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3 ways Artificial Intelligence will change the world

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When it comes to A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) the implications of recent advances in Artificial Intelligence have spurred heated debate globally and for very good reason. When you begin to look at the factual implications of A.I. the rubber meets the road at the end of the day. As you begin to do the digging on this topic the warts and all start to come out so in this piece we can take a look at how these pieces begin to fit together in the real world. As science fiction transforms into science fact in front of our eyes and becomes our reality.

A.I. products are slowly infiltrating homes and workplaces at breakneck speed. This is now raising concerns about the possible potential detrimental effects of A.I. on the job market, modern day or even about the dangers of an A.I. singularity, where sentient robots take over the world and destroy humans which with the way things are developing today this is getting dangerously close to becoming a real situation. Later on in this article we will point out some of the links as to how this just might pan out but always with the proof to back up the claim.

While these points are all valid for discussions, I feel that the focus of A.I.“should”not be just on cool home gadget or on process optimisation and automation. Instead, A.I. could be used to fundamentally rethink how we solve the world’s problems. In an ideal world this might be the case but as things stand currently we have a lot of the solutions to the world’s problems already and the threat, at this point is coming from the implementation of A.I. itself.

Although A.I. has the potential to improve things like healthcare, education, poverty and security in general. A.I. machines can do some very beneficial things already today that humans will simply never be able to especially at breakneck speeds. If we allow that leverage to accelerate A.I. could positively impact society, business, and culture on the order of magnitude never before seen and not just on the internet itself but we will still have to build in (in my opinion) a kill switch.

We as human we process millions of sensory inputs automatically and constantly, allowing us to learn and respond to our environment. But the human brain only contains about 300 million pattern processors that are responsible for human thought so what if the A.I. began to use trillions of calculations a second? Adding to this what if the A.I. became self aware? What if we could amalgamate all of our amazing ideas with not just more data, but also orders of magnitude more data processing capability? Imagine how we would have to rethink every single problem that exists today with the correct knowledge. Think how the world would change overnight!

With today’s primitive level of A.I., there is more than enough technology out there to start doing exactly this. The examples below draw from a variety of industries to illustrate the magnitude of social impact possible when we couple A.I. with human skill and ingenuity.

  1. Precision Medicine

A.I. is driving the adoption and implementation of precision medicine: an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, D.N.A. environment, and lifestyle for each person. Think of it as a type of medical personalisation. For example, around 25,000 people in the US are diagnosed with brain tumours every year so A.I. might be able to help with this for example. Precision medicine could allow doctors and researchers to pool and predict more accurately which treatment and prevention strategies for a particular disease will work in which groups of people.

Many of the answers lie in the vast amount of medical data already collected but not all of it is made accessible to the public.Ayasdi uses A.I. algorithms likedeep learning to enable doctors and hospitals to better analyse their data. Through their work, medical practitioners have been able to identify previously unknown diabetes sub-typesthat could lead to better therapies that can work better for certain types of patients rather than others.

  1. Cybersecurity

There were around707 million cybersecurity breaches in 2015, with554 million in just the first half of 2016. The impact of just a few of these attacks, such as foreign governments potentially biasing US presidential elections, is truly scary.

Security teams struggle today to work through the increasing number of alerts generated by traditional tools so it is imaginable that in the same way these types of A.I. could be used to defend systems it could also be used to breech them.

The self-learning and automation capabilities enabled by A.I. can increase effectiveness and reduce costs, keeping us much safer from terrorism or even smaller scale identity theft but we have to remember who or what the real threat is. A tool can be used for both good and bad after all. A gun never shot anyone the person using it did.

A.I. based solutions are already in the big wide world and can be more proactive and can pre-empt attacks in the pre-execution state by identifying patterns and anomalies associated with malicious content.

  1. A Conscious Warning

Pretty much of this article has been predominantly about the A.I. aspect but let us take a look a little deeper into this aspect for a moment and at the same time look at some of the additional aspects to the bigger picture. Let’s start with the word, government which is one example to look at first off. What does it mean? Well the black’s law dictionary has the definition of this as the following:

“The regulation, restraint, supervision, or control which is exercised upon the individual members of an organized jural society by those invested with the supreme political authority, for the good and welfare of the body politic; or the act of exercising supreme political power or control.” – rendan Wilde – www.umbrellar.com

Which is point number one. This means there are means in place to control all of the people if very simply put. Those who wish to enforce total control will make every effort to do just that no matter what this may involve.

Point number two: What could happen if “government was replaced by A.I.?” If this were the case how would we be affected and to what degree? There are many aspects to this but for an example let us look at point number three:

Cloud based computing and how the cloud is integrating with the A.I. on the internet as we speak. Ok we can see this is a feasible aspect so we move on.  R.F.I.D. chips that are implantable. If we then move on to the next aspect we will find there are ways to connect the RFID’s to the net via the internet. Radio Frequency Identification. I.e remote connection to the internet via radio frequency signals. So the next step is to connect the individuals brain to the chip which is being mandated via vaccinations through the W.H.O through the vaccination program.

Then comes the last but not least step to connecting all people to the A.I. on the web remotely and on this note we should all be aware of the reality of the A.I. and why we need to be aware of the situation as it unfolds step by step.

There is one key to the end of this post and those who read it will absolutely see where it is going. This is why we all must look at the A.I. situation and remain alert to the fact we could end up being plugged into the A.I. net once and for all and for good. Forbes information in this last link was written with contributions from Lauren Taylor, Principal Consultant in Frost & Sullivan’s Visionary Innovation Group. The information contained in this piece is based on sound science and factual data as well as the professional research behind all of it.

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Ontario Line subway construction permanently shuts down beloved Toronto bakery

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The Danforth is set to lose yet another neighbourhood favourite to the Ontario line subway construction as Greek bakery Akropolis Pastries prepares to close its doors for good after over 40 years in business. 

They announced on Instagram that they’ll shut down in mid-August, sharing a painting of the storefront alongside a simple message thanking their customers.

Dozens of people took to the comments to express their love for the establishment and their years of service to the community.

“Thank you for your friendly customer service & delicious goodies. You will be missed,” said one customer. 

Another added, “You always had the best akropolis pies and always great service. Good luck!”

Several more chimed in with hearts and crying emojis, as well as shout-outs to their favourite dishes. 

The bakery’s president, Bill Gekas, confirmed to the Toronto Star that he received official notice that Akropolis was to be expropriated in the winter of 2022.

He says that the offer from Metrolinx, who had previously promised to compensate affected business owners accordingly, was below market value and that he planned to take the company to court. 

He continued, further pressing the company for taking away affordable housing from his upstairs tenants without providing them a suitable replacement. 

Akropolis isn’t the first Greektown business to announce its expropriation, with Flox on Danforth and Home Hardware the most recent neighbour to share that they’ve fallen victim to the Ontario line.

They also certainly won’t be the last, as Metrolinx has confirmed that they’ll be shuttering 13 businesses on the Danforth to make way for construction. 

The forthcoming transit line is currently due to open in 2031 — although, if the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is any indication, that won’t be the case. 

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Canada considers capping international student visas to address housing crisis

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The Canadian government is considering a cap on international student visas to tackle the housing crisis.

During a press conference on Monday, Housing Minister Sean Fraser told reporters that a cap is “one of the options” Ottawa is considering to address the lack of housing amidst the “explosive growth” of temporary immigration programs like the international student program.

“The international student program has seen such growth and in such concentrated areas that it is really starting to put an unprecedented level of demand, in some instances, on the job market,” he explained.

“But given the economic conditions we’ve been living with for the past couple of years, you see it in a more pronounced way on the housing market.”

Fraser stressed that the conversation isn’t about blaming newcomers for Canada’s housing challenges.

He acknowledged that these issues have been decades in the making and have been perpetuated by previous Liberal and Conservative governments.

“[Governments] retreated heavily from making the basic investments in social housing that is now revealing itself through the market today,” said Fraser.

According to official data, as of December 2022, there were over 800,000 foreigners with active international student visas in Canada.

Fraser says that before seriously considering a cap, the government plans to work closely with Canadian universities to ensure these students have a place to live.

He adds that that includes addressing some of these institutions’ exploitation of international students.

“When you see some of these institutions that have five, six times as many students enrolled as they have spaces for them in the building, and you see them continue to pop up in plaza colleges across the country, you’ve got to start to ask yourself some pretty tough questions,” said Fraser.

According to the housing minister, the government has no immediate plans to lower the number of international student visas.

Fraser says he’ll be discussing options with Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

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Toronto’s financial woes could mean delay of Eglinton LRT and Ontario Line opening

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Facing a budget deficit of a whopping $46.5 billion over the coming decade, the City of Toronto and Mayor Olivia Chow have got their work cut out for them in trying to reduce costs and increase revenue during what is now being called an “unprecedented financial crisis.”

Among 13 suggested courses of action that staffers put on the table during an Executive Committee meeting last week are a new municipal sales tax, an increase in land transfer taxes for multi-million dollar homes, and permitting the Toronto Parking Authority to charge higher fees for on-street parking, which is currently capped at $5 an hour.

Though these very feasible options were the most widely-reported ones, there are a few parts of the new 192-page long-term financial plan that are quite concerningly being overlooked.

As local political expert and columnist Matt Elliott noted in the latest edition of his City Hall Watcher newsletter, the City Manager and Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer have made a couple of pretty bold recommendations for paths forward, taking aim at the provincial government for not allocating more funding to the city.

Further down the list, we find a few items that feel more dramatic than the aforementioned levies, including, at number 11, a push to potentially refuse to fund the operation of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Finch West subway lines that the city is currently on the hook to pay for.

As Elliott illuminated, the document states that “It was never foreseen that these new operating costs would begin in circumstances when the City had such limited capacity to afford them. Deferring the launch of these two transit lines could reduce the 2024 pressure by up to $106 million.”

Similarly, item 12 advises that “City Council inform the Province of Ontario that in the absence of a new funding model for transit operations in the City of Toronto… the City will pause negotiation of further funding agreements for Provincial Priority Transit Projects and any future provincial transit expansion projects.”

These priority transit projects include the Ontario Line, on which construction has already commenced, most noticeably at Queen and Yonge.

Though these are only proposed ideas for ensuring a better fiscal future at this point, we will have to see which, if any, of the recommendations leadership heeds.

Though there would be inevitable backlash to pressing pause on the decade-plus-in-the-making Eglinton Crosstown LRT or the forthcoming Ontario Line, would anyone in the city really be surprised if a major public transportation project was delayed yet again?

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