The Cost of AI Training is Improving at 50x the Speed of Moore’s Law
July 5th, 2020Via: Arc Invest:
The cost to train an artificial intelligence (AI) system is improving at 50x the pace of Moore’s Law. For many use cases, the cost to run an AI inference system has collapsed to almost nil. After just five years of development, deep learning – the modern incarnation of AI – seems to have reached a tipping point in both cost and performance, paving the way for widespread adoption over the next decade.
During the past ten years, the computing resources devoted to AI training models have exploded. After doubling every two years from 1960 to 2010, AI compute complexity has soared 10x every year, as shown below.
Judge Rules Virginia Giuffre’s Lawyers Must ‘Destroy’ Jeffrey Epstein Files
July 5th, 2020Via: Newsweek:
Attorneys for Virginia Giuffre, who publicly accused Jeffrey Epstein of sex trafficking, must destroy files they obtained on Epstein after a Wednesday ruling by a federal judge.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. Allegedly, Epstein procured women to have sexual relations with high-profile individuals, such as Prince Andrew. Information about Epstein, culled from a 2015 civil suit filed against Epstein by Giuffre, allegedly contained the names of individuals with whom Epstein had conducted business.
Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled Wednesday that Giuffre’s lawyers had come into possession of the documents improperly, noting that the protective order could only be enforced during the civil lawsuit proceedings which had already been settled. Preska wrote that all the materials in the files “shall be destroyed.”
Preska also requested proof that the documentation had been destroyed. “Counsel shall submit an affidavit detailing the steps taken to do so,” Preska’s ruling added.
“On America’s Birthday, Celebrate The Corporate-Sponsored Revolution”
July 5th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge:
It’s the Fourth of July, and revolution is in the air. Only in America would it look like this: an elite-sponsored Maoist revolt, couched as a Black liberation movement whose canonical texts are a corporate consultant’s white guilt self-help manual, and a New York Times series rewriting history to explain an election they called wrong.
Kanye West Running for President
July 4th, 2020Via: The Sun:
KANYE West announced to his fans on the Fourth of July that he plans on “running for president of the United States.”
Tesla CEO and Kanye’s friend, Elon Musk, quickly offered up his “full support” to the 43-year-old.
Maxwell Could Be Locked Up In Same Manhattan Jail Where Epstein Died
July 4th, 2020Via: Daily Mail:
Ghislaine Maxwell could end up in the same jail where Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide last year when she is transferred to New York.
Maxwell is expected to be transferred to New York City on Friday or Monday, where she could be housed at one of two federal lockups – the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan or the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Israeli Intelligence-Linked Firm Using AI to Profile Americans and Guide U.S. Lockdown Policy
July 3rd, 2020Via: The Last American Vagabond:
A company tied to Israel’s military signal intelligence unit, Unit 8200, has recently partnered with the state of Rhode Island to use an artificial intelligence-based system developed in tandem with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to profile Americans potentially infected and/or “at risk” of being infected with coronavirus, then informing government authorities of their “risk profile.” Once flagged, state health officials can target those individuals as well as their communities for mandatory testing, treatment and/or more restrictive lockdown measures.
The firm, Israel-based Diagnostic Robotics, is poised to announce a series of new such partnerships with several other U.S. states as well as major U.S. hospital systems and healthcare providers in the coming weeks, according to a company spokesperson. The first of these announcements came on June 30 regarding the firm’s new partnership with Mayo Clinic, which will soon implement the Diagnostic Robotics’ “artificial intelligence platform that predicts patients’ hospitalization risk.” They have also been in discussions with Vice President Mike Pence about the platform’s implementation nationwide since April.
‘COVID-19 Exposure Logging’ Function Appears in Settings on iPhones and Android Devices
July 3rd, 2020Via: Sun:
A MYSTERY “COVID-19 Exposure Logging” function has appeared in settings on iPhones and Android devices.
COVID-19 Exposure Logging can be accessed by iPhone and Android users through the “settings” section of both phones.
…
The features allow for contact tracing when the connecting phone apps are downloaded.
European Police Hacked Encrypted Phones Used by Thousands of Criminals
July 2nd, 2020“…and users seemed to think that it was foolproof.”
Comedy Gold on Cryptogon this morning.
Via: Engadget:
In one of the largest law enforcement busts ever, European police and crime agencies hacked an encrypted communications platform used by thousands of criminals and drug traffickers. By infiltrating the platform, Encrochat, police across Europe gained access to a hundred million encrypted messages. In the UK, those messages helped officials arrest 746 suspects, seize £54 million (about $67 million) and confiscate 77 firearms and two tonnes of Class A and B drugs, the National Crime Agency (NCA) reported. According to Vice, police also made arrests in France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Encrochat promised highly secure phones that, as Vice explains, were essentially modified Android devices. The company installed its own encrypted messaging platform, removed the GPS, camera and microphone functions and offered features like the ability to wipe the device with a PIN. The phones could make VOIP calls and send texts, but they did little else. They ran two operating systems, one of which appeared normal to evade suspicion. Encrochat used a subscription model, which cost thousands of dollars per year, and users seemed to think that it was foolproof.
More: How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
Record Jobs Gain of 4.8 million in June
July 2nd, 2020Via: CNBC:
Nonfarm payrolls soared by 4.8 million in June and the unemployment rate fell to 11.1% as the U.S. continued its reopening from the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a 2.9 million increase and a jobless rate of 12.4%. The report was released a day earlier than usual due to the July Fourth holiday.
The jobs growth marked a big leap from the 2.7 million in May, which was revised up by 190,000. The June total is easily the largest single-month gain in U.S. history.
U.S. Customs Seizes 13-Ton Shipment of Human Hair Weaves, Believed to Have Been Cut From Prisoners in Chinese Internment Camps
July 2nd, 2020Via: Time:
Federal authorities in New York on Wednesday seized a shipment of weaves and other beauty accessories suspected to be made out of human hair taken from people locked inside a Chinese internment camp.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told The Associated Press that 13 tons (11.8 metric tonnes) of hair products worth an estimated $800,000 were in the shipment.
