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As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing advance, people often do not know if they are talking to a person or an AI-powered chatbot. What matters more than who or what is on the other side of the chat is the perceived humanness of the interaction.

With text-based bots becoming ubiquitous and AI-powered voice systems emerging, consumers of everything from shoes to insurance may find themselves talking to non-humans. Companies will have to decide when bots are appropriate and effective and when they are not. Researchers then developed a measurement for perceived humanness.

In the study, participants chatted with bots or human agents from companies and rated them on humanness. Sixty-three of 172 participants could not identify whether they were interacting with a human or a machine. But whether the interaction featured AI or not, higher scores of perceived humanness led to greater consumer trust in the companies.

If people felt like if it was humaneither with really good AI or with a real personthen they felt like the organisation was investing in the relationship. People think that the company is trying to create good interaction and the company put some time or resources into this, and therefore they trust the organisation.

Tom Kelleher, Ph.D., Advertising Professor, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida

Researchers started studying how language affects customer trust more than a decade ago when blogging culture introduced a conversational approach to the stuffy, stilted language businesses tended to bludgeon their customers with.

Companies noticed that as jargon waned, consumer trust, satisfaction and commitment grew. The new study shows that the same holds true with chatbots and other online interactions, and can be applied to bots and humans alike.

As AI-powered interfaces blossom, even expanding to include animated avatars that look human, ethical issues will follow. Should companies disclose when customers are interacting with a non-human agent? What if the helper is a hybrid: A person assisted by AI? Are there areas where consumers will not accept bots, such as health care, or situations where they might prefer a non-human?

If Im just trying to get an insurance quote, I would almost rather put something into an app than have to make small talk about the weather. But later on, if my house floods, Im going to want to talk to a real person. As the metaverse evolves, understanding when to employ AI and when to employ real people will be an increasingly important business decision, Kelleher said.

As reported by OpenGov Asia, a new report showed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached a critical turning point in its evolution. Substantial advances in language processing, computer vision and pattern recognition mean that AI is touching peoples lives dailyfrom helping people to choose a movie to aid in medical diagnoses.

With that success, however, comes a renewed urgency to understand and mitigate the risks and downsides of AI-driven systems, such as algorithmic discrimination or the use of AI for deliberate deception. Computer scientists must work with experts in the social sciences and law to assure that the pitfalls of AI are minimised.

The report Gathering Strength, Gathering Storms: The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) 2021 Study Panel Report aims to monitor the progress of AI and guide its future development. This new report, the second to be released by the AI100 project, assesses developments in AI between 2016 and 2021.

In terms of AI advances, the panel noted substantial progress across subfields of AI, including speech and language processing, computer vision and other areas. Much of this progress has been driven by advances in machine learning techniques, particularly deep learning systems, which have leapt in recent years from the academic setting to everyday applications.

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3 Phases on the Journey to Multicloud OpenGov Asia - OpenGov Asia

As the pandemic shifted more work online and remote work became the norm, government agencies move to a multi-cloud environment quickly. However, many agencies are realising that not all apps and workloads are suited to the cloud. Skyrocketing costs due to data egress, poor performance from lack of in-house skills to manage workloads in public clouds and security complications related to compliance demands have made many cloud workloads problematic.

This year will be the year of multi-cloud strategy when federal IT leaders take a step back and prioritise creating a comprehensive plan for deploying multicloud environments. There are three critical phases to thoughtful deployment that will allow agencies to reap all the benefits that multicloud has to offer. These three stages include assessing the current IT system, determining where workloads belong and mapping out plans and achieving business goals set out in those plans.

Phase 1: Assess the current IT ecosystem

Throughout this process, agencies may determine that some apps must be repatriated, or moved back from the cloud to on-premises. For best decision-making, this is the time to examine data egress (when applications send data back and forth from clouds or downloads and files are moved to external storage).

This is especially important for agencies that have experienced unforeseen cloud costs due to unanticipated egress costs and misunderstanding how chatty their on-premises apps would be with apps in the public cloud. The key to success for this phase will be less about applications and more about where workloads and corresponding data reside.

Phase 2: Determine where workloads belong and map out a plan

After thoroughly vetting the current IT environment and app workloads, its time to map out getting from an as-is state to the to be state. This process will encompass gauging what workloads need to be containerized and ported, which refactored and which rewritten entirely.

Phase 3: Achieve goals set out in the plan

This phase should also be iterative, never stopping after implementation, and aim to reduce time to value, minimize risk and manage costs more effectively. Navigating multicloud is not simply a matter of technology. Successful transitions involve people, processes and technology. Agencies will have to prepare for a cultural shift, process changes and be equipped with the necessary technologies and training to enable successful multi-cloud deployment.

To effectively manage costs, agencies will need automated continuous monitoring that focuses on instances. Too often, organizations have been surprised by shadow IT where employees knowingly or unknowingly use cloud services that contribute to exhausting the cloud budget. Actively managing instances and services in the multi-cloud environment is vital to monitoring costs.

By incorporating a more thoughtful approach to multi-cloud, federal agencies stand to glean more of its benefits in the coming year, including increased agility, flexibility, efficiency, performance, security and cost management.

As reported by OpenGov Asia, a report titled Government Cloud Platforms 20212022 RadarView evaluated 15 providers based on product maturity, enterprise adaptability and future readiness. The report identifies four trends that are shaping the market. The first is the increasing compliance needs that are accelerating the shift to the cloud. The cloud helps agencies address sensitive workloads, such as those involving health care data while complying with requirements.

The second trend is the emergence of tailored cloud regions for communities such as defence and intelligence. Such regions can address the level of sensitive data that these communities work with, and these users can look to these isolated cloud resources to deploy workloads securely and compliantly.

The third trend is the fact that convergence with emerging technologies is driving change. Fourth, government cloud providers are expanding their influence by growing into new regions and helping the public sector shift to cloud while maintaining data governance and sovereignty.

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Taiwan University Unveils Heart Arrhythmia Detection App - OpenGov Asia

Bigger is always better. Many of us think this is true when it comes to building our online networks of social media friends, connections and followers. But new research suggests the opposite may be closer to the truth: curating small networks of trusted connections may be smarter in the long run. While this may seem counterintuitive, it also comes with a caveat.

We often feel compelled and are even encouraged by social media platforms, to grow our networks. Consider all the prompts about someone else you might know and who to follow. We all want the sociometrics (that number of friends or followers posted in the corner of your profile) to look good.

Both offline and online, our social networks can function as either prisms or pipes.

As prisms, they broadcast to others our likes, dislikes, opinions, interests, activities, and more. They signal who we are, or want to be, to our network of social connections.

As pipes, they act as conduits through which help and resources can flow. Using our networks as pipes is an important part of how we build relationships. We give and receive advice, advocacy, endorsement, emotional support, and tangible things (like entrepreneurs do, for example).

Studies of face-to-face networks have generally shown that, whether we use our networks as prisms or pipes, bigger is better.

But what about online?

We flock to social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram because its easy to view, share and store our connections, allowing us to communicate with them whenever we want. Thats what makes connecting online and offline so different. We cant search and find a comment we made six days ago to a friend over coffee. We can, however, find and reshare a conversation we had with our Facebook friends three years ago. It turns out thats a really important distinction.

Its when we use our online networks as pipes, not prisms, that small matters and seems to be valuable. In a recent study of Canadian entrepreneurs, our team of researchers uncovered this counterintuitive point and shed light on the reasons why.

We think it suggests some broader insights.

For people to actually use their online networks as pipes for resources and support, three things need to come together. First, we need to believe we have the ability to ask for or give a resource or support (termed exchange). Second, we need to have a way to actually make the exchange happen. And finally, we need to want to conduct the exchange.

All those digital viewing, scanning, sharing, searching and storing capabilities of our social media networks make it really easy for us to believe we have the ability and arrangements to use our networks as pipes. I can quickly and easily ask my online network for something I need and get a quick response. But our research suggests that we dont always have the willingness to ask.

Through interviews with entrepreneurs, we uncovered that the reason is likely that people are really worried about what others will think. This perceived social judgment risk can get in the way of entrepreneurs getting helpful resources from their online networks. We suspect its not just entrepreneurs who are worried about this. Thats because perceived social judgment risk is a product of audience collapse, which reduces our willingness to reach out online.

Audience collapse happens when we add people to our online networks from all aspects of our lives. These might be people we know well and people we barely know; personal connections, work acquaintances, volunteer connections, hometown connections and those with shared interests and hobbies.

By building these varied and oversized networks, and inviting so many different people to join, our willingness to ask for help goes down. With all that searching, viewing and sharing, who knows where our request might land?

Our research reveals that many of us likely perceive a lot of social judgment risk in asking for anything but information from our online networks. We are worried that others will judge our asks as weak, needy, unsure, confused, too personal or otherwise inappropriate, making us less willing to seek help. This dark side implication of bigger is better social media networking is rarely discussed.

If this resonates, what can you do?

To make our social media networks useful as pipes, we suggest creating trust networks. These are purpose-built to stay small yes, small. Only add people who will support, not negatively judge, and help you these are the people you trust.

A trust network is likely to be very high in reciprocity, or the giving and getting of help, because all members feel it is a safe place to ask for and give help. It becomes a really useful pipe network where small, not big, is valuable.

So, if you want to use your online networks as a prism to signal things to the world stay big. But if you want to give and get help, then create a purpose-built, small trust network on social media. We think youll be glad you did.

This article by Claudia Smith, Assistant Professor, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Entrepreneurs! Your social networks should be small and curated - The Next Web

If youre one of the millions of people who recently decided to make a job change, you may be considering how to share the news. Updating your LinkedIn profile is a good place to start, but how should you share the news on other platforms?

Celebrating something new is important, says Lana Peters, vice president of the Americas for HiBob, an HR software provider. You may have found another job, or you may be looking for another position, taking a sabbatical, or taking time to evaluate what you want in your life, moving forward. Whatever the case may be, celebrating that on social media is completely fine.

First, consider the purpose of your announcement, says Christy Pruitt-Haynes, a consultant at NeuroLeadership Institute, a science-based leadership-development consulting firm.

Are you simply informing people of a new way to get in contact with you, or a new career opportunity youve recently accepted? she asks. Are you soliciting help to find your next opportunity? Are you announcing a retirement, or that you are moving to entrepreneurship? The purpose should absolutely shape the narrative.

Do it right by following these dos and donts:

This post can provide a good opportunity to thank your previous employer for the opportunity and for what you learned, suggests Peters. Even if your experience wasnt entirely positive, theres likely something valuable you gained.

You can use the opportunity to share some of your accomplishments, says Pruitt-Haynes. For example, I am very proud of my time at XYZ company where I was able to grow sales by 17%, diversify our vendor list to include 50% more businesses owned by people of color, and lead a staff of 15 to our highest engagement year ever.

You never know who will read that, and you cant miss an opportunity to brag on your abilities, adds Peters.

Social media also helps you provide context around your career journey. To me, the biggest goal that this accomplished is telling a story about that individuals career journey and progression over time, says Josh Dazel, vice president of human resources at Skai, an AI-driven marketing data analytics firm. Take advantage of positive opportunities to share this narrative rather than leaving it for recruiters, hiring managers, or other connections to infer.

Think of a departure post as being on par with a well-crafted resignation letter, says Carlos Ledo, assistant general counsel and HR consultant for Engage PEO, an HR outsourcing-solutions provider. The goal is to show your former employer appreciation for the opportunity you were given and leave the door open for a potential future return, he says.

If youre going to a new job, list your new job title and function, adds Ledo. Not only will this provide individuals who follow you a clear picture of where you currently are in your career, but it can open the door to collaboration with others in your social media community, he says. It can also help you bring in new business to your current employer.

It can help to stay connected to colleagues from past companies on social media, says Dazel. Its a small world when it comes to the job market within a specific industry, so you never know who you will cross paths with again, either as a colleague or a client, he says. Maintaining and fostering these relationshipseven when youre no longer coworkersis a positive step and strong networking practice that takes little time and effort.

Talk about whats next for you, and ask for what you need, says Pruitt-Haynes. For example, if youre retiring, mention that youre open to catching up over lunch or happy hour. If you are looking for a job, share that youre excited about finding your next opportunity in the industry or fields of interest to you. And if youre taking time off, let them know you cant wait to emerge from your much-needed down time with a renewed sense of purpose.

If youre looking for a new job, be clear about what you want and the skills you possess.

It isnt easy to truly understand what skills a person has, or the types of functions they perform within a role, solely based on a job title, says Ledo. Succinctly express the skills you possess, how you can apply them in your next role, and how you feel your experience can add value to a new employer.

If you lost your job and didnt see it coming or didnt feel it was warranted, Peters suggest taking some time before you post the news publicly.

The worst thing that I see happening is that folks are being let go or leaving organizations, and theyre at home and dont have an outlet, says Peters. We all need to give each other a little grace and think through how were communicating, even more than we might have when we were all on site. Its a different feeling of rejection and loneliness when youre in a home office.

And assume everything you share or post on social media is viewable by the public, says Ledo. A false sense of security can lead to posts that can be seen as controversial or damaging to your professional reputation, he says. A good rule of thumb is not to post anything you wouldnt be willing to say in front of a large audience filled with strangers and potential employers.

Disappointment is temporary, but the internet is forever, says Pruitt-Haynes. Represent yourself and your long-term goals well.

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This is the right way to post about your job change on social media - Fast Company

Why Good Wi-Fi Is Critical for Business Operations

Most commonly, what we would experience is just a dropping connection to the network, explains Wayne Shuster, service manager at Hansel Ford. Thats a big problem for automobile service technicians because modern cars are sophisticated, requiring network-connected diagnostic equipment to pinpoint and fix problems.

We need that network in order to communicate with vehicles and then connect to Ford through that wireless network, Shuster says. We also use tablets around the shop, and those tablets are used to record vehicle specifications during routine maintenance.

Mikayla Lopez, a consumer experience manager for Hansel Auto Group, said she often had to use her cellphone as a wireless hotspot while shooting videos for Hansels social media accounts and to perform other aspects of her job.

It was pretty frustrating to get kicked off the network or just have that really slow lag time, Lopez says. It was really difficult.

The problem was compounded by the fact that Hansel had a mix of different vendors networking technologies installed at different locations and by the fact that some of that equipment was managed by a third party while other parts were managed by in-house staff, led by IT Manager Joshua Demitro.

MORE WI-FI:How to get flawless connectivity from anywhere.

Demitro decided to deploy Cisco Meraki networking technology and Wi-Fi 6 access points throughout Hansels locations. That decision allowed the company to move on from its third-party vendor and easily manage the network in-house.

We were really confident in the tools that the Cisco Meraki platform provided for us, Demitro says. It gave us all the tools that we needed to feel confident in managing it on our own without having to go through too much complexity. Built into the product were all the tools that we really needed to troubleshoot issues and to maintain the security of the infrastructure.

Wi-Fi 6 technology allows for much faster connection speeds and up to 75 percent less latency. Thanks to the introduction within Wi-Fi 6 of orthogonal frequency-division multiple access, which allows for the transmission of signals from routers and access points to multiple endpoints at the same time, Wi-Fi 6 communicates better with multiple devices than previous generations of Wi-Fi technology.

For Hansel, the results were immediate.

Its a lot better, Lopez says. I can actually use the Wi-Fi, so thats great for somebody that handles the social media accounts. I dont hear many complaints from our customers anymore, and our salespeople are very appreciative of it.

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How the Right Network Equipment Can Boost Business Operations Overnight - BizTech Magazine