Tag: Artificial Intelligence

Unleashing the Power of AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed from a buzzword to a practical reality, revolutionizing numerous industries across the globe. With its ability to process vast amounts of data, learn from patterns, and make intelligent decisions, AI has become an invaluable tool for businesses seeking innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

In this brief, we will explore real-life use cases of AI, differentiate it from machine learning, AGI, and NLP, discuss potential job transformations, and shed light on the limitations and dangers that come with its implementation.

The key to artificial intelligence has always been the representation
Jeff Hawkins

Defining AI, Machine Learning, AGI, and NLP:

Before diving into the applications, it’s crucial to clarify the distinctions between AI, machine learning (ML), artificial general intelligence (AGI), and NLP. AI refers to the broader concept of machines imitating human intelligence, enabling them to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as problem-solving, decision-making, and natural language understanding.

On the other hand, ML is a subset of AI that focuses on algorithms and statistical models that allow systems to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.

AGI, often considered the next step beyond AI, represents machines with the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across multiple domains, akin to human-like intelligence.

There is, also a less-mentioned subfield of artificial intelligence that focuses on the interaction between computers and human language. This ‘system’ encompasses the ability of machines to understand, interpret, and generate natural language in a way that is meaningful and useful.

Known as Natural Language Processing (NLP), it combines techniques from linguistics, computer science, and machine learning to enable computers to process, analyze, and respond to human language.

Some applications of NLP:
- Virtual Assistants: Virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant utilize NLP to understand voice commands and respond appropriately. They can perform tasks like setting reminders, playing music, providing weather updates, and answering questions.
- Sentiment Analysis: NLP techniques are used to analyze and determine the sentiment expressed in text, such as social media posts, customer reviews, or survey responses. This information is valuable for businesses to understand public opinion, customer satisfaction, track trends, and brand perception.
- Language Translation: NLP is widely used in machine translation systems like Google Translate. These systems employ sophisticated algorithms to process input text in one language and generate the corresponding translation in another language.
- Chatbots: NLP is essential in creating intelligent chatbots that can understand and respond to user queries. Chatbots are employed in various applications, including customer support, information retrieval, and virtual assistance.
- Information Extraction: NLP techniques enable the extraction of structured information from unstructured text. This is particularly useful in fields such as data mining, knowledge management, and content analysis.
- Spam Filtering: NLP plays a vital role in email spam filters by analyzing the content and language patterns to identify and block unwanted or malicious emails.
- Voice Recognition: NLP powers voice recognition technology, allowing systems to convert spoken words into written text. This technology is used in applications like transcription services, voice assistants, and voice-controlled devices.
- Medical Text Analysis: NLP is utilized in healthcare to analyze medical literature, patient records, and clinical notes. It helps in extracting valuable insights, automating administrative tasks, and supporting medical decision-making.
- News Summarization: NLP algorithms can summarize large volumes of news articles or documents, providing users with concise and informative summaries.
These are just a few examples of how NLP is applied in various domains. Its versatility and potential continue to grow as researchers and developers explore new ways to leverage human language for improved communication and understanding between humans and machines.

Some Real-World AI Applications in Industry

Courtesy of Pixabay

Healthcare: AI is revolutionizing healthcare by enhancing diagnostics, personalized medicine, and patient care. Companies like Zebra Medical Vision utilize AI algorithms to analyze medical images, improving the early detection of diseases like cancer. AI-powered virtual assistants also assist doctors in accessing patient information quickly, reducing administrative burdens.

AI-Generated Factory. Courtesy of Pixabay

Manufacturing: Smart factories are embracing AI to optimize production processes, quality control, and predictive maintenance. Companies like Siemens leverage AI algorithms to predict machine failures and prevent downtime, ensuring efficient and uninterrupted operations. AI-driven robots and cobots are streamlining repetitive tasks, improving productivity and employee safety.

Courtesy of Pixabay

Finance: AI is transforming the finance sector by automating manual tasks, detecting fraud, and improving investment decisions. For instance, PayPal utilizes AI to detect suspicious transactions and prevent fraud in real-time. Robo-advisors powered by AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of financial data to offer personalized investment recommendations to individuals.

Courtesy of Pixabay

Transportation: The transportation industry is harnessing AI to enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability. Self-driving vehicles leverage AI to perceive their surroundings and make real-time decisions, reducing accidents and traffic congestion. Ride-sharing platforms like Uber employ AI algorithms to optimize route planning, reduce waiting times, and enhance the overall customer experience.

Courtesy – Apple Inc

Design/Entertainment: Overall, AI has significantly impacted the design and entertainment industries by providing new tools, enhancing creativity, improving user experiences, and streamlining various processes. The experiences can thus be enhanced and simplified in Generative Design, UX Design, Data Visualization, Game Development & Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) – the Metaverse particularly comes to mind here. Apple’s new ‘Vision Pro’ augmented reality headset is ‘the most advanced’ device to date.

Job Transformations

While AI promises immense benefits, there are concerns about job displacement. Routine, repetitive tasks are likely to be automated, leading to changes in the job market. However, AI also creates new opportunities by augmenting human capabilities. Instead of replacing jobs, AI has the potential to transform them, enabling us to focus on complex problem-solving, creativity, and empathy-driven tasks.

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Limitations and Dangers

As with any technology, AI has its limitations and potential risks. AI systems heavily rely on data quality, and biased or incomplete datasets can lead to inaccurate outcomes or reinforce societal biases. Ensuring ethical AI practices and addressing algorithmic bias is crucial. Moreover, AI lacks human-like common sense and reasoning abilities, making it prone to errors in unfamiliar situations. The ethical implications of AI, such as privacy concerns and potential misuse of personal data, also require careful consideration.

Afterthoughts

The practical and realistic use of AI has already begun reshaping various industries, unlocking new possibilities, and transforming how businesses operate. By embracing AI, organizations can streamline processes, improve decision-making, and unlock insights from massive amounts of data. However, it is essential to navigate the limitations, address ethical concerns, and ensure a human-centric approach to AI implementation.
8 June 2023
2019 in Tech

This year may have felt like it was dominated by political shenanigans, but technology also had its wild ride.

The USA vs Huawei

A story that has persisted throughout the year is the heat around Huawei in the US. The Americans have stopped Huawei phones from being sold in their country because they say the Chinese mobile phone maker has stolen technology from American companies and has spied on them.

The tussle began in 2018 but kicked into gear in 2019. Nevertheless, some American companies and organisations are still doing business with Huawei despite the ban by US President Trump’s government.

The President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, also wants to the US government to offer more evidence to back up its Huawei ban.

The core issue with Huawei has been around concerns with Huawei’s close relationship with the Chinese government and fears that its equipment could be used to spy on other countries and companies.

Huawei has also hit back at US ‘bandwagon followers’ and recently threatened to boycott Germany’s Auto industry if the European powerhouse banned them from offering 5G (broadband) in the country.

Not a great year for big tech

Big technological companies like Facebook, Alphabet, Google and Uber have faced a barrage of probes in 2019 be it around anti-competitive behaviour, spying on customers or their staff abusing customers. We also haven’t seen many new companies graduate to super-size status.

After a long drought of big-name tech IPO (initial public offerings), 2019 promised to be a banner year. A crop of highly anticipated, highly valued tech companies — with hot marquee names such as Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, and Slack listed on the public markets. The idea was to allow you to take a stake in their business.

Their reception, however, was truly tough. These companies’ stocks have not gained momentum and being listed has attracted greater public scrutiny.

The biggest disappointment, however, must be WeWork’s failed proposed listing and its subsequent business fallout.

The hottest things in tech

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – We’ve been talking about this for decades since Terminator came out but scientists are managing to harness the technology especially in manufacturing and medical fields.

Most of the top tech companies (Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, and Google) have already embraced AI. Many tout it as one of the main distinguishing features to set them apart competitively.

A little of this tech has gone into robotics with much fanfare and fear over their capabilities and propensity to ‘initiate a judgement day’. Check out Boston Dynamics

Bitcoin

Blockchain – Bitcoin may be highly volatile and not the get rich quick scheme people thought it could be, but it is still out there. Clever people are finding ways of making commerce more efficient.

There are however several practical and use-cases for Blockchain-based tokens and tech other than for payments and investments.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – this is a technology that could explode in 2020. Right now, only large enterprises are using RPA but it could become more affordable and workable for smaller businesses in 2020. RPA is the process of automating mundane tasks such as taking data from one file and entering it into a business application like CRM software.

It’s about computerizing repetitive tasks that are an inefficient use of time, so it makes our lives more efficient.

RPA is not a physical robot. It is also an approach to working across multiple business applications and entering, maintaining, migrating, integrating, mining and testing data on spreadsheets.

These tasks are prone to human error which is why computerizing them makes so much sense.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality – VR made strong progress in 2019. This was most useful in gaming, real estate companies, pornographic entertainment and for people with disabilities.

For you gamers – it is best to buy an Oculus Quest for your PC. Sony’s VR headset is still the best and only gaming set.

Look after my data – or not!

The first fines around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were lodged in parts of the EU. The GDPR was promulgated in 2016. It is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens of the EU and the European Economic Area.

It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. GDPR was enforced because of concerns about data breaches and attacks on privacy by the likes of Facebook and Google.

Then there were concerns our banks, insurance, and other data keepers were selling or losing our data to dangerous entities.

The types of personal data exposed included your names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and even passport numbers.

Lessons learned

The Marriott hotel group’s data breach of 2018 resulted in the exposure of 339-million customer records. Around 30-million of the records belonged to European Union citizens, and therefore they were subjected to a GDPR fine.

Facebook seems to love controversy and had been found to have allowed a massive 247 million user (mostly Americans) data leak.

Back home in Berlin, on October 30th the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information issued a €14.5m fine on a German real estate group, die Deutsche Wohnen SE. This was the highest German GDPR fine yet. The infraction related to the over retention of personal data.

Despite the turbulent year for tech companies and consumers, we look to 2020 with breathless anticipation. We also ponder on which of the mentioned technologies will stick out and make a positive impact on our lives.

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay

22 December 2019
Ethical hacking
Maybe you should encourage your kids to become hackers. When you open Twitter handles and Linkedin profiles, it’s not unlikely that you’ll find people listing hacking as a skill.

Parents used to tell their kids to become doctors, lawyers, and accountants. Later, they advised them to learn about computers. These kids have now grown to become hardware specialists and then software specialists today.

In the past 10 to twelve years, we have seen ourselves thrown into the fourth industrial revolution. In it, technology affects our lives through social media and augmented reality.

We share a lot of our personal information with more people, companies, and institutions every day, willingly and are often blasé about it. This has tempted people to steal this information by hacking it.

Hacking background

Since the advent of personal computers in the 1980s hackers have become prolific, initially in ‘first-world’ countries that had an advanced infrastructure. There were numerous cases in the US but as computer technology permeated the world, hackers followed suit.

A hacking group called MOD, Masters of Deception, in the 1980s allegedly stole passwords and technical data from Nynex, and other telephone companies as well as several big credit agencies and two major universities.

The damage caused was extensive and one company, Southwestern Bell said it suffered losses of $370,000 alone. These days the damages, though not always publically announced, can run into a few millions of dollars.

READ MORE about the Online Threats hackers use here

All this has paved the way for a special information technology (IT) vocation. A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system and networks. They break into systems they aren’t authorized to, and tend to break seamlessly into email and banking systems.

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Hacking as a career

Ben Wilson works as an ethical hacker. He has more than ten years of experience and worked in London where he received on-the-job training. He now works remotely in South Africa servicing UK clients.

“I test websites for clients and look for vulnerabilities in the systems. I have done a lot of work for banks lately but my work is across industries.”

“Energy companies are using my services more and more,” he says.

Wilson says he worked in a permanent position for six years. Right now he contracts for five clients regularly.

Ethical hackers are the knights who test how permeable these systems are.

“The majority of my work is for British clients. The UK pound is strong and I like to earn pounds. I’d say the best computer security consultants in the world are in the UK. The US is strong too but the UK consultants are sophisticated and the best.”

Vulnerabilities

The most common way in which people hack information is through email contacts; especially personal Gmail accounts.

People think that their information is safe because it sits with one of the largest companies in the world. But this is exactly why it isn’t safe.

Gmail and other third-party free email accounts are regularly hacked. If you want to protect especially valuable information you should either upgrade it to the business/enterprise level, use a different email service, or perhaps the one connected to your employer.

Nowadays companies use services to protect themselves against hacks and unauthorized access. These monthly or annual service providers might employ ethical hackers to check the companies’ systems.

Hacking, however, isn’t just something that happens to big companies or in blockbuster movies. Here are some reality checks:
- All websites are under threat;
- So are applications (Apps) on your phone;
- People can also program artificial intelligence (AI) to hack into systems. This has become a big concern and theme for security experts.
Ways to proactively prevent a hack

Fortunately, there are several ways of protecting yourself and your information from hacking; starting with your emails. Be wary of “phishing” emails asking you to update your information, especially for bogus databases that you have never heard of.

Use a spam filter – Avoid opening attachments from senders you don’t know – Update your passwords regularly – It helps to have authentication methods, such as a smartphone-linked and email-linked authentication (2FA) or security keys like Yubico – Do not click on any ad – period! Back up your files regularly – it’s always a good idea – Don’t allow ransomware bullies to bully you.
- If you get sent communication saying that people have your files and want money or they’ll release the files; ignore them.
- They can’t threaten you forever and might eventually move onto another target especially if your information loses its value over time.
Anti-hacking software

As a business, use tools like those from cybersecurity experts Acunetix. More than 4 000 companies protect their web applications from vulnerabilities using its powerful web scanner.

Its penetration testing software prevents potential attacks by identifying holes in your websites’ coding. This is where hackers usually plant their complex code which allows them to extract data such as contact details, credit card details, and in worse cases, company-sensitive data like patents and blueprints.

Naturally, it also scans networks to find gateway loopholes that could lead to crashes and downtime-related losses. A bank’s website going down for a few hours can cost it several thousand or even millions in lost revenue.

Despite having firewalls, VPNs, and other Internet security systems in place, your websites and apps being developed are still vulnerable to cyber-attacks or a hack.

The most commonly known hack used is a DDoS attack. Basically, it works like a traffic jam clogging up a highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its desired destination. Incidentally, only a few days ago, Amazon was hit by a DDoS Attack.

So, how would you know or find out if you are vulnerable? By conducting regular scans on your websites and apps to see where vulnerabilities lie.

Avoiding a hack requires common sense

Be aware and don’t fall into scams. It’s unlikely you’ve won 120-million Euros in a lottery. You should know by now that you are not the descendant of a king!

In addition, if someone says they have a sex tape with you in it and they want your salary, unless you know you made a sex tape, they’re probably lying.

Unless of course, a scorned lover of yours tricked you – but you can’t blame technology or a hacker for that.
26 October 2019
Cloud-hosted services square up

Running your business requires choosing the right tools for you and your employees. In order to streamline work-related productivity, many organizations are migrating to cloud-based office suites. Specifically, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s GSuite (now known as Google Workspace).

Both products boast a variety of helpful productivity tools and the latest remote collaboration technologies. While it’s impossible to say which one is “better”. This head-to-head comparison can help you decide which office suite is a better fit for your business.

What is Workspace & Office 365?

Office 365 and Workspace (previously GSuite) are packages, of powerful business tools that facilitate your day-to-day tasks using the cloud. They even provide business emails along with apps for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video conference calls, shared calendars, and notes.

In addition, storing information on Google or Microsoft servers, rather than your own via these suites, can also save your business a lot of money.

Plans and Pricing

First, let’s look at plans and prices. It’s important to note that Microsoft requires an annual commitment, while Google offers you the option to make monthly payments if you prefer.

Contact us to get a formal quote for your business

Cloud packages head-to-head

Email

While both Office 365 and Workspace offer web and mobile apps (Outlook and Gmail, respectively) for email. There are, however, some subtle differences.

One advantage to Office 365 is the desktop version of Outlook, which is incredibly feature-rich and lets you sort and group emails with ease. Gmail, on the other hand, is widely used throughout the world. For this reason, a variety of third-party app options (e.g. WordPress) can be linked to it to enhance its capabilities.

Cloud Data Storage

For the entry-level plans, Office 365 Business Essentials wins out with 1 TB (terabyte) of storage per user, while the Workspace ‘Basic’ plan only offers 30 GB. GSuite includes emails in this storage limit, whereas Office 365 provides extra storage for email files with added archiving.

However, Workspace’s upgraded plans beat out most of Microsoft’s storage offerings. So long as your business has more than five employees, Workspace Business and Enterprise provides unlimited cloud storage. Although, businesses with less than 5 employees on the “Business” plan are capped at 1 TB. Only Microsoft’s E3 plan and higher offer the same unlimited cloud storage.

Applications

Applications are the cornerstones of a suite’s functionality. Workspace and Office 365 offer you a variety of comparable apps for word processing, creating spreadsheets and presentations, all on the cloud!

This means every user gets a free desktop version of the Office suite (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel) to download.

These feature-rich apps expand far beyond the capabilities of the mobile and online versions, and are available on every plan except the ‘Business Essentials’.

While both services offer mobile and online apps, one major benefit of Office 365 are its desktop applications.

Collaboration

These online applications make both suites ideal for remote collaboration. Microsoft Teams lets facilitate this with tools like real-time co-authoring, mentioning users by name and chat capabilities while working on OneDrive. Microsoft now lets you collaborate using its desktop apps, too, although the updates to shared files are a bit sluggish compared to its online apps.

Similarly, GSuite offers Hangouts for chats and Google Drive for real-time collaboration. Google’s online and mobile apps were created with cloud collaboration in mind, so some might find them a bit more user-friendly.

For remote meetings, GSuite and Office 365 both offer group video conference calls. If you plan on large-scale video conferences, then Office 365 offers far more for your money: most plans have a 250-participant limit, while the E3 plan increases to an astounding 10,000-person limit.

Meanwhile, GSuite’s Google Meet allows up to 25 participants on the “Basic” plan, 50 on the “Business” plan, and 100 on the “Enterprise” plan.

Security

Cloud services are running into a variety of security issues, and these suites are no exception.

A 2019 Barracuda Networks’ report found that a large percent of ATO (account takeover) attacks were targeted at Microsoft Office 365 accounts after businesses migrated emails to the service.

These attacks prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue a set of best practices. The aim was to help organizations migrate their email services while avoiding risks and vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, Google recently announced that a cloud storage feature for encrypted passwords on its “Enterprise” plans was faulty. As a result, some user passwords were stored in plaintext on Google’s servers!

While cloud computing has its risks, the two suites do have impressive security features. GSuite is comparable to Google’s own level of security and offers AI detection of suspicious activity, Two-Factor authentication, and data leak protection—in which admins can block outgoing communication determined by set keywords.

On the other hand, Office 365 has the option of Multiple Factor Authentication (MFA), along with the detection of malware, viruses, and suspicious activities. Microsoft also provides data loss protection, and admins can restrict access to company-issued devices only.

Ease of Use

So, which is easier to use? Well, it depends on who you are, and your ability to grasp software quickly.

If you’re accustomed to working with MS Word or Excel documents, and edit them for work on a regular basis, then Office 365 and its desktop-to-online formatting compatibility will probably be your best bet. This is especially true if your company solely computes with Windows PCs.

However, new users might find GSuite apps easier to learn, as the tools are a bit simpler and straightforward.

So, which is best for you?

Firstly, Office 365 offers feature-rich apps, and most of its plans come with a desktop version of MS Office applications. This is a definite advantage over its competitors.

Its entry-level plan is far more generous in terms of data storage than GSuite’s “Basic” plan. In addition, businesses that already exclusively use Windows technology are likely to find Office 365 better-suited for their needs.

With that said, GSuite was originally designed as a cloud collaborative productivity tool. Therefore, its features might be easier for collaboration and can be used among a wider variety of Windows and Mac devices. In addition, GSuite’s Business’ plans and above outdoes Microsoft when it comes to unlimited cloud file storage. <- This has changed since the article was first published.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you which of the two is “best.” But, with this knowledge in mind, you can make an informed decision to choose the best cloud suite for you.

3 June 2019
The latest cloud computing trends in 2019

It’s 2019, and the Cloud is everywhere—from the apps we use every day to the infrastructure of global tech giants.

According to researchers at Gartner, revenue generated from public cloud services is projected to grow 17.5 percent in 2019. This amounts to a total of $214.3 billion, up from $182.4 billion in 2018.

More than a third of organizations surveyed by Gartner saw cloud investments as a top three investment priority. With this kind of growth, tech organizations are racing to get on board with cloud-only software and platforms.

Here are some of the trends to look out for this year:

Hybrid Cloud, Multi-Cloud and Mergers

IBM announced its purchase of Red Hat last October, calling it the “most significant tech acquisition of 2018.” This combined Red Hat’s extensive network of open-source clouds with IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team.

Mergers like these are likely to become a trend this year, as companies see the benefit of using multiple clouds across all sectors of their organization.

Furthermore, this system will dominate in the future, as businesses find public clouds inadequate to meet every one of their requirements.

As a more flexible and functional solution, many organizations will shift to a network of multiple private, public and hybrid clouds in the future.

Serverless Cloud

Serverless computing is a young market in technology, but it will continue growing in 2019. It isn’t actually “serverless.” Instead, it is a cloud-computing model in which the cloud provider itself runs the server on a dynamic, as-used basis (FaaS).

Rather than buying server space, developers can use a back-end cloud service to code. They will only then pay for the server space they actually use.

As this relatively new technology develops, we can expect to see more companies providing and expanding their “serverless” offerings.

Artificial Intelligence

Although cloud technologies are growing exponentially, artificial intelligence (AI) could prove an even greater economic driving force. According to Accenture, the impact of AI could double economic growth rates by 2035 in developed countries.

Around 80 percent of large companies have adopted some form of AI, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Amazon, Twilio and Nvidia, to name a few, are thus, incorporating AI with cloud computing, next-gen GPUs and the Internet of Things (IoT). This has led to the developing of applications with “smart assistants,” and voice-to-text technologies.

Such a combination of AI and the cloud provides an extremely powerful and unconstrained computing network.

Security

Digital transformation is already underway, with Gartner also projecting that 83 percent of all workloads will shift to the cloud by 2020. However, this movement presents issues of cybersecurity.

Many businesses have not properly secured their cloud-stored data. For example, marketing and data aggregation firm Exactis left around 340 million records exposed on its cloud servers. This was uncovered in a data breach last year.

Mitigating factors

The implementation of the General Data Practice Regulations (GDPR) makes this even trickier. It affects cloud security, and IT companies will likely struggle to comply with these new laws while protecting sensitive information.

Cloud computing services are progressing exponentially, as are their new developments. The year 2019 will surely be filled with businesses pouring investment into enterprise solutions. This while expanding, securing, and implementing cloud technologies to their fullest extent.

Bridget is a freelance writer and editor, and the founder of Lost Bridge Blog, where she writes about traveling as a Millennial woman on a budget. When not writing, you can find her traveling, drinking inhuman amounts of caffeine and scrolling through the latest tech & political news.

19 May 2019

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