Machine Learning Confronts the Elephant In the Room: Visualization

Turns out that human vision - which most humans take for granted - is astoundingly powerful and amazingly complex.

Replicating it in algorithms for machines is a lot tougher than initially believed. JL

Kevin Hartnett reports in Quanta:

As computers take over critical tasks like automated surveillance and autonomous driving, we’ll want their visual processing to be aas good as the human eyes they’re replacing.It won’t be easy. This accentuates the sophistication of human vision — and the challenge of building systems that mimic it. An ability humans have that AI lacks: the ability to understand when a scene is confusing and go back for a second glance. We take in staggering amounts of visual information. The human brain processes it in stride. Artificial intelligence, by contrast, creates visual impressions laboriously

What Personality Tests Really Deliver

Selection metrics. JL

Louis Menand reports in The New Yorker:

The rise of personality testing in the twentieth century was a response to an increase in the number of office workers. You do not need a test to figure out who should milk the cow, but you want to have a method of distinguishing salespeople from managers. Human-resource science developed as a way of maximizing corporate employees. There are more than two thousand personality tests on the market, but Myers-Briggs is No. 1.Your browser already knows what kind of person you are a thousand times more intimately than any test will ever reveal.

Before You Buy That Furniture, An App Will Try It In Your Room

Powers of persuasion. The better customers can visualize, the more likely they are to buy. JL

Martha White reports in the New York Times:

The new furniture showroom might be your own living room. Augmented reality is starting to give shoppers the ability to see what a couch, a console or a coffee table will look like in their homes. "It’s able to help people better visualize. People who engage with 3-D view-in-room technology in our app are more likely to add an item to their cart."

The Cyberthreats That Most Worry Election Officials

The states in green provide no paper backup to electronic voting - and some of them, including Texas and Pennsylvania are among the biggest in the US. JL

Alexa Corse reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Hackers could tamper with voter records and sow confusion about who’s allowed to vote. Paperless voting machines could fail—and there aren’t always paper backups that provide a record of votes. Malicious social-media accounts could spread false voting information online, such as fake instructions on how to vote.The biggest concern isn’t that a foreign adversary like Russia would alter ballots. They’re worried about elections losing legitimacy. “We will never have another uncontested presidential election. The seed of doubt has been sown.”

Amazon Wants To Take Over Your House. It's 'Smart' Microwave Is the Trojan Appliance

Actually, that's not quite fair: what Amazon really wants to take over is not your house, it's your life. JL

Kaitlyn Tiffany reports in Vox:

The Amazon microwave will cost $60 and take commands via Amazon’s Alexa. Just tell your microwave what you’re cooking, how you’d like it cooked, and for how long.it’s “ a demo for [Alexa] Connect Kit,” which is the cheap Bluetooth and wifi module that Amazon will try to get other companies to affix to their normal, non-smart appliances, allowing Alexa to talk to them (through) Wi-Fi Simple Setup, which is a system that shares your wifi credentials with all the compatible smart devices in your house.

Former Google CEO Predicts By 2028 Web Will Split: Chinese and American

Former Google CEO predicts the split will occur within the decade. The real question is whether it is already happening - and with what consequences for global commerce, knowledge and connectivity. JL

Hamza Shaban reports in the Washington Post:

Google’s former chief executive predicts that the global Internet will split in two within the next decade, bifurcating into a Web led by the United States and another helmed by China with fewer freedoms and greater censorship. People will see “fantastic leadership in products and services from China,” noting the scale of the nation’s business, the massive wealth being created there and the advance of global trade. But the country’s growing economic influence may have political consequences:

Why You're Probably Getting An Implant Some Day

Convenience and data rule. And over the past generation, everything from artificial knees and hips, to high tech hearing devices - and even piercings - have conditioned people to accept the merging of the technological and physical as normal. JL

Haley Weiss reports in The Atlantic, photo by Russell Boyce in Reuters:

As the technology is becoming more powerful, people are becoming more comfortable with implantables.. This is traceable from body modifications like tattoos and piercings to pacemakers. Plastic surgery is less taboo. Hundreds of thousands of American bodies now contain cochlear implants, IUDs, nerve stimulators, artificial joints, implantable birth-control rods. “There’s a trend towards putting devices inside the body, not just for life and death but for convenience such as contraceptives, menstrual aids, contact lenses.”