We ask how the offense-defense balance scales, meaning how it changes as investments into a conflict increase. To do so we offer a general formalization of the offense-defense balance in terms of contest success functions. Simple models of ground invasions and cyberattacks that exploit software vulnerabilities suggest that, in both cases, growth in investments will favor offense when investment levels are sufficiently low and favor defense when they are sufficiently high. We refer to this phenomenon as offensive-then-defensive scaling or OD-scaling. Such scaling effects may help us understand the security implications of applications of artificial intelligence that in essence scale up existing capabilities. Read More
Monthly Archives: August 2019
The Case For ‘Smart’ Security
Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) on track to help the world streamline and solve against tasks that are better left to a machine? One might think so, given everything we’ve seen and heard about the impact of AI on our society — from our phones telling us the best way to drive home, to chatbots on e-commerce sites answering product questions, to devices as small as a thermostat or as large as an electric vehicle removing friction from everyday life. Read More
Smart Cities and Components in the IoT Era
To cope with the increasing population, hyper-urbanization, globalization as well as to ensure economic and environmental stability, cities are now focusing on becoming smart cities. Smart City is a concept of utilizing technologies and connected data sensors to enhance and become powerful in terms of infrastructure and city operations. This includes monitoring and managing of public assets, transportation systems, citizens, power plants, water supplies, information systems, civil bodies, and other community services. As per the new study from Navigant Research, the global market for smart city services is expected to reach $225.5 billion within the next decade. Read More
SIGGRAPH 2018: DeepMimic paper
Researchers use machine learning to teach robots how to trek through unknown terrains
A team of Australian researchers has designed a reliable strategy for testing physical abilities of humanoid robots—robots that resemble the human body shape in their build and design. Using a blend of machine learning methods and algorithms, the research team succeeded in enabling test robots to effectively react to unknown changes in the simulated environment, improving their odds of functioning in the real world.
The findings, which were published in a joint publication of the IEEE and the Chinese Association of Automation Journal of Automatica Sinica in July, have promising implications in the broad use of humanoid robots in fields such as healthcare, education, disaster response and entertainment Read More
Fulltext of the paper is available:
http://www.ieee-jas.org/article/doi/10.1109/JAS.2019.1911567?pageType=en
The Amazing Ways YouTube Uses Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning
There are more than 1.9 billion users logged in to YouTube every single month who watch over a billion hours of video every day. Every minute, creators upload 300 hours of video to the platform. With this number of users, activity, and content, it makes sense for YouTube to take advantage of the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to help operations. Here are a few ways YouTube, owned by Google, uses artificial intelligence today. Read More
Google proposes new privacy and anti-fingerprinting controls for the web
Google today announced a new long-term initiative that, if fully realized, will make it harder for online marketers and advertisers to track you across the web. This new proposal follows the company’s plans to change how cookies in Chrome work and to make it easier for users to block tracking cookies.
Today’s proposal for a new open standard extends this by looking at how Chrome can close the loopholes that the digital advertising ecosystem can use to circumvent that. And soon, that may mean that your browser will feature new options that give you more control over how much you share without losing your anonymity. Read More
A new mind-set for the no-collar workforce
Google sign language AI turns hand gestures into speech
Google has developed software that could pave the way for smartphones to interpret sign language.
The tech firm has not made a product of its own but has published algorithms which it hopes developers will use to make their own apps.
Until now, this type of software has only worked on PCs.
But campaigners from the hearing-impaired community have welcomed the move, but say the tech might struggle to fully grasp some conversations. Read More
On-Device, Real-Time Hand Tracking with MediaPipe — Turning sign language into speech
The ability to perceive the shape and motion of hands can be a vital component in improving the user experience across a variety of technological domains and platforms. For example, it can form the basis for sign language understanding and hand gesture control, and can also enable the overlay of digital content and information on top of the physical world in augmented reality. While coming naturally to people, robust real-time hand perception is a decidedly challenging computer vision task, as hands often occlude themselves or each other (e.g. finger/palm occlusions and hand shakes) and lack high contrast patterns. Read More
Rick's Cafe AI 