Who on Earth is Rob Davis? That's a question many supporters of the Dallas Cowboys are asking, and his sudden hiring to Mike McCarthy's new staff this offseason raised some eyebrows. After all, he has no coaching experience -- at any level of football -- but is now the assistant head coach of literally the most valuable team in all of sports. While it's fair to wonder where McCarthy is going with this, those who know and have worked with Davis have nothing but high praise for him.

Randall Cobb is one such person, and the veteran wide receiver immediately rubber-stamped McCarthy's decision to bring Davis on-staff.

"That man is a legend," he said.

That's a strong endorsement from the usually-reserved Cobb, and it hints at the combination of Davis plus McCarthy being enough to keep the Pro Bowler in Dallas for 2020. That would certainly please Davis, who knows Cobb well from their time together as members of the Green Bay Packers organization.

Davis and the Packers parted ways in 2018, but he first spent an entire decade as the club's director of player personnel, hired into the role in 2008 by McCarthy, who was so impressed with Davis' football acumen he awarded him the job only one year after Davis retired from the NFL -- having spent his previous decade as long snapper for the very same Packers. After a stint in the private sector, Davis is back in football and tasked with helping McCarthy make the Cowboys contenders again.

And while he's labeled as assistant head coach, a source initially framed the hiring to CBS Sports as having nothing to do with X's and O's. Davis himself essentially confirmed as much in speaking with the media this offseason, identifying himself as someone who won't truly be involved with coaching what happens inside the lines, but instead what goes out outside of them.

"Most of my post-playing career has been in the life-coaching space, trying to develop high-performing teams and develop young men into better men and better players," he said. "We're going to start there. Players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

It's Davis' ability to empathize that's helped him find success in those goals, and readily ingratiates him with NFL players who aren't always prepared for the money and potential stardom they acquire once they achieve their lifelong dream of playing in the league.

"The NFL can provide a lot of distractions for these young men coming into the league," he said. "Most of us come from humble beginnings, middle class all the way down to poverty, and sometimes this can be pretty big for us when we walk into the NFL."

So, yes, Davis will help if and as needed with whatever else McCarthy requires, but his primary job is to make sure Cowboys players are prospering off-the-field and, at minimum, are staying far away from negative headlines. Considering the team's perennial issues with the latter, Davis could make his presence felt in that respect almost immediately.

"They're going to do the X's and O's, and I hope to provide assistance with both the X's and O's, but, more importantly, in the life and development of the whole player," Davis said.

McCarthy wants to change the culture of the Cowboys, and adding Davis as his right-hand man is just another example of how dedicated he is to seeing his plan through. It's also a nod to owner Jerry Jones and Co., who are allowing him the freedom to construct the blueprint as he sees fit -- shedding the stubbornness that saw them glued to Jason Garrett for nearly a decade.

It's a new day in Dallas, and nothing thus far points to that statement being hyperbole.

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Cowboys assistant head coach Rob Davis has important role with team, but it's not what many might think - CBS Sports

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) Former Newman basketball coach Mark Potter suffered from anxiety most of his life. Fifteen years ago the anxiety spiraled into severe depression.

That season was different. By the time we got to the first game of that season, I was in severe depression. I had really dark thoughtssuicidal thoughts. To the point of this cloud over my head I can't get rid of it, says Potter sitting in the gym that now has his name painted on the floor.

Potter says in less than six weeks he lost a lot of weight, and interest in the game he loves.

I lost my passion and didn't know why. I would say I would come in and describe it as I would fake it for two hours for practice.

Potter says he did consider suicide and had it not been for his wife, he may have taken his own life.

She finally decided enough is enough. My wife at that point did not take no for an answer.

Retired from coaching, Potter now has a new mission. He travels the country to share his story.

I was not going to talk about this publicly. I felt the guilt and the embarrassment of not being the man, the coach and the father I was supposed to be.

Potter turned to professional help. He went to therapy and was prescribed medications that he proudly tells people he is still on today.

I have no problems telling you and the world Im on medication.

Prairie View President and CEO Jessie Kaye says what Potter is doing is so important to help break the stigma of mental illness.

It's a fear of exposing a vulnerability. When Im sitting in church people may stand up and say there was a spot on my x-ray, or I just found out Im diabetic, or my husband was just diagnosed with cancer. The pastor and congregation are supportive and we send cards and take casseroles. I've never heard anyone stand up and say my anxiety is getting worse or my son is having more trouble with depression or someone in my family attempted suicide, says Kaye.

But thats what Potter is doing. Hes standing up and telling his story through his organization called D2UP. He talks to anyone who will listen, mostly young people in schools and colleges, and tells them that its okay to get help.

There is strength in getting help and becoming the best version of yourself. It is not weakness which is what generation after generation has been told including my generation. If you are struggling at all please take the first step and go to your doctor and do what your doctor tells you to do, says Potter.

Kaye says one in four people will have a mental illness at some point in their life.

A mental illness is a disease. Its a treatable disease. It has to do with chemicals in our brain and recovery is very possible.

Potter says maybe its you, or someone you know. Reaching out for help can and does save lives.

You may change or save a life you never know.

If you or someone you know suffers from anxiety or depression, you can find a list of "Helpful Resources" at kwch.com/stateofmind.

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Former coach shares struggle to overcome anxiety, depression: 'I felt guilty and embarrassed' - KWCH

Transitioning from a well-paid corporate job to building a successful solo business was, for me, a daunting goal with a lot of trial and error.

But when I was laid off from my corporate job in 2000, I needed to reinvent myself. I discovered the emerging field known aslife coaching.

There were many clients along the way whom I didnt say no to because I was afraid I wouldnt have enough money to make it through the month, let alone build the successful business I wanted.

As I eventually discovered, this was the wrong way to grow a business.

Setting proper boundaries is essential for many reasons; one of the most overlooked or counterintuitive reasons is identifying and implementing boundaries creates structure. Thisstructure is necessary to set and achieve goals and build a successful business or relationship.

Saying yes to everyone or working harder is not always the answer. Using the power of no can make the difference for your practice.

When you dont set limits on your time and energy, you can slowly drift away from your goals and values slipping into a self-sabotaging and continual cycle of burn-out, anger, resentment, overwhelm, frustration and disappointment (not to bum you out), none of which will lead you to a prosperous and fulfilling life and business.

I learned this the hard way. I worried if I said no to just one client, I wouldnt make my bills, or worse, put food on the table.

And so, after a lifetime of living with the self-sabotaging pattern of saying yes when I often wanted to say no, I dedicated myself to transforming these patterns into a system to confidently set and convey my boundaries and stay focused on what was most important to me.

I learned ultimately the more laser-focused and structured my goals were, the sooner I would reach them and the less fearful I felt. It makes sense, right?

When you are not used to setting boundaries, it can feel overwhelming, among other emotions. To make it easier for my clients and students to make these changes, I created The TAILOR System.

TAILOR is an acronym for the six steps to empowered boundary-setting. This mnemonic device makes it simple to remember the steps so you can accomplish your goal of boundary-setting and create the life you want.

T is forTrigger. Learn to identify specifically what situations, memories, language, or behaviors trigger your negative feelings of anger, resentment, guilt, hurt, disappointment, etc. Ask yourself: What specifically triggered my negative emotions?

A is forAwareness and Acknowledgment. Learn to becomeawareof your triggers, negative feelings, and self-sabotaging behaviors when they are about to happen or are happening.Learn the power and necessity of acknowledgment of self and others.

I is forIssue and Intuition. Identify what the real underlying issue is. Ask yourself: What is underneath my anger, frustration, guilt, overwhelm, or other initial reactions? Become aware of, and tap into your intuition.

L is forLanguage. Develop new supportive, confident, and empowering language to communicate your expectations and your boundary line.

O is forOutcome. Identify the specific outcome you want, instead of the disempowering one youve been settling for.

R is forResponse. Identify and break the pattern of your old negative and self-sabotaging responses and develop new, more empowering responses.

The TAILOR System is the big picture for boundary-setting. What I hear most often from people is their biggest challenge in boundary-setting is eliciting the proper language to set and convey a boundary, so Id like to give you my favorite tip to get you started. Its called:My Seven Magic Words.

Myseven magic wordsare: Hmm, Id like to think about this. Learning to say no confidently is abigleap when you are not skilled in setting and communicating boundaries. Therefore, you need what I call bridge language to narrow the gap between explaining why you are saying no, and confidently setting a boundary.

Bridge language starts the process of repatterning your knee-jerk, self-sabotaging response of saying yes and transforms it into a considered response.

When you say, Hmm, Id like to think about this, it conveys reflection simply by the language itself. The word hmm provides a thoughtful pause in the response. It conveys you want to carefully consider the request being made.

Lest you think this phrase is the same as saying maybe, it is not.

I encourage to you practice using this phrase whenever someone asks you something even if it doesnt seem to fit the situation. You will learn to build your muscle and break you knee-jerk response of always saying yes.

Defining and implementing your goals through proper boundary-setting will lead you to work with the type of clients whom you value and will value you.

Isnt this one of the most important reasons for having your own business?

About the Author: Julie A. Hawkinswas a lifelong people-pleaser until the unexpected death of her life partner, which forced her to begin setting and conveying proper boundaries to survive and thrive. Drawing on two decades as a life coach and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) trainer, Hawkins developed an innovative six-step system to help others say no without guilt and confidently set boundaries. She lives in Silicon Valley, where she conducts workshops and spends time with her human and furry friends. She is the author of Say No Without Guilt, Six Achievable Steps to Confidently Set and Communicate Boundaries.

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The Power of No: Learn to Create the Business You Really Want - Massage Magazine

After a long, successful run in corporate America, in March of 2016, I was fired from my second executive position in about 20 months. I was lost, and I didnt know the next step in my life, family, or career. I felt mentally and emotionally paralyzed and thought my run of success was over.

A friend of mine who had started coaching on a professional basis called me and begin asking questions about my termination, my current state, and my future intentions. After a few calls, he asked if I wanted some help moving forward. I said yes. His immediate response was, are you saying yes to support from a friend or a coach? This question shocked me because, well, we were friends. I never thought about him as a coach. I thought coaching and his coaching business was a joke. I struggled with the concept of paying someone to talk to me and be my friend.

A week or so later I still had no better idea of what my future looked like, and honestly, I had no idea how to handle even living. I never told anyone at the time, but I was suicidal and had almost given up on life. I was 300 pounds, an alcoholic, and had no idea how to even begin putting my life back together. We spoke again, and I hired him. I still wasnt a believer, but I realized that if I kept doing what I had always done, I was going to keep getting the same results. I just thought I needed another job. He had bigger ideas.

How much water do you drink every day? my coach asked.

I need to find a job, and you ask me about how much water Im drinking? I shot back.

Mike, your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are directly tied to your career, he fired back.

This began the process of me showing up to lead myself before I could lead anyone else. My coach checked in with me often, called me out on my excuses, and kept pushing me to new levels of health. About 6 months in, I had lost about 60 pounds, stopped drinking, and had career prospects. My family was shocked at the progress I had made in such a short time. I noticed that my kids began choosing better meals, and they even began mixing in some exercise in our basement gym.

Im not looking for a job anymore. Im going to start a coaching business, I told my wife once I decided what I was going to do. So were going to lose everything? she sarcastically and ferociously shot back. At this point, I knew what I had to do, and I knew that Id never work for anyone ever again.

During my corporate career, the only things I loved doing were building high-performing teams and helping my employees achieve more than they thought they could achieve. I did everything else because I felt that I had to to get to coach and present to them. When I decided to coach, I had also basically decided that I would never again do anything I didnt enjoy.

I hired a business coach to help me define and get started in my business and went to conferences and many group trainings to create my business as fast as possible. I watched videos, read books, and listened to audiobooks somewhere between 8-10 hours per day to continue to grow and learn how to coach. I joined a mastermind where I was the only one without income, and the two senior members were millionaires. My business began to build, and once that coach could take me no further, I hired another coach who was farther along. I had shifted from someone who didnt believe in coaching at all to someone who couldnt get enough. I could gain access to someone elses knowledge and wisdom, and since they had already created what I wanted to create, they could help me get there faster. My growth was light-speed. My entire life changed rapidly.

At the beginning of January 2020, I began a membership community for men. We focus on and help each other lead self, lead society, and lead family more powerfully and with more intention and focus. Currently, we are small, but still have men from Montana, to Nebraska to Georgia. Each week theres training and coaching, the men digitally communicate daily, and each month we will gather virtually so that we can commune. On January 28, 2020, we held our first virtual group gathering. Heres some of the unsolicited feedback from the first session:

That was incredible for me. Honestly, never felt more understood than in that call. I look forward to showing up for myself and all of you going forward.

It was great to hear everyones story. It makes me feel good to talk about mine. #movingforward.

Loved the call last night, everyone. Thanks for your vulnerability. I woke up today with a little extra early spring in my step. Focused on how Im showing up for myself.

I agree with everyone that that call was excellent last night. The character of the men in the group was impressive. I am ready to start living my purpose and it is incredible to know that I can count on the people in this group to support me. Thanks, everyone, just for being here.

The guys are feeding off of each other, inspiring each other, and supporting each others growth. Its fun to watch each of them show up and help each other. They get it. Community and support help you get where you want to go faster, and theres immense value in journeying with a group of people who are after something similar to what you are trying to achieve.

Since Ive started my business, Ive had five coaches of different varieties, been in three masterminds, attended multiple weekend retreats, and hired many people to help me solve problems in half the time that it would have taken me to solve them myself.

Ive certainly grown from that guy who didnt believe in coaching. The people I surround myself with today are more accomplished, polished, wealthy, and willing to teach me. I pay a lot of money to get where I want to go faster because Ive learned a few things:

Probably the most powerful lesson Ive learned is that unhealthy pride convinces you that you need to do it yourself. Healthy pride is desiring to accomplish more, but unhealthy pride will make the journey longer, more volatile, and a lot more difficult than required. The men in my membership group are already seeing the benefits after one month. The right group of people will make sure that you achieve what you want as long as youre humble enough to give away your knowledge and wisdom and accept support.

The support is available. There are coaches, masterminds, and groups everywhere that will help you achieve. The main question to ask yourself: Do I feel that I need to do it on my own? The answer to that question will determine how fast you achieve your goals.

A former coach gave me this advice:

Professionals hire coaches and pick the easiest route. Amateurs try to do it themselves and have convinced themselves that their worth and value is wrapped up in their struggle.

Which do you choose?

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Do You Need to Do It All Yourself? - Thrive Global

As a time management coach, I clearly care about organization. On a daily basis, I work with goal-oriented individuals trying to find the right balance. That being said, you may be surprised to hear that being overly focused on organization can be counterproductive. I explain with these five tips to living more peaceful and productive lives.

Sometimes, in the quest for the perfect organizational system, individuals can take their eyes off the prize. I recognize people have missed the mark when they tell me that theyve read every time management book they could find, tried all the tools available, and still feel hopelessly unproductive.

Instead of focusing on the perfect system, I recommend starting to establish simple habits that help you to get more done. For example, maybe begin by writing down your top three tasks for the day on a Post-it note and sticking it to your computer. Then focus on accomplishing those items first. Id rather have you finish whats most important than spend hours reorganizing task lists and questioning whether youre even using the right task management tool.

Over time, you can up-level your systems, and they could become more sophisticated. But if you spend more time planning and organizing than doing, its time to shift your focus.

From my observation, everyone needs some method of recording commitments and everyone needs some way to intentionally decide what they will do each day. But how individuals complete those tasks can vary widelyand thats okay. Some people will have all commitments recorded in their calendar. Others will use a task management app. Others will keep a paper to-do list. And in terms of planning, theres similarly a range of options from all digital to completely analog and variations in between.

Related: The time-management hack that doubled my income

The right organization system for you is the one that youre willing to use consistently and that helps you act in a focused and productive manner.

Saying no by either not accepting commitments in the first place or by eliminating commitments that are currently on your plate is your most powerful organizational tool. Its the equivalent of decluttering your closet before you attempt to hang everything up. By reducing the overall number of items, you make it easier to organize.

When you declutter from a time management perspective, youre not only giving yourself less to fit into each day but also more time to keep the whole system maintained.

Similar to committing to being a healthy person, being an organized person requires a lifestyle change.

You cant eat well and exercise for a few months, lose some weight, then go back to doing what you were doing before and expect to stay healthy. In the same way, you cant think intentionally about your commitments, use your calendar, get some things done, and then just stop practicing those habits.

Organization is an ongoing commitment on a daily basis to do the activities that will make you feel less stressed and more productive.

Im a very organized person, and Im known for having good follow-up and follow-through. But even very organized people can make mistakes! I had a situation recently where I had made a note in my calendar to follow up with one of my coaching clients about a piece of information on a certain day. (Whenever I make follow-up commitments, I write down the task.)

However, in this instance, I labeled the beginning of the task in the same way I label client birthdays with a 3-[Client Name]. On the day I was supposed to follow up, I was moving too quickly and assumed it was my clients birthday instead of opening the task and realizing that I needed to send her follow-up information. So long story short, she got a birthday greeting about six months in advance! This was a good reminder to me to be careful about how I label my tasks and also to slow down and read them more carefully.

The path to an organized life may be closer than you realize. Instead of aiming for perfection or striving to copy someone else, commit to a lifestyle of discovering and using the strategies that help you to be your best, most organized self.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the author of Divine Time Management and How to Invest Your Time Like Money and a time management coach. Check out her website for more information.

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A time management coach's tips on getting better organized - Fast Company

Grants funded nonprofits in 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and international cities

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In 2019, the Wells Fargo Foundation launched a new philanthropic strategy anchored around unlocking economic opportunity for people and communities by addressing housing affordability, small business growth and financial health. The Foundation invested $455 million in grants in the last year, funding national organizations to deliver programs at scale and nonprofits that specifically address the needs of local markets.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200220005232/en/

Wells Fargo is on a journey to create greater community impact through its business and philanthropy, said Bill Daley, vice chairman of Public Affairs at Wells Fargo. Economic mobility is a critical issue, particularly for low-to-moderate income communities where people lack access to the resources necessary for a sustainable livelihood: adequate housing, stable jobs, or financial health services. In the year ahead, we will streamline our grant-making around these important areas and focus on addressing systemic barriers to success. This is the time to collaborate, be bold and think like social entrepreneurs.

We commend Wells Fargo for their willingness to step up on issues facing our constituents and commit resources and expertise to look at community challenges at the local, state and national levels, said Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive officer of NAACP. We have a long way to go to achieve economic equality in this country, and its going to take highly focused efforts and unparalleled conviction to get us there. We were glad to see Wells Fargo further their commitment to housing, small business and financial health in its philanthropic approach; as these issues affect everyday life, particularly in low-income communities, and will create a pathway for more people to attain financial mobility.

Making an Impact: Recap of 2019 Philanthropy

Overall, Wells Fargos philanthropy in 2019 helped more people find a place to call home, grow small businesses offering meaningful local jobs and increase financial health and wellness. Results include:

In addition, Wells Fargo made more than 2,800 grants to nonprofits in response to the housing affordability crisis and unique local challenges in communities across the U.S. From Anchorage, Alaska to Atlanta, Wells Fargo supported organizations that are developing new affordable rental homes, expanding homeownership opportunities for ethnically diverse households, creating long-term affordability by investing in community land trusts, and stopping the devastating flow of families into homelessness. For example, Wells Fargo provided funding for the renovation of apartments at Hope Gardens Family Center in Los Angeles, where the Union Rescue Mission helps women and children move from the streets into stable homes.

The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), a collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Lab that speeds the path to market for promising clean-technology startups, is another example of momentum in the small business community. In 2019, IN2 expanded into sustainable agriculture and residential housing, adding 15 new startups. To date, 40 portfolio companies have gone on to raise more than $282 million in follow-on funding and six have successfully exited the program through mergers and acquisitions.

With tax-time approaching, the Wells Fargo Foundation and the AARP Foundation are reaching seniors with free tax preparation services, helping them access critical tax credits and refunds that many depend on for household necessities, debt repayment, or savings. The funding will enable AARP Foundation to expand Tax-Aide, the largest free, volunteer-run tax preparation service in the U.S., to 24 additional neighborhood locations while more than doubling the number of taxpayers who receive a refund from 34,000 to over 70,000.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargos vision is to satisfy our customers financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,400 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 32 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 260,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 29 on Fortunes 2019 rankings of Americas largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200220005232/en/

Jennifer Dunn, (202) 303-2966

[emailprotected]

Kim Erlichson, (201) 463-4243

[emailprotected]

Source: Wells Fargo & Company

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Wells Fargo Foundation Increased Access to Housing, Jobs, Financial Coaching in 2019 - Insurance News Net

PISCATAWAY, N.J. Greg Schiano is back at Rutgers, but hes not quite home yet. That is coming soon. He and his wife Christy had built the house of their dreams during their first go-around here, thinking theyd stay forever. But, of course, life (and an NFL head coaching opportunity) happened, and they didnt stay forever.

Right now, Schiano is living out of a hotel. Soon, he and Christy will be back in their old house their buyers back then have since become sellers, though Schiano knows hes probably not getting the best deal here just a stones throw from the Scarlet Knights football facilities.

Schiano sits now, in his corner office of the Hale Center, tasked with building again what he built up once before. Back in December 2000, he inherited a football program that had just endured the worst five-year stretch in program history (11-44) and turned it into a regular contender in the old Big East. His 2006 team, led by Mike Teel, Brian...

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The reintroduction of head coach Greg Schiano - The Athletic

The 2010s gave rise to a number of tech bubbles, and the threat of those bubbles bursting in 2020 is resurfacing nightmares for some in the tech community of dot-com-era busts. One such bubble could be AI.

Yet, some of today's most successful tech companies -- Google chief among them -- grew out of the shattered landscape of the post-dot-com tech scene. The same pattern could play out in AI. Even if the current AI bubble does burst, there will most likely continue to be successful companies offering impactful tools.

Some experts claim we are in an "AI autumn," as the technology that once was feared for its potential to wipe out broad swaths of jobs has fallen short of its expected potential in many categories. Yet, underestimating the benefits of AI is a huge mistake, as various machine learning technologies are already providing value to businesses. But, given the limitations of AI, how can we get to a future where the technology has the world-changing impact that was previously expected?

Google's AlphaGo Zero forced the current world champion of the game Go into early retirement. In Lee Se-dol's own words, AI is "an entity that cannot be defeated." Using reinforcement learning, the AI played millions of games against itself at superhuman speed -- a number humans can't match in a lifetime of gameplay. The hardware costs for AlphaGo Zero also go up to $25 million.

However, the new world champion would fall flat on its face with the tiniest change to the game's rules. It also can't use its knowledge to master any other game. Humans are superior at applying existing knowledge to new tasks with limited data. This is something most AI pioneers agree upon.

"Current AI algorithms have enormous data requirements to learn the simplest tasks, and that puts a strict restriction on where they can be applied," said Abhimanyu, co-founder and CEO of Agara, which analyzes voice with the aid of AI to augment customer support operators. "While neural networks show superhuman performance, their predictions are sometimes wildly incorrect, so much that a human would never make a similar mistake."

As Jerome Pesenti, Facebook's head of AI, put it: The AI field is about to hit the wall. This begs the question: How can we build smarter AI?

Many experts believe improvements in hardware and algorithms are necessary to break that wall. Some even suggest that we need quantum computers.

Though deep learning and neural networks were developed to mimic how our neurons communicate, there is still much we don't know about the brain's inner workings, which outperforms thousands of CPUs and GPUs.

"Even our supercomputers are weaker than the human brain, which can run 1 exaflop calculations per second," Abhimanyu said. "However, since our algorithms have a long way to improve, it's hard to predict how much computation power we'd need."

More processing power doesn't generally equate to more intelligence. We can see this in the brainpower of various animals.

"As a simple proof point, there are animals with both much bigger brains and moreneurons than humans have," said Alan Majer, CEO and founder of AI and robotics development company Good Robot."So, if we wait for some kind of hardware tipping point, we're likely to be disappointed."

Recognizing the limitations of AI is the best thing we can do for the developing technology. While we are far off from human-level intelligence, companies are taking innovative approaches to overcome those constraints.

Explainable AI is one important approach.

AI has traditionally operated as a black box where the user feeds the questions and the algorithm throws out the answers. It was born from a need to program complex tasks, and no programmer was able to code all the logical decision variations. Thus, we let the AI learn by itself. However, this is about to change.

"Explainable, cognitive AI builds trust with people so humans and machines can work together in a collaborative, symbiotic way," said A.J. Abdallat, CEO of machine learning development company Beyond Limits. "Because explainable AI technologies are educated with knowledge, in addition to being trained with data, they understand how they solve the problem and the context that makes the information relevant."

The higher the potential stakes, the more important it is to know why AI arrived at a certain answer. "For example, NASA will not implement any system where you cannot explain how you got the answer and provide an audit trail," Abdallat explained.

Explainable AI gives us insight into the AI's decisions, improving the human-machine collaboration. However, this method does not work in all scenarios.

Consider self-driving cars, one of the benchmarks of our AI intelligence level. In fully autonomous vehicles, human operators are not enabled to aid the machine in split-second decisions. To solve this problem, experts adopt a hybrid approach.

"Waymo uses deep learning to detect pedestrians, but lidar and hardcoded programming add a safety net to prevent collisions," Abhimanyu explained. Developers use individual components that are not smart per se but can achieve smarter results when they are combined. By creating a smart design, developers challenge our understanding of the limitations of AI.

"The Google Duplex demo that amazed people is a really smart design coupled with state-of-the-art technology in speech-to-text and text-to-speech categories, which exploited what people look for in a smart human," Abhimanyu explained.

But these chatbots fail when it comes to natural conversations, which is still a challenging domain for AI. As an example, let's consider one of the major achievements in the past year, GPT-2, which stunned many with its content writing capabilities.

"GPT-2 can generate entire essays, but it is very hard to make it generate exactly what you want reliably and robustly in a live consumer setting," Abhimanyu shared. GPT-2 was trained on a huge library of quality documents from the internet, so it could predict what words should naturally follow a sentence or paragraph. But it had no idea what it was saying, nor could it be guided toward a certain direction. Experts believe being able to reliably and extensively control AI could mark the next step in our advancements.

The current AI algorithms were made possible on the back of big data -- that's why achieving this level of intelligence was not possible even with the best supercomputers decades ago. We are incrementally finding the next building blocks for smarter AI. Until we reach there, the most productive use of AI is on narrow domains where it outperforms humans.

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How to overcome the limitations of AI - TechTarget

Levels and Limits of AI.

I recently spoke with the innovation team of a Fortune 50 company about their 2020 initiatives, one of which was artificial intelligence. When I asked what specifically they want to use AI for, an executive replied, Everything. I pushed a little more asking, Are there any specific problems that youre seeking AI vendors for? The reply was something like We want to use AI in all of our financial services groups. This was particularly unsatisfying considering that the company is a financial services company.

I have these kinds of conversations frequently. For example, I met with the head of a large government department to discuss artificial intelligence, and their top agency executive asked for a system that could automate the decision-making of key officials. When the executive was asked for details, he more or less wanted a robotic version of his existing employees.

AI is not a panacea and it cannot simply replace humans. Artificial intelligence is mathematical computation, not human intelligence, as I have discussed in previous posts. One of my key roles as an investor is separating real AI from AI hype.

Buyers should not focus on whether or not a company is AI, but rather whether or not it solves a real problem. While technology is important, the most important part of any company is serving the customer. There are specific customer needs that artificial intelligence can address really well. Others, not so much. For example, AI may be well suited to detect digital fraud, but it would not be well suited to be a detective in the physical world. AI should be treated like any other software toolas a product that needs to yield a return. To do so, it is important to understand what artificial intelligence can actually do, and what it cant.

There are several levels of artificial intelligence. A few years ago my friends John Frank and Jason Briggs, who run Diffeo, suggested breaking artificial intelligence into 3 levels of service: Acceleration, Augmentation, and Automation. Acceleration is taking an existing human process and helping humans do it faster. For example, the current versions of textual auto-complete that Google offers are acceleration AI. They offer a completed version of what the user might already say. The next level, augmentation, takes what a human is doing and augments it. In addition to speeding up what the human is doing (like acceleration), it makes the humans product better. An example of this is what Grammarly does with improving the grammar of text. The final level is automation. In the previous two levels there are still humans in the loop. Automation achieves a task with no human in the loop. The aspiration here is Level 5 autonomous driving like Aurora and Waymo are pursuing.

When evaluating AI companies it makes sense to ask if what they are setting out to achieve is actually attainable at the level of AI that the vendor is promising. Below is a rough demonstrative chart with the Difficulty of AI on the y-axis and Level of AI on the x-axis.

The dashed line is what I call the AI feasibility curve. Within the line is AI feasibility, which means that there is a technology, infrastructure and approach to actually deliver a successful product at that level of AI in the near term. In reality it is a curve, not a line, and it is neither concave nor convex. It has bumps. Certain problems are really difficult, but are attainable because a spectacular AI team has worked really hard to "push out the AI feasibility curve for that specific problem. AlphaGo is included because it was an incredibly difficult and computationally intensive task, but the brilliant team at Google was able to shift the curve out in that area. If a company proposes it has built a fully-autonomous manager or strategy engine, I become highly skeptical. As you can see, the AI difficulty of those two tasks is quite high. The difficulty of AI is some function of the problem space and data quality (which I will discuss in a future article). In the chart, treat difficulty for AI as a directional illustration of difficulty, not a quantifiable score.

When purchasing a vendors AI, determine if its value proposition is feasible. If it is not, then the return on investment may be a disappointment. Look to whether it is being marketed as fully automated, but is too difficult a problem for full automation- this could be a sign that the product is actually accelerated AI. Keeping the feasibility curve in mind is important for investing as well, because if the customer is not well served, then the company will eventually fail.

When evaluating a company, I try to determine where on this chart the company would fall. If it is still building out product, I think about its technology innovation. Will the engineers be able to shift out the curve in that particular problem space? In evaluating AI, pick products that you can know with confidence will provide ROI. Dont be like the Fortune 50 that is looking for AI for everything or the government agency trying to have AI that basically does exactly what one of its officers does. Instead, evaluate an AI product for what it really offers you. Then, make an informed decision.

Disclosure: Sequoia is an investor in Aurora and author is an investor in Alphabet, both of which were used as examples in the article.

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Levels And Limits Of AI - Forbes

Editors Note: This article was submitted in response to the call for ideasissued by the co-chairs of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, Eric Schmidt and Robert Work. It addresses the first question (part a.) on how artificial intelligence might affect the character and/or the nature of war?

Ernest Swintons The Defense of Duffers Drift educated a few generations of military professionals in the West. It introduces a set of tactical lessons through six dreams seen by Lt. Backsight Forethought, who was responsible for the defense of a river crossing in the Boer War. Every dream unraveled combat situations triggered by the lieutenants previous tactical decisions. They revealed his mistakes, allowing him to gradually improve the defense. This is similar to how an artificial intelligence-powered system might evaluate combat scenarios. The only difference is that it would do millions of these evaluations, instead of six, would consider much more information, and would do it at incredible speed. This is why artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to revolutionize warfare: It could qualitatively improve the key factors in war human strategizing and decision-making speed.

Assessments and predictions on the future of warfare, as is the case with any type of forecasting, are demanding endeavors by default. One of the challenges is the difficulty of resisting the temptation to make linear projections of past experience onto the expected future. Especially since new technological developments seem to be rendering obsolete our older theories about conflict. Forecasting warfare evolution under the impact of AI is thus a formidable task. An approach that can reduce errors is to combine two sets of knowledge: understanding accurately the micro-dynamics of war (the most basic drivers of combat interaction) and assessing AI impact on war considering AI-specific abilities instead of humans innate limitations.

The Micro-Dynamics of War

Traditionally, military and security experts have perceived warfare in Clausewitzian terms, through preponderance of force and large uncertainty. This view has been determined by humans physical and cognitive limitations rather than by the fundamental dynamics of war. Humans are not the quickest and most agile creatures. They cannot swiftly move away from a bullets trajectory. They are also not the sharpest shooters. It took about 10,000 rounds to produce a casualty in World War II. This number was even higher during the U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We learned to compensate for accuracy failures by relying on automatic fire or indiscriminate artillery strikes. Because we are not quick enough in decision and evasion movement, we chose the path of armor building. However, the fundamental element of combat dynamics is not firepower or fire accuracy. Based on my dissertation research, I argue that it is the manipulation of ones relative degree of lethal exposure in combat. And it is by better exploiting lethal exposure that AI systems will affect the future of warfare. Capabilities are just a reservoir from which a side can supply its combat efforts. A side with more troops and more weapons will have a larger reservoir.

Lethal exposure has always been the invisible hand of war, as it practically has complete control over how power preponderance can influence war outcomes. The currently dominant view on warfare emphasizes the importance of attrition of forces as the underlying combat dynamics. The proposed exposure-driven concept of combat brings instead to prominence the critical role played by the speed of attrition of ones troops and weapons for military effectiveness and victory.

To better understand the logic of lethal exposure, let us consider a classical combat analysis scenario with interacting Blue and Red forces. Blues exposure to Reds lethal fire and thus attrition depends on its ability to avoid identification by Red. Basically, Blues degree of exposure becomes dependent upon Reds knowledge about Blues location. At minimum, exposure is determined by two factors: the physical presence of Blue in Reds range of fire and the knowledge of Red about Blues exact location inside its targeting range. It is the quality that reflects the degree to which a sides combat-engaged troops are subject to lethal fire of its competitor, resulting in a varying level of attrition of its troops. To use a more familiar expression, combat exposure of a military unit is the degree of its stealth.

It is not possible to strike an opponent beyond ones weapons reach, no matter how accurate one is. And even inside the targeting range, it is hardly possible to hit the opponent without knowing its location. An extreme illustrative case is the example of a perfect ambush when the ambusher has the opponent in its weapons sights, while the ambushed has no clue about it. The exposure is close to zero for the ambusher and is maximum for the ambushed. The degree of exposure of forces can completely block the impact of capabilities and fire accuracy on troops attrition speed. It is when the value of exposure is very high like in hand-to-hand combat, or trench warfare that the effects of capabilities and fire accuracy are maximized. This logical illustration of combat dynamics allows us to open the black box of combat uncertainty.

To see this, consider two fighting forces, one having 100 units and another one having 30 units. Keeping the conventional combat-related factors and conditions equal, numerical superiority will bring victory. However, as we unilaterally decrease the smaller forces degree of lethal exposure (through various tactical moves or technology), its speed of combat attrition will start diminishing too. In comparison to the unchanged attrition of the larger force, the smaller forces speed of attrition will eventually drop to a threshold value, when the larger force keeps degrading, by contrast, much quicker. But not just quicker. This threshold value, at which the larger side faces a higher speed of proportional attrition (when its X percent of troops and weapons degrade quicker than the respective X percent of the smaller combatants forces) can be rightfully labeled as the margin of military victory. Technically, in order to remain alone on the battlefield after combat, the 30-large force has to reach a kill rate higher than about 3.34 units of its opponent for each of its own destroyed units.

The described combat micro-dynamics allow even a belligerent with considerably fewer forces to win combat engagements and consequently wars against a militarily more powerful opponent.

Manipulating the degree of exposure requires advantage in decision-making and movement speed as well as environmental awareness. One can decrease own exposure while instantly increasing the opponents exposure in combat, by having a good knowledge about the combat environment including location of the opponent achieving a quick decision-making speed and being able to move faster on the battlefield. AI-driven combat systems could have crucial impacts in all three domains and change military strategy.

AIs Capabilities in Warfare

In September 2019 the Russian military conducted the strategic exercise Tsentr-2019, allegedly testing an AI-based command, control, communication, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system. According to Russian open sources, the new information system of combat command and control gathers combat-related information from various sources in real time, assesses combat scenarios, and provides the commanders with a ranked list of combat mission decisions and an assessment of resulting scenarios.

While still at a rudimentary level, this application transformed AI from an enabler into an actor in the combat environment. If its recommendations are implemented by the human commanders, it makes little difference whether AI directly commands automatic combat units or if it achieves this through human fighters although the second scenario is still much slower. We may be witnessing the birth of an automatic battlefield commander.

Would such an AI system actually be able to conduct combat assessment and mission planning better than a trained human professional? Claims that the military context generates unique challenges may not necessarily be true for AI. We should think about AI as another actor with its own specific capabilities: similar to an alien, who sees our environment outside of the human visible spectrum. An actor that operates by simplifying and stripping a problem down to its essential elements in its search for optimally tailored solutions. A sound way of exploring this issue has been advocated by Iyad Rahwan of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Rahwan suggested taking an anthropological approach since AI systems have become so complex that we cannot understand and predict what they will do, we should instead observe their behavior in the wild.

This would allow us to perceive the combat environment the way AI will see it. The beginning of this discussion aimed to propose a most likely candidate for AI perception of combat, driven by lethal exposure. AI systems are optimizers, trying to fulfill a task based on a set of incentives. The accuracy of their work depends on the quality of data that humans feed into AI. As technical progress evolves, the evolution of sensors that allow AI combat systems to directly connect to the environment including counter-battery fire, other radars, video cameras, electro-optics, or even satellite observation will solve the data collection problem and increase the output quality of the AI-driven military systems. Because exposure, as described earlier, is the key driver of combat uncertainty dynamics, AI will identify it through data analysis and focus on instrumentalizing it.

Despite skepticism among researchers and policy practitioners, including claims that you cant AI your way out of physics, AI showed capacity to outperform the best human strategists not only in perfect information games such as Chess and Go. A revelatory example is the recent development of Pluribus AI, which is able to win against elite professional players in a multi-player poker game an imperfect-information strategic interaction. Moreover, researchers ingeniously reduced the games high complexity, solving the problem of too many decision points by bundling situationally similar ones into groups, treating then all decisions in a group as identical.

Together with the poker example, which is arguably the most sophisticated, there is too much evidence to doubt the ability of AI to solve complex problems better than humans. For instance, in the biotech industry AI is not just a tool. It designs experiments, carries them out, and interprets their results. The genetic changes that AI systems generate in these labs represent discoveries that human scientists would likely not have identified. According to scientists working in the industry, some of the AI-created genes have no human-known functions.

Moreover, while winning in some of the most complex strategic games, AI revealed an insightful trait. Defeating one of the worlds best Go players, Lee Sedol, DeepMinds AlphaGo AI player made a move that reportedly caught Sedol and other top players by surprise a move that no human would ever do. Facing another of DeepMinds AI systems, AlphaStar, one of the worlds best players in StarCraft 2 pointed out that AI explores strategies in ways different from what a human player would do. Capabilities have an instrumental effect, as they drive behavior.

Unlike humans, AI is better equipped to explore the exposure-manipulated speed of attrition concept, which is arguably the most basic, irreducible dynamic of combat. It arguably suggests the most effective solution in combat interaction the Nash equilibrium of military strategies as whatever the other side does, reducing ones speed of attrition while increasing that of the opponent is the best possible response in combat.

Harnessing the power of modern computing, AI is able to explore an enormously larger part of the probability space all possible developments in its environment. In contrast, to do the same task, humans incur significant cognitive costs and try to reduce them by searching the space of options for the solution that is closest to them. Imagine a solutions landscape, where we are surrounded by various hills, each of their heights representing a solutions optimality level. It is very likely that a moderately high decision hill in our surroundings represents a better solution, but we cannot see it, as a different solution hill that is closer to us covers our eyesight. We will stop at this particular solution, while AI would have a wider vision and therefore will identify and explore the better options.

Providing AI with the logical shortcut of ready-built models will compensate for the debilitating shortage of big data on combat dynamics. Using combat simulations that explore high-fidelity micro-dynamics of war similar to the suggested exposure-guided speed of attrition concept researchers can train effective AI combat systems. Thus, AI battlefield commanders able to outperform human experts can be developed even given the shortage of combat-related data. This will also help us understand how AI deals with combat uncertainty, to be able to know how to instrumentalize this uncertainty for exploring AIs weak sides.

Food for Thought

By implementing the two listed conditions of this AI-empowering approach, international actors will end up in a real AI arms race a race in which they will compete not for the most powerful weapon, but for the most optimized AI-driven battlefield commander algorithm. This will give tremendous advantages in combat, harvesting the AIs decision-making speed and optimized strategies.

Secondly, to fully explore AIs potential by avoiding the transaction costs of the human interface, a few accompanying technological developments are necessary. A demand will emerge for specific hardware applications sensors, exoskeletons, micro-turbine engines, robotic systems, and unmanned vehicles that could best harvest AIs decision-making agility and reaction speed potential.

Third, the use of lethal force will develop to become more accurate, quick, and localized almost surgical. Due to AIs expected ability to effectively discriminate among various types of targets in combat, military AI systems would likely offset the equalizing effect between regular armies and insurgents that automatic rifles made possible, likely due to restricting effects of international humanitarian law.

Fourth, given the resulting intensity and speed of combat attrition, fighting will become faster, will destroy combat resources more quickly and in higher quantities, making wars costlier for the defeated. The way capabilities transform into victory will become again more transparent, so that not everyone will be able to afford and be willing to fight wars. Therefore, state actors with significant financial resources will likely gain advantage in crises.

What should the U.S. government do? Because AI technologies that can be used in the military domain are readily available in the commercial sector, banning the use of AI in warfare becomes impractical. The United States should invest more in studying AI behavior in warfare. Similar to how scientists evolve and study deadly viruses to build vaccines against them, the U.S. government should encourage the laboratory-based anthropological study of AI behavior in virtual combat environments to understand how it thinks. This would enable understanding of the opaque functioning of AI opening its black box and would prepare policymakers to better address potential unanticipated consequences of AI operations, also known as King Midas problem.

The U.S. government ought to encourage and fund disruptive thinking on combat dynamics, military strategy and grand strategy implications, accounting for the ways AI developments are going to remove many of the existing physical and intellectual limitations on how humans have been fighting wars.

Finally, the United States ought to prioritize investing into electromagnetic pulse technology that breaks the connection between the AI and the combat systems it controls, which upgrade AI from a virtual advisor into a physically present battlefield commander.

Dumitru Minzarari, PhD (University of Michigan), is a former military officer who served as state secretary for defense policy and international cooperation with the Moldovan Ministry of Defense, worked for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe field missions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, and with several think tanks in Eastern Europe.

Image: U.S. Army (Photo by Conrad Johnson)

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From Deception to Attrition: AI and the Changing Face of Warfare - War on the Rocks