Summary.

https://2020.internethealthreport.org/year-in-review/

Mozilla Internet Health Report 2020

… This past year, more than ever, human health was intrinsically tied to internet health. It was a year riddled with loss and charged with accelerated change, as the global pandemic and the climate crisis ailed everyone collectively, but also deepened inequities.

… The seven companies that have consolidated power over the internet and its infrastructure saw their profits skyrocket and power increase as global dependency on ‘big tech’ grew stronger with pandemic lockdowns. At the same time, politicians in multiple countries sharpened and finetuned legal challenges to anti-competitive and privacy-eroding practices with an increase of court cases and fines.

Opinion.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/how-automation-will-soon-impact-us-all-657269

How automation will soon impact us all

… Automation 1.0 replaced most of the workers on assembly lines with machines that didn’t make Monday-morning mistakes, didn’t join trade unions, didn’t even have to be paid.

Automation 2.0 is mostly online, and it’s focused on retail. The department stores were mostly gone even before COVID and the smaller shops are going now, swallowed up by Amazon and its many smaller rivals.

Automation 3.0 is almost here, and the new targets this time will be managerial and professional jobs – not all of them, of course, but whole layers of middle management in business and lesser-skilled positions in medicine, law, accountancy and allied trades.

Might we find the same obstacles elsewhere?

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2775428

Obstacles to Implementing AI Tools in Health Care

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have shown promise in predicting patients’ health trajectories, recommending treatments, guiding surgical care, monitoring patients, and supporting efforts to improve the health of a community, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

In addition, the report said, AI has the potential to reduce clinicians’ workload and increase efficiency of administrative tasks.

However, obstacles could impede widespread adoption of AI tools, the GAO found. Technology developers encounter difficulties obtaining the data needed to create effective AI tools, and limitations and bias in those data could reduce the tools’ safety and effectiveness for some patients.

… Privacy concerns grow as more AI systems are developed. In addition, uncertainty about liability, stemming from the multitude of parties involved in developing, deploying, and using AI tools, could slow adoption and impede innovation.

I hope they didn’t fire the singers…

https://lifehacker.com/conduct-your-very-own-blob-opera-even-if-you-cant-read-1846163088

Conduct Your Very Own Blob Opera (Even if You Can't Read Music)

… True, it takes practice, practice, practice to end up in Carnegie Hall, but you only need to be on a device connected to the internet to conduct Blob Opera. To get started, follow these instructions from Li:

Drag the blobs up and down to change pitch. Or forwards and backwards for different vowel sounds. Another machine learning model lets the blobs respond to and harmonize your input in real time.

Really, it’s more than just conducting: you’re able to create and record original compositions for Blob Opera, then share them with your friends, family and others who have probably never even hinted at having any desire to listen to a computer-generated opera number, but will surely thank you for this gift.

Free ebook.

https://symbiandevzone.tradepub.com/free/w_pinn25/

The Evolution of Analytics

Over the last several decades, organizations have relied heavily on analytics to provide them with competitive advantage and enable them to be more effective. Organizations are now forced to look deeper into their data to find new and innovative ways to increase efficiency and competitiveness. With recent advances in science and technology, particularly in machine learning, organizations are adopting larger, more comprehensive analytics strategies. This report provides a guide to some of the opportunities that are available for using machine learning in business, and how to overcome some of the key challenges of incorporating machine learning into an analytics strategy.