I never wanted to be Alan Greenspan when I grew up. I never wanted to work for H & R Block. I never even wanted to fill out my own tax return myself.

I enjoy writing more than write-offs. And Im pretty sure most of you relate to that, unless youre an actuary or something.

But theres one tax in the world I do know a few things about. Believe it or not, I know enough about baseballs Competitive Balance Tax, more often called the luxury tax, to understand exactly why the Red Sox were convinced it was worth their while to trade Mookie Betts and David Price. I can sum it up this way for you:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Ive done that math. I even ran it past people in baseball who work with this tax every day. And I can tell you that trading those two guys, and dipping under the tax threshold, could easily be worth hundreds of millions in savings off future tax bills. But

I can also tell you that, in the midst of...

Continued here:
Stark: Doing the math on the competitive balance tax, and the Red Sox motivation to trade Mookie... - The Athletic

I am a first year history Hons student from Delhi University and wish to become an IPS officer. But, being an average student, I worry that if I am not able to clear the exams, I will be left without a secondary plan. My family cannot financially support me for long. What should I do to ensure I get a job, without letting go of my dream? Himanshu

Dear Himanshu,

Eight lakh students appeared for the UPSC last year, out of which, 759 made it to the IAS and IPS services.

This statistic is not to demotivate you. You could be one amongst the 759, certainly, but what if you dont make it? It is imperative that you start consciously thinking of a plan B and C to fall back on. See what else comes closest to the IPS for you.

You must toil for the next two years now and pass the written tests and subsequent interviews. This, of course, requires self-discipline, patience, punctuality, commitment, self-confidence and above all, a fire to really make it happen. Work hard and smart, build your physique and body and work on your stamina as well. Keep a healthy mind and stay time conscious and away from naysayers. Sky is the limit. Good luck.

I am a second year B.com student. My parents want me to prepare for the CAT. How do I prepare for it and score well? Naga Chaitanya Sai

Dear Chaitanya,

What do you want to do with your life?

First things first Know the CAT exam pattern and syllabus in detail. Ensure that you get the right study material. Sign up to physical or online coaching classes if possible. Take online mock tests. Find like-minded friends and create a study group. Stay determined, confident and motivated. Good luck.

Disclaimer: This column is not a substitute for long-term therapy. It is merely a guiding voice. Some issues may need medical intervention.

The writer is a practising counsellor and a trainer. She will answer questions sent to eduplus.thehindu@gmail.com. The subject line should be: Off the edge

You have reached your limit for free articles this month.

Register to The Hindu for free and get unlimited access for 30 days.

Find mobile-friendly version of articles from the day's newspaper in one easy-to-read list.

Enjoy reading as many articles as you wish without any limitations.

A select list of articles that match your interests and tastes.

Move smoothly between articles as our pages load instantly.

A one-stop-shop for seeing the latest updates, and managing your preferences.

We brief you on the latest and most important developments, three times a day.

Not convinced? Know why you should pay for news.

*Our Digital Subscription plans do not currently include the e-paper ,crossword, iPhone, iPad mobile applications and print. Our plans enhance your reading experience.

Go here to see the original:
Stay motivated - The Hindu

Meek Mill and Justin Timberlake have joined forces on a new anthem.

For Believe, the latest single to arrive from Meeks upcoming fifth studio album, the Philly native enlists JT to send a powerful message of holding out on faith during trials and tribulations. Accompanying the uplifting joint is a harrowing visual that depicts a family coping with the plight of incarceration and mental health issues with sheer determination.

Put my face in the dirt on the ground/ Still, I race off to take back the crown, yes/ You can break my body/ But you can't lock the soul of a man down, Timberlake delivers in the anthemic chorus, as Meek motivates with lyrics like, "Follow your dreams not your addictions/ How we gon' follow our dreams locked in a prison?/ They tried to swallow me whole, God be my witness/ Deprive me outta my dreams but I'm relentless.

In the Biblical promotional cover image for the track, Meek also inscribes the message: "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish at the roaring and tossing of the sea.People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what will come of the world.When these things begin to take place, stand up and liftyour heads, because your redemption is coming."

Listen to Meek and JT collide on their motivational single above.

Original post:
Meek Mill & Justin Timberlake Link Up For Motivational Anthem 'Believe' - iHeartRadio

NewsPolitics Exclusive: The former Labour MP is publishing a memoir which proclaims her innocence

Monday, 10th February 2020, 7:59 pm

Updated Monday, 10th February 2020, 7:59 pm

The former MP Fiona Onasanya has compared herself to Moses and Jesus in her year-long quest to clear her name (Photo: Chris Radburn/PA Wire)

Disgraced former MP Fiona Onasanya is attempting to rebrand herself as a motivational speaker with a new autobiography.

A year after being jailed for perverting the course of justice, the ex-Labour MP has published a memoir in which she proclaims her innocence and defends her actions.

Ms Onasanya, 36, was convicted after a court found she had lied about who was driving her car when it was caught speeding. She has always denied any wrongdoing, but lost an appeal against her conviction and three-month jail sentence.

This month she is publishing an autobiography, Snakes & Adders: A Set Up for the Step Up. Ms Onasanya has called the book "the story of my journey into politics", adding: "I speak very candidly about life both behind and beyond the door as a sitting MP."

Fiona Onasanya pictured with Jeremy Corbyn (Photo: Getty)

The former MP intends to use the book as a springboard to a career as a motivational speaker, according to the marketing blurb she has drawn up for the self-published memoir.

It says: "Fiona Onasanya is a law graduate, former solicitor and the former Member of Parliament for Peterborough North. Having experienced first hand that words can either hinder or help progress, she is a strong believer that delay is not denial. This is mirrored in her motivational speaking and here she takes the reader on a journey, committing to never quit."

Some voters responded with anger to Ms Onasanya's plans to profit from her experiences. One said on Twitter: "You've got a cheek. You lie, cheat, milk a salary and expenses from us taxpayers then want to sell us a book about your shady life."

Ms Onasanya was elected as the MP for Peterborough in 2017, taking the seat from the Conservatives. Just weeks later she was caught speeding, but told the authorities that someone else was driving her car at the time in an attempt to avoid getting points on her licence.

Receive more analysis from me every weekday lunchtime by signing up to the i on politics newsletter here

After she was jailed in January last year, a quarter of her constituents signed a petition calling for her removal from office - exceeding the 10 per cent threshold required to trigger a by-election. In that vote the seat was held by Labour, but it was retaken by Conservative Paul Bristow at the general election in December.

Ms Onasanya's attempt to lodge an appeal failed as a judge criticised her for turning up at the hearing without a lawyer or any notes on her case. She was subsequently struck off as a solicitor by the professional regulator.

The former MP has compared herself to Moses and Jesus in her year-long quest to clear her name. She said: "While God did not save them from a guilty verdict, he did save them in it and ensured that their greatest days of impact were on the other side of a guilty verdict."

Read the original:
Disgraced ex-MP Fiona Onasanya reinvents herself as a motivational speaker after serving time in prison for speeding lie - inews

by Dimis Michaelides

She didnt actually say it like that. She might have asked to be or not to be? and insisted that that is the question. In any case, machines are already up to asking profound existential questions.

On 11th February 2019 a very unusual event marked the latest man-versus-machine challenge: a debate on whether we should subsidize pre-schools or not. In a quite unique public gathering attended by hundreds of people, IBMs female-voiced AI system, formally known as Project Debater but lovingly nicknamed Miss Debater, opposed Harish Natarajan, a debating champion of international renown.

The human won, this time. What stole the show though was the sophistication of the debate and the outstanding argumentation of both contestants see highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJXcFtY9cWY and the apparent humanity of Miss Debater.

Debating requires expert and general knowledge, reasoning, creative thinking, eloquent expression and the skilful appeal to emotions, all skills once considered unattainable by machines. No longer. In this case both the computer and its adversary showed ample evidence of mastering these competencies. Interestingly Natarajan was expecting emotional arguments from Miss Debater and it was his readiness to address these with spontaneity that helped him win. I am sure she has learnt from this and she is probably thinking about how to outdo her opponent next time.

Earlier milestones of human vs machine contests include the famous 1997 chess match in which IBMs computer system Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov, a chess grandmaster. In 2011 IBMs Watson supercomputer defeated two record-winning contestants in Jeopardy, a general knowledge quiz. And in 2016 Alphabets AlphaGo famously proved artificial intelligence can master the ancient and intricate game of Go by beating the world champion in a set of five games. The machine had learnt to play and had developed many creative new moves on its own.

Machines did not beat humans at chess, Jeopardy and Go the first time round, indeed they learnt to win after having fought many losing battles. If AI can one day master complex philosophical reasoning, might that be the right moment to tell the likes of Zenon, Socrates and Descartes to get a real job?

Besides excelling in pure reason, it is becoming clear that superstar machines can really learn to display and manage emotions and be amazingly creative, faculties hitherto monopolized by humans. DeepMind, the company that designed AlphaGo, argue that their products are already doing this.

Artificial Intelligence is entering our lives in myriads of different ways, influencing sectors as diverse as transport, health, entertainment, politics and war. As we move from AI in fiction to AI in reality, there will be intended and unintended outcomes, so it is not too soon to consider the ethical and social dimensions of AI. A lawless AI future is frightening and potentially catastrophic. DeepMind, has already set up a new research unit, DeepMind Ethics & Society. Their goal is to fund research on privacy, transparency, fairness, economic impact, governance and accountability and managing AI risk.

For those of us whose dreams of radical innovation and digital transformation have stumbled upon obstinate people with unbending mindsets, AI will be a big bonus. Expect intelligent machines which, through their own learning, will be able to change themselves, at a much faster pace than those awkward humans.

Expect existential issues to troll and pollute our innocent debates on the value of innovation and entrepreneurship for mankind.

Expect arguments denying that we exist just because we think because not all machines will be Cartesian.

And expect to be questioned by the ghost of a somewhat deranged prince on whether you should be or not be because some machines are bound to be Shakespearean.

Image credit: Pixabay

Choose how you want the latest innovation content delivered to you:

Dimis Michaelides is a keynote speaker, author, consultant and trainer in leadership, creativity and innovation. Contact him for a workshop or a presentation at dimis@dimis.org or register for his newsletter at http://www.dimis.org . You can also connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

View original post here:

I think, therefore I am said the machine to the stunned humans - Innovation Excellence

Geoffrey Hinton, center. talks about what future deep learning neural nets may look like, flanked by Yann LeCun of Facebook, right, and Yoshua Bengio of Montreal's MILA institute for AI, during a press conference at the 34th annual AAAI conference on artificial intelligence.

The rise of dedicated chips and systems for artificial intelligence will "make possible a lot of stuff that's not possible now," said Geoffrey Hinton, the University of Toronto professor who is one of the godfathers of the "deep learning" school of artificial intelligence, during a press conference on Monday.

Hinton joined his compatriots, Yann LeCun of Facebook and Yoshua Bengio of Canada's MILA institute, fellow deep learning pioneers, in an upstairs meeting room of the Hilton Hotel on the sidelines of the 34th annual conference on AI by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. They spoke for 45 minutes to a small group of reporters on a variety of topics, including AI ethics and what "common sense" might mean in AI. The night before, all three had presented their latest research directions.

Regarding hardware, Hinton went into an extended explanation of the technical aspects that constrain today's neural networks. The weights of a neural network, for example, have to be used hundreds of times, he pointed out, making frequent, temporary updates to the weights. He said the fact graphics processing units (GPUs) have limited memory for weights and have to constantly store and retrieve them in external DRAM is a limiting factor.

Much larger on-chip memory capacity "will help with things like Transformer, for soft attention," said Hinton, referring to the wildly popular autoregressive neural network developed at Google in 2017. Transformers, which use "key/value" pairs to store and retrieve from memory, could be much larger with a chip that has substantial embedded memory, he said.

Also: Deep learning godfathers Bengio, Hinton, and LeCun say the field can fix its flaws

LeCun and Bengio agreed, with LeCun noting that GPUs "force us to do batching," where data samples are combined in groups as they pass through a neural network, "which isn't efficient." Another problem is that GPUs assume neural networks are built out of matrix products, which forces constraints on the kind of transformations scientists can build into such networks.

"Also sparse computation, which isn't convenient to run on GPUs ...," said Bengio, referring to instances where most of the data, such as pixel values, may be empty, with only a few significant bits to work on.

LeCun predicted they new hardware would lead to "much bigger neural nets with sparse activations," and he and Bengio both emphasized there is an interest in doing the same amount of work with less energy. LeCun defended AI against claims it is an energy hog, however. "This idea that AI is eating the atmosphere, it's just wrong," he said. "I mean, just compare it to something like raising cows," he continued. "The energy consumed by Facebook annually for each Facebook user is 1,500-watt hours," he said. Not a lot, in his view, compared to other energy-hogging technologies.

The biggest problem with hardware, mused LeCun, is that on the training side of things, it is a duopoly between Nvidia, for GPUs, and Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), repeating a point he had made last year at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

Even more interesting than hardware for training, LeCun said, is hardware design for inference. "You now want to run on an augmented reality device, say, and you need a chip that consumes milliwatts of power and runs for an entire day on a battery." LeCun reiterated a statement made a year ago that Facebook is working on various internal hardware projects for AI, including for inference, but he declined to go into details.

Also: Facebook's Yann LeCun says 'internal activity' proceeds on AI chips

Today's neural networks are tiny, Hinton noted, with really big ones having perhaps just ten billion parameters. Progress on hardware might advance AI just by making much bigger nets with an order of magnitude more weights. "There are one trillion synapses in a cubic centimeter of the brain," he noted. "If there is such a thing as General AI, it would probably require one trillion synapses."

As for what "common sense" might look like in a machine, nobody really knows, Bengio maintained. Hinton complained people keep moving the goalposts, such as with natural language models. "We finally did it, and then they said it's not really understanding, and can you figure out the pronoun references in the Winograd Schema Challenge," a question-answering task used a computer language benchmark. "Now we are doing pretty well at that, and they want to find something else" to judge machine learning he said. "It's like trying to argue with a religious person, there's no way you can win."

But, one reporter asked, what's concerning to the public is not so much the lack of evidence of human understanding, but evidence that machines are operating in alien ways, such as the "adversarial examples." Hinton replied that adversarial examples show the behavior of classifiers is not quite right yet. "Although we are able to classify things correctly, the networks are doing it absolutely for the wrong reasons," he said. "Adversarial examples show us that machines are doing things in ways that are different from us."

LeCun pointed out animals can also be fooled just like machines. "You can design a test so it would be right for a human, but it wouldn't work for this other creature," he mused. Hinton concurred, observing "house cats have this same limitation."

Also: LeCun, Hinton, Bengio: AI conspirators awarded prestigious Turing prize

"You have a cat lying on a staircase, and if you bounce a soccer ball down the stairs toward a care, the cat will just sort of watch the ball bounce until it hits the cat in the face."

Another thing that could prove a giant advance for AI, all three agreed, is robotics. "We are at the beginning of a revolution," said Hinton. "It's going to be a big deal" to many applications such as vision. Rather than analyzing the entire contents of a static image or video frame, a robot creates a new "model of perception," he said.

"You're going to look somewhere, and then look somewhere else, so it now becomes a sequential process that involves acts of attention," he explained.

Hinton predicted last year's work by OpenAI in manipulating a Rubik's cube was a watershed moment for robotics, or, rather, an "AlphaGo moment," as he put it, referring to DeepMind's Go computer.

LeCun concurred, saying that Facebook is running AI projects not because Facebook has an extreme interest in robotics, per se, but because it is seen as an "important substrate for advances in AI research."

It wasn't all gee-whiz, the three scientists offered skepticism on some points. While most research in deep learning that matters is done out in the open, some companies boast of AI while keeping the details a secret.

"It's hidden because it's making it seem important," said Bengio, when in fact, a lot of work in the depths of companies may not be groundbreaking. "Sometimes companies make it look a lot more sophisticated than it is."

Bengio continued his role among the three of being much more outspoken on societal issues of AI, such as building ethical systems.

When LeCun was asked about the use of factual recognition algorithms, he noted technology can be used for good and bad purposes, and that a lot depends on the democratic institutions of society. But Bengio pushed back slightly, saying, "What Yann is saying is clearly true, but prominent scientists have a responsibility to speak out." LeCun mused that it's not the job of science to "decide for society," prompting Bengio to respond, "I'm not saying decide, I'm saying we should weigh in because governments in some countries are open to that involvement."

Hinton, who frequently punctuates things with a humorous aside, noted toward the end of the gathering his biggest mistake with respect to Nvidia. "I made a big mistake back in with Nvidia," he said. "In 2009, I told an audience of 1,000 grad students they should go and buy Nvidia GPUs to speed up their neural nets. I called Nvidia and said I just recommended your GPUs to 1,000 researchers, can you give me a free one, and they said no.

"What I should have done, if I was really smart, was take all my savings and put it into Nvidia stock. The stock was at $20 then, now it's, like, $250."

Visit link:

AI on steroids: Much bigger neural nets to come with new hardware, say Bengio, Hinton, and LeCun - ZDNet

Getty

When people hear about the race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominance, they often think that the main competition is between the US and China. After all, the US and China have most of the largest and most well funded AI companies on the planet, and the pace of funding, company growth, and adoption doesnt seem to be slowing anytime soon. However, if you look closely, youll see that many other countries have a stake in the AI race, and indeed, some countries have AI efforts, funding, technologies, and intellectual property that make them serious contenders in the jostling for AI dominance. In fact according to a recent report from analyst firm Cognilytica, France, Israel, United Kingdom, and the United States all are equally strong when it comes to AI, with China, Canada, Germany, Japan, and South Korea equally close in their AI strategic strength. (Disclosure: Im a principal analyst with Cognilytica).

The Current Leaders in AI Funding and Dominance: US and China

AI startups are raising more money than ever. AI-focused companies raised $12 Billion in 2017 alone, more than doubling venture funding over the previous year. Most of this funding is concentrated in US and Chinese companies, but the source of those funds is much more international. Softbank, based in Japan, has amassed a $100 Billion investment fund, with many international investors including Saudi Arabias sovereign investment fund and other global sources of capital. While US companies have put up significant investment rounds with the power of Silicon Valleys VC funds, China now has the most valuable AI startup, Sensetime, which raised over $1.2 Billion and a rumored additional $1 Billion raise on the way.

However, what makes AI as a technology sector different from previous major waves of investment, is that AI is seen as strategic technology by many governments. In 2017 China released a three step program outlining its goal to become a world leader in A.I. by 2030. The government aims to make the AI industry worth about $150 billion and is pushing for greater use of AI in a number of areas such as the military and smart cities. Furthermore, the Chinese government has made big bets including a planned $2.1 Billion AI-focused technology research park. And in 2019 TheBeijing AI Principleswere released by a multistakeholder coalition including the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), Peking University, Tsinghua University, Institute of Automation and Institute of Computing Technology in Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an AI industrial league involving firms like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

In addition, the Chinese technology ecosystem has developed to become a powerhouse in its own right. China has many multi-billion dollar tech giants including Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Huawei Technologies, who are each heavily investing in AI. Chinese companies also work more closely with the Chinese government, and laws in China are the most relaxed with regards to customer privacy and use of AI technologies such as facial recognition on their citizens. Chinas government has already embraced the use of facial recognition technology and has quickly adopted this technology in everyday use. In most other counties such as the US for example, privacy concerns prevent pervasive use of facial recognition technology, but such concerns or impediments to adoption dont exist in China.

The story of technology company creation and funding in the United States is already well known. Silicon Valley is both a region as well as a euphemism for the entire tech industry, showing how dominant the US has been for the past several decades with technology creation and adoption. Venture capital as an industry was invented and perfected in the US, and the result of that has been the creation of such enduring tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, IBM and thousands of other technology firms big and small. Collectively trillions of dollars has been invested in these firms by private and public sector investors to create the technology industry as we know it today. Certainly, none of that is going away anytime soon.

In addition, the US has an extremely well developed and highly skilled labor pool with academic powerhouses and research institutions that continue to push the boundaries of what is capable with AI. What is notable is that even in the US, the dominance of Silicon Valley as a specific, San Francisco-bay geographic region is starting to slip. The New York city region has produced many large AI-focused technology firms, and research in the Boston-area centered around MIT and Harvard, Pittsburgh with Carnegie Mellon, the Washington, DC metro area with its legions of government-focused contractors and development shops, Southern Californias emerging tech ecosystem, Seattle-based Amazon and Microsoft, and many more locations in the US are loosening the hold that Northern California has on the technology industry with respect to AI. And just outside the US, Canadian firms from Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are further eroding the dominance of Silicon Valley with respect to AI.

In 2018 the United States issued an Executive Order from the President naming AI the second highest R&D priority after the security of the American people for the fiscal year 2020. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defenseannouncedit will invest up to $2 billion over the next five years towards the advancement of AI. As recently as 2020 the United States launched the American AI Initiative with the strategy aimed at focusing the federal government resources. The US federal government also launched AI.gov to make it easier to access all of the governmental AI initiatives currently underway. Once potentially seen lackluster in comparison to that of China and other countries the US government has really started making AI a priority to keep up in recent years.

Countries With Significant Stakes in AI

As mentioned above, what makes the AI industry unique is that it is actually not a new thing, but rather evolved over decades, even prior to the development of the modern digital computer. As a result, many technology developments, investment, and intellectual property exists outside the US and China. Countries that have been involved with AI since the early days are realizing the strategic nature of AI and doubling down on their efforts to retain a stake in global AI share and maintain their relevance and importance.

Japan

Japan has long been a leader in the AI industry, and in particular their development and adoption of robotics. Japanese firms introduced concepts such as the 3 Ds (Ks) of robotics that we discussed in our research on cobots. Not only is their technology research excellence on par with anywhere in the world, they have the funding to back it up. As mentioned earlier, Japan-based Softbank is an investor powerhouse unrivaled in the venture capital industry.

Japans government released their Artificial Intelligence Technology Strategy in March 2017. This strategy includes an Industrialization Roadmap and focuses the development of AI into three phases: the utilization and application of AI through 2020, the publics use of AI from 2025-2030, and lastly an ecosystem built by connecting multiplying domains. The countrys strategy focuses on R&D for AI, collaboration between industry, government, and academia to advance AI research, and addressing areas related to productivity, welfare and mobility.

However, it is important to note that while Japan continues to exhibit dominance in robotics and other AI fields as well as its Softbank powerhouse, many of the firms that Softbank is investing in are not Japan-based, and so much of the investment is not remaining focused on Japans own AI industry. In addition, while technology development is advanced and rapidly progressing and while Japan is known as a country to embrace technology, many Japanese companies have not been quick to embrace AI technology and the use of AI is largely limited to the financial sector and concentrated in the manufacturing industry. The country is also facing significant demographic pressure, with an aging population, causing a shortage in available workforce. On the one hand, the adoption of AI and robotic technologies are seen as a solution to labor and aging demographics, on the otherhand, the lack of workforce will cause strategic problems for creation of AI dominant companies.

South Korea

South Koreas government is a significant investor and strong supporter of local technology development, and AI is certainly no exception. The government recently announced it plans to spend $2 billion by 2022 to strengthen its AI R&D capability including creating at least six new AI schools by 2020, with plans to educate more than 5,000 new high quality engineers in Korea in response to a shortage of AI engineers. The government also plans to fund large scale AI projects related to medicine, national defense, and public safety as well as starting an AI R&D challenge similar to those developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The government will also invest to support the creation and development of AI startups and businesses. This support includes the creation of an AI-oriented start-up incubator to support emerging AI businesses and funding for the creation of an AI semiconductor by 2029.

South Korea is home to many large tech companies such as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai among others, and is known for its automotive, electronics, and semiconductor industries as well as the use of industrial robotics technology. It also famously hosted the match where DeepMinds AlphaGo defeated Gos world champion Lee Sedol (a Korean-native). Clearly, you cant count South Korea out of any race for AI dominance. The only thing significantly lacking is a well-developed venture capital ecosystem and a large number of startups. South Koreas AI efforts are almost entirely concentrated in the activities of the major technology incumbents and government activities.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a clear leader for AI and the government is financially supporting AI initiatives. In November 2017, the UK government announced 68 million of funding for research into AI and robotics projects aimed at improving safety in extreme environments as well as funding four new research hubs that will be created to help develop robotic technology to improve safety in off-shore wind and nuclear energy. It has a goal to invest about $1.3 billion in AI investment from both public and private funds over the coming years. As part of this plan, Global Brain, a Japan-based venture capital firm, plans to invest about $48 million in AI-focused UK-based tech startups as well as open a European headquarters in the United Kingdom. Canadian venture capital firm Chrysalix also plans to open a European headquarters in the U.K. as well as invest over $100 million in UK-based startups who specialize in AI and robotics. The University of Cambridge is installing a $13 million supercomputer and will give U.K. businesses access to the new supercomputer to help with AI-related projects.

The U.K. is of course also the home of Alan Turing, renowned forefather of computing and an early proponent of AI, with the namesake Turing Test. The UK can also claim (in not such a great light) to be one of the precipitating factors of the first AI Winter when the Lighthill Report was released in 1973 leading to significant declines in AI investment. As such, the UK has exhibited in the past significant influence positively, and negatively, in worldwide AI spending and adoption. To avoid future problems, the U.K. is looking to position itself as a world leader in ethical AI standards. The UK sees this as an opportunity to position itself as an AI leader with ethical AI, helping to create standards used for all. It knows it cant compete with AI funding and development from counties like the US and China but thinks it has a shot by taking an ethical standards approach and leveraging its early status as a lead in AI development.

France

Frances President Emmanuel Macron released a national strategy for artificial intelligence in early 2018. The country announced that over the next five years it will invest more than 1.5 billion for AI-related research and support for emerging startups in a bid to compete with the US, China, and others for AI dominance. The French strategy is to put an emphasis on and target four specific areas of AI related to health, transportation (such as driverless cars), the environment, and defense/security. Some notable AI researchers and data scientists were educated in France, such as Facebooks head of AI Yann LeCun. France wants to try to keep that talent in France instead of moving to overseas companies.

Many companies such as Samsung, Fujitsu, DeepMind, IBM and Microsoft have announced plans to open offices in France for AI research. The French administration also wants to share new data sets with the public making it easy to access and build AI services using those data sets. The caveat to receiving public funds is that research projects or companies financed with public money will have to share their data. Many European Union (EU) officials have expressed dismay with the way that Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others have hoarded user data, and Macron and his administration are concerned about the black box of AI data and decision-making. France is also focused on addressing the ethical concerns around AI as well as trying to create unbiased data sets which is part of the reason for open algorithms and data sets. While Frances efforts are significant, they pale in terms of total money put into the industry and resources available to compete with the efforts of other nations.

Germany

Germany is an industrial powerhouse, has long been known to have great engineering capabilities, and Berlin is currently Europes top AI talent hub. According to Atomicos 2017 State of European Tech report, Germany is most likely to become a leader in areas such as autonomous vehicles, robotics and quantum computing. In fact, almost half of all worldwide patents on autonomous driving come from German car companies or their suppliers such as Bosch, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche. These German companies had begun their autonomous vehicle development activities as early as 1986.

A new tech hub region in southern Germany, called Cyber Valley, is hoping to create new opportunities for collaboration between academics and businesses with a specific focus on AI. The new hub plans to focus on AI and robotics, make better use of research talent, and collaboratively work with companies such as Porsche, Daimler and Bosch. In addition to autonomous vehicles, Germany has an early lead with robotics, with one of the first cobots developed in Germany for use in manufacturing. Additionally, Germanys AI strategy was published in December 2018 in Nuremberg. And, in 2019, The German government tasked a new Data Ethics Commission with producing guidelines for the development and use of AI.

Despite these intellectual property and early market leads, Germany has not invested at the same levels as other countries, and the technology firms are highly concentrated in manufacturing, automotive, and industrial sectors, leaving other markets mostly untapped with AI capabilities. Furthermore, American automakers such as Ford, GM, and Google Waymo, as well as Uber and other firms are quickly catching up with the number of patents issued and threatening Germanys dominance for intellectual property in that area.

Russia

Russian president Vladimir Putin made a statement that: Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all of humankind and that whichever country becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world. This is one powerful statement. Russia has said that intelligent machines are vital to the future of their national security plans and, by 2025, it plans to make 30% of its countrys military equipment robotic. The government also wants to standardize development of artificial intelligence focusing on image recognition, speech recognition, autonomous military systems, and information support for weapons life-cycle. There is also a new Russian AI Association bringing the academic and private-sector together. Additionally, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence (NSDAI) for the period until 2030 on October 2019.

Russia is still a world superpower in terms of military might, and exerts significant influence in world markets, especially in the energy sector. Despite that, Russian investment in AI is still significantly lacking that of other countries, with only a reported $12M invested by the government in research efforts. While Russia has had significant input and efforts around AI research in the university setting, the countrys industry lacks overall AI talent and number of companies working towards AI related initiatives. Many skilled Russian engineers leave the country to work at other firms worldwide who are throwing lots of money at skilled talent. As such, the biggest application of AI in Russia is in physical and cyberwarfare situations, leveraging AI to enhance the capabilities of autonomous vehicles and information warfare. In this arena, Russia is certainly a country to be contended with regards to AI dominance.

Other AI Hotspots

In addition to the above, there are many countries that are seeing AI as a country level strategic initiative including Israel, India, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Malaysia Australia, Italy, Canada, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other locations. Some of these countries have more financial than technical resources, or vice-versa. The key is that for each of these countries, they see AI in a strategic light and as such theyve crafted a strategic approach to AI.

AI technologies have the ability to transform and influence the lives of many people. Not only will AI transform the way we work, interact with each other and travel between locations, but it also has an impact on weapons technology, modern warfare, and a countrys cyber security. AI can also have a dramatic impact on the labor market, disrupting entire industries and creating whole new ones. As such, having a focus on AI dominance can also help strengthen that countrys economy, shift global leadership and power, and give military advantages. While the race for AI domination might seem similar to the Space Race or aspects of the Cold War, in reality the AI market doesnt support a winner take all approach. Indeed, continued advancement in AI requires research and industry collaboration, continued research and development, and industry-wide thinking and solutions to problems. While there will no doubt be winners and losers in terms of overall investment and return, countries worldwide will reap the benefits of increased adoption and development of cognitive technologies.

Read more here:

Why The Race For AI Dominance Is More Global Than You Think - Forbes

Media Release

Mangaluru, Feb 7:Fr Keneth Crasta, principal of St Joseph Industrial Training Centre Jeppu, celebrated the Holy Mass on the second day of the novena.

In his homily Fr Crasta preached homily on respecting the elderly, the theme of the day. He said, "Long life is considered as the blessing of God in the Bible. Elderly people are like a treasure in the house. They are to be respected and cared. Unfortunately todays society treats them like useless commodity. That thinking has to be changed."

Fr Crasta also called on the congregation to pray for the elderly for their good health and well-being. He asked the Almighty to bless all those who are spending their lives in old age homes and those suffer loneliness.

Fr Roshan DSouza, assistant director of St Anthony Ashram offered a Holy Mass for the devotees in the after-noon at Jeppu Ashram followed by Rosary and Adoration. Fr Thrishan DSouza the assistant director of the ashram conducted the novena at 7.30 pm at the entrance gate of the ashram.

Fr Onil DSouza, director of the ashram thanked the Milagres Choir for leading the liturgical singing.

See the article here:

St Anthony's Ashram Jeppu- Second day novena in preparation for the feast of Relic of St Anthony - Daijiworld.com

Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20.

NCC cadets from institutes run by former Union minister Chinmayanand offered a salute to him and visitors at his ashram were served a special ''prasad'' after his release on bail from the district prison.

Chinmayanand walked out of the prison on Wednesday, two days after being granted bail in the case in which he is accused of sexually abusing a law student.

Chinmayanand's advocate Om Singh said NCC cadets saluted him when he visited Mumukshu Ashram.

When contacted, a police official said Chinmayanad should not have been given a salute as he is an accused. He, however, added that this might have happened as he heads the Mumukshu Ashram, which runs various colleges.

Amit Singh, a relative of Chinmayanand, said after his release, hundreds of supporters gathered at the ashram, where they were served food prepared as "prasad" for the occasion.

Superintendent of Police (City) Dinesh Tripathi on Thursday said, "For the security of the law student, a guard has been deployed. One gunner each was deployed for her and for her family, and they are still there."

The SP said Chinmayanand's gunner was withdrawn after his arrest. "If there is any demand for the gunner, a committee will take a decision, and provide security to Chinmayanad," the SP said.

Chinmayanand's advocate Singh alleged that a conspiracy was hatched against the politician.

Chinmayanand, 72, was released from the Shahjahanpur district jail on Wednesday after the completion of legal formalities, prison superintendent Rakesh Kumar said.

The Allahabad High Court had granted him bail on Monday. But he was not released earlier as the bail papers had not reached the jail.

While granting him bail, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi also transferred Chinmayanand''s trial from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow, taking note of the victim''s apprehension that he could influence proceedings in his hometown.

Outside the Shahjahanpur jail, Chinmayanand's supporters waited for him with flowers. He was then driven to his ashram, where he offered prayers before leaving for his home.

Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the woman studied, was arrested on September 20 under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape.

It is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position to "induce or seduce" a woman to have sex with him.

In a parallel case, the woman was arrested for trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape.

She and her three friends had allegedly threatened to release video clips of massages she claimed she was forced to perform on the politician, who was disowned by the ruling BJP after the sexual abuse charges surfaced.

The high court granted the woman bail in the extortion case on December 4.

Last year, the Supreme Court had stepped in when the 23-year-old student went missing for a few days in August after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse.

A special investigation team of Uttar Pradesh Police, formed on the directions of the topcourt, later arrested Chinmayanand and the student.

Read more here:

Out On Bail, Rape Accused Chinmayanand Gets NCC Salute - NDTV News

Shahjahanpur (UP), Feb 6 : Former Union minister Chinmayanand, accused of sexually abusing a law student of one of his colleges, was given a salute by the NCC cadets from institutes run by him when he walked out of jail on Wednesday. Hundreds of supporters greeted him with flowers when he stepped out of the jail.

While the cadets gave him a salute, his ashram served a special 'prasad' to all visitors on the occasion.

Chinmayanand, who was arrested on September 20 on charges of sexual harassment and blackmail, was granted bail by the Allahabad High court on Monday.

Om Singh, Chinmayanand's lawyer, said that the cadets offered a salute to the former Union minister as a mark of respect when he reached his Mumukshu ashram.

Amit Singh, a nephew of Chinmayanand, said that hundreds of supporters gathered at the ashram, where they were served food prepared as 'prasad' for the occasion. "It is because they know that he has been framed," the nephew said.

His lawyer Om Singh also maintained that the politician was a victim of a conspiracy.

A senior police official, however, said that Chinmayanand was an accused and should not have been given a salute. "But may be the cadets did so because he runs the colleges," the official said.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (City) Dinesh Tripathi said "For the security of the law student, a guard has been deployed. One gunner each was deployed for her and for her family, and they continue to be there."

Chinmayanand's gunner was withdrawn after his arrest.

"If there is any demand for the gunner, a committee will take a decision, and provide security to Chinmayanand," the SP said.

While granting him bail, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi also transferred Chinmayanand's trial from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow. This has been done in view of the victim's apprehension that he may try to influence judicial proceedings in his home town.

Chinmayanand heads the trust that runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the woman studied.

He was arrested under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape. It is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position to 'induce or seduce' a woman to have sex with him.

The law student, on the other hand was also arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape.

She and her three friends had allegedly threatened to release video clips of him being given a massage by her under pressure.

The high court granted the woman bail in the extortion case on December 4.

The Supreme Court had taken suo moto cognisance of the case when the 23-year-old student went missing for a few days in August after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse.

Originally posted here:

Chinmayanand greeted with salute, flowers as he walks out of jail - New Kerala