Monthly Archives: May 2017

On a February evening in 2011, Watsona supercomputer with artificial intelligence created by International Business Machines Corp.made history when it beat humans in a game of cognitive intelligence. And these werent just any humans. These were longtime Jeopardy champions, deemed among the most intelligent human contestants to ever grace the game show stage.

The Watson win was a major win for IBM IBM, -2.51% at the time, underscoring its transition to a new-age technology company with artificially-intelligent computers. It sent a clear message that IBM was no longer an aging legacy hardware company crippling under newer competition, but a bellwether of innovation yet to come in the realms of AI and big-data analytics.

Read also: Is hyperconvergence the next big thing in tech?

Today, technologies such as these underpin much of the technological development fueling the shift from mobile to the cloud. Evidence of Watson-like AI can be found in the digital assistants offered by companies like Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.66% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.36% , and in a wide range of cloud services.

IBM, however, has never managed to take advantage of the head start it seemed to have in AI. The companys multiyear turnaround continues to move at a snails pace, which has been off-putting to some very large investors, and despite a large PR campaign around Watson, has never broken out the revenue it receives from the initiative.

On Friday, shares of IBM fell 3% to $154.45 after billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced that his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.A, +0.18% sold about a third of its stake in IBM. It has unloaded 30 million shares so far in 2017, from the 81 million shares it held at the end of 2016.

I dont value IBM the same way that I did six years ago when I started buying, Buffett said.

Buffett bought more than $10 billion in IBM shares the year Watson won Jeopardy, and increased his stake a few more times in the years proceeding.

See also: 6 topics Warren Buffett cant avoid at Berkshires annual meeting

The Buffett blow followed a downgrade of IBMs credit rating by Moodys on Wednesday, which pointed to IBMs high level of investments in recent years to support its transformation. The spending spree has negatively impacted Big Blues profitability and cash flow for a longer-than-expected period of time, Moodys said.

IBM also announced weak quarterly earnings report on April 18. IBM reported profit and revenue declines, even as its newer software-as-a-service business saw revenue gains of 60%. The companys revenue slipped to its lowest level in 15 years.

A few analysts came to IBMs defense the day after those earnings hit, encouraging investors willing to wait through the transition to buy on the low. Stifel analyst David Grossman said the selloff provided an opportunistic entry point, but admitted that the transition was testing his patience.

The average rating on the stock is the equivalent to hold, while the average 12-month price target of $166.27 implies 7.5% upside from Friday afternoon trading prices. Shares of IBM have declined by 12% in the past three months, underperforming both the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.26% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.41% The Dow 30 has gained 4.5% over that time.

The lengthy transition juxtaposed against an influx of competition has investors and analysts on edge. Morningstar analyst Andrew Lang said the jury is still out on whether Watson and other strategic initiatives benefit IBMs long-term competitive position. The competitive environment is fierce, he said, particularly with cloud computing permeating throughout the IT landscape.

Dont miss: Watson moves to Silicon Valley as IBM looks to cash in on Jeopardy champ

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, pointed to Watson, Power AI, SoftLayer Bluemix and Quantum Computing as successes of the IBM transition, but said IBM seems to be having trouble attracting new customers, evidenced by its historically low sales.

IBM has many solid elements to their new business, he said, but the company needs to move quickly to exploit those capabilities.

In a note to clients Friday, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi reiterated a market-perform rating and $150 target on the stock, but said he believes shares are too expensive given significant secular pressures and uncertainties surrounding several aspects of IBMs turnaround.

It has been a rough few weeks for Big Blue, he said. The key question for investors is whether they should look to build positions now? Our simple answer: No.

Key Words: Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov talks about artificial intelligence, competing against IBMs Deep Blue and Putins grasp on Kremlin power

Link:

Watson won 'Jeopardy,' but IBM is not winning with artificial intelligence - MarketWatch

You can pick your Kentucky Derby horses based on names or jockey uniform colors, but you might want to listen to this for some betting advice.

Last year, a startup called Unanimous A.I.used a platform to predict the exact top four finishers the superfecta at the 2016 Derby. And this year, Unanimous A.I.s UNU platform has made its picks.

First, heres how it works, via Newsweek:

UNU uses a unique form of artificial intelligence called swarm intelligence that aims to amplify rather than replace human intelligence.

It works like this: a group of people login to an UNU online forum through their smartphones or computers. At the start of each session, all participants are simultaneously presented with a question and a set of possible answers.

Each participant has control of a graphical magnet that they can move around the screen to drag a puck to the answer they think is correct. The puck can only fall on one answer, and the group has 60 seconds to collectively agree on a decision that best suits them all.

The result for this year, from some thoroughbred experts using the system?

1. Classic Empire

2. McCraken

3. Irish War Cry

4. Always Dreaming

A $20 bet on last years A.I. picks would have won you $10,842, so you might want to listen to them again.

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This artificial intelligence platform's picks could win you so much money at the Kentucky Derby - For The Win

May 5, 2017 Microscopic landscape of various types of cellsincluding tumour cells (in red). Credit: University of Warwick

Cancer cells are to be detected and classified more efficiently and accurately, using ground-breaking artificial intelligence thanks to a new collaboration between the University of Warwick, Intel Corporation, the Alan Turing Institute and University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW).

Scientists at the University of Warwick's Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) Laboratoryled by Professor Nasir Rajpoot from the Department of Computer Scienceare creating a large, digital repository of a variety of tumour and immune cells found in thousands of human tissue samples, and are developing algorithms to recognize these cells automatically.

"We are very excited about working with Intel under the auspices of the strategic relationship between Intel and the Alan Turing Institute," said Professor Rajpoot, who is also an Honorary Scientist at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW).

"The collaboration will enable us to benefit from world-class computer science expertise at Intel with the aim of optimising our digital pathology image analysis software pipeline and deploying some of the latest cutting-edge technologies developed in our lab for computer-assisted diagnosis and grading of cancer."

The digital pathology imaging solution aims to enable pathologists to increase their accuracy and reliability in analysing cancerous tissue specimens over what can be achieved with existing methods.

"We have long known that important aspects of cellular pathology can be done faster with computers than by humans," said Professor David Snead, clinical lead for cellular pathology and director of the UHCW Centre of Excellence.

"With this collaboration, we finally see a pathway toward bringing this science into practice. The successful adoption of these tools will stimulate better organisation of services, gains in efficiency, and above all, better care for patients, especially those with cancer."

The initial work focuses on lung cancer. The University of Warwick and Intel are collaborating to improve a model for computers to recognize cellular distinctions associated with various grades and types of lung cancer by using artificial intelligence frameworks such as TensorFlow running on Intel Xeon processors.

UHCW is annotating the digital pathology images to help inform the model. The aim is to create a model that will eventually be useful in many types of cancercreating more objective results, lowering the risk of human errors, and aiding oncologists and patients in their selection of treatments.

The TIA lab at Warwick and the Pathology Department at the UHCW have established the UHCW Centre of Excellence for Digital Pathology and begun digitising their histopathology service.

This digital pathology imaging solution will be the next step in revolutionising traditional healthcare with computerised systems and could be placed in any pathology department, in any hospital.

The project has been launched in collaboration with Intel and the Alan Turing Institutethe latter being the UK's national centre for data science, founded in 2015 in a joint venture between the University of Warwick and other top UK universities.

"This project is an excellent example of data science's potential to underpin critical improvements in health and well-being, an area of great importance to the Alan Turing Institute," said Dr. Anthony Lee, the Strategic Programme Director at the Alan Turing Institute for the collaboration between the Institute and Intel.

Rick Cnossen, general manager of HIT-Imaging Analytics in Intel's Data Center Group, commented, "This project has massive potential benefit for cellular pathology, and Intel technologies are the foundation for enabling this transformation.

"We've seen what has happened over recent years with the digitisation of X-rays (PACS). The opportunity to transform the way pathology images are handled and analysed, building on experience with PACS and combining data with other sources, could be truly ground-breaking.

"This collaboration could not only improve service efficiency, but also open up new and exciting analytical techniques for more personalised precision care."

Explore further: New advances in cancer diagnosis

A University of Warwick computer scientist is working with technology that could revolutionise how some cancers are diagnosed.

US-based Intel announced a deal to buy an artificial intelligence startup as the computer chip colossus looks to broaden its role in data centers and the expanding internet of things.

Research by the University of Warwick, the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW), and Tangent Reprofiling Limited, has discovered that statin drugs interact with a gap junction protein called GJC3 ...

New research from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust could transform treatments and diagnosis for a common digestive condition which affects thousands of patients.

A serious problem in the Turing test for computer intelligence is exposed in a study published in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence.

Technology fan will.i.am, the frontman of The Black Eyed Peas, is teaming up with US computer chip giant Intel.

Burger King pulled a pretty juicy marketing stunt last month that drew plenty of attentionnot just to the Whopper, but also to the intrinsic vulnerabilities of a new type of voice-activated gadget.

There is something spooky about being able to see and talk to the pirate Blackbeard while one walks down a dark alley and then stepping right through him as he disappears into thin air. Such entertainment experiences are ...

The first solar plane aimed at reaching the stratosphere made an initial low-altitude test flight over Switzerland Friday.

More than 3 million people (three times previous estimates) are estimated to be actively using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, finds the first global cryptocurrency benchmarking study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative ...

A young man in a white t-shirt pulls on a dark blue denim trucker jacket, tucks his smartphone in an inside pocket and puts in-ear headphones in his right ear.

Community detection is an important tool for scientists studying networks. It provides descriptions of the large-scale network by dividing its nodes into related communities. To test community detection algorithms, researchers ...

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Cancer cells detected more accurately in hospital with artificial ... - Phys.Org

We don't have enough people to keep up."

"We have to go through miles of case law on this one."

"The paperwork is killing our productivity."

"We don't know because we can't track events like that."

Spend enough time in or around government agencies, and these are the kinds of pressures you're likely to hear about. How can governments overcome challenges like these that are both detail-oriented and labor-intensive? Increasingly, they could be turning to artificial intelligence (AI).

You might think of AI as futuristic, but it's already having a profound impact on government. Cognitive technologies can't replace the complex strategic planning and management required of public administrators. But we're entering an era of automated intelligence -- the computerization of tasks previously thought to require human judgment.

Here, as explored in a new Deloitte study, are five ways AI can help government agencies cut costs, free workers for critical tasks, and deliver better, faster services.

1: Overcoming resource constraints: From Facebook posts to sensor readings, we generate far too much data for humans to make sense of without help. Cognitive technologies can help to sift that data. Electronic document discovery, for example, can locate 95 percent of relevant documents in the discovery phase of legal cases, compared to about 50 percent for humans, and in a fraction of the time. And then there's NASA's Volcano Sensorweb, a network of space, terrestrial and airborne sensors that can trigger closer observation by human experts who can pinpoint and record just-in-time imagery of volcanoes and other cryospheric events. This is a major promise of AI: humans and computers combining their strengths.

2: Dramatically cutting paperwork: By pointing the way to new opportunities for automation, AI can help to significantly reduce administrative tasks, maximizing time for mission-focused work. One Colorado survey, for example, found child-welfare caseworkers spending 37.5 percent of their time on documentation and administration, versus just 9 percent on actual contact with children and their families. And at the federal level, our research indicates that simply documenting and recording information consumes a half-billion staff hours each year. "Bots" can automate all kinds of activities like these, from invoice processing to filling in forms, from data entry to writing budget-reporting documents. By freeing up all that time, we can create a more effective government, empowering employees to do the work that really matters: serving citizens in need.

3: Reducing backlogs: Backlogs and long wait times can be hugely frustrating to both citizens and government employees. At the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the backlog of patent applications topped half a million in 2015. Cognitive technologies can sift through data backlogs and perform end-to-end business processes on a massive scale while leaving difficult cases to human experts.

4: Improving prediction: Machine learning and natural-language processing can reveal patterns, enabling better predictive capabilities. By trial and error, computers learn how to learn, mining information to discover patterns in data that can help predict future events. When your email program flags a message as spam, or your credit card company warns you of a potentially fraudulent use of your card, machine learning is probably involved. In government, the Army is developing wearable monitors that use a machine-learning algorithm to determine wound seriousness, helping medics prioritize treatment. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy's self-learning weather and renewable forecasting technology uses machine learning, sensor information, cloud-motion physics derived from sky cameras, and satellite observations to improve solar forecasting accuracy by 30 percent.

5: Answering citizen queries: Giving citizens quick answers to important questions improves service while reducing costs and backlog. "Chatbots" can handle tasks such as password resets (which one North Carolina agency's IT help desk found made up more than 80 percent of its tickets), freeing staff for more complex tasks. On the U.S. Army website, an interactive virtual assistant does the work of 55 recruiters: It answers questions, checks qualifications and refers prospective recruits to human recruiters. The system uses machine learning to improve recognition and helpful responses, with an accuracy rate of over 94 percent.

As these examples illustrate, cognitive technologies eventually will fundamentally change how government works, and the changes will likely come much sooner than many think. Some traditional models assume limits on the tasks that information technology can execute. Increasingly, however, such assumptions will no longer apply. As cognitive technologies advance in power, government agencies will need to bring more creativity to workforce planning and work design. The most forward-leaning jurisdictions will see cognitive technologies as an opportunity to reimagine the nature of government work itself -- to make the most of complementary human and machine skills.

This article was originally published on Governing.

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5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Already Changing Government - Government Technology

By Swapnil Bhartiya, star Thought Leader, InfoWorld | May 5, 2017

Opinions expressed by ICN authors are their own.

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I am a heavy user of Raspberry Pis. Every year I build a massive musical lighting setup for Christmas using couple of Pis. During Halloween, I build Pi-poweredtalking skeletons, spooky pumpkins, and scary lights. Raspberry Pi powers the wireless controller for my open source 3D printer and my water foundation in the garden. I am using Pi to run a Retro gaming rig, and my next project includes a remote controlled car and a possible drone.

You get the point, I am a heavy user of Raspberry Pi and IoT.

There is one thing that I miss in all of these projects. I wish I was able to not only control them with voice, but also give them some intelligence so that they can make some logical decision. And when it comes to AI and machine learning, no other platform beats Googles machine learning and Google Assistant. Now I am closer to bringing those capabilities to my Pi devices.

Google has started a project called AIY Project, do-it-yourself artificial intelligence for Maker, to bring Google Assistant to Raspberry Pi powered projects. Google says that along with everything the Google Assistant already does, you can add your own question and answer pairs. Google has teamed up with the Raspberry Pi foundation to create a new hardware add-on for Raspberry Pi called the Voice Kit.

Voice Kit is a fully open source reference project that includes Voice Hardware Accessory on Top (HAT) which contains electronics components for audio capture and playback, connectors for the dual mic daughter board and speaker, GPIO pins to connect low-voltage components like micro-servos and sensors, and an optional barrel connector for dedicated power supply.

The kit is designed and tested with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Just like Google Cardboard, Voice Kit comes with a neat cardboard case.

Those who are more ambitious can also run Android Things on the Voice Kit, turning it into a fully functional prototype to build their own commercial IoT products.

Its amazing to see that people can now take advantage of Googles massive machine learning capabilities in their own home brew projects. I cant wait to get my hands on the kit so I can talk to my 3D printer and add smart features to my drone and RC cars.

It will be so incredible to say "printer, change filament," or "water the marigold pot" or "turn the Christmas lights on" and have these commands obeyed! I am overwhelmed with the possibilities because these are the devices that I built.

If you want the kit, Google is giving it away with the latest issues of MagPi magazine. If you dont want to subscribe to the magazine, you can sign-up for the waiting list to just get the hardware unit from Google. Barnes & Noble is also selling the kit in its stores.

This is the first kit from Google, and the company is working on many more such kits. I think a real IoT revolution is ahead of us. I am going to build some neat projects, are you building something?

This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network. Want to Join?

Swapnil Bhartiya is a journalist and writer who has been covering Linux & Open Source for 10 years.

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How to get Google's artificial intelligence on the Raspberry Pi - InfoWorld