Thursday, November 04, 2021

I was afraid this was the case. However it does make a great ‘bad example’ of undue reliance.

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/ibuying-algorithms-failed-zillow-says-business-worlds-love-affair-ai/

Why the iBuying algorithms failed Zillow, and what it says about the business world’s love affair with AI

Just because a business process can be automated, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be automated. And maybe — just maybe — there are components of business that are not better served with AI algorithms doing the job.

That’s a key takeaway after Zillow Group made the unexpected decision on Tuesday to shutter its home buying business — a painful move that will result in 2,000 employees losing their jobs, a $304 million third quarter write-down, a spiraling stock price (shares are down more than 18% today), and egg on the face of co-founder and CEO Rich Barton.

Zillow’s move also represents a big loss for the algorithms that powered its nascent iBuying business, and it is a warning sign to other businesses — both in real estate and other industries — that rely heavily on the almighty algorithm.



What information is still useful a decade after the fact? Names of agents for example. How could you counter this except by perfect security.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/03/1039171/hackers-quantum-computers-us-homeland-security-cryptography/

Hackers are stealing data today so quantum computers can crack it in a decade

The US government is starting a generation-long battle against the threat next-generation computers pose to encryption.



For some, this is like a shopping guide.

https://therecord.media/us-sanctions-four-companies-selling-hacking-tools-including-nso-group-candiru/

US sanctions four companies selling hacking tools, including NSO Group & Candiru

The US government has sanctioned today four companies that develop and sell spyware and other hacking tools, the US Department of Commerce announced today.

The four companies include Israel’s NSO Group and Candiru, Russian security firm Positive Technologies, and Singapore-based Computer Security Initiative Consultancy.

US officials said the four companies engaged in “activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

Commerce officials said NSO Group and Candiru “developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers.”

The US said these tools were abused by foreign governments to conduct trans-national repression of dissidents, journalists, and activists outside of those governments’ sovereign borders.



All this happened before we learned to spell privacy. (I’m so old, my class had cave paintings.)

https://www.courthousenews.com/how-californians-are-fighting-for-the-privacy-of-their-decades-old-yearbook-photos/

Judge advances claims over privacy of decades-old yearbook photos

Is there an expectation of privacy attached to old yearbook photos? Turns out even federal judges are divided on the issue.

But imagine that long after your schooling days are done, you find that your old yearbook pictures have made the rounds on the internet without your knowledge, and a company is making money from them.

According to the lawsuit, PeopleConnect operates this business without ever getting — let alone requesting — permission from the people in the pictures, a move the plaintiffs say has violated their expectation of privacy.

Callahan and Abraham's lawsuit is one in slew of legal battles that has left the judicial system scrambling for answers. This past June, Ancestry.com convinced a federal judge to toss similar accusations leveled against the genealogy giant, with the judge finding that yearbook pictures are not entitled to special protections.

Eric Goldman, a professor of law at Santa Clara University School of Law, says that while yearbooks are largely viewed as published material and people do not own copyrights to their yearbook pictures, the realities of the internet in today’s world has presented new questions that our court system struggles to resolve.



There will be massive competition to be the most collaborative…

https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/03/microsoft-says-all-business-will-be-collaborative-and-infused-with-data-and-ai/

Microsoft says all business will be collaborative, and infused with data and AI

How will the world of work change in the near future? “Every business process will be collaborative, powered by data and AI, and will bridge the digital and physical worlds,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the opening keynote of his company’s Ignite conference this week.

Nadella and other Microsoft executives speaking at the event gave numerous examples of this. One implication of this view is that collaboration can’t just happen within Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, or Outlook; it should flow between them and operational applications. Data and intelligence derived from the interactions between people — what Microsoft calls the Microsoft Graph — should allow the organization to refine and perfect business processes and make employees more productive.


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