Mediaboss Marketing

During a walking tour of Queenslands Daintree rainforest in Australia, a talented guide regularly pointed out creatures that were well camouflaged into their surroundings. At one point, he directed our attention to a tree trunk, where a large grasshopper was camouflaged. The guides observations and stories wove together the connections between biology, geology and colonialism, helping explain how big and small changes could transform life in this ecosystem.

Our society has been altered by the rapid proliferation of new technologies and devices that produce digital data. Nested within and feeding on this data ecosystem, artificial intelligence (AI) executes cognitive tasks with more potency and speed than human beings. The large-scale transformative power of AI remains camouflaged in plain sight.

Through the lens of the responsible innovation in health research program at the Universit de Montral, we critically examine what lies beyond our immediate experiences of AI.

Much like driving a car, we do not need to understand how AI works in order to use its applications. And similar to ways in which the fossil fuel industry shaped the role of cars in our society, AI is delivered through powerful commercial interests and large digital and physical infrastructures. To better understand their impacts, there is an urgent need to critically appraise how AI delivers its much-touted promises.

At the onset of the Industrial Revolution, people in Montral had no clue about the kinds of infrastructures that were going to be developed to extract, exploit, distribute and use fossil fuels. Montral was ideally located to transport goods, including oil, and refineries were later concentrated along the Saint Lawrence River. Beyond negative impacts on residents health, the decisions made at the turn of the 20th century to exploit fossil fuels have had long lasting self-reinforcing effects.

And now, in the 21st century, we are seeing the changes AI brings and we need to consider the wide-ranging ramifications.

The jewel in the crown of the intangibles economy, AI needs expansive e-infrastructures that have tangible impacts and costs. Estimates suggest that the carbon footprint of training a single AI is as much as 284 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent five times the lifetime emissions of an average car.

If we choose to exploit the oil of the 21st century, we will have to build large powerful computational centres and sizable server farms. AI requires networking and cloud infrastructures to capture, analyze, share and archive vast amounts of data.

When deep learning techniques are involved, training is a key step that consists of feeding the algorithm with large and mostly unstructured datasets. The training of a single AI-based application may be split over dozens of chips and may require months to complete.

Although it only takes a low energy tap on a smartphone to use an application, its development is energy intensive and non-renewable energy sources have a much larger environmental impact.

Thankfully, data scientists are starting to calculate the energy required to develop AI tools before they are made available for use. For instance, a process involved in automating the design of a neural network through trial and error called the Neural Architecture Search (NAS) is highly energy intensive. Without NAS, training the AI tool Transformer takes 84 hours, but with NAS it takes more than 270,000 hours, thereby requiring 3,000 times the amount of energy.

Reducing the carbon footprint of AI requires a concerted effort by industry and academia to promote research of more computationally efficient algorithms and the use of more sustainable hardware and model development strategies.

Because data generated through digital interactions are worth their weight in gold, commercial agreements are likely to keep the future of AI into the hands of those with corporate interests. Exploiting data to increase corporate profits are the core business of tech giants like Amazon and Google.

Read more: It's time for a new way to regulate social media platforms

This is one of the reasons why it is important for public policy-makers to create alternative entrepreneurial pathways where data scientists and programmers who aim to design much more meaningful AI can thrive.

Could AI empower those who tackle todays major societal challenges and seek solutions for the common good? For instance, what would an eco-friendly AI tool to help us meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals look like? What alternative business and data governance models should be promoted for benefits to be shared equitably?

Seeing the forest and the trees could turn a more responsible vision for the 21st century into a tangible reality.

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Hidden in plain sight: The infrastructures that support artificial intelligence - The Conversation CA

Almost 70 prominent legislators from the G7 group of rich nations and the European Parliament havepenneda letter to the leaders of their countries urging them to unite around a plan of action against China that addresses its growing market power in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and 5G technology.

In a letter published on Monday before a G7 summit in the UK in June, signatories from the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and the European Parliament criticised China for "manning bottleneck positions" in international bodies, and called on G7 leaders to "avoid becoming dependent" on China for technology.

The power inherent to platform technologies such as quantum computing and AI cannot be overstated, tweeted Norbert Rttgen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Germany's Bundestag, who organised the letter. China has taken the lead in some of these future industries. The free world must avoid becoming dependent on a country that rejects market principles and democratic values.

The letter points to five areas of concern where the leaders called for allied action, including international institutional reform, technological standards, human rights, tensions in the Indo-pacific regions and co-operation on COVID-19. The statement also highlights the treatment of the Muslim Uighur population, described as genocide by the outgoing US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

China is accused of holding back critical information on COVID-19 at an early stage and undermining the World Health Organisation. "To prepare and prevent future outbreaks, we believe that an independent investigation into the origins and spread of the virus is necessary," the letter says.

China is pushing back. In an address to the virtual World Economic Forum Monday, the countrys president,Xi Jinping, sent out a warning to Joe Biden that he risks a new cold war if he continues with the policies of his predecessor.

Xi instead touted a multilateral approach to solving the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and said the pandemic should not be used as an excuse to reverse globalisation in favour of decoupling and seclusion.

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G7 urged to take 'allied action' against China on artificial intelligence, quantum and 5G - Science Business

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reveal, a global provider of the leading AI-powered eDiscovery platform, and Brainspace, a global provider of visual analytics for eDiscovery and investigations, announced today that they have joined forces. The combination creates a technology powerhouse bringing together two leading artificial intelligence and analytics engines, propelling the next evolution of legal technology. K1 Investment Management (K1), a leading investment firm focused on high-growth enterprise software companies, has invested over $200 million in the combined organization.

Backed by K1, Reveals merger with Brainspace has set into motion the next phase of AI innovation in the practice of law. Fueled by some of the worlds most powerful AI technology and underpinned by the Reveal review platform, we are ushering in a new era of automation in legal technology, said Wendell Jisa, founder & CEO of Reveal.

In less than six months, Reveal has acquired NexLP and merged with Brainspace to combine the two leading eDiscovery AI solutions and create a single pane of glass platform for their customers eDiscovery needs. This superior user experience enables clients to manage data, control costs, and extract key insights all in one place. Customers will now have access to the entire suite, including Reveals industry-leading processing, early case assessment, AI and review functionality, as well as Brainspaces data analytics engine.

Reveal is helping our customers gain insight and foresight in a rapidly evolving space by leveraging augmented intelligence models, said Dave Deppe, president of UnitedLex.

Eric Crawley, vice president of Global Advanced Technologies and Managed Review at Epiq Systems, added, Epiq has a long history of leveraging NexLP and Brainspace analytics to provide clients with differentiated methods and solutions, including portable AI models. Were excited to partner with Reveal as we continue to innovate around advanced analytics for legal technology.

K1s investment will be used to fuel growth, including expanding the sales and marketing teams, building additional functionality within the products, and hiring within R&D, data science and customer success to augment the client experience.

The eDiscovery market is undergoing rapid change and K1 is excited to partner with the Reveal and Brainspace teams to create the category leader in the industry, said Tarun Jain, vice president at K1. We look forward to accelerating investment into both companies technologies to create a world-class software platform that allows customers to streamline all their eDiscovery requirements.

The strategic merger of Reveal and Brainspace is another significant chapter in each companys growth story, with the combined company becoming one of the largest legal-focused AI providers globally. Customers include leading legal service providers, law firms, corporations and government agencies around the globe.

For more information about the combined company and its AI platform for legal, enterprise and government organizations, visit http://www.revealdata.com and http://www.brainspace.com.

About Reveal

Reveal is the industrys only eDiscovery platform powered by artificial intelligence. As a cloud-based software provider, Reveal offers the full range of processing, early case assessment, review, infrastructure and artificial intelligence capabilities. Reveal clients include law firms, Fortune 500 corporations, legal service providers, government agencies and financial institutions in more than 40 countries across five continents. Featuring deployment options in the cloud or on-premise, an intuitive user design, multilingual user interfaces and the automatic detection of more than 160 languages, Reveal accelerates legal review, saving users time and money. For more information, visit http://www.revealdata.com.

About Brainspace

For more than a decade, Brainspace has been on the leading edge of analytics and machine learning, delivering innovative solutions for complex data challenges in investigations, eDiscovery, intelligence mining, compliance, and alternative data. The most comprehensive and trusted platform of its kind, Brainspace's patented analytics technology accelerates the process of identifying what matters. Harness the power of the industry's leading Augmented Intelligence platform to surface insights, slash risk, and solve problems at Brainspace.com.

About K1

K1 builds category-leading enterprise software companies. As a global investment firm, K1 assists high-growth businesses to achieve successful outcomes, and invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. With over 100 professionals, K1 changes industry landscapes by assisting with operationally-focused growth strategies designed to assist portfolio companies scale efficiently. Since inception of the firm, K1 has partnered with over 140 enterprise software companies including industry leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Checkmarx, ChiroTouch, Clarizen, ControlUp, Emburse, FMG Suite, Granicus, Graduway, IronScales, Litera Microsystems, Onit, Rave Mobile Safety, RFPIO, Smarsh, WorkForce Software and Zapproved. For more information about K1, please visit k1capital.com or follow us at linkedin.com/company/k1im.

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Reveal And Brainspace Merge to Become Leading Artificial Intelligence Powered eDiscovery Platform - Business Wire

ArchIntel

ArchIntel, a leading provider of concise actionable open source market and competitive intelligence (CI) reports to business leaders across the federal sector, has released Competitive Artificial Intelligence: The Crossover Point, the platforms latest white paper discussing the influence that artificial intelligence (AI) is having on the future of the CI landscape.

The full white paper is available for a free download on ArchIntel.com.

The Crossover Point showcases the insights and highlights from a handful of senior executives in the field of competitive intelligence who acted as expert panelists during ArchIntel Events recent Artificial Intelligence in Competitive Intelligence Forum.

ArchIntels first event explored the competitive landscape as emerging technology continues to evolve and influence the federal sector while the panelists explained how businesses can maintain a competitive advantage through the integration of emerging technologies into their organizations.

August Jackson, senior director of Market and Competitive Intelligence with Deltek, served as a speaker and moderator for an expert panel featuring Dr. Fred Hoffman of Mercyhurst University, Arik Johnson of Aurora Worldwide Development and Suki Fuller of Competitive Intelligence Fellows.

We need to find our collective professional voice for us to speak to the developer community to ensure that AI is an enabling tool for competitive intelligence. said Jackson during ArchIntels recent forum. This event is one of the first steps we need to find that voice.

Download your free copy of ArchIntels latest white paper, The Crossover Point to learn the biggest takeaways and best practices of how CI professionals are maintaining a competitive advantage in their field while working to integrate AI and other emerging technologies to push CI into the future.

In case you missed ArchIntels Artificial Intelligence in Competitive Intelligence Forum, you can rewatch the full event by registering on ArchIntel Events.

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ArchIntel Releases 'Competitive Artificial Intelligence: The Crossover Point' White Paper - GovConWire

Not only is China growing faster than any other big economy; it's poised to take the lead in artificial intelligence applications to manufacturing, health care and transportation, leapfrogging the West in key new technologies. President Joe Biden's chief Asia advisor Kurt Campbell says the U.S. should "balance between cooperation and competition" with China. We're already far behind on the competition for leadership in a wide range of AI applicationsan issue with urgent implications for American policy.

China is well on its way to building a planned 10 million 5G mobile base stations by 2024, wiring virtually the whole country for game-changing technologies. It has already deployed some of them in its response to COVID-19. Sensors connected to smartphones and linked to centralized databases monitor the vital signs of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens and visitors in real time. Three-dimensional facial imaging allows these systems to monitor the mobility of people and contact with others. Artificial intelligence algorithms extract information from these data to identify potential viral hotspots and guide forensic testing and preventive quarantines. China's effective control over the virusdespite some localized outbreaksprovides further impetus to speed up the adoption of digital heath technology.

The 3D facial recognition component of China's public health initiatives have drawn international concern. U.S. commentators focus on its implications for social control, but the technology has already been incorporated into a wide range of remote services. With 3D facial recognition, people in China can board trains, buy produce and obtain medical services without physical contact. The majority of the Chinese population is willing to accept the possibility of invasions of privacy provided the benefits are clear.

Many of these public health technologies are here to stay. In the next few years, China is expected to deploy an advanced medical system that uses big data and sensors. Key to this new health system will be robots, which will rely on big data to conduct various tasks, including elderly home care.

Robots will also be vital in manufacturing. The nearly instantaneous response time of 5G broadband allows them to share information and even devise autonomous production processes on the factory floor.

Manufacturing for high-technology devices such as smartphones is already highly automated, and no other country can match the high quality level and low manufacturing cost of China's system. Because China includes both government agencies and private corporations in its high-tech manufacturing sector, the competitive barriers against other countries are rapidly increasing.

Another emerging application of AI in China is "smart farms," which run on local 5G networks that gather information from sensors at the level of individual plants. Drones and driverless vehicles apply water, fertilizer and pesticides as needed. Huawei is already exporting smart farm technology to Brazil, Malaysia and Turkey.

China is also becoming the global leader in autonomous transportation. The country intends to shift to self-driving passenger and delivery vehicles by 2035. This is an extremely ambitious goal that will require large investments.

Autonomous transportation will require the coordination of automobiles, buses, local trains, high-speed trains and other forms of transit. Entirely new cities are being built to support autonomous transportation, though converting existing cities will be the greater challenge. AI will play a key role. Baidu, Alibaba Group, Tencent and others are collaborating with Chinese automobile companies to develop vehicles, while a new generation of drones is under development for goods transport.

China, meanwhile, is building its supply chain for batteries and other components of electric vehicles. It will have the largest battery capacity for electric cars over the next few years, with the expectation of producing 21 million in 2030. The situation is analogous to solar cellsof which Chinese companies have 85 percent of the world's capacity.

China is also the world leader in digital currency. Between 75 and 85 percent of the population already uses smartphones to pay for goods and services, as a result of the widespread adoption of Alipay, WeChat Pay and other competing services.

As the first to market with a national digital currency, China has an advantage in promoting the yuan as a challenger to the U.S. dollar in international trade. This promises to reduce transaction costs and eliminate the need for trillions of dollars in bank balances, most of which now are held in U.S. dollars. The first adopters will be China's key trading partners, specifically within the Belt and Road Initiative.

For all the talk about shifting supply chains away from China, no other economy has the labor force and infrastructure to make much of a difference. Surging U.S. demand for medical equipment and consumer electronics pushed Chinese exports to the U.S. to record highs last year. This occurred despite the higher prices that U.S. consumers and corporations paid for Chinese products because of tariffs. Most Chinese factories will run at full capacity in 2021. Their biggest problem is a shortage of containers required to ship products to the U.S. and other countries.

Returning U.S. manufacturing jobs from China will remain a difficult task. American companies are reluctant to make the large capital expenditures required to build highly automated manufacturing facilities for high-tech products domestically. But that does not mean American policymakers' hands are tied. There are at least four lessons they can take from China's AI success.

First, China will not bend to U.S. pressure to change its economic management model. China's economic performance in 2020 showed the resilience of the country's technology companies in the face of American sanctions. It also persuaded Chinese leaders that they have no reason to accept American demands to change their system. Beijing will only be more confident asserting its global position in the near future.

Second, America has little leverage to bring about political change in China. The Communist Party of China retained its credibility after the initial shock of the pandemic and will keep its "Mandate of Heaven" in 2021 and beyond. Tariffs and technology boycotts under the Trump administration failed to contain China, and undermined America's standing in the world.

Third, America must develop a cohesive strategy for the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" and persuade its allies that American leadership is in their best interest. Federal funding for research and development would have to double to restore the relative level of the 1980s, when the United States invented the digital economy. Although the Biden campaign promised more spending to promote American technological leadership, the scale of the requirement is far greater than either American political party has grasped.

Fourth, America must address the fundamental reason for its manufacturing decline: governments in Asia subsidize capital-intensive manufacturing while the American corporate tax structure favors "capital-light" software and service businesses. If the U.S. is to surpass China in manufacturing, telecommunications and weaponry, it needs an industrial policy that guides capital back to capital-intensive investments.

Handel H. Jones is the founder, owner, and CEO of International Business Strategies, Inc. David P. Goldman is Deputy Editor of Asia Times and author of You Will Be Assimilated: China's Plan to Sino-Form the World (Bombardier Books).

The views in this article are the writers' own.

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China is Winning the Artificial Intelligence Race | Opinion - Newsweek