IBM and Yahoo Hard at Work on Real-Time Data Handling
January 7, 2016
The article titled What You Missed in Big Data: Real-time Intelligence on SiliconAngle speaks to the difficulties of handling the ever-increasing volumes of real-time data for corporations. Recently, IBM created supplementary stream process services including a machine learning engine that comes equipped with algorithm building capabilities. The algorithms aid in choosing relevant information from the numerous connected devices of a single business. The article explains,
“An electronics manufacturer, for instance, could use the service to immediately detect when a sensor embedded in an expensive piece of equipment signals a malfunction and automatically alert the nearest technician. IBM is touting the functionality as a way to cut through the massive volume of machine-generated signals produced every second in such environments, which can overburden not only analysts but also the technology infrastructure that supports their work.”
Yahoo has been working on just that issue, and lately open-sourced its engineers’ answer. In a demonstration to the press, the technology proved able to power through 100 million vales in under three seconds. Typically, such a high number would require two and a half minutes. The target of this sort of technology is measuring extreme numbers like visitor statistics. Accuracy takes a back seat to speed through estimation, but at such a speed it’s worth the sacrifice.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 7, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Another Good Reason for Diversity in Tech
December 29, 2015
Just who decides what we see when we search? If we’re using Google, it’s a group of Google employees, of course. The Independent reports, “Google’s Search Results Aren’t as Unbiased as You Think—and a Lack of Diversity Could Be the Cause.” Writer Doug Bolton points to a TEDx talk by Swedish journalist Andreas Ekström, in which Ekström describes times Google has, and has not, counteracted campaigns to deliberately bump certain content. For example, the company did act to decouple racist imagery from searches for “Michelle Obama,” but did nothing to counter the association between a certain Norwegian murderer and dog poop. Boldon writes:
“Although different in motivation, the two campaigns worked in exactly the same way – but in the second, Google didn’t step in, and the inaccurate Breivik images stayed at the top of the search results for much longer. Few would argue that Google was wrong to end the Obama campaign or let the Breivik one run its course, but the two incidents shed light on the fact that behind such a large and faceless multi-billion dollar tech company as Google, there’s people deciding what we see when we search. And in a time when Google has such a poor record for gender and ethnic diversity and other companies struggle to address this imbalance (as IBM did when they attempted to get women into tech by encouraging them to ‘Hack a Hairdryer’), this fact becomes more pressing.”
The article notes that only 18 percent of Google’s tech staff worldwide are women, and that it is just two percent Hispanic and one percent black. Ekström’s talk has many asking what unperceived biases lurk in Google’s algorithms, and some are calling on the company anew to expand its hiring diversity. Naturally, though, any tech company can only do so much until more girls and minorities are encouraged to explore the sciences.
Cynthia Murrell, December 29, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
IBM Watson Competes for the Artificial Intelligence Crown
December 21, 2015
The article titled IBM Watson Vs. Amazon: Machine Learning Systems Presage the Future on Datamation dukes it out between IBM’s famous supercomputer and the Amazon Web Services platform. Both are at the forefront of the industry, but which is best? Unsurprisingly, the article offers no definitive answer beyond: it depends what you are using them for. The article states,
“Amazon offers a simplified platform for developers who want to start working with machine learning without a lot of stress or specialized tools or investment… What IBM is trying to establish with the Watson analytics engine is not just storing and acquiring data, but taking all that information and doing something meaningful with it as an AI service or Intelligence as a Service.”
Jack Gold, Principal Analyst for J.Gold Associates, emphasizes that the larger point is that the AI technologies these two companies are competing to lead will shortly be much more far-spread due to the ever increasing amounts of data. The article also discusses some of the more exciting uses of Watson and Amazon. The former, through a company called Fluid, is being put to use in the retail industry relying on Watson’s ability to “read” customer personalities (with his handy personality matrix). Amazon Machine Learning, in the meanwhile, has recently been used for predictive modeling of job-cost estimates for insurance companies and builders.
Chelsea Kerwin, December 21, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Watson Is Laying Startup Eggs
December 21, 2015
Incubators are warming stations for eggs. Without having to rely on an organism’s DNA donor, an incubator provides a warm, safe environment for the organism to develop, hatch, and eventually be ready to face the world. Watson has decided it is time for itself to propagate, but instead of knitting tiny computer cases Watson will invest its digital DNA in startups. The Chicago Tribune discusses Watson’s reproduction efforts and progeny in “Watson, IBM’s Big-Data Program Is Also A Startup Incubator.”
While IBM sells Watson’s ability to scan and understand terabytes of data, the company also welcomes developers to use Watson for new ideas. What is even more amazing is that IBM gives developers the ability to use Watson for free for a limited time.
“In Ecosystem, everyone is invited to play with Watson for free (for a limited time); some 77,000 developers have accepted. If your Watson-powered startup shows promise, it becomes a “partner,” often via a quasi-incubator model, and enjoys access to IBM business and technology advisers–and a shot at a capital infusion from the $100 million IBM is making available to Watson startups…”
Ecosystem has been used for startups that feature lifestyle coaching, personal shopping, infrastructure guards, veterinarian advice, fantasy sports calculator, 311 information, and even a hotel butler.
To quote the biblical justification for propagation: “Go forth and multiply the [Watson startups].”
Whitney Grace, December 21, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Old School Mainframes Still Key to Big Data
December 17, 2015
According to ZDNet, “The Ultimate Answer to the Handling of Big Data: The Mainframe.” Believe it or not, a recent survey of 187 IT pros from Syncsort found the mainframe to be the important to their big data strategy. IBM has even created a Hadoop-capable mainframe. Reporter Ken Hess lists some of the survey’s findings:
*More than two-thirds of respondents (69 percent) ranked the use of the mainframe for performing large-scale transaction processing as very important
*More than two-thirds (67.4 percent) of respondents also pointed to integration with other standalone computing platforms such as Linux, UNIX, or Windows as a key strength of mainframe
*While the majority (79 percent) analyze real-time transactional data from the mainframe with a tool that resides directly on the mainframe, respondents are also turning to platforms such as Splunk (11.8 percent), Hadoop (8.6 percent), and Spark (1.6 percent) to supplement their real-time data analysis […]
*82.9 percent and 83.4 percent of respondents cited security and availability as key strengths of the mainframe, respectively
*In a weighted calculation, respondents ranked security and compliance as their top areas to improve over the next 12 months, followed by CPU usage and related costs and meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
*A separate weighted calculation showed that respondents felt their CIOs would rank all of the same areas in their top three to improve
Hess goes on to note that most of us probably utilize mainframes without thinking about it; whenever we pull cash out of an ATM, for example. The mainframe’s security and scalability remain unequaled, he writes, by any other platform or platform cluster yet devised. He links to a couple of resources besides the Syncsort survey that support this position: a white paper from IBM’s Big Data & Analytics Hub and a report from research firm Forrester.
Cynthia Murrell, December 17, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Watson Put to Work in Academia as a Sounding Board and Study Buddy
November 24, 2015
The article on Kurzweil AI titled IBM’s Watson Shown to Enhance Human-Computer Co-Creativity, Support Biologically Inspired Design discusses a project set up among researchers and student teams at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The teams input information and questions about biomimetics, or biologically inspired design, and then Watson served as an “intelligent research assistant” for a Computational Creativity course in Spring 2015. The professor teaching the class, Ashok Goel, explained the benefits of this training.
“Imagine if you could ask Google a complicated question and it immediately responded with your answer — not just a list of links to manually open, says Goel. “That’s what we did with Watson. Researchers are provided a quickly digestible visual map of the concepts relevant to the query and the degree to which they are relevant. We were able to add more semantic and contextual meaning to Watson to give some notion of a conversation with the AI.”
Biomimetics is all about the comparison and inspiration of biological systems for technological system creation. The ability to “converse” with Watson could even help a student study a complicated topic and understand key concepts. Using Watson as an assistant who can bounce answers back at a professional could apply to many fields, and Goel is currently looking into online learning and healthcare. Watch out, grad students and TAs!
Chelsea Kerwin, November 24, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
IBM Launches Informative Blog
November 20, 2015
IBM has created a free Paper.li blog that features information about the company: IBM’s InfoSphere Master Data Management Roundup. Besides the general categories of Headlines and Videos, readers can explore articles under Science, Technology, Business, and two IBM-specific categories, #Bluemix and #IBM. If you love to watch as Big Blue gets smaller, you will find this free newspaper useful in tracking some of the topics upon which IBM is building its future.
Oddly, though, we did not spot any articles from Alliance at IBM on the site. Some employees are unhappy with the way the company has been treating its workers, and have launched that site to publicize their displeasure. Here’s their Statement of Principles:
“Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701 is an IBM employee organization that is dedicated to preserving and improving our rights and benefits at IBM. We also strive towards restoring management’s respect for the individual and the value we bring to the company as employees. Our mission is to make our voice heard with IBM management, shareholders, government and the media. While our ultimate goal is collective bargaining rights with IBM, we will build our union now and challenge IBM on the many issues facing employees from off-shoring and job security to working conditions and company policy.”
It looks like IBM has more to worry about than sliding profits. Could the two issues be related?
Cynthia Murrell, November 20, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Machine Learning Is Play for Children
November 5, 2015
I heard an interesting idea the other idea. Most parents think that when their toddler can figure out how to use a tablet that he or she is a genius, but did you ever consider that the real genius is the person who actually designed the tablet’s interface? Soon a software developer will be able to think their newest cognitive system is the next Einstein or Edison says Computer World in the article, “Machines Will Learn Just Like A Child, Says IBM CEO.”
IBM’s CEO Virginia Rometty said that technology is to the point where machines are almost close to reasoning. Current cognitive systems are now capable of understanding unstructured data, such as images, videos, songs, and more.
” ‘When I say reason it’s like you and I, if there is an issue or question, they take in all the information that they know, they stack up a set of hypotheses, they run it against all that data to decide, what do I have the most confidence in, ‘ Rometty said. The machine ‘can prove why I do or don’t believe something, and if I have high confidence in an answer, I can show you the ranking of what my answers are and then I learn.’ ”
The cognitive systems learn more as they are fed more data. There is a greater demand for machines that can process more data and are “smarter” and handle routines that make it useful.
The best news about machines gaining the learning capabilities of a human child is that they will not replace an actual human being, but rather augment our knowledge and current technology.
Whitney Grace, November 5, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Brand-New Watson Health Unit Has Boston Buzzing
September 17, 2015
The article titled IBM Watson Health Unit Begins to Take Shape on TechCrunch investigates the work being done to initiate the new healthcare unit in Boston and surrounding community that IBM hopes to use to address major issues in healthcare. Already this year IBM has purchased and partnered with numerous companies in the field. Recently, Boston Children’s Hospital joined the list as well as Apple and Johnson & Johnson. The article states,
“As part of today’s broad announcement, IBM indicated that it would be working with Sage Bionetworks’ Open Biomedical Research Platform around the first Apple projects. Sage will be collecting information from Apple Devices using ResearchKit developer tools, initially with breast cancer and Parkinson’s patients. It will be aggregating storing, curating and analyzing the information coming in from the Apple Devices. IBM will be providing the underlying technology with its IBM Watson Health Cloud platform.”
Additionally, IBM Watson Health Cloud for Life Science Compliance was also announced, as the cherry built on top of IBM Softlayer. It is designed to aid companies in the life science industry with a fully compliant cloud solution capable of meeting the demands of the heavily regulated field. Not mentioned in the article is any mention of what the revenues are for this Health Unit initiative, as if they are entirely irrelevant.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 17, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Cricket Cognitive Analysis
September 4, 2015
While Americans scratch their heads at the sport cricket, it has a huge fanbase and not only that, there are mounds of data that can now be fully analyzed says First Post in the article, “The Intersection Of Analytics, Social Media, And Cricket In The Cognitive Era Of Computing.”
According to the article, cricket fans absorb every little bit of information about their favorite players and teams. Technology advances have allowed the cricket players to improve their game with better equipment and ways to analyze their playing, in turn the fans have a deeper personal connection with the game as this information is released. For the upcoming Cricket World Cup, Wisden India will provide all the data points for the game and feed them into IBM’s Analytics Engine to improve the game for spectators and the players.
Social media is a huge part of the cricket experience and the article details examples about how it platforms like Twitter are processed through sentimental analysis and IBM Text Analytics.
“What is most interesting to businesses however is that observing these campaigns help in understanding the consumer sentiment to drive sales initiatives. With right business insights in the nick of time, in line with social trends, several brands have come up with lucrative offers one can’t refuse. In earlier days, this kind of marketing required pumping in of a lot of money and waiting for several weeks before one could analyze and approve the commercial success of a business idea. With tools like IBM Analytics at hand, one can not only grab the data needed, assess it so it makes a business sense, but also anticipate the market response.”
While Cricket might be what the article concentrates on, imagine how data analytics are being applied to other popular sports such as American football, soccer, baseball, golf, and the variety of racing popular around the world.
Whitney Grace, September 4, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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