Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2016

Donald Trump, Entertainer-in-Chief

The days of the  presidential  presidency are behind us.   JFK was the  first TV President . He and his successors exuded a distinctly  presidential vibe as they communicated confidently to the masses, primarily through color video, usually behind a podium or in high-power settings, on a monthly or sometimes weekly basis. Donald Trump is the first Web & Reality TV President.  He spent a decade as host and producer of the hit show  The Apprentice  and exudes a distinctly colloquial vibe across cable and the web. Trump prefers titanic business settings like board rooms and communicates to the masses at a daily or even hourly rate, even after the election. Twitter is his pulpit. Trump is a seasoned, self-aware, master content producer AND actor.  In sports, the equivalent is a player/coach, a Peyton Manning or LeBron.  He's calculatedly sloppy and unpredictable, which appears to boost his authenticity and watchability. Most impo...

IBM Watson AI XPrize Pits AI vs. Human/AI Teams

XPRize and IBM have announced the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE , a multi-stage Cognitive Computing Competition  with  a $5 million purse that challenges "teams from around the world to develop and demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful cognitive technologies to tackle some of the world’s grand challenges." Interestingly, the competition will be open to human/AI hybrid and exclusively AI entrants alike. The contest will culminate in 2020 after a series of IBM's annual "World of Watson" prelim events and draw attention to the human-empowering aspects of Artificial Intelligence.  May the smartest neural array carry the day. Pre-registration is open now at  xprize.org/AI , and detailed guidelines will be announced on May 15, 2016. TED Blog XPrize Announcement

Ukraine to Test Transparent, Blockchain-powered Voting System

A handful of Ukrainian government officials, several Ukrainian NGOs and blockchain businesses Ambisafe, Distributed Lab and Kitsoft have announced a partnership  to test and gradually implement a transparent, blockchain-based voting system in Ukraine. The move to the blockchain marks a next logical step in Ukraine's recent experiments with  e-voting systems. Press Release Analysis