Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for September 11, 2019

An interview with Carol Juel, the CIO fromSynchrony financial; Balancing the benefits and risks of facial recognition technologies; Limitations to artificial intelligence technologies; Footprints at a site in France show that Neanderthals may have been taller than previously known; Night sky photography on the Steem platform

Fresh Internet Content Daily: Welcome to my little corner of the blockchain

Straight from my RSS feed

Whatever gets my attention

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

pixabay license: source.

How the firm behind many store credit cards is using AI to fight fraud - Synchrony Financial in Stamford, Connecticut spun-off from General Electric (GE) five years ago, and has been making increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) since that time. In this interview with Chief Information Officer (CIO) Carol Juel, she describes how the company's "digitial first" strategy emerged out of the need to create an independent company and launch a public IPO from a spun-off business division. In addition to using AI for internal process improvement, the company is also using data and real-time machine learning to predict and prevent "synthetic fraud". Juel also discloses the importance of voice technologies to the corporate strategy noting that people are making voice payments through Alexa, and voice technologies will eventually be pervasive, with presence in homes and cars. Beyond machine learning, she says this requires creation of an "intent engine". h/t Communications of the ACM

Is facial recognition facilitating efficiency or infringing privacy? - Facial recognition can speed us through long lines at customs checkpoints, and it can keep our bank accounts and automobiles safe from thieves, but it can also be used to collect information about us without our knowledge. The article talks about a landmark case in London that addresses the balance. Police in Cardiff, South Wales have been sued for using automatic facial recognition in shopping centers, football crowds, and music concerts. A court found that the use of facial recognition is not illegal, and the case is now being appealed. According to the article, some American communities have copied their privacy laws from the UK, so this case may also have implications for American law.

The biggest problem in AI? Machines have no common sense. - Gary Marcus offers his take on the limitations of artificial intelligence (AI). He argues that machine learning is only useful for problems for which there is a great volume of controlled data, but that AI is not even close to being able to solve problems with limited or uncontrolled data. He gives the examples of having to jiggle a key when opening a door, or guiding a domestic robot in your home as problems that are not well-suited for machine learning. In short, deep learning makes use of correlation, but it doesn't understand causal effect, and it doesn't have "common sense" i.e. knowledge that is commonly available to everyone, such as a generalized understanding of time and space.

Here is the video on youtube, for those of us who get annoyed by web sites that stop playing videos when you switch to a different tab.

Ancient footprints show Neanderthals may have been taller than thought - A team led by Jérémy Duveau has found 80,000 year old footprints at a site in northern France. Some of the prints show that the people who left them may have been as tall as 175 cm (5 feet, 9 inches). Previous evidence has put Neanderthal heights between 150-160 cm (4 feet, 11 inches to 5 feet, 3 inches). It is not certain that these prints were left by Neanderthals, but Neanderthals were the only hominins known to be in Europe at the time. Homo Sapiens are believed to have arrived 35,000 years later. The find consists of 257 fossilized footprints in a coastal creek bed in Le Rozel. Before this find, there were only 4 known sites in Europe with Neanderthal footprints. Apparently, the journal article has not yet appeared on the Internet, but it will be here when it gets published. h/t archaeology.org

STEEM My attempt to capture the night sky - Night sky photography by @jacuzzi includes artistic colorings, startrails, and even an unidentified object. Click through for descriptions and photos. (A 10% beneficiary setting has been applied to this post for @jacuzzi)

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About this series

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