Dec 5, 2017

Machine Learning for Beginners

source: cloudirec.com
One of the hottest topics today is machine learning, and with it comes artificial intelligence. If you’ve never heard of these things, get ready to learn because this is your very own machine learning guidebook for beginners.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

You may not know what machine learning is, but you most likely use it every single day. Do you watch Netflix? How about online shopping, are you an Amazon fan? Are you on Facebook? Do you have a bank account? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you’re benefiting from artificial intelligence and machine learning. For your reference, here are some everyday examples of machine learning in use:
Mobile applications that can diagnose skin diseases
Banks with algorithms that analyze spending patterns to detect fraud
Facebook’s auto-tagging feature that knows who your friends and family are
Email sorting that locates spam
Netflix, Amazon, and other websites that have recommendations
Virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana
Anyway, the goal of machine learning is for machines to learn without explicit programming; scientists want them to learn as we learn, for example, by using our past experiences to dictate our future actions. So instead of the step-by-step instructions that programming entails, this would be putting the ball entirely in the machine’s court; they would be given steps 1 and 2, and then the rest is up to them.

How Artificial Intelligence Allows Machines to ‘Learn’

So, how exactly does machine learning work? Simple (well, not really simple, but simple to explain), it’s facilitated by the use of neural networks. For an idea of a neural network, think of how our brains work. They are, after all, made to mimic brain functionality. In essence, they’re like layers of neurons, and the more layers, the ‘deeper’ the network and the better they can learn. For example, let’s look at Digital Trends’ analogy comparing neural network learning to a factory line:

After the raw materials (the data set) are input, they are then passed down the conveyer belt, with each subsequent stop or layer extracting a different set of high-level features. If the network is intended to recognize an object, the first layer might analyze the brightness of its pixels. The next layer could then identify any edges in the image, based on lines of similar pixels. After this, another layer may recognize textures and shapes, and so on. By the time the fourth or fifth layer is reached, the deep learning net will have created complex feature detectors. It can figure out that certain image elements (such as a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth) are commonly found together.
From here, researchers specify what each output is, and correct any mistakes so that the machine can learn what to classify as X and not as Y.

The Four Ways Machines Learn

Now that we have a general idea of how machines learn, let’s delve deeper and focus on the four ways machines learn.
source: linkedin.com


Supervised Learning

Supervised learning is like learning from a teacher in the sense that the output is already known (students already know what they will learn). The work here comes in arriving at the output from a given input. For example, a machine learning from data sets may make a mistake in the process. The supervisor will then step in and correct it, allowing the machine to learn.

Unsupervised Learning

Unsupervised learning is more like what people are aiming for when they think of computers ‘teaching’ themselves. As it’s unsupervised, there’s no training involved, no reference data, nothing. Comparing it to its supervised counterpart, imagine that the goal is for a machine to sort different shapes into groups (triangles, squares, pentagons, etc.). For supervised learning, you tell the machine this is a triangle, this is a square, and so on. Based on what you told it, it will then sort the rest of the shapes into their given categories. For unsupervised learning, the machine sees the same input, and based on what information it has available, will group them into their own categories. It won’t know what they are, but because they share a certain likeness, will know that they belong in the same category.

Semi-supervised Learning

Semi-supervised learning lies between the two types of learning outlined above. There’s labeled and unlabeled data (more unlabeled data), and they work together to improve learning accuracy.
Reinforced Learning
Reinforced learning uses rewards and connects actions with outcomes. Similar to how we learn — by trial and error — the machine will learn by directly interacting with its environment to achieve a certain goal.

Final Thoughts

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have the potential to impact everything we do. They’re already causing waves, and from what we’ve seen in countless Sci-Fi movies, it’s safe to say that those waves can turn into tsunamis.

Nov 16, 2017

How to Protect your Kids from Overuse of Technology

source: familyfriendlyhq.ie
We have been discussing the effects of increased use of technology on our kids from a long time now and it is absolutely true that excessive use of anything can create an impact on their childhood, emotional development or even the behavior.

Parents always keep wondering about the good and bad effects of technology on their kids and to some extent they are also aware of them, but it is nearly impossible to keep our children completely away from gadgets as we are totally surrounded by them. Right from our pockets to the cupboards, there is a technological gadget everywhere that are somewhere helping us in making our lives easier.

But, the major concern arises when it comes to limit the use of technology for our kids, how much exposure of technology or gadgets is not harmful to the children?

First, take a look at the bad effects of technology on our kids that will help you in understanding this problem more precisely.

The Bad of Technology

Technology is affecting the concentration span of children and reducing it drastically.
It affects the physical health of children by making them sedentary, it becomes a major reason for child obesity and deficiency of vitamin D in the next generation.
Not spending enough time outdoors reduces their capacity of fighting with infections and also disturbs their sleep cycle by affecting the production of melatonin hormone in the body.
Overuse of technology reduces the concentration power of children.
Gadgets produce a bad effect on children’s eyesight with the emission of harmful blue light.
Overuse of gadgets suppresses the emotional development of children as it prohibits their interaction with their peers on a personal level.
It also affects the way kids socialize with others that creates a huge impact on their mental and emotional well-being.
So, overuse of technology is affecting every aspect of a child’s development either physical or emotional.
Technology can help parents to keep an eye on the location of their children, but it can also be a big security threat to the children, as anyone can track their position anytime with the use of technology.

All these things indicate that there is a big responsibility on the parents’ of today’s generation to maintain a safe distance between the technology and their children. A balance should be maintained between the use of gadgets and other activities so that they can stay ahead with the use of technology without compromising on their physical and mental growth. So, read out some ways that can help your children staying away from the overuse of technology:

Ways to Avoid Overuse and Protect Children from Technology

Set the limit on the use of technology gadgets for children each day such as a few hours by keeping in mind the reasonable usage and their daily schedule.

Also, make them aware of the negative effects of overuse of technology, communicate your concerns and this will also let them understand why setting a boundary is important on the usage of technology.

Encourage them to take part in physical activities, plan outdoor activities with them to help them bring closer to nature.

Monitor their use of technology, always keep a check on what things they are using online, as the internet is just like an ocean of all the good and bad things. Try to incorporate healthy habits in them of internet usage, try to keep them focused on things that are useful and beneficial for them instead of just looking for unnecessary things on the internet.

Talk about the online security threats to your children, make them aware that what they should and what should not share on the internet like the personal information, pictures, phone numbers, and credit card numbers, email addresses etc.

Tell your children that if someone harasses, bullies or makes them uncomfortable online in any way, then you are there for help, they should talk to their parents, siblings, teacher, or any adult they trust.

Avoid Using Technology to Calm down Children. We often use media and technology gadgets to pacify the aggression of our child, this practice should be completely prohibited. Instead of making our children the slaves of technology, try to teach them the ways of handling such strong emotions. Come up with interesting activities to manage boredom or breathing exercises to manage calm.

Say no to TVs for kid’s room, this can help you in both ways, first by cutting down their screen time and secondly, it let you monitor the content they are watching from a more public location.

Provide options, it’s hard for kids to follow your instructions simply if you say no, provide them with options that apart from not watching the TV or using any electronic device, what else they can do, such as they can play an outdoor game, they can visit the park with friends. Also, let them learn some new skills and proficiencies at the given time.

Set a Good Example, it is an extremely important point for all the parents if they want their children to follow a good habit of using e-devices. They have to do it first for their children, as children tend to follow what they see instead of the set of rules you ask them to follow. So, show your children that you are using technology only for the limited purposes such as for doing work or for some entertainment. Completely stop using your mobile phones on the dinner table or while spending time with the kids.

How Much Screen Time is allowed for your Baby

Now Comes the most important part, if you are still wondering what amount of screen time is appropriate for your child, you need to check out the latest guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for parents on limiting children’s media usage.

The academy has issued the guidelines for the children of different age-groups such as for infants, toddlers, and kids.

Just check the age group that your child belongs to and the respective screen time that is appropriate for her.

Children below or 18 months of age – Absolutely no screen time
From 18 to 24 months of age – Exposure only on the introductory level to a high-quality digital programming in a co-viewing setting.
From 2 to 5 years of age – Screen time should be limited to one hour in a day, ideally alongside a parent.
Children of 6 years and above – There is no time limit specified, but limits should be there on time and the type of media consumed by the kids of this age-group.

Conclusion

We need to understand that there are two aspects of everything, good and bad. Where on one hand, overuse of technology is harmful to the physical and emotional health of the children, there, on the other hand, the right usage of technology can help in evolving many new horizons for them. But, to achieve this, everything that is required is the appropriate use of technology.

As children are not much aware of its good and bad effects, it is a big responsibility on the shoulders of their parents to keep a check on the timings and the kind of activities their children are doing online. So, keep utilizing all the good things about technology while eliminating all the scope of it doing any bad to your children. After all, the imagination of your child needs wings, not the sedentary life of e-devices.

Nov 2, 2017

Why Self-Driving Cars are Revolutionizing the Industry

source: : https://medium.com/
Self-driving cars are revolutionizing society. Such cars also called driverless cars or smart electric cars, use a variety of technologies to analyze the environment, allowing them to drive without — or with minimal — human input. For example, by using sensors, cameras, and radars to scan the immediate vicinity, a self-driving car will be able to know if there’s a car nearby, a person crossing the street or anything that would otherwise require human consideration for action.

Behind the scenes, driverless cars function like other forms of AI. Take facial recognition, for instance. For it to work properly, engineers need to expose it to millions of faces so that it can ‘learn’ to differentiate between them. The same line of thinking goes behind driverless cars; engineers expose self-driving cars to millions of situations and scenarios so they can ‘understand’ what to do and when. In other words, they teach these smart electric cars how to react appropriately in varying scenarios.

The Current Self-Driving Landscape

We’re in the beginning of the revolution, metaphorically dipping our toes into the driverless car waters. But how did we get here? How did we arrive at a point where cars can (almost) drive without human input? Incrementally. Before we delve into that topic, let’s discuss the different levels of automation, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE):

Level 0 - No Automation: The full-time performance by the human driver of all aspects of the dynamic driving task, even when enhanced by warning or intervention systems
Level 1 - Driver Assistance: The driving mode-specific execution by a driver assistance system of either steering or acceleration/deceleration using information about the driving environment and with the expectation that the human driver performs all remaining aspects of the dynamic driving task
Level 2 - Partial Automation: The driving mode-specific execution by one or more driver assistance systems of both steering and acceleration/deceleration using information about the driving environment and with the expectation that the human driver performs all remaining aspects of the dynamic driving task
Level 3 - Conditional Automation: The driving mode-specific performance by an Automated Driving System of all aspects of the dynamic driving task with the expectation that the human driver will respond appropriately to a request to intervene
Level 4 - High Automation: The driving mode-specific performance by an Automated Driving System of all aspects of the dynamic driving task, even if a human driver does not respond appropriately to a request to intervene
Level 5 - Full Automation: The full-time performance by an Automated Driving System of all aspects of the dynamic driving task under all roadway and environmental conditions that can be managed by a human driver

As of today, Tesla’s ‘autopilot’ systems are in level 2 of automation. Once we get to level 4, people will be able to multitask while they drive, which we’ll get into in a bit. Okay, now we go back to how we got to level 2.

How We’ve Arrived at Level 2 Automation

Level 2 is partial automation characterized by a human driver with machine assistance. What assistance, you ask? Well, we have:
Blind-spot warnings that use radars or sonar transmitters to detect objects you would encounter if you switched lanes
Lane-departure warning/assistance that uses cameras to detect lane markings and will either flash a warning light or take full control when the car starts to drift into other lanes
Cruise control that allows a car to drive at a set speed or the speed of the car directly ahead
Parking assistance that detects objects and nearby cars for automatic parking (in parallel parking situations)
Front collision warning/assistance that detects objects in front of the car and will flash a warning light or actually brake the car to avoid a crash
source: http://www.geomarketing.com/
Soon, maybe not within the next five years, but soon we’ll reach level 3, then 4, and finally, level 5.

The Many Advantages of Driverless Cars

We’re already seeing positive impacts of self-driving cars. As a matter of fact, a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that self-driving cars were involved in fewer accidents than their human-controlled counterparts, with 3.2 accidents per million miles, compared to 4.2 for human drivers.

Most of the benefits we’ll gain from driverless cars begin to appear once we reach level 4 automation. For example, productivity will drastically increase. Whereas we currently need to focus on the road while we drive, once we reach level 4 we’ll be able to work while the car drives. A lawyer can go over briefs, a doctor can check up on patients or look over X-rays, students can study, and a lot more.

Autonomous driving also opens the avenue for the elderly or those with disabilities or impairments to enter the road, as they won’t have to actually drive. Roads will also be much safer once the human error is replaced with the less-likely-to-occur computer error. With computers in charge, transportation as a whole will be more efficient because the car can choose the most fuel-efficient route. In a future where all cars are ‘connected’ with each other, they will be able to maneuver and weave through other cars with machine precision as well. As for the environment, with safer cars manufacturers won’t have to equip cars with as much safety equipment, making them lighter and more fuel-efficient, leading to fewer emissions.

Final Thoughts

Driverless cars are poised to make a big impact. While we’d like to think that this impact will be positive, there’s no real way of knowing until we actually get there. As a cautionary tale, imagine being able to nap or partake in other activities while you drive. This may prompt some to take more road trips, or simply drive more because they don’t actually have to ‘drive.’ Whereas we think that self-driving cars will be good for the environment, in this scenario the opposite may actually happen.

Oct 4, 2017

Evolution of the Smartwatch

Imagine living 50 years ago. You’re walking down the street when a random stranger comes up to you and tells you, “Hey, you! Can you believe that in 50 years we’ll have smartwatches? Golly, I sure can’t. These watches will be the size of regular watches, but they’ll be more powerful than most computers today! I, for one, cannot wait. That’s the future.”

You, like most, would probably humor them and say something along the lines of “Yeah, it’s incredible, huh?” But then as you walk away you’ll mutter under your breath, “Yeah, right. Watches that small and that powerful? Nope. That simply can’t be true.”

Well, guess what? They were right.

Evolution of Smart Watches

source: www.digitaltrends.com
The smartwatch has been around for a while. While some think that Apple’s Apple Watch debut in April 2015 was the first player in the smartwatch market, they are actually mistaken. As a matter of fact, if you were around in the 80s, you might be familiar with Nelsonic and their many game watches. Sure, they weren’t as advanced as smartwatches today, but you can’t arrive at the car without the wheel. 
Today, the smartwatch industry is growing and poised to keep on growing for years to come. And why shouldn’t it? Straight out of science fiction, we’ve been envisioning wearable technology, smartwatches and what they entail for years. While some believed that the natural evolution of traditional mechanical and digital watches was in the direction of smartwatch technology, others weren’t so sure and believed that luxury watches were the way to go. It looks like the naysayers were wrong.
Before we move forward, let’s rewind a little bit because before we had the smartwatch, we had the smartphone.

The Smartphone

When we were first introduced to smartphones, we fell in love. We loved the idea of applications and we loved having a computer that could fit in our pocket. We grew accustomed to smart technology at hand, and from that came our love for wearable technology.

The Smartwatch

As far as wearable technology goes, the smartwatch has dominated the market. A recent report by Gartner on the current state of the global wearable market shows that wearable technology is set to grow 17% in 2017, and Angela McIntyre, research director at gartner, went as far as to say that "smartwatches are on pace to achieve the greatest revenue potential among all wearables through 2021, reaching $17.4 billion."

Apple Watch

source: Apple.com
As smartwatch technology continues to improve, we’re seeing more and more players enter the market. Apple, who currently holds nearly 33% of the market share in the smartwatch industry, is arguably one of the biggest players in the market. Apple’s most recent addition to their smartwatch family is the Apple Watch Series 3, which goes above and beyond previous versions by including LTE connectivity and the ability to work without having a phone nearby.

Apart from Apple and smartwatches, we also have Fitbit, one of the bigger brands in fitness trackers, a derivative of the smartwatch. Fitness trackers held the spotlight for a hot second, but smartwatches made their comeback as the technology that goes into fitness trackers (GPS, pulse tracking, etc.) became easier and less expensive to create. Smartwatches soon came to integrate the same capabilities as fitness trackers, and brands like Fitbit had to adapt.

Fitbit and the Ionic

To catch up with the evolution of smart watches, Fitbit recently announced the Ionic, the company’s first true smartwatch. With third-party application support and a new software platform called Fitbit OS, Fitbit is hoping to compete with Apple and make a splash in the market. To compete, Fitbit is pairing the Ionic with personalized guidance, on-device dynamic workouts, relative SpO2 sensor, industry-leading GPS, swim tracking, on-board music, contactless payments and 4+ day battery life.


source: www.bikerumor.com

The Benefits of Smartwatch Technology

From the worst to the best smartwatch, the benefits you’ll gain from their usage are incredible. Fitness tracking capabilities allow us to stay healthy and fit, GPS allows us to track exercises and never get lost, sensors keep us in check and tell us when our hearts need a rest, and so one.

Final Thoughts

Drifting from health, smartwatches also come with a myriad of apps that are making our lives easier. With smartwatches, the Internet of Things and similar technologies, we can stay connected like never before.

Sep 4, 2017

An Analysis of the Risks Associated with Artificial Intelligence


source: https://www.wsj.com/
Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest topics today, and why shouldn’t it be? With applications like autonomous cars, robots, chatbots, trading systems, facial recognition, virtual assistants and much more, AI is poised to bring us a lot of opportunities that will, without a doubt, change our lives. But, and this is a big but, we still have to consider the other repercussions and threats AI entails.

Artificial Intelligence Threats: the Risks We Face

There are two main artificial intelligence threats we’ll cover today: threats posed by autonomous machines and threats by intelligent machines.

Threats by Autonomous Machines

Threats from autonomous machines can come in many forms, from automation in the workplace to autonomous weapons that can cause mayhem and destruction if left unchecked. In its safer form, automation due to AI can displaces workers as machines perform tasks that previously required a human touch. As a matter of fact, we’ve been seeing this for decades now, as countless factory floors have exchanged workers in assembly lines with machines that work perfectly in sync.

In its more dangerous form, autonomous weapons that can select and attack targets without human input can be incredibly harmful if they’re badly programmed, trained or managed. And if you think we’re safe from autonomous weapons, you’ll be surprised to know that they’re already in existence. Most notably, Samsung’s SGR-A1 sentry gun, which can fire autonomously, perform surveillance, track and fire, is already being used to protect South Korea from its volatile neighbor in the North.

source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/

If you’re only batting an eye at this information, then know that Elon Musk, a man known by anyone interested in technology, has been sounding the warning bells against AI and automation for a while, calling it humanity’s ‘biggest risk’ and saying:

Until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal...AI is a rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive. Because I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’s too late.”

Spurred on by the United Nation’s vote to begin formal discussions on autonomous weapons, such as drones, tanks and automated machine guns, Musk, along with 115 industry leaders from all over the world (a total of 116), including Google’s Mustafa Suleyman (co-creator of DeepMind), have signed an open letter, urging the UN to ban such weapons, calling them a Pandora’s box. They further state that:

"Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways."

Whether their fears are founded or not remains unknown, but our current technological progression makes it clear that a day of reckoning is dawning upon us.

Threats by Intelligent Machines


The trouble with intelligent machines, and by this I’m referring to actual intelligent machines that combine multiple computational tasks such as natural language processing, predictive analytics, pattern recognition, computer vision, etc., to produce self-awareness and consciousness, is that they can act on their own and make their own decisions.

The thing is, humans are the dominant species on Earth because of our intelligence. There are bigger and badder creatures out there, but our intelligence has aided us in our climb to the top. Now consider machines. Whereas human intelligence is limited to our brain, neuron count, speed of signals, etc., machines face no such limitations. Theoretically speaking, if we were to create an intelligent machine with more ‘brain power’ than us, it can very easily surpass us as the dominant species. We already have trouble understanding our own intelligence, now imagine a machine with more intelligence than us. It’ll be like lighting a match and running away — we would have no control after a certain point.

Another fear is that AI will entail a sort of ‘genie and three wishes’ effect, in which the programming has to consider every possible scenario the machine will face. For example, when wishing for world peace, a genie might easily make every human disappear, effectively achieving peace, albeit not the one the wisher had in mind. Similarly, if one were to program a machine to achieve world peace, the same outcome will happen if safeguards aren’t placed to counter every possible instance in which the machine will perform a harmful action.

What Can We Do About These Threats?

Many like Elon Musk believe that the best counter to artificial intelligence threats is to proactively regulate it before we reach a point of no return. Others like Irving John Good, a British mathematician and cryptologist, said that “an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.” Therefore, he and others like him believe that we would have to work with the machines to curb their threat.

In effect, we would want them to hold our own human values — the positive ones. We can use our own behavior as a guide, but then again, should we? We’re a very destructive species that constantly subjugates and exploits those lower than us. What if intelligent machines take note and do the same to us?

Final Thoughts

It may not be a happy ending, but we’re still in the dark with the many possibilities that AI can bring. As such, apart from taking heed of Elon Musk and proactively regulating it, our only recourse is to wait and see what’s to come.

Aug 4, 2017

How Blockchain Technology is Affecting Banking

source: http://bitemycoin.com
The Finance industry has changed more in recent years than it has in the past couple hundreds of years. From bartering to physical currency, our financial transactions remained pretty stagnant until the rise of digital technology and the digital transactions that accompanied it. Now there’s a new player in the game ushering a new era: blockchain technology and its implications, namely Bitcoin.

Blockchain

A quick introduction to blockchain technology as it’s used in virtual currency (it has many other uses outside of this), think of it as a type of ledger or decentralized database that keeps track of digital transactions. Rewinding a bit, historically, transactions involved third-party intermediaries like banks and governments. When it comes to digital transactions, the need for an intermediary is especially strong because digital assets are essentially digital files that can be reproduced. That was, until blockchain came into the mix.

Because blockchain technology allows digital information to be distributed instead of copied, transactions can be monitored in a way that promotes transparency and accessibility. In step-by-step format, here’s how the process works:

1. A transaction is requested
2. The transaction is broadcasted to a P2P network
3. The network validates the transaction and the user’s status
4. Once the transaction is verified, it’s combined with others to create a new ‘block’ of data
5. The new block is added to the existing blockchain, a process that’s permanent and unalterable
6. The transaction is complete

Bitcoin: Rise and Popularity

From blockchain technology we arrive at Bitcoin. And when talking about Bitcoin, we have to touch on cryptocurrency. In essence, it’s virtual currency that’s only available in networks, has no physical form or intrinsic value, and its supply is not controlled by a central bank.
Bitcoin’s rise can be attributed to a couple of things, such as an increasing younger generation and a wide range of benefits it offers over traditional banking. When it comes to younger generations, virtual currency like Bitcoin suits their upbringing that was marked with online transactions, familiarity with computer science, crowdsourcing and the like.

Bitcoin: Benefits

Faster Transactions: As we touched on earlier, traditional banking involves third-parties. The problem with this is that each party that the finances passess through adds more and more time until it arrives at its final destination. Blockchain and Bitcoin goes around this by decentralizing everything, effectively reducing what would take a couple of days to a couple of seconds.
Reduced Cost: With faster transactions comes reduced costs. Just as every third-party adds time to the process, they also add fees. After all, no one really works for free (especially in banking), and this is especially true for international transactions that would otherwise need to pass through central banks while piling on their exorbitant fees.
Accessibility: As long as users have Internet access, they can access transaction details anytime, anywhere. In other words, authorized users can access transactions in the blockchain’s shared ledger. This means no longer having to make a transaction before 7PM on a weekday. Instead, your window opens up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Transparency: As accessibility increases, so does transparency. Because transactions are recorded and locked in blockchains, the entire exchange is recorded and, as we just covered, accessible by authorized users.

Final Thoughts and TL;DR

Bitcoin has seen its ups and downs. Downs that included headlines like, “Is Bitcoin Dead?” and “Why You Should Not Invest in Bitcoin or Any Other Cryptocurrency,” and ups with headlines like, “Bitcoin Just Became More Valuable Than Gold. Why Does The Price Keep Rising?” Whatever the future holds, it’s clear that we’re in the middle of a financial transaction revolution marked by decentralization and prices dictated by the market.
As for the tl;dr version, here it is:
The Finance industry is changing rapidly with the advent of virtual currency like Bitcoin
This change is spurred on by blockchain technology and the benefits it offers over traditional banking
Such benefits include faster transactions, reduced costs, and greater accessibility and transparency
Bitcoin has been hailed as ‘digital gold’

Good luck mining and/or investing!

Jul 1, 2017

Why Are Tech Companies Investing in AI Rather Than Humans?



Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic in many circles today because of its impact in the business world. More specific to tech companies, they’re interested in it as a way to automate and accelerate data-intensive processes to better serve their customers. For example, Element AI, an AI tech startup, recently raised $102 million from multinational corporations like Intel, Nvidia and Microsoft, in the largest Series A funding round for an AI company in history.
Businesses like Element AI are working with companies in diverse fields like fintech, cybersecurity, manufacturing, logistics, transportation and robotics to make sense of their data with the help of AI.

Artificial Intelligence Trends: Why It Became a Popular Technology

This choice, to use and invest in AI as opposed to humans, is an easy one when taking into account what Matt Ocko, DCVC Managing Partner, has to say: “The most serious problems facing global industry and government today involve too much complex and rapidly changing data for the cognitive capacity of even large numbers of human experts working together...These groups - and the customers and citizens they serve - need intelligent systems that can work in concert with them to field that scale and complexity.”
Beyond than making sense of data, companies are also using AI for its capabilities in areas such as voice assistant technology, image recognition and data prediction. Let’s take a deeper look into why these companies are opting for AI rather than humans.

The Many Benefits of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is a ‘must have’ capability for global companies,” said Element AI CEO Jean-François Gagné. “Without it, they are competitively impaired if not at grave risk of being obsoleted in place.” Gagné’s comment is representative of what many people believe, that AI is the future and ignoring emerging artificial intelligence trends will only prove to be detrimental in the long run.
To get a better idea, here are key areas benefiting from AI’s influence:

Prediction


Because AI can analyze data much more efficiently than humans, it can rapidly detect patterns and make (more often than not) accurate predictions. Exemplifying this, Aidyia, an AI tech company, has a hedge fund that makes all stock trades with AI. It analyzes many factors, such as market prices, trade volumes, microeconomic data and corporate accounting documents, to make predictions. As a matter of fact, it actually generated a 2% return on its first day of trading.

Jun 6, 2017

Sitecore Cloud on Azure: All You Need to Know About the Recent Update


Sitecore, a leader in experience management software that specializes in web content management (WCM), enables marketers to engage their audience by delivering brand experiences based on each user’s unique behavior. Well, things are getting better now that they’re partnering with Microsoft Azure to help digital marketers deliver websites, marketing campaigns, landing pages, and other projects, all within minutes.

Sitecore and Microsoft: a Love Story

Let’s start from the beginning, which would be last year when they announced their upcoming partnership with Microsoft Azure, ensuring:

Scalability, simplicity, and stability
Time and money saving during deployment of a solution to a new server
Faster and relatively cheaper geographically distributed load balancing
Reduced redundancy between geographies for performance, as well as disaster preparedness
Automation of most of the process of migrating a website to Microsoft Azure

This was last year, and now Sitecore announced that they’ll be delivering next-generation platform-as-a-service (PaaS) native support for the entire Sitecore solution, not only for the Sitecore Experience Manager, which is what the previous announcement entailed. As such, users will be able to leverage the speed of Microsoft Azure’s PaaS development and deployment environment to quickly execute digital initiatives.

Sitecore and Microsoft’s Expansion

Straight from Sitecore’s most recent announcement detailing their continued partnership with Microsoft, “Sitecore Speeds Digital Experience Time-to-Market for Customers; Delivers PaaS Agility, Scale, and Cost Benefits for Entire Sitecore Solution; and Launches Managed Cloud Options for Deployment Flexibility.”

We’ll go over specifics soon, but this essentially means that the entire Sitecore Cloud platform is now offered on Microsoft Azure, meaning that users will be able to enjoy native Azure support for the Sitecore Experience Manager (XM), Experience Platform (XP), and Sitecore Commerce.
Okay, so why is this happening? As Ryan Donovan, SVP of Product Management at Sitecore, said, “Azure provides exceptional speed, scale, and reliability all the while saving costs associated with last-generation infrastructure-as-a-service and on-premises infrastructures...Sitecore and Azure is a winning combination that enables digital marketers and IT teams to get up and out in market fast, without the traditional long wait times associated with digital marketing technologies.”

Adding more, Jason Zander, Corporate VP at Microsoft Azure, said,  “Sitecore has architected its platform to natively support Microsoft technology from the beginning. Now it brings its digital marketing cloud to Microsoft Azure. The powerful combination will deliver customers a competitive edge through faster time to market.”

Some Specifics with Benefits

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The Sitecore / Azure combination allows businesses to get a leg up over their competition through faster time to market, the ability to scale with demand, and control over total cost of ownership (TCO). Expanding a bit more, Sitecore Cloud on Azure delivers everything from websites and landing pages to full-scale integrated campaigns, Internet of Things (IoT), and augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) digital experiences.

Furthermore, the winning combination entails faster time to market for digital marketing, familiarity, speed and scale for IT, and deliverable results for business.
Faster time to market for digital marketing allows users to get the best of the Sitecore Experience Platform on Azure and:

Track every individual customer interaction over time, across every channel
Instantly support the dynamic world of content marketing by instantly employing sites and campaigns in minutes

Familiarity, speed and scale for IT give marketing teams:

Speed: Users can simply point-and-click a Sitecore XM or XP deployment in minutes through the Azure Marketplace, or deliver more customized Sitecore environments utilizing the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
Flexibility: While Sitecore offers a fully managed cloud for all of its customers, both Sitecore customers and partners also have the freedom and choice to manage the cloud deployments on their own
Scalability: Users have the ability to scale up and scale out as campaigns and programs evolve, with pay-as-you-go metering for cost control

And finally, deliverable results for business:

Integrates with your existing back-end systems and marketing investments with connectivity to Microsoft Dynamics, Marketo and Salesforce
●  Meets all enterprise compliance and security requirements
Reduces costs associated with on-premise infrastructure; Azure optimizes budget with pay-as-you-go metering

As for deployment, you can deploy Sitecore Cloud on Azure in under 30 minutes using Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, or for more speed and simplicity, you can use WYSIWYG-like templates in the Azure Marketplace:

Wrapping Up

Wrapping up, this recent update turns Sitecore into a fully managed cloud that lets customers choose basic mobile and web content management and then expand to add other integrated solutions, such as email automation, commerce, and other Omni-channel options.
A final word from Olivier Deneef, Client Service Director of The Reference NYC, as to why Sitecore and Azure work well together, “Azure and Sitecore is a great marriage. We have to worry less about managing the infrastructure, and instead we can focus on what we do best—creating innovative digital solutions that clearly contribute to our clients’ business.”

Jun 3, 2017

What You Need to Know About the Impact of AI in Ecommerce

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Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It’s on Facebook guiding the top stories you see, in your pocket helping Siri help you, everywhere. What’s most interesting about AI is the many uses and applications it has, especially in the data-rich retail and ecommerce industries.

AI for an Ecommerce Business

Artificial intelligence trends show us that it (AI) has completely transformed the way we shop. It understands our preferences and personalizes options for us, answers complex questions that help us on our purchase journey, and as Michelle Peluso, CMO at IBM, says, “what I think is most exciting for marketers is the opportunity to use AI to improve CX (consumer experience). AI empowers marketers to not just use readily available data, but to put dark data to use for the first time.”
Going deeper into what Peluso meant, she gave four examples of how AI is enhancing the consumer and retail experience:

1: AI Powered Gift Selection

Peluso used 1800-Flowers.com’s GWYN (Gifts When You Need) AI powered gift concierge service as an example of a brand making use of AI to improve their customer’s experience. In essence, it acts as a personal assistant that learns from your actions. It asks you questions, and the more you answer, the more it knows and can use to help you.
For example, imagine you’re buying a gift from an AI powered site for a significant other. You’re unsure of what you want, so you decide to use their gift selector option. It asks about your relationship with the person you’re buying a gift for, their gender, their age, their preferences, etc. Once you finish answering, you’re presented with a couple of gift options that you can like or dislike to further personalize suggestions.

2: AI Powered Product Selector

A perfect example for artificial intelligence, the North Face is a brand with a mission to apply technology to transform the retail experience. Peluso explains that they launched an interactive online experience powered by IBM’s Watson that uses natural language processing to help consumers discover and refine product selections. Similar to the previous point of answering questions to tailor suggestions, the North Face’s AI feature asks you questions about apparel type, location, gender, temperature, etc., to deliver personalized recommendations.

3: AI Powered Out of Stock Management

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Peluso notes that a key challenge for retailers is managing their inventory levels, as being out of stock leads to unhappy customers who take their business elsewhere, and too much stock leads to wasted money that could have been invested somewhere else. Essentially, you need to understand consumer demand and act accordingly.
Well, one of Watson’s features is helping retailers monitor everything from weather conditions to purchase rates and consumer behavior to better manage supplies. This feature is perfect for accounting for factors that would otherwise be detrimental for a business.

4: AI Powered Consumer Insights

The last example we’ll cover today is one of the most useful uses for AI in a retail or eCommerce business: consumer insights. By analyzing everything from social profiles and behavior to the weather and the season, AI helps marketers understand what consumers want and need. In other words, AI can monitor someone’s word choice, their online clicking, and even their tone, to learn more about them and what possible actions they’ll take.

Conclusion and Other Uses for AI in an Ecommerce Business

Before we wrap up, let’s look at another use for AI in retail and eCommerce: picture matching. Deep learning and similar technologies allow consumers to capture an image of something they like and then match it with similar images online. In retail and eCommerce, this can be used for practically anything. For example, you’re walking down the street and see a display with a shirt you really like. The price is higher than you’d like, so you take a picture and find similar styles at cheaper prices.
Artificial intelligence trends are quickly taking over and guiding our shopping behavior. For consumers, they provide recommendations and suggestions, help them find what they’re looking for with a single image, and a lot more. For retailers, they help them manage their stock and provide consumer insights to better provide products and services to their customers.
Whether you’re a consumer, a retailer or both, it’s best to keep an eye out for artificial intelligence and what it entails.

May 2, 2017

Content Strategy and Marketing: Why You Need Them for Your Ecommerce Brand


A world without content is a world that does not exist because a world without content is null. Content drives the world. Beauty need content, fashion need content, tech need content, everyone needs content, but most importantly, ecommerce needs content.

Why You Need a Content Strategy for Your Ecommerce Business

“Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them.” — Doug Kessler, Creative Director and Co-Founder at Velocity Partners
One of the first things you learn when selling is the importance of knowing your audience. You can’t sell to someone if you don’t know what they want, much less need. 

Content Marketing

The cornerstone of content marketing is a good content strategy. Throughout the whole sales funnel, from awareness and the multiple touch points that lead to sale, content has its place. 
With blog posts, video creation, and everything in between, a content strategy aids in the development, creation and delivery of your brand’s message to your audience. Above all, especially if you’re an ecommerce business, content marketing increases your ROI. Here’s how:

1: Improve Branding

Content creation allows you to use every persuasive technique at your disposal to present your brand and services to your audience. It’s an opportunity to introduce yourself, showcase your strengths, create demands for your services, and foster new leads. Some things you can do to accomplish this are:

Start a blog in your niche that describes your services
Guest post on similar websites to increase your reach
Embark on content syndication to further expand your reach
Stream a behind-the-scenes live video that presents and humanizes  your company


2: Expand Your Audience and Reach

We briefly touched on expanding your reach in the previous point. Well, your reach and your audience are positively correlated, so when one expands, the other does as well. Focusing on content syndication, you do this by repurposing content on a website with higher authority than yours, thereby presenting yourself to a whole new audience and expanding your reach beyond anything you could have done otherwise.

Without going into specifics of how search engine’s function, let’s leave it at:

1. A user searches for, “why you need a content strategy for ecommerce business”
2. Search engine matches query to posts that match said query
3. User goes through the pages and finds the one that’s best for them

Make the most out search engines and their search function. Sprinkle keywords in your content that will make you more discoverable to your audience (don’t overdo it — that’s called keyword stuffing and it’s frowned upon in the SEO community), pick relevant titles, headings and subheadings, and link to your other posts to further boost your discoverability. 

3: Bring in More Leads

Imagine a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO services, let’s call it Agency X. Instead of paying for customers to find them, Agency X produces content that focuses on the benefits of healthy SEO, how-to guides that improve SERP rankings, and the like.
Now picture Matt, a business owner who desperately wants to be found on Google’s first page. Matt does what most would do in his shoes, he does a Google search for tips on improving SEO. Lo and behold, one of Agency X’ SEO posts shows up, Matt reads it, finds a backlink to their website, and now Agency X has a new lead that is well on its way to becoming a customer.

From a different perspective, think of having someone working for you 24/7, always on your beck and call, ready to deliver your message to your audience. That’s essentially what your content does for you — it’s always online. Content doesn’t sleep, it doesn’t eat, it sits in the world wide web and waits for someone to open it.


4: Boost Your Conversion Rates

You might’ve noticed a pattern in the points leading up to this one, namely that when you do one, you arrive at the next one. When you improve your branding, you expand your audience and reach. When you expand your audience and reach, you bring in more leads. And finally, when you bring in more leads, you boost your conversion rates.

5: Pay Less for More

Traditional marketing involves expensive campaigns, advertising fees, and costs that range as much as the colors of the rainbow. Content marketing does not. In the most basic sense, instead of paying for your ad to be seen by your target audience, as you would with traditional marketing, your audience comes to you instead.

For example, think of the scenario with Matt and Agency X. In that scenario, instead of paying for Matt to find them, Agency X created content that directly resulted in bringing Matt to them. They (Agency X) incurred no extra marketing expenses and neither cold called nor spent hours writing emails with the hope of getting more leads. 

Increase Your ROI with Content

If you’re still on the fence, think about this: conversion rates for brands engaging in content marketing are nearly 6x higher than those who are not. Let’s take a second look at some of the benefits content bring in:
1. Improve Branding
2. Expand Your Audience and Reach 
3. Bring in More Leads
4. Boost Your Conversion Rates
5. Pay Less for More 
Good luck creating content and improving your ecommerce business!

Apr 4, 2017

How Technology is Redefining the Doctor-Patient Relationship

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The Evolution of Healthcare Technology

Technology comes with countless benefits, one of the most important being the improvement and efficiency of modern healthcare. From better and more accessible treatment to disease control, we have:
Electronic health records saving time and money as doctors quickly scan for patient information
Telemedicine and remote monitoring tools helping people who can’t reach a health practitioner
Genome sequencing helping us fight life-threatening diseases
Sensors and wearable technology providing real-time information that can save lives
Mobile healthcare apps giving us medical information at our fingertips
Artificial Intelligence (AI) helping us where doctors can’t
Let’s focus on the last bullet point, Artificial Intelligence. A recent article on The Guardian said that advances in the clinical use of AI could have two profound effects on the global medical workforce:

1. AI is raising the prospects of making affordable healthcare accessible to all
2. AI is replacing medical talent, enabling faster and more accurate diagnoses
And now, let’s delve deeper into these two implications.

Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare

In a time when two-thirds of the world doesn’t have access to safe surgery, with at least 400 million people unable to access one or more essential health services, AI is making universal healthcare access a realistic goal. Both a blessing and a curse, healthcare technology is saving lives while condemning some to a life of poverty.

Wait, condemning some to a life of poverty? Exactly so. What are people in low- and middle-income brackets to do when they encounter a treatable life-threatening disease, perhaps a cancer of sorts? Unless they want to give up, they’ll most likely seek consultations and treatments. This is expensive as it is, but what if doctors can’t identify the specific cancer? That’s right, more consultations and treatments. If all goes well, they’ll end up cancer-free, but more often than not, they’ll also be pushed further into poverty because of mounting medical bills.

That’s where AI comes in to save the day. IBM’s Watson, an AI-powered supercomputer, recently cracked a medical mystery and saved a life with a diagnosis that had been baffling doctors for months. Backtracking a bit, the patient was a woman in Japan who had been suffering from leukemia. As no treatment proved effective, Watson was brought in to do what it does best, analyze data. Watson spent 10 minutes studying the patient’s medical records, cross-referenced her conditions against 20 million oncological records, and discovered that she had a varying form of leukemia that doctors failed to diagnose for months.

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Shifting our focus to Google and DeepMind, one of its AI acquisitions, a five-year agreement was formed between DeepMind and a London NHS hospital trust to share data from more than 1.6 million patients to “save more lives.” The collaboration uses a mobile app called Stream, which alerts doctors to patients with signs of acute kidney injury in its earliest stages. Not only does this free up thousands and thousands of hours spent on paperwork and consultations, but it also allows patients to receive treatment before symptoms escalate further.

Healthcare Mobile Technology

As we just covered with DeepMind, AI is combining with mobile devices to create healthcare mobile technology. To exemplify this, let’s imagine two different scenarios involving a mysterious illness. In the first, John, a twenty-something man with a distrust of technology goes to his doctor and comes out empty-handed. He then heads to a hospital, and after numerous tests resulting in a hefty medical bill, receives a diagnosis of disease X. Now we move on to Jane, a twenty-something woman with a penchant for using her smartphone wherever she is. Jane decides to use the latest healthcare app to submit her symptoms to get possible diagnoses, one of which is disease X. She then tells her doctor what she learned from the app, who runs a few tests of his own, and agrees that Jane does in fact have disease X.

In a similar vein, NHS England began trials with an app that delivers medical advice on a smartphone. The app uses an algorithm to run a chat service that searches a database of symptoms, providing possible illnesses. Combining this app (or a variation of it) with our previous scenario involving John and Jane, we arrive at the conclusion that healthcare mobile technology can be utilized prior to medical consultations to save both time and money.

Healthcare Technology

Mimicking cognitive functionality, AI can do what a doctor can and more. Not to say that it’s a cure-all panacea taking over doctors’ jobs, but as we can see with Watson and DeepMind, its integration in the medical field is redefining the ‘doctor’ role.

As we also saw with mobile apps, their introduction is creating positive waves in the healthcare industry. Before we conclude, our attention turns to ScriptSave WellRx, a mobile app that was named as one of the top “10 Apps Increasing Healthcare Access For Low-Income Patients” by Mashable shortly after its release. This app is an example of how technology is combining with healthcare to provide affordable solutions for those who otherwise would suffer.

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