The world of espionage is facing tremendous technological, political, legal, social, and commercial changes. The winners will be those who break the old rules of the spy game and work out new ones. They will need to be nimble and collaborative and—paradoxically—to shed much of the secrecy that has cloaked their trade since its inception.
The balance of power in the spy world is shifting; closed societies now have the edge over open ones. It has become harder for Western countries to spy on places such as China, Iran, and Russia and easier for those countries’ intelligence services to spy on the rest of the world. Technical prowess is also shifting. Much like manned spaceflight, human-based intelligence is starting to look costly and anachronistic. Meanwhile, a gulf is growing between the cryptographic superpowers—the United States, United Kingdom, France, Israel, China, and Russia—and everyone else. Technical expertise, rather than human sleuthing, will hold the key to future success. Read More
Daily Archives: April 28, 2019
Synthetic Speech Generated from Brain Recordings
A state-of-the-art brain-machine interface created by UC San Francisco neuroscientists can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract – an anatomically detailed computer simulation including the lips, jaw, tongue and larynx. The study was conducted in research participants with intact speech, but the technology could one day restore the voices of people who have lost the ability to speak due to paralysis and other forms of neurological damage. Read More
The Pentagon wants your thoughts about AI but may not listen
IN FEBRUARY, THE Pentagon unveiled an expansive new artificial intelligence strategy that promised the technology would be used to enhance everything the department does, from killing enemies to treating injured soldiers. It said an Obama-era advisory board packed with representatives of the tech industry would help craft guidelines to ensure the technology’s power was used ethically.
In the heart of Silicon Valley on Thursday, that board asked the public for advice. It got an earful—from tech executives, advocacy groups, AI researchers, and veterans, among others. Many were wary of the Pentagon’s AI ambitions and urged the board to lay down rules that would subject the department’s AI projects to close controls and scrutiny. Read More
GPUs usher in a new era in government analytics
Decades ago, graphics processing units were used mostly for rendering ninja fighters and Formula One racecars. Since their days in game systems, however, GPUs have experienced an amazing evolution in processing power. Today they sit at the very center of enterprise computing — and in doing so, are ushering in a new era of capability and insight for government agencies.
The unique ability of these more advanced GPUs to handle artificial intelligence, machine learning and other high-performance tasks have made them a vital component of digital transformation. Many agency IT departments are discovering the power of GPUs to make better use of massive amounts of data. With the volume of data amassing at ever-increasing rates — 40% annually by many accounts — processing power is becoming essential to better public service and improved national security.
Currently, CPU processing power and performance is growing by 10-20% per year — not nearly fast enough to keep pace with data generated from billions of active and passive data sources. GPU performance, on the other hand, is growing by an impressive 50% per year. In the latest TOP500 supercomputer rankings, more performance gains were added by GPUs than CPUs for the first time ever. Read More
Rick's Cafe AI 