Archive for the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Category

UK guidance issued on explaining decisions made with artificial intelligence – Out-Law.com

The guidance looks at how organisations can provide users with a better understanding of how AI systems work and how decisions are made. It is intended to give organisations practical advice to help explain the processes and services that go into AI decision-making so that individuals will be better informed about the risks and rewards of AI.

The guidance follows the public consultation launched by the ICO and the Alan Turing Institute last year under their Project ExplAIn collaboration, and is part of a wider industry effort to improve accountability and transparency around AI.

Data protection expert Priya Jhakar of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law, said: The ICO's guidance will be a helpful tool for organisations navigating the challenges of explaining AI decision making. The practical nature of the guidance not only helps organisations understand the issues and risks associated with unexplainable decisions, but will also get organisations thinking about what they have to do at each level of their business to achieve explainability and demonstrate best practice.

The guidance is split into three parts, explaining the basics of AI before going on to give examples of explaining AI in practice, and looking at what explainable AI means for an organisation.

It includes detail on the roles, policies, procedures and documentation, that required by the EUs General Data Protection Regulation, that firms can put in place to ensure they are set up to provide meaningful explanations to affected individuals.

The guidance offers practical examples which put the recommendations into context and checklists to help organisations keep track of the processes and steps they are taking when explaining decisions made with AI. The ICO emphasises that the guidance is not a statutory code of practice under the Data Protection Act 2018.

The first section is aimed primarily at an organisations data protection officer (DPO) and compliance teams, but relevant to anyone involved in the development of AI systems. The second is aimed at technical teams and the last section at senior management. However, it suggests that DPOs and compliance teams may also find the last two sections helpful.

The guidance notes that using explainable AI can give an organisation better assurance of legal compliance, mitigating the risks associated with non-compliance. It suggests using explainable AI can help improve trust with individual customers.

The ICO acknowledged that organisations are concerned that explainability may disclose commercially sensitive material about how their AI systems and models work. However, it said the guidance did not require the disclosure of in-depth information such as an AI tools source code or algorithms.

Organisations which limit the detail of any disclosures should justify and document the reasons for this, according to the guidance.

The ICO recognises that use of third-party personal data could be a concern for organisations, but suggests this may not be an issue where they assess the risk to third-party personal data as part of a data protection impact assessment, and make justified and documented choices about the level of detail they should provide.

The guidance also recognises the risks associated in not explaining AI decisions, including regulatory action, reputational damage and disengaged customers.

The guidance recommends that organisations should divide explanations of AI into two categories: process-based explanations, giving information on the governance of an AI system across its design and deployment; and outcome-based explanations which outline what happened in the case of a particular decision.

It identifies six ways of explaining AI decisions, including giving explanations in an accessible and non-technical way and noting who customers should contact for a human review of a decision.

The guidance also recommends explanations which cover issues such as fairness, safety and performance, what data has been used in a particular decision, and what steps have been taken during the design and implementation of an AI system to consider and monitor the impacts that its use and decisions may have on an individual, and on wider society.

The guidance also identifies four principles for organisations to follow, and how they relate to each decision type. Organisations should be transparent, accountable, consider the context they operate in, and reflect on what impact of the AI system may have on affected individuals and wider society.

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UK guidance issued on explaining decisions made with artificial intelligence - Out-Law.com

How artificial intelligence will change the future of work – JAXenter

AI is developing at whirlwind rates. While nobody can say for certain how it will impact our work and personal lives, we can make a good few educated guesses. Also, with COVID-19 limiting human interaction in the built environment, advancements in AI and automation are on course to accelerate (providing funding is available, of course).

The age-old fear among some of the population is that AI will displace workers, leading to high levels of unemployment. A report by management consulting firm McKinsey shows that between 400 million and 800 million individuals across the globe could be replaced by automation and need to find new jobs by 2030.

However, AI could also create more jobs, as long as people are willing to adapt and work smarter. Research by PwC suggests that AI will add more to global GDP by 2030 than the combined current output of China and India.

So, in what ways could artificial intelligence change the future of work?

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The virtual communication technologies being developed currently will dramatically enhance the way we experience remote working. Widespread access to WiFi and portable devices have led to an increase in dispersed teams. Companies are replacing their traditional offices with virtual offices, enabling them to access global talent.

Holographic transportation can imitate the physical face-to-face interactions that add value to our workplace experience; the things we usually miss out on when telecommuting. In place of video conferencing screens, augmented reality allows us to collaborate in real time with our coworkers through 3D holographic images and avatars.

Check out Microsofts Spatial app for more insight.

Advancements in telerobotics have given humans the ability to operate machines remotely. This area of technology could also give rise to ubiquitous remote working; when teamed with holographic transportation, it could change how we work forever. Telerobotics is facilitated by broadband communications, sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. 5G and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) will accelerate the adoption of telerobotics and teleoperation.

AI and machine learning are already changing the way we recruit employees. Technology enables us to analyse thousands of profiles and compile a list of relevant candidates efficiently. Following the shortlisting process, AI technology can be used to communicate with candidates and keep them engaged at every stage of the recruitment journey.

There are lots of AI recruitment tools out there today that help businesses hire remote workers. Users can assess a candidates skillset, get an insight into their personality, and even gauge to some extent whether or not they will fit with the culture of the company. Some solutions deliver online assessments to candidates and use AI to grade them. Facial recognition technology is used to detect any cheating.

Once the right candidate has been chosen, AI-enabled chatbots can be used (alongside human intervention) to facilitate the onboarding process, helping new starters understand everything from internal processes to the company culture.

AI also has the potential to minimise bias when it comes to recruitment and performance reviews, as candidates are assessed in a more fact-based way. It can also help HR professionals to pinpoint areas of bias in the company and resolve it efficiently. As a result, AI has the potential to make our virtual workplaces more inclusive and diverse.

AI can also be used to upskill new employees and indeed minimise the skills gap. Multinational engineering, industrial, and aerospace conglomerate, Honeywell, has developed a simulator for training purposes. Their solution, which helps reduce training time by 60%, enables the user to simulate tasks through virtual environments which are accessed through the cloud.

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When artificial intelligence teams up with the Internet of Things, trend prediction can be done quickly, making businesses more efficient, sustainable, and effective. In time, it will also change the way companies are run, with humans collaborating with AI brains to solve complex problems. (Yes, there will still be a need for human input.)

As well as trend mapping, AI will make it easier for businesses to accurately identify any challenges. Businesses utilising AI and data (responsibly) could also significantly improve the customer and employee experience. Workers will have more time to focus on creatively fulfilling rather than repetitive tasks that machines will do. As a result, HR teams will be able to focus on more strategic work.

There are tools available that use robotic process automation (RPA) to monitor workflows and make informed/ intelligent suggestions as to how tasks can be managed more effectively. They are able to identify when an individual is struggling with a problem and can provide assistance or point the worker in the right direction for human help.

Today and in the foreseeable future at least, AI in the context of work is all about complimenting and maximising human input as opposed to replacing it. Its about eliminating the mundane and freeing us up to focus on the creative things only humans can do.

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How artificial intelligence will change the future of work - JAXenter

Artificial Intelligence The future of Infertility treatments – ETHealthworld.com

By Dr. Sahil Gupta

At its core, artificial intelligence (AI) is a partnership between man and machine (Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO). The embodiment of AI is a computer program that can learn to execute tasks involving forms of intelligence normally ascribed to humans. How well a computer will be able to emulate or exceed humans is the essential question driving AI technology.

The potential introduction of AI into the clinical ART world holds both tremendous benefits of high success rates as well as lower costs. The current use of AI to separate high- quality embryos from those that are chromosomally abnormal is expected to save healthcare professionals time and effort by processing and interpreting more data with greater depth and precision. This might, in turn, improve the efficiency of ART and subsequent pregnancy outcomes, treatment options and care for patients with infertility.

The present Infertility lab hasnt changed since the invention of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) in the late 1980s. There have been some improvements in technology over the last few decades specially in Vitrification, but the current processes have a large amount of subjectivity built into them, thus there is an enormous amount of variance between different experts that that lead to large amounts of inconsistency in results.

A lot of tools are being developed around the world to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict embryo quality. These are extremely helpful in increasing the success rate per embryo transfer. However, the variability and subjectivity could be in the following steps: ovarian stimulation protocols and dosing, the mechanical steps during egg retrieval and oocyte preparation for fertilization, the mechanics of sperm preparation, the variations in technique for sperm injection (ICSI), culturing, embryo manipulation and biopsy, embryo selection, and finally the embryo transfer, and its difficult to pinpoint failures to any one of these steps.

The technology of IVF, four decades after the first IVF baby was born, is largely measured by a single outcome: live birth. Therefore, in order to make a big change in the success rates of the infertility treatments, a wholistic approach in automation is required in multiple steps (if not all the steps).

It is a given that the way forward for infertility is to use artificial intelligence and deep learning models to improve outcomes. However, collecting data in a disciplined and a consistent way remains a challenge. Today since almost everything is done manually by embryologists, high quality digital data is not collected. The infertility lab data has traditionally been pretty much black box for most clinic management. At Aveya, we have been collecting data in a consistent manner and that has allowed us to understand the process and given us a sense on how to move forward with different pieces of the technology that can lead to improvement of the final endpoint.

The article is authored by Dr. Sahil Gupta, founder and CEO, Aveya Fertility.

(Brand Connect Initiative)

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHealthworld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

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Artificial Intelligence The future of Infertility treatments - ETHealthworld.com

Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations the answer to sustainable operational efficiency – CRN.in

By Rao Surapaneni, Vice President of Engineering and Head of India Product Operations, ServiceNow and Lisa Wolfe, Global Director Product Marketing, ServiceNow

Remember when cloud was just a buzzword? Ten years ago, many people thought that cloud technology was overhyped. Now, our future is in the Cloud everything we own digitally is backed up to the Cloud.

Theres a similar discussion about Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) today. Once again, some people are skeptical. However, I predict that AIOps is destined to follow cloud, with widespread adoption across industries. Organizations will quickly learn that theycantremain competitivewithout AIOps. Just like the Cloud, AIOps is going to evolve IT and digital business as we know it.

In India, tech convergence is the new reality for 2020. AI is being leveraged by every sector, in some way, to increase productivity and create efficiencies. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, AI has become vital for smooth workflow systems. With people observing social distancing across the globe, companies have had to create digital workflows that maintain, if not increase, productivity as people adjust to the new norm, for now.

What is AIOps?

AIOps optimizes IT operations using machine learning and big data. Thats the opposite of howmanyIT operationsdepartmentsworktoday, struggling with manual processes and heavily siloed tools that dont share data. Realizing the rising importance of AI, the Government of India in the Union Budget 2019-20 put AI high on its agenda. The Government has already identified nine priority areas and has been playing a pivotal role in augmenting the development of AI through various initiatives. In October 2019, the Government of Maharashtra announced the use of AI- based solutions for agriculture under the Maha Agri-Tech project to help reduce cultivation hazards for farmers.

Four reasons why AIOps is important for businesses

Enabled by the Cloud, businesses are digitizing at unprecedented speed. The pace and scale of change is staggering. And IT operations just cant keep up. Theres just too much complexity and too much to manage.WithSaaS apps and cloud services, business unitsarebypassingIT altogetherand this has been going on for years. AIOps changes this dynamic, ensuring that IT operations can run at digital speed and lead from the front.

With AIOps, your IT operations team dont have to dig through thousands of events from siloed monitoring tools, spending hours correlating disconnected data to identify impacted services and the root cause of failures. Instead, they immediately see a small number of actionable alerts and impacted services on a single console. They also see appropriatehistorical and real-time context, including relevant incidents, problems and changes for affected CIs (configuration items), providing valuable shortcuts to issue diagnosis and resolution. The more senior leadership backing there is for AIOps, the more mature an organizations digital processes will be. A push from the senior leadership will help AIOps process more data types for IT teams, leading to automation, giving free time to experts to focus on more complex decision-making that may not be achievable by AI.

They can also see how similar issues were remediated in the past and can even remediate issues automatically. Taken together, these AIOps capabilities significantly lower MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution),reduce the number of major incidents, and increase operational efficiency.

AIOps is ready for prime time. While the transformative promise of AI hasnt materialized yet for business, AIOps is different. It doesnt need a staff of data scientists or AI translators. It doesnt need a major reorganization like many other large-scale AI initiatives. In fact, AIOps is the perfect pilot for other organizational AI initiatives, building sponsorship beyond IT as it transforms IT operationswhich in turn transforms the business. Seamless adoption into IT operations and rapid productivity gains make AIOps a must-have technology for any CEO who is serious about digital transformation. This appreciation of what could be possible with AI looks set to transform into widespread usage of AIOps over the next few years.

What is the most important success factor when adopting AIOps?

It is aboutorganizational change management. Companies need to establish a data-driven culture where most decisions are based on data, not experience. Additionally, leaders need to startasking the right questions to drive efficiency. They also need to develop their existing talent or replace skillsets to manage the scale and demand.

Investment into AIOps can bring benefits from reduced downtime to a boost in profitability, creating a win-win for customers and companies alike. In an industry where change is the only constant, IT operations will need to become increasingly proactive and dynamic to meet the needs of business. AIOps offers you a proven, pragmatic path to improved service quality, reduced service downtime, and vastly increased operational efficiency. Ultimately, that translates into sustainable business advantage as yourun IT at digital speed.

If you have an interesting article / experience / case study to share, please get in touch with us at editors@expresscomputeronline.com

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Govt Launches AI Website: How Will It Help India’s Artificial Intelligence Industry? – Analytics India Magazine

The Indian government yesterday stated the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Portal, formed by National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) and backed from National e-Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is now live.

The portals objective is to function as a one-stop platform for all AI-related advancements in India, with sharing of useful resources like articles, investment funding news for AI startup, AI companies and educational firms on AI in India. The portal will also distribute documents, case studies, research reports etc, and provide learning and new job roles related to AI.

The portal brings together ideas and thought leadership from Indian government stakeholders including Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), NITI Aayog, NASSCOM, along with state governments. Such government arms can finally interact with private players, including large tech companies, venture capital funds, startups and educational institutions on the portal to realise the potential of AI too.

The portal is meant to provide information on the entire AI ecosystem comprising startups, investment funds, companies, and educational institutions. This will be achieved with research work, editorial content such as news, interviews, and events. This will serve as an AI-focused platform for accessing AI resources.

The official domain name was announced as ai.gov.in. The domain name instead redirects to https://indiaai.in/ The website has sections on news, articles, ecosystem, resources, skills & jobs, sectors and initiatives. There are also subsections on case studies, research reports, video and datasets for AI professionals.

One of the most talked-about sections is regarding skills and jobs meant to help professionals learn and find work in the field of AI. For example, there are currently AI courses available on the platform, both free and paid for things like AI Foundation, Machine Learning, Data Visualization, cybersecurity, etc. This, according to the government officials, will help in upskilling and understanding of the technology at the core levels of the workforce.

These courses are mostly provided by either educational institutions such as IIT Bombay, third party content providers like SkillUp and edX or private companies like IBM. The other big learning initiatives mentioned on the portal include CBSEs partnership with chipmaker giant Intel. The AI education program is open to students in classes 8-12 across thousands of schools in India.

After the introduction of the National Strategy For AI Discussion paper, the Government of India had recognised nine priority areas, which led to the shift towards creating a national portal for AI. The industry professionals gave positive responses to find out the governments opening up the National Artificial Intelligence portal on social, which will bring forth the ecosystem and research and development measures in the field of artificial intelligence.

Now, the special website is focused on highlighting accomplishments of India in the field of AI and was inaugurated by Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Law and Justice and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on the occasion of the first anniversary of the second tenure of the government.

The focus is on democratising artificial intelligence for everyone. MoS for E&IT, Communications, and HRD, Sanjay Dhotre, while talking about the AI web portal said that the role of artificial intelligence in the COVID-stricken world is immense, and AI can play a vital role during the difficult times. He further added that digital innovation such as AI had been great equalisers for Indian citizens despite several challenges.

The website, according to NASSCOM, is the convergence point for students, AI experts, companies, entrepreneurs, and the government for nationwide sourcing and sharing of best AI ideas. The portal will reinforce the power of the AI to give rise to jobs at state-level and the role of startups in utilising data-driven innovation, among relaxed compliance procedures and regulatory bottlenecks.

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Govt Launches AI Website: How Will It Help India's Artificial Intelligence Industry? - Analytics India Magazine