Monthly Archives: June 2017

Artificial intelligence is being used in a variety of ways in the healthcare industry, and one area where it is proving to be an effective asset is cybersecurity. Healthcare CIOs and CISOs should recognize that AI has the ability to enhance technologys ability to identify malicious activity and attackers and to protect systems and data, healthcare cybersecurity experts said. And AI does so in different ways.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence can be used to augment and/or replace traditional signature-based protections, said Robert LaMagna-Reiter, senior director of information security at First National Technology Solutions, a managed IT services company that, among other things, advises on cybersecurity issues. One area is security information and event management alerting, or anti-virus solutions.

[Also:Barracuda unveils AI-driven tech to combat spear-phishing]

With the immense amount of data, security personnel cannot efficiently sift through every event or alert, whether legitimate or a false-positive machine learning and AI solve this problem by looking at behavior versus signatures, as well as taking into account multiple data points from a network, LaMagna-Reiter explained.

By acting on behavior and expected actions versus outdated or unknown signatures, the systems can take immediate actions on threats instead of alerting after the fact, he added.

Artificial intelligence also can assist with self-healing or self-correcting actions, LaMagna-Reiter said.

[Also:Healthcare AI poised for explosive growth, big cost savings]

For example, if an antivirus or next-generation firewall system incorporates AI or behavioral monitoring information, assets with abnormal behavior signs of infection, abnormal traffic, anomalies can automatically be placed in a quarantined group, removed from network access, he said. Additionally, AI can be used to take vulnerability scan results and exploit information to move assets to a safe-zone to prevent infection, or apply different security policies in an attempt to virtually patch devices before an official patch is released.

Further, if abnormal activity is observed, prior to any execution AI can wipe the activity and all preceding actions from a machine, LaMagna-Reiter explained. Essentially, every action is recorded and monitored for playback, if necessary, he said.

Cybersecurity is one of the most prominent use-cases for machine learning and artificial intelligence, said Viktor Kovrizhkin, a security expert at DataArt, which builds custom software for businesses.

The main niche for applying machine learning and complex AI systems in healthcare cybersecurity is reactive analysis and notification or escalation of potential problems, Kovrizhkin said. In combination with other infrastructure components, a machine learning-based approach may respond with actions to anticipate potential data leaks.

Making use of artificial intelligence is a progressive action, where a system constantly trains and identifies patterns of behavior and can discriminate between those considered normal and those that require attention or action, said Rafael Zubairov, a security expert at DataArt.

For this, the machine can use a variety of available data sources, such as network activity, errors or denial of access to data, log files, and many more, Zubairov said. Continuous interaction with a person and information gathering after deep analysis allow systems to self-improve and avoid future problems.

But successful use of artificial intelligence in healthcare requires a top-down approach that includes an executive in the know, LaMagna-Reiter said.

An organization must implement a defense-in-depth, multi-layer security program and have an executive-sponsored information security function in order to fully realize the benefits of implementing machine learning and AI, LaMagna-Reiter explained. Without those, machine learning and AI would be under-utilized tools that dont have the opportunity to take the security program to the next step. Machine learning and AI are not a silver bullet, or even a one-size-fits-all solution.

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Artificial intelligence is giving healthcare cybersecurity programs a boost - Healthcare IT News

Virtual Reality's New Look panel at the 2016 Thrival Innovation + Music Festival. Image courtesy of Ascender.

When the East Liberty-based incubator Ascender started thinking about how to approach their latest Thrival Innovation + Music Festival, they saw an opportunity to hone in on one important subject: artificial intelligence.

Thrival Innovation in the past has always been almost this intentional shotgun approach, covering as many different topics as we possibly could, and bringing together that intersection of people, says Ascender Program Director Kenny Chen. He adds that they chose artificial intelligence (AI) because it has become a primary area of interest, risk, opportunity, concern, or curiosity for a lot of people.

Titled Intelligence: Humans X Tech, the Innovation portion of Thrival, which will take place from September 27-28, offers programming at cultural spaces throughout Pittsburghs East End, including the Ace Hotel and Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, as well as Ascenders home base in Bakery Square. The two-day event will examine the fast-growing relationship between humans and technology.

The theme was inspired by Pittsburghs fast-growing reputation as a global leader in AI, machine learning and robotics, a standing bolstered by the presence of autonomous vehicle technology, companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon, and research at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Thrival Director Dan Law believes narrowing Innovations focus provides balance to a festival where the music portion has received far more attention.

The scale and scope of Thrival have come a long way, but weve noticed that Thrival Music became extremely high-profile extremely fast, he says. For the entire festival holistically to be successful, the two elements need to hold equal weight.

Thrival crowds gather for an event at Alloy 26. Image courtesy of Ascender.

He and Chen also see it as an opportunity to showcase Pittsburgh as a hub for AI, not just in terms of driving the technology, but in determining its impact. The approach ties in with Ascenders collaboration with the XPRIZE organization, which has explored the moral applications of AI. The relationship recently took Chen to theAI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, where he met with AI experts from around the world.

Wed really like to make Pittsburgh not just an AI robotics development hub, but also a center where AI ethics and the responsible development of these technologies are also happening, says Chen. We saw [Thrival] as an opportunity to bring together as many of the local, national and international players to speak on it so that the public can be more factually aware of whats actually going on in this space and make decisions about how best to both protect themselves from the risk, but also perhaps take part in some of the really exciting opportunities.

The speaking roster boastsWIRED founding editor and NewCo CEO John Battelle, Twitter brand strategistJoel Lunenfeld andGrammy Award-nominated DJ and producerSteve James. The growing list also includes representatives from Fortune 500 companies, global research universities and fast-rising startups from Silicon Valley and beyond.

Thrival Innovation concludes in Oakland with an event at the Carnegie Museum of Art, marking the first time Ascender has collaborated with the cultural institution.

We thought the museum of art would be a really fascinating place to take that deep dive into how technology is poised to affect our lives and civilization as a whole, says Chen.

The evening will feature more than a dozen technology and art exhibitsand coincides with a new installation by world-renowned digital simulation artist Ian Cheng, whose work will be on display at the museum from September 21-January 28. NEXtpittsburgh is a media sponsor of the event which will feature talks by experts on the complexities of AI.

It is an important juxtaposition when youre exploring AI right next to great sculptures of antiquity and dinosaur bones, says Law. It creates this really interesting contrast that I think will speak to people.

Passes for Thrival Innovation are on sale now. Options include $15 passes for evening programs, $45 single-day full-access passes, and $75 two-day all-access passes. A limited amount of VIP passes are also available for $150.

ascenderDan LawKenny ChenThrival Innovation + Music Festival

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Thrival Innovation Festival ups its game with national speakers and a focus on AI - NEXTpittsburgh

The future of the smartphone is rooted in advancements of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Through the wonders of AI, your phone will be able to track, interpret, and respond to patterns and trends that it recognizes as desirable or necessary. It will organize, match, and learn every single day about who you are and how you operate. It might sound alarming, but its reality for the 77 percent of Americans who own a smartphone.

Sometimes its hard to imagine how our phones could get any smarter, but companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google keep upping the ante. What enables them to do that is artificial intelligence, and more specifically, deep learning. Deep learning is a branch of AI that recognizes sensory patterns as they happen and its the reason image recognition, speech transcription, and translation have become more accurate.

Picture the human brain its a network made up of signals, sensors, and processing algorithms. AI chips, similarly to the brain, can digest massive data sets based on your usual habits, daily patterns, and past behaviors. They can retrieve supporting information from mobile apps, fitness trackers, digital watches, and even browsing history all to make predictions about what youll do next. Whats more, this analysis will be able to take place without internet connection. That is a revolutionary thought.

Another application for AI is augmented reality. Thats where digital effects provide an additional visual layer on top of your camera or captured image. You see this on Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest, where users apply creative effects to images and static or live videos. Pinning is another AI-backed tool that will allow users to attach digital objects to specific locations in the real world.

While many fear that machines are taking over the world, some pretty amazing things are happening in the meantime. For instance, AI is improving the emotional intelligence of customer support representatives, enhancing predictive algorithms for concierge services, and forcing car manufacturers to rethink who/what will be behind the wheel.

From your phone, youll start to see personal assistance like never before a device that understands your interests and tastes, emotions and moods, even prioritizing notifications. Your health app will scan your body, pull readings from phone sensors, and determine if anything is unbalanced. If it is, youll be notified immediately. Soon your phone will be able to detect precursors for illnesses such as dementia, Parkinsons or cardiovascular diseases. AI-based software makes that possible.

For businesspeople who are constantly multitasking, an improved AI phone can declutter your calendar, schedule your conference calls, even record and transcribe notes from a presentation. Itll boost battery life, increase storage space, and charge faster. Unless consumer spending on mobile phones and apps slows down which it wont expect to see these features rolled out in the near term.

The more data your phone collects, the more data it can make use of. When you download an application, youre agreeing to allow that company to use your data, within reason. AI becomes helpful here because it can learn how you use the service and when you share information. Instead of shooting off your data to a company server for harvesting, AI can analyze your data on-device, which keeps it personal and under your control.

Other ways AI is keeping things private is by crowdsourcing anonymized information of multiple consumers without knowing the individual user in a process known as differential privacy. This process still garners links, vocabulary, and emojis used it just doesnt associate a person with them.

Its important to remember that AI and machine learning is in its nascent stage. In the future, localized learning will privatize data while opening doors to anonymous mining, which in turn will expand its benefits. The most noticeable changes AI will bring are processing speed and efficiency letting us do things we already do, but faster and without subjecting our phone to multiple charges. In the end, the whole point of AI is to create a more personalized, user-friendly relationship with our smartphones. Based on the advancements in technology and the increased demand for smart applications, itll be a perfect match.

Tom Coughlin is an IEEE Senior Member and the president of Coughlin Associates, where he covers the storage industry.

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How AI will make smartphones much smarter - VentureBeat

The human brain is the most powerful supercomputer on Earth, and now researchers from the University of Southern California are taking inspiration from the structure of the human brain to make better artificial intelligence systems.

Artificial intelligence (or AI) is a system of computing that aims to mimic the power of the human brain.We have more than 100 trillion neurons, or electrically conducting cells in our brain, that give us the incredible computing power for which we are known.Computers can do things like multiply 134,341 by 989,999 really well, but they can't do things like recognize human faces or learn or change their understanding of the world.At least not yet, and that's the goal of AI:to devise a computer system that can learn, process images and otherwise be human-like.

Very good question! Part of this answer is:why not?AI istheholy grail for computerscientists who want to make a computer as powerful asthe human brain. Basically, they want to create a computer that doesn't need to be programmed with all the variables becauseit can learn them just like our brain does.

A six-foot-tall, 300-pound Valkyrie robot is seen at University of Massachusetts-Lowell's robotics center in Lowell, Mass. "Val," one of four sister robots built by NASA, could be the vanguard for the colonization of Mars by helping to set up a habitat for future human explorers. (Elise Amendola/Associated Press)

Another reason scientists are interested in AI is thatit could be used for things like surveillance and face recognition, and having computer systems that can learn new terrain or solve a new problem somewhat autonomously, which, in certain situations, could be very beneficial.

In order to fully mimic the power of our own cognitive capacity, we have to first understand how the brain works, which is a feat in and of itself.We have to re-engineer and re-envision the computer to be completely different from hardware to software and everything in between, and the reason we have to do this has to do with how our brains are powered.

"If we compare, for example, our brain to the super computers we have today,they run on megawatts, [which is] a huge amount of power that's equivalent to a few hundred households, while our brain only relies on water and sandwiches to function," saidartificial intelligence and computing expert Han Wang from the University of Southern California said."It consumes power that's equivalent to a light bulb."

So you see the incredible efficiency of millions of years of evolution on our brain means we have learned to work with limited resources and become so power-efficient that we can beat a supercomputer for complex processing without breaking the energy bank.

This is where the main difference between the brain and the computer lie.

"Our current computers, there's a very powerful corebut then you have a long queue of tasks [which]come in sequentially and are processed sequentially," Wang said. "While our brain, the computation of units, which are the neurons, are connected in highly parallel manner. It's this high level parallelism that has advantages in learning and recognition."

So it's the parallelism in the brain that allows us to use only what we need only when we need it, and to not waste energy on running background processes that we all know slow down our computing power.

It's this concept of running at low energy in parallel circuits. The key to this is to make computer circuits more complex in the messagesthey can send.

In a typical computer, we think that each node sends a one or a zero, and then there's a series of ones and zerosuntil a program is made.

In the brain, it's a very small circuit and they can send a onewhich means go, a zerowhich means no signal, and/ora two that says stop, or both a one and a twoat the same time.

Artificial intelligence could be beneficial in situations where robots need to make quick decisions, like how to maneuver unknown terrain. (Boston Dynamics)

In other words, our brains can send double the information in any given exchange compared to a computer, and that, coupled with smaller networks working in parallel, reduces the power strain.

What Wang and colleagues did was to create a system of wires that connect using tin selenite and black phosphate that can send, stop, go, do nothing, or do both signals, dependingon the voltage sent.

Nowthe plan is to re-engineer the computer from the ground up andbuild a computer that has the capacity for these low voltage decisions that aren't wired through these few cores that we see today, but instead with each circuit of messages working in parallel like the brain does.

Until recently, this was a theoretical concept because there was really no way to send as much information in a single transmission as we have now.

So, artificial intelligence is only a few incredible brilliant research careers away from a reality.

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Human brain structure inspires artificial intelligence - CBC.ca