Daily Archives: August 8, 2022

After the success of Heinzs Draw Ketchup campaign last year, where creative agency Rethink organised a social experiment that saw the participants draw Heinz bottles when asked to draw ketchup, the condiment giant has followed up the campaign with a futuristic and tech-forward next step. Using the image-generating AI system DALL-E 2, Rethink and Heinz fed prompts, such as ketchup bottle stained glass and ketchup bottle in psychedelic art, to an AI and produced some fantastically imaginative, but undoubtedly Heinz, pieces of art.

This latest development in the campaign is inspired by the recent rise of AIs popularity in all manner of creative communities online; you cant scroll through Twitter or Instagram without seeing someones latest AI-generated masterpiece, short story or, unfortunately, ape-based NFT. AI systems and online tools such as DALL-E and Midjourney have provided users with hours of entertainment in recent months, allowing people with no artistic ability or resources themselves to produce artwork seemingly pulled straight from their imaginations. Especially for those lucky few with access to the enhanced capabilities of the newly updated DALL-E 2, the results can be frighteningly good or just frightening.

LBBs Ben Conway spoke with Heinzs brand communications senior brand manager, Jacqueline Chao, and Rethink associate creative director, Geoff Baillie, to discuss how they utilised DALL-E 2 to draw ketchup, why the this brand platform showcases the strong emotional connection Heinz-lovers have with the brand, and how AI could one day be implemented anywhere theres a need to explore and create visual concepts.

Jacqueline> Last year, we conducted a social experiment and asked people around the world to draw ketchup and our hunch was proven when they all drew Heinz. We were overwhelmed by the reaction to Draw Ketchup. The positive response from consumers and the ad world not only proved the instinctual association between ketchup and Heinz at the consumer level but showcased the strong emotional connections to our brand beyond how we satisfy appetites. Heinz ketchup fans are passionate lovers of ketchup and rarely miss an opportunity to engage with the brand.

Jacqueline> Since innovation is always at the forefront of everything we do, when we saw AI image generation quickly becoming the latest viral sensation and people taking to social to discuss the alarming accuracy of AI drawings, we quickly knew we needed to test this as we did with Draw Ketchup. Heinz always strives to move at the speed of culture and this is just another example of how we push the boundaries and look for ways to engage our fans in first-to-market ways.

Jacqueline> Together, with the support of all our agencies, we come up with concepts and strategies that are exciting and ownable for Heinz. Thats exactly the type of work we love to create together, and having partners that can help us uncover culturally relevant moments and generate clever, groundbreaking ideas is key to continuing to engage our fans and remaining an iconic brand.

Geoff> You couldnt ask for a better partner. Heinz always encourages the most innovative and exciting ideas, and pushes us to make those ideas even better. Every campaign weve done with them has been a creative collaboration. And its not just a dream client, its a dream brand. We always strive to ground our insights and ideas in brand truths, and working with a brand as iconic as Heinz makes that easy.

Geoff> DALL-E 2s artificial intelligence was trained to recognise different art styles, objects, and compositions which lets you ask for something that never could have existed before - for example, you could have a Van Gogh painting of Marilyn Monroe in space - and it recognises those individual components and pieces them together. When it came to Heinz, we searched for ketchup bottles in different styles and scenarios - Ketchup in Space, Ketchup bottle stained glass, and Ketchup bottle in psychedelic art are a few examples. It helps to try lots of styles and scenarios to get the best variety of images.

Geoff> Everyone sensed there was something special about these text-to-image generators, especially DALLE 2s program. Before we dove into developing the AI ketchup campaign, we let ourselves have fun with the program for a little while. As we toyed around with making bizarre images, we realised how sophisticated this technology is. When it comes to integrating artificial intelligence and creativity, we think this is just the beginning.

The future is coming up fast. Anywhere theres a need to explore and create visual concepts, AI could one day be implemented. As it grows and becomes more advanced we think it'll be similar to Photoshop or 3D printing - a tech tool that helps creatives and brands to express themselves and bring ideas to life. Its already happening with artists and campaigns like ours but theres so much space for it to be applied.

Geoff> Its pretty user-friendly, so it didnt take too long to get a hang of it. But it helped to learn from AI artists and the resources the AI art community is sharing online. Its so new that it feels like the whole world is learning together. There are a lot of ways to make magic but we found that the most effective method was to start with simple prompts and go from there.

Jacqueline> Watching these unique, surreal images being created in seconds was overwhelmingly impressive. Weve long said that when people think of ketchup they think of Heinz. DALL-E 2's creations proved that no matter what we were asking or how many different variations were tested, even AI knows when it comes to ketchup, it has to be Heinz.

Jacqueline> Its hard to pick favourites because we loved them all, but of the images: the bottle in a pool, the ketchup bear and vaporwave ketchup were at the top; they all look distinctly different, while still being quintessentially Heinz. Looking at these images, were seeing a lot of Heinz(isms). Theyre not totally perfect, but whether its the keystone label or our iconic slow-pouring glass bottle, theres no question that our distinct brand elements are incorporated.

Jacqueline> We used DALL-E 2 - one of the most advanced AI image generators available. DALL-E 2 is far more advanced than many of the other AI generators that people are using, but not everyone has access to it yet. By asking our fans to tell us what other AI ketchup creations theyd like us to try out and sharing the most unique, interesting results on our social channels, were giving ketchup fans an opportunity to try DALL-E 2 for themselves.

Jacqueline> Weve long said that when people think of ketchup they think of Heinz, and now we know that something as unbiased as AI does, too. Its very clear that Heinz ketchup has strong brand affinity globally because campaigns such as Draw Ketchup and Heinz Hot Dog Pact resonate on an international level. This allows us to leverage our status as the most iconic ketchup to create innovative programs that people can connect with, keeping Heinz top of mind with consumers and in culture.

Jacqueline> At Heinz , we are always looking for ways to put creativity and culture at the forefront of our campaigns in contextually relevant ways. As part of any campaign, we look to find the right intersection between our brand and relevant culture in order to drive consumer engagement. Our goal is to insert our brands at the speed of culture and uncover unique ways to engage fans in territories that are completely ownable to Heinz. So if theres an opportunity to build on this insight further in a way that resonates with the current moment, thats definitely something we will continue to explore.

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How Rethink Proved Even AI knows "It Has To Be Heinz" | LBBOnline - Little Black Book - LBBonline

IBM

I recently met with Dr. Nick Fuller, Vice President, Distributed Cloud, at IBM Research for a discussion about IBMs long-range plans and strategy for artificial intelligence and machine learning at the edge.

Dr. Fuller is responsible for providing AI and platformbased innovation for enterprise digital transformation spanning edge computing and distributed cloud management. He is an IBM Master Inventor with over 75 patents and co-author of 75 technical publications. Dr. Fuller obtained his Bachelor of Science in Physics and Math from Morehouse College and his PhD in Applied Physics from Columbia University.

Edge In, not Cloud Out

In general, Dr. Fuller told me that IBM is focused on developing an "edge in" position versus a "cloud out" position with data, AI, and Kubernetes-based platform technologies to scale hub and spoke deployments of edge applications.

A hub plays the role of a central control plane used for orchestrating the deployment and management of edge applications in a number of connected spoke locations such as a factory floor or a retail branch, where data is generated or locally aggregated for processing.

Cloud out refers to the paradigm where cloud service providers are extending their cloud architecture out to edge locations. In contrast, edge in refers to a provider-agnostic architecture that is cloud-independent and treats the data-plane as a first-class citizen.

IBM's overall architectural principle is scalability, repeatability, and full stack solution management that allows everything to be managed using a single unified control plane.

IBMs Red Hat platform and infrastructure strategy anchors the application stack with a unified, scalable, and managed OpenShift-based control plane equipped with a high-performance storage appliance and self-healing system capabilities (inclusive of semi-autonomous operations).

IBMs strategy also includes several in-progress platform-level technologies for scalable data, AI/ML runtimes, accelerator libraries for Day-2 AI operations, and scalability for the enterprise.

It is an important to mention that IBM is designing its edge platforms with labor cost and technical workforce in mind. Data scientists with PhDs are in high demand, making them difficult to find and expensive to hire once you find them. IBM is designing its edge system capabilities and processes so that domain experts rather than PhDs can deploy new AI models and manage Day-2 operations.

Why edge is important

Advances in computing and storage have made it possible for AI to process mountains of accumulated data to provide solutions. By bringing AI closer to the source of data, edge computing is faster and more efficient than cloud. While Cloud data accounts for 60% of the worlds data today, vast amounts of new data is being created at the edge, including industrial applications, traffic cameras, and order management systems, all of which can be processed at the edge in a fast and timely manner.

Public cloud and edge computing differ in capacity, technology, and management. An advantage of edge is that data is processed and analyzed at / near its collection point at the edge. In the case of cloud, data must be transferred from a local device and into the cloud for analytics and then transferred back to the edge again. Moving data through the network consumes capacity and adds latency to the process. Its easy to see why executing a transaction at the edge reduces latency and eliminates unnecessary load on the network.

Increased privacy is another benefit of processing data at the edge. Analyzing data where it originates limits the risk of a security breach. Most of the communications between the edge and the cloud is then confined to such things as reporting, data summaries, and AI models, without ever exposing the raw data.

IBM at the Edge

In our discussion, Dr. Fuller provided a few examples to illustrate how IBM plans to provide new and seamless edge solutions for existing enterprise problems.

Example #1 McDonalds drive-thru

An ordering system using AI and NLP for QRS applications has a global market. A car orders lunch at ... [+] the McDonalds drive-thru in Charnwood, Australian Capital Territory

Dr. Fullers first example centered around Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) problem of drive-thru order taking. Last year, IBM acquired an automated order-taking system from McDonald's. As part of the acquisition, IBM and McDonald's established a partnership to perfect voice ordering methods using AI. Drive-thru orders are a significant percentage of total QSR orders for McDonald's and other QSR chains.

McDonald's and other QSR restaurants would like every order to be processed as quickly and accurately as possible. For that reason, McDonald's conducted trials at ten Chicago restaurants using an edge-based AI ordering system with NLP (Natural Language Processing) to convert spoken orders into a digital format. It was found that AI had the potential to reduce ordering errors and processing time significantly. Since McDonald's sells almost 7 million hamburgers daily, shaving a minute or two off each order represents a significant opportunity to address labor shortages and increase customer satisfaction.

Example #2 Boston Dynamics and Spot the agile mobile robot

The author with Boston Dynamics Spot the agile mobile robot at IBM Think 2022

According to an earlier IBM survey, many manufacturers have already implemented AI-driven robotics with autonomous decision-making capability. The study also indicated that over 80 percent of companies believe AI can help improve future business operations. However, some companies expressed concern about the limited mobility of edge devices and sensors.

Mobile readings with Boston Dynamics mobile robot

To develop a mobile edge solution, IBM teamed up with Boston Dynamics. The partnership created an agile mobile robot using IBM Research and IBM Sustainability Software AI technology. The device can analyze visual sensor readings in hazardous and challenging industrial environments such as manufacturing plants, warehouses, electrical grids, waste treatment plants and other hazardous environments. The value proposition that Boston Dynamics brought to the partnership was Spot the agile mobile robot, a walking, sensing, and actuation platform. Like all edge applications, the robots wireless mobility uses self-contained AI/ML that doesnt require access to cloud data. It uses cameras to read analog devices, visually monitor fire extinguishers, and conduct a visual inspection of human workers to determine if required safety equipment is being worn.

IBM was able to show up to a 10X speedup by automating some manual tasks, such as converting the detection of a problem into an immediate work order in IBM Maximo to correct it. A fast automated response was not only more efficient, but it also improved the safety posture and risk management for these facilities. Similarly, some factories need to thermally monitor equipment to identify any unexpected hot spots that may show up over time, indicative of a potential failure.

Thermal Inspection of Planer & Non-Planar Assets

IBM is working with National Grid, an energy company, to develop a mobile solution using Spot, the agile mobile robot, for image analysis of transformers and thermal connectors. As shown in the above graphic, Spot also monitored connectors on both flat surfaces and 3D surfaces. IBM was able to show that Spot could detect excessive heat build-up in small connectors, potentially avoiding unsafe conditions or costly outages. This AI/ML edge application can produce faster response times when an issue is detected, which is why IBM believes significant gains are possible by automating the entire process.

IBM market opportunities

Edge Market & Use Cases

Drive-thru orders and mobile robots are just a few examples of the millions of potential AI applications that exist at the edge and are driven by several billion connected devices.

Edge computing is an essential part of enterprise digital transformation. Enterprises seek ways to demonstrate the feasibility of solving business problems using AI/ML and analytics at the edge. However, once a proof of concept has been successfully demonstrated, it is a common problem for a company to struggle with scalability, data governance, and full-stack solution management.

Challenges with scaling

Challenges in scaling AI Application deployments

Determining entry points for AI at the edge is not the difficult part, Dr. Fuller said. Scale is the real issue.

Scaling edge models is complicated because there are so many edge locations with large amounts of diverse content and a high device density. Because large amounts of data are required for training, data gravity is a potential problem. Further, in many scenarios, vast amounts of data are generated quickly, leading to potential data storage and orchestration challenges. AI Models are also rarely "finished." Monitoring and retraining of models are necessary to keep up with changes the environment.

Through IBM Research, IBM is addressing the many challenges of building an all-encompassing edge architecture and horizontally scalable data and AI technologies. IBM has a wealth of edge capabilities and an architecture to create the appropriate platform for each application.

IBM AI entry points at the edge

IBM sees Edge Computing as a $200 billion market by 2025. Dr. Fuller and his organization have identified four key market entry points for developing and expanding IBMs edge compute strategy. In order of size, IBM believes its priority edge markets to be intelligent factories (Industry 4.0), telcos, retail automation, and connected vehicles.

IBM and its Red Hat portfolio already have an established presence in each market segment, particularly in intelligent operations and telco. Red Hat is also active in the connected vehicles space.

Industry 4.0

There have been three prior industrial revolutions, beginning in the 1700s up to our current in-progress fourth revolution, Industry 4.0, that promotes a digital transformation.

Manufacturing is the fastest growing and the largest of IBMs four entry markets. In this segment, AI at the edge can improve quality control, production optimization, asset management, and supply chain logistics. IBM believes there are opportunities to achieve a 4x speed up in implementing edge-based AI solutions for manufacturing operations.

Major Automotive OEM

For its Industry 4.0 use case development, IBM, through product, development, research and consulting teams, is working with a major automotive OEM. The partnership has established the following joint objectives:

Maximo Application Suite

IBMs Maximo Application Suite plays an important part in implementing large manufacturers' current and future IBM edge solutions. Maximo is an integrated public or private cloud platform that uses AI, IoT, and analytics to optimize performance, extend asset lifecycles and reduce operational downtime and costs. IBM is working with several large manufacturing clients currently using Maximo to develop edge use cases, and even uses it within its own Manufacturing.

IBM has research underway to develop a more efficient method of handling life cycle management of large models that require immense amounts of data. Day 2 AI operations tasks can sometimes be more complex than initial model training, deployment, and scaling. Retraining at the edge is difficult because resources are typically limited.

Once a model is trained and deployed, it is important to monitor it for drift caused by changes in data distributions or anything that might cause a model to deviate from original requirements. Inaccuracies can adversely affect model ROI.

Day-2 AI Operations (retraining and scaling)

Day-2 AI operations consist of continual updates to AI models and applications to keep up with changes in data distributions, changes in the environment, a drop in model performance, availability of new data, and/or new regulations.

IBM recognizes the advantages of performing Day-2 AI Operations, which includes scaling and retraining at the edge. It appears that IBM is the only company with an architecture equipped to effectively handle Day-2 AI operations. That is a significant competitive advantage for IBM.

A company using an architecture that requires data to be moved from the edge back into the cloud for Day-2 related work will be unable to support many factory AI/ML applications because of the sheer number of AI/ML models to support (100s to 1000s).

There is a huge proliferation of data at the edge that exists in multiple spokes, Dr. Fuller said. "However, all that data isnt needed to retrain a model. It is possible to cluster data into groups and then use sampling techniques to retrain the model. There is much value in federated learning from our point of view.

Federated learning is a promising training solution being researched by IBM and others. It preserves privacy by using a collaboration of edge devices to train models without sharing the data with other entities. It is a good framework to use when resources are limited.

Dealing with limited resources at the edge is a challenge. IBMs edge architecture accommodates the need to ensure resource budgets for AI applications are met, especially when deploying multiple applications and multiple models across edge locations. For that reason, IBM developed a method to deploy data and AI applications to scale Day-2 AI operations utilizing hub and spokes.

Data and AI Platform: Scaling Day 2 - AI Operations

The graphic above shows the current status quo methods of performing Day-2 operations using centralized applications and a centralized data plane compared to the more efficient managed hub and spoke method with distributed applications and a distributed data plane. The hub allows it all to be managed from a single pane of glass.

Data Fabric Extensions to Hub and Spokes

Extending Data Fabric to Hub and Spokes: Key Capabilities

IBM uses hub and spoke as a model to extend its data fabric. The model should not be thought of in the context of a traditional hub and spoke. IBMs hub provides centralized capabilities to manage clusters and create multiples hubs that can be aggregated to a higher level. This architecture has four important data management capabilities.

In addition to AI deployments, the hub and spoke architecture and the previously mentioned capabilities can be employed more generally to tackle challenges faced by many enterprises in consistently managing an abundance of devices within and across their enterprise locations. Management of the software delivery lifecycle or addressing security vulnerabilities across a vast estate are a case in point.

Multicloud and Edge platform

Multicloud and Edge Platform

In the context of its strategy, IBM sees edge and distributed cloud as an extension of its hybrid cloud platform built around Red Hat OpenShift. One of the newer and more useful options created by the Red Hat development team is the Single Node OpenShift (SNO), a compact version of OpenShift that fits on a single server. It is suitable for addressing locations that are still servers but come in a single node, not clustered, deployment type.

For smaller footprints such as industrial PCs or computer vision boards (for example NVidia Jetson Xavier), Red Hat is working on a project which builds an even smaller version of OpenShift, called MicroShift, that provides full application deployment and Kubernetes management capabilities. It is packaged so that it can be used for edge device type deployments.

Overall, IBM and Red Hat have developed a full complement of options to address a large spectrum of deployments across different edge locations and footprints, ranging from containers to management of full-blown Kubernetes applications from MicroShift to OpenShift and IBM Edge Application Manager.

Much is still in the research stage. IBM's objective is to achieve greater consistency in terms of how locations and application lifecycle is managed.

First, Red Hat plans to introduce hierarchical layers of management with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM), to scale by two to three orders of magnitude the number of edge locations managed by this product. Additionally, securing edge locations is a major focus. Red Hat is continuously expanding platform security features, for example by recently including Integrity Measurement Architecture in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or by adding Integrity Shield to protect policies in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM).

Red Hat is partnering with IBM Research to advance technologies that will permit it to protect platform integrity and the integrity of client workloads through the entire software supply chains. In addition, IBM Research is working with Red Hat on analytic capabilities to identify and remediate vulnerabilities and other security risks in code and configurations.

Telco network intelligence and slice management with AL/ML

Communication service providers (CSPs) such as telcos are key enablers of 5G at the edge. 5G benefits for these providers include:

The end-to-end 5G network comprises the Radio Access Network (RAN), transport, and core domains. Network slicing in 5G is an architecture that enables multiple virtual and independent end-to-end logical networks with different characteristics such as low latency or high bandwidth, to be supported on the same physical network. This is implemented using cloud-native technology enablers such as software defined networking (SDN), virtualization, and multi-access edge computing. Slicing offers necessary flexibility by allowing the creation of specific applications, unique services, and defined user groups or networks.

An important aspect of enabling AI at the edge requires IBM to provide CSPs with the capability to deploy and manage applications across various enterprise locations, possibly spanning multiple end-to-end network slices, using a single pane of glass.

5G network slicing and slice management

5G Network Slice Management

Network slices are an essential part of IBM's edge infrastructure that must be automated, orchestrated and optimized according to 5G standards. IBMs strategy is to leverage AI/ML to efficiently manage, scale, and optimize the slice quality of service, measured in terms of bandwidth, latency, or other metrics.

5G and AI/ML at the edge also represent a significant opportunity for CSPs to move beyond traditional cellular services and capture new sources of revenue with new services.

Communications service providers need management and control of 5G network slicing enabled with AI-powered automation.

Dr. Fuller sees a variety of opportunities in this area. "When it comes to applying AI and ML on the network, you can detect things like intrusion detection and malicious actors," he said. "You can also determine the best way to route traffic to an end user. Automating 5G functions that run on the network using IBM network automation software also serves as an entry point.

In IBMs current telecom trial, IBM Research is spearheading the development of a range of capabilities targeted for the IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation product using AI and automation to orchestrate, operate and optimize multivendor network functions and services that include:

Future leverage of these capabilities by existing IBM Clients that use the Cloud Pak for Network Automation (e.g., DISH) can offer further differentiation for CSPs.

5G radio access

Intelligence @ the Edge of 5G networks

Open radio access networks (O-RANs) are expected to significantly impact telco 5G wireless edge applications by allowing a greater variety of units to access the system. The O-RAN concept separates the DU (Distributed Units) and CU (Centralized Unit) from a Baseband Unit in 4G and connects them with open interfaces.

O-RAN system is more flexible. It uses AI to establish connections made via open interfaces that optimize the category of a device by analyzing information about its prior use. Like other edge models, the O-RAN architecture provides an opportunity for continuous monitoring, verification, analysis, and optimization of AI models.

The IBM-telco collaboration is expected to advance O-RAN interfaces and workflows. Areas currently under development are:

IBM Cloud and Infrastructure

The cornerstone for the delivery of IBM's edge solutions as a service is IBM Cloud Satellite. It presents a consistent cloud-ready, cloud-native operational view with OpenShift and IBM Cloud PaaS services at the edge. In addition, IBM integrated hardware and software Edge systems will provide RHACM - based management of the platform when clients or third parties have existing managed as a service models. It is essential to note that in either case this is done within a single control plane for hubs and spokes that helps optimize execution and management from any cloud to the edge in the hub and spoke model.

Secure Decentralized Edge Data Lake

IBM's focus on edge in means it can provide the infrastructure through things like the example shown above for software defined storage for federated namespace data lake that surrounds other hyperscaler clouds. Additionally, IBM is exploring integrated full stack edge storage appliances based on hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), such as the Spectrum Fusion HCI, for enterprise edge deployments.

As mentioned earlier, data gravity is one of the main driving factors of edge deployments. IBM has designed its infrastructure to meet those data gravity requirements, not just for the existing hub and spoke topology but also for a future spoke-to-spoke topology where peer-to-peer data sharing becomes imperative (as illustrated with the wealth of examples provided in this article).

Wrap up

Edge is a distributed computing model. One of its main advantages is that computing, and data storage and processing is close to where data is created. Without the need to move data to the cloud for processing, real-time application of analytics and AI capabilities provides immediate solutions and drives business value.

IBMs goal is not to move the entirety of its cloud infrastructure to the edge. That has little value and would simply function as a hub to spoke model operating on actions and configurations dictated by the hub.

IBMs architecture will provide the edge with autonomy to determine where data should reside and from where the control plane should be exercised.

Equally important, IBM foresees this architecture evolving into a decentralized model capable of edge-to-edge interactions. IBM has no firm designs for this as yet. However, the plan is to make the edge infrastructure and platform a first-class citizen instead of relying on the cloud to drive what happens at the edge.

Developing a complete and comprehensive AI/ML edge architecture - and in fact, an entire ecosystem - is a massive undertaking. IBM faces many known and unknown challenges that must be solved before it can achieve success.

However, IBM is one of the few companies with the necessary partners and the technical and financial resources to undertake and successfully implement a project of this magnitude and complexity.

Read more:

IBM Research Rolls Out A Comprehensive AI And ML Edge Research Strategy Anchored By Enterprise Partnerships And Use Cases - Forbes

SINGAPORE, Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PureSoftware, a global software products and services company, together with TFI Research, a global leader in market surveys and integrated insights have conducted a comprehensive study on conversational AI in banks and released 'The Global Report on Conversational AI for Banks 2022.'

The report includes detailed insights into conversational AI in banks, the evolution of AI besides its application within the banks, and how the technology is shaping the next-gen banking experience. Through the report, readers can get explicit understanding on how conversational AI is powering the banking success, the organizational as well as customer centric opportunities it brings, and how it is transforming traditional banking value chain, processes, along with the journeys of both banking customers and employees.

Conversational AI is set to usher in the new era of human-bot collaboration in the banks around the world. The time is ripe for the Readers, Academicians, Policymakers, Researchers, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Support Teams, and Community Managers to have a thorough read into the report and uncover some transformational and unique insights that can be leveraged to develop multidimensional AI driven digital strategy for banks. The report can be downloaded athttps://puresoftware.com/conversational-ai-for-banks/.

About PureSoftware

PureSoftware is a global software products and digital services company that is driving transformation for the world's top organizations in 35+ cities across 11 countries. Being a trusted partner to global leaders worldwide, the company enables their digital transformation journey to accelerate business outcomes and improve customer experience. PureSoftware's industry-specific platforms and services around Digital Transformation, Hyperautomation, Cloud, Infrastructure and Cybersecurity are directly aligned to the current and future needs of their clients. The company partners with global organizations across focused verticals, including Banking, Financial Services, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Telecom & Semiconductors, Retail & Logistics, and Casino Gaming.

To know more please visit: https://puresoftware.com

About TFI Research

TFI Research is the global leader in market surveys and integrated insights across multiple industries. Since 2009, TFI Research has grown into the world's finest research company with more than 10,000 experts and a network in 183+ countries. The company has been guiding businesses across multiple domains and industries to make informed business decisions through high quality data, analysis, and business outcomes.

To know more please visit: https://tfiresearch.com

Media Contact: Amitabh Chaudhary[emailprotected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1873288/PureSoftware_Conversational_AI.jpgLogo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1450649/PureSoftware_Logo.jpg

SOURCE PureSoftware

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PureSoftware and TFI Research release 'The Global Report on Conversation AI for Banks 2022' - PR Newswire

One of my appearances on the program of the American Academy of Religion conference in Denver in November is on a panel discussing the book AI 2041. The concept is one that immediately grabbed me: a book co-authored by a sci-fi author and a scientist, a collection of short stories and essays, the former depicting scenarios that the latter discusses. Speculative fiction and speculative nonfiction working hand in hand. I do not yet know how we are going to divvy up the stories among us. Many of them have religious themes to them and so it is natural for this book to be explored at AAR. I like that the panelists reflect a range of different backgrounds, perspectives, and areas of expertise, meaning that we will explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and religion in diverse ways. There is a high level of techno-optimism in the project even the stories explore situations involving misinformation, isolation mitigated only by technology-mediated interactions, unemployment, surveillance, and terrorism.

Given my interest in misinformation and information literacy, and the intersection of religion and politics, I hope that one of the stories I end up commenting on is Gods Behind the Masks which explores the use of deepfake technology to influence an election in Nigeria. You can read the story courtesy ofWIRED. Just as misinformation about issues makes it difficult if not impossible to be sure that one is adopting the correct stance on a matter of policy, deepfakes make it impossible to be sure that one has a sense of the views and character of a candidate. All of this together undermines democracy to an unprecedented extent. These technologies strike a blow at everything I do and everything I value. What is the point of pursuing scholarship when it can be undermined through misinformation? What is the point of supporting free elections when they can be hijacked by those with sufficient wealth to employ technologies to mislead a majority of voters? I am more worried about these things than I am that the role I play as educator will itself be automated. Duolingo is doing a good job of coaching me as I seek to improve my ability in several languages, but an AI could not have created the language program itself nor provided the specific language content. Thus far attempts to automate human activities other than monotonous ones have been unsuccessful. I am not so naive as to think that could never change, but some futurists keep promising that it will or even speak as though it already has. Not so.

Given my work on the ethics of driverless cars Iloved the story The Holy Driver which finds a potential role for human drivers in a world of autonomous vehicles.Motortrend has shared that one. Another favorite is Isle of Happiness which is about human flourishing and fulfilment in a world in which so much work has been made unnecessary thanks to AI and other technological developments. Especially when considered alongside the other stories in the collection about the future of employment, The Job Savior and Dreaming of Plenitude, it provides a helpful imaginative framework for wrestling with what it will mean to be human if technology can take over many of the most human activities. But Isle of Happiness tackles perhaps the biggest question of all: can AI and big data get to know us better than we know ourselves to such an extent that it can help us to pursue that which will genuinely, truly make us happy?

I am looking forward to exploring these stories at AAR and to the conversation with other panelists about the novel. I will probably offer a longer review of stories once we have decided which ones I should focus on. In the meantime, the precise topics that these stories explore continue to make the news. And so here are other links related to this topic, and dont miss that the first one is a call for papers that will likely be of interest if the topic of AI 2041 interests you!

There is a call for papers for the Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy, Vol. 6 (2023). The theme of the issue will be: From HAL to Ultron: The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence

Sci-Phi Journal: Religious Traditions Considered Through Science Fiction and Fantasy

Here is an award-winning paper by Olaf Witkowski and Eric Schwitzgebel, Ethics of Artificial Life: The Moral Status of Life as It Could Be.

Metas new BlenderBot chatbot is available. Heres how my first conversation with it went:

AI-generated art on the subject of Catholicism

The Privileges of Personhood

Tiktok and Deepfake Disinformation on Social Media in Kenya

How We Can Be Certain a Machine Isnt Conscious

A Google engineer mistook a powerful AI as sentient because of this human cognitive glitch

Lamda Sentience: Psychology, Ethics, and Policy

Interview on Lamda and Sentience

The Problem of Truthful AI

Gizmodo andNature on Deepmind and protein folding

New Physics

DMV accuses Tesla of false advertising with regard to self driving mode

Whatever happened to transhumanism?

Notes from the Transhuman Frontiers

Eric Schwitzgebel challenged readers of his blog to distinguish real Daniel Dennett from an AI imitation. He then followed up with the results of the experiment.

David Brin on sapience, sentience, and AI

Persons in the Moral Sense

Robots, Emotions, and Relational Capacities

Can AI Have A Soul? Fireside Chat With Blake Lemoine

Blake Lemoine On AI Sentience

More AI debate between Scott Aaronson and Steven Pinker

Acting Machines

Is The Internet What I Think It is?

Interview with Cara Rock-Singer

The Center for Foreign Relations on confronting reality in cyberspace

A chess-playing robot broke its opponents finger

A robot has learned to follow LEGO instructions

Technology and rabbinic literature meet in a new app

Also relevant to the intersection of religion and science fiction:

This podcast onTaking Religion Seriously mentions Jediism

Sequart has released a book about Stargate,Unauthorized Offworld Activation

On a less serious note:

Asking AI about religion

Also silly but relevant: Can a robot become a Christian?

The rest is here:

AI 2041 Panel at #SBLAAR22 (and a Conversation with #BlenderBot about Religion) - Patheos

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Rank One Computing aims to expand AI, facial recognition software throughout West Virginia, United States - WV News

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iPredictTM late Stroke prediction model provides a fully automated prediction score for incident stroke and identifies the individuals who are at risk of stroke within 5-years. These results were presented at the international conference: Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics World Congress and show that the prediction model may help prevent stroke, saving millions of people from death or disability.

Once high-resolution images of the patients eyes have been captured using a color fundus camera and submitted to the iPredictTM AI System, the stroke prediction results are available in a fully automated report in less than 60 seconds. The entire test can easily and reliably be completed within 5 minutes.

This prediction model offers an overall accuracy of 82.4% for identifying an individual at risk of having an incident stroke within 5-years.

iPredict achieved higher accuracy than existing stroke prediction models such as Framingham and Chads scores (iPredict-stroke accuracy 82.4% compared to Framingham score 64.9%, and the CHADS2VASC score achieved 63.8% accuracy respectively on the same dataset).

iPredicts stroke model can be used to alert physicians of the need to take further preventive measures for these patients in the primary care setting.

The company also has AI-based screening tools for early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (DR), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and glaucoma which are CE certified and TGA/Australian health approved.

iHealthScreen company is open to partnerships for distribution and/or co-development of its products in various territories. For more information: https://www.iHealthScreen.org

Read the rest here:

iHealthScreen Inc. Introduces An Automated Stroke Prediction Model, based on AI and Color Fundus Imaging - Business Wire

The exclusive partnership enables advanced AI-fueled video capture, decision support, and clinical research tools for endoscopists worldwide.

Press Release - Aug 8, 2022 07:00 EDT

CARLSBAD, Calif., August 8, 2022 (Newswire.com) - Virgo Surgical Video Solutions, Inc. ("Virgo") and Satisfai Health Inc. ("Satisfai") today announced an exclusive partnership to revolutionize gastroenterology decision support and clinical research with AI-fueled, cloud-enabled endoscopic solutions. Virgo, the industry leader in endoscopy video capture technology, and Satisfai, a vanguard in developing artificial intelligence solutions for gastroenterology, will leverage their combined strengths to realize the full potential of AI-powered precision imaging that will revolutionize GI medicine.

"Artificial Intelligence in medicine is being increasingly adopted across various clinical specialties, with gastroenterology being one key field of use, particularly endoscopy," said Dr. Michael Byrne, CEO and founder of Satisfai Health, Clinical Professor of Medicine and gastroenterologist in Vancouver. "At Satisfai, we are proud of the comprehensive range of our AI solutions, and believe that our suite of tools addresses the key clinical and market needs. We have watched our colleagues at Virgo grow their video capture and cloud capabilities exponentially over the last few years, and recognize that they are the perfect partner to host our growing range of AI solutions for GI clinical practice and clinical trials."

"We are seeing impressive data showing the benefit of AI solutions in GI endoscopy that improve doctors' live performance, and thus improve patient outcomes," said Dr. Nasim Parsa, gastroenterologist, and VP of Medical Affairs at Satisfai. "Having recently completed my advanced training at the Mayo Clinic, it is incredibly exciting to see AI solutions improve endoscopic training, and essentiallyput an expert on your shoulderin every endoscopy suite globally. Partnering with Virgo is a great step towards achieving this aim."

Today, gastroenterology teams at many of the world's leading academic GI and IBD centers, integrated hospital networks, and private practice groups use Virgo to capture and compile their endoscopic video data into a single, easy-to-use platform without interrupting clinical workflows. Virgo's automated video capture technology, combined with Satisfai's real-time analysis of endoscopic imaging data and companion diagnostic tools, will enhance physician decision-making and dramatically improve patient outcomes across many GI disease states - including colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, Barrett's Esophagus, Celiac disease, and Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

"After working with the brightest clinical minds in GI endoscopy over the last several years, and getting to know both the product vision and team at Satisfai, we believe that bringing Satisfai's marquis solution set to our end-users is the best way for Virgo to continue adding clinical value to gastroenterologists, both in a Standard of Care and Research capacity. We could not be more excited to realize this vision and bring real-time, in-line AI solutions to gastroenterologists worldwide," said Ian Strug, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Virgo.

To learn more about the exclusive partnership between Virgo and Satisfai, please reach out to Andrew Stibbs or Jake Hungarter to arrange a meeting.

Andrew Stibbs, Chief Operating Officer, Satisfai: andrew@satisfai.healthJake Hungarter, Senior Marketing Manager, Virgo: jake@virgosvs.com

About Virgo

Virgo provides the leading cloud video capture, management, and artificial intelligence analysis platform for endoscopic medicine. Academic, integrated, and private practice healthcare providers use the Virgo platform to advance patient care through video-based research and training initiatives. Since launching, Virgo has helped physicians capture over 400,000 endoscopy procedures using industry-leading HIPAA, HITRUST, and SOC 2-compliant cloud service providers. Virgo also supports integration with all leading electronic health records systems.

In 2021, Virgo launched a suite of tools called VirgoTrials, which help pharmaceutical trial sponsors and their participating trial sites accelerate patient recruitment and shorten the overall enrollment period for trials. For more information, visitvirgosvs.com.

About Satisfai Health

Satisfai is a leading medical solutions provider specializing in AI applications applied to large addressable markets in gastroenterology. Satisfai's solutions deliver real-time medical imagery analysis, providing clinicians with decision support intelligence that dramatically improves patient outcomes. Satisfai is supported by a highly respected board of medical clinicians and key opinion leaders who operate at the top of their fields in the many areas of gastroenterology. Satisfai enjoys a strong voice on academic panels and leading GI societies, and direct access to prominent industry players seeking to adopt new AI technologies in gastroenterology.For more information, visitsatisfai.health.

Source: Virgo Surgical Video Solutions, Inc.

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Virgo and Satisfai Health Bring AI to Life in Gastroenterology - Newswire