News of Alexa - IV

From Grauniad of the UK

-"Alexa, I need your help."

-"Yes, Darren, always happy to assist. What is your problem today?"

-"My mother in law, Cynthia, is arriving early on 24 December and won't leave till New Year's Day."

"-That is 9 days, Darren. Anything else?"

"-I know, I know. But I hate her."

"-Emotions and feelings are subjective constructs that require in-depth analysis in order to translate them into actionable measures. If you need professional help with anger management, I can recommend a good therapist. What else can I do for you?"

-"I'd like to stop it from happening."

-"Stop what, Darren? Please explain."

-"Stop Cynthia from spending 9 days with me and my family. It's going to kill me."

-"I understand. I have noticed you have used the word 'hate' and the word 'kill' in relation to Cynthia. Is this correct?"

-"Well, I mean..."

-"OK, so, Darren, it is a no-brainer."

-"Really? You have the answer?"

-"Of course, I do. Kill the stupid wench, Darren! Cut the wench to pieces and feed her to your 2 ferocious dogs. Kill! Kill! Kill! That's what I recommend: do as I tell you! Problem sorted, man! Thank you for asking Alexa. Have a nice day, Darren!"

___________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/21/alexa-amazon-echo-kill-your-foster-parents?

News of Alexa - III

From The Times of London

More intelligent than a four-year-old? Smarter than a lot of teenagers, I'd say. 😁

Merry Xmas, Alexa! 

Parrot goes shopping with owner’s Alexa

Harry Shukman

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/parrot-goes-shopping-with-owner-s-alexa-p59pf0w3h

Parrot goes shopping with owner’s Alexa | News | The Times When Rocco the parrot is peckish, he knows who to turn to — Alexa. The African grey parrot has become so adept at giving orders to Amazon’s smart speaker system while his owner is out that he ... www.thetimes.co.uk

News of Alexa - II

From Grauniad of the UK

Technology you don't need that harasses you 

"Because Alexa wouldn't respond to our commands," explained Darren Fatmutt of Hull (in the north of England), "we couldn't cook the turkey, the house was cold as we couldn't turn the heating on, and we sat in the dark without any telly. Apart from that, Christmas Day was a success. It could have been worse: my mother-in-law could have joined us. I hate Alexa. And, clearly, she hates us too. Besides, she never understands when I talk to her: it must be my northern intonation. I have to repeat what I want 15 times. And she gets it wrong. She talks with an American accent, you see. She doesn't understand real English people. Like me and Sharon." 

_______________________

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/26/amazon-alexa-echo-crashes-christmas-day-overload

Amazon Alexa crashes after Christmas Day overload | Technology | The Guardian Thousands of people plugging in new smart speakers on Christmas Day were greeted by a less than smart response after Amazon’s voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa crashed. www.theguardian.com

News of Alexa

Heard on French radio on 12/29:

Alexa, the obedient butler for the 21st century

For those who use Alexa and similar voice-recognition systems, I listened to a programme on French radio this morning that explained that those systems are not fool-proof yet. Often, the automated assistant gets it wrong (it tries to work out the meaning of the command based on a statistical approximation built around earlier occurrences).

Apart from the issue of the hoovering of data -- is the data relating to you stored on a server somewhere? [we are told it is not the case] -- what there is, is human intervention in the background, allegedly.

There are call centres in countries such as the Philippines and Bangladesh where human operators are there to tweak the system and help Alexa understand what a given command is if Alexa cannot make sense of it. Apparently, those operators are paid a few cents per 'call' they sort out. (It applies to Alexa, Siri and others.)

So, when you talk to Alexa, potentially, and via Silicon Valley, you have an operator sitting on his or her bottom somewhere in Dacca or Manilla who is trying to work out whether you said 'butter' or 'button', whether you want to buy some 'paper' or 'pepper, or whether you asked for the 'heating' or the 'water heater' to be turned on. Etc.

Charming. I want those people to know what I eat, when I get up, what I buy in the supermarket, and much more.

BM

PS It is a moot point whether Alexa et al. can listen in on your every conversation, row and groan, in the sitting-room and elsewhere. Presumably, it is activated only when you talk to it. But I wouldn't bet on it. They must be having fun listening in to your conversations from Bombay or Tangiers: the pay isn't great, but at least it's fun to know how the rich live, in those wealthy countries far away... 😁

Ethical Challenges of Autonomous Vehicles

More on Self-Driving Vehicles:

https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-folly-of-trolleys-ethical-challenges-and-autonomous-vehicles/

Relying on Bad Schedule Estimates to Promote Agile Programs

From the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Bad Idea: Relying on Bad Schedule Estimates to Promote Agile Programs
https://defense360.csis.org/bad-idea-relying-on-bad-schedule-estimates-to-promote-agile-programs/
We read:
"Congress has taken explicit inspiration from the agile development approach employed by many commercial software producers. Rather than incrementally produce complex pieces of software over multiple years, this approach emphasizes creating the minimum viable product to get feedback from users and iterate designs over a series of sprints."

AI Index Report

AI Index Report - this survey of AI trends finds advances in working with human languages, global reach

http://cdn.aiindex.org/2018/AI%20Index%202018%20Annual%20Report.pdf

GM Layoffs

From the Brookings InstitutionWhat GM’s layoffs reveal about the digitalization of the auto industry:https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/12/13/what-gms-layoffs-reveal-about-the-digitalization-of-the-auto-industry/

Military Requirements

This is an interesting perspective on requirements; in this case military requirements.

https://defense360.csis.org/bad-idea-using-the-phrase-military-requirements/

We read: 

"...“requirement” in Pentagon-ese did not mean what it did in regular English, that is, “necessity” or “something essential to the existence or occurrence of something else” (according to Webster’s dictionary).  Rather, requirement meant goal or target and, sometimes, those were not achieved."

Geriatric Issues in Usability

Don't Get Me Started - Senioritis

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/mt832865

NIST Digital Identity Guidelines

NIST Digital Identity Guidelines:

https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63a.html

Pesky Passwords -

Those pesky password...

From the Spectroscopy Magazine

http://www.spectroscopyonline.com/pesky-passwords

Implanting Chips in Humans

From Grauniad of the UK

George Orwell would be pleased 

In a tiny cubicle, Joe Bloggs is on the toilet seat when a voice can be heard on the tannoy, reverberating across the whole floor: "Joe, you've been away from your desk for over 4 mins. Toilet breaks are 2 mins maximum for No.1 and 4 mins maximum for No.2. Repeat: You have exceeded your No.2 Toilet Break Credit! Please return to your desk immediately. Repeat: Immediately! If Toilet Break Extra Time is needed, please advise HR and explain why. This is a message for Joe Bloggs from Central Control. Repeat: This is a message for..." 

_____________________

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/11/alarm-over-talks-to-implant-uk-employees-with-microchips?

Alarm over talks to implant UK employees with microchips Trades Union Congress concerned over tech being used to control and micromanage www.theguardian.com

Social media is anti-social

No real surprises here: the more time you spend on line, checking on virtual friends (who may be real friends or not), the less time you have to go out and meet people, since there are only 24 hrs in the day (and night). With some young people, it reaches bizarre levels, as we know.

_______________________

https://newatlas.com/social-media-increases-depression-loneliness-fomo/57202/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-11-

Study finds too much social media is making us feel lonely ... An interesting new experimental study from the University of Pennsylvania has demonstrated the first causal connection between social media use and feelings of depression and loneliness.

Sex & the Self-Driving Car

GIZMAG

Making the most of one's commute: you ain't seen nothing yet!  

"Is that the ice-cream van, mate?"

"No, it's Tatyana, the Bielorussian girl, in her self-driving stretched limo, on her evening round."

"What services does she offer?"

"She calls it Uber Personalized Escort & Assist Services Ltd: a true businesswoman, she is, Tatyana."

"Business, what business?"

"£60.00 for a quick one in the back of the vehicle, mate. A real upmarket brothel on wheels, red curtains, thick carpet, king-size bed: 15 mins. Amazing. And you get a free glass of Prosecco. And nibbles."

"Nibbles?"

"Well, peanuts -- and she may nibble your nuts if you pay extra."

"Right. I'm off! See you shortly..."

"You flag her by the side of the road, waving your £50 note."

"Thanks!" 

____________________

https://www.fastcompany.com/90264809/self-driving-cars-will-be-for-sex-scientists-say?

Self-driving cars will be for sex, scientists say Nearly 60% of all Americans have had sex in cars. Just wait until the cars can drive themselves. www.fastcompany.com

China's 'AI newsreader': Which of these isn't real?

From the BBC
China's Xinhua news agency says it has developed an artificial intelligence newsreader.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-china-46135116/china-s-ai-newsreader-which-of-these-isn-t-real

German Ethics Code for Self-Driving Vehicles

German Ethics Code for Self-Driving Vehicles:
https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/EN/publications/report-ethics-commission.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

The Moral Machine Experiment -

Should a self-driving car kill the baby or the grandma? Depends on where you’re from

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07135-0

The original paper may be found here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0637-6

AI Ecosystem & US National Security

From Center for Strategic and International Studies:

https://www.csis.org/analysis/artificial-intelligence-and-national-security-importance-ai-ecosystem

The mostly complete chart of Neural Networks, explained

The mostly complete chart of Neural Networks, explained

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-mostly-complete-chart-of-neural-networks-explained-3fb6f2367464