Technology
Obama Administration Expected to Announce Plan to Boost Self-Driving Car Development
January 14, 2016
The Obama administration wants to get autonomous cars out on the road. Top administration officials will reveal a plan Thursday to accelerate development of self-driving cars, according to Reuters. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will discuss details at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Foxx aims to set policies for self-driving cars before President Obama leaves office at the end of this year. Many experts believe that the U.S. will see a surge in autonomous vehicles...
January 14, 2016
The Obama administration wants to get autonomous cars out on the road. Top administration officials will reveal a plan Thursday to accelerate development of self-driving cars, according to Reuters. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will discuss details at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Foxx aims to set policies for self-driving cars before President Obama leaves office at the end of this year. Many experts believe that the U.S. will see a surge in autonomous vehicles...
Artificial Intelligence is Here
January 13, 2016
As IBM’s Rob High discussed in a recent ABJ article, leadership in artificial intelligence has been a reality for years. Most people are familiar with IBM’s focus on cognitive computing through Watson, the “Jeopardy” winning natural language processor that has a major presence in Austin. In addition to my company, SparkCognition, organizations such as Umbel, Lucid, WayBlazer, and CognitiveScale are advancing machine learning in their respective verticals. Whether it is energy, security, health...
January 13, 2016
As IBM’s Rob High discussed in a recent ABJ article, leadership in artificial intelligence has been a reality for years. Most people are familiar with IBM’s focus on cognitive computing through Watson, the “Jeopardy” winning natural language processor that has a major presence in Austin. In addition to my company, SparkCognition, organizations such as Umbel, Lucid, WayBlazer, and CognitiveScale are advancing machine learning in their respective verticals. Whether it is energy, security, health...
Audi Invests in Silvercar App-Based Car Rental Service
January 10, 2016
Silvercar Inc., a mobile app-based rental-car company, has completed a $28 million Series C round of funding from a syndicate of investors that includes Audi of America Inc. The Austin company said Monday the funding will enable Silvercar to expand to new U.S. markets, including Las Vegas, where it plans to open a location this month. As part of the funding, Audi North America President Scott Keogh is joining Silvercar’s board of directors.
January 10, 2016
Silvercar Inc., a mobile app-based rental-car company, has completed a $28 million Series C round of funding from a syndicate of investors that includes Audi of America Inc. The Austin company said Monday the funding will enable Silvercar to expand to new U.S. markets, including Las Vegas, where it plans to open a location this month. As part of the funding, Audi North America President Scott Keogh is joining Silvercar’s board of directors.
Memory-Boosting Devices Tested in Humans
January 10, 2016
A strategy designed to improve memory by delivering brain stimulation through implanted electrodes is undergoing trials in humans. The US military, which is funding the research, hopes that the approach might help many of the thousands of soldiers who have developed deficits to their long-term memory as a result of head trauma. At the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on 17–21 October, two teams funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency presented evidence that...
January 10, 2016
A strategy designed to improve memory by delivering brain stimulation through implanted electrodes is undergoing trials in humans. The US military, which is funding the research, hopes that the approach might help many of the thousands of soldiers who have developed deficits to their long-term memory as a result of head trauma. At the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on 17–21 October, two teams funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency presented evidence that...
New York Installing Public Gigabit Wi-Fi
January 9, 2016
Today, workers began installing the first LinkNYC access points in New York. First announced in November 2014, the hubs are designed as an update to the standard phone booth, using upgraded infrastructure to provide gigabit Wi-Fi access points. This particular installation was spotted outside a small Starbucks at 15th St and 3rd Avenue, near Manhattan’s Union Square. 500 other hubs are set to be installed throughout the city by mid-July. LinkNYC anticipates one or two weeks of testing before New Yorkers...
January 9, 2016
Today, workers began installing the first LinkNYC access points in New York. First announced in November 2014, the hubs are designed as an update to the standard phone booth, using upgraded infrastructure to provide gigabit Wi-Fi access points. This particular installation was spotted outside a small Starbucks at 15th St and 3rd Avenue, near Manhattan’s Union Square. 500 other hubs are set to be installed throughout the city by mid-July. LinkNYC anticipates one or two weeks of testing before New Yorkers...
Twitter May Be An ‘Excellent Way’ To Understand Human Behavior And Psychology
January 9, 2016
Even more research has found social media sites, like Twitter, can be used to advance scientific research. A new study published in PLOS ONE looks specifically at Twitter, and how it can be used to extract meaningful information from situations users experience in their daily lives. The study was conducted by David Serfass, a doctoral candidate at Florida Atlantic University, and Dr. Ryne Sherman, a psychology professor at FAU. Since recent studies have found status updates and tweets can be used...
January 9, 2016
Even more research has found social media sites, like Twitter, can be used to advance scientific research. A new study published in PLOS ONE looks specifically at Twitter, and how it can be used to extract meaningful information from situations users experience in their daily lives. The study was conducted by David Serfass, a doctoral candidate at Florida Atlantic University, and Dr. Ryne Sherman, a psychology professor at FAU. Since recent studies have found status updates and tweets can be used...
Lawyers Need to Embrace Business Intelligence (BI)
January 7, 2016
A recent IBM eBook points how that “in today’s competitive global marketplace, leading organizations are complementing their current approaches to business intelligence (BI) and analytics.” IBM’s eBook is entitled “Forward Looking Business Intelligence” and given the scope and volume of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) in litigation today the use of BI seems pretty logical given IBM’s three principal types of analytics: Descriptive, which uses BI and data mining to answer...
January 7, 2016
A recent IBM eBook points how that “in today’s competitive global marketplace, leading organizations are complementing their current approaches to business intelligence (BI) and analytics.” IBM’s eBook is entitled “Forward Looking Business Intelligence” and given the scope and volume of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) in litigation today the use of BI seems pretty logical given IBM’s three principal types of analytics: Descriptive, which uses BI and data mining to answer...
Cyber Litigation: The Next Big Thing?
January 6, 2016
It was the scandal of the summer: AshleyMadison.com, the dating and social networking service that markets itself to would-be cheaters, was cyberattacked, and the names and contact information of purported members—including celebrities, congressional staffers and evangelists—were revealed online. Soon after, plaintiffs lawyers lodged class action litigation on behalf of website users. The chain of events—a high-profile data hack, followed by proposed consumer class actions—was a familiar...
January 6, 2016
It was the scandal of the summer: AshleyMadison.com, the dating and social networking service that markets itself to would-be cheaters, was cyberattacked, and the names and contact information of purported members—including celebrities, congressional staffers and evangelists—were revealed online. Soon after, plaintiffs lawyers lodged class action litigation on behalf of website users. The chain of events—a high-profile data hack, followed by proposed consumer class actions—was a familiar...
Mark Zuckerberg to Build Robot Butler
January 5, 2016
Mark Zuckerberg intends to build a robot to look after his house and keep tabs on his newborn daughter. The Facebook founder and CEO’s resolution for 2016 is to build an artificially intelligent system that will be able to control his house, watch over his child and help him to run Facebook. Mr Zuckerberg has in the past taken on “personal challenges” that have included reading two books per month, learning Mandarin and meeting a new person each day. But now he has undertaken perhaps...
January 5, 2016
Mark Zuckerberg intends to build a robot to look after his house and keep tabs on his newborn daughter. The Facebook founder and CEO’s resolution for 2016 is to build an artificially intelligent system that will be able to control his house, watch over his child and help him to run Facebook. Mr Zuckerberg has in the past taken on “personal challenges” that have included reading two books per month, learning Mandarin and meeting a new person each day. But now he has undertaken perhaps...
Google Getting Serious About Plan to Wire US with Superfast Internet
January 4, 2016
It looks like Google is getting more serious about Google Fiber, its plan to bring fast fiber-optic internet connections to the US. * * * Google Fiber is technically no longer part of Google, but was spun off into a separate company within Alphabet, the new larger holding company that includes Google's core online, advertising, and Android businesses — still called Google — plus newer "moonshot" projects like self-driving cars. The fact that Alphabet sees the need for a dedicated policy...
January 4, 2016
It looks like Google is getting more serious about Google Fiber, its plan to bring fast fiber-optic internet connections to the US. * * * Google Fiber is technically no longer part of Google, but was spun off into a separate company within Alphabet, the new larger holding company that includes Google's core online, advertising, and Android businesses — still called Google — plus newer "moonshot" projects like self-driving cars. The fact that Alphabet sees the need for a dedicated policy...
