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The MindLabs building recently opened in Tilburgs Spoorzone: a center for artificial intelligence in which various educational institutions and companies will take up residence. Over the past few years, a lot of hard work has already gone into setting up good mutual cooperation. Was that easy? No, certainly not always. The sixth story in a series about the university region of Tilburg.

I sometimes call Tilburg the best-kept secret in the Netherlands. Board chairman Fred van der Westelaken of Education Group Tilburg is in an office on the second floor of an elongated, white building that houses ROC Tilburg. The building stands in the middle of the Stappegoor area in the south of the city, flanked by the Koning Willem II College, Campus 013, and the gigantic Fontys site. Yep; Tilburg boasts a veritable educational boulevard.

Van der Westelaken talks enthusiastically about the transformation going on in Tilburg when it comes to education, and the chairman of the board actively contributes to this. Theres a Rotterdam mentality here: just act normal, that will be crazy enough. I think we should be proud of what is happening here. I originally come from the Breda region. The people over there are proud of themselves. I dont understand why thats not the case in Tilburg, he laughs.

The old textile city of the beginning of the last century is definitely a thing of the past. Tilburg is now committed to a different course within which modern companies and institutions provide a new kind of economy. One of the initiatives to contribute to this is MindLabs: a collaboration between ROC Tilburg, Fontys, Tilburg University, the province of North Brabant, the municipality of Tilburg, and the media group DPG Media. The goal is for the region to make a major step forward in the field of artificial intelligence.

Building student housing in Tilburg proceeds with difficulty: Finding housing feels like entering the lottery

Van der Westelaken is president of the MindLabs association. In addition to being an association, MindLabs will soon be the name of a building in Tilburgs Spoorzone and the ecosystem that has been set up around the association. That ecosystem is a collection of start-ups, scale-ups, and companies that all focus on artificial intelligence. Start-ups can become member for free, but for other partners, there is a price tag. Scale-ups pay five thousand euros per year; medium-sized and large companies pay fifteen thousand euros. The partner list now includes parties such as Interpolis, healthcare organization Thebe, logistics company DB Schenker and Breda University of Applied Sciences.

Within the ecosystem, different institutions and companies will soon be able to cooperate intensively with each other. MindLabs must be accessible to large companies, but there must also be room for the SME entrepreneur on the corner of the street or for a small institution with a public mission, Van der Westelaken believes. We would like all of us to explore, understand and apply the impact of the whole domain of artificial intelligence.

At MindLabs, the emphasis is on human-centered artificial intelligence. When setting up projects, Tilburg does not focus on the technical side of the technology. That task suits Eindhoven better. The focus is mainly on the behavioral side. Van der Westelaken: The focal point of MindLabs is the impact artificial intelligence has on peoples behavior. In doing so, we want to work across sectors. So: what can the media learn from healthcare and vice versa?

For example, there is a project investigating how useful augmented reality (AR) technology can be in lessons on machine maintenance, the value of virtual reality in training airline pilots is being investigated, and a project will start that focuses on virtual avatars for healthcare training. All projects involve at least one of MindLabs corporate partners.

Tilburg has the ambition to become a true start-up city now we need action

These are great examples, but the past few years have shown that collaboration within MindLabs does not always come naturally. Its almost like eating an elephant. You have to take it one step at a time, Van der Westelaken admits. All parties have their own interests. So in the upcoming period, we have to start making sure that the parties involved become dependent on each other. That can be accomplished by, for example, using the same building where they meet. I notice that teachers from different institutions work together very easily. The problems are often with the boards and management. For me, this does not play a role, but of course, I have to account for the interests of ROC Tilburg as well. In any case, we are now entering a phase of less administrative pressure.

In any case, cooperation between educational institutions requires a different way of thinking. This is the experience of Petra van Dijk, director at MindLabs. You have to start with people who care a little less about those solidified institutions. Who enjoys exploring how to make this new idea a success? The coalition of the willing, we call it. Within a company, people of all kinds of educational levels also work together. We want to focus on that within MindLabs as well.

You have to constantly search for common ground, but that is difficult when educational institutions are intrinsically different from each other, this is also the experience of Mirjam Siesling, program manager at Tilburg University and member of the university council. On paper, of course, you can write down that knowledge institutions must cooperate with each other, but you notice that an academic institution differs substantially from Fontys and ROC Tilburg. The university trains people in an academic way, while HBO and MBO mainly train people to work in practice. That says nothing at all about the quality of those levels of education, but they are very different worlds.

Its a big difference, because the university derives its right to exist from doing research. As such, Tilburg University co-founded most of the current projects within MindLabs. The universitys focus is very much on research projects. This often involves a lot of money because we want to hire new researchers for those projects and have to pay salaries, Siesling knows. You quickly talk about tons or millions. Those kinds of research projects play less of a role at Fontys and at ROC Tilburg. That is a substantial difference.

How Tilburg can become a place where academics continue to work

By the way, it does not mean that the university is not trying to get the cooperation started. Siesling: There are ongoing discussions between the university and Fontys and ROC Tilburg to see if anything comes out of these studies they can work on. But it really remains a search for cooperation on both sides. During the corona pandemic, students from the ROC helped us set up an online broadcast. They did that super well. You can also help each other facilitatively.

Loet Visschers, former director of MindLabs, also knows better than anyone that it is not always easy to start a collaboration. We still have to learn to speak each others language, he says in a video interview. Visschers knows what he is talking about, as he is a strategist at the municipality of Tilburg and a former alderman. We have to want to work together because if we keep doing what we were doing, we will all face a dark future. We can help each other substantively in projects, but we can also lobby together, for example. But it does require action. Hard action.

So there is a lot of pressure on Tilburg to make this project a success. More and more new partners are arriving. The Port of Rotterdam and the Royal Air Force are knocking on our door, asking if they can participate. The question is: can we make it happen? We have to, because once those companies get disappointed, they disappear again. For Tilburg, MindLabs must not fail, says Visschers.

In a report by consulting firm ERAC (December 2020), researchers conclude that MindLabs is on a scale whose pointer can point different ways. They formulate several hurdles that MindLabs must overcome to become successful. It is possible in the case of MindLabs to grow into a unique initiative, but it also has a risk of becoming an organization that does not have the strength in the long run because it has to rely on the indirect involvement of partners, the report says.

The consultants make a number of recommendations to strengthen MindLabs. For example, they recommend that the association makes arrangements with Fontys ICT course, market MindLabs in the region, do one large project that generates a lot of attention, and formulate a clear role for the Municipality of Tilburg. Some of these recommendations have since been put into action: the ICT course is involved in the MindLabs formula. There are other projects upcoming that focus on, for example, virtual humans in healthcare.

In addition, there is still a major risk of short-term ambiguity, the researchers write. They fear an extensive governance discussion about MindLabs. This would be about the relationship of MindLabs with other initiatives. The question is whether the initiative can gain a foothold in the region, given the collaborations that already exist. The researchers, therefore, suggest MindLabs be corporatized. It is important to choose a variant that creates an organization beyond an association. An independent entity that can develop its own projects and possibly join projects developed by others. That recommendation is not being adopted: MindLabs will remain an association.

Tilburg wants to catch up as a knowledge city: The only Zuidas, thats us

That Tilburg needs to move ahead quickly, is evident from a national perspective. More and more cities want to make artificial intelligence their showpiece. The Twente region, with the University of Twente, is putting artificial intelligence in the spotlight in the coming years. The Nijmegen region aims to develop human-centered AI. Amsterdam has ambitions to position itself as a major AI city in Europe. Tilburgs big brother Eindhoven is also in the running: that city should become the center for AI engineering. Delft, Leiden, and Utrecht have their own initiatives; There is even more competition at the European level.

Fortunately, MindLabs awaits its own building, with which the association can finally manifest itself clearly. The more than 12,200-square-meter building is rising right next to the internationally award-winning LocHal and will be filled with several state-of-the-art labs in which MindLabs can conduct research. Among other things, we will soon have a robotics lab and a VR lab where our institutions can try out all sorts of things. Cognitive scientists can use electrodes in such a lab to measure your brain activity, your heart rate, or your skin response, for example. That is interesting for all different kinds of parties, Van Dijk expects.

How will MindLabs prevent all parties from retreating? The answer is simple: seduction. A company like DPG Media has to be enticed to actively participate. Fontys is really installing state-of-the-art media facilities in the new building. DPG Media will be very enthousiastic about that, Van der Westelaken expects.

The new building will also have a common interior space that is already referred to internally as the vibrant heart. That should be a place where people can just walk in with their questions. Thats how were going to facilitate meetings, Van der Westelaken said. We also want to start providing an open stage and organize events, Van Dijk adds.

All uncertainties aside, enthusiasm for MindLabs is certainly there among the chairman and director. Anyone can just walk in and join the sessions we organize. MindLabs is not a closed environment but a place where cross-fertilising interactions will take place, says Van Dijk. Van der Westelaken concludes, I can make you read sixty policy papers, but nothing works exactly as you think it does. You have to give a project like MindLabs space and experience it to the fullest. That leads to the curiosity we need.

This series also appears in Brabants Dagblad and was created with support from the Tilburg Media Fund.

Tilburg student town Innovation Origins

The presence of a university can give cities an edge. In an eight-part series, we find out what it takes for Tilburg to make the best use of its knowledge institutions. Read all episodes published so far here.

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MindLabs could become the center of artificial intelligence, though ... - Innovation Origins

How can artificial intelligence help detect fraud?

Artificial Intelligence can play a crucial role in fraud management by detecting and preventing fraudulent activities.

The global average rate of losses caused by fraud for the last two decades represents 6.05% of the gross domestic product. Additionally, companies have reported that cyber breaches have caused financial damages equaling 3% to 10% of their revenue. Moreover, global digital fraud losses are projected to exceed $343 billion between 2023 and 2027.

Given the estimated amounts, it is a crucial question for any organization to build up an efficient fraud management system. Fraud management is identifying, preventing, detecting and responding to fraudulent activities within an organization.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a significant role in fraud management. AI technologies, such as machine learning (ML) algorithms, can analyze large amounts of data and detect patterns and anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activities. AI-powered fraud management systems can identify and prevent various types of fraud, such as payment fraud, identity theft or phishing attacks. They can also adapt and learn from new fraud patterns and trends, improving their detection over time.

AI-based solutions can also integrate with other security systems, such as identity verification and biometric authentication, to provide a more comprehensive approach to fraud prevention.

Machine learning algorithms are designed to recognize patterns based on a large amount of data, which can be leveraged to identify fraudulent activities.

AI refers to technologies that can perform tasks requiring human intelligence, such as analyzing data or understanding and responding to human language. They are designed to recognize patterns and make predictions in real time. AI algorithms are often a combination of different ML models.

ML is a subset of AI; it uses algorithms to analyze large amounts of data to enable systems to learn autonomously. The more data ML algorithms are exposed to, the better they perform over time. The two main approaches of ML are supervised machine learning (SML) and unsupervised machine learning (UML). SML algorithms use labeled data to help predict outcomes, while UML algorithms discover hidden patterns in the data.

As an example, SML algorithms use historical transaction data labeled as fraudulent or non-fraudulent that will be used to train the supervised machine learning model. UML would use anomaly detection algorithms to identify transactions significantly different from the norm based on given features. While UML models require less human intervention, they tend to be less accurate than SML.

AI technologies have a vital role in fighting cybercrime by enhancing the most commonly used cybersecurity systems.

AI and ML have a crucial role in online fraud detection, where algorithms detect fraudulent activities in online transactions, such as credit cards, online banking or e-commerce transactions. These algorithms can be applied in real-time to identify and flag suspicious activities.

A cybersecurity threat is any activity, event or situation that has the potential to cause harm to computer systems, networks or data. According to the Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022, after customer fraud, the second most common type of threat that financial services face is cybercrime.

Cybercrime refers to criminal activities involving technology, such as computers, networks or the internet. These activities can result in various harms, including financial loss, data theft or destruction and reputation damage. The most common cyber threats include hacking, phishing, identity theft and malware.

A Cyberattack is a specific type of cybercrime that involves an intentional attempt by a third party to disrupt or gain unauthorized access to a system or network.

Cybersecurity is defending different systems, networks and devices from malicious attacks. A crucial element of cybersecurity systems is the real-time monitoring of all electronic resources. The biggest software companies, like IBM, already use AI-powered technologies to enhance their cybersecurity solutions.

Using AI in fraud detection can lead to a faster, more accurate and more efficient process without compromising the customer experience.

The key benefits are discussed below:

Using AI-powered technologies also holds certain risk factors, which can be partly handled by explainable AI solutions.

The potential risks of AI in fraud detection are discussed below:

Explainable AI can help to partly overcome the incorporated risk factors. The term refers to the development of AI systems that can explain their decision-making processes in a way humans can understand. In the context of fraud detection, explainable AI can provide clear and interpretable explanations for why a particular transaction or activity was identified as potentially fraudulent.

For instance, The Montreal Declaration for Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence outlines ethical principles for AI development, including transparency and explainability.

The same features that make AI valuable for legitimate purposes can also make it a powerful tool for cybercriminals.

Here are a few examples of attacks that can happen if criminals exploit AI:

There are several existing solutions for crime prevention with the help of AI-based technologies; however, a few of them raise ethical concerns.

AI can be used in crime prevention by analyzing data that may indicate criminal activity. One example of an existing solution is the PredPol system, which uses machine learning algorithms to analyze historical crime data and identify patterns in the time and location of crimes. Based on these patterns, the system generates predictive hotspots that indicate where crimes are most likely to occur in the future.

A well-known example of fraud prevention in blockchain transactions is Chainalysis. The company applies machine learning algorithms to monitor and analyze the flow of cryptocurrency transactions across various blockchain networks. By analyzing the patterns of these transactions, experts can identify suspicious activities and track the flow of funds across different addresses and accounts.

The crime prevention system of China is a controversial example of AI-based solutions. The system relies on three pillars: Facial recognition tools help authorities to identify suspected criminals, big data tools allow police to analyze behavioral data to detect criminal activities, and a machine learning tool supports the creation of a database involving every citizen. The result is an extensive data-powered rating system that identifies suspicious individuals based on background and behavior signals.

Its important to mention that AI in crime prevention has several limitations and raises serious ethical and privacy concerns. There are many debates about the accuracy and bias of some of these systems. Its crucial to ensure they are designed and used responsibly, with proper safeguards to protect individual rights and prevent abuse.

The features of efficient data processing and pattern recognition can also be valuable features of AI in the case of forensic investigation.

Forensic investigation is the scientific method of researching criminal cases. It involves gathering and analyzing all sorts of case-related data and evidence. The nature of data is often complex, taking the form of texts, images or videos. AI can help handle data effectively and perform meta-analysis during the investigation.

AI algorithms can be trained to recognize patterns in data, such as handwriting, fingerprints or faces. They can be used to analyze written or spoken language, such as emails and text messages, as well as images and videos, to identify objects, people and events.

In addition, AI can aid in investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators. For instance, predictive modeling a type of AI technology can use historical crime data to create predictive models to help law enforcement anticipate and prevent future crimes.

To evaluate crime data and pinpoint regions that are more likely to experience criminal activity, police departments in some cities can use predictive policing algorithms. This enables them to allocate resources more skillfully and stop crime in its tracks. Predictive modeling can also be used to identify individuals at risk of committing crimes, allowing law enforcement to intervene before any criminal activity occurs.

Read more:
How is artificial intelligence used in fraud detection? - Cointelegraph

It didn't take long for AI to hit its hyperspeed moment, which was ushered in when a new song by The Weeknd and Drake took the internet by storm.

It wasn't because of the pairing of the two superstar artists, who have linked up together in the past.

It was the fact that neither of them had a single thing to do with the song, it was entirely AI-generated, and now artists, listeners and the recording industry have been thrown into an existential crisis that up until a few months ago seemed like the plot of a potential Black Mirror episode. And things are about to get really crazy, if they haven't already.

Heart on My Sleeve is the name of the song, and it sounds exactly like a collaboration between the two megastars. But it's just the tip of the iceberg of what is possible and what is already here, and what could reshape the music business as we know it.

READ MORE:* The controversial AI-generated track of Drake and The Weeknd making waves* Revolutionary AI is coming for a job near you, could it do yours?* The New Plymouth band who used Artificial Intelligence to make its latest music video

In just the last few months alone, artificial intelligence, or AI, has gone from a thing you may have used to tweak your Instagram avatar to something that is ready to take over the world.

ChatGPT was launched in November and can now do the work of a term paper in a few keystrokes, suddenly rendering the entire concept of homework futile. (A long overdue advancement, honestly.)

Buzzfeed folded its news operation this week, and will instead enlist quizzes created by ChatGPT for users rather than, you know, pay humans to do actual work. And after a story on AI that aired on last Sunday's program, 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley signed off with the following: We'll end with a note that has never appeared on 60 Minutes, but one in the AI revolution you may be hearing often: the preceding was created with 100% human content.

Yes, human content. That's humans with all their faults, misgivings, personality flaws, grudges, biases and, you know, humanity over here, and AI, spit-shined to perfection, over here. The choice seems simple. Which side are you on?

Humans, of course. C'mon. But have you listened to Heart on Your Sleeve, and were you also struck by the fact that it may be Drake's complete non-participation in the song aside Drake's best song in two years?

Drake is one of the artists, along with Frank Ocean and Chance the Rapper, to sign exclusive deals for new music with Apple Inc.

Not so easy now, is it? But it begs the question and we'll limit the wide-reaching AI debate here strictly to pop-music terms what do we want from artists?

Is it their artistry, their expression, the baring of their soul, which also includes making do with their flaws and imperfections, and the fact that sometimes, because they're human, they botch Coachella headlining performances?

Gonzales/Samy Khabthani/Avalon/Zuma Press/TNS

If you have listened to Heart on Your Sleeve, you may have been struck by the fact that it may be Drake's best song in two years, despite his lack of involvement.

Or do we want to control them, which is what AI allows us to do, in essence: cherry pick their best qualities, use them how we want to use them, and create what we want them to create.

It's the ultimate idea of fan-service, of wish fulfilment, rendered whole. And it's not just Drake and The Weeknd to whom it's happening.

Scroll through TikTok and you'll hear dozens of examples of fan-generated AI songs, pairing your favorite artists' likenesses over your other favourite artists' songs.

A young Paul McCartney singing John Lennon's Imagine? It's out there. Kanye West singing Creed's With Arms Wide Open? Not sure why anyone would want that, but it's out there. Ariana Grande singing pretty much anything you can think of? Just type it in the search bar, it's out there.

That's not all. Earlier this year, superstar DJ David Guetta called on AI to create an Eminem-sounding track, which he went on to sample in his live show. There's something that I made as a joke, he explained in a YouTube clip about the deepfake Eminem sample, and it worked so good!

And an entire album of songs in the style of Oasis, dubbed Aisis (see what they did there?), was released this week, a reimagining of what the band might have sounded like had its classic lineup stayed together and kept banging out tracks.

And listening to it, that's precisely what it sounds like, and if you didn't know any better, you might think the boys buried the hatchet and got the band back together. (Even Liam Gallagher himself weighed in on the experiment, giving his approval and opining of his not-quite vocals, I sound mega.)

Now if Oasis really does get back together, maybe Liam won't sound mega, and maybe the songs will be sluggish, the songwriting uninspired. Maybe it will be a letdown. But it will be real, it will be human, it will actually be them. So, what's better?

There's also the question of legality, and likeness, and appropriation of likeness, and a whole bunch of other technical stuff that is absolutely not going to stop someone from making Mariah Carey-soundalike Black Sabbath covers, or whatever else strikes their mood. (That doesn't exist yet, and probably shouldn't.)

The cat is out of the bag, and as the record companies learned the hard way from the great Napster debacle, it's not going back in.

That didn't stop Universal Music Group from pulling Heart on My Sleeve down from YouTube and streaming sites, where it had already garnered millions of listens. Making it go away isn't going to make it go away, or stop the next one from popping up, or the next one after that.

But what if the artists themselves got on board with Heart on My Sleeve? What if they re-recorded the song, using their own voices? Could the AI and the human user behind it, in this case the anonymous Ghostwriter977 inspire the real artists?

It's not going to be as simple as demonising AI. Maybe this year's song of the summer will be an AI creation. Would that automatically be bad?

This particular Black Mirror episode we're living inside is unfolding in real time, and is only beginning. While there are many questions yet to be asked and answered, of this much we're confident: the preceding was created with 100% human content.

See the original post here:
Artificial intelligence and pop music is getting weird, fast - Stuff

The Town of Hay River says it is trialling artificial intelligence to help prepare material for some of its communications with residents.

Assistant senior administrative officer Patrick Bergen told town councillors on Monday that the municipality is testing the use of artificial intelligence in some circumstances.

Various AI applications have made headlines in recent months, from tools like Midjourney which can create realistic images based on text prompts to ChatGPT, which provides answers to users questions in a form of online conversation.

AI is also being introduced to search engines. Some Bing users can now search the web using an AI interface, while Google is carrying out limited testing of an equivalent tool named Bard.

On a broad level, concerns remain that AI tools to search the web or generate answers arent always accurate. They sometimes reproduce false or misleading information found online, an error known as hallucination.

But having been trained on a vast online resource of written material, AI apps are increasingly used to handle tasks like editing text or writing summaries of dense information.

The system is good at crunching large of pieces of information into something readable, Bergen said.

Its also good at grouping large amounts of data and summarizing it. That will speed up some of the releases that go out.

Its not clear if any of the towns communications to date have been published with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

Bergen told councillors that recent requests from journalists had been fairly routine in that they focused on breakup season, which has proceeded quietly to date, and were handled by senior administrator Glenn Smith.

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Hay River testing artificial intelligence for communications - Cabin Radio