Transcript of a discussion on how Carnegie Mellon University researchers are advancing strategic reasoning and machine learning capabilities using the latest in high performance computing.
Mission Critical Use Cases Show How Analytics Architectures Usher in an Artif...Dana Gardner
A discussion on how artificial intelligence and advanced analytics solutions coalesce into top competitive differentiators that prove indispensable for digital business transformation.
Slide presentasi ini dibawakan oleh Imron Zuhri dalam acara Seminar & Workshop Pengenalan & Potensi Big Data & Machine Learning yang diselenggarakan oleh KUDO pada tanggal 14 Mei 2016.
Mission Critical Use Cases Show How Analytics Architectures Usher in an Artif...Dana Gardner
A discussion on how artificial intelligence and advanced analytics solutions coalesce into top competitive differentiators that prove indispensable for digital business transformation.
Slide presentasi ini dibawakan oleh Imron Zuhri dalam acara Seminar & Workshop Pengenalan & Potensi Big Data & Machine Learning yang diselenggarakan oleh KUDO pada tanggal 14 Mei 2016.
If you have heard about machine learning and want to try out some of it, please check this out. In this article I am just trying to jot down few basics and must know stuff to kick start in this field. The objective of this compilation; to trigger the interest in this field of data analytics and to demystify the abstract concept. This article is not for the advanced data scientists, this is for the beginners or those who want a quick refresher.
Framework for creating Analytics that delivers cost effective Value. From what to output, to how to scale and motivate a team, passing through data acquisition. Analytics has become a critical asset for the most competitive organizations; practitioners must ensure their ability to create and communicate insight, especially the most senior decision-makers is effective and efficient.
Discussion - Weeks 1–2COLLAPSETop of FormShared Practice—Rol.docxcuddietheresa
Discussion - Weeks 1–2
COLLAPSE
Top of Form
Shared Practice—Role of Business Information Systems
Note: This Discussion has slightly different due dates than what is typical for this program. Be mindful of this as you post and respond in the Discussion. Your post is due on Day 7 and your Response is due on Day 3 of Week 2.
As a manager, it is critical for you to understand the types of business information systems available to support business operations, management, and strategy. As of 2013, these include, but are certainly not limited to the following:
· Supply Chain Management (SCM)
· Accounting Information System
· Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
· Decision Support Systems (DSS)
· Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
· Human Resource Management
These types of systems support critical business functions and operations that every organization must manage. The effective manager understands the purpose of these types of systems and how they can be best used to manage the organization's data and information.
In this Discussion, you will share your knowledge and findings related to business information systems and the role they play in your organization. You will also consider your colleagues' experiences to explore additional ways business information systems might be applied in your colleagues' organizations, or an organization with which you are familiar.
By Day 7
· Describe two or three of the more important technologies or business information systems used in your organization, or in one with which you are familiar.
· Discuss two examples of how these business information systems are affecting the organization you selected. Be sure to discuss how individual behaviors and organizational or individual processes are changing and what you can learn from the issues encountered.
· Summarize what you have learned about the importance of business information systems and why managers need to understand how systems can be used to the organization's advantage.
You should find and use at least one additional current article from a credible resource, either from the Walden Library or the Internet. Please be specific, and remember to use citations and references as necessary.
General Guidance: Your initial Discussion post, due by Day 7, will typically be 3–4 paragraphs in length as a general expectation/estimate. Refer to the rubric for the Week 1 Discussion for grading elements and criteria. Your Instructor will use the rubric to assess your work.
Week 2
By Day 3
In your Week 1 Discussion you described how business information systems have been applied in an organization with which you are familiar. Read through your colleagues' posts and by Day 3 (Week 2), respond to two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:
· Examine how the business information systems described by your colleague could be or are being used by your organization. Offer additional ways either organization might take advantage of these systems.
· Examine how the b ...
The Black Box: Interpretability, Reproducibility, and Data Managementmark madsen
The growing complexity of data science leads to black box solutions that few people in an organization understand. You often hear about the difficulty of interpretability—explaining how an analytic model works—and that you need it to deploy models. But people use many black boxes without understanding them…if they’re reliable. It’s when the black box becomes unreliable that people lose trust.
Mistrust is more likely to be created by the lack of reliability, and the lack of reliability is often the result of misunderstanding essential elements of analytics infrastructure and practice. The concept of reproducibility—the ability to get the same results given the same information—extends your view to include the environment and the data used to build and execute models.
Mark Madsen examines reproducibility and the areas that underlie production analytics and explores the most frequently ignored and yet most essential capability, data management. The industry needs to consider its practices so that systems are more transparent and reliable, improving trust and increasing the likelihood that your analytic solutions will succeed.
This talk will treat the black boxed of ML the way management perceives them, as black boxes.
There is much work on explainable models, interpretability, etc. that are important to the task of reproducibility. Much of that is relevant to the practitioner, but the practitioner can become too focused on the part they are most familiar with and focused on. Reproducing the results needs more.
How artificial intelligence will change the future of marketing_.pdfOnlinegoalandstrategy
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field of computer science concerned with creating intelligent machines capable of doing activities that normally require human intelligence. In its most basic form, artificial intelligence is a field that combines computer science and large datasets to solve problems. It also includes the subfields of machine learning and deep learning, which are commonly referenced in the context of artificial intelligence. AI algorithms are used in these areas to develop expert systems that make predictions or classifications based on input data.
With AI-powered tools, marketing teams will be able to automate certain cognitive tasks. They will also be able to spot current trends, as well as predict them for the future, thereby helping to ensure the success of their marketing campaigns.
One of the main ways artificial intelligence will impact marketing in the future is in content creation.
AI has given rise to a brand-new field known as content intelligence, whereby AI tools offer data-driven insights and feedback to content creators. This means that by creating a continuous feedback loop, marketers will be able to enhance their content creation efforts and yield greater success.
While machine learning is an exciting subject, it is wrong to assume that it will solve all your problems. Scroll down to take a look at some myths in the machine learning field and how to overcome them.
Where have all the data entry candidates gone?Infrrd
If you are struggling to hire data entry roles to help extract data from documents, please take comfort in the fact that you are not alone. Businesses and institutions of all sizes, even the IRS, are challenged by an acute labor shortage.
Complete Article: https://hubs.ly/Q01b-7Cg0
Smart Data Webinar: Artificial General Intelligence - When Can I Get It?DATAVERSITY
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - or strong AI - refers to a domain-independent, machine-based system that approaches or exceeds human performance on any and all cognitive tasks. Estimates for the arrival of true AGI solutions range from last week (as in, we have one!) to decades, to infinity and beyond. As the general study of cybernetic systems and modern AI and cognitive computing capture the imagination of civic and business leaders, and fans of science fiction, it is important to be able to distinguish between progress and smoke & mirrors.
This webinar will present an overview of approaches to AGI, examples of promising research and commercial AGI activities, and show participants how to critically evaluate academic and vendor claims.
Machine learning is a term thrown around in technology circles with an ever-increasing intensity. Major
technology companies have attached themselves to
this buzzword to receive capital investments, and every
major technology company is pushing its even shinier
parentartificial intelligence (AI).
In this presentation, you will discover how you can begin to leverage on the power and potential of Machine Learning as a technology tool and as a framework for growth.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
If you have heard about machine learning and want to try out some of it, please check this out. In this article I am just trying to jot down few basics and must know stuff to kick start in this field. The objective of this compilation; to trigger the interest in this field of data analytics and to demystify the abstract concept. This article is not for the advanced data scientists, this is for the beginners or those who want a quick refresher.
Framework for creating Analytics that delivers cost effective Value. From what to output, to how to scale and motivate a team, passing through data acquisition. Analytics has become a critical asset for the most competitive organizations; practitioners must ensure their ability to create and communicate insight, especially the most senior decision-makers is effective and efficient.
Discussion - Weeks 1–2COLLAPSETop of FormShared Practice—Rol.docxcuddietheresa
Discussion - Weeks 1–2
COLLAPSE
Top of Form
Shared Practice—Role of Business Information Systems
Note: This Discussion has slightly different due dates than what is typical for this program. Be mindful of this as you post and respond in the Discussion. Your post is due on Day 7 and your Response is due on Day 3 of Week 2.
As a manager, it is critical for you to understand the types of business information systems available to support business operations, management, and strategy. As of 2013, these include, but are certainly not limited to the following:
· Supply Chain Management (SCM)
· Accounting Information System
· Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
· Decision Support Systems (DSS)
· Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
· Human Resource Management
These types of systems support critical business functions and operations that every organization must manage. The effective manager understands the purpose of these types of systems and how they can be best used to manage the organization's data and information.
In this Discussion, you will share your knowledge and findings related to business information systems and the role they play in your organization. You will also consider your colleagues' experiences to explore additional ways business information systems might be applied in your colleagues' organizations, or an organization with which you are familiar.
By Day 7
· Describe two or three of the more important technologies or business information systems used in your organization, or in one with which you are familiar.
· Discuss two examples of how these business information systems are affecting the organization you selected. Be sure to discuss how individual behaviors and organizational or individual processes are changing and what you can learn from the issues encountered.
· Summarize what you have learned about the importance of business information systems and why managers need to understand how systems can be used to the organization's advantage.
You should find and use at least one additional current article from a credible resource, either from the Walden Library or the Internet. Please be specific, and remember to use citations and references as necessary.
General Guidance: Your initial Discussion post, due by Day 7, will typically be 3–4 paragraphs in length as a general expectation/estimate. Refer to the rubric for the Week 1 Discussion for grading elements and criteria. Your Instructor will use the rubric to assess your work.
Week 2
By Day 3
In your Week 1 Discussion you described how business information systems have been applied in an organization with which you are familiar. Read through your colleagues' posts and by Day 3 (Week 2), respond to two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:
· Examine how the business information systems described by your colleague could be or are being used by your organization. Offer additional ways either organization might take advantage of these systems.
· Examine how the b ...
The Black Box: Interpretability, Reproducibility, and Data Managementmark madsen
The growing complexity of data science leads to black box solutions that few people in an organization understand. You often hear about the difficulty of interpretability—explaining how an analytic model works—and that you need it to deploy models. But people use many black boxes without understanding them…if they’re reliable. It’s when the black box becomes unreliable that people lose trust.
Mistrust is more likely to be created by the lack of reliability, and the lack of reliability is often the result of misunderstanding essential elements of analytics infrastructure and practice. The concept of reproducibility—the ability to get the same results given the same information—extends your view to include the environment and the data used to build and execute models.
Mark Madsen examines reproducibility and the areas that underlie production analytics and explores the most frequently ignored and yet most essential capability, data management. The industry needs to consider its practices so that systems are more transparent and reliable, improving trust and increasing the likelihood that your analytic solutions will succeed.
This talk will treat the black boxed of ML the way management perceives them, as black boxes.
There is much work on explainable models, interpretability, etc. that are important to the task of reproducibility. Much of that is relevant to the practitioner, but the practitioner can become too focused on the part they are most familiar with and focused on. Reproducing the results needs more.
How artificial intelligence will change the future of marketing_.pdfOnlinegoalandstrategy
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field of computer science concerned with creating intelligent machines capable of doing activities that normally require human intelligence. In its most basic form, artificial intelligence is a field that combines computer science and large datasets to solve problems. It also includes the subfields of machine learning and deep learning, which are commonly referenced in the context of artificial intelligence. AI algorithms are used in these areas to develop expert systems that make predictions or classifications based on input data.
With AI-powered tools, marketing teams will be able to automate certain cognitive tasks. They will also be able to spot current trends, as well as predict them for the future, thereby helping to ensure the success of their marketing campaigns.
One of the main ways artificial intelligence will impact marketing in the future is in content creation.
AI has given rise to a brand-new field known as content intelligence, whereby AI tools offer data-driven insights and feedback to content creators. This means that by creating a continuous feedback loop, marketers will be able to enhance their content creation efforts and yield greater success.
While machine learning is an exciting subject, it is wrong to assume that it will solve all your problems. Scroll down to take a look at some myths in the machine learning field and how to overcome them.
Where have all the data entry candidates gone?Infrrd
If you are struggling to hire data entry roles to help extract data from documents, please take comfort in the fact that you are not alone. Businesses and institutions of all sizes, even the IRS, are challenged by an acute labor shortage.
Complete Article: https://hubs.ly/Q01b-7Cg0
Smart Data Webinar: Artificial General Intelligence - When Can I Get It?DATAVERSITY
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - or strong AI - refers to a domain-independent, machine-based system that approaches or exceeds human performance on any and all cognitive tasks. Estimates for the arrival of true AGI solutions range from last week (as in, we have one!) to decades, to infinity and beyond. As the general study of cybernetic systems and modern AI and cognitive computing capture the imagination of civic and business leaders, and fans of science fiction, it is important to be able to distinguish between progress and smoke & mirrors.
This webinar will present an overview of approaches to AGI, examples of promising research and commercial AGI activities, and show participants how to critically evaluate academic and vendor claims.
Machine learning is a term thrown around in technology circles with an ever-increasing intensity. Major
technology companies have attached themselves to
this buzzword to receive capital investments, and every
major technology company is pushing its even shinier
parentartificial intelligence (AI).
In this presentation, you will discover how you can begin to leverage on the power and potential of Machine Learning as a technology tool and as a framework for growth.
Similar to Inside Story on HPC’s Role in Bridges Strategic Reasoning Research Project at CMU (20)
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
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Bob Boule
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Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
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Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
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Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Mission to Decommission: Importance of Decommissioning Products to Increase E...
Inside Story on HPC’s Role in Bridges Strategic Reasoning Research Project at CMU
1. Inside Story on HPC’s Role in
Bridges Strategic Reasoning
Research Project at CMU
Transcript of a discussion on how Carnegie Mellon University researchers are advancing
strategic reasoning and machine learning capabilities using the latest in high
performance computing.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Get the mobile app. Download the
transcript. Sponsor: Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Dana Gardner: Hello, and welcome to the next edition of the BriefingsDirect Voice of the
Customer Podcast Series. I’m Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor
Solutions, your host and moderator for this ongoing discussion on digital transformation
success stories. Stay with us now to learn how agile businesses are fending off
disruption -- in favor of innovation.
Our next high performance computing (HPC) success interview examines how strategic
reasoning is becoming more common and capable -- even using imperfect information.
We’ll now learn how Carnegie Mellon University and a team of researchers there are
producing amazing results with strategic reasoning thanks in part to powerful new
memory-intense systems architectures.
To learn more about strategic reasoning advances, please join
me in welcoming Tuomas Sandholm, Professor and Director of
the Electronic Marketplaces Lab at Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh.
Tuomas Sandholm: Thank you very much.
Gardner: Tell us about strategic reasoning and why imperfect
information is often the reality that these systems face?
Sandholm: In strategic reasoning we take the word “strategic”
very seriously. It means game theoretic, so in multi-agent
settings where you have more than one player, you can't just
optimize as if you were the only actor -- because the other players are going to act
strategically. What you do affects how they should play, and what they do affects how
you should play.
That's what game theory is about. In artificial intelligence (AI), there has been a long
history of strategic reasoning. Most AI reasoning -- not all of it, but most of it until about
12 years ago -- was really about perfect information games like Othello, Checkers,
Chess and Go.
And there has been tremendous progress. But these complete information, or perfect
information, games don't really model real business situations very well. Most business
situations are of imperfect information.
Sandholm
2. Know what you don’t know
So you don't know the other guy's resources, their goals and so on. You then need
totally different algorithms for solving these games, or game-theoretic solutions that
define what rational play is, or opponent exploitation techniques where you try to find out
the opponent's mistakes and learn to exploit them.
So totally different techniques are needed, and this has way more applications in reality
than perfect information games have.
Gardner: In business, you don't always know the rules. All the variables are dynamic,
and we don't know the rationale or the reasoning behind competitors’ actions. People
sometimes are playing offense, defense, or a little of both.
Before we dig in to how is this being applied in business circumstances, explain your
proof of concept involving poker. Is it Five-Card Draw?
Sandholm: No, we’re working on a much harder poker game called Heads-Up No-Limit
Texas Hold'em as the benchmark. This has
become the leading benchmark in the AI
community for testing these application-
independent algorithms for reasoning under
imperfect information.
The algorithms have really nothing to do with
poker, but we needed a common benchmark, much like the chipmakers have their
benchmarks. We compare progress year-to-year and compare progress across the
different research groups around the world. Heads-Up No-limit Texas Hold'em turned out
to be great benchmark because it is a huge game of imperfect information.
It has 10 to the 161 different situations that a player can face. That is one followed by
161 zeros. And if you think about that, it’s not only more than the number of atoms in the
universe, but even if, for every atom in the universe, you have a whole other universe
and count all those atoms in those universes -- it will still be more than that.
Gardner: This is as close to infinity as you can probably get, right?
Sandholm: Ha-ha, basically yes.
Gardner: Okay, so you have this massively complex potential data set. How do you
winnow that down, and how rapidly does the algorithmic process and platform learn? I
imagine that being reactive, creating a pattern that creates better learning is an
important part of it. So tell me about the learning part.
Three part harmony
Sandholm: The learning part always interests people, but it's not really the only part
here -- or not even the main part. We basically have three main modules in our
architecture. One computes approximations of Nash equilibrium strategies using only the
rules of the game as input. In other words, game-theoretic strategies.
Heads-Up No-Limit Texas
Hold’em has become the leading
benchmark in the AI community.
3. That doesn’t take any data as input, just the rules of the game. The second part is during
play, refining that strategy. We call that subgame solving.
Then the third part is the learning part, or the self-improvement part. And there,
traditionally people have done what’s called opponent modeling and opponent
exploitation, where you try to model the opponent or opponents and adjust your
strategies so as to take advantage of their weaknesses. However, when we go against
these absolute best human strategies, the best human players in the world, I felt that
they don't have that many holes to exploit and they are experts at counter-exploiting.
When you start to exploit opponents, you typically open yourself up for exploitation, and
we didn't want to take that risk. In the learning part, the third part, we took a totally
different approach than traditionally is taken in AI.
We said, “Okay, we are going to play according to our approximate game-theoretic
strategies. However, if we see that the opponents have been able to find some mistakes
in our strategy, then we will actually fill those mistakes and compute an even closer
approximation to game-theoretic play in those spots.”
One way to think about that is that we are letting
the opponents tell us where the holes are in our
strategy. Then, in the background, using
supercomputing, we are fixing those holes.
All three of these modules run on the Bridges
supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing
Center (PSC), for which the hardware was built
by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
Gardner: Is this being used in any business settings? It certainly seems like there's
potential there for a lot of use cases. Business competition and circumstances seem to
have an affinity for what you're describing in the poker use case. Where are you taking
this next?
Sandholm: So far this, to my knowledge, has not been used in business. One of the
reasons is that we have just reached the superhuman level in January 2017. And, of
course, if you think about your strategic reasoning problems, many of them are very
important, and you don't want to delegate them to AI just to save time or something like
that.
Now that the AI is better at strategic reasoning than humans, that completely shifts
things. I believe that in the next few years it will be a necessity to have what I call
strategic augmentation. So you can't have just people doing business strategy,
negotiation, strategic pricing, and product portfolio optimization.
HPC from HPE
Overcomes Barriers
To Supercomputing and Deep Learning
We are letting the opponents tell
us where the holes are in our
strategy. Then, in the
background, using
supercomputing, we are fixing
those holes.
4. You are going to have to have better strategic reasoning to support you, and so it
becomes a kind of competition. So if your competitors have it, or even if they don't, you
better have it because it’s a competitive advantage.
Gardner: So a lot of what we're seeing in AI and machine learning is to find the things
that the machines do better and allow the humans to do what they can do even better
than machines. Now that you have this new capability with strategic reasoning, where
does that demarcation come in a business setting? Where do you think that humans will
be still paramount, and where will the machines be a very powerful tool for them?
Human modeling, AI solving
Sandholm: At least in the foreseeable future, I see the demarcation as being modeling
versus solving. I think that humans will continue to play a very important role in modeling
their strategic situations, just to know everything that is pertinent and deciding what’s not
pertinent in the model, and so forth. Then the AI is best at solving the model.
That's the demarcation, at least for the foreseeable future. In the very long run, maybe
the AI itself actually can start to do the modeling part as well as it builds a better
understanding of the world -- but that is far in the future.
Gardner: Looking back as to what is enabling this, clearly the software and the
algorithms and finding the right benchmark, in this case the poker game are essential.
But with that large of a data set potential -- probabilities set like you mentioned -- the
underlying computer systems must need to keep up. Where are you in terms of the
threshold that holds you back? Is this a price issue that holds you back? Is it a
performance limit, the amount of time required? What are the limits, the governors to
continuing?
Sandholm: It's all of the above, and we are very fortunate that we had access to
Bridges; otherwise this wouldn’t have been possible at all. We spent more than a year
and needed about 25 million core hours of computing and 2.6 petabytes of data storage.
This amount is necessary to conduct serious absolute superhuman research in this field
-- but it is something very hard for a professor to obtain. We were very fortunate to have
that computing at our disposal.
Gardner: Let's examine the commercialization potential of this. You're not only a
professor at Carnegie Mellon, you’re a founder and CEO of a few companies. Tell us
about your companies and how the research is leading to business benefits.
Superhuman business strategies
Sandholm: Let’s start with Strategic Machine, a brand-new start-up company, all of two
months old. It’s already profitable, and we are applying the strategic reasoning
technology, which again is application independent, along with the Libratus technology,
the Lengpudashi technology, and a host of other technologies that we have exclusively
licensed to Strategic Machine. We are doing R&D at Strategic Machine as well, and we
are taking these to any application that wants us.
5. Such applications include business strategy optimization, automated negotiation, and
strategic pricing. Typically when people do pricing optimization algorithmically, they
assume that either their company is a monopolist or the competitors’ prices are fixed, but
obviously neither is typically true.
We are looking at how do you price strategically where you are taking into account the
opponent’s strategic response in advance. So you price into the future, instead of just
pricing reactively. The same can be done for product portfolio optimization along with
pricing.
Let's say you're a car manufacturer and you decide what product portfolio you will offer
and at what prices. Well, what you should do depends on what your competitors do and
vice versa, but you don’t know that in advance. So again, it’s an imperfect-information
game.
Gardner: And these are some of the most difficult problems that businesses face. They
have huge billion-dollar investments that they need to line up behind for these types of
decisions. Because of that pipeline, by the time they get to a dynamic environment
where they can assess -- it's often too late. So having the best strategic reasoning as far
in advance as possible is a huge benefit.
Sandholm: Exactly! If you think about machine
learning traditionally, it's about learning from the
past. But strategic reasoning is all about figuring
out what's going to happen in the future. And you
can marry these up, of course, where the
machine learning gives the strategic reasoning
technology prior beliefs, and other information to
put into the model.
There are also other applications. For example, cyber security has several applications,
such as zero-day vulnerabilities. You can run your custom algorithms and standard
algorithms to find them, and what algorithms you should run depends on what the other
opposing governments run -- so it is a game.
Similarly, once you find them, how do you play them? Do you report your vulnerabilities
to Microsoft? Do you attack with them, or do you stockpile them? Again, your best
strategy depends on what all the opponents do, and that's also a very strategic
application.
And in upstairs blocks trading, in finance, it’s the same thing: A few players, very big,
very strategic.
HPC from HPE
Overcomes Barriers
To Supercomputing and Deep Learning
If you think about machine
learning traditionally, it's about
learning from the past. But
strategic reasoning is all about
figuring out what's going to
happen in the future.
6. Gaming your own immune system
The most radical application is something that we are working on currently in the lab
where we are doing medical treatment planning using these types of sequential planning
techniques. We're actually testing how well one can steer a patient's T-cell population to
fight cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infections better by not just using one short
treatment plan -- but through sophisticated conditional treatment plans where the
adversary is actually your own immune system.
Gardner: Or cancer is your opponent, and you need to beat it?
Sandholm: Yes, that’s right. There are actually two different ways to think about that,
and they lead to different algorithms. We have looked at it where the actual disease is
the opponent -- but here we are actually looking at how do you steer your own T-cell
population.
Gardner: Going back to the technology, we've heard quite a bit from HPE about more
memory-driven and edge-driven computing, where the analysis can happen closer to
where the data is gathered. Are these advances of any use to you in better strategic
reasoning algorithmic processing?
Algorithms at the edge
Sandholm: Yes, absolutely! We actually started running at the PSC on an earlier
supercomputer, maybe 10 years ago, which was a shared-memory architecture. And
then with Bridges, which is mostly a distributed system, we used distributed algorithms.
As we go into the future with shared memory, we could get a lot of speedups.
We have both types of algorithms, so we know that we can run on both architectures.
But obviously, the shared-memory, if it can fit our models and the dynamic state of the
algorithms, is much faster.
Gardner: So the HPE Machine must be of interest to you: HPE’s advanced concept
demonstration model, with a memory-driven architecture, photonics for internal
communications, and so forth. Is that a technology you're keeping a keen eye on?
Sandholm: Yes. That would definitely be a desirable thing for us, but what we really
focus on is the algorithms and the AI research. We have been very fortunate in that the
PSC and HPE have been able to take care of the hardware side.
HPC from HPE
Overcomes Barriers
To Supercomputing and Deep Learning
7. We really don’t get involved in the hardware side that much, and I'm looking at it from the
outside. I'm trusting that they will continue to build the best hardware and maintain it in
the best way -- so that we can focus on the AI research.
Gardner: Of course, you could help supplement the cost of the hardware by playing
superhuman poker in places like Las Vegas, and perhaps doing quite well.
Sandholm: Ha-ha. Actually here in the live game in Las Vegas they don't allow that type
g the opponents tell us where the holes are in our of computational support. On the
Internet, AI has become a big problem on
gaming sites, and it will become an
increasing problem. We don't put our AI in
there; it’s against their site rules. Also, I think
it's unethical to pretend to be a human when
you are not. The business opportunities, the
monetary opportunities in the business
applications, are much bigger than what you
could hope to make in poker anyway.
Gardner: I’m afraid we’ll have to leave it there. We have been learning how Carnegie
Mellon University researchers are using strategic reasoning advances and pertaining
that to poker as a benchmark -- but clearly with a lot more runway in terms of other
business and strategic reasoning benefits.
So a big thank you to our guest, Tuomas Sandholm, Professor at Carnegie Mellon
University as well as Director of the Electronic Marketplace Lab there.
Sandholm: Thank you, my pleasure.
Gardner: And a big thank you to our audience as well for joining this BriefingsDirect
Voice of the Customer digital transformation success story discussion. I’m Dana
Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, your host for this ongoing series of
Hewlett Packard Enterprise-sponsored interviews.
Thanks again for listening. Please pass this along to your IT community, and do come
back next time.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Get the mobile app. Download the
transcript. Sponsor: Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Transcript of a discussion on how Carnegie Mellon University researchers are advancing
strategic reasoning and machine learning capabilities using high performance
computing. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2017. All rights reserved.
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It's unethical to pretend to be a
human when you are not. The
monetary opportunities, in the
business applications, are much
bigger than what you could hope
to make in poker anyway.
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