Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: Ultimately, it’s going to be about man with machines

 Envisaging a technological future where computers can learn human language and have conversations with people, Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella has said companies need to build “respectful” technology which gets the best of humanity and not the worst.
“We want to take the power of human language and apply it more pervasively to all of the computing interface and interactions,” Mr Nadella said yesterday in his keynote address to thousands of developers at Microsoft’s annual Build 2016 conference in San Francisco.
“To do that you have to infuse (intelligence) into the computers around us, you have to bring forth these technologies of artificial intelligence in machine learning so that we can teach computers to learn the human language, have conversational understanding, teach them about the broad contexts of personal preferences and knowledge so that they can help you with your everyday task,” Nadella, 48, said.
He envisaged a future where the machine is not against man but works with humans to offer seamless interface and experience in day-to-day learning.
“All technology that we built has to be more inclusive and respectful. We want to build technology that gets the best of humanity and not the worst,” Nadella said. “We want to build intelligence that augments human abilities and experiences. Ultimately it is not going to be about man versus machine. It is going to be about man with machines,” he said.
Technology where the human ability of judgement creativity, empathy and emotion is combined with the fast computation and ability to reason over large amounts of data, he said.
“We want all developers to infuse intelligence into their applications…As we infuse intelligence into everything it is important to have a principled approach,” Nadella said. “This will help us move our society forward. You also have to build trust right into our technology that means you have to have technology that has built-in protections for privacy, transparency, security as well as compliance,” he said.
Nadella showcased improvements to Cortana and announced previews of new cloud services and toolkits designed to create intelligent bots.
During the conference, Microsoft announced new additions to the Cortana Intelligence Suite.
The first, Microsoft Cognitive Services, is a collection of intelligence Application Programming Interface (API) that allows systems to see, hear, speak, understand and interpret a user’s needs using natural methods of communication. “We want to take the power of human conversations and apply it to everything else like a personal digital assistant that knows you and your world,” Nadella said.
The “rich world of conversation” that Microsoft envisions will have not just people to people conversations but those between people and their personal digital assistants, bots and even personal digital assistants calling on bots on the user’s behalf.
“That is the world you are going to see in the years to come,” he said, adding that Microsoft is conceptualising a platform where human language is the new user interface, bots are new applications, digital assistants are the new browsers and “intelligence is infused into all of your interactions.” Nadella noted that there is a much more mainstream dialogue about the role of technology in the society and “this is the right time to have that dialogue.”
“We have these profound questions and issues in front of us. Is technology driving economic growth for everyone or is economic growth stalled inspite of technological span. Is technology empowering people or is it displacing us. Is technology helping us preserve our enduring values such as privacy or is it compromising it,” he said.
“I believe technology can drive economic growth all over the world. Technology can empower us in our daily lives, be used to preserve our enduring values,” he added.
PTI

Source : www.tech.firstpost.com

Read More

Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski’s Nude Bathroom Pic Sets Internet Ablaze

The BFFs decided to free the nipple in a bathroom selfie on Wednesday, and, as expected, the Internet went wild. But there’s more at stake here than mere publicity.

In case you missed it, Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski posed topless in a bathroom, selfie’d it, and then posted said image on social media.

Whether it was a girl power attempt to divert the media’s attention away from the embattled Kehlani and scumbaggy Nick Young or just some good ol’ fashioned fun is anyone’s guess, but you’ve got to give it to Kim at this point: she knows how to keep herself in the news, and use biggest asset—her sexuality—to do it. Nothing wrong with that.

Or so we thought. You see, when Kim Kardashian posted a photo of her post-pregnancy body in the buff earlier this month, it triggered her legion of haters, who fired back at the reality star-entrepreneur with all manner of misguided vitriol. Everyone from Pink, Bette Midler, Chloe Grace Moretz, and one of the world’s premier hacks, Piers Morgan, cast aspersions on Kim for displaying her God-given talent. Moretz summed up their criticisms, tweeting out, “I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than our bodies.”

The picture transformed Hollywood into a veritable Real World/Road Rules Challenge, with A-list celebrities taking sides. Miley Cyrus and Amber Rose came down firmly on Team Kim, with Rose telling The Daily Beast, “It’s bullshit, and this is the thing: They come at me and Kim so hard because I was a stripper and she had a sex tape. So if we could sing, it would be OK if we were on stage half-naked. We all love Beyoncé, but she’s on stage half-naked and twerking all the time, yet people say, oh, she has talent so she’s able to do that. We don’t have the talent that Beyoncé has, so we get criticized as former sex workers, but at the end of the day we’re just women—we’re all women—and we should all embrace each other. No one is greater.”

Another gal who came to Kim’s side was Ratajkwoski, a longtime Free the Nipple proponent:

In response, Kim, ever the classy one—which she does not get enough credit for, really, as you rarely see her in any sort of tabloid skirmish—sent Ratajkowski a bouquet of flowers:

I
ndeed, Kim’s talent is her body, and her ability to challenge prudish social mores with it. For whatever reason, these days, people have a knee-jerk negative reaction whenever any woman posts a nude photo of herself online, let alone Kim. Her Instagram comments and Twitter mentions will be flooded with critics—primarily women—tearing her down. Yes, some of this has to do with Kim, but not all of it. There is an insidiousness in America today when it comes to female sexuality, and it’s epitomized by one tiny-handed man, Donald J. Trump. To Trump, female sexuality and agency is a violent affront to the patriarchal order. To Trump, the former Miss Universe honcho—who even made Apprentice contests twirl and pose for him—women are mere objects served up for his consumption and judgment. And it’s really about power and control; men like Trump want to govern the gaze and control the female body.

So, when women like Kim and Ratajkowski post their own nude photos, they’re in a sense reclaiming ownership over their bodies; they’re no longer the ingénue, but the director of the picture.

 

Read More

Pakistan explosion leaves many dead at Lahore park

Pakistan explosion time image

At least 69 people have been killed and scores injured in an explosion at a public park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say.

The park was crowded with families, some celebrating Easter. Many victims are said to be women and children.
Police told the BBC it appeared to be a suicide bomb. A Pakistan Taliban faction said it carried out the attack.
Pakistan's president has condemned the blast and the regional government has announced three days of mourning.
All the major hospitals in the area were put on an emergency footing after the blast early on Sunday evening.
The explosion appears to have been at the main gate to the Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in an area where cars are usually left - and a short distance from the children's swings.
One eyewitness said there was chaos, with a stampede starting and children separated from their parents in the rush to escape.

Large numbers of people have been injured, and many are said to be in a serious condition

Many families had gone to the park

Another man told Pakistan's Geo TV station he was heading towards a fairground ride with his wife and two children when he heard a huge bang and all four of them were thrown to the floor.
Hasan Imran, 30, a local resident who had gone to the park for a walk told Reuters: "When the blast occurred, the flames were so high they reached above the trees and I saw bodies flying in the air."
The agency also reported that the army was called in to control crowds outside the park.
According to Lahore's deputy commissioner, Mohammad Usman, the number of injured was 193.
Facebook has activated its feature for people in Lahore to mark themselves as safe, as news of the blast spread.

Lahore is the capital of Punjab, Pakistan's largest and wealthiest province and the political powerbase of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Pakistan Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar told local and Western media it was behind the attack.
"We claim responsibility for the attack on Christians as they were celebrating Easter," spokesperson Ehansullah Ehsan told Pakistan's Express Tribune.
Pakistan has suffered regular incidents of Taliban-related violence, sectarian strife and criminal gang activity.
Meanwhile in the capital, Islamabad, police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who marched in support of Islamist gunman Mumtaz Qadri, whom they see as a religious hero.
Qadri was hanged last month for the murder of Punjab governor Salman Taseer five years ago.
Mr Taseer had defended a Christian woman jailed on blasphemy charges.


Source :  http://www.bbc.com

Read More