Let’s Engage with Ms. Mohan- Smart Northeastern Reporter

BIG TECH FIRMS REPORT:

Earnings Season requires that entrepreneurs look into the “reported results” and think about what was NOT revealed.  Here’s a smart reporter at Fast Company finally looking at results of the biggest tech companies.

Read what she has to say….

An earnings bonanza was had this week, with heavy hitters like Apple, Tesla, Alphabet, Amazon, and Twitter reporting Q3 earnings. For some, it was a cakewalk: Alphabet revenue was up due to mobile search and video, and Tesla had its second profitable quarter in three years.

Picture Credit: Bell Helicopter

For others, namely Twitter, middling earnings were just the icing on the cake: Twitter also revealed that it is cutting 9% of its workforce—about 350 jobs—and soon after, came the news that Twitter is shuttering Vine. Chipotle, too, had less-than-stellar earnings: A 22% decrease in same-store sales proves that last year’s food safety scandal is still affecting Chipotle’s bottom line.

In other news, Microsoft and Apple both released new hardware in the way of the Surface Studio PC and new MacBook Pros; the FCC ruled that AT&T, Comcast, and other broadband providers can no longer collect user data without permission; Snapchat wants to raise $4 billion in its IPO next year; and Facebook is still trying to replicate Snapchat.

And Chipolte is turning around BTW – great product and dedication to service. Here’s their new delivery team presented above. Shhh!

Tweets by pavsmo

Is DNA Storage Going to Lead to Mind Implantation?

Picture credit: NHGRI- https://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/

Last fall, IAI spent a term at the Harvard Graduate Extension School studying bioinformatics which is a cross-disciplinary area uniting computational biology and large scale data analysis. The revolution in applying computational power to biology accelerated with the Human Genome Project when the cost of sequencing the human genome was $1 billion but today, it costs just over a thousand dollars to sequence an entire genome, which is approximately three billion letters, and the price will continue to drop as the technology advances. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) supports the databases that contain trillions of sequences.  A genome consists of all of the DNA contained in a cell’s nucleus. DNA is composed of four chemical building blocks or “bases” (for simplicity, abbreviated G, A, T, and C), with the biological information encoded within DNA determined by the order of those bases. Diploid organisms, like humans and all other mammals, contain duplicate copies of almost all of their DNA (i.e., pairs of chromosomes; with one chromosome of each pair inherited from each parent).

Andy Extance at Nature chronicled how this DNA storage race spring from cocktail napkins in 2011 to monthly breakthroughs this past summer. At the European Bioinformation Institute, a brainstorming session at a Hamburg Germany conference in February 2011 focused on how to afford to store the reams of genome sequences and other data the world was throwing at these engineers. The lead researcher and “his EBI colleague Ewan Birney took the idea back to their labs, and two years later announced that they had successfully used DNA to encode five files, including Shakespeare’s sonnets and a snippet of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech¹. By then, biologist George Church and his team at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had unveiled an independent demonstration of DNA encoding². But at 739 kilobytes (kB), the EBI files comprised the largest DNA archive ever produced — until July 2016, when researchers from Microsoft and the University of Washington claimed a leap to 200 megabytes (MB).” The MIT Technology Review applauded the breakthrough here.

Microsoft is touting its capabilities in this area -but its program is very dependent upon a University of Washington computer science lab and some early stage partners. Pre-IPO firm Twist Bioscience lays out the case for finding an alternative to the magnetic data storage dilemma (and it is a Microsoft partner):

Most of the world’s data is stored using media that won’t last for more than several decades, even in the optimal conditions of freezing temperatures and total darkness [1]. One study showed that data on a hard drive running for four years shows an attrition rate of 22%—hardly stellar performance. Meanwhile, the amount of digital data in the world is doubling every two years, and our ability to store all that data is not keeping pace. According to a recent study by EMC, by 2020 we will only be able to store 15% of our digital data, whereas in 2013 we could store 33%.

The ability to encode digital information in strands of DNA is a major advancement in archival technology because DNA molecules are not susceptible to the most dire limitations of traditional digital storage media: limited lifespan, permanent/standard format and low data density. There is enormous enthusiasm among venture capital funds about DNA storage and the money is flowing into emerging memory technologies, DNA storage and computing, hardware accelerators for machine learning, and system software for new architectures.

Picture credit: MSFT / University of Washington

IDC predicts that the worldwide total of stored digital data will hit 16 trillion gigabytes next year, most of it housed in huge data centers. The University of Washington’s Strauss estimates that a shoebox worth of DNA could hold the equivalent of roughly 100 giant data centers.

Well, for MSFT, it’s all about the possibilities   – ah, yes, the ultimate operating system: can’t disconnect, price is your life, they get paid for the feeds, and you cannot refuse automatic system “upgrades”, even if they are as bad as Windows 10 ! IAI worries that these DNA Storage advances will not be equally shared among the population and that there could be people like Ray Kurzweil who implant new memories into their brain as their bodies survive as vessels on pig-grown replacement parts. For me, I believe in the sanctity of the soul…

Picture Credit: TodayIAmBlessed.com

Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft come together to create historic Partnership on AI

Hmmmn…is this standard setting, oligopoly or collusion???

Picture Credit: TechCrunch tagged as “AI competition” (?)

Posted with no further comment from TechCrunch….

” The world’s largest technology companies hold the keys to some of the largest databases on our planet. Much like goods and coins before it, data is becoming an important currency for the modern world. The data’s value is rooted in its applications to artificial intelligence. Whichever company owns the data, effectively owns AI. Right now that means companies like Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, IBM and Microsoft have a ton of power. In an act of self-governance, these five companies came together today to announce the launch the new Partnership on AI. The group is tasked with conducting research and promoting best practices. Practically, this means that the group of tech companies will come together frequently to discuss advancements in artificial intelligence. The group also opens up a formal structure for communication across company lines. It’s important to remember that on a day-to-day basis, these teams are in constant competition with each other to develop the best products and services powered by machine intelligence.

Financial support will be coming from the initial tech companies that are members of the group, but in the future, membership and involvement is expected to increase. User activists, nonprofits, ethicists and other stakeholders will be joining the discussion in the coming weeks. “We want to involve people impacted by AI as well,” said Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and head of applied AI at DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet. The organizational structure has been designed to allow non-corporate groups to have equal leadership side-by-side with large tech companies.

As of today’s launch, companies like Apple, Twitter, Intel and Baidu are missing from the group. Though Apple is said to be enthusiastic about the project, their absence is still notable because the company has fallen behind in artificial intelligence when compared to its rivals — many of which are part of this new group. The new organization really seems to be about promoting change by example. Rather than preach to the tech world, it wants to use a standard open license to publish research on topics, including ethics, inclusivity and privacy. “The power of AI is in the enterprise sector,” said Francesca Rossi, an AI ethics researcher at IBM Research. “For society at-large to get the benefits of AI, we first have to trust it.”

The focus of the organization is a refreshing juxtaposition to more pop-culture discussions about the risks of artificial intelligence. While the jury is still out as to whether a singularity event could threaten mankind, we already face a long list of challenges in today’s world of AI. While computers are not at a point yet where they can take all of our jobs, they can amplify the negative tendencies that humans already possess. A biased world can result in biased data sets and, in turn, bias artificial intelligence frameworks. To combat this, companies like Microsoft have already formed AI ethics advisory boards. But, rather than override existing efforts, the new group augments projects already undertaken at individual companies and provides a forum for sharing valuable advice. The group plans to make discussions and minutes from meetings publicly available.

Echo and the Voice Activated Device Space – AI Vectors

Picture Credit: Amazon

Update: The massive denial of service attacks last week were traced to a takeover of smart home devices by a Chinese firm according to Anthony Mongeluzo from Pro Computer Services as he detailed on Fox Business here. Internet traffic company Dyn told CNBC it faced continued DDoS (denial of service) attacks on 21 October, 2016 were “well planned and executed, coming from tens of millions of IP addresses at the same time.” What is more worrying is the CIA claim that more DDoS attacks are “planned” for election day, according to Carmen Medina (?), the former CIA Deputy Director of Intel who’s talking points were broadcast across the main stream media repetitively since the third debate ended last Wednesday.

Like the Red Sox’s Hanley Ramirez, Amazon is on a roll. It has the online e-commerce market in a vice hold and the fast shipping and benefits of its Prime service are compelling to repeat customers. Frankly, unlike Wal-Mart or KMart or Target (stupid bathroom absurdity), Amazon has choice, price advantage and convenience. IAI is a customer and repeat buyer for these reasons but we can, in fact, ask Jeff Bezos to avoid the mistake their Internet brethren have made in their social media and Virtual Reality (VR) ventures – that is, don’t censor or manipulate or indoctrinate or lie or invade the privacy of your customers.  In fact, the biggest threat to privacy lies in the Internet of Things (IoT) being hacked (which it has been and will) as something as basic as a Samsung TV communicates actively with up to 200 IoT devices in your home, oh, and records and videos activity inside your home ! That must be buried in the “usage agreement” written by a team of lawyers who declare you lose your privacy for “free services.” But IoT is forecast to be a $290B market by 2017, maybe larger.

So, let’s look carefully at the current Amazon hit – “the Echo” which is a voice-activated device (much like ones from Apple, Google [Home] and Microsoft [Cortona] offerings) that is “always on” and “logs every sentence spoken to it,” according to the London Telegraph. But wait, my British chums, it logs every sound it hears and is a continuous transmission device relying on serial inference and contextual awareness. In fact, “voice-activated smart home systems” are all the rage and are the enablers of the IoT takeover of homes from “dumb humans.” /S But, as Slate points out, just trust the – completely…

Five things you can do with the Echo

• Control your music by saying “Alexa, play some Adele” without having to pick up your phone or walk over to your laptop
• Ask for weather information by saying “Alexa, what’s the weather?”
• Get other handy information such as the time and traffic on your commute
• Alexa can also help out in the kitchen by answering questions such as “Alexa, set a timer for 25” minutes
• Third party compatibility with Alexa means that you’ll soon be able to order a pizza or book a taxi by calling out

The story of Echo actually starts with Amazon’s acquisitions of Alexa (website rankings & “actionable analytics” – 1999) and Evi (artificial intelligence – 2013) combined with the construction of a customer-centric shopping database and the development of a massive cloud computing capability. Even though the Amazon “Fire Phone” was a late-to-the-party fail, it did get Amazon thinking creatively about bunding devices with content using the lure of a “Prime” customer relationship which has translated into customer loyalty. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reported that the Prime customer base grew 43% by H1 16 to 63M (over half of its customer base) with a annual spend differential of $1200 (Price) to $500 (non-Prime). Unlike dumb Siri which often routes drivers into traffic or gets them lost (try the smarter Google Waze), the Echo is quite efficient and represents a precursor of an animated robot assistant for the household or business applications. The Telegraph nails it as a platform for the introduction of artificial intelligence devices into every aspect of society.

Amazon’s software also seems more reliable. The company’s prowess in cloud computing – which has spawned the colossal Amazon Web Services unit – means that the Echo has access to the near-infinite computing resources of the company’s servers: it can hear a question, send it to be processed, receive an answer and relay it in milliseconds. And Amazon’s underrated artificial intelligence chops, honed using years of shopping data and developed at an R&D base in Cambridge, have allowed it to sneak under the radar.

Waay back in April 2014, WIRED called IoT “far bigger than anyone realizes.” To dig in deeper, the research shop of the article, Burrus Research, operates with  “a philosophy of helping clients understand and profit from the driving forces of technology-driven change, enabling them to gain new competitive advantage as they create new products, markets, services and careers.” Hardly a  Johnny-Come-Lately, futurist Dan Burrus has hung his shingle since 1983 and he does not see IoT as simply ‘increased machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.

When we talk about making machines “smart,” we’re not referring strictly to M2M. We’re talking about sensors. A sensor is not a machine. It doesn’t do anything in the same sense that a machine does. It measures, it evaluates; in short, it gathers data. The Internet of Things really comes together with the connection of sensors and machines. That is to say, the real value that the Internet of Things creates is at the intersection of gathering data and leveraging it. All the information gathered by all the sensors in the world isn’t worth very much if there isn’t an infrastructure in place to analyze it in real time. Cloud-based applications are the key to using leveraged data. The Internet of Things doesn’t function without cloud-based applications to interpret and transmit the data coming from all these sensors. The cloud is what enables the apps to go to work for you anytime, anywhere.

In closing, try to think of hapless astronaut Dave when his onboard mainframe HAL refuses his commands in the classic 1968 sci-fi movie “2001: A Space Odessey.”  Legendary film critic Robert Ebert explained,

What (Director Stanley Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke) had actually done was make a philosophical statement about man’s place in the universe, using images as those before him had used words, music or prayer. And he had made it in a way that invited us to contemplate it — not to experience it vicariously as entertainment, as we might in a good conventional science-fiction film, but to stand outside it as a philosopher might, and think about it. Life onboard the Discovery is presented as a long, eventless routine of exercise, maintenance checks and chess games with HAL. Only when the astronauts fear that HAL’s programming has failed does a level of suspense emerge; their challenge is somehow to get around HAL, which has been programmed to believe, “This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.”

IAI leaves you with this classic scene: “Open the pod bay doors, HAL” –  [Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDrDUmuUBTo%5D

 

In future posts, I’ll direct some attention to:

• Amazon’s Evi and its Lab 126 in Silicon Valley
• Google’s Deep Mind, Magic Leap and API.AI
  
• Apple’s VocalIQ
• Facebook’s Oculus Rift
• Fossil Group’s Misfit and Recon Instruments