Monthly Archives: July 2017

The Emergence of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in the Security Operations Center – Security Intelligence (blog)

Posted: July 3, 2017 at 8:16 am

Organizations are increasingly clustering their skills and capabilities into security operations centers (SOCs). An SOC is a focused facility where security specialists monitor, assess and defend against computer security issues. Introducing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology into this environment can enhance the teams performance.

An organization wishing to invest in an SOC typically has two options to accomplish this goal:

But with a global skills gap translating to an estimated 1.8 million unfilled cybersecurity positions by 2022, it is critical to find better ways to detect and identify threats and vulnerabilities. Reducing complexity, too, will allow an organizations security staff to be as effective as possible. SOCs help organizations, chief information security officers (CISOs) and their staffs to successfully analyze, defend and complete their cybersecurity missions. In their current model, however, these security facilities are costly, and difficult to set up and maintain.

SOCs need for a central geographic site presents a number of technical, logistical and operational challenges. The traditional SOC model also calls for substantial investments in hardware, physical footprint, visual isolation and technical configuration, among other things. For example, SOCs need numerous digital displays and sophisticated servers to facilitate the visualization of security monitoring and the gathering of data via security information and event management (SIEM) software.

VR and AR technologies can help solve some of the problems todays SOCs face, enabling organizations to rapidly mobilize and scale their centers without excessive monetary and resource investment.

Using VR as a platform for security staff allows them to take their SOC anywhere, untethering them from the fixed physical infrastructure and geographic location of a traditional center. Taking action from the virtual world by sending serverside requests from the VR user interface to limit services, run scans and develop systemwide alerts creates an end-to-end story for users where monitoring and control exist in the same virtual space.

In a VR environment, the frontline SOC level-one security analyst role can be performed with the appropriately scoped visual cues, without requiring a seasoned security professionals depth of knowledge. This allows organizations to adequately staff their SOCs in the face of significant employment competition and high global demand for cybersecurity roles. The addition of services, such as Watson for Cyber Security, further enhances this capability.

Undoubtedly, VR represents a paradigm shift in how monitoring solutions are designed, created and employed. VR has extraordinary benefits to an organizations SOC: It can help reduce costs associated with maintaining the SOC, enable the monitoring of more varied sources and facilitate the analysis of more endpoints. Additionally, the virtual environment can raise internal awareness among the day-to-day requirements of SOC operators, helping them to identify areas of investment for the ongoing maintenance of the defenders ecosystem.

With its visual impact, the VR experience offers a unique medium through which business-level stakeholders can be kept abreast of their organizations security ecosystem and posture, improving both their understanding and their ability to ask questions.

With the addition of augmented intelligence and interaction in the form of technologies like threat intelligence, the SOC operator can issue voice commands to interrogate specific network data without needing to exit their virtual environment. This immersive VR space enables security professionals to maximize their time spent observing network activity and mitigating potential threats, in turn providing greater context and consumable intelligence for the C-suite.

Visualization is central to understanding security ecosystem data and organizational key performance indicators, as well as to building internal awareness of an organizations security status in a top-down, consumable way.

An organization cannot react to a cyberthreat that is not manifested in the data nor one that is hidden in even more data or else is delayed. The Ponemon Institutes malware report suggested that the greatest barrier to remediating advanced threat attacks is a lack of visibility of threat activity across the enterprise.

Security analysts are drowning in data, and it is difficult for them to interpret this information when receiving so many security alerts many of them red on a daily basis. More dashboards and more displays are not the answer. But a VR solution can help effectively identify potential threats and vulnerabilities as they emerge for oversight by the blue (defensive) team.

Our cybersecurity team at IBM Ireland has recently developed a prototype VR solution integrating with the IBM QRadar SIEM product. We built this prototype with the Unity Technologies framework, a cross-platform game engine that can be used to create highly interactive three-dimensional spaces. In our implementation, the Unity framework was combined with the IBM QRadar SIEM application program interfaces (APIs) to transform the JavaScript Object Notation data feed from the application into the form of a 3-D galaxy inside a VR-capable device (Oculus Rift, for example).

This VR-integrated IBM QRadar app immerses the security professional (blue operator) in a virtual 3-D space featuring planets, stars, nebulae, comets and manmade structures. Each spatial visual element represents the various nodes of the operators IT ecosystem from the SIEM solution, including individual IPs, databases, public customer-facing endpoints, or any other facet of the network or service they may wish to monitor. Threats and warnings appear as solar flares, supernova and other visual cues, clearly alerting the observer to any potentially troublesome cybersecurity activity inside their infrastructure scope.

Through our experience in gamification for security education and cyber skill development, we observed the enormous value in using visual metaphors to explain complex issues. Based on this experience, we adopted a visual metaphor approach in our VR prototype.

The VR experience has the potential to further evolve into the AR space, where digital contexts and layers can be presented on top of the real-world SOC itself.

With AR, any operator at any level can superimpose views on the fly to augment the data presented, improving forecasting, analysis and decision-making. AR is also a prevalent emerging technology with significant advantages over the VR prototype we built. In the case of the SOC, AR could enable a personalized and customizable second virtual screen (or view) for each operator.

While the main drawback of a VR-powered SOC is that it pulls the security professional out of the familiar physical world and into a virtual environment, an AR solution allows the SOC operator to be in two worlds at once.

A well-thought-out, configured and deployed VR SIEM integration toolkit will become an asset for organizations creating or maintaining future SOCs. Although the prototype described above is a virtual solution, enterprise security products will, in time, integrate effectively with a complementary AR utility to facilitate greater engagement, interaction and success inside SOCs.

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RPT-Big pharma turns to AI to speed drug discovery, GSK signs deal – Reuters

Posted: at 8:16 am

(Repeats story first filed on Sunday)

* Machine learning deployed to find potential new drugs

* Aim to compress discovery process from 5.5 years to one

* $43 million GSK-Exscientia deal shows AI advancing

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, July 2 The world's leading drug companies are turning to artificial intelligence to improve the hit-and-miss business of finding new medicines, with GlaxoSmithKline unveiling a new $43 million deal in the field on Sunday.

Other pharmaceutical giants including Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi are also exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to help streamline the drug discovery process.

The aim is to harness modern supercomputers and machine learning systems to predict how molecules will behave and how likely they are to make a useful drug, thereby saving time and money on unnecessary tests.

AI systems already play a central role in other high-tech areas such as the development of driverless cars and facial recognition software.

"Many large pharma companies are starting to realise the potential of this approach and how it can help improve efficiencies," said Andrew Hopkins, chief executive of privately owned Exscientia, which announced the new tie-up with GSK.

Hopkins, who used to work at Pfizer, said Exscientia's AI system could deliver drug candidates in roughly one-quarter of the time and at one-quarter of the cost of traditional approaches.

The Scotland-based company, which also signed a deal with Sanofi in May, is one of a growing number of start-ups on both sides of the Atlantic that are applying AI to drug research. Others include U.S. firms Berg, Numerate, twoXAR and Atomwise, as well as Britain's BenevolentAI.

"In pharma's eyes these companies are essentially digital biotechs that they can strike partnerships with and which help feed the pipeline," said Nooman Haque, head of life sciences at Silicon Valley Bank in London.

"If this technology really proves itself, you may start to see M&A with pharma, and closer integration of these AI engines into pharma R&D."

STILL TO BE PROVEN

It is not the first time drugmakers have turned to high-tech solutions to boost R&D productivity.

The introduction of "high throughput screening", using robots to rapidly test millions of compounds, generated mountains of leads in the early 2000s but notably failed to solve inefficiencies in the research process.

When it comes to AI, big pharma is treading cautiously, in the knowledge that the technology has yet to demonstrate it can successfully bring a new molecule from computer screen to lab to clinic and finally to market.

"It's still to be proven, but we definitely think we should do the experiment," said John Baldoni, GSK's head of platform technology and science.

Baldoni is also ramping up in-house AI investment at the drugmaker by hiring some unexpected staff with appropriate computing and data handling experience - including astrophysicists.

His goal is to reduce the time it takes from identifying a target for disease intervention to finding a molecule that acts against it from an average 5.5 years today to just one year in future.

"That is a stretch. But as we've learnt more about what modern supercomputers can do, we've gained more confidence," Baldoni told Reuters. "We have an obligation to reduce the cost of drugs and reduce the time it takes to get medicines to patients."

Earlier this year GSK also entered a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and National Cancer Institute to accelerate pre-clinical drug development through use of advanced computational technologies.

The new deal with Exscientia will allow GSK to search for drug candidates for up to 10 disease-related targets. GSK will provide research funding and make payments of 33 million pounds ($43 million), if pre-clinical milestones are met. ($1 = 0.7682 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Adrian Croft/Keith Weir)

LONDON, July 3 European shares kicked off the new quarter with solid gains as talk of higher interest rates boosted banks, while the dollar rose from nine-month lows as U.S. Treasury yields hit their highest since mid-May.

BERLIN, July 3 Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives promised on Monday an end to unemployment, more police, new homes and increased support for families in their programme for September's national election, when she will seek a fourth term in office.

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AI will help us download meeting notes to our brains by 2030 – VentureBeat

Posted: at 8:16 am

The internet is overflowing with tips on how to hack your health. From increasing cognitive function by drinking butter-spiked coffee to tracking sleep, stress, and activity levels with increasingly sophisticated fitness wearables, ours is a culture obsessed with optimizing performance. Combining this ethos with recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, its practically inevitable that the next frontier in achieving superhuman status lies in the rapidly developing field of brain augmentation.

Artificial intelligence has already proven its value in making software more intuitive and user-friendly. From voice-activated personal assistants like Alexa and Siri to smarter app authentication through facial recognition technology, we have reached the point where people are starting to trust that the machines are here to improve our lives. The science fiction-based fear of bots taking over is being put to rest as consumers embrace the ease and enhanced security that AI brings to our daily lives. Now that artificial intelligence has nestled itself comfortably inside our smartphones, scientists are aiming higher with the next device hack: the human brain.

Visionary entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and Bryan Johnson, have teamed up with scientists around the world to make brain augmentation a reality sooner than you may have thought possible. Simply put, the goal is to enhance intelligence and repair damaged cognitive abilities through brain implants. Duke University senior researcher Mikhail Lebedev, who recently published a comprehensive collection of 150 brain augmentation research papers and articles, is confident that brain augmentation will be an everyday reality by 2030.

Lebedevs main focus of research is developing a device that can be fully implanted in the brain. Creating a power source and wireless communication system is a huge challenge, one that Elon Musk is also working on. Musk made headlines earlier this year with the launch of Neuralink, a company working on the development of what science fiction fans refer to as neural lace, or the merging of the human brain with software to optimize output of both biological and technological functioning. Musk hopes to offer a new treatment for severe brain traumas, including stroke and cancer lesions, in about four years.

With Neuralinkstill in its early stages, other Silicon Valley heavy hitters are eager to crack the code of brain augmentation. Braintree founder Bryan Johnson invested more than $100 million of personal funding to launch Kernel, a startup staffed by neuroscientists and engineers working to reverse the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons through the creation of a neuroprosthetic in the form of a tiny embeddable chip. Scientists admit that much more research into how neurons function and interact needs to happen before neural code can be written by computers, but the resources and attention garnered by some of todays brightest entrepreneurs are sure to accelerate the process.

While we wait for technology to advance to the level of creating a fully implantable brain enhancement device, the short-term breakthroughs we can expect to see from AI brain augmentation revolve around sensory augmentation.

Using electronic stimuli to trigger the brain into producing artificial sensations has huge potential to improve damaged cognitive functioning. Vision could be triggered in the blind, allowing them to experience sight for the first time. Sensory touch could be stimulated in paralysed limbs. And cognitive functions such as memory that tend to degenerate with age could be optimized.

The implications are even larger than repairing cognitive functioning, though. In 2013, Miguel Nicolelis, a neurobiologist at Duke University, successfully led an experiment demonstrating a direct communication linkage between brains in rats. This first successful brain-to-brain interface allowed rats to electronically share information on how to respond to stimuli and the implications for humans could be staggering. Encompassing the ability to share memories and information, such an alteration of our shared consciousness is a more far-flung but nevertheless attainable goal of AI. Imagine all the collective suffering in office conference rooms that could be eliminated if meetings could be directly downloaded to our brains!

The field of AI-based brain augmentation represents the biggest evolutionary step forward in human history. Creating technologies to augment and enhance human intelligence holds the promise of eliminating diseases and providing a higher quality of life through optimizing, well, everything. Just think: The smartphone was just a crazy idea until the iPhone hit the market 10 years ago. Now 44 percent of the worlds population owns a smartphone, with the ability to expand the devices computing powers exponentially by connecting to the cloud.

Famed futurist and Google executive Ray Kurzweil predicts that by the 2030s nanobots will enter our brains via capillaries, providing a fully immersive virtual reality that connects our neocortex to the cloud, expanding our brain power in much the same way that our smartphones tap into the cloud for outsized computing power.

If Kurzweils incredible track record of predicting emerging technologies is any indicator hes been right about 86 percent of his predictions since the early 90s then we can expect to add a whole new meaning to the phrase head in the clouds. Were living into an exciting age when what was once science fiction is becoming reality, and having our heads in the clouds will no longer mean being lost in daydreams but rather that were plugged into the enhanced intelligence of a superbrain.

Andrew DiCosmo is the CTO for Blackspoke, a company that specializes in IT consulting to the Federal Government.

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6 voicebot challenges and opportunities – VentureBeat

Posted: at 8:16 am

The voicebot ecosystem is growing immensely and amazing opportunities abound. Reading a recent post by Alon Bonder, and realizing the main subject of conversation for product managers, startups, and developers is voice-tech, I figured out some points to help you focus on building the right product for whats coming next. Basically, the mobile apps ecosystem we saw growing 10 years ago is making a return, but this time it is all aboutvoice.

In the beginning, before the mobile apps ecosystem rose in popularity, problems werent as clear as they are today. Specific iOS apps had memory problems; the UI was too simple; the development platforms were horrid (or nonexistent); there werent enough solutions for mobile app marketing, acquisition, and attribution; and the competition featured apps alongside thousands of farting, semi-funny, and non-valuable apps.

But as the ecosystem evolved and matured it granted new options to individuals and startups, who went ahead and made an app for that. These might be heaven-sent or perhaps simply tell you if something is Not a Hotdog.

Developers these days are struggling with incomplete voice platforms: Alexa, Cortana, Siri you name it. Even if an amazing voice app is built, the ecosystem isnt necessarily ready for prime time, or the full funnel: Develop acquire on-board retain make money.

The voice ecosystem is missing essential tools available in the mobile apps ecosystem to conduct appropriate analytics and measurement, marketing attribution, A/B testing, deep-linking for improved acquisition and re-engagement, and so on.

There are development solutions available for basic voice products thanks to APIs, frameworks, and AI tools but these are basic and, in most cases, only allow you to build a proof of concept without acquiring real users.

That leads us to a series of problems and opportunities.

Discovery: Building a voice app is the first logical step, but finding an audience is the first difficult step.

How should developers distribute their apps? Try to tell Alexa to order you a cab, ask Cortana to transfer $100 to a friend, or ask either to find you a good payment skill/app.Voice Ad networks, affiliations, and more are challenging. Any personal assistant or voice interface is available by chat and can disrupt word-of-mouth as we know it.

Discovery isnt that good now, so we need to promote our skill on Facebook, Google, maybe Twitter. Simple enough, but dont we need a skill URL? How about the ability to enable the skill from the ad (like app downloads/installs), or track behavior after an ad was clicked? Unfortunately, thats not available just yet. Appsflyer, for example, has been providing amazing attribution for the mobile apps ecosystem, but we need a similar solution for the voice ecosystem.

Happy times, a new user connected to your voice app but will they use the skill?

To provide a smooth and practical onboarding experience, we must develop a proper, flexible, AI/ML-based tool that will talk the user through the experience to help them achieve their goals. Think WalkMe but with voicemaybe TalkMe?This can be combined with attribution, so the talk-through may be personalized for the individual user and help you find their preferences, age, and gender. Of course, youll need proper analytics tools like GA or MixPanel (or Voicelabs), and a real-time content platform to analyze, improve, and test your onboarding funnel.

Whats a common known with the mobile apps funnel these days is non-existent for voice. Were missing a tool for in-depth analysis that would grant us insights to understand, change, test, and optimize the experience of the new skill-enabled user kind of like an Apptimize, but for voice. Also consider the conversion optimization ecosystem (Qualaroo, Unbounce) and the amazing possibilities voice apps are opening.

Did you know voice app retention is around 3 percent after seven days? In other words, 97 out of 100 users will not use your voice app after seven days. Crazy churn!Trust is one of the top reasons for churn, or the lack of trust. To build trust, the AI must understand how users perceive the apps voice, tone, and tempo. Voice analytics will truly help us understand the bot and the user.

Push notifications must also be adopted by the voice ecosystem to help in the retention department, as Appboy or Urbanairshiphave been doing for mobile.Alexas approach is a good first step but should be improved to include real-life communication between people. For example, if your friend wants to call you with an update about the game tonight, they will call you and not send a red-colored LED. Thats a given.

How do users bring new users to your voice app? A click on that Facebook or Twitter ad wont doremember, people dont click. But you can ask Alexa, please share Uber with Dan. Social sharing is difficult when done by voice only, so we must create a voice-sharing experience. A tool to share my actual Cortana email experience can make this personalized and trustworthy, so we can listen and understand the value of voice.

How about social proof, such as Rate our app! and please add your 5-star review so new users will think our voice app is amazing. Alexa is thereCortana and others arent yet.And the ecosystem?Build an API allowing users to share amazing skills and developers to easily track them to understand how viral the voice app is.And lets not forget the right tools to ask for feedbackby voice. Thats difficult, as you dont want a robot to interrupt while its helping you navigate.

Whats next? Invite three friends (tech, biz dev, product) for a brainstorming session with beer and snacks, and read this post again. Then list thee top products from the mobile apps ecosystem and how they could evolve to the voice ecosystem. Thenbuild one!

Ariel Kedem is the VP of Productsat Knowmail, an AI messaging system.

Above: The Machine Intelligence Landscape This article is part of our Artificial Intelligence series. You can download a high-resolution version of the landscape featuring 288 companies by clicking the image.

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Artificial Intelligence Key To Treating Illness – WVXU

Posted: at 8:15 am

Complex computer software may be the key to correctly diagnosing and treating patients with various diseases.

Dr. Nick Ernest, a UC graduate who beat the Air Force in a simulated game of aerial combat with his artificial intelligence (AI) system, is now applying the concept to the human body.

In a proof of concept study, Ernest harnessed the power of his Psibernetix AI program to determine if bipolar patients could benefit from a certain medication. Using fMRIs of bipolar patients, the software looked at how each patient would react to lithium.

Fuzzy Logic appears to be very accurate

The computer software predicted with 100 percent accuracy how patients would respond. It also predicted the actual reduction in manic symptoms after the lithium treatment with 92 percent accuracy.

UC psychiatrist David Fleck partnered with Ernest and Dr. Kelly Cohen on the study. Fleck says without AI, coming up with a treatment plan is difficult. "Bipolar disorder is a very complex genetic disease. There are multiple genes and not only are there multiple genes, not all of which we understand and know how they work, there is interaction with the environment."

Ernest emphasizes the advanced software is more than a black box. It thinks in linguistic sentences. "So at the end of the day we can go in and ask the thing why did you make the prediction that you did? So it has high accuracy but also the benefit of explaining exactly why it makes the decision that it did."

More tests are needed to make sure the artificial intelligence continues to accurately predict medication for bipolar patients.

AI could work for other diseases

Ernest says there's no reason this wouldnt work for other illnesses.

It almost doesnt matter what the application is. This could have easily been whether this person responded well to a surgery or a different drug. With my company, we use this methodology with determining costs and markets, maintenance for machinery. Really any sort of predictive analytics or big learning type application could utilize this.

Ernest has started another study. Its to predict recovery rates for people who have had a concussion.

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Rise of the machines: How artificial intelligence will reshape our lives – ABC Online

Posted: at 8:15 am

Posted July 03, 2017 20:07:28

The fourth industrial revolution is underway and it's threatening to wipe out nearly half the jobs in Australia.

This latest round is characterised by intelligent robots and machine learning and PricewaterhouseCoopers economist Jeremy Thorpe said it's going to completely reshape the Australian jobs market.

"Over the next 20 years approximately 44 per cent of Australia's jobs, that's more than 5 million jobs, are at risk of being disrupted by technology, whether that's digitisation or automation," he said.

Stefan Hajkowicz, who is the principal scientist at the CSIRO, says it's white collar workers who are about to feel the pain.

"The sort of job losses that we did see in the manufacturing sector in Australia the car manufacturing sector are going to get into the administrative services and financial services sector in downtown CBD postcodes and that's the big challenge that lies in front of us," he said.

Mr Thorpe agrees, adding that white-collar workers in Australia were "the big growth sector over the last 30 years".

"We were the beneficiaries of globalisation and it's going to be a shock to the system when we see not just the growth temper, we actually see a decline in those sorts of jobs."

Australian financial start up Stockspot says its business model makes thousands of highly paid jobs obsolete.

It claims that by using algorithms and automation instead of people, they can provide better financial advice at a cheaper price.

Founder Chris Brycki said some jobs, particularly in the financial services sector, don't add value.

"Financial services employs about 10 per cent of our workforce and, really, a lot of those jobs are unnecessary," he said.

"A lot of research analysts, stock pickers, stockbrokers, they don't actually add any end value for the consumer."

Mr Hajkowicz said the technology behind digital currency bitcoin known as blockchain also threatens to seriously shake up the industry.

"Blockchain and distributive ledger technology, if it plays out the way we think it can, this is the technology that sits behind the bitcoin currency and can be used for smart invoicing or auditing processes," he said.

"It could turn the job of 100 auditors into one."

The job losses in finance have already begun, with Westpac reducing its headcount over the last year.

But the real hit is still to come.

A Macquarie analyst recently predicted the big four might look to shed 20,000 jobs over the coming years.

It's already happened overseas. In the decade following the great recession, the banking workforce in the US dropped by around half a million people.

Mr Brycki said we will feel the pain here soon.

"The reason we are behind the US and the UK is that we didn't go through the financial crisis as badly, and that flushed out a lot of people from the industry," he said.

But it was only a temporary reprieve.

"A lot of people are still in the stale jobs in banks and it's not until the banks have to lay people off in the next few years that the [financial] tech industry and this disruption will really flourish," he said.

It's not just start-ups threatening existing business models.

The big tech giants are also continually innovating and threatening to push further into the finance space.

"Apple may be better placed to be a bank, Google might be better placed to be a bank than an actual bank because it has technology to facilitate the transaction," Mr Brycki said

He says young people eyeing off what are currently lucrative careers option will be forced to reconsider.

"I came in to the industry at the very top it was around 2006 when I joined," he said.

"We'll probably never see that level of salaries and bonuses and the craziness in financial services because of the structural changes that are going to happen."

Mr Thorpe said the evidence is already building.

"It is the boiling frog syndrome that we are experiencing at the moment," he said.

"You may not realise that we're already seeing some jobs disappear, for some jobs are being restructured because of automation and digitisation."

This is part one of a three part special by The Business and Business PM which looks at on how automation will reshape the Australian workforce.

Topics: robots-and-artificial-intelligence, banking, business-economics-and-finance, industry, economic-trends, globalisation---economy, multinationals, science-and-technology, australia

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What’s the Business Model for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare? – Xconomy

Posted: at 8:15 am

Xconomy San Diego

This story is part of an ongoing Xconomy series on A.I. in healthcare.

These are heady times for using artificial intelligence to extract insights from healthcare datain particular, from the tidal wave of information coming out of fields like genomics and medical imaging.

Yet as innovations proliferate, some age-old business questions have come to the fore. How can startups make money in this emerging field? How can healthcare companies use AI to bend the curve of increasing healthcare costs? And, ultimately, how can they get buy-in from government regulators, insurers, doctors, and patients? These were some of the issues that emerged this spring when Xconomy brought together some of San Diegos most-prominent tech and life sciences leaders for a dinner discussion about the risks and opportunities in the convergence of AI and healthcare.

Being a healthcare investor, I love the fact that theres interest now on the tech side, said Kim Kamdar, a partner in the San Diego office of the venture firm Domain Associates. It opens up a whole new avenue of potential co-investors for our companies.

The consensus: Its still early days for applying machine learning and related techniques in healthcare, and its hard to foresee how these innovations will play out. As Xconomy senior editor Jeff Engel has reported, questions abound over the impact AI will have on doctors and healthcare institutions. Yet there is little doubt that transformational change is coming, and tech companies ranging in size from small startups to corporate titans like IBM and GE are scrambling to gain a foothold in this emerging field.

If ever there was a sector in need of transformational disruption, it would be healthcare, where spending in the United States amounts to more than $3.2 trillion a yearand accounts for close to 18 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

The sector represents a lucrative-but-daunting target for investorscomplicated by regulatory issues, a healthcare system that separates the interests of patients, providers, and payers, and an investment timeline that can take 10 years or more to realize.

There may be no better example of the potential opportunities than Grail, the $1 billion-plus startup spun out by Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) to advance diagnostic technology sensitive enough to detect fragments of cancer DNA in a routine blood sample. Yet cautionary tales also aboundmost notably with Theranos, the venture-backed diagnostic company that was valued at $9 billion in 2015and plunged last year to less than a tenth of that.

Interest in healthcare AI runs high in San Diego, which has a well-established life sciences cluster and is home to two genome sequencing giants: Illumina and the life sciences solutions group of Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO). San Diego also has some resident expertise in neural networking technologies that accompanied the rise of HNC Software, a developer of analytic software for the financial industry that is now used by FICO (NYSE: FICO) to predict credit card fraud, among other things. (FICO acquired HNC in 2002 in a stock deal valued at $810 million.)

The dinner conversation that Xconomy convened included Kamdar and other local investors, data scientists, healthcare CTOs, startup founders, academic researchers, and digital health executives. The kickoff question: Is there a proven business model for startups that are applying innovations in machine learning in the life sciences?

The model that came to mind for Next Page

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788

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Workers ‘must be trained to cope with rise of artificial intelligence’ – The Scotsman

Posted: at 8:15 am

06:01 Monday 03 July 2017

Businesses and the government must ready the nations workforce for the rise of artificial intelligence to ensure companies can ride out the cliff edges created by the technological revolution, according to PwC.

The professional services firm said AI had the power to overhaul business models and could leave workers sidelined and companies struggling to adjust unless preparations are made now.

It said firms and the state must step up their efforts to improve the education system and help workers retrain to ensure AI delivers the much-heralded boost to the UK economy.

Jon Andrews, PwCs head of technology and investments, said: There are different sectors that will be impacted in different ways.

The vast majority [of workers] will not see the change happening to them and they will have a very different job by 2030. But some of them you can see coming and you can actually predict the changes.

If you take the logistics world, there is going to be a period of time as we move towards autonomous vehicles where it will continue to be cheaper to have an old vehicle that is non-autonomous with a person driving it.

Then all of sudden that will flip and the business case will change and it will be worthwhile making the investment in autonomous vehicles. So we will see a cliff in terms of jobs there going more quickly.

We need to be prepared as a country on how we re-train people to think what other jobs those people can do ahead of that.

But that will be largely predictable because you will be able to predict and seethat business case changing.

Experts believe the rise of AI poses a threat to workers across the professions, from staff in fast-food restaurants to journalists, accountants and doctors.

Around 30 per cent of UK jobs are at high risk of being eradicated by AI by 2030, PwC has estimated.

Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates mooted the possibility of creating a robot tax in order to plug the hole in public finances left by the jobs destroyed by automation.

However, the rise of AI coined the fourth industrial revolution will also create new roles for human beings and could drive up productivity and bolster economic growth.

Jonathan Gillham, PwCs director of economics, said: We need to upskill workers that are currently in the labour market and improve our education systems.

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Alternative Medicine in Halacha: a Review – Yeshiva World News

Posted: at 8:13 am

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

Rabbi Rephoel Szmerlas new Sefer entitled, Alternative Medicine in Halacha [Israel Bookshop 198 pages English 398 pages Hebrew 596 total] is divided into two sections the main part of the Sefer and the in-depth biurim in Hebrew in the back of the work. In the biurim, it is truly groundbreaking in terms of its exhaustive treatment of the aveiros of the occult: specifically, kishuf, doresh el hameisim, nichush and kosaim. It also deals with following the ways of the gentiles (Darchei Amori) and of the Mitzvah of Tamim Tehiyeh. In discussing these aveiros, the author takes us through every opinion of the rishonim.

In the body of the English text the Sefer is near exhaustive in its discussion of alternative forms of healing. In terms of the scholarship it is quite clear that we are dealing with an extraordinary Talmid Chochom.

The Sefer also has numerous haskamos from leading figures who back up the Torah erudition of the author. There are two underlying ideas that permeate the work. The first is that the multiple modalities of alternative medicines do not in their core violate the aveiros of the occult. The second underlying idea is that these alternative forms of medicine are, in fact, effective. It is this authors opinion, however, that the author makes a number of fundamental errors in coming to this conclusion, and that this thesis can seriously compromise the physical health of the Torah-observant community with the publication of this Sefer.

And while the author states that it is not his goal to encourage people to discount conventional medicine the reality is that advocating the efficacy of modalities of treatment that have statistically been proven ineffective actually does the very thing that Rabbi Szmerla claims that he is not doing: His book will perforce encourage people to discount conventional medicine in favor of the forms of medicine that he claims work. One must always keep in mind that Hashem is the ultimate Rofeh Cholim but one must also utilize and implement the proper Hishtadlus that Hashem put into the world.

THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH THE SEFER

Specifically, it can and does cause family members of those who suffer illness to a] squander much needed and valuable resources on ineffective treatments b] not pursue effective and proven forms of treatment c] cause unnecessary damage to those who are ill. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the moneys spent on pursuing most of these alternative treatments would be far better spent on supporting Torah learning. Rabbi Szmerla ignores the overwhelming medical evidence that these treatments have proven ineffective.

THE HASKAMOS ARE NOT NECESSARILY ENDORSING OF HIS VIEWS

It is clear that Rabbi Szmerla is a scholar of great knowledge and depth, which is perhaps why great Rabbis provided him with approbations. However, a careful reading of a number of the approbations clearly indicate that they do not necessarily agree with his conclusions.

SEFER IS DANGEROUS

It is this authors view that this second and central thesis of the sefer is dangerous and can seriously undermine the health of many members of Klal Yisroel. People may pick up the sefer, and peruse the haskamos. They may erroneously assume that the information contained in the sefer is correct. If they discontinue their regular course of treatment, which many will do, this can be extremely problematic.

In this reviewers view, the thesis flies in the face of basic mathematics. The proper use and understanding of statistics is essential in determining whether a modality of treatment should be used or not. It is the correct hishtadlus al pi derecho hateva. That is, in fact, what modern medicine is based upon. This sefer, notwithstanding the deep Torah erudition of its author, has the potential to throw us back to the days when families of cancer victims squandered their parents lifes savings on the likes of such cures as shark cartilage.

FAULTY UNDERSTANDING OF STATISTICS

The vast majority of people that advocate the efficacy of most of the alternative medicines found in the sefer are not at all proficient in the use of advanced statistical analysis. Because of this flaw, they are unable to differentiate between what constitutes a valid study and an invalid one.

One example of this lies in those who advocate against vaccinations. They claim that they have studied the statistics behind both sides of the vast literature regarding vaccinations. However, when put to the challenge those who argue against vaccinations are fundamentally unable to answer basic questions in simple statistics. Arguing with someone in statistics who has no background in statistics is akin to arguing about translations of sentences in Hebrew with someone who does not understand a word of it.

WHEN AN ERROR IS MADE IN METZIUS

When an error is made in metzius and we are sure of the error, we do not adhere to that persons view no matter how great the individual is. This concept was told to this author by the greatest of Gedolei haPoskim in America as well as in Eretz Yisroel (Rav Dovid Feinstein Shlita, Rav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita, and Rav Elyashiv ztl). Thus, when the Aruch haShulchan had a fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamics of electricity the view of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztl and other Gedolei HaPoskim won out. Yet the greatness of the Aruch haShulchan and his vast depth and erudition in dalet chelkei shulchan aruch are there for everyone to see.

MOST DISTURBING

Rabbi Szmerla dismisses the view of Rav Dovid Morgenstern Shlita, Rav Elyashiv ztl and Rav Nissim Karelitz Shlita regarding the definition if what would constitute a refuah bedukah a tested and certain cure. He writes that Chazal only required a cure having worked three times as manifest in the Shulchan Aruchs ruling on Kamiyas. Rav Morgenstern writes that it must be a statistically valid cure and cites these other authorities (See Sefer Piskei Din Vol. X p. 535). Rav Elyashiv zatzal has numerous times praised Rav Morgenstern Shlita as fluent in Kol haTorah Kulah, and the dismissal of his views and quotes of Rishonim by Rabbi Szmerla is unwarranted. But let us now examine the various forms of treatments the Rabbi advocates.

ENERGY MEDICINE

In regard to energy medicine, Rabbi Szmerla ignores the six most recent studies showing that there is absolutely no efficacy to such healing disproving Richard Gerbers earlier assertions. Rabbi Szmerla attempts to associate the Gemorahs discussion of Bboah dboah with the concept of aura. The association is far from proven. Boah is described by rishonim as a shadow. True, Rav Chaim Vital disagrees with this association, but that does not mean that it means aura. Rabbi Szmerla thus rejects the views of the Rishonim, asher mipihem anu chaim, and adopts a kabbbalistic view which he assumes is synonymous with aura. This is far from conclusive. The fact that the overwhelming scientific evidence has demonstrated that there is a lack of efficacy to this type of healing is also proof that the Boah dBoah is not, in fact, aura. [See, as just one example, the Medical Journal Pain (91 pp 79-89) Abbot, NC; Harkness, EF; Stevinson, C; Marshall, FP; Conn, DA; Ernst, E (2001). Spiritual healing as a therapy for chronic pain: a randomized, clinical trial. There are numerous others.] As far as Rabbi Szmerlas identification of qi or chi with an adaptive definition of nefesh this identification is clearly not the authorial intent of Rashi in Vayikra 17:11.

THERAPEUTIC TOUCH (TT) OR HANDS ON HEALING

Therapeutic touch healing is a pseudo-science which believes that by placing their hands on, or near, a patient, practitioners are able to detect and manipulate what they say is the patients energy field. Study after study has shown that this is completely ineffective (See for example, JAMA (279:13 pp 1005-1010)Rosa, Linda; Rosa, E; Sarner, L; Barrett, S (1998-04-01). A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch. PMID 9533499. doi:10.1001/jama.279.13.1005.) including one demonstration by a nine-year old girl that practitioners of it are either charlatans or are fooling themselves. Indeed, the American Cancer Society has remarked, Available scientific evidence does not support any claims that TT can cure cancer or other diseases. Rabbi Szmerlas impressive halachic arguments that it does not constitute kishuf is irrelevant. It doesnt work beyond the placebo effect.

ACUPUNCTURE

This reviewer agrees with Rabbi Szmerla that acupuncture is, for many types of maladies, indeed, effective. However, the theories behind acupuncture the notion of restoring energy meridians has been summarily rejected by those with a thorough and grounded understanding of the underlying science behind it. Winston Churchills life was extended by his regular intake of aspirin even though the science behind it was not yet understood.

KINESIOLOGY

It is this reviewers contention that Rabbi Szmerla fails to differentiate between the current state of Kinesiology and the notion of Applied Kinesiology which he mentions on page 81. A.K. is a technique wherein the ability to diagnose illness by practitioners or to choose the required effective treatment. Practitioners claim to do so by testing muscles for strength and weakness. However, once again the vast majority of statistically valid surveys have proven beyond a sliver of a doubt that there is no validity to this method in diagnosing illness. One who is untrained in statistics will not be able to differentiate between a valid study and an invalid one and there are plenty of both. The American Cancer Society has also gone out of its way to state that the scientific evidence does not support the claim that applied kinesiology can diagnose or treat cancer or other illness.

DOWSING

Rabbi Szmerla explains that dowsing is the ability to uncover information through the use of an L shaped rod or a pendulum. He claims that dowsing is not pseudo-science by virtue of the fact that a number of respectable Rabbonim have concluded, through their experience, that dowsing is authentic. The conclusion of the scientific community is that it is no more effective than random chance guessing (see Water Witching U.S.A. (2nd ed.), Vogt, Evon Z.; Ray Hyman (1979), Chicago: Chicago University Press. ISBN 978-0-226-86297-2. via Hines, Terence (2003). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (Second ed.). Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 420).

HOMEOPATHY AND FLOWER ESSENCE

Here too, the author seems to be claiming efficacy of a discredited form of therapy. And while it is true that it may be incorrect to forbid the practice of these therapies on account of darchei amori it may be forbidden on account of wasting time and money. The statistical studies are conclusive in the idea that they do not work (See, as just one example, Bioethics (26:9 pp 508-512) Smith K (2012). Homeopathy is Unscientific and Unethical. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2011.01956.x.)

GEM THERAPY

The modern day crystal therapy is compared by the Rabbi to the Even Tekumah discussed in the Gemorah in Sanhedrin (68a). However, not all Rishonim agree with this definition of Even tejumah and it is far from clear that it refers to the same type of stone. Let us also keep in mind that the Baalei haTosfos in Moed Koton 11a (dh Kavra) write that Nishtaneh hateva and that the medical cures in Chazal may not be effective nowadays. Other Poskim who rule in this manner are cited in the authoritative Nishmas Avrohom 1:4 note 14. See also Rav Akiva Eiger, Yoreh Deah 336:1 (dh Nitna) that one should not even attempt to use the remedies in the Gemorah due to the fact that we cannot properly identify the various samim discussed nor do we know exactly how to administer the remedies. See also Yam Shel Shlomo Chullin (8:12) that even the effective cures should not be done so that am haartzim not develop kefirah.

FENG SHUI

The author finds some aspects of Feng Shui as being in violation of the prohibition of Darchei Emori following the ways of the gentiles. He comes to the conclusion that this form of alternative medicine is forbidden based upon the inability to determine which aspects of it achieve true energy harmonization and which ones stem from superstitious beliefs. This reviewer believes that it the former are completely ineffective and have been proven invalid statistically.

HYPNO-THERAPY

The authors conclusions on both the effectiveness and the halachic validity of hypnotherapy are both perfectly valid. The effectiveness of hypnotherapy is accepted in the medical and scientific communities. There are issues of undergoing hypno-therapy when issues of gender and Tznius are involved. The author does not mention this and recent events have shown some serious breaches in this regard.

YOGA

Rabbi Szmerlas conclusions on Yogas effectiveness are not out of the ordinary, and do fall in line with the accepted scientific understanding of it. Halachically, he points to some problems with some aspects of Yoga meditation techniques. He does not mention another halachic problem and that is the use of the mantra perforce has one clearing his mind of all thoughts. This does not fall in line with Mitzvah of always having in mind the shaish zechiros. Anochi Hashem belief in Hashem; Lo Yihyeh there shall be no other gods; Yichud Hashem belief in the absolute Oneness of Hashem; Ahavas Hashem loving Hashem; Yiras Hashem fear of Hashem (or as the Nesivos Shalom understands it fear of losing ones kesher with Hashem; and Lo Sasuru do not stray, following apikorsus and taavah.

SHAMANIC HEALING

The author concludes that Shamanic healing is strictly forbidden.

CONCLUSION

As stated throughout this review the halachic views of the Rabbi Szmerla constitute amazing depth and profundity in the Hebrew biurim section. The medical views espoused in the main body of the book are, in this reviewers opinion and in the opinion of a number of mathematically trained doctors and scientists, quite dangerous. Traditionally, our abilities in calculating the ibbur and other such areas of Torah thought have been described by the rishonim as ki hi chachmaschem uvinaschem bainai haamim. The rejection of statistics in how medicine is applied is a dangerous trend.

The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com

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Alternative Medicine in Halacha: a Review - Yeshiva World News

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FSSAI rejects National Anti-Doping Agency’s request to frame food supplement standards – The Indian Express

Posted: at 8:12 am

Written by Ravish Tiwari , Abantika Ghosh | New Delhi | Updated: July 3, 2017 9:35 am NADA chief Navin Agarwal.

Concerned about the burgeoning range of off-the-shelf food supplements and the possibility of at least some of them containing banned performance enhancing substances, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had recently approached the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) with a request to frame standards for these supplements.

But after several meetings between the two, FSSAI declined the request, maintaining that given the nature of expertise and sports medicine knowledge required to do so is beyond their mandate. NADA officials approached FSSAI over concerns that mushrooming gyms not only in urban but also in rural areas were pushing some of these supplements and there is no control or monitoring over what they contain. Hence, FSSAI should frame standards.

Though FSSAI agreed in principle with the concerns expressed by NADA and a section of the authority was keen to go ahead with the exercise, in the end the authority decided not to. A senior official told The Indian Express that though the NADAs concerns were genuine, there were several other hurdles that eventually made them decide against helping NADA.

The concerns they raised were genuine. Food supplements that are sold over the counter and often pushed by gym instructors may contain performance enhancing substances banned for athletes or substances that are just generally harmful for people if used indiscriminately. There may even be prescription drugs that ordinarily cannot be bought over the counter but have an anabolic (body-building) effect on the body, he said.

After much deliberation and several meetings with the NADA, FSSAI concluded that they couldnt frame standards from NADAs perspectives and yardsticks. It was beyond their mandate.

We deliberated over the matter, had two-three meetings with NADA and decided that we cannot frame standards from the perspective they want us to. It is beyond our mandate there is a long list of banned substances, some that are not to be used during competitions but can be used otherwise, others that can never be used, the official said, Then there is also the matter of dosage. So we told them that it is beyond our mandate, he added.

Incidentally, FSSAI had, last year notified standards for health supplements, nutraceuticals, foods for special dietary use, food for special medical purpose, functional food and novel foods. The articles of food with standard nutrient or nutritionally complete formulation shall consist of a composition delivering the desired level of energy, protein, vitamins and minerals, and other essential nutrients required for respective age group, gender and physiological stage in accordance with the guidelines made by the Indian Council of Medical Research, reads the regulations stipulated by the FSSAI.

Ingredient purity is mandated to be in accordance with the FSSAI standards for those categories of food in cases where standards are not specified, purity criteria generally accepted by the various pharmacopoeias Indian Pharmacopoeia, Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of Indian Medicinal Plants, Indian Council of Medical Research, British Pharmacopoeia, US Pharmacopoeia etc are to be used.

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FSSAI rejects National Anti-Doping Agency's request to frame food supplement standards - The Indian Express

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