Petervan's Delicacies - Issue #117

The very best

Bizarre video about consciousness in an AI driven world. Alienating.

Another video, this time about dance: how did this ultimate frivolity become a human necessity? Every culture dances.

Why the institutional models built on scalable efficiency or scalable learning are incompatible.

About a nightmarish scenario of surveillance by machines

An artistic reflection on ethical aspects of living with robots and AI.

This is what I’ve learned from living without email, electricity, or a phone…

Giulio Tononi’s "integrated information theory" might solve neuroscience’s biggest puzzle

The long read: The spectre of superintelligent machines doing us harm is not just science fiction, technologists say – so how can we ensure AI remains ‘friendly’ to its makers?

At what level are you conscious? Staring into the eyes of a comatose loved one, many of us have agonized over whether the patient was conscious of caresses received or whispered prayers. Increasingly…

We are our distinct and unique cultures, histories and languages. In today’s ever-increasingly globalized world, we must act as guardians of the unique cultural heritage that forms the basis of our identities. New technologies are facilitating this arduous task. The architect of the future, AI..

The famous "grey hat" hacker on computer-jumping viruses, government cyber warfare and a fun little hack you can try at home.

Social media and other digital disruptions have changed the world forever. Now, like it or not, transparency is king. One outcome of this massive shift is that ethics are no longer a nice to have…

In part one of this two part series, I outlined why businesses can make ethics a strategic asset, and also why it’s unavoidable. The briefest summary goes like this: social and digital media…

Affectiva, a startup focused on detecting emotion, is testing its technology in vehicles.

Humane by Design is a resource that provides guidance for designing ethically humane digital products through patterns focused on user well-being.

@ghoshd7.

Amazon Could Soon Force You to Go on a Diet, According to One Futurist. Tech giants will overtake our homes — and once you’re locked into one ecosystem, you won’t be able to escape, says Amy Webb.

Flashes of inspiration are considered a human gift that drives innovation – but the monopoly is over. AI can be programmed to invent and refine ideas and connections. What's next?

Data and Society

When Google’s boss sits down with a top U.S. military official on Wednesday, the conversation will likely center on Google’s presence in China -- particularly a lab that may be more trouble for the company than it’s worth.

An experiment in privacy–and the discussion that ensued–offer unexpected lessons in who gets watched, and how.

From the Rose Bowl to upstate New York, people are turning to surveillance systems in the face America’s inability to meaningfully address gun violence.

A Shenzhen elementary school did not seek parental consent before taking students’ fingerprints as part of an ‘intelligence test.’

We need a more active role for governments and regulators.

Caught violating the data and privacy curfew once again, Facebook responds, “But what is time, really?"

Zeitgeist

"I just met with Sundar Pichai, President of Google, who is obviously doing quite well," President Trump tweeted after meeting with the Google CEO.

Innovation

In the present business landscape, you can witness the overlap of the real and virtual worlds enabled by advanced technologies. The “Intelligent Digital Mesh” is transforming current business models to accommodate people, processes, and smart devices in a collaborative framework for the highest gains.

It takes a deft touch to harvest fruit and veggies. Which is why roboticists are inventing hyper-specialized machines to pick crops.

Honda Motor and Hino Motors are joining a venture of SoftBank Corp and Toyota Motor that will develop self-driving car services in Japan, as alliances between automakers and tech firms broaden.

Autonomy, which had its world premiere here at SXSW in Austin this past week, is a comprehensive, thorough examination of the state of autonomous vehicles, and a vital bit of education for people who haven’t paid close attention to the technology’s slow, steady arrival. The film is directed by Alex Horwitz, with executive producer Malcolm Gladwell, and in partnership with Car and Driver magazine.

Creativity, Innovation, Team Building, Leadership, Brainstorming, Idea Champions

Tech entrepreneurs are designing a new generation of automation to solve agriculture’s long standing labor shortages.

Jason Calacanis is a technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and the host of the popular podcasts This Week in Startups and Angel. As a “scout” for top Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and later as an angel investor, Jason has invested in 150+ early-stage startups including 6 "unicorns" (billion-dollar valuations). His book "Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups: Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000" was published by HarperCollins in July 2017. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Future of work

driver profiling, driver safety, road safety analytics, driver scores, driver coaching, trip analytics, distracted driving detection, driving intelligence, phone handling, driving behavior, road safety collision detection, crash detection, hard braking, driving habits, driving regulations, geographical differences

Our fascination with the hyper-performance of machines and AI is casting a shadow over our elusive, ephemeral ‘human-only skills.' As working environments shift, it’s time for a change in performance metrics.. to ‘Key Human Indicators' to protect and encourage human agency in our future workforces.

Learn how to help workplace rebels reach their full potential.

In the age of smart AI platforms, ownership is a dying concept. So why are companies still “owning” employees by contract?

If data is a new commodity and artificial intelligence-driven automation feeds on data, can data be labeled a new form of labor? So, why are we giving it free to companies?

This blog was originally published on the MaRS Solutions Lab website, and cross-posted with permission from the authors. Many have turned to the application of design practices when addressing…

Internet Culture

Holding forth on stuff since 1998

Two competing visions of our digital future have emerged from China and Silicon Valley, says Guardian columnist John Harris

FinTech

At Apple’s "show time" services event today, it announced a new Apple Card credit card, promising to improve things about the credit card experience with simpler applications, no fees, lowering...

From a FinTech, payments, banking, walled-garden and Apple Pay perspective something incredible happend in March, 2019. The real innovation and key to Apple’s growth could be its splash into the…

The hottest technologies in banking are not emerging technologies like machine learning, chatbots, and blockchain.

Mastercard introduces a vision for digital identity in today’s increasingly connected world.

The credit card company has more details about its plan for a decentralized, universal digital ID, but questions remain.

ING and Bank of Beijing are collaborating on plans to set up a joint venture digital bank in China.

There have been suspicions for a while that the markets are overinflated.

With $30 trillion in future spending power, millennials are reshaping the investing and fintech spaces to better align with their ethical values.

"We are not uniquely seduced by the trendier parts of fintech," says the head of the Wall Street bank's unit that invests in tech startups.

Image Source Jack Ma famously called Alibaba and their tech giant peer group - TechFins, declaring their intention to sneak into financial services. Banks were too focused on their battle with Fintechs then, that they perhaps were blindsided by the rise of TechFins. The first quarter of 2019 has been eventful, with major headlines from…

Mastercard is taking on the tricky subject of digital identity, setting out its vision for a system that gives individuals control and stresses the impo...

Decentralized finance has grown into one of the most active sectors of blockchain in 2019, and Ethereum projects in particular have raced to the front in establishing an ecosystem with global network…

To the traditional financial sector’s dismay, nightmares have become reality and Apple is now a banking player. After years of discussion about whether Big Tech corporations will enter this domain, Tim Cook unveiled details of a payment card, threatening to blow all other newcomers out of the water.

Blockchain technology already underpins the boom in cryptocurrencies, but is also being rigorously tested and developed for other applications, including identity and access management. Such projects could make personal data easier to secure and less vulnerable to data breaches.

AI, Robots, Algorythms

This is how machine vision algorithms make sense of the world.

Pope Francis hosts discussions on the future of robotics and ethics at the Vatican in Rome.

The fast-food giant's largest acquisition in 20 years is bringing machine learning to the drive-thru.

Governments will need to enact stricter regulations as well, says one Microsoft AI expert.

AI security expert Dawn Song warns that “adversarial machine learning” could be used to reverse-engineer systems—including those used in defense.

In building tech modeled after the human brain—which has evolved over millions of years—we’re working towards an end whose means we don’t fully comprehend.

Yoshua Bengio, Geoff Hinton, and Yann LeCun pioneered work in artificial neural networks, paving the way for self-driving cars and facial-recognition software.

TossingBot, developed by Google and Princeton, can teach itself to throw arbitrary objects with better accuracy than most humans

A comprehensive overview of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, from help with diagnosing diseases to planning for surgeries.

What does Google want to do with robotics? The company isn’t saying. But a report from The New York Times says it’s "retooling" its efforts in the field, focusing on applying artificial intelligence to manipulation and navigation problems.

When you roll up to a McDonald's drive-thru in the near future, you might notice the menu changing while you're ordering to persuade you to buy a few more items...

But the technology could also, theoretically, be used to develop placid super-soldiers.

Harnessing artificial intelligence to analyze DNA and streamline treatments will usher in an age of bespoke medicine.

Digital Ethics

Amid a maelstrom of articles and academic papers addressing the ethics of artificial intelligence, the following selection of readings aims to highlight some key issues. While it is by no means exhaustive, we hope it will provide a useful starting point for conversations about AI ethics.

Estonia plans to use an artificial intelligence program to decide some small-claims cases, part of a push to make government services smarter.

As the life-extension industry begins to boom in Western nations, we should be asking ourselves the question: Who gets to live long and well, much less forever?

A team that includes philosophers, engineers, and policy experts will determine how ethical Google’s AI projects are—but some have already criticized its makeup.

As legislators struggle to keep pace with technology, experts say the industry needs to take a more active role in keeping things in check.

Every wise board and savvy leader knows that social media, the digital revolution, and cultural shifts have made taking ethics seriously a necessity; it’s an unavoidable conversation. TechEthica is the only solution that puts ethics to work- it’s strategic, analytic, and baked in to the core of the business as a strategic asset to grow…

When it comes to the crucial ethical question of calling one’s mother, most people agreed that not doing so was a moral failing.

The ability to complete an image correlated with the network’s ability to generalize. Humans subconsciously do this constantly.

Data ethics is now a cause célèbre.

Inmates at two prisons in Finland are doing a new type of prison labor: classifying data to train artificial intelligence algorithms for a startup. The startup, Vainu, sees the partnership as a kind of prison reform that teaches valuable skills, but other experts say it plays into the exploitative economics of prisoners being required to work for very low wages.

Businesses are increasingly realising that their employees need to work alongside artificial intelligence to deliver the best results.

As algorithms play a growing role in criminal justice, education and more, tech advisory boards and academic programs mirror real-world inequality

Google recently formed an AI ethics council, but was criticized for including the head of a conservative think tank who has espoused some not-so-progressive views.

Yoshua Bengio, an A.I. pioneer who won the 2018 A.M. Turing Award

Post Capitalism

Home-cooked meals can be a troublesome affair. First, a savoury, nutritious meal must be chosen from what seems like an endless selection of dishes. Then a trip to the supermarket is required to…

ose on the left who argue for economic planning have needed for some time. The arguments I see online for economic planning tend to be fairly scattershot and unstructured; such a text will almost certainly improve their discipline.

Art related

in designing the sculptural museum, jean nouvel took influence from a naturally occurring, flower-like geological formation known as the desert rose.

French artist Frank Le Petit (aka K-Narf) began the Hatarakimono Project in 2016 to document 102 Japanese workers in uniform.

In a tiny third-floor apartment in central London, the artist Anna Ridler was hunched over her desk. Next to the desk was a black PC tower whirring noisily and in front of her was a keyboard and a…

Aesthetics

"Live coding" parties are the latest phenomenon in underground electronic music culture.

Honoring modern masculinity through dance in this new partnership with Harrods

Netflix’s new French series Osmosis initially looks like a Black Mirror knock-off. In line with "Hang the DJ," it’s about a new technology that helps people locate their soulmates. But it’s less about the dangers of new technologies, and more about the dangers of familiar old-school bugaboos: ambition, insecurity, grief, and love. Osmosis isn’t focused on moral panic headlines, it’s focused on stories.

Photographer Stephan Zirwes celebrates German public swimming pools in a series shortlisted for the Sony world photography awards

Architects can limit the environmental impact building has on our climate using their power as specifiers, they just need do it, says Christine Murray.