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The landscape of jobs will likely be dramatically transformed by AI in the coming years, and while some jobs will go by the wayside, other jobs will be created. It isnt clear yet how the nature of job automation will impact the economy, whether or not more jobs will be created than displaced, but it is obvious that those who work in the positions created by AI will need training to be effective at them.

Displaced workers are going to need the training to work in the new AI-related job fields, but how can these workers be trained quickly enough to remain competitive in the workplace? The answer could be more AI, which could help personalize education and training.

Bryan Talebi is the founder and CEO of the startup Ahura AI, which aims to use AI to make online education programs more efficient, targeting them at the specific individuals using them. Talebi explained to SingularityHub that Ahura is in the process of creating a product that will take biometric data from people taking online education programs and use this data to adapt the course material to the individuals needs.

While there are security and privacy concerns associated with the recording and analysis of an individuals behavioral data, the trade-off would be that, in theory, people would acquire valuable skills much more quickly. By giving personalized material and instruction to learners, a learners individual needs and means can be accounted for. Talebi explained that Ahura AIs prototype personalized education system is already showing some impressive results. According to Talebi, Ahura AIs system helps people learn between three to five times faster than current education models allow.

The AI-enhanced learning system developed by Ahura works through a series of cameras and microphones. Most modern mobile devices, tablets, and laptops have cameras and microphones, so there is little additional cost of investment for users of the platform. The camera is used to track facial movements of the user, and it captures things like eye movements, fidgeting, and micro-expressions. Meanwhile, the microphone tracks voice sentiment, analyzing the learners word usage and tone. The idea is that these metrics can be used to detect when a learner is getting bored/disinterested or frustrated, and adjust the content to keep the learner engaged.

Talebi explained that Ahura uses the collected information to determine an optimal way to deliver the material to each student of the course. While some people might learn most easily through videos, other people will learn more easily through text, while others will learn best through experience. The primary goal of Ahura is to shift the format of the content in real-time in order to improve the information retention of the learner, which it does by delivering content that improves attention.

Because Ahura can interpret user facial expressions and body language, it can predict when a user is getting bored and about to switch away to social media. According to Talebi, Ahura is capable of predicting when someone will switch to Instagram or Facebook with a 60% confidence interval, ten-seconds out from when they switch over. Talebi acknowledges there is still a lot of work to be done, as Ahura has a goal of getting the metric up to 95% accuracy, However, he believes that the performance of Ahura shows promise.

Talebi also acknowledges a desire to utilize the same algorithms and design principles used by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms, which may concern some people as these platforms are designed to be addictive. While creating a more compelling education platform is arguably a more noble goal, theres also the issue that the platform itself could be addictive. Moreover, theres a concern about the potential to misuse such sensitive information in general. Talebi said that Ahura is sensitive to these concerns at that they find it incredibly important that the data they collect is never misused, noting that some investors immediately began inquiring about the marketing potential of the platform.

Its important that we dont use this technology in those ways. Were aware that things can go sideways, so were hoping to put up guardrails to ensure our system is helping and not harming society, Talebi said.

Talebi explained that the company wants to create an ethics board that can review the ways the data the company collects is used. Talebi said the board should be diverse in thought, gender, and background, and that it should have teeth, to help ensure that their software is being designed ethically.

Ahura is currently in the process of developing its alpha prototypes, and the company hopes that during beta testing it will available to over 200,000 users in a large scale trial against a control group. The company also hopes to increase the kinds of biometric data they use for their system, planning to log data from things like sleep patterns, heart rate, facial flushing, and pupil dilation.

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Researchers Carry Out Census Of Wikipedia Bots - Unite.ai

Key Point:The MiG-27 had a nasty habbit of exploding.

The Indian air force plans in December 2019 finally to retire its last few Soviet-designed MiG-27 Flogger fighter-bombers, bringing to an end 38 years of MiG-27 operations in India and leaving the Kazakh air force as the last operator of the 1970s-vintage, swing-wing warplane.

New Delhis last MiG-27 unit, No. 29 Squadron is based in Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Two other MiG-27 squadrons shuttered in 2016.

Pilots and planners probably wont miss the speedy but volatile MiG-27, a ground-attack derivative of the MiG-23 interceptor. U.S. Air Force test pilots who flew a captured MiG-23 under the auspices of the once-secret Constant Peg program, literally were afraid of the plane owing to its tendency to explode in mid-flight.

"It would accelerate until it blew up," John Manclark, a commander of Constant Peg during the mid-1980s, said of the MiG-23. "The limit was 720 to 710 knots, but guys would look down inside and see they were going 850 to 880."

The Indian air force acquired the first of 165 locally-assembled MiG-27s starting in 1981. The type flew in combat during the Kargil War between India and Pakistan in 1999. In essence, a simpler MiG-23 without that types air-to-air radar, the MiG-27 with its powerful R-29 engine at low altitude could accelerate to a top speed of around Mach one.

But the plane was complex and unsafe compared to Western types. Even other Soviet types were safer to fly than the MiG-27 was. The Indian air force lost at least 10 percent of its MiG-27s in crashes.

Sri Lankas experience was even worse. The Sri Lankan air force in the late 1990s acquired from Ukraine a batch of six MiG-27s plus a MiG-23 trainer. The Sri Lankan government at the time was at war with the Tamil Tigers rebel group. It wanted a fast fighter-bomber that also could operate at low level.

The MiG-27 arguably was a poor choice. Its unsurprising that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the countrys wartime defense secretary, later was accused of accepting bribes in exchange for approving the MiG buy. A newspaper editor died in an apparent assassination after reporting on the allegedly corrupt fighter deal.

The initial six MiG-27s, plus a follow-on batch of six Floggers and one trainer that the country bought in 2000, performed poorly in Sri Lankan service, even when flown by experienced Ukrainian mercenary pilots.

U.S. advisors in 2001 assessed the Sri Lankan air forces No. 12 Squadron, which flew the MiG-27s and found it wanting. Air force leaders never bothered to procure the required weapons systems/ammunition for them, The Island reported. On the basis of testimony of both army and [air force] personnel, the U.S. pointed out the failure on the part of No 10 [flying Israeli-made Kfirs] and No. 12 squadrons to destroy targets.

No fewer than four of Sri Lankas 14 MiG-27s and MiG trainers crashed. A Tamil Tiger commando raid destroyed another MiG on the ground. As late as 2017, seven MiGs remained in the Sri Lankan air forces inventory, but none were flightworthy.

The air force in early 2019 finally shut down No. 12 Squadron, formally ending the MiG-27s service in the country and reportedly leaving Sri Lanka with just a handful of operational Kfirs and Chinese-made F-7s.

India is struggling to replace its MiG-27s and other old fighters. New Delhi wants to spend around $18 billion acquiring 110 new fighters to replace MiG-21s and MiG-27s. The new planes would fly alongside European-designed Jaguars, French Mirage 2000s and Rafales, Russian MiG-29s and Su-30s and India's own indigenous Tejas fighter in what American plane-maker Lockheed Martin described as "the worlds largest fighter aircraft ecosystem."

Lockheed is pitching to India a new F-21 version of its iconic F-16 fighter. For the purposes of Lockheed's marketing campaign, the F-21 is a new fighter, although it shares many of its major features with the F-16V the company has sold to Bahrain, Greece, Slovakia, South Korea and Taiwan.

David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is theauthor of the graphic novelsWar Fix,War Is BoringandMachete Squad. This piece was originally featured in November 2019 and is being republished due to reader's interest.

Image: Wikipedia

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India is Eliminating its MiG-27 Fighters (They Were a Disaster) - The National Interest Online

Wikipedia is an incredible source, but the correctness of claims posted on its pages is most of the times called into question. To enhance the websites usability and credibility, the Internet Archive is operating to make references simpler to follow by connecting them to books digital copies.

Till now, 50,000 digitized books that are hosted by the Archive have been connected to 130,000 references. To watch an example in action for the new digital referencing, you can go to the Martin Luther King, Jr page on Wikipedia. If you see at the reference for To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference & Martin Luther King Jr (Adam Faircloughs book) at the pages bottom, you will see it is a clickable link. Clicking navigates you to the digital version of the book in the Internet Archive.

When you unlock a digital book provided by the Archive, you can watch a few pages of preview to see the reference data. If you need to read extra, you can lend a digital copy of the book via their initiative (Controlled Digital Lending).

The linking to digital books of references is done both by robots and by users, and has been conducted in the Greek, English, and Arabic editions of Wikipedia. The Internet Archive claims that it aims to carry on working with Wikipedia societies to scan extra books and connect them to references. This is not the first time the 2 websites have collaborated together, as the group earlier assisted to fix 9 Million broken links with the help of its Wayback Machine archive on the encyclopedia.

Together we can attain global access to All Knowledge, claimed Director of the Wayback Machine project, Mark Graham, to the media in an interview. One linked paper, book, news article, web page, video, music file, and image at a time.

Being the Head of the Science Department,MarshaAustinholds the responsibility to carry out all the activities of this department smoothly. While she is active in this mtier from the last 5 years, she has pursued a B.Sc. degree in Astrophysics to nurture her passion for the science domain. Moreover, with her promising managerial capabilities, her contribution to our organization has set a benchmark for other members at Chemical News Reports. Our platform recently completed 5 Years of togetherness withMarsha. Her work adeptness and splendid presentation skills always catch the eyes of the other members of the Chemical News Reports team.

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Wikipedia References Adds Book Previews Hosted By The Internet Archive - Chemical News Reports

Facebook wasnt built in a day.

Neither will WT:Social, the upstart news-focused social network that no-one would ever notice, except that Wikipidia founder Jimmy Wales is behind it. And Wikipedia is a fairly successful project ... its ranked ninth in global internet engagement according to Alexa.

So its getting some attention.

Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images

That attention might be a bit early, however. Im one of the first 200,000 users of the site, and not much is happening yet at WT:Social. Not a lot of news, and not a lot of social.

I already have 53 friends, but Im not sure how they became my friends. And Im following 55 people (again, not quite sure how that happened).

Updating my account header photo took three tries, and the second time it become some random persons me-with-my-muscle-car pic. My feed includes 10 Strange Ways To Get Locked Up In The USA and Fighting Misinformation/Fake News: A Historical Perspective.

So yes, its a little weird right now.

One friend, analyst and thought leader Jeremiah Owyang, bought a paid membership for $12.99 to skip the WT:Social waiting line. (WT:Social will not have paid ads, but will rely on donations and subscriptions, like Wikipedia, in an attempt to avoid the issues that Facebook has platformized (fake news, paid fake ads, and election engineering).

Another friend skipped the waiting list instantly without paying, while one sat in the list for three days. Personally, I was offered the opportunity to contribute yesterday, declined, was put in a waiting list, and then magically today made it in.

Perhaps not shockingly, WT:Social looks very much like a wiki.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' new social network

Theres a list of subwikis (think Groups in Facebook) to join, a place to post something, a social/news feed, a list of wikis you decide to follow upon joining. Oh, and a widget to invite more people.

I cant say its visually appealing, and not all functionality works.

Its buggy ... I tried to create a new group and it 404d pretty hard.

More than anything else, it feels like a socialized news network kind of a low-volume Twitter which makes sense, given Wales focus on news.

WikiTribune becomes a social network for people like you who still have faith in the truth. We are here to create better connections and develop productive discussions around everything that is happening in the world and is important to us.

Its interesting to establish a social network with a similar ethos as Wikipedia, but theres a lot of work to be done. Theres not much news available yet, and theres not much social happening. Theres no obvious private messaging capability, and the interface is designed pretty much to share links first.

Theres also the somewhat confusing opportunity, familiar to those of us who are Wikipedia editors, to add an edit summary or to briefly describe your changes to your social updates.

Sill, theres potential here.

Wikipedia grew from a dream to an experiment to a global phenomenon. If Jimmy Wales can repeat the trick, we might get some real competition in social media. Dont hold your breath waiting for your parents to join, however. WT:Social will likely never be that kind of social network.

If you want to join me in this experiment, here I am on WT:Social.

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Wikipedia Founders Facebook Competitor Is Basic And Buggy (But Interesting) - Forbes

The logo of the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia on a smartphone. (Photo by Kirill KukhmarTASS ... [+] via Getty Images)

Vladimir Putins suggestion that Wikipedia be replaced with a Russian version seems like a patriotic attempt to promote Russian scholarship. It also offers a reminder of the way that limited access to information has historically contributed to tension between Russia and the U.S.

Speaking to the Russian Language Council at a Kremlin meeting November 5, Putin said of Wikipedia, It would be better to replace it with the Big Russian New Encyclopaedia in electronic form, Ria Novosti reported. This will in any case be reliable information in a good contemporary form.

The key words are replace and reliable.

Replace suggests that the new electronic version of the Big Russian Encyclopaedia will be designed to be consulted instead of Wikipedia, not as well as.

Kremlin plans to cut Russia off from the internet

Reliable seems innocuous enough. Isnt that what reference books and websites are supposed to be? But when you pause to think about recent Russian legislation allowing the country to be cut off from the internet (for defensive purposes, in an emergency, according to the Kremlin), critics may start to wonder if that could mean promoting a single, government-friendly, interpretation of events.

The Russian Wikipedia started in 2001, according to the online encyclopaedias own page. Wikipedia, referring to Alexa Internet rankings, says that its Russian version has tended to be the most visited after its English site.

The Russian plans for a replacement are not completely new. Ria Novosti pointed out that in September 1.7 billion roubles ($26.7 million) had been budgeted for Russias answer to the worlds biggest online encyclopaedia. The project is to have the support of the editors of the Big Russian Encyclopaedia, which already has its own website.

YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA - NOVEMBER 6, 2019: Volumes of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia at Belinsky ... [+] Svedlovsk Regional Universal Library of Science. (Photo by Donat SorokinTASS via Getty Images)

For most of the twentieth century, the Big Soviet Encyclopaedia was the last word in Marxist-Leninist interpretation of world events, science, and history. The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant a new name was needed.

The Big Russian Encyclopaedias site has a link to a copy of the 2002 decree authorizing the work to go ahead. It is signed by Russias then president: Vladimir Putin.

Competition for information

Whatever form the proposed replacement for Russian Wikipedia takes, it will have to compete with other information sources.

Perhaps there is a pattern here. In the last decade, the Russian government did not like some of the international media coverage it was receiving. It created Russia Today, now shortened to RT, to acquaint international audiences with a Russian viewpoint on major global events.

In Soviet times, editors in Moscow would sometimes alter definitions in dictionaries produced in the west, especially definitions of sensitive words like socialism or capitalism.

Today, provided they have the internet, users can look elsewhere for alternative answers.

That was not always possible, but it is important that, for the sake of international understanding, it remains so.

A forgotten story of American-Soviet cooperation

A new book, The Russian Job, by Douglas Smith, shows why. It tells the story of a massive American effort in the 1920s to alleviate famine in the Soviet Union. Countless lives were saved. This kind of cooperation was not to last as the century wore on. Instead, the episode has largely been forgottensomething Smith's book aims to correct.

As a review in The Economist noted, the American Relief Administration was subsequently accused in the Soviet Union of spying and wrecking activities" and of "supporting counter-revolutionary elements. That kind of interpretation was both created by, and contributed to, Cold War tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Whose phrase? The Big Soviet Encyclopaedias.

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Russian Plans To Replace Wikipedia: Echoes Of Russia And Americas Troubled History - Forbes