Digital Kitties and Smart Contracts

Digital Currencies have come into the spotlight recently due to the extremely high value that Bitcoin has achieved. While Bitcoin seems to have taken the spotlight, there are two other big blockchain-based cryptocurrencies that are gaining some popularity: Litecoin and Ethereum. Ethereum is a very unique platform and is much more than just a currency, in fact, the currency on top of the Ethereum platform is technically just referred to as "Ether" to distinguish the currency from the rest of the technology. The platform of Ethereum is a distributed, decentralized blockchain with its own programming language. This programming language allows developers to develop all sorts of technology that can utilize the entire Ethereum blockchain. Programs written on top of the Ethereum platform are referred to as "Smart Contracts".

In the past few weeks, one particular application written on top of the Ethereum blockchain has received much attention from those in the cryptocurrency space. The application is called "CryptoKitties" and is a somewhat strange use case for the ethereum platform. The application allows its users to buy, breed, and trade digital " kittens" that are generated by the application. In this way, CryptoKitties are a lot like a futuristic implementation of old-school trading cards. Each CryptoKitty has its own set of unique properties or attributes, called "cattributes" that make the kitten unique and hopefully valuable. The more valuable the kitten, the more its owner can expect to be paid to breed the cat with other users' kittens, or the more they can hope to sell the cat for, if they so choose.

The cat's owner is paid in Ether for these transactions and can cash the ether out for USD via any Ethereum exchange. More simply, users are making actual money from "breeding" digital cats in what is essentially a video game.

While this all sounds a little bizarre, the program is actually a very interesting case study and one of the first Ethereum applications with widespread appeal. In fact, Financial Insyghts' head, Peter Atwater said: "The popularity of virtual cats fits the euphoria we see elsewhere in the crypto-currency space. It feels very reminiscent of the Candy Crush craze that helped propel the King Entertainment IPO back at the peak of the 'Unicorn' era in mid 2014." As of December 14th, the application accounts for 15% of all Ethereum transactions. The application is adding thousands upon thousands of daily transactions to the Ethereum blockchain. These additional transactions are actually bogging down the entire decentralized network and causing users' transactions to take much longer to be confirmed by other users. This application is actually a very good test of the Ethereum network and it has proven that the technology has a ways to go before it can hope to process the amount of transactions that was promised. This has caused the Ethereum developers to look for ways to improve the speed and reliability of the technology.

In addition to the problem of slowing down the network, other Crypto experts are taking issue with the fact that the app is not truly completely decentralized. While the majority of the code is written on top of the Ethereum blockchain and is therefore open source and decentralized, there is some proprietary code for generating the kittens that is closed source and centralized. This code lives on the developers website and in theory, could be taken down at any time. This would effectively cause the entire game to go down and all users' cats to disappear. This is why experts are warning about investing too much money into these cats.

All this leaves me with a few questions:

• Would you invest in digital "trading cards" in a manner like this, and would you trust the technology? 
• Do you think applications like this are the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology?
• What ideas for decentralized crypto-applications would you like to see implemented in the future?  

Sources: https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/5087162/ethereum-price-cryptokitties-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-currency-trading-december-14/ and https://www.coindesk.com/scratch-cryptokitties-isnt-ethereums-vision-apps/

-Christian Blandford

How Cloud based ERP companies change the game

For my tech briefing I want to talk about the role of the cloud when it comes to Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software and the impact it has on it. Enterprise Resource Planning software is a software that is fully encompassing of business needs and operations. ERP systems have been around since the 1980’s and is key in today’s business operations of all medium to large size companies. An ERP system covers all the processes that are important to operating a business such as; inventory, accounting, customer relationship management, financials, marketing, human resources, and all the other functions you can think of. Before ERP systems existed all of these departments in a business had their information, data, and software separated and only in the one department the information was pertinent to alone. This made operations difficult because the need to transfer data from one department to another, accidental duplications of data, missed data between departments, and so much more. These legacy systems that used to be in place were effective but much slower, simpler, and more susceptible to human error than the ERP systems of today. ERP systems are able to take all of the business processes, software, and data and integrate it into one central area for the entire business to use. This means that when someone in one department for example edits a customer order in inventory, the accounting department automatically has that update for their records about revenues and COGS. ERP systems are able to drastically improve the operations and minimize wasted time and effort in a business without actually changing the external operations.

If ERP systems seem like they would be extremely complex pieces of software that would be difficult to implement, they are. ERP systems can take anywhere from 8 months to a couple years to implement for a company, depending on the size and scope of the project, and that is only if everything goes well and without hiccups. ERP systems are massive investments for organizations that can cost millions, tens of millions, and even hundreds of millions of dollars (for the largest organizations in the world). This means that ERP system implementations are not something to be undertaken lightly because failure could mean massive losses for a company and even the possibility of total company failure. ERP systems require new hardware, new software, a company to build, test, and implement the software, consultants, and much more for the initial project.

With all of these costs, risks, and intangible downfalls for a system that many of its benefits are intangible on paper it seems like there is opportunity for a better way to do these projects. The opportunity was filled with the creation of SaaS companies who implemented ERP software systems utilizing the cloud. These SaaS, or Software as a Service, companies deliver the ability for a company to have an ERP system by licensing the software and services on a subscription basis. SaaS applications allow a company to bypass many of the headaches and pitfalls that a traditional ERP implementation would bring. SaaS subscriptions allow a company to not have to install the software, maintain the software, worry about the performance of the software, or deal with the ERP security issues. With a SaaS implementation all of the physical capital, upfront, and maintenance fees you would incur are turned to zero when compared to traditional implementation. There are downsides to utilizing a SaaS ERP provider however. These downsides include; loss of control over the system, loss of ability to customize the software, having company security in another companies hands, recurring fees, no ownership on hardware for depreciation, and much more. Depending on the length of using a SaaS provider, it could cost more in the long run to implement over the cloud instead of dealing with the upfront costs of traditional implementation. Regardless of what a company decides to do the cloud implementation of ERP systems gives many more avenues to the company and for many companies that cannot afford traditional implementations, an entry into the world of ERP systems.

Sources:
SaaS vs. Traditional ERP: Five Key Differentiators. (2016, August 01). Retrieved from https://www.panorama-consulting.com/saas-vs-traditional-erp-five-key-differentiators/

New AI system Can Predict Earthquakes

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to successfully predict earthquakes, an advance that may help prepare for natural disasters and potentially save lives. This AI system successfully identified a hidden signal leading up to earthquakes and used this ‘fingerprint’ to train a machine learning algorithm to predict future earthquakes. This hidden signal used to be emitted by traditional algorithm. Researchers were impressed by the findings in this AI system. "This is the first time that machine learning has been used to analyse acoustic data to predict when an earthquake will occur, long before it does so that plenty of warning time can be given - it is incredible what machine learning can do," said Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University.

Compared to traditional system, AI system have Machine learning enabling the analysis of data sets too large to handle manually and looking at data in an unbiased way that enables discoveries to be made. Therefore, when traditional system and AI system analyze a same data set, they probably produce different results.

This characterization of AI should be emphasized in the mind of every MIS student. While most of computer system tries its best to imitate human and ignore some data due to human’s preconceptions, AI system begins to eliminate the intervention of human beings. Most of algorithms in AI system are principled and not related to human experiences. Therefore, AI system can unbiasedly treat every detail in a great number of data sets and successfully find a key to solve some problems which people currently cannot solve.

Question:
Do you think Artificial intelligence can always outperform the human intelligence?
If do, how can we handle AI when we develop future system?
What kind of area you suggest AI system should involve in?

Source:
“New AI system Can Predict Earthquakes.” News18, 23 Oct. 2017,
www.news18.com/news/tech/new-ai-system-can-predict-earthquakes-1554255.html

Artificial intelligence/robots

People heard a lot about Artificial intelligence/robots in recent years' news and because of the development of technology, Artificial intelligence/robots already made a huge progress, and many of the artificial intelligence or robots are used to help people in daily lives and work. Since they are very smart and can do many things even better than humans, we should worry about what if one day they want to fight for their freedom or have some revolutions.

We all know the Three Laws of Robotics, and there are also some movies talks about this topic, such as I, Robot. I think it shows that even though Artificial intelligence/robots are still at the basic level, people already have some thoughts about it. Researchers from UC Berkeley have developed a robot that learns things by using objects to do experiments, just like the human, to figure out how to move them, like it has its own thoughts.

The system called Vestri, this system can “manipulate objects it’s never encountered before, and even avoid objects that might be in the way.” (GIZMODO) The robots learn things without any supervise and guide and this system doesn’t need many programmers to make code to deal with any situations, it will save a lot of time. In the future, people want to use this technology to make robots more adaptable in the factory, and it will help people a lot because it just like can “see the future.”

Even though the system is very basic now, the team is still working on it and plan to let the robot do more complex tasks. In one day, this system will have a more comprehensive function to help people “see the future.”

The robot now can only pick some simple stuff, but it knows how to learn, like toddlers, the process of learning is very important and I’m really curious what if they learn something they are not supposed to learn, will it have its own thoughts like the human?

There are some short videos in the link to show how this robot learn things.

Sources:

https://gizmodo.com/artificially-intelligent-robot-predicts-its-own-future-1821011834

Artificial Intelligence/Robots - Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics has been taking drastic and large steps in regards to artificial intelligence and robotics. As seen in the news and social media outlets worldwide, Boston Dynamics have created a self-thinking, self-aware, and very capable series of robots that mimic superhuman capabilities. The Atlas humanoid has the abilities to adapt to a changing environment, walk on its down, jump and maneuver, and even do flips.

Boston Dynamics have been working tirelessly on algorithms that allow it to balance itself and now even jump and flip with the help of hydraulics. Any kind of obstacle that humans might encounter on a daily basis like hills, curbs, steps, sitting, standing, or simply uneven ground can easily be traversed by the Atlas humanoid robot. These characteristics that mimic a human existence are starting to worry the general public as sci-fi movies have forever longed for the day robots will begin to think for themselves and effectively demolish the human race. But there is good news in regards to this. These humanoid bots, "still have to be taught how to do something useful with their newfound physical capabilities" (Miller).

Technology icons like Elon Musk have been a large critic in regards to robot development and success. Below is a tweet showing his concerns for this type of technology.

Previously before this type of technological advancement, robots were created to automate manufacturing, defuse bombs, and perform basic house hold needs. This is the first time in history they were created to become just as agile as humans and have the ability to mimic if not out perform basic human motor skills.

Here is the Atlas humanoid performing some very breathtaking and surreal agility test:

One of the biggest questions that come along with this new technology is not how it was made, but why was it made. What applications does such robot might have? Why does this technology need to exist? These questions might not have answers now but if this technology can seemingly appear overnight, what does the next decade have in store?

Source
Miller, Paul. “One Small Backflip for a Robot Is One Giant Leaping Backflip for Humankind.”The Verge, The Verge, 17 Nov. 2017.

Artificial Intelligence: Cold and Calculated

Artificial intelligence is not the most talked about topic in the world today. In fact, most people occupy their conversations with gossip concerning a coworker or talk about a politician. However, artificial intelligence could be the biggest game changer the world has yet seen.

It is widely accepted that the human brain is the most powerful and complex computer on the planet. Not only does it have immense processing power compared to other species, but it also lends us the ability to create independent thought, learn from stimulus, have emotion, empathy, communicate with each other and imagine entire worlds with imagination in the blink of an eye. Through this intelligence and unparalleled ability to communicate, we have created civilization, agriculture, science, and most recently the internet. However, the very thing that makes us the most successful and intelligent species on earth is the same thing that is our bottleneck -- our brains.

The human brain has a limited processing power, and this is the boundary that artificial intelligence dares to break. True artificial intelligence would allow a potentially conscious being, much like you and I, to have a brain with near infinite processing power that is also connected to all of the information available in the world. Such an AI would be able to cure diseases like cancer in a few seconds, solve the world power crisis with some quick analysis, and find solutions to problems while taking every possible variable into consideration, a feat the human brain is hardly capable of. What we are talking about today, however, is the other side of the coin.

While true artificial intelligence has the ability to solve all of our worlds most unsolvable problems, it also has the potential to destroy mankind. I know; this sounds very overly dramatic like some 80s science fiction film where robots control the world. Logically though, this is truly a possibility, and many experts in the budding field are coming to the same realization. For example, in a year old project named "Tay" by Microsoft, a twitter bot with machine learning (AI) went from making happy, optimistic posts to misogynistic, racist, antisemitic, and pessimistic posts. One of Tay's first tweets read "@mayank_jee can I just say that i'm stoked to meet u? humans are super cool," (Vincent, 2016). In less than 24 hours, Tay was posting tweets like "I fucking hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell" and "@brightonus33 Hitler was right I hate the Jews."

While this can be considered a humorous exercise-gone-wrong in an early test of artificial intelligence, others like Forbes writer Frida Polli argue differently. "However, while we often rely on technology to avoid inherent human biases," Polli said,  "there is a dark side to algorithm-based decisions: the potential for homogenous data sets to produce biased algorithms," (Polli, 2017). Biased algorithms are a result of data mining, and they can only be eliminated with a manual change. In Polli's explanation, she uses the example of a program that searches for the best CEO candidates for a company using all available data. If the name John is the most frequent among the best CEOs of the fortune 500 companies, then the algorithm may suggest that the name John is a better predictor of success than other, more rational information like work experience or recommendation.

This type of mistake is almost unavoidable in the artificial intelligence systems of the near future. It is impossible for a computer that can not think on its own to distinguish the difference in importance between a name like John and other predictive factors. That is where "true" artificial intelligence comes in.

Jürgen Schmidhuber, a renowned expert in the field of AI who has been working on AI since the 1970s, believes that "True artificial intelligence will change everything," (Su). Once a machine has the capability to be smarter than mankind with the ability to think on its own, it reaches the state that most experts consider true artificial intelligence, and this is when they could potentially be the biggest threat to our existence.

A machine with near limitless capacity to process information and the ability to think on its own could, by definition, outsmart every attempt a person could make to thwart it. If this computer felt it necessary to destroy the web and sabotage every device in the world with a virus that breaks them all, it most definitely could. Why? Because the people who create the firewalls and programs for cyber security are limited by the ability of their brains. A machine with vastly superior processing power could circumvent an intrusion prevention system that took years to make in mere seconds.

As an analogy, the average human Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is 100. A super computer with true artificial intelligence could easily have a comparable IQ in the billions. This would allow it to solve our greatest problems like curing cancer, solving the energy crisis, and inventing radical new technologies that our brightest minds could never conceive. However, if such a powerful and smart machine ever did exist, we would also be at its mercy.




Do you think its a good idea to create "true" artificial intelligence? Why?
If you had access to true artificial intelligence, what problem would you have it solve?

Sources:
Polli, F. (2017, December 05). The Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved December 06, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/fridapolli/2017/12/05/the-dark-side-of-artificial-intelligence/#b7ec1da12614

Vincent, J. (2016, March 24). Twitter taught Microsoft's friendly AI chatbot to be a racist asshole in less than a day. Retrieved December 06, 2017, from https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist

Su, J. (2017, July 10). Jürgen Schmidhuber: True Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything. Retrieved December 06, 2017, from https://medium.com/@Synced/j%C3%BCrgen-schmidhuber-true-artificial-intelligence-will-change-everything-dc6b36bb6146

Addicted to Distractions - Our Brains Are Being Altered by Social Media

Social media has been a huge global impact and is changing the way people live their lives. In 1997, the first social media site was published. About one-third of the global population uses a type of social media platform. Studies are saying that it is changing the way our brains work.

A study was performed comparing the addiction to social media to that of drugs and alcohol in 2012. Social media addiction can be considered a type of mental health problem.  Addiction is not the only thing that is changing the way people behave and how their brains work, but it is also altering peoples' ability to multitask.

Another effect is in our nervous systems. "Phantom vibration syndrome is a relatively new but completely legitimate psychological process where individuals constantly believe their phones are vibrating." (Dovey, Medical Daily)

There is another report by ASAP Science that state how people talk more about themselves but how virtual interactions are now leading to stronger relationships. Could this be a cause of social media or is it just that people who are social media addicts can tolerate each other?

As Dovey describes, do we control technology or does it control us?

According to Samuel Merritt University, there are five ways that technology is altering our brains and changing our lives. These include:

• a decrease in our attention span
• distracted more easily
• more multitasking
• with a growing addiction to technology and social media, being able to socially interact with people has become harder.

In Adler's new book as mentioned by this post, he "spells out research that shows kids who spend a lot of time staring at screens rather than engaging with others suffer from an inability to empathize and read social cues."

Conclusively, there are ways that people can use social media and rely on technology but still have a balanced life. To have a healthier life and shift our brains from so much social media, people could meditate and/or do physical activity, and putting our phones down when eating and when around other people.

References:

http://www.medicaldaily.com/5-ways-social-media-has-changed-way-our-brains-work-30268

https://www.samuelmerritt.edu/news/2017/5-ways-technology-altering-our-brains

Big Data = Big Changes for the NBA

Technology is used in every industry to make organizations more efficient and enhance their operations. The NBA is no different. The big data revolution made its way to sports through the MLB with the famous “Moneyball” method used by the Oakland A’s. This innovative technique of valuing players by measures other than the standard box scores changed baseball forever and has done the same for the NBA. The movement really gained momentum when, in 2014, new commissioner Adam Silver made the decision to put cameras in the rafters of all 29 NBA arenas. As Kirk Goldsberry, who is currently in charge of analytics for the San Antonio Spurs, puts it, “These stationary drones in the rafters are beaming gigabytes of potentially vital intelligence back to video rooms and practice facilities across the league” (Goldsberry, 2014).

These player tracking systems have been useful to pinpoint areas in which players excel in as well as the little things they do that do not show up in the box score. A player who boxes out well but does not get the rebound does not provide any value to the old box score stats but with advanced stats we can measure the percentage of offensive rebounds a player gives up. The emphasis is on what are they key things that help teams win instead of who is scoring the most points, getting the most assists, or grabbing the most rebounds. The game of basketball is so intricate and these cameras take pictures every millisecond capturing the details that have been so heavily missed in the past.

Which spots on the court a player usually shoots from, where they are most effective in defending, and how units work together are all things people have looked past as non-important but now that we can quantify the value of these actions different types of players are being valued more.

One of these players is the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green. As Terrance Ross explains the effect of quantifying the intangible, “It’s also why guys like the Warriors’ Draymond Green, who are adaptable and effective, are now so highly sought after throughout the league” (Ross, 2015). Versatile players that can defend different positions have become a highly sought out commodity. Take the Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson for example: he is averaging 8.1 points and 9.7 rebounds this year. Pretty good stats but I bet you wouldn’t expect he signed a max contract of 5 years and $82 million.

 His ability to adequately guard every position, his offensive rebounding, and hustle stats are the reasons for this huge payday. The value of a player like Tristan Thompson or Draymond Green could have been easily overlooked in the old days but now with these advanced metrics these players are crucial for success.

Another huge outcome of the analytic movement has been the emergence of the 3 point shot. Analytics tells us through different valuing methods and statistical inference that midrange two pointers are not as valuable as three pointers even though the difficulty is a little higher. In the 2015 season the top 5 teams in three point field goals made were:

• Rockets
• Warriors
• Clippers
• Cavaliers
• Hawks

These were also the last 5 remaining teams in the playoffs. This is definitely not a coincidence but these teams saw a trend through the data and built their teams to take advantage of a system that has been very fruitful.

 Although it is commonly agreed that data analytics is changing the NBA for good, there are many skeptics. Many players from the older generation thinks it is a bunch of numbers that do not take into account the whole story of the game and one of the biggest anti-analytics activists is Charles Barkley. They believe that the eye test and the old fashioned box score are enough to evaluate talent but the results beg to differ.

This video by iNerdSome gives a great explanation on how analytics and technology have changed the NBA and will continue to do so.



List of References:
Goldsberry, K. (2014, February 06). “DataBall”. (http://grantland.com/features/expected-value-possession-nba-analytics/)

iNerdSome. “How NBA Analytics are changing the game,” YouTube, Oct. 21, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F-pEeSTPkE

Ross, T. (2015, June 25). “Welcome to Smarter Basketball”. (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/06/nba-data-analytics/396776/)

Drones Used in Delivery of Medical Supplies

There have been a lot of news about how drones could revolutionize the delivery/transportation industry. Here in Rwanda, a small landlocked country in east-central Africa which is trying to recover from the genocide sponsored by the government in the mid-1990s, drones are flying in the sky to　transport medical supplies to save people’s lives.

An automated logistics firm, Zipline International Inc., based in San Francisco, is operating drones in cooperation with the Rwandan government in order to deliver blood and vaccines on demand for hospitals in the country. According to hospital officials, a delivery of medical supplies would take three hours or more in local traffic because hospitals are located in remote areas which are isolated by “rugged terrain, bad roads, and seasonal flooding.” However, drones now can help them transport those precious medical supplies in as short as 15 minutes that could save the lives of patients.

Not only in rural areas such as countries in Africa but also in urban areas with congested streets, Drones can play a key role in medical transportation. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers in Sweden found that drones were able to deliver external defibrillators to heart attack patients 16 minutes faster than ambulance would.

In densely populated areas where there is a lot of air traffic, it is not easy to fly drones, and governments have to deal with safety issues which drones can cause. On the other hand, there is a need for fast delivery of medical supplies such as red blood cells, platelets, and so forth since traffic jams occur frequently, which blocks ambulance. I hope we can overcome potential safety problems that flying drones can cause, and governments set regulatory framework for the drone industry as soon as possible. Drones will be able to improve hospital operations and could save your life in the future.    

Related Article

How drones could be 'lifesaving' in an emergency 

www.cnn.com/2017/10/09/health/ambulance-drone-teching-care-of-your-health/index.html