Category: Education

Latest Read: AI and Machine Learning for On-Device Development

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date April 24, 2024

AI and Machine Learning for On-Device Development: A Programmer’s Guide by Laurence Moroney.

Laurence holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Computer Science from Cardiff University, PgD, Microelectronics Systems Design from Birmingham City University and Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University.

Today he is Chief AI Scientist at VisionWorks Studios. He previously was an AI Advocate at Google for 10 years and served as a Senior Developer Evangelist at Microsoft. He wrote this book in 2021 and previously published AI and Machine Learning for Coders in 2020.

While OpenAI’s ChatGPT kick started the LLM surge, AI will simply be a component installed upon our mobile devices. The OpenAI/Microsoft partnership is certainly enterprise focused, Google Gemini and Apple will drive their Android and iOS devices to simply adopt AI as part of their mobile ecosystem. Phones will simply remain the go to device.

So, there was a lot of buzz regarding new AI devices including Humane’s AI Pin or the Rabbit R1. Their rush to market to capitalize on the AI hype cycle leads to critical mistakes.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, Laurence Moroney, machine learning, On-Device Development, TensorFlow

Education Reading

Latest Read: HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date April 17, 2024

HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict by Amy Gallo.

Amy holds a master’s in public policy from Brown University. She is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and was a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners.

There are multiple lessons in this book that benefits everyone regardless of your life’s path. From understanding common sources of conflict, options to address disagreement, recognizing when others seek or avoid conflict, known when to walk away, to learning how to repair relationships.

Such a valuable resource to recognize and understand the three sections outlined: preparing for conflict before it begins, managing a conflict, and resolving conflict. this book will simply resonate with everyone today. It is well worth your time in my opinion.

Perhaps even some will see the benefits of conflict. Yes, Amy addresses how conflict drives more creativity, sparking new ideas and strengthening bonds. This can be viewed as the source of true innovation which drive better work outcomes. Furthermore Amy suggests job satisfaction is an outcome from addressing conflict. But please recall conflict types: relationship, task, process, and status.

Tags conflict, Harvard Business Review, management

Education Reading

Latest Read: HBR’s 10 Must Reads for New Managers

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date April 10, 2024

HBR’s 10 Must Reads for New Managers by Harvard Business Review.

A good series of articles from HBR for managers. Lessons are timeless and this series is also a much needed refresher for season managers. Daniel Goleman’s article His What Makes a Leader? examines what distinguishes good from great leaders. The key skill is emotional intelligence, not tech skills, longevity, or even IQ.

Having read Daniel’s book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ 25th Anniversary edition in 2022, I would recommend this book which expands upon his KPIs. He is identifying a group of five key skills that empower great leaders. This can be documented by yearly earnings goals. By focusing on the five skills, leaders can sharpen those which need to bring their levels of effectiveness higher. Perhaps his key message is if emotion intelligence be learned? This is a wonderful article that has stood the test of time.

Every manager must also understand how to influence your direct reports. The article “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini is very well written and clearly a necessary read for managers. So, at the end of the day, leadership is about getting things done. And frankly, persuasion is a key tool for any manager. Robert conveys clear principals that will empower managers. However, Robert suggests consistency is the key skill in persuasion.

Tags Harvard Business Review, management, risk management

Artificial Intelligence Education Reading

Latest Read: Your Face Belongs to Us

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date April 6, 2024

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It by Kashmir Hill.

Kashmir holds a masters degrees in journalism from New York University. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post. Kashmir is a technology reporter at The New York Times after having worked at Gizmodo Media Group, Fusion, Forbes Magazine, and Above the Law.

Perhaps of the most shocking books in fact that I have read in some time. Kashmir is documenting how a small AI company provided facial recognition to law enforcement, billionaires, and businesses. Yet, it should be no surprise this has eroded privacy as we know it.

Kashmir introduces readers to this chilling story as a skeptic. A tip regarding a mysterious app called Clearview AI held a claim it could with 99% accuracy identify anyone based upon a single photograph of their face. The app indeed provided a person’s online name, social media profiles, friends, family members, and their home address. This was just for starters and in the wrong hands, would be a very powerful surveillance tool.

Clearview AI was a start up run by Australian computer engineer Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, a former Rudy Giuliani advisor. The company was funded by conservative provocateur Charles C. Johnson and billionaire Donald Trump backer Peter Thiel. In contrast, Google and Facebook chose that this type of tool was too dangerous to release. However, via private investors, Clerview AI would be pitched to thousands of law enforcement agencies around the world.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, privacy, surveillance

Education Reading

Latest Read: Profit over Privacy

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 24, 2024

Profit over Privacy: How Surveillance Advertising Conquered the Internet by Matthew Crain.

Matthew holds a PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is an assistant professor of media and communication at Miami University of Ohio and previously taught at Queens College, City University of New York.

The contemporary internet’s de facto business model is one of Surveillance has been the new black. While browser cookies follow us around the web, Web beacons can track and harvest every Google search, every webpage visited, In fact, on a growing number of global websites, beacons know where you click. Yes indeed they know everything about you and are monetizing all of your online activities every day.

In Profit over Privacy, Matthew is delivering a solid historical beginning to the billion dollar surveillance advertising business.

In fact, Facebook posted revenues over $319 billion in 2021 alone. Surprised learning this is below their 2020 revenue? The loss of our privacy is via Facebook, Google, and Amazon. They certainly resell our online activity to data brokers.

Matthew is tracing this surveillance advertising back to the Clinton administration. This includes the launch of the country’s Nation Information Infrastructure and how the long established Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) designed a safe approach which did acknowledge the coming online profiling of citizens. The FTC also looked to consumer empowerment. But in America, politics ran amok.

Tags cybersecurity, Matthew Crain, privacy, Profit over Privacy, surveillance, Surveillance Advertising