WcP.Scientific.Mind's blog

(quote)

1 February, 2017
Artificial intelligence has made history by beating humans in poker for the first time, the last remaining game in which humans had managed to maintain the upper hand.

Libratus, an AI built by Carnegie Mellon University racked up over $1.7 million worth of chips against four of the top professional poker players in the world in a 20-day marathon poker tournament that ended on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

While machines have beaten humans over the last two decade in chess, checkers, and most recently in the ancient game of Go, Libratus' victory is significant because poker is an imperfect information game - similar to the real world where not all problems are laid out and the difficulty in figuring out human behaviour is one of the main reasons why it was considered immune to machines.

One of the main reasons for Libratus' victory was the machine's ability outbluff humans.
"The computer can't win at poker if it can't bluff," said Frank Pfenning, head of the Computer Science Department at CMU.

"Developing an AI that can do that successfully is a tremendous step forward scientifically and has numerous applications. Imagine that your smartphone will someday be able to negotiate the best price on a new car for you. That's just the beginning."

Dong Kim, one of the four top poker players who participated in the tournament echoed the statement. The 28-year old, originally from Seattle, had also participated in a similar poker tournament with another AI machine built by CMU in 2015 named Claudico.

"It was about half way through the challenge (with Libratus when) I knew we wouldn't come back," said Kim.  read more »

(quote)

Jan. 01, 2014
PALM BEACH, Fla. President-elect Donald Trump says that "no computer is safe" when it comes to keeping information private, expressing new skepticism about the security of online communications his administration is likely to use for everything from day-to-day planning to international relations.

Trump rarely uses email or computers, despite his frequent tweeting.

"You know, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way. Because I'll tell you what: No computer is safe," Trump told reporters during his annual New Year's Eve bash. "I don't care what they say."

Today's self-driving cars rely on spinning sensors called lidar that can cost more than $10,000 each. But it took Jonathan Petit just $43 and a laser pointer to confuse and defeat them.

"Anybody can go online and get access to this, buy it really quickly, and just assemble it, and there you go, you have a device that can spoof lidar," Petit, a cybersecurity expert, told Business Insider.

One of the first researchers to show how easy it is to hack self-driving cars' sensors, he was able to trick a sensor into thinking objects were there when they weren't, and vice versa.  read more »

(quote)

Dec 28, 2016
open a bank account in just 8 minutes? you can lose it even faster - smartphone-only bank N26 German fintech company N26, which made its name mocking traditional banks, has found itself on the receiving end of criticism after a security researcher proved its smartphone apps exposed users to potential account hijacking.

N26, previously known as Number26, has expanded rapidly since it launched in early 2015 as a smartphone-only bank with no local branches, with the backing of major global investors including Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel.

Vincent Haupert, a research fellow and PhD student in the computer science department of the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, told the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg how he and two colleagues found N26 security defenses riddled with holes that could have been used to defraud thousands of users.

"They say you can open a bank account in just eight minutes," Haupert said. "As it turns out, you can lose it even faster." In a statement, N26 thanked Haupert for alerting the company to "a theoretical security vulnerability" and advising it on fixes, which N26 said it completed this month.

N26 offers a range of online banking and other financial services to 200,000 customers in 17 European countries through a banking license granted earlier this year by German financial regulator Bafin. N26 executives have been the most outspoken among new fintech players in arguing traditional banks are failing to serve customers more directly by relying on antiquated local branch relationships instead of modern, phone-based services.

"I don't see banks at all as my competitors. They just can't move fast enough," N26 Chief Executive Valentin Stalf told Reuters last year.  read more »

(quote)

Uber can now track their passengers' locations after they are dropped off and even when their app has been closed.

A new update to Uber's app allows the global taxi service to collect passenger data up to five minutes after a journey has finished.

Previously Uber had only been able to do this when their app was open.

(unquote)

Image courtesy Reuters and PA

Brown was passionate about his driverless car which was speeding into truck trailer and killed its master

(quote)

Washington: Joshua Brown, 40, a former Navy SEAL is the first person to die at the wheel of his confidently-trusted self-driving car. His computer-guided Tesla Model S hit a tractor trailer on a freeway in Williston, Florida, in May.

And here's what the Model S owner's manual has to say about Autopilot: "...Always drive attentively and be prepared to take immediate action." (Note: How fast can you switch yourself from relax mode into controlling the wheel to avoid a fatal accident?)

"When machines unsure to make decisions

Where's the lane? Self-driving cars confused by shabby U.S. roadways

(unquote)

Photo courtesy heavy.com, Reuters / Mario Anzuoni, and Ben Cawthra / Rex / Shutterstock

(quote)

2016 Ends with Three Supermoons
Step outside on October 16, and take a look at the moon. Not only will the moon be full, but on that day, the moon will be at its closest point to our planet as it orbits Earth. This makes the October full moon a supermoon.

The term supermoon has entered popular consciousness in recent years. Originally a term from modern astrology for a new or full moon that occurs when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, supermoon now refers more broadly to a full moon that is closer to Earth than average.

Since the moon’s orbit is elliptical, one side (perigee) is about 30,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to Earth than the other (apogee). The word syzygy, in addition to being useful in word games, is the scientific name for when the Earth, sun, and moon line up as the moon orbits Earth. When perigee-syzygy of the Earth-moon-sun system occurs and the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun, we get a perigee moon or more commonly, a supermoon!  read more »

(quote)

Apr 12, 2016 - ABC News Report: Data Breaches Bigger, Worse Than You Think In addition to 9 “mega-breaches” of personal data in 2015, tens of millions of personal records were likely exposed or stolen the same year but went unreported because the companies or entities involved chose to keep the size of the breach a secret, The report from California-based Symantec said that the number of companies that refused to report the scope of a data breach jumped by 85 percent last year, what one senior Symantec officer said was a “disturbing trend.” Some 429 million personal records were exposed in 2015 -- many of them through mega-breaches like the Office of Personnel Management hack and one that reportedly hit a huge voter database -- but that number is only based on entities that shared the scope of the breach. Symantec estimates that the real number of exposed or stolen records, including those that went unreported, likely tops half a billion. Senior Vice President at Symantec told ABC News that the research shows cyber-crime has moved on from its “start-up phase.” “As a growth business, these guys have figured out how to make money,”

Growing business has moved on from its “start-up phase.”
A “disturbing trend - a market has evolved to meet demand.”  read more »