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IBM announces AI-powered decision-making

Project DataWorks predictive model (credit: IBM)

IBM today announced today Watson-based “Project DataWorks,” the first cloud-based data and analytics platform to integrate all types of data and enable AI-powered decision-making.

Project DataWorks is designed to make it simple for business leaders and data professionals to collect, organize, govern, and secure data, and become a “cognitive business.”

Achieving data insights is increasingly complex, and most of this work is done by highly skilled data professionals who work in silos with disconnected tools and data services that may be difficult to manage, integrate, and govern, says IBM. Businesses must also continually iterate their data models and products — often manually — to benefit from the most relevant, up-to-date insights.

IBM says Project DataWorks can help businesses break down these barriers by connecting all data and insights for their users into an integrated, self-service platform.

Available on Bluemix, IBM’s Cloud platform, Project DataWorks is designed to help organizations:

  • Automate the deployment of data assets and products using cognitive-based machine learning and Apache Spark;
  • Ingest data faster than any other data platform, from 50 to hundreds of Gbps, and all endpoints: enterprise databases, Internet of Things, weather, and social media;
  • Leverage an open ecosystem of more than 20 partners and technologies, such as Confluent, Continuum Analytics, Galvanize, Alation, NumFOCUS, RStudio, Skymind, and more.

 

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Seth Rogen plans FX TV comedy series on the Singularity

Seth Rogan in poster for “The Interview” (credit: Columbia Pictures)

Seth Rogen (Freaks and Geeks, Knocked Up, Superbad) and collaborator Evan Goldberg are writing the script for a pilot for a new “half-hour comedy television series about the Singularity for FX,” Rogen revealed Thursday (August 11) on Nerdist podcast: Seth Rogen Returns (at 55:20 mark), while promoting his latest film, Sausage Party (an animated movie that apparently sets a new world record for f-bombs, based on the trailer).

“Yeah, it’s happening, I just read an article about neural dust,” said host Chris Hardwick.

“Oh, it’s happening, it’s super scary, and we’re trying to make a comedy about it,” said Rogen. “We’ll film that in the next year, basically.”

“Neural dust are, like, small particles, kind of like nano-mites, that work in your systems,” Hardwick said, “and can …” — “wipe out whole civilizations,” Rogen interjected. “But, you know, they always kinda pitch you the good stuff first: it could help your body,” Hardwick added.

(credit: Vanity Fair)

Also mentioned on the podcast: a “prank show [All People Are Famous] next week where the guy we’re pranking thinks he’s responsible for the Singularity … goes nuts, destroying everything. …”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Futurists worldwide celebrate ‘Future Day’ March 1st

(credit: Adam Ford)

Today, March 1, five international futurist organizations will conduct a 24-hour global online conversation about the world’s potential futures, challenges, and opportunities. The objective is to support humanity in thinking about a more positive future.

Already started in New Zealand, the conversation is moving across the world with people entering and leaving the conversation whenever they want. The five organizations (The Millennium Project; the Association of Professional Futurists; “Science, Technology & the Future”; World Future Society; and the World Futures Studies Federation) will provide facilitators for each of the 24 time zones when possible (ending March 1 at 1:00pm Hawaii time (GMT-10). Join the current Google hangout here (updates on the Millennium Project website).

(credit: Millennium Project)

If the limit of interactive video conference participation is reached, new arrivals will be able to see and hear, but not have their video seen and voice heard; they can tweet their questions and comments to @MillenniumProj (#FutureDay2016, #FutureWeCreate, #FutureWeShare, #FutureWeWant,#FUTUREDAY). (As people drop out, new video slots will open up.)

Four years ago on March 1, 2012, groups around the globe celebrated Future Day for the first time. This year, Joyce Gioia, CEO of The Herman Group and Claire A. Nelson,PhD, Founder of The Futures Forum, will join Jerome Glenn, CEO of The Millennium Project, to make this global online event a success.

More information:

  • Association of Professional Futurists, Joyce Gioia (for Cindy Frewen, Chair) 336.210.3548
  • Future Day, Science, Technology & the Future: Adam Ford, tech101@gmail.com
  • The Millennium Project, Jerome Glenn, CEO, Jerome.Glenn@Millennium-Project.org
  • World Future Society: Julie Friedman Steele, julie@wfs.org
  • World Futures Studies Federation, Jennifer Gidley, PhD, President wfsf.president@jennifergidley.com
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Can human-machine superintelligence solve the world’s most dire problems?


Human Computation Institute | Dr. Pietro Michelucci

“Human computation” — combining human and computer intelligence in crowd-powered systems — might be what we need to solve the “wicked” problems of the world, such as climate change and geopolitical conflict, say researchers from the Human Computation Institute (HCI) and Cornell University.

In an article published in the journal Science, the authors present a new vision of human computation that takes on hard problems that until recently have remained out of reach.

Humans surpass machines at many things, ranging from visual pattern recognition to creative abstraction. And with the help of computers, these cognitive abilities can be effectively combined into multidimensional collaborative networks that achieve what traditional problem-solving cannot, the authors say.

Microtasking

Microtasking: Crowdsourcing breaks large tasks down into microtasks, which can be things at which humans excel, like classifying images. The microtasks are delivered to a large crowd via a user-friendly interface, and the data are aggregated for further processing. (credit: Pietro Michelucci and Janis L. Dickinson/Science)

Most of today’s human-computation systems rely on “microtasking” — sending “micro-tasks” to many individuals and then stitching together the results. For example, 165,000 volunteers in EyeWire have analyzed thousands of images online to help build the world’s most complete map of human retinal neurons.

Another example is reCAPTCHA, a Web widget used by 100 million people a day when they transcribe distorted text into a box to prove they are human.

“Microtasking is well suited to problems that can be addressed by repeatedly applying the same simple process to each part of a larger data set, such as stitching together photographs contributed by residents to decide where to drop water during a forest fire,” the authors note.

But this microtasking approach alone cannot address the tough challenges we face today, say the authors. “A radically new approach is needed to solve ‘wicked problems’ — those that involve many interacting systems that are constantly changing, and whose solutions have unforeseen consequences, such as climate change, disease, and geopolitical conflict, which are dynamic, involve multiple, interacting systems, and have non-obvious secondary effects, such as political exploitation of a pandemic crisis.”

New human-computation technologies

New human-computation technologies: In creating problem-solving ecosystems, researchers are beginning to explore how to combine the cognitive processing of many human contributors with machine-based computing to build faithful models of the complex, interdependent systems that underlie the world’s most challenging problems. (credit: Pietro Michelucci and Janis L. Dickinson/Science)

The authors say new human computation technologies can help build flexible collaborative environments. Recent techniques provide real-time access to crowd-based inputs, where individual contributions can be processed by a computer and sent to the next person for improvement or analysis of a different kind.

This idea is already taking shape in several human-computation projects:

  • YardMap.org, launched by the Cornell in 2012, maps global conservation efforts. It allows participants to interact and build on each other’s work — something that crowdsourcing alone cannot achieve.
  • WeCureAlz.com accelerates Cornell-based Alzheimer’s disease research by combining two successful microtasking systems into an interactive analytic pipeline that builds blood-flow models of mouse brains. The stardust@home system, which was used to search for comet dust in one million images of aerogel, is being adapted to identify stalled blood vessels, which will then be pinpointed in the brain by a modified version of the EyeWire system.

“By enabling members of the general public to play some simple online game, we expect to reduce the time to treatment discovery from decades to just a few years,” says HCI director and lead author, Pietro Michelucci, PhD. “This gives an opportunity for anyone, including the tech-savvy generation of caregivers and early stage AD patients, to take the matter into their own hands.”

Abstract of The power of crowds

Human computation, a term introduced by Luis von Ahn, refers to distributed systems that combine the strengths of humans and computers to accomplish tasks that neither can do alone. The seminal example is reCAPTCHA, a Web widget used by 100 million people a day when they transcribe distorted text into a box to prove they are human. This free cognitive labor provides users with access to Web content and keeps websites safe from spam attacks, while feeding into a massive, crowd-powered transcription engine that has digitized 13 million articles from The New York Times archives. But perhaps the best known example of human computation is Wikipedia. Despite initial concerns about accuracy, it has become the key resource for all kinds of basic information. Information science has begun to build on these early successes, demonstrating the potential to evolve human computation systems that can model and address wicked problems (those that defy traditional problem-solving methods) at the intersection of economic, environmental, and sociopolitical systems.

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Feeling like things are speeding up?

(credit: NASA)

That may be because they are: Earth is rushing along right now at about 30 kilometers per second (almost 19 miles per second) — moving about a kilometer per second faster than when Earth will be farthest from the Sun on July 4, notes Bruce McClure of EarthSky Tonight.*

Or maybe it’s the accelerating pace of new developments? Tech predictions for 2016 are ranging from “Intelligent agents that will talk to you actively, reminding you of things that are happening and giving you a unique form of augmented reality” (TechCrunch) and “3-D printing’s inflection point: 3-D printed guns, 3-D printed vital organs” (Inc.) to “The Hyperloop will become fully operational” (Computerworld).

What are your predictions?

Head on over to our Forums — where folks are making predictions for 2016 ranging from “Amazon and Walmart will begin experimental delivery of parcels using drones” (Wiccidor) to “Low cost, bendable hi-def displays will make significant inroads in consumer electronics” (beachmike) — and make yours!

We’ll do a reality check on Jan. 2, 2017.

* The reason: today (January 2) our planet Earth reached its closest point to the Sun for this year — Earth’s perihelion. Earth is now about 5 million kilometers (3 million miles) closer to the Sun than it will be on July 4 at aphelion. “Though not responsible for the seasons, Earth’s closest and farthest points to the sun do affect seasonal lengths,” McClure explains.

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Gartner identifies the top 10 strategic IT technology trends for 2016

Top 10 strategic trends 2016 (credit: Gartner, Inc.)

At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo today (Oct. 8), Gartner, Inc. highlighted the top 10 technology trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2016 and will shape digital business opportunities through 2020.

The Device Mesh

The device mesh refers to how people access applications and information or interact with people, social communities, governments and businesses. It includes mobile devices, wearable, consumer and home electronic devices, automotive devices, and environmental devices, such as sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT), allowing for greater cooperative interaction between devices.

Ambient User Experience

The device mesh creates the foundation for a new continuous and ambient user experience. Immersive environments delivering augmented and virtual reality hold significant potential but are only one aspect of the experience. The ambient user experience preserves continuity across boundaries of device mesh, time and space. The experience seamlessly flows across a shifting set of devices — such as sensors, cars, and even factories — and interaction channels blending physical, virtual and electronic environment as the user moves from one place to another.

3D Printing Materials

Advances in 3D printing will drive user demand and a compound annual growth rate of 64.1 percent for enterprise 3D-printer shipments through 2019, which will require a rethinking of assembly line and supply chain processes to exploit 3D printing.

Information of Everything

Everything in the digital mesh produces, uses and transmits information, including sensory and contextual information. “Information of everything” addresses this influx with strategies and technologies to link data from all these different data sources. Advances in semantic tools such as graph databases as well as other emerging data classification and information analysis techniques will bring meaning to the often chaotic deluge of information.

Advanced Machine Learning

In advanced machine learning, deep neural nets (DNNs) move beyond classic computing and information management to create systems that can autonomously learn to perceive the world on their own, making it possible to address key challenges related to the information of everything trend.

DNNs (an advanced form of machine learning particularly applicable to large, complex datasets) is what makes smart machines appear “intelligent.” DNNs enable hardware- or software-based machines to learn for themselves all the features in their environment, from the finest details to broad sweeping abstract classes of content. This area is evolving quickly, and organizations must assess how they can apply these technologies to gain competitive advantage.

Autonomous Agents and Things

Machine learning gives rise to a spectrum of smart machine implementations — including robots, autonomous vehicles, virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and smart advisors — that act in an autonomous (or at least semiautonomous) manner.

VPAs such as Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Apple’s Siri are becoming smarter and are precursors to autonomous agents. The emerging notion of assistance feeds into the ambient user experience in which an autonomous agent becomes the main user interface. Instead of interacting with menus, forms and buttons on a smartphone, the user speaks to an app, which is really an intelligent agent.

Adaptive Security Architecture

The complexities of digital business and the algorithmic economy combined with an emerging “hacker industry” significantly increase the threat surface for an organization. Relying on perimeter defense and rule-based security is inadequate, especially as organizations exploit more cloud-based services and open APIs for customers and partners to integrate with their systems. IT leaders must focus on detecting and responding to threats, as well as more traditional blocking and other measures to prevent attacks. Application self-protection, as well as user and entity behavior analytics, will help fulfill the adaptive security architecture.

Advanced System Architecture

The digital mesh and smart machines require intense computing architecture demands to make them viable for organizations. Providing this required boost are high-powered and ultraefficient neuromorphic (brain-like) architectures fueled by GPUs (graphic processing units) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). There are significant gains to this architecture, such as being able to run at speeds of greater than a teraflop with high-energy efficiency.

Mesh App and Service Architecture

Monolithic, linear application designs (e.g., the three-tier architecture) are giving way to a more loosely coupled integrative approach: the apps and services architecture. Enabled by software-defined application services, this new approach enables Web-scale performance, flexibility and agility. Microservice architecture is an emerging pattern for building distributed applications that support agile delivery and scalable deployment, both on-premises and in the cloud. Containers are emerging as a critical technology for enabling agile development and microservice architectures. Bringing mobile and IoT elements into the app and service architecture creates a comprehensive model to address back-end cloud scalability and front-end device mesh experiences. Application teams must create new modern architectures to deliver agile, flexible and dynamic cloud-based applications that span the digital mesh.

Internet of Things Platforms

IoT platforms complement the mesh app and service architecture. The management, security, integration and other technologies and standards of the IoT platform are the base set of capabilities for building, managing, and securing elements in the IoT. The IoT is an integral part of the digital mesh and ambient user experience and the emerging and dynamic world of IoT platforms is what makes them possible.

* Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with the potential for significant impact on the organization. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to the business, end users or IT, the need for a major investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. These technologies impact the organization’s long-term plans, programs and initiatives.

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Millennium Project releases ’2015–16 State of the Future’ report

The Millennium Project released today its annual “2015-16 State of the Future” report, listing global trends on 28 indicators of progress and regress, new insights into 15 Global Challenges, and impacts of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, nanotechnology and other advanced technologies on employment over the next 35 years.

“Another 2.3 billion people are expected to be added to the planet in just 35 years,” the report notes. “By
2050, new systems for food, water, energy, education, health, economics, and global governance will be needed to prevent massive and complex human and environmental disasters.”

This “World Report Card” may have “more data, information, intelligence, and wisdom about the future of the world than has ever been assembled in one report,” says Jerome Glenn, CEO of The Millennium Project and lead author of the report.

The 300-page report distills research from UN organizations, national governments, think tanks, and thought leaders around the world, with more than 50 charts and graphs. A free 14-page executive summary is available in English and five other languages.

The key findings include:

  • The concept of work will change over the next generation or two, but global thought leaders are divided about the best policies to make a smooth transition.
  • By 2050, new systems for food, water, energy, education, health, economics, and global governance will be needed to prevent massive, complex human and environmental disasters.
  • Environmental security should be the focus of joint goals to build strategic trust between the U.S. and China.
  • General human welfare has improved, but at the expense of the environment and with worsening intrastate violence, terrorism, corruption, organized crime, and economic inequality.

The Millennium Project is a global participatory think tank connecting 56 Nodes around the world that identify important long-range challenges and strategies and initiate and conduct foresight studies, workshops, symposiums, and advanced training. Its mission is to improve thinking about the future and make it available through a variety of media for feedback to accumulate wisdom about the future for better decisions today.

In addition to the annual “State of the Future” reports, the Millennium Project  produces thew “Futures Research Methodology” series, the Global Futures Intelligence System (GFIS), and special studies. More than 4,500 futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities have participated in The Millennium Project’s research since its inception in 1992.

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Transhumanist Party presidential candidate to drive ‘Immortality Bus’ across the U.S.

(credit: Rachel Lyn)

Don’t freak out if you see a 40-foot bus resembling a coffin sometime soon. It’s the “Immortality Bus” — a “pro-science symbol of resistance against aging and death” to be driven across the U.S. by futurist and 2016 Transhumanist Party presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan, along with scientists and supporters.

“We’re trying to spread a culture that looks positively at indefinite human lifespans,” Istvan told KurzweilAI. “In addition to rallies and events, we hope to visit a number of universities, where futurist and transhumanist student groups have been popping up. We hope to have these groups on board the bus and offer advice on pursing careers in technology, artificial intelligence, and medicine. Our hope is to get youth to pursue science and engineering, instead of, let’s say, advertising or accounting.

“We also plan to visit homes with disabled war veterans, discuss new technologies that might help them live better, like exoskeleton suits, and hold events for LGBT communities that are increasingly considering virtual reality and other new tech as part of their social lives. We hope these collective efforts will help broaden the horizon of the futurist, transhumanist, and longevity communities that are all using technology to move society forward.”

(credit: Endless Eye)

Indiegogo funding campaign

To raise the $25,000 needed to fund the bus acquisition and four-month tour, Istvan has launched an Indiegogo campaign, which will also help fund a “life-sized, interactive robot on board, drones following us, a biohacking lab for experimenting on ourselves, lots of public event materials, and, of course, fuel.”

The team plans a full national tour on the Immortality Bus, putting on rallies, events, and educational conferences, starting in San Francisco. The goal: “Usher in the next great civil rights debate: Should we use science and technology to overcome death and become a stronger species?” says Istvan, who is author of  the visionary book The Transhumanist Wager.

The Transhumanist Party was founded by futurist and philosopher Zoltan Istvan on October 7, 2014 as a nonprofit organization. It is dedicated to “putting science, health, and technology at the forefront of United States politics. … Many of  the party’s core ideas and goals can be found in the Transhumanist Declaration and in the founding party article in the Huffington Post.”

Formerly a National Geographic Channel reporter, Istvan frequently appears on television and currently writes for Vice, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, Slate, and others. He’s also the inventor of “volcano boarding.”

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Limitless, Minority Report sequels coming to TV

Limitless, a TV series sequel to the movie, picks up after the events of the film. Edward Mora (Bradley Cooper), now a powerful senator and presidential hopeful, reveals the power of the mysterious drug NZT to Brian Finch (Jake McDorman) — who is then coerced by the FBI into using his newfound cognitive abilities to solve complex cases. Cooper is also executive producer.

Fall 2015. More at CBS.com

Minority Report (Fox) will be based on the film by Steven Spielberg (and the first of his films to be adapted for television). The show follows the unlikely partnership between a man haunted by the future and a cop haunted by her past, as they race to stop the worst crimes of the year 2065 before they happen.

Set in Washington, D.C., it is 10 years after the demise of Precrime, a law enforcement agency tasked with identifying and eliminating criminals — before their crimes were committed. The agency used three child precogs who were able to see the future. Now, in 2065, crime-solving is different, and justice leans more on sophisticated and trusted technology than on the instincts of the precogs.

Dash (Stark Sands) —  one of the three precogs freed at the end of the film and now driven by his terrifying but fragmented visions — has returned in secret to help police detective Lara Vega (Meagan Good) attempt to stop the murders that he predicts.

Fall 2015. More at Fox.