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Over the past decade, society has witnessed the rising presence of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. At this point, AI has garnered an expected compound annual growth rate of 37.3 percent from 2023 to 2030. While it has helped to enhance productivity and decision-making processes, the possibility of its malicious use is rising, prompting much unease. These concerns are particularly relevant to Americans as in the next five years, it is expected that the United States AI market will grow to a value of $223.40 billion. As the United States is undoubtedly in the competition to become the worlds AI hub, we must ask: How successful are we in regulating its use?

With Americas two major political rivals, China and Russia, viewing AI as the new global arms race, it is imperative now more than ever that the US consider this question. Up until March 3, 2023, no bill, whose primary aim is to protect or thwart the development of AIs potentially dangerous aspect had been proposed. This lack of regulation can be primarily attributed to the deep lack of familiarity with AI in American governing bodies. The only member of Congress that brandishes any academic background in the field is Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), who received a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of California, Los Angeles. In fact, Congressman Obernolte further reaffirms that it is surprising how much time [he] spend[s] explaining to [his] colleagues that the chief dangers of AI will not come from evil robots with lasers coming out of their eyes.

The AI sector is subject to constant change, growth, and ultimately, evolution. It goes without saying that the threats posed by AI also behave similarly. How can the United States be expected to be up to date on and regulate this technology if the people making and improving laws and regulations are not equipped with the knowledge necessary to understand the capacity of AI?

While it is commendable that some members of Congress, like Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) who is currently pursuing a masters degree in AI from George Mason University, aim to develop their understanding of AI and apply it to their legislative work, the fact remains that it is unrealistic to expect all of Congress to do the same.

"The future of regulating AI is rooted in technical understanding in order to ensure that the solutions are sustainable and feasible."

Currently, the United States displays a certain degree of divisiveness between its technological and legislative institutions. This is especially evident in the purpose of two separate organizations: the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and Congress. While the CISA is grounded in employing technological solutions to combat cybersecurity risks, lawmakers primarily rely on their potential strengthening of existing policies to overcome technological threats. The two are distinguished in the sense that the CISAs technocentric stance suggests that it believes in fighting technological threats with technology, while the law-making process employs a more anthropocentric viewpoint, holding human beings accountable for their use of technology.

The key difference? CISA is equipped with individuals that demonstrate a superior understanding of the technological fielda crucial feature lacking in Congress. While lawmakers have taken steps to address their lack of AI knowledge by establishing an apolitical and nonpartisan Technology Policy Committee in the Senate which regularly educates and informs Congress, the Administration, and the courts about significant developments in the computing field and how those developments affect public policy in the United States, it is not enough. The Technology Policy Committee is a step in the right direction, however, there is only so much that policymakers can do with information regarding technological developments they do not fully understand. Questions like What are the implications and the scope of AI technological developments on current policies? can only be answered when there is an understanding of both technology and policymaking.

To combat the threats of AI, it is critical that solutions are rooted in an understanding of technologys inner mechanisms. This can be accomplished through the implementation of a government body that serves as an intersection of technology and policy making. I would like to refer to this as the Technocentric Coalition of Lawmakers (TCL). This would be a body of individuals that have an academic background in a technology-related field (Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Engineering, and so on) and an interest in policymaking thought processes. Leading by example is the European Union, which pioneered to protect its general public from the dangers of AI through the introduction of the Artificial Intelligence Liability Detective. This law seeks to establish rules that would govern the preservation and disclosure of evidence in cases involving high-risk AI. Such examples demonstrate the potential for the regulation of AI globally. They elucidate that the future of regulating AI is rooted in technical understanding in order to ensure that the solutions are sustainable and feasible.

The solution I propose does not involve a singular law, but rather the establishment of a committee specifically dedicated to regulating AI as the field is one that is constantly evolving and growing. Therefore, AI and the threats associated with it demand a committee that is able to keep up with the technologys growth and evolution, which a written law on its own would not accomplish without constant amendments.

How would the logistics of the TCL work? Considering that democracy is rooted in Americas foundational values, it is only fitting that the formation of the TCL would involve an election as opposed to an appointment. Eligible candidates must have acquired at least a college-level degree in a technological field, in addition to the qualifications required to be elected as a representative to the US Senate. It is important to note that in this manner, the TCL functions as a permanent subcommittee of the Senate, regardless of the party leading the country. In addition, it will have a representative from every state, ensuring that the needs and concerns of AI pertaining to every state have a platform where they can be heard and addressed. As such, the TCL seeks to regulate AI in a manner that promotes bipartisan and interstate collaboration, cooperation and compromise, promoting a responsible and secure use of AI nationwide.

The current institutions in the United States relevant to the technology space serve as an advisory board. The TCL does not seek to replace these bodies. Instead, it aims to distinguish itself from the existing bodies by remaining active at the heart of policy-making. This body would have the power and capacity to formulate informed laws that prevent AI from being used with malicious intent. It would serve as a symbol of growth and the evolution in the nations legislative system into one that is equipped to keep pace with todays rapidly advancing tech space. With great power comes great responsibility, and it is time we harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence in a responsible manner.

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Mind the Machines: The Urgent Need to Regulate Artificial ... - Brown Political Review

For much of the last century, segregationists and their anti-Black racist allies who were intent on ensuring that African Americans couldnt exercise the right to vote, erected an assortment of barriers to that end.

Segregationists used the courts, local and state laws, literacy tests, poll taxes, fraud, brute force, violence and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan to impede and prevent Black people from exercising their Constitutional right.

In the 21stcentury, voter suppression has gone high-tech with the same characters still plotting to control who votes, when and how. They are employing an assortment of methods including artificial intelligence (AI). Concerns about misuse of AI in the electoral ecosystem is what brought Melanie Campbell and Damon T. Hewitt to testify before the U.S. Congress.

Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and convener of the Black Womens Roundtable (BWR), spoke of the urgency around creating safeguards and federal legislation to protect against the technologys misuse as it relates to elections, democracy, and voter education, while fighting back against the increasing threats surrounding targeted misinformation and disinformation.

AI has the potential to be a significant threat because of how rapidly its moving, Campbell said. There was Russian targeting of Black men with misinformation in 2020 to encourage them not to vote. It started in 2016.

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Both civil rights leaders warned that misinformation driven by artificial intelligence may worsen considerably for African American voters leading up to the 2024 presidential election.

What we have seen through our work demonstrates how racial justice, voting rights, and technology are inextricably linked, said Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law during his testimony.

Voters of color already face disproportionate barriers to the ballot box that make it more difficult and more costly for them to vote without factoring in the large and growing cost of targeted mis- and disinformation on our communities.

Campbell and Hewitt said that during recent election cycles, African Americans have been specifically targeted by disinformation campaigns. The pair referred to a lawsuit, NCBCP vs. Wohl, filed by the Lawyers Committee and involving NCBCP which was a plaintiff two men who targeted Black voters in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio disinformation via robocalls in an effort to sway the outcome of the 2020 Elections.

The goal was to discourage African Americans from voting by mail, lying that their personal information would be added to a public database used by law enforcement to execute warrants; to collect credit card debts; and by public health entities to force people to take mandatory vaccinations.

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These threats played upon systemic inequities likely to resonate with and intimidate Black Americans, Hewitt said. The methods used for those deceptive robocalls in 2020 look primitive by 2023 standards.

Campbell concurred. She said AI would allow this type of weaponization to be more significant using texts, video and audio.

AI increases the ability to do that in larger formats she said. You have open source where just about anyone who wants to can use AI for nefarious means. There is a lot of angst with those doing voting rights and elections work.

Campbell and Hewitt agree that the exploding capabilities of AI technology can drastically multiply the amount of harm to American democracy. Campbell adds that Google, Microsoftand Meta are the front-line companies who activists hope will step up and put guardrails in place before the 2024 elections is overwhelmed by AI-driven misinformation and disinformation.

In malicious hands and absent strong regulation, AI can clone voices so that calls sound like trusted public figures, election officials, or even possibly friends and relatives, said Hewitt. The technology could reach targeted individuals across platforms, following up the AI call with targeted online advertisements, fake bot accounts seeking to follow them on social media, customized emails or WhatsApp messages, and carefully tailored memes.

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AI regulation should include transparency and explainability requirements so people are made aware of when, how, and why AI is being used to ensure that it is not used to grab data from those who have not given their consent. Voter information should not be tied to private information to target voters without safeguards.

The effort being led by the Lawyers Committee and the NCBCP comes against the backdrop of similar alarm from the Biden administration, some lawmakers and AI experts who fear that AI will be weaponized to spread disinformation to heighten the distrust that significant numbers of Americans have towards the government and politicians.

President Joe Biden recently signed whats described as a sweeping executive order that focuses on algorithmic bias, preserving privacy and regulation on the safety of frontier AI models. The executive order also encourages open development of AI technologies, innovations in AI security and building tools to improve security.

Vice President Kamala Harris echoed others concerned about this issue who fear that malevolent actors misusing AI could upend democratic institutions and cause Americans confidence in democracy to plunge precipitously.

When people around the world cannot discern fact from fiction because of a flood of AI-enabled disinformation and misinformation, I ask, Is that not existential? Harris said in a speech at the 2023 AI Safety Summit in London, England. Harris concluded, Were going to do everything we can. This is one of the biggest concerns most people have.Barrington Salmon is an NNPA contributing writer. This commentary was edited for length.

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Artificial Intelligence Could Impact Black voting during 2024 Elections - MSR News Online

For a smarter approach to watch collecting, explore everywatch.com today

After more than 2 years of research and development, EveryWatch is being deployed to serve as the one-stop information and analysis platform for the watch market. The platform includes a historical watch sale database with actual sales prices of over 500,000 watches and aggregates new watches coming on to the market in real time from over 250 auction houses and 150 online marketplaces and dealers. The platform also includes a trove of tools to analyze trends and statistics to understand the value and trends of specific watches or a full collection. Users also have the ability to save detailed searches and receive notifications when watches that match the specific search characteristics are made available for sale anywhere in the world.

"I am excited to see EveryWatch completing the watch ecosystem as the largest watch database, providing accurate and reliable pricing information to the watch community. EveryWatch allows to make educated decisions about pre-owned watches quickly and with confidence." Chabi Nouri, Chairperson of the Board of EveryWatch and former CEO of Piaget.

Davide Parmigiani, Chairman of Monaco Legend Auction House and collector, commented, "EveryWatch is the epitome of efficiency. As auctioneers, we can now easily and quickly value watches and identify trends. And as a collector, I can now track the value of my full collection daily and also be notified when the watch I have been looking to buy for years comes on to the market."

The platform was created by Nacre Capital, a venture builder focused on building AI based deep technology companies. The Nacre portfolio, includes FDNA, providing solutions to detect rare diseases in children using AI, which are used in leading hospitals globally; Fairtilty, transforming IVF using AI, Seed-X, an AI based agtech company and many others.

EveryWatch was conceived by leading tech investors and watch professionals, including Howard Morgan, Chairman of Nacre, co-founder of Renaissance Capital and First Round Capital, early investor in Uber, LinkedIn, Square and other companies; Chabi Nouri, former CEO of Piaget; Alexander Friedman, collector, founder of AF. Luxury Consulting and the AF. Watch Report; and other leading collectors and tech leaders, to address the lack of reliable, verified information in the second-hand watch market. EveryWatch serves as the one-stop shop information platform where anyone can easily find any second-hand watch currently available for sale and understand price trends and the real going market rate for any luxury watch ever created.

Media Contact

EveryWatch PR, EveryWatch, 39 3466079308, [emailprotected], https://everywatch.com/

SOURCE EveryWatch

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Artificial Intelligence Has Landed in the Watch Industry - PR Web

Many investors have lost interest in Zoom Video Communications (ZM 1.10%) since the pandemic faded, and I doubt many consider it a worthwhile artificial intelligence (AI) stock today. But Cathie Wood's Ark Invest remains very bullish. The firm has 4.6% of its invested assets in Zoom, and the stock is the sixth-largest holding across its portfolio of innovation-focused index funds.

That conviction may surprise some investors, but Ark published a valuation model last year that posits substantial growth opportunities in AI-enabled communications software driven by digital transformation and increasingly mobile workforces. Wood and her team believe Zoom could trade at $1,500 per share by 2026, implying 2,175% upside from its current price.

Here's what investors should know.

Zoom grew at an incredible pace during the pandemic, so much so that its revenue run rate reached $2 billion faster than any other software company in history. That sent the stock into the stratosphere. But sales growth has since decelerated sharply, and the stock has fallen 88% from its all-time high in October 2020.

Yet, the investment thesis for Zoom has actually gotten stronger as its portfolio has expanded over the last three years. The company is best known for its market-leading videoconferencing application Zoom Meetings, but its platform also includes an enterprise phone system, contact center software, and messaging capabilities, among other communications products.

Zoom has also developed several adjacent artificial intelligence (AI) tools that boost productivity and automate various workflows across its platform, including:

Collectively, Zoom says those products will address a $125 billion market in 2026. Management attributes most of that sum to Zoom Meetings (36%) and Zoom Phone (30%), though Zoom Contact Center (17%) and adjacent AI products (15%) are also significant growth opportunities.

Notably, consultancy Gartner has recognized Zoom as a leader in unified communications for three consecutive years, and the most recent report identified the brand authority of Zoom Meetings, the rapid growth of Zoom Phone, and the somewhat recent release of Zoom Contact Center as key strengths.

Zoom has a strong presence in a large market, but its financial results have been consistently mediocre and the company failed to break that mold with its third-quarter report. Enterprise customers increased only 5%, and the average enterprise customer spent just 5% more. Growth in both metrics reached an all-time low.

Additionally, online/self-service customer churn continued to improve, but sales in that cohort still declined 2% during the third quarter. As a result, total revenue rose only 3% to $1.1 billion, a deceleration from 4% revenue growth last quarter and 5% revenue growth last year.

There were a few bright spots, though. Non-GAAP net income jumped 24% to $401 million as the company kept expenses in check, Zoom Phone reached 7 million paid seats (up from 4 million five quarters ago), and Zoom Contact Center surpassed 700 customers (up from 500 last quarter).

Momentum in Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center is particularly encouraging because those products represent substantial upsell opportunities. Specifically, Zoom reported 219,700 enterprise customers in the second quarter, but less than 15% use Zoom Phone and less than 1% use Zoom Contact Center.

Here's the bottom line: Investors should expect more lackluster results in the coming quarters, but top-line growth could accelerate meaningfully once Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center reach critical mass and become larger contributors to total revenue. And adjacent AI software and future product launches -- such as the recently announced AI-enabled collaboration tool, Zoom Docs -- leave room for additional upside.

Ark Invest's valuation model for Zoom posits that strong adoption of its core communications software and adjacent AI products could drive sales to $52 billion in 2026. That forecast implied annual revenue growth of 66% when the valuation model was published last year, but it now implies annual revenue growth of 112%, which is nonsensical at this point.

Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff has more measured expectations. He believes adoption of Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center will push revenue growth back into the double digits in the medium term, resulting in a compound annual growth rate of 7% over the next five years.

In that context, the current valuation of 4.3 times sales looks reasonable. Investors should consider buying a small position in this growth stock today.

Trevor Jennewine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Zoom Video Communications. The Motley Fool recommends Gartner. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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1 Surprising Artificial Intelligence (AI) Growth Stock to Buy Before It ... - The Motley Fool

Scientists at the University of Victoria and the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have debunked the myth of rogue waves by using artificial intelligence (AI) to create a predictive model.

The researchers used machine learning to identify the elements that lead to the formation of rogue waves using data from over a billion waves and 700 years of wave height and sea state measurements.

Rogue waves are typically large, erratic waves that pose a severe risk to people and ships in the water. Most of the time, it also happens that theres no mark of a vessel, and the sailors disappear.

Unlike conventional wisdom, which holds that rogue waves arise from waves merging and stealing each others energy, the study identifies linear superposition as the main contributing factor.

This happens when two wave systems collide, temporarily strengthening one another and setting the stage for extraordinarily massive waves.

The researchers discovered that anomalous waves, which include extreme rogue waves that are longer than twenty meters, happen frequently.

Their dataset contained about 100,000 occurrences or about a monster wave daily at any ocean location.

The created algorithm gives the shipping sector a real benefit by making it possible to forecast when rogue waves will occur. Shipping Companies can use the algorithm to plan their routes and evaluate risks.

Research lead author Dion Hfner highlights that the algorithms transparency distinguishes it from many AI models and helps users understand the estimated risk based on multiple factors, including sea state, water depths, bathymetric data and ocean movements.

As the model is modified, it will be able to offer in-the-moment evaluations of the threat posed by rogue waves, assisting mariners all over the world in making safer and more expert choices.

References- Mirage News, CTV News

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Researchers Debunk Myth Of Rogue Waves Using Artificial ... - Marine Insight