innovations concern powertrains (internal combustion engines, turbines, battery electrics, fuel cell electrics, hybrid-electrics), as well as drivetrains (including transmissions), interiors seating and displays, advanced materials as for body/chassis, wireless connectivity, and self-driving technology that is currently receiving so much attention. The A&T TOE outlines and evaluates each innovation, notes which organizations and developers are involved, projects the likely timing for commercialization, furnishes a patent analysis and provides valuable strategic insights for industry stakeholders.

The Advanced Manufacturing and Automation (AMA) Cluster covers technologies that enable clean, lean and flexible manufacturing and industrial automation. Technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) printing, wireless sensors and networks, information and communication technology, multi-material joining, composites manufacturing, digital manufacturing, micro- and nano-manufacturing, lasers, advanced software, and printing techniques, are covered as part of this cluster.

The technologies covered here impact a wide range of industries, such as the impact semiconductor, automotive and transportation, aerospace and defense, industrial, healthcare, logistics, and electronics industries.

Key Topics Covered:

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/61q6cl

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191218005386/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

Innovations in Radar-on-Chip, Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Systems, Artificial Intelligence, and In-vehicle Sensing Solutions, 2019 Study -...

Latest Innovations in Wound Care, Ophthalmic Devices, and Artificial Intelligence-enabled Diagnostics, 2019 Research Report – ResearchAndMarkets.com -…

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Innovations in Wound Care, Ophthalmic Devices, and Artificial Intelligence-enabled Diagnostics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The latest issue of Advanced MedTech TechVision Opportunity Engine (TOE) profiles some of the innovative technologies across the medical devices and imaging industry.

This issue of AMDT TOE profiles novel catheter devices, wound imaging and wound healing solutions, innovative diagnostic devices using artificial intelligence algorithms, an innovative drug delivery device, novel technologies such as CO2 laser radiation and photobiomodulation for treatment of ophthalmic conditions. This issue also profiles novel catheters and catheter securing device, innovative polymeric implant material, and a sinus dilation device that has obtained FDA approval.

The Advanced MedTech TOE analyzes and reports new and emerging technologies; advances in R&D, product development and regulatory matters specifically related to the areas of CT, MRI, NM, PET, ultrasound, X-ray, neurology, ophthalmology, respiratory/anesthesia, wound care and management, surgical tools and instrumentation, drug delivery, orthopedics, endoscopy, cardiology, and monitoring.

In addition, relevant developments in fusion technologies, functional imaging technology, interventional cardiology and image guided surgery and healthcare IT related areas such as PACS, medical information storage, and disaster recovery/business continuance will also be covered.

Medical devices and imaging technology and innovation research covers cutting-edge global developments in medical devices and imaging sectors such as biosensors, biomaterials, biomechanics, microtechnologies, nanotechnologies, assistive technologies, and imaging technologies and platforms.

Key Topics Covered

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/x4kqjw

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Latest Innovations in Wound Care, Ophthalmic Devices, and Artificial Intelligence-enabled Diagnostics, 2019 Research Report - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

Ume University: Master all areas of Artificial Intelligence – Study International News

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming work and life as we know it, already boosting workplace efficiency and leading to noticeable improvements to the quality of for instance healthcare, lowering costs while giving clinicians time to work with their patients more closely, and with more insight. This was made clear in arecent MIT Technology Review Insights surveyproduced in partnership with GE Healthcare, where more than 82 percent of healthcare business leaders said their AI deployments were showing positive results across operational and administrative activities,.

When analysing the impact AI would have on the global education sector, founders of theInstitute for Ethical AI in Education (IEAIED) said there wasno need to fear the technology. Rather than replace the human element in education, AI would augment teaching and learning, they said.

There are highly beneficial applications of machine learning inside the area of education. Artificial Intelligence may enable personalised learning, especially important for students with specialized needs and challenges. Awell-designed AI can be used to identify learners particular needs so that everyone especially the most vulnerable can receive targeted support.

With global education and healthcare being just two of many sectors that AI has advanced so far, and withhundreds more AI technology developmentson the horizon, such as autonomous vehicles, manufacturing and financial services to add to the list, the need for expertise in the field appears limitless!

Firmly supporting this need and accepting this challenge is theFaculty of Science and TechnologyatUme University, Sweden.

Currently open forautumn 2020 intake, their newMasters in Artificial Intelligenceis a postgraduate programme that enables you to develop broad and core competence in AI and equips you with the digital tools necessary for future career success.

Youll also experience a combination of lectures, seminars, group work, and tutorials in conjunction with different types of assignments and laboratory work to advance your AI education in a multidisciplinary manner.

It is of critical importance to study in a more multidisciplinary manner, where humanities and social sciences are combined with science and technology. AI can no longer be seen as a purely technical or computer science discipline. It is per definition interdisciplinary, says Ume Department of Computing Science Professor, Virginia Dignum.

One of the first professors recruited to Sweden as part of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) initiative and actively involved in several international initiatives on policy and strategy guidelines for AI research and applications, such as theEuropean Commission High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG), Dignum is one of the AI experts at Ume who are driving research and graduate success forward.

My position at Ume University makes it possible for me to look at societal, ethical and cultural consequences of AI. I will for instance be studying methods and tools to ensure that AI systems are formed not to violate human values and ethical principles, says Dignum, who also leads the research group Social and Ethical Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty.

Another integral member at the Faculty is Senior Lecturer Helena Lindgren.

Understanding the urgency of AI integration, Lindgren believes that the university needs to be driven to produce research that develops, educates and enhances the capabilities of AI in society, both in terms of system development and implementation.

One of the objectives at Ume is to raise societys AI competence, such as through continuing education and professional development of currently employed persons. Its very important for Sweden as a nation, as well as its companies and organisations, to be able to take the next step in digital development, says Lindgren.

Lindgren and Dignum reflect the high caliber of the 30-strong researchers at Ume University that are engaged in the development of AI in different areas.

To study here is to be under their expert guidance as you undertake courses that relate to human-AI interaction and complete student projects conducted in collaboration with an organisation addressing societal challenges.

In these projects, students are expected to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams and with representatives from industry and public organisations, adding a practical twist to the 2020 course.

In this English-taught Masters, you are also expected to take full responsibility for organising your tasks so that deadlines are met and collaborative work within student projects are manageable within office hours.

Despite being a new course, AI is not a new focus for Ume.

In the 1970s, Ume Professor Lars-Erik Janlert focused on Knowledge Representation, and in the early 1980s he formed the Swedish AI Society together with other Swedish researchers.

Since then, Ume has expanded its outreach into a variety of research and education activities across different departments and faculties and is now one of seven universities that are part of the governmental initiative AI Competence for Sweden.

Ume University

Continuously building its research efforts through its strong interdisciplinary traditions and close collaborations with society, AI@UmU initiatives have also established an expanding network of researchers, teachers, students and professionals who want to learn, discuss and collaborate around AI-related issues via seminars, panel discussions and courses.

Always welcome to discuss the latest tech revelations and AI advancements with their professors and visiting professionals, Ume students are motivated to unearth AI research angles of their own.

From day one of the new Masters programme, theyll deepen their insight into this exciting field and take their knowledge of AIs theoretical foundations, intelligent robotics, machine learning and data science further.

So, if youre ready to master all areas of AI and want to start your postgraduate study venture in Sweden, click here to find out about the application and eligibility process.

Follow Ume University on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Ume University: Preparing students for life after graduation

Ume University: Advancing Science through 5 strong research environments

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Ume University: Master all areas of Artificial Intelligence - Study International News

Artificial intelligence must be used with care – The Australian Financial Review

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

When AI goes into the machine learning space, it opens up a range of issues such as biases and privacy, she says. Boards have to be switched on to this and be able to ask the right questions.

According to Williams, a significant proportion of the challenges caused by AI usage within companies comes from the fact that the technology is far from transparent. Even the people who build it dont really know why it does what it does, she says. The board is critical. If it is successfulin understanding AI, developing strategies for it, and integrating it into mainstream business strategy, the payoff is huge.

Asked to nominate other technology-related issues occupying the minds board members, panel members pointed to a range including security and the ability to withstand cyber attacks.

Cyber security is really at the top of the list, says David Attenborough, managing director and chief executive at betting company Tabcorp. This is because any company is under permanent attack from different directions and you need to be protecting your customers, your networks and youremployees from those attacks.

The other major issue that keeps me awake at night is the resilience of networks because we have multiple systems supporting a massive retail network and a big digital network. On big days, such as the Melbourne Cup, if you have a system that goes down it is incredibly expensive and disruptiveand reputationally damaging.

David Attenborough, managing director and chief executive at betting company Tabcorp, says cyber security is top priority.Jesse Marlow

While information technology is a critical component for organisations of all sizes, the panellists also stressed that Australian businesses must be more than simply technology consumers.

To achieve long-term growth, it is vital to deploy new technologies to underpin sustained and far-reaching innovation.

The board wants too see a pipeline of ideas, says Stops. They want to know that the company is constantly thinking about new ways to do things and that the pipeline is constantly being filled and fed through.

She says innovation is not something that is unique to a particular group. Rather, it has to be a mindset and something that is in place right across an organisation.

The usual approach within a lot of companies has been to carve off a group and call it an innovation team, she says. Companies are now realising that this is not creating an innovation culture - its just putting some smart people in a corner.

Stops warns, however, that its important how innovation and new ideas are handled. Care needs to be taken that it doesnt get caught up in traditional multi layers of approval which can lead to a good idea dying before it can be fully developed.

The board should be keen to make sure there is a way in which those ideas can move through the organisation quite quickly, she says.

Also, there is a need to create a culture in which it is OK to fail. A lot of organisations spend money on innovation and new ideas and if they dont work people are shot and off they go. That is not what an innovation culture is all about.

Accountability is the key to ethical artificial intelligence, experts say – ComputerWeekly.com

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Artificial intelligence (AI) needs to be more accountable but ethical considerations are not keeping pace with the technologys rate of deployment, says a panel of experts.

This is partly due to the black box nature of AI, whereby its almost impossible to determine how or why an AI makes the decisions it does, as well as the complexities of creating an unbiased AI.

However, according to panelists at the Bristol Technology Showcase, transparency is not enough, with greater accountability being the key to solving many of the ethical issues surrounding AI.

Meaningful transparency doesnt simply follow from doing things like open sourcing the code, thats not sufficient, says Eamonn ONeill, professor of computer science at the University of Bath and director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Accountable, Responsible and Transparent AI.

Code and deep learning networks can be opaque however hard you try to open them to inspection. How does seeing a million lines of code help you understand what your smartphones mid-ware is doing? Probably not a lot.

ONeill says that AI needs to be accompanied by a chain of accountability that holds the systems human operator responsible for the decisions of the algorithm.

We dont go to a company and say I cant tell if youve cooked the books because I cant access the neurons of your accountants nobody cares about accountants neurons, and we shouldnt care about the internal workings of AI neural networks either, he said.

Instead, ONeill says we should be focusing on outcomes.

John Buyers, chair of the AI and Ethics panel and a partner at law firm Osborne Clark, points to the example of Mount Sanai Hospital using an AI system called Deep Patient, which was made to trawl through thousands of electronic health records.

Over the course of doing that, Deep Patient became very adept at diagnosing, among other things, adult schizophrenia, which human doctors simply couldnt do, he says. They dont know how the system got to that, but it was of demonstrable public benefit.

Zara Nanu, CEO of human resources technology company Gapsquare, says: When we talk about bias, its bias in terms of the existing data we have that machines are looking at, but also the bias in algorithms we then apply to the data.

She gives the example of Amazon, which gathered a team of data scientists to develop an algorithm that would help it identify top engineers from around the world, who could then be recruited by the company.

All was going well except the machines had learnt to exclude women from the candidate pool, so it was down-scoring people who had woman on their CV, and it was actually scoring higher people who had words like lead or manage, she says.

Amazon came under scrutiny and tried to look how they could make it fairer, but they had to scrap the programme because they couldnt hand-on-heart say the algorithm wouldnt end up discriminating against another group.

Therefore, while accountability does not remove potential bias in the first place, it did make Amazon, as the entity operating the AI system, responsible for the negative effects or consequences of that bias.

However, Chris Ford, a Smith and Williamson partner responsible for a $270m AI investment fund, says theres a critical deficit in the way many corporate entities are approaching the deployment of the technology.

MIT Sloan and Boston Consultancy Group produced an interesting paper earlier this year surveying 3,000 companies globally, most of them outside North America, he says.

What was eye catching was that of those who responded, about half of them said they can see no strategic risk in the deployment of AI platforms within their business, and I find that quite extraordinary.

Ford says this is partly due to a fear of missing out on the latest technological trends, but also because there is not enough emphasis on ethics in education related to AI.

He notes the example of Stuart Russells book,Artificial intelligence: A modern approach, which has been through numerous iterations and is one of the most popular course texts in the world.

That textbook in its most recent form is up to 1,100 pages, he says. Its extraordinarily comprehensive, but the section that deals with ethics is covered in the first 36 pages.

So theres an issue on emphasis here, both in respect to the academic training of data scientists but also what theyre expected to engage with in the commercial world when they leave education.

In terms of bias, the panelists also note that what is socially normal or acceptable is biased in itself.

The question then becomes whose societal norms are we talking about? We are already seeing significant differences and perspectives in the adoption of AI in different parts of the world, says Ford.

Buyers summarised that a lack of bias is not the introduction of objectivity, but the application of subjectivity in accordance with societal norms, so its incredibly difficult.

The overall argument is that AI, like humans, will always be biased to a point of view, meaning transparency will only go so far in solving the ethical issues around the deployment of AI.

Using AI in contrast to humans can facilitate transparency we can fully document the software engineering process, the data, the training, the system performance these measures can be used to support systematic inspection, and therefore transparency and regulation, but accountability and responsibility must stay with the humans, says ONeill.

The Bristol Technology Showcase was held in November 2019, and focused on the impact of emerging technologies on both businesses and wider society.

The impact of artificial intelligence in the banking sector & how AI is being used in 2020 – Business Insider India

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Discussions, articles, and reports about the AI opportunity across the financial services industry continue to proliferate amid considerable hype around the technology, and for good reason: The aggregate potential cost savings for banks from AI applications is estimated at $447 billion by 2023, with the front and middle office accounting for $416 billion of that total, per Autonomous Next research seen by Business Insider Intelligence.

Most banks (80%) are highly aware of the potential benefits presented by AI, per an OpenText survey of financial services professionals. In fact, many banks are planning to deploy solutions enabled by AI: 75% of respondents at banks with over $100 billion in assets say they're currently implementing AI strategies, compared with 46% at banks with less than $100 billion in assets, per a UBS Evidence Lab report seen by Business Insider Intelligence. Certain AI use cases have already gained prominence across banks' operations, with chatbots in the front office and anti-payments fraud in the middle office the most mature.

Banks can use AI to transform the customer experience by enabling frictionless, 24/7 customer interactions - but AI in banking applications isn't just limited to retail banking services. The back and middle offices of investment banking and all other financial services for that matter could also benefit from AI.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence identifies the most meaningful AI applications across banks' front and middle offices. We also discuss the winning AI strategies used by financial institutions so far, and provide recommendations for how banks can best approach an AI-enabled digital transformation.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Capital One, Citi, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Personetics, Quantexa, and U.S. Bank

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

In full, the report:

Interested in getting the full report? Here are four ways to access it:

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The impact of artificial intelligence in the banking sector & how AI is being used in 2020 - Business Insider India

8 Tools: How To Think About Artificial Intelligence In The Music Industry – hypebot.com

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

As artificial intelligence continues to grow and develop, its presence is affecting more and more industries. In this piece, Becky Holton explores the impact AI is having on the music business, as well as looking at some of the AI-based tools at play on the music market today.

______________________________

These days, we can all artificial intelligence (AI) all around us. The main purpose of AI is to simulate mental tasks and one of the most important subsets of this technological advancement is machine learning. This is because it has a significant effect on all the other fields within AI.

As AI gets incorporated in different industries, the music industry has now begun using it. With the introduction of AI, the competitive sustainability of organizations and individuals in the music industry has increased. Lets find out more about AI in the music industry and a few tools that those in the industry are now using.

How AI affects the music industry

Most people arent used to thinking about AI as something universal and pervasive. But in reality, it already exists all around us and we use different kinds of AI technology in our daily lives. Many industries and businesses use some form of AI technology from online shops,essay writer services, scientific institutions, and more.

But what about the music industry?

As human beings, we are all naturally creative and the best of us express their creativity through music. While we have come this far without using AI to make music, does this mean that we dont need such technology for this industry?

When you think about the capacity of AI, the first question that comes to mind is if AI can play real music. With all the smart devices that we use, we already know the answer to this question. But even if these technologies can play music, does this mean that it can compose music too? If so, how will this affect the market of the music industry?

While AI can play music created by people or even play music on its own, right now, AI doesnt have the capacity to compose original music. However, the long-term vision of those who develop AI is for this technological advancement to have the ability to produce certain styles of music after we (humans) feed the right kind of data to it.

AI music enthusiasts and experts feel excited about this because it will allow them to collect valuable data. Also, it will let technicians to see exactly how music gets shaped. But right now, AI can only produce some variations of songs that already exist, not write original scores. Still, it can help producers and musicians improve their skills to produce better music.

The most significant developments

A lot of people still fear the rise of AI because they dont want computers to take over the work that humans do. But AI does offer a lot of benefits too. In the music industry, the most significant benefits of AI come from the following developments:

Audio improvements

Right now, one of the current roles of AI is in the finalization of music. This occurs when producers master or smooth out aspects of their song production process. In the music industry, experts develop AI technology to understand the cues smoothing professionals look for, then remove them automatically without the need for human interaction.

Songwriting and song development

Erica Samson who works as a creative writer for anessay writing service UKsays that songwriting is something that you need to practice thoroughly if you want to become a true artist. She adds that when it comes to AI taking over this aspect, theres a very low risk of this happening.

Instead, AI can provide professional musicians the several opportunities to come up with new, exciting songs. There are now some AI-music development startups that have made the creation of music more accessible.

This is great news for musicians who are just starting out too. Of course, while such technologies can aid in the process, humans still have to do most of the work, especially in terms of coming up with creative content.

AI tools for the music industry

Its true that AI is gradually becoming an essential part of the music industry. This is good news for some while others remain uncertain. If youre wondering what tools are out there for the musically inclined, here are some examples:

Playbeat

Playbeat utilizes AI technology to randomize grooves through the manipulation of volume, pitch, and other elements of music. All you have to do is load your music samples, tap/click the randomize button, and Playbeat gets to work. You also have the option to adjust parameters manually if you want to.

Aiva Technologies

Aiva Technologies focuses on creating music for movies, commercials, and video games. It has analyzed musical creations of several classical composers and has created its own variations of these.

Jukedeck

Jukedeck is a paid AI tool for individuals and businesses. The developers have put in a lot of work to teach this AI by feeding it with large amounts of audio files and data.

Rhythmiq

This is one of the more unique AI tools for the music industry. Rather than building its own beats from scratch, this tool depends on beats that you have already uploaded then creates its own variations.

Rhythmiq focuses on live performance. For instance, if you already have a playlist that you listen to while working, but you want to have a few variations to fill the silence and change your mood, then this may be the perfect tool for you.

Popgun

This Australian AI startup has its basis on deep learning technology. Unlike other AI tools, this one can predict the music you will play, provide accompaniment as you play, and even create its own improvisations.

The main instrument for this AI tool is an electronic keyboard that the developers had trained using electronic samples. But the developers also plan to collaborate with other musicians for Popgun to learn to play other instruments too.

Conclusion

While the mere idea of AI creating music might seem threatening for musicians and music producers, the truth is, AI can actually help them think more creatively. AI eliminates the more tedious aspects of music production so musicians can focus on more important things like unleashing their creativity.

AI is one of the best solutions for amateurs, too, since it can help them create better music without spending too much time or effort. At the end of the day, creativity remains to be something only humans have so we shouldnt feel worried about AI taking over.

Becky Holton is a journalist and a blogger. She is interested in education technologies and is always ready to support informative speaking. Follow her on Twitter.

8 Tools: How To Think About Artificial Intelligence In The Music Industry - hypebot.com

Freedom, Peace, and Justice: The Surprising Success of Sudan’s Glorious Revolution – Just Security

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

What a difference a year makes. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the first protests that would eventually topple the brutal dictatorship of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir. Marked by corruption and violence, Bashir ruled Sudan for 30 years after a 1989 military coup brought him to power. Following Bashirs ouster in April, demonstrators faced down the military and security services before securing a power-sharing agreement that will allow a transitional government to rule the country until democratic elections in 2022.

Such an outcome seemed nearly unthinkable only a year ago. And while there are well-founded concerns that the military and security services may yet try to revert the country to authoritarian rule, there is also room for optimism as the transitional government continues to forge a path towards a democratic and inclusive Sudan.

Sudans Path towards Democracy

On Dec. 19, 2018, protests began in the city of Atbara, where the removal of a subsidy tripled the price of bread and sparked public outrage. The protests quickly spread throughout the country as demonstrators shifted their focus to removing Bashir and his deeply corrupt government from power. In the capital Khartoum, demonstrators organized massive marches and began a peaceful sit-in near the military headquarters. The regime fought back through harassment and violence. But the demonstrators would not be deterred and the military and security apparatus that Bashir relied on for years decided that he had become a liability and removed him from power on April 11.

However, Bashirs removal alone did not satisfy the demonstrators, who remained in the streets and at the sit-in, refusing to disperse until the military relinquished power and agreed to civilian rule. This stalemate led to an increasingly tense standoff that culminated in a June 3 massacre, where military and security forces launched a concerted attack against peaceful protesters that killed more than 100 people and left many more injured. Even after this horrendous attack, which Human Rights Watch recently concluded amounted to war crimes, the demonstrators refused to cede power to these forces and again took to the streets in a huge protest on June 30.

Surprised by the resiliency of the demonstrators, and coupled with strong pressure from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and other countries, as well as the United Nations and the African Union, the military leadership relented, and on July 4 agreed to a power-sharing arrangement that created a transitional government to lead the country until democratic elections in 39 months. On Aug. 17, the transitional government put forth sweeping reform plans through a political agreement and Constitutional Declaration, which will help guide the countrys move towards democracy.

As incredible as these events were and as heartening as this transition towards democratic rule has been, much work remains before this transformation is complete. In addition to concerns that the military may reverse course and attempt to reestablish an authoritarian state, the Sudanese economy remains in crisis after decades of misrule and corruption. Economic conditions are unlikely to improve considerably until the United States removes Sudan from its State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) List. Inclusion on this list makes Sudan ineligible for debt relief from the World Bank and certain types of financing from the International Monetary Fund. It also stifles investment and economic development. Accordingly, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has made Sudans removal from the SST List his highest foreign policy objective and championed removal while visiting Washington earlier this month.

Welcome to Washington and about that List

Since Bashirs ouster, the United States has taken significant steps to support the civilian leadership and improve bilateral relations with Sudan. Most notably, on Dec. 4, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States and Sudan plan to exchange ambassadors for the first time in 23 years. This announcement occurred during Prime Minister Hamdoks visit to Washington in early December, where he met with David Hale, undersecretary for political affairs, and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Hamdok also participated in an event at the Atlantic Council where he outlined his vision for Sudans transition to a democratic country. Hamdoks visit was meaningful in and of itself, as it marked the first visit by a Sudanese head of state to Washington since 1985.

Sudan has been on the SST List since 1993 when the Clinton administration designated the country a state sponsor of terrorism. The transitional government has pressed for Sudans removal from the list, but the State Department has said only that it may remove Sudan and that the U.S.-Sudanese relationship is no longer an adversarial one. The Sudanese government clearly hoped for a more favorable outcome and a more definitive timeframe for its removal. On Nov. 15, U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor Nagy removed any doubt that SST delisting or sanctions removal was imminent. Nagy stated the Trump administration is not committed to lifting sanctions, but only that it hopes to do so provided the transitional government meets the administrations conditions. Nonetheless, Nagy noted the hardships that the sanctions are causing the Sudanese people. As things stand, there is no clear timeframe for this decision and Congress would need to approve the decision to remove Sudan. Sudan also faces U.S. sanctions from 1997 and 2007, although most of these were lifted in 2017 and 2018.

Given the previous regime and the ongoing transition, U.S. officials are right to be cautious before normalizing relations with Sudan. However, keeping Sudan on the SST List also carries risks and may undermine the countrys best chance at meaningful reform in decades. As the Atlantic Councils Cameron Hudson notes, while U.S. officials are correct to fear that the military will reassert itself and that Sudan will again become an authoritarian state, delaying the lifting of the remaining economic sanctions also risks turning this possibility into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hudson has argued for removing the remaining sanctions previously, concluding that without a democracy dividend, the lingering elements of the former regime will maintain power.

The economic difficulties within Sudan are hard to overstate and the longer the countrys economic crisis continues, the more likely that the Sudanese people will lose patience with the transitional government and the greater the risk that the remnants of the Bashir regime will feel emboldened to act. Several states, including France, Egypt, and Qatar, as well as the U.N. Secretary-General Antnio Guterres have pushed the U.S. to remove Sudan from the SST list. The African Union also urged the international community to lift all remaining sanctions on Sudan. Likewise, a wide array of Sudanese civil society members, human rights activists, academics, and professionals have urged the U.S. to remove Sudan from the SST list, arguing that the continued designation undermines the current government while also punishing it for the crimes of the Bashir regime.

Still, removing Sudan from the SST List will not provide an immediate fix to the economy, just as lifting the U.S. sanctions in 2017 did not transform the Sudanese economy overnight. However, it will help the reformists by allowing the country to pursue debt relief and regional trade and investment opportunities. It will also help the government address corruption. One particularly good idea is to convene a pledging conference to mobilize donors and investors and focus recovery efforts. Finally, removing the SST designation now does not mean that the United States could not reverse course and reapply the designation should conditions change to warrant this action. Likewise, a conditional lifting of the SST designation in return for an action that demonstrates the governments willingness to reform the military and security sector is also a possibility. In contrast, doing nothing and keeping these financial restrictions in place weakens the possibility of a democratic transition and strengthens the position of the military and security forces.

Bashir and the Armed Opposition

Another looming question is the fate of Bashir. After his ouster, Sudanese officials placed Bashir under house arrest before taking him to Kober prison, a maximum-security facility where he once sent his political opponents. On Dec. 14, Bashir received a two-year sentence for corruption stemming from the millions of dollars in various currencies found at his home during his arrest. Earlier last week, Bashir faced questioning for his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to power. He also faces charges for his role in the killing of demonstrators last May.

The much weightier issue is whether Bashir will stand trial for his role in the atrocities committed in Darfur. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Bashir for crimes against humanity in 2009 and genocide in 2010. During his rule, Bashir made a point of flouting the ICC, particularly by traveling to states that did not have a legal obligation to arrest him and sometimes to those that did. The Ministry of Justice has yet to decide whether to extradite Bashir to the ICC.

Public opinion remains somewhat mixed over whether the transitional government should extradite Bashir. The Forces for Freedom and Change Coalition that spearheaded the demonstrations leading to Bashirs ouster support his extradition. Unsurprisingly, former members of Bashirs National Congress Party (NCP) oppose it, while civil society tends to support extradition. Publicly, military officials have said that they oppose surrendering Bashir. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sovereign Council and the de facto leader of the military block of the transitional government opposes extradition and argues that a Sudanese court could try the ousted leader. However, many well-positioned military and security figures are implicated in some of the same crimes as Bashir, and may wish to see the autocrat removed from the country.

Such well-positioned figures include Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, who is by far the most controversial figure on the 11-person Sovereign Council representing the transitional government. Hemeti is also perhaps the most powerful (and feared) person in Sudan. He leads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and like Bashir is connected to numerous atrocities in Darfur. Many witnesses blame the June 3 massacre on the RSF and accuse the group of committing mass rapes during the attacks. The RSF is also involved in illegal gold mining and smuggling operations in Darfur, where Hemeti owns or controls several lucrative mines, and in selling weapons to armed groups in the Central African Republic, threatening a fragile peace process in that country. For civilian rule to take hold, Hamdok and the reformists must outmaneuver Hemeti by winning poplar support and stabilizing the economy.

A related question is what role the opposition groups that took up arms against the government will have in post-Bashir Sudan. The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), an umbrella organization composed of three of the four significant armed groups in Darfur, as well as the largest armed group in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (the Two Areas), formed a unified delegation to meet with the transitional government this month. These discussions resumed last Friday and followed an initial meeting in October. The power-sharing agreement gives the transitional government until February to conclude a peace agreement with these groups.

While mostly in-step with the civilian leadership of the transitional government, one important difference is the priority given to securing a formal peace agreement to the conflicts in Darfur and the Two Areas and the creation of a transitional parliament. In a November meeting with U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth, the SRF stated that a peace agreement should precede the formation of a transitional parliament, while the Forces for Freedom and Change announced that it will form a transitional parliament as soon as the Constitutional Declaration allows.

Bashirs extradition is also a sticking point. These armed groups insist on surrendering Bashir to the ICC, as SRF Spokesperson Osama Said stated that the prompt surrender of Bashir to the ICC is a red line that is not negotiable.

Legal Reform and the Gray Zone

In late November, the transitional government enacted two key legal reforms, dissolving the NCP and repealing public order laws used to oppress women. To date, these acts are the most significant accomplishment of the transitional government and provide reason for optimism for the countrys move towards democratic rule.

The dissolution of Bashirs party removed the entity that lent Bashir the support to loot the state over three decades of misrule. The law that disbanded the NCP allows the government to seize the partys assets and is part of a broader push to dismantle the architecture of the former regime. The law also bars those holding leadership positions within the NCP from participating in political activities for the next 10 years.

The repeal of odious public order laws is equally important. Under Bashirs rule, government officials employed public order laws to harass, intimidate, and oppress women. These sweeping laws allowed morality police to exercise control over nearly all aspects of womens lives and to deny women their basic human rights. Officials targeted women for how they dressed, where they went, and what they said. Punishments were intended not just to harm, but also to humiliate. Here, the most notable example is public flogging. Though employed only sporadically, this punishment remained a possibility and acted as a severe chilling effect on womens ability to enjoy fundamental freedoms. Providing a much-needed improvement to womens rights, this legal reform meets a key demand of the demonstrators.

On a recent trip to Sudan, Rebecca Hamilton wrote, One can dream of a Hollywood script: The people overthrow the dictator, every remnant of his regime disappears, and democracy takes hold overnight. But in the real world there is a prolonged period of navigating a gray zone. Thus far, the transitional government has successfully negotiated the challenges of this gray zone. Its most impressive accomplishments are the legal and political reforms that move the country closer to the inclusive democratic state that the demonstrators insisted upon. However, the transitional government remains fragile and perhaps more than anything else, the economic situation must improve to sustain the move towards democracy. And although not a panacea, removing Sudan from the SST list will provide an important win for the transitional government, both reassuring the Sudanese people of its ability to deliver results and allowing critical economic reforms to begin.

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Freedom, Peace, and Justice: The Surprising Success of Sudan's Glorious Revolution - Just Security

Chinese University Drops ‘Freedom of Thought’ From Charter – Inside Higher Ed

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

A leading Chinese university deleted the phrase freedom of thought from its charter and added a clause pledging allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party, The Washington Post reported.

The changes to Fudan Universitys charter come amid a widespread crackdown on freedoms of expression in China. Some students and graduates protested the changes.

The former version of Fudan's charter asserts that the educational philosophy of the university is academic independence and freedom of thought as extolled in the university anthem.

The revised version states, The university upholds the motto of Rich in Knowledge and Tenacious of Purpose; Inquiring with Earnestness and Reflecting with Self-practice. We promote the spirit of unity, service and sacrifice, practice earnestly patriotic dedication, academic independence, pursuit of excellence.

Another section of the revised charter states that Fudan adheres to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and will fully implement the party's educational policy.

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Chinese University Drops 'Freedom of Thought' From Charter - Inside Higher Ed

The Gift of Fire: The Purpose of Capital as Freedom – Nonprofit Quarterly

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Pixabay.

This is an excerpted chapter fromThe Purpose of Capital: Elements of Impact, Financial Flows and Natural Being.

What professors mean by the phrase highest and best use is that dierent types of capital seek dierent levels of nancial return in exchange for various levels of assumed risk and liquidity lock ups. Capitals highest and best use is to seek that combination of highest nancial return and lowest assumption of risk possible to optimize nancial returns. The thinking is that xed incomedebt, bonds and various forms of lending secured by an underlying asset and rst position in the event of bankruptcyare understood to generate levels of lower nancial gain in exchange for lower levels of assumed risk exposure. Equities (public or private) carry greater risk and therefore will seekand deservehigher nancial return in exchange for that increased risk exposure. In creating a portfolio of investments, one deploys a certain amount of capital into various types of investment instruments across an array of asset classes to achieve the overall returns a portfolio needs to reach the investors goals, some investors being more or less risk averse than others in their pursuit of total nancial returns for any given portfolio.

All of itthe notion of capital, the metrics by which we divide and track the performance of that capital, and the measures by which we assess its volatility, risk, and nancial returnsis merely a conceptual framework upon which one set of actors has come to agree and with which we all must nally come to terms. In dening parameters of nancial performance, we state capital seeks its highest and best use and in that way are asked to embrace a nancial faith that believes capital itself to be neutral; it is viewed as assuming no moral, social or other character. Capital is considered as existing within some Swiss neutrality until being released in pursuit of its own highest and best use as dened by the asset owner or asset owner in collaboration with an advisor, but it does so outside of any consideration or assessment of social, ethical or probative value.

Folks in mainstream nance take this point very seriously. As previously discussed, I recall one conversation with a good colleague of mine who became downright incensed when I stated the run up in the public markets over the months since Trumps inauguration to be immoral since it represented investors greed in anticipating a President who would roll back taxes, environmental protections, and pretty much everything else save defense spending. My friend became as emotional as Id ever seen him, exclaiming, Markets are amoral.They merely exist; they just are.

Within this frame, capital is viewed as a vehicle, or again, more accurately, a transparent social construct weve created as a proxy for a reality we have built in our world; a fact based upon materialism expressed in economic terms to the exclusion of social or environmental considerations. As described elsewhere in this document, it is a reality understood to be rational, quantitative and objective, while review of social and ecological aspects of our world have traditionally been interpreted as subjective, qualitative and eetingand therefore existing outside a logical framework of economics and nancein some ways, outside of reason itself. (Give up nancial return for greater equity and justice? Why, thats just crazy!! Who would leave money on the table for someone else to benet?? Who would do that??)

We have the hidden potential to invest in good or badbut at any one time, we and what we come in contact with is empty and neutral regarding whether or not the object under observation becomes good or bad. One could say, therefore, at risk of sounding like an NRA commercial, capital is viewed as neutralit is a tool, a vehicle through which we may pursue something or bring something about. Its relative quality, its essence, comes not from what it is but rather what it becomes as a result of our putting it into motion, our releasing its energy upon the world. Accordingly, our ad would be along the lines of: Capital Investing doesnt kill peoplepeople kill people!or something like that?!

As has been said, it is not money that is evil, but rather the love of money. It is how we manage, deploy and utilize capital in the world that it manifests as good or bad or degrees in between. However, I would argue capital markets, in reecting the character of those within them, do also assume that character (and therefore, if humanity is greedy, then capital markets are greedyif immoral, they are then to my mind, immoral). The irony in all this is that of the well known phrase, Markets function in response to one of two things: fear and greed. Well, if that is true are not these both examples of human, social emotions? But for now lets accept the premise that markets simply reect the values and practices of those within them and move on to the next part of our discussion, that of the social foundations of capital.

It is within a conceptual framework, inside this intellectual boundary set of what we take for a collective reality, that we dene what is true for us, in this timethat capital and by extension capital markets reect the purpose were driving toward and how we will understand whether we have achieved that purpose. And we as a society recognize the use of capital as author and environmentalist Jerry Mander presents it:

Our society is characterized by an inability to leave anything in nature alone. Every piece of land, every creature, every mineral in the oceans, every growing plant, every mountain, every inch of desert is examined for its potential contribution to commercial development and exploitation, and to the expansion of technological society. Even the essential building blocks of naturethe atom, the proton, the electronare subject to commercial scrutiny. Where science can intervene, science does so; corporations then package the process and sell it.1

Many asset owners accept without question nancial performance, that which we seek to do with our wealth, as its fundamental purpose, as simply a question of preserving and generating greater amounts of itself. The purpose of capital is to grow exponentially over time and increase its value in the form of nancial wealth. To win is to generate more wealth whereas to lose is to reduce the amount of capital under our immediate control. We fear nothing more than societys cold description of our selves or our progeny as having trod the well-worn path from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in but three generations, as the saying goes. The only measure of not only our capital but also our performance is the amount with which we began versus that with which we conclude our journey at lifes end or the greater overall economic value we generate in the course of a life. The purpose of money is to be applied to its preservation and growth; any other outcome is a shame and a disgraced result of our entrepreneurial inabilities or duciary failures. Within this mindset, the purpose of capital is to make more capital.

By extension, many impact investors, with their commitment to doing well and good, enter the arena of capital considerations with the understanding their investments must rst and foremost generate market rate, risk adjusted nancial returns, together with the creation of social and environmental value. Some embrace this goal to convince traditional, mainstream investors focused solely upon nancial performance that the pursuit of social value does not have to be at the expense of nancial return, because as just stated, to end with less capital than one started with is assumed to be failure. Others embrace this notion of doing well as a possible way of preventing the potential loss of their capital, viewing consideration of impact factors as a form of risk mitigation. These asset owners do not want to be the ones who lost the family fortune on their watch or may not trust their capacity to create other forms of value in the world and so hold fast to this notion of nancial return as the sole measure of their worldly worth or goal as duciary.

That said, one must still ask what the highest and best use of capital indeed isits ultimate purpose and not that measured by nancial performance alone. If one does believe capital to be merely a value-neutral demonstration of nancial performance within an exclusively economic framework, then our inquiry should conclude and be done. With the pride of the Chicago School, Milton Friedman (and perhaps, Friedrich Hayek) beaming down upon them, the current and historic practices of asset owners, mainstream nancial advisors, fund managers and investment institutions may be celebrated and armed, whilst any notion of social value as commensurate with monetary value rightly turned aside and, having been briey considered, now placed in a wholly subordinate position to the goal of maximizing nancial returns to asset owners of all stripe and nature.

However, if one accepts the idea that capital is itself a neutral substance, void of moral or social considerations, and if we take as valid the idea that capital only assumes the measure of social attention we are willing to assign it, then the phrase the asset owner is the market is, in fact, correct and each investor is free to dene the character, nancial terms and any other parameters of capital as she sees t. The mainstream, institutional, Wall Street and Chicago School denitions are merely thatthe descriptions of institutional and social lemmings driven to the edge by warped crowd wisdom, seeking to organize themselves to squelch consideration of social or environmental factors and squeeze such notions right out of any nancial deal. But if capital is neutral, we must embrace an understanding of the purpose of wealth as being whatever we see t to assign it, with us each free to rene our denitions, boundaries, and parameters as we like.

Each age is also then free to dene the purpose of capital, its highest and best use, as it prefers. And we must acknowledge it is in each age, culture, and nation, that such has been the case. The aberration rests not with the past, but the present for in the past the purpose of capital was in points of history and within certain communities broadly understood to be that of service to society, to family and, lastly, to self.

Notes:

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The Gift of Fire: The Purpose of Capital as Freedom - Nonprofit Quarterly

Fuel the Fight for Reason, Individualism and Freedom – New Ideal

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

In the Ayn Rand Institutes 2019 annual report, Onkar Ghate explains how ARI is uniquely positioned to succeed in the worldwide battle for individual freedom. Alone among pro-freedom institutions, Ghate observes, ARI understands that philosophy determines long-term trends in any culture. Thats why the Institutes activities, including New Ideal, are aimed at making a difference in the long game, by injecting the right philosophic ideals reason, individualism, capitalism into our civilizations lifeblood. Join us. You can support our work by becoming an ARI Member.

When the Ayn Rand Institute was established in 1985, its founders understood they were playing the long game. ARIs founding documents quote Rand herself: The present state of the world is not the proof of philosophys impotence, but the proof of philosophys power. It is philosophy that has brought men to this state [of cultural bankruptcy] it is only philosophy that can lead them out. (For the New Intellectual, 1961)

ARI is the only institution fighting for freedom in the world today that understands this fundamental truth.

To the extent the world has moved forward since the 18th century, it has done so by implementing, however imperfectly, the ideals of the Enlightenment: reason, science, individualism and a government limited by the principle of individual rights. To the extent the world has stagnated or retrogressed, it has done so because of the ascendency of opposite philosophic ideas: mysticism, dialectical logic and other pseudo-scientific approaches, collectivism/tribalism, and unlimited government given the power to sacrifice the property and lives of individuals, when doing so is said to be in the public interest.

Rand viewed her new philosophy, Objectivism, as putting the Enlightenments ideals for the first time on a fully rational, fully defensible foundation.

ARI exists to inject that philosophy into the lifeblood of civilization. The Institutes progress, accordingly, is not measured in days, but in decades. Perhaps the clearest sign of progress is that Rands ideas are following a trajectory similar to what J.B.S. Haldane outlined for the acceptance of radical ideas: first the idea is dismissed as worthless nonsense; then it is regarded as an interesting but perverse point of view; then it is regarded as true but unimportant; then it is said to have been everyones viewpoint all along. Arguably, we have moved into the second stage, as evidenced by the growing worldwide interest in Rands ideas, by how often her ideas are mentioned in the media and in ideological discussions, and by the growing difficulty of simply dismissing her ideas as nonsense.

This change over the last thirty-plus years is in large part due to ARIs activities: our essay contests, books to teachers program, educational talks, conferences and courses, media appearances, and published essays and books. We are trying to change peoples fundamental convictions and to normalize discussion of Rands radical ideas.

Our focus on the long-range dissemination of philosophic ideas does not mean there are no shorter-term successes. But it does mean that these successes are created through the impact we have on other individuals and organizations. For instance, one of ARIs long-standing, vital activities is educating individuals about Rands ideas and their application. Many of these individuals go on to do impactful work. We have helped train individuals who are now teaching and publishing at universities, are involved with legal think tanks like the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Institute for Justice, and the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, and have founded organizations like the Center for Industrial Progress and Higher Ground Education. We need thousands more individuals like these who are knowledgeable about Rands ideas and are working to apply them to forge a new culture.

Its an exciting journey, in which I hope you join us. If you already have, thank you for your support.

Become a member of the Ayn Rand Institute, starting at $10 per month, by December 31, and receive an invitation to an exclusive online Q&A session with New Ideal writers.

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Fuel the Fight for Reason, Individualism and Freedom - New Ideal

Leading Chinese university drops ‘freedom of thought’ from charter – Bangkok Post

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

SHANGHAI: Changes to the charter of one of China's top universities that dropped the phrase "freedom of thought" and added a pledge to follow the Communist Party's leadership have sparked heated debate and a rare act of student defiance.

The changes to the charter of Fudan University in Shanghai, considered one of China's more liberal institutions, came to light on Tuesday when the education ministry said it had approved alterations for three universities.

Within hours, the Fudan amendments were trending on the Weibo social media platform with one hashtag viewed more than a million times.

"If I may dare to ask those who initiated the amendment of the Fudan University charter, how do you expect our generation of Fudan people to face our ancestors," said one Weibo user.

But that post and many similar ones questioning the changes - in particular the removal of the phrase "freedom of thought" - were deleted by Wednesday afternoon, although the issue was being discussed in private WeChat groups.

Since Communist Party leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has tightened controls on the internet and civil society in a campaign that has seen increasing censorship and shrinking space for dissent, including on campuses.

Xi has also sought to boost the party's role and deepen its influence across society.

A video circulating on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon showed a group of Fudan University students singing their college anthem, which includes the phrase "freedom of thought", during their lunch break.

Students there confirmed to Reuters that the event had taken place.

Calls to Fudan University's press department on Wednesday to seek comment went unanswered. The Ministry of Education did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Late on Wednesday, the 114-year-old university posted a statement on social media saying the charter alterations had been made "in strict accordance with legal procedures".

It also noted, however, that the school would continue to have the same anthem. The song, composed in 1925, includes the phrase "academic independence and freedom of thought".

The party has kept an eagle eye on campuses to nip would-be dissent in the bud since university students led pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Universities in China have long operated without full academic independence. Curricula are bound by Communist Party diktats and political norms that render certain topics or positions off limits.

Still, some commentators on Weibo noted how the amendments pointed to an expansion of Communist Party control, with the revised charter saying that Fudan's "party committee is the core of the university" and would be responsible for setting its direction and making major decisions.

The new charter said the university would "weaponise the minds of teachers and students using Xi Jinpings socialism ideology with characteristics of China in the new era.

Fudan is ranked 109 globally in the Times Higher Education's 2020 World University Rankings.

The two other universities that made changes to their charters were Shaanxi Normal University and Nanjing University, according to documents published by the Ministry of Education, which showed that it had approved the changes on Dec 2

Their revised charters similarly included references to strengthening the leadership of the Communist Party at the universities.

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Leading Chinese university drops 'freedom of thought' from charter - Bangkok Post

Top Chinese Universities Amend Charters to Remove Reference to Freedom – Radio Free Asia

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Dozens of Chinese students staged a rare protest on a university campus in Shanghai after their school amended its charter to remove references to academic freedom and replaced them with a pledge of loyalty to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

At least three top Chinese universities have edited their charters since the beginning of December, with Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University removing references to "freedom of thought," prompting the daring clap-back on social media from students.

A video posted to Twitter showed a group of Fudan students singing the college song during a flashmob protest. The song includes a reference to freedom of thought.

China's ministry of education said Nanjing University and Shaanxi Normal University had also submitted amended versions of their charters to the ministry, which had approved all three.

Fudan ranks 109th in the Times Higher Education's 2020 World University Rankings, and the changes to its charter prompted millions of retweets and comments on social media platforms inside China.

The revised charter instead refers to "patriotic dedication," and states that the ruling Chinese Communist Party committee is "the core of the university," and will be responsible for setting its direction and making decisions.

The university will also "weaponize the minds of teachers and students through Xi Jinping's socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era," a reference to the president's personal brand of political ideology.

A reference to "independence" was deleted from the section on academic research.

Other universities will soon follow suit

Wu Qiang, former politics lecturer at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, said other universities will soon follow suit.

"This is going on across the country in batches: the constitutions of all the universities are being revised," Wu told RFA. "Since the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Party Congress ... universities are being turned into strongholds of political and ideological education."

The move comes after a number of Maoist students from top universities flocked to the southern city of Shenzhen to support workers at Jasic Technology in their bid to set up an independent labor union.

Dozens of students were detained and arrested, while some remain incommunicado to this day.

"This is systematic action being taken by the authorities to comprehensively strengthen ideological control over teachers and students," Wu said. "Any remaining liberalism among university teachers is being completely eliminated through institutional intervention."

"It was precious to see Fudan University students protest by singing the school song, persisting in that tradition of academic independence and freedom of thought, much like Peking University students participating in the labor movement," he said.

Since taking power in 2012, President Xi has launched an unprecedented set of ideological controls and boosted the institutions needed to enforce them.Student informants

Xi has repeatedly warned members of the political class not to go off message in public, and set up a nationwide monitoring agency to supervise and detain anyone remotely connected with the government, including civil servants, teachers and academics, journalists, and contractors.

The authorities are stepping up monitoring of staff and students at the country's higher education institutions through the use of personal data, surveillance cameras in classrooms, as well as via student informants. who are the ruling Chinese Communist Party's eyes and ears on the ground.

Student informants are continually being recruited at China's universities and typically report back to the authorities around once every two weeks, according to online documents.

In October 2018, Beijing appointed its own representative to head Peking University (Beida), one of the country's most prestigious schools.

The personnel changes to a position that is ranked similarly to a provincial governor in China's government and party hierarchy came after the university was dogged by a campaign from its own students to find out the truth behind a decade-old student suicide as part of the #MeToo movement.

Xi's approach stems from a 2013 article titled "Improving Ideological and Political Work Among Young Teachers in Colleges and Universities," and from his reiteration of the "Seven Taboos" that mustn't be discussed in public by servants of the state, including teachers.

The seven banned topics are: universal values of human rights and democratic, constitutional government; press freedom; civil society; citizens' rights; the historical mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party; the financial and political elite; and judicial independence.

Reported by Gao Feng and Wong Lok-to for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Top Chinese Universities Amend Charters to Remove Reference to Freedom - Radio Free Asia

POV: Trump’s Executive Order Aimed at Protecting Jews Will Have a Chilling Effect on Freedom of Speech at Colleges – BU Today

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

Most of us think of Judaism as a religion, rather than a race, color, or national origin. So here is the first thing about the Executive Order on Anti-Semitism President Trump signed on December 11 that has raised eyebrows: his order draws attention to anti-Semitism by making it a potential Title VI violation. Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance.

However, since the executive order concedes that Title VI does not cover discrimination based on religion, how can it serve the protection of Jews from anti-Semitic harassment?

It asserts that (d)iscrimination against Jews may give rise to a Title VI violation when the discrimination is based on an individuals race, color, or national origin. This means that Jews may claim a violation of their civil rights if they feel discriminated against on the basis of their (perceived) race, color, or national origin as Jews.

This all sounds strange when we consider that the worst excesses of anti-Semitism had to do with the definition of Judaism as race. At the same time, the executive order does nothing to protect Jews from religious discrimination, which does not fall under the protection of Title VI.

And thats the problem.

The introduction states that anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in the United States and around the world. Specifically, it claims that (a)nti-Semitic incidents have increased since 2013, and students, in particular, continue to face anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses. [In other words, the main thrust of this executive order is to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses across the United States.

Branding views that are critical of Israel as anti-Semitic and making these views actionable, as the Trump Executive Order on Anti-Semitism does, will have a chilling effect on the freedom of speech at schools, colleges, and university campuses that rely on federal financial assistance.

It is not immediately apparent what kind of speech is flagged by the policy statement. In order to make anti-Semitism actionable in the sense of this interpretation of Title VI protection, Section 2 of the order refers to the May 26, 2016, definition of anti-Semitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), signed by 32 of its member states, including the United States, which states, Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. This definition was adopted by the US Department of State and posted on its Office of International Religious Freedom website. According to that website, as a member of the IHRA, the US government encourages other countries to adopt the same standards.

In addition, the Office of International Religious Freedom and the Executive Order on Anti-Semitism also refer to a list of examples included in the May 2016 resolution that many perceive as troubling because they conflate anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews) with anti-Zionism (criticism to the State of Israel). Such examples include:

While the IHRA declaration and the State Department website include a statement to the effect that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic, the Executive Order on Anti-Semitism does not distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate criticism of Israel. Omitting this sentence from the policy directive opens the door to civil rights proceedings being triggered by entirely legitimate Israel-critical protests on campus. Furthermore, including Israel-critical campus protests in statistics of anti-Semitic incidents leads to a misreading of trends and likely exaggerates the threat against Jewish students.

As I pointed out in a recent opinion piece, we need to be careful when citing statistics. Hiding behind vague references to the rise of anti-Semitism are two potential fallacies. One fallacy hides behind the naturalistic imagery we use when speaking of social trends as waves and the like. Speaking of social movements as waves increases our sense of helplessness in the face of impersonal forces of violence. The other fallacy hides behind the conflation of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Anti-Semitism is hateful, whether you define Jews as a community of national origin or as a religious community. Criticism of Israel may be painful to Jews and friends of Israel, but it is not necessarily a form of anti-Semitism. It can be part of a legitimate struggle and advocacy for Palestinian rights and a form of protest against Israeli human rights abuses of the kind tracked by Israeli human rights organizations such as Btselem.

Opposition to the existence of a Jewish State is as old as the Jewish State. Some ultra-Orthodox and ultra-liberal Jews have opposed Jewish statehood, albeit for different reasons. Neturei Karta and the Satmar Hasidim oppose a secular Jewish state for religious reasons. In their understanding, only the Messiah, and hence G-d himself, can end the exile, return the Jews to the land of Israel, rebuild the temple, and bring about the kingdom of G-d. To these religious Jews, Zionism is rebelliousness against the divine edict of exile. Other Jews, devoted to various doctrines of internationalism or post-nationalism, believe that all nation states are evil. For them, Jewish statehood falls short of the ideals of Jewish ethics, and makes Jews and Judaism into stooges of capitalism and colonialism. Neither of these groups can be called anti-Semitic, simply because they subscribe to views critical of Jewish statehood even though both deny the right of Israel to exist.

The executive order was welcomed by many Jews and organizations combating the rising tide of anti-Semitic hate speech and violent incidents that target Jews simply for being Jews. Anti-Semitism is real and it is a danger to Jews, and of late, also to people who socialize with Jews, attend synagogue services on High Holidays, or simply shop in a kosher market. But the executive order neither combats white supremacism nor offers law enforcement a useful tool to fight bigotry in its many forms.

It merely instigates a new era of government interference in American campus life and policing of speech that feels like the beginning of a new McCarthyism. Liberal watchdogs see the measure as advancing the ongoing conservative crackdown on freedom of speech at universities and colleges under the guise of both side-ism. As reported by Erica L. Green for the New York Times, the brain behind the new executive order is the head of the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Kenneth L. Marcus. His intention, and that of the most vigorous supporters of the measure, is to create equivalence between anti-Zionism and anti-Judaism. The executive order provides legal backing to the Education Departments growing number of investigations of academic programs and campus free-speech policies triggered by complaints of discrimination or anti-Jewish bias. Palestinians and advocates of Palestinian rights fear that the measure aims to suppress advocacy and academic freedom. Prestigious Middle East Studies programs have already been scrutinized by the Education Department for anti-Christian bias. With the new executive order, it is now possible to threaten colleges and universities with withdrawal of federal funding if they are found to be critical of Israel.

A measure aimed to curtail freedom of speech on campus in the name of protecting the civil rights of a particular minority does not advance the protection of speech or the rights of all minorities to be free of harassment. It intimidates colleges and universities to the point of curtailing academic freedom and political rights of faculty and students who believe it is their right and responsibility to criticize the State of Israel. We need to fight anti-Semitism on and off campus, but we also need to protect freedom of inquiry and political speech on campus. This measure appears designed to do neither. Rather it seems designed to harass faculty and intimidate student activists by casting aspersions on contested political speech.

POV is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John ORourke at orourkej@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.

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POV: Trump's Executive Order Aimed at Protecting Jews Will Have a Chilling Effect on Freedom of Speech at Colleges - BU Today

Jeff Bezos Freedom’s Wings Award Highlights the Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards – PRNewswire

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Danzig

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Dec. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --John Travolta, the "Official Ambassador of Aviation," will host the 17th annual "Living Legends of Aviation Awards" on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California. The event honors those who have made significant contributions to aviation/aerospace.

The event will culminate with the presentation of the "Jeff Bezos Freedom's Wings Award," the most prestigious award in the aerospace industry. It honors the advancement of the principles of freedom. Like the Pulitzer or Booker Awards, the "Bezos Award" will grow in recognition and importance with each annual presentation. Blue Origin space exploration company founder, Jeff Bezos, or his designee will present the "Jeff Bezos Freedoms Wings Award" January 16, 2020 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

"The Legends are honored that Mr. Bezos joined our ranks last year, and we look forward to his recognizing this year's recipient," said Travolta.

The Legends will also induct seven new individuals into the ranks of the Living Legends of Aviation, highlighted by Capt. James Lovell, an astronaut with several historical firsts with his flights on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. Other Legends to be inducted include Larry Flynn, Sergei Sikorsky, Maj. General Patrick Brady, Rod Lewis, Craig Hosking and Bill Garvey.

The Legends will honor Kenny Dichter, founder of "Wheels Up," with the "Eren Ozmen Entrepreneur of the Year Award." The "Kenn Ricci Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur Award," will be presented to Dr. S. Harry Robertson, founder of Robertson Fuel Systems, inventor of the "Robbie Tanks" which has saved thousands of lives.

The Legends will highlight the accomplishments of Elling Halvorson, founder of Papillon Helicopters. The "Elling Halvorson Vertical Flight Hall of Fame Award" will be presented to Sergei Sikorsky. The "Wings of Help Award" will be presented to Thomas Schrade.

The "Living Legends of Aviation" was founded on December 17, 2003, exactly 100 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright took their first powered flight, with the purpose of celebrating aviation's second hundred years. The "Living Legends of Aviation" are remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation and aerospace; they include entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities who have become pilots. The Legends include 100 accomplished men and women from across the world among their ranks.

The "Living Legends of Aviation Awards" are produced by the Kiddie Hawk Air Academy, a 501-c-3 non-profit organization. Kiddie Hawk's mission is to educate children and spark their interest in aviation/aerospace. Please visit LivingLegendsOfAviation.org for more information.

SOURCE Kiddie Hawk Air Academy

https://www.livinglegendsofaviation.org

Jeff Bezos Freedom's Wings Award Highlights the Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards - PRNewswire

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