Daily Archives: July 12, 2017

It was billed as a battle of human intelligence versus artificial intelligence, man versus machine.

The machine won.

Just over a month ago, a Google computer program named AlphaGo competed against 19-year-old Chinese prodigy Ke Jie, the top-ranked player of what is believed to be the world's most sophisticated board game, Go. (According to Wikipedia, the number of possible moves in Go--a number estimated to be greater than the total count of atoms in the visible universe--vastly outweighs those in chess.)

Soon after losing the decisive second match in a series of three, Ke blamed his loss on the very element that separated him from his foe:

His emotions.

"I was very excited. I could feel my heart bumping," Ke told The New York Times in an interview. "Maybe because I was too excited I made some stupid moves.... Maybe that's the weakest part of human beings."

But this was just the beginning.

Fast forward one month later.

With some time to reflect, Ke Jie said the following in an interview (which was shared on Twitter by Demis Hassabis, founder and CEO of DeepMind, the company that developed AlphaGo):

"After my match against AlphaGo, I fundamentally reconsidered the game, and now I can see that this reflection has helped me greatly. I hope all Go players can contemplate AlphaGo's understanding of the game and style of thinking, all of which is deeply meaningful. Although I lost, I discovered that the possibilities of Go are immense and that the game has continued to progress. I hope that I too can continue to progress, that my golden era will persevere for a few more years, and that I will keep growing stronger."

Absolutely brilliant.

In a few short sentences, Ke demonstrated that what he felt was a weakness--the impact of emotion--was actually his greatest strength.

It's the hurt from losing that caused Ke to engage in self-reflection, caused him to find meaning in his loss. It's emotion that inspired him to pursue growth and progress.

I see this as a remarkable example of emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to make emotions work for you instead of against you. EI is about much more than identifying our natural abilities, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. It involves learning to understand, manage, and maximize all of those traits, so that you can:

When we develop emotional intelligence, failure isn't bad. It's just another learning opportunity. It's about cultivating a mindset of continuous growth, continuing the journey of self-improvement.

These are also very "human" elements.

I guess the machines didn't win after all.

See the original post:

Google's Artificial Intelligence Destroyed the World's Best Go Player. Then He Gave This Extraordinary Response - Inc.com

Artificial Intelligence or AI can create dynamic content. Lets apply best use cases to our work as storytellers.

At this years Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, for example, IBMs artificial intelligence platform, Watson, had a major editorial role -- analyzing and curating the best moments and data points from the matches, producing Cognitive Highlight videos, tagging relevant players and themes, and sharing the content with Wimbledons global fans.

Intel just announced a collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will bring VR, 360 replay technology, drones and AI to future Olympic experiences. In a recent press release Intel notes, The power to choose what they want to see and how they want to experience the Olympic Games will be in the hands of the fans.

In the context of development, future technology will change the way we interact with global communities. Researchers at Microsoft are experimenting with a new class of machine-learning software and tools to embed AI onto tiny intelligent devices. These edge devices dont depend on internet connectivity, reduce bandwidth constraints and computational complexity, and limit memory requirements yet maintain accuracy, speed, and security all of which can have a profound effect on the development landscape. Specific projects focus on small farmers in poor and developing countries, and on precision wind measurement and prediction.

Microsofts technology could help push the smarts to small cheap devices that can function in rural communities and places that are not connected to the cloud. These innovations could also make the Internet of Things devices cheaper, making it easier to deploy them in developing countries, according to a leading Microsoft researcher.

But the fact is, the non-western setting is currently the greatest challenge for AR/VR platforms. Wil Monte, founder and Director of Millipede, one of our SecondMuse collaborators says currently VR/AR platforms are completely hardware reliant, and being a new technology, often require a specification level that is cost-prohibitive to many.

Monte says labs like Microsoft pushing the processing capability of machine learning, while crunching the hardware requirements will mean that the implementation of the technologies will soon be much more feasible in a non-western or developing setting. He says development agencies should be empowered to push, optimise and democratise the technology so it has as many use cases as possible, therefore enabling storytellers to deploy much needed content to more people, in different settings.

"From our experience in Tonga, I learned that while the delivery of content via AR/VR is especially compelling, the infrastructure restraints means that we need to 'hack' the normal deployment and distribution strategies to enable the tech to have the furthest reach. With Millipede's lens applied, this would be immersive and game-based storytelling content, initially delivered on touch devices but also reinforced through a physical board or card game to enable as much participation in the story as possible, Monte says.

According to Ali Khoshgozaran, Co-founder and CEO of Tilofy, an AI-powered trend forecasting company based in Los Angeles, content creation is one of the most exciting segments where technology can work hand in hand with human creativity to apply more data-driven, factual and interactive context to a story. For example, at Tilofy, they automatically generate insights and context behind all their machine generated trend forecasts. When it comes to accessing knowledge and information, issues of digital divide, low literacy, low internet penetration rate and poor connectivity still affect hundreds of millions of people living in rural and underdeveloped communities all around the world, Khoshgozaran says.

This presents another great opportunity for technology to bridge the gap and bring the world closer. Microsoft use of AI in Skypes real-time translator service has allowed people from the furthest corners of the world to connect -- even without understanding each others native language -- using a cellphone or a landline. Similarly, Googles widely popular translate service has opened a wealth of content originally created in one language to many others. Due to its constant improvements in quality and number of languages covered, Google Translate might soon enhance or replace human-centric efforts like project Lingua by auto translating trending news at scale, Khoshgozaran says.

Furthermore, technologies like the Google Tango and Apple ARKit can provide new opportunities says Ali Fardinpour, Research Scientist in Learning and Assessment via Augmented/Virtual Reality at CingleVue International in Australia. The opportunity to bring iconic characters out of the literature and history and bring them to every kid's mobile phone or tablet and educate them on important issues and matters in life can be one of the benefits of Augmented Reality Storytelling.

Fardinpour says this kind of technology can substitute for the lack of mainstream media coverage or misleading coverage to educate kids and even adults on the current development projects, I am sure there are a lot of amazing young storytellers who would love the opportunity to create their own stories to tell to inspire their communities. And this is where AR/AI can play an important role.

A profound view of the future of storytellers comes from Tash Tan, Co-Founder of Sydney based Digital Company S1T2. Tan is leading one of our immersive storytelling projects in the South Pacific called LAUNCH Legends aimed at addressing issues of healthy eating and nutrition through the use of emerging, interactive technologies. As storytellers it is important to consider that perhaps we are one step closer to creating a truly dynamic story arch with Artificial intelligence. This means that stories won't be predetermined or pre-authored, or curated but instead they will be emerging and dynamically generated with every action or consequence, Tan says, If we can create a world that is intimate enough and subsequently immersive enough we can perhaps teach children through the best protagonist of all -- themselves.

A version of this story first appeared on the United Nations System Staff College blog earlier today.

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How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Storytelling - HuffPost

By Shari Trewin, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and Chair, Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS)

Are you looking forward to a future filled with smart cognitive systems? Does artificial intelligence sound too much like Big Brother? For many of us, these technologies promise more freedom, not less.

One of the distinctive features of cognitive systems is the ability to engage with us, and the world, in more human-like ways. Through advances in machine learning, cognitive systems are rapidly improving their ability to see, to hear, and to interact with humans using natural language and gesture. In the process, they also become more able to support people with disabilities and the growing aging population.

The World Health Organization estimates that 15 percent of the global population lives with some form of disability. By 2050, people aged 60 and older will account for 22 percent of the world's population, with age-related impairments likely to increase as a result.

I'm cautiously optimistic that by the time I need it, my car will be a trusted independent driver. Imagine the difference it will make for those who cannot drive to be able to accept any invitation, or any job offer, without being dependent on having a person or public transport to get them there. . Researchers and companies are also developing cognitive technologies for accessible public transportation. For example, IBM, the CTA (Consumer Technology Association) Foundation, and Local Motors are exploring applications of Watson technologies to developing the world's most accessible self-driving vehicle, able to adapt its communication and personalize the overall experience to suit each passengers unique needs. Such a vehicle could use sign language with deaf people; describe its location and surroundings to blind passengers; recognize and automatically adjust access and seating for those with mobility impairments; and ensure all passengers know where to disembark.

The ability to learn and generalize from examples is another important feature of cognitive technologies. For example, in my smart home, sensors backed by cognitive systems that can interpret their data will learn my normal activity and recognize falls or proactively alert my family or caregivers before a situation becomes an emergency, enabling me to live independently in my own home more safely. My stove will turn itself on when I put a pot on, and I'll tell it "cook this pasta al dente," then go off for a nap, knowing it will turn itself off and has learned the best way to wake me.

All of this may sound futuristic, but in the subfield of computer science known as accessibility research, machine learning and other artificial intelligence techniques are already being applied to tackle obstacles faced by people with disabilities and to support independent aging. For example, people with visual impairments are working with researchers on machine learning applications that will help them navigate efficiently through busy and complex environments, and even to run marathons. Cognitive technologies are being trained to recognize interesting sounds and provide alerts for those with hearing loss; to recognize items of interest in Google Street View images, such as curb cuts and bus stops; to recognize and produce sign language; and to generate text summaries of data, tailored to a specific reading level.

One of the most exciting areas is image analysis. Cognitive systems are learning to describe images for people with visual impairment. Currently, making images accessible to the visually impaired requires a sighted person to write a description of the image that can then be read aloud by a computer to people who can't see the original image. Despite well-established guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and legislation in many countries requiring alternative text descriptions for online images, they are still missing in many websites. Cognitive technology for image interpretation may, at last, offer a solution. Facebook is already rolling out an automatic description feature for images uploaded to its social network. It uses cognitive technologies to recognize characteristics of the picture and automatically generates basic but useful descriptions such as "three people, smiling, beach."

The possibilities for cognitive technology to support greater autonomy for people with disabilities are endless. We are beginning to see the emergence of solutions that people could only dream of a decade ago. Cognitive systems, coupled with sensors in our homes, in our cities and on our bodies will enhance our own ability to sense and interpret the world around us, and will communicate with us in whatever way we prefer.

The more that machines can sense and understand the world around us, the more they can help people with disabilities to overcome barriers, by bridging the gap between a person's abilities and the chaotic, messy, demanding world we live in. Big Brother may not be all bad after all.

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Artificial Intelligence Poised to Improve Lives of People With Disabilities - HuffPost