Lifeboat Foundation

Automated online advice platforms, the so-called robo advisors, have long implied the use of algorithms eliminates conflicts of interest. It’s a premise that’s gained traction with both consumers and regulators. But a new report by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority casts doubt on their ability to do just that.

With robo advisors like Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, Betterment and Wealthfront now managing billions of dollars worth of client assets, FINRA investigated these online advice providers. The regulator released a report Tuesday that evaluated several key service areas including governance and supervision, the suitability of recommendations, conflicts of interest, customer risk profiles and portfolio rebalancing.

FINRA found that while digital advice will likely play an increasingly important role in wealth management, investors should be aware that conflicts of interest can exist even in providers powered by algorithms. Specifically, the advice consumers receive depends largely on the digital advice provider’s investment approach and the underlying assumptions used.

Continue reading “Turns Out Robots Don’t Offer Conflict-Free Advice Either” »

This study is bunk! And, here is the reason why: first, the robot was setup as a robot repeseanting as part of the facilities service where visitors/ people where at and followed the “facilities” robot as their escort in the building, much like you would do if I or someone else was wearing a building security jacket and badge who told you to follow us. So, this is very misleading study.

If you were in a burning building and a robot appeared to rescue you, would you follow it?

Continue reading “Do humans trust robots too much?” »

Very concerning: 72% of all India companies were hacked in 2015. How many were hosting consumer and business data for non-Indian companies say US or European companies?

According to KPMG’s, Cyber Crime Survey Report 2015, around 72 per cent of the companies in India have faced cyber-attacks in the year 2015. In India a spate of cyber security issues have been witnessed like the Gaana.com or Ola Cabs apps being hacked. Such issues have raised the alarm for the whole enterprise community. And it doesn’t seem to be stopping here. According to a report from McAfee Labs, the number of cyber attacks where malware holds user data hostage is expected to grow in 2016 as hackers target more companies and advanced software is able to compromise more types of data. In many cases the objective would be financial gain or corporate espionage, either ways, resulting in heavy losses for the enterprise.

Today, no single new age enterprise is immune to cyber threats. The humongous amount of information popping out of various social and mobile platforms continues to add to organizations’ vulnerabilities, making them attractive targets for complex cyber crimes.

Continue reading “72% Indian companies faced cyber attacks in 2015, yet most do not have a threat response strategy” »

So does this mean war?

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D – N.Y.) said that an Iranian cyber-attack on a dam near New York City was a “shot across the bow” of the United States, which should be answered with harsher sanctions, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

“Now it looks clear that the Iranians did it,” Schumer said during an appearance on Long Island. “What were they doing? They were sending a shot across our bow. They were saying that we can damage, seriously damage, our critical infrastructure and put the lives and property of people at risk.”

Continue reading “Schumer: Iranian Cyber-Attack on New York Dam Was ‘Shot Across the Bow’” »

Is this another strategy to fight terrorism by seeing from techies and others the various ways terrorists can take every day items to create weapons?

Do you want to be a MacGyver and turn everyday household items into Decepticons? Then DARPA’s new Improv program wants you.

This sounds like a Transformers movie. Or a MacGyver episode. Heck, this could even be a precursor to Skynet and future Terminators. OK, that last one may not apply, but a new DARPA program wants people who can weaponize a toaster.

Continue reading “DARPA Calls For Creative Individuals to Weaponize Common Items” »

Definitely needed.

The Army’s cyber chief is optimistic about an institutional change in thinking.

To me; it’s all common sense. If you step back look at the technology landscape as a whole along with AI; you start to see the barriers that truly spolights where we have way too much hype around AI.

Example, hacking. If we had truly advance AI at the level that it has been promoted; wouldn’t make sense that researchers would want to solve the $120 billion dollar money pit issue around Cyber Security and make billions to throw at their emerging AI tech plus ensure their AI investment wouldn’t incur pushback by consumers due to lack of trust that AI would not be hacked? So, I usually tread litely on over hype technologies.

I do see great possiblities and seen some amazing things and promise from Quantum Computing; however, we will not truly realize its impact and full potential until another 7 years; I will admit I see more promise with it than the existing AI landscape that is built off of existing traditional digital technology that has been proven to be broken by hackers.

Continue reading “Artificial intelligence has become a religion” »

The science fiction world is full of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but AI reality is still far away. According to an article featured in Technology Review, technology is still suffering and nowhere near the expectations of AI.

Senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review, Will Knight wrote, “For all the remarkable progress being made in artificial intelligence, and warnings about the upheaval this might bring, the smartest computer would still struggle to make it through the eighth grade.”

Knight relates how programmers competed in an Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) contest. The programmers were challenged to write computer programs that could take a science test that was eighth-grade level. During the annual Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) meeting, the winner was announced.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence May Be Amazing One Day, But It Currently Still Sucks” »