Thursday, January 2

AI

Promising Rapid Drug Development – One Of Biology’s Greatest Challenges – AI Makes Huge Progress Predicting How Proteins Fold
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AI, TECHNOLOGY

Promising Rapid Drug Development – One Of Biology’s Greatest Challenges – AI Makes Huge Progress Predicting How Proteins Fold

Takeaways A “deep learning” software program from Google-owned lab DeepMind showed great progress in solving one of biology’s greatest challenges – understanding protein folding. Protein folding is the process by which a protein takes its shape from a string of building blocks to its final three-dimensional structure, which determines its function. By better predicting how proteins take their structure, or “fold,” scientists can more quickly develop drugs that, for example, block the action of crucial viral proteins. Solving what biologists call “the protein-folding problem” is a big deal. Proteins are the workhorses of cells and are present in all living organisms. They are made up of long chains of amino acids and are vital for the structure of cells and communication between ...
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A Conspiracy Theory Or A True Conspiracy – An AI Tool That Can Distinguish Between The Two
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AI, TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

A Conspiracy Theory Or A True Conspiracy – An AI Tool That Can Distinguish Between The Two

The audio on the otherwise shaky body camera footage is unusually clear. As police officers search a handcuffed man who moments before had fired a shot inside a pizza parlor, an officer asks him why he was there. The man says to investigate a pedophile ring. Incredulous, the officer asks again. Another officer chimes in, “Pizzagate. He’s talking about Pizzagate.” In that brief, chilling interaction in 2016, it becomes clear that conspiracy theories, long relegated to the fringes of society, had moved into the real world in a very dangerous way. Conspiracy theories, which have the potential to cause significant harm, have found a welcome home on social media, where forums free from moderation allow like-minded individuals to converse. There they can develop their theories and propose acti...
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Is It Ok To Turn Off A Robot If It Has A Conscious? Building True AIs The Moral Implications
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AI, TECHNOLOGY

Is It Ok To Turn Off A Robot If It Has A Conscious? Building True AIs The Moral Implications

In the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “The Measure of a Man,” Data, an android crew member of the Enterprise, is to be dismantled for research purposes unless Captain Picard can argue that Data deserves the same rights as a human being. Naturally the question arises: What is the basis upon which something has rights? What gives an entity moral standing? The philosopher Peter Singer argues that creatures that can feel pain or suffer have a claim to moral standing. He argues that nonhuman animals have moral standing, since they can feel pain and suffer. Limiting it to people would be a form of speciesism, something akin to racism and sexism. Without endorsing Singer’s line of reasoning, we might wonder if it can be extended further to an android robot like Data. It would require ...
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Does your AI discriminate?
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AI, TECHNOLOGY

Does your AI discriminate?

Women leaders like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and San Francisco Mayor London Breed are receiving recognition for their quick action in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. But men are chosen as leaders of government around the world in vastly greater numbers. This disparity is not confined to political leadership. In 2019, Forbes choose 100 of America’s “Most Influential Leaders,” and 99 of them were men. The lack of diversity is not limited to gender. A survey of nonprofit sector chief executives found that 87% of survey respondents self-identified as white. As the executive and academic director of a leadership center, I study employment discrimination and inclusion. I’ve seen that many organizations want a process where bias could be removed from identifying leaders. In...
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AI algorithms intended to root out welfare fraud often end up punishing the poor instead
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AI, TECHNOLOGY

AI algorithms intended to root out welfare fraud often end up punishing the poor instead

President Donald Trump recently suggested there is “tremendous fraud” in government welfare programs. Although there’s very little evidence to back up his claim, he’s hardly the first politician – conservative or liberal – to vow to crack down on fraud and waste in America’s social safety net. States – which are charged with distributing and overseeing many federally funded benefits – are taking these fraud accusations seriously. They are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence and other automated systems to determine benefits eligibility and ferret out fraud in a variety of benefits programs, from food stamps and Medicaid to unemployment insurance. Of course, government agencies should ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent effectively. The problem is these automated decision...
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AI, TECHNOLOGY

AI could constantly scan the internet for data privacy violations, a quicker, easier way to enforce compliance

You’re trailing bits of personal data – such as credit card numbers, shopping preferences and which news articles you read – as you travel around the internet. Large internet companies make money off this kind of personal information by sharing it with their subsidiaries and third parties. Public concern over online privacy has led to laws designed to control who gets that data and how they can use it. The battle is ongoing. Democrats in the U.S. Senate recently introduced a bill that includes penalties for tech companies that mishandle users’ personal data. That law would join a long list of rules and regulations worldwide, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard that regulates online credit card transactions, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, th...
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Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats
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AI, COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, TECHNOLOGY

Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats

Canadian artificial intelligence firm BlueDot has been in the news in recent weeks for warning about the new coronavirus days ahead of the official alerts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The company was able to do this by tapping different sources of information beyond official statistics about the number of cases reported. BlueDot’s AI algorithm, a type of computer program that improves as it processes more data, brings together news stories in dozens of languages, reports from plant and animal disease tracking networks and airline ticketing data. The result is an algorithm that’s better at simulating disease spread than algorithms that rely on public health data – better enough to be able to predict outbreaks. The company uses the t...
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