I ndian I nst it ut e of Management A nalyt ics Club '4/$

AnalyticaV O L 1 , I S S U E 1 | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7

In this issue:

THE BLOCKCHAIN

The blockchain is claimed to be a magic wand that can solve all the complex problems.

INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence (AI), is themachines ability to learn from its

experiences and create anintelligent system out of itself

based on those experiences

ARTIFICIAL

BUZZWORD

TWITTER EMPLOYEE

Treating prospective employees and interns through tweets is a nice step of engaging employees even before they join the organization

ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGN

Analytics Club

Indian Institute of Management Rohtak

AnalyticaO C T O B E R 2 0 1 9

10

12

Blockchain Technology

15

17

Artificial Intelligence – How much is enough?

News

Blockchain – A Decentralized Revolution

03Twitter Employee Engagement Campains: L’oreal Saga

01 The Blockchain Buzzword

ANALYTICS CLUB, IIM ROHTAK

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Page No. 1 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

The Blockchain Buzzword By Gaurav Sharma, IIM-Rohtak

If you have been attending any Business summits or reading about technological advancements in businesses, one word that you must have come across is Blockchain. The word is generally used with phrases like “The old rules don’t apply anymore”, “revolutionize the whole industry” or “it is the future.” All of these remind me of one more phrase “If it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.”

The blockchain is claimed to be a magic wand that can solve all the complex problems currently plaguing industries across the world. However, not a single business has successfully implemented blockchain to achieve something it couldn’t otherwise. The reason for that is the fundamental nature of Blockchain that makes it ridiculously impractical. The most popular of all is Bitcoin, which is a form of cryptocurrency that has found a widespread application on the darknet for purchasing drugs and other illicit material due to its anonymous nature. Even with such limited application, the Bitcoin Blockchain in 2016 consumed more electricity than that used by Google’s data centres worldwide the same year.

The key proposal of Blockchain for businesses is its decentralization. But decentralization is expensive and inefficient. The use cases where decentralization might offer more value, it can be achieved more efficiently without Blockchain. Every transaction that happens on a blockchain makes up a block and gets added to the chain forming a Block-chain. The size of the block that gets added to the Blockchain keeps on increasing with time (to increase efficiency) and so does the massive size of the chain itself. Add to it the fact that each block is hashed and thus needs enormous complex calculations to be cracked and added to the chain. This makes it unfeasible for people with normal computing power to mine these blocks as the size grows. As a result of this, the initially decentralized Blockchain mined and managed by many, now ends up centralized in the hands of a few, who invest a lot of money to create customized chips and other hardware just to mine these blocks.

Another problem with decentralization is the loss of control. For a transaction to take place over the

Blockchain mechanism, it needs to be mined. When the process is decentralized, you need to offer an excellent incentive to the miners to take up your block and add it to the chain. As the number of transactions increases, miners are bound to choose which block to mine. Due to this, many transactions that do not offer good incentives will be delayed or might never make it through. For example, in case of Bitcoin, only 57% of the transactions are confirmed in the first hour, and 20% are never confirmed at all and dropped eventually.

To add to the problem, the existence of Blockchain relies on the availability of data in a standardized and organized form. To get systems talking to each other, all the age-old data that they have needs to be converted into one standard form across industries. This will require tremendous human effort assuming that everyone is open to doing so in the first place.

The decentralization offered by Blockchain has one more benefit. It is immutable. That is, once something has been added to the Blockchain, it cannot be changed. But is that really a benefit? In the real business scenario, things change all the time. Orders get cancelled, set prices change or the people assigned to a task get shuffled. Immutability means that even if you add the updated data to the chain, the old one is still going to be there to be dragged around by every user forever.

Blockchain advocates will often offer another revolutionizing idea with Bitcoin I.e. Smart Contracts. These are computer codes designed to be executed on the fulfilment of specific pre-set criteria. The idea is to replace legal agreements with these smart contracts that are immune to human interference. But a computer code runs on hard facts whereas laws are a function of context and intent. No matter how precisely you define a law, there can be circumstances in which it becomes disputable. Therefore, it becomes necessary to ascertain what was the intent of the parties involved. A computer code cannot do that.


But if that is the case, then why are so many companies talking about Blockchain? The answer is there are not. Businesses often use words like Blockchain to ensure its customers that they are up to date with the latest buzzword in the industry. Let’s explore a few examples:

IBM: It offers IBM Blockchain based on Hyperledger. However, nobody really knows what it does. All that you can find on the site is a dumping ground for half-baked Blockchain experiments of other companies.

Accenture: The Blockchain offering of Accenture is the one that makes sense. It offers its users, a centralized authority and the option to edit the chain whenever necessary. Both of these features are precisely the opposite of what a Blockchain is.

Microsoft: The giant promises a Blockchain service with both public or private Blockchain option. You can also write smart contracts in it. All of the advantages of it are those already offered by Decentralized Autonomous Organisation(DAO). Also the release of the service is scheduled for “soon” with at least some of the offered features.

R3 Corda: The R3 Consortium’s distributed ledger is designed for financial institutions. They understood that what large paying customers want from their money is the opposite of Blockchain. Hence their “Blockchain Product” in its default state, does not contain a Blockchain.

It is important to understand the difference between what the Blockchain technology might be capable of, if all its fundamental problems are addressed, and what it can do. Can blockchain really handle the scale of your data? How will you deal with the different formats of data? Given the immutability of Blockchain, how will you resolve errors? What unique value proposition does Blockchain offer you that existing technologies cannot?

Citations

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/interview-jeffrey-smith-cio-ghash-io-1403528672/

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/google-data-center-faq-part-2/

https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.01414

https://www.hyperledger.org/projects


TWITTER EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

CAMPAIGNS: L’OREAL SAGA By Akash Bhatia, IIT-Kharagpur

Introduction: L’Oreal is world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field of cosmetics, concentrating on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfume and hair care. L’Oreal’s advertising slogan is "Because I'm worth it". By utilizing #lifeatloreal, employees have an opportunity to share fun events, communicate across borders, and build connections. #LorealCommunity was created and promoted to show the friendships and connections that existed inside of the company among employees. It gives employees an opportunity to share their successes and positive experiences with one another, building to concept of community by allowing employees to tell their stories through Instagram. The campaign saw results and usage within the company, but also opened the door to reach out to potential employees as well. Operating with the assumption that employees voices matter and that they impact the business has been a drive behind L’Oreal push for employee engagement.

Honey Comb’s model to measure effectiveness of campaign:

Alignment of L’Oreal’s employee engagement on Honey comb model:

Identity: People share personal information freely on some social media, but care how it's used by other parties. Different networks are distinct in how they approach these preferences, which companies need to keep in mind.

Treating prospective employees and interns through these tweets is a nice step of engaging employees even before they join the organization. Tweeting such tweets with #lifeatLoreal and @Lorealcareers helps to reach this post to the people who are going to apply at various positions at L’oreal. When such tweets are tweeted, the person/employee tagged in such pictures tend to re-tweet such tweets again and again. Thus, the post get maximum reach among users on Twitter.

Conversations: The pace of a conversation is much faster on Twitter than that on series blog posts, which means that the tone can quickly change. Firms need to be conscious about when and how they engage, and when a response is expected or appropriate.


#LifeatLoreal and #lorealcommunity got a huge appreciation on Twitter not only from the employees, but also from various HR, social media analysts and other Twitter users across the world. This really created a unique image of L’oreal HR interventions across the industry. These campaigns are regarded as one of the most successful and efficient online employee engagement activities

that are conducted on such a large scale across the globe.

Reputation: Social media platforms allow users to identify each others' standing and reputation, by for example, followers on Twitter views. Companies may want metrics that measure the quality in addition to the quantity of engagement.

Other Twitter accounts also talk about the culture at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal. Sharing pictures like above tell us that how much smooth and friendly the culture is there at L’oreal. Also, employees feel proud in being a part of L’oreal

family when they see posts like these. People other than the employees of L’oreal, when talk about the lucrative culture of L’oreal leaves a deeper impact on social media.


Sharing: It represents the extent to which users exchange, distribute, and receive content. The term ‘social’ often implies that exchanges between people are facilitated by a shared object.

Tweets about other departments help to share technical expertise among employees. This is a nice way to share knowledge and enhance engagement among employees. These initiatives also help the employees to understand the L’Oreal’s various processes and business insights.


The above tweet shows that how an employee is sharing the various insights of the marketing division over there at L’oreal. Such sort of tweet helps to share the internal activities and culture of the organization. Also, other employees feel good about the organization and feel a sort of connect with the organization if such sort of tweets come on a regular interval.

Sharing inspiring thoughts and quotes has been a trend with L’oreal via #lifeatloreal. When employees get such sort of thoughts on a regular basis, then they feel motivated towards their work. Such initiatives indulge a sense of positivity among employees.

Presence: It represents the extent to which users can know if other users are accessible. It includes knowing where others are, in the virtual world and/or in the real world, and whether they are available.

Showcasing the lucrative part of L’oreal office with #LifeatLoreal on occasions like Labor Day leaves a deep impact on company’s image. Also hash-tagging labor day with #LifeatLoreal helps to spread the post across Twitter. This helps to reach the post to maximum people on Twitter. It creates a quite niche image about corporate offices of L’oreal.

Introducing the already working employees is a nice initiative by #lifeatLoreal. It gives a motivational sense to the employees who are already working at L’oreal. Also, it gives a platform to other employees to know their subordinates at different location. Employees can connect to these tagged employees and can further substantify their relationship.


Relationships: It represents the extent to which users can be related to other users. By ‘relate,’ we mean that two or more users have some form of association that leads them to converse, share objects of sociality, meet up, or simply just list each other as a friend or fan.

Employees across the globe tend to share their pictures and experiences at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal campaign. This initiative enhanced a sense of belongingness among the employees. Also, the prospective employees feel motivated to join the organization by seeing such tweets.

Groups: The functional block represents the extent to which users can form communities and sub-communities.

Employees share the videos of their parties and fun activities with #LifeatLoreal. This creates an image that L’oreal is a fun loving organization. Also, subordinate employees feel a sense of connect when they see that some of their happy moments are cherished by L’oreal on social media. Again a sub stance step in enhancing employee engagement.


L’oreal conducted an international level competition Brandstorm in 2015 and 2016. All the countries where there is a L’oreal head office, participated in this competition. This competition was publicized through #LifeatLoreal campaign resulting in huge participation from all the L’oreal employees. Such initiative of conducting an international level competition among the employees of L’oreal and publicizing it through Twitter obviously enhance engagement among the employees. Also, sharing the details of winner on Twitter boosts the morale of the employees.

Employees tend to share their friendship stories and success sagas with #lifeatloreal. Thus, employees are spreading the engagement tales that are already persisting at L’oreal. These initiatives does internal and external branding for the organization automatically.

Employees share their sense of satisfaction while working at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal hashtag on Twitter. They also share their Instagram images of their L’oreal office. This is very important when an organization wants to attract top talent from the market. L’oreal gives liberty to its employee to share such tweets with the hashtag #LifeatLoreal. This HR policy is again an

appreciable step. This thing is also solving the problem of both internal branding and external branding.

An analysis of these campaigns is done on hootsuite and following results came out of it. As in the hootsuite, we can see that the engagement level increased from 2013 to 2014 to 2015. Thus, the engagement activities on Twitter were also increasing in that period.


Conclusion:

Employees share their sense of satisfaction while working at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal hash tag on Twitter. They also share their Instagram images of their L’oreal office. This is very important when an organization wants to attract top talent from the market. L’oreal gives liberty to its employee to share such tweets with the hash tag #LifeatLoreal. This HR policy is again an appreciable step. This thing is also solving the problem of both internal branding and external branding.

#LifeatLoreal and #LorealCommunity got a huge appreciation on Twitter not only from the employees, but also from various HR, social media analysts and other Twitter users across the world. This really created a unique image of L’oreal HR interventions across the industry. These campaigns are regarded as one of the most successful and efficient online employee engagement activities that are conducted on such a large scale across the globe.

These employee engagement programs are benchmark for other organizations to how to attract top talent from the industry and further engage them. These initiatives are the need of the hour and are obviously new trends in HR domain.


BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY By Amit Kumar Behera, IIM-Rohtak

One of the most exciting feature of technology is that it continues to evolve. We cannot expect it to become stagnant, as then the whole purpose of having it is lost. There is no doubt that it adds value to our lives, but as our needs and preferences keep on changing, we need different technologies at different periods of time. Now a new technology is around the corner, and it has started bringing with itself various new dimensions to the various routine processes that we conduct in our lives. Though it was initially meant for some other purpose with which it is still identified, it is not restricted to that now. This is the BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY. Originally designed for the handling of cryptocurrencies (Digital Currency).

HISTORY

The entity for which the blockchain technology was designed was a ‘’cryptic’’ one. It means that it was coded using such designs that it was not easy to hack or get into the systems holding these. Now the blockchain technology is itself a very cryptic as we still have ambiguity about its founders. The first work on cryptographically secured block of chains was started by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991. They in fact incorporated the technology in Hash Tree or Merkle Tree model which was used in large data structures for verification and storage a year later in 1992. In 2008, a group/individual named Satoshi Nakamoto started the first distributed blockchain feature as a part of the digital currency Bitcoin, which was a type of ledger for its transactions. A ledger is a book or a computer file which records all economic transactions of a company or an individual. It is still not known whether Satoshi Nakamoto is an individual or a group who started this feature in Bitcoin.

WHAT IS IT?

Now we should try to understand what is the concept behind the working of a blockchain technology. We can consider it to be an online file or spreadsheet which is distributed across several computer systems called nodes across a network with every single node acting as an administrator. This shows that the blockchain technology is a decentralized system as there is no central administration or single node where all the data entered is stored. We can share our information across the designated network. Whenever the network accepts an information, it validates it with a set of algorithms for its authenticity and only after that it accepts it for storage. Once the data is accepted, it is added to the similar set of data which are in the form of blockchain. These keep adding on and form an array of blockchains containing data which would be used to perform similar functions. Also, these blockchains are permanent and unalterable. Besides, the data is checked every 15 minutes for any possible updates. These checks and balances are automated inside the network and are done promptly once new data is received.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

As mentioned earlier, Blockchain Technology started its largescale use in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency handling. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are very popular nowadays as their value has been increasing rapidly. Recently their value increased to more than $5000 USD. Though it is no guarantee that this value will remain as high as this for a long time, as it may decrease or even crash, there is an increase in the popularity of Bitcoins. The blockchain technology enables it to accept transactions which is then verified and all the relevant information stored across a large network.


It is encrypted in a very robust way to prevent any misuse. Customers are provided with two keys called the Public Key and Private Key. The Public key acts as the User-ID using which the customers will enter into the network and access the Bitcoin transactions and other digital assets. But they cannot do it without the private key that acts as the password to enter the network. With this mechanism the information entering a blockchain network becomes incorruptible. Due to this robust technology behind cryptocurrency, now we have close to 700 Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies in the world which shows its increasing popularity and acceptance.

STRENGTHS

Now that we have a good understanding of how this technology works, we can assess the strengths of such a technology. One of the most visible strengths is its durability and robustness. It does not have any specific point where it can be targeted to bring it down as it is evident from the large number of nodes that it has. Another feature of this technology supporting its robustness is that it cannot be controlled by a single entity. This quality of the technology also makes it a decentralized system. Another important feature that it can boast of is its transparency, which is in short supply nowadays (no pun intended). By design, this technology is fully public, and everything stored in here is in public domain. The blockchain technology is a series of similar data which is put into a network of blockchains. This means that if one wants to make any changes in a single unit, he would have to change the entire network. This lends the technology its incorruptible character. Many of its benefits will further be visible once this technology is put into more use. But it does not come without its some of weaknesses.

WEAKNESSES

The major weakness of this technology is its anonymous nature. We never really know who is controlling what. This risk becomes even more significant when we consider blockchain technology use in the financial sector. Another

risk was recently highlighted when major bitcoin companies of US and South Korea were hacked. Though these hacks did not affect the funds, they were storing, but it was a pointer to what increased level of risks that it could face in the future. It is also fighting for its reliability with respect to Banks and other financial institutions.

APPLICATIONS

The major application of this technology would be in:

1. Executing small contracts which would only be processed when certain conditions are met

2. Elimination of third-party in many transactions would lead to a shared economy

3. Help in the establishment of crowdfunding networks

4. With its transparency features, it can be used to store electoral database

5. Some companies in US have been started supply chain auditing using blockchain technology

6. Can be used for the protection of intellectual property rights

7. Find application in Internet of Things (IoT) by aiding automation of remote systems

8. In shared economy help in Identity Management

9. Anti-money laundering and know-your-customer practices have application in this technology

10. In stock trading, it can eliminate intermediaries by assisting peer-to-peer transaction

LAST WORD

Blockchain technology has a good future ahead due to the large scope of application it can offer. It can have far-reaching impact on the banking and financial services industry. Recently Goldman Sachs has started using Bitcoin in a small scale to


test its potential. Though there are many critics of this move, it has shown that big names in the financial sector have started giving this concept a look as to how it can be further used for the benefit of all. This gives an immense credibility to this technology going forward. A very significant development related to blockchain was the banning of any cryptocurrency transaction in China. This event led to some early jitters for

people who have invested in Bitcoins as they feared other world governments may soon follow suit. It did not play out the way many had feared, and in fact, the value of bitcoins has increased according to recent trends. Let us hope this innovative technology is put to good use and finds its application in numerous other fields so that it can benefit all.

BLOCKCHAIN – A DECENTRALIZED REVOLUTION

By Tabish, NIT-Srinagar

Yap is a small island spanning a few hundred square kilometres in the western Pacific Ocean. The island is rather famous for its rather unconventional ‘stone money’, known as Rai, which are doughnut shaped, carved disks, up to 4 meters in diameter. Most of these ‘coins’ were mined and shaped in the neighbouring island called Palau, about 650km away. The complex mining process, coupled with overseas travel and hostility of Palau Island, brought additional value to the coins. Death of one or more navigators in the

gruelling transport process further inflated the value. The holes in the middle of these coins allow them to be mounted on massive wooden poles. Any transaction required several men to lift the coin and carry it to its new owner. This cumbersome task bought with it the risk of damaging the valuable coin. To avoid this risk, the villagers would leave the stone coins where they were, even if the owners changed. The islanders maintained a mental record of who owned what and referred to this distributed community record


of who owned what and referred to this distributed community record when dispute arose. This process had no involvement of any third parties as it relied on the community consensus.

Compared to this time-honoured system of the Yap Island, the more common system to keep track of currency or other services involves the use of records that are held and maintained by some 3rd party intermediates who broker transactions of any value between people and groups. All such records, stored in the form of ‘ledgers’, are held by and centrally controlled by these intermediaries. Banks and credit agencies are basic examples of these third parties. In the digital realm, the need for such ‘brokers’ is even more as tokens of any value and of any kind may be digitally replicated numerous times where each copy is a perfect replica of the original. The issue, however, with such third party systems is that they tend to have a great deal of authority over the goods or services that they broker. Because of this centralized authority and a lack of transparency, the illicit tampering of these record is not an uncommon occurrence. The actual owners of the services that these 3rd parties broker can only make requests to make changes in the records. As such, the true owners have little true authority.

Blockchain works in a fashion similar to the traditional currency system of the Yap Islanders. It is a stunning upgrade of the traditional ledger. Blockchain is a software that provides an open, decentralized database for any transaction involving value which includes, but not limited to, money, goods, property, work or votes. In the simplest form, blockchain makes the ‘ledger’ of records available and accessible to anyone connected to the network. Further, it allows any node of the network to maintain its own copy of the ledger and add transactions as they occur. Before a transaction is added permanently to the blockchain, it is verified across all the ledgers. As such, the authenticity of records is verified by a community. This eliminates the need for a 3rd party to act as the verification providers as the same is now handled by community consensus. Traditional ledgers, stored in any form, are tamperable, however,

illegitimate manipulation of a blockchain based ledger is close to impossible.

Blockchain has been called the ‘next big thing’ after the internet. With blockchain technology, the web gains a new layer of functionality. The applications are numerous. The first ever implementation of the blockchain in the form of blockchain based digital currencies is already challenging the role of banks by offering decentralization, distributiveness and security. Bitcoin is the first real application of the blockchain and its prices have risen by more than 5000% in just the last year. It has been suggested that the blockchain will do to banking what the internet did to media. The value of a decentralized and distributed financial system is intangible. IBM estimates about 15% banks will be utilizing blockchain by 2018. Banks like Barclays have already taken measures to incorporate blockchain into their ecosystem. The Government of India itself is planning on introducing a currency based on the blockchain.


True democracy in governments and voting systems is a controversial topic. Government processes tend to be slow and ineffective. The inability of the masses to closely monitor and track the changes in a complex bureaucratic system hinders democracy. Blockchain based government system, however, can reduce bureaucracy, increase security, efficiency and transparency. Dubai is already planning on putting up their official documents on blockchain by 2020.

A public voting system implemented on the blockchain could enable the shifting of the entire process online. The underlying technology could easily provide the security for such a system. The ability for everyone to see the changes in the record in real time would eliminate the possibilities of issues like vote counting frauds. It is a fool-proof way of enforcing true democracy in our governmental systems. Blockchain simply brings the power back into the hands of the people.

Blockchain also provides other promising avenues in fields such as IOT, insurance, privacy, digital media and more. Through IOT, devices can be made communicate directly with each other to update software, manage bugs and monitor energy usage. Smart devices could be set up with their own ‘virtual accounts’ so that the next time your printer runs out of ink, it can automatically purchase a new cartridge off the internet. Digital media creators can benefit from the blockchain by directly connecting with their audience and transacting with them without the need of intermediaries through smart contracts.

The greatest innovations that we have witnessed all have a single thing in common. They fill a deep void in the human society. They provide solutions to problems that we have long faced. Be it the printing press that filled the knowledge gap or the internet that filled the communication gap. The blockchain is no different. At the core of it, the blockchain fills a void that has been a part of the human race since the beginning. It fills the void of trust. It does so by providing a new method through which we rely on any service. Trust is a fundamental requirement of any business and any transaction. The blockchain brings digital exchanges close to the level of physical exchanges. It puts the authority over a service back into the hands of the people who own that service. Any system employing the block chain provides transparency, reliability and dependability and thus instils a sense of confidence in the participants in that system. No more missed transactions, human or machine errors, or even an exchange that was not done with the consent of the parties involved.

The world of blockchain is just starting to make waves in various sectors. Right now is a great opportunity for ordinary people to be involved in and be a part of a potentially ground-breaking innovation that could immensely change our social, political and economic institutions. You can see the Bitcoin chain in action by visiting a service like blockexplorer.com or even invest some of your money into Bitcoin or other such


cryptocurrencies to get a sense of how efficiently the system functions and all the benefits it offers. The blockchain is one of the most fundamental inventions in the history of computer science.

Blockchain is where the real excitement is. This technology has the ability to revolutionize entire industries.

Artificial Intelligence – How much is enough? By Siddharth Ganthade, IIM Rohtak

In todays’ world, we are witnessing an unprecedented growth in technology and consistent focus on innovation and development in each and every facets of digital forces surrounding us. Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the machines ability to learn from its experiences and create an intelligent system out of itself based on those experiences. The concept of AI has been out there since a long time but the actual formal foundation of AI is said to have taken place in the year 1956 by John McCarthy. Today AI is considered as one of the leading digital forces out there and it has shown a very promising though a bit of a worrisome growth in the recent past. AI has multiple implications for companies using it, and has applications ranging from speech recognition, threat detection, diagnosis of diseases and many more. With many companies focusing on AI for business development and process improvement, the growth of AI is surely going to be much faster than it has been any time before.

A survey conducted in the United States of America put forth that about 43% of Americans believe that AI pose a threat to the survival of human civilization in the long run. Also, loss of jobs to AI was amongst the most feared AI threats according to the same survey. With movies such as Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer ‘Terminator’ and Oscar nominated ‘Ex-Machina’ which if not amongst the first, were definitely amongst the most profound movies to have reflected on the possible negative consequences of development of AI, threat of AI is perceived by an even larger base of population. At the same time Joaquin Phoenix starrer ‘Her’ sheds light on how in an advanced

society, software programs with AI could develop intriguing intimate relationship with humans, which can raise a reasonable doubt and threat to the very fundamentals of the human civilization, i.e., socialization. Though the scenario as depicted in the movie can be a cheerful experience for some as it explores a totally untouched aspect of our life, but the question that arises here is if we are ready to make a trade-off between convenience and the jeopardy of losing the so called ‘human touch’ after-all.

In the wake of recent event which happened at the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) laboratory wherein a software program which was intended to let two bots communicate strictly following a specific protocol, had developed a new language to communicate on its own. A lot of concerns have been raised over the security against such instances and the degree of freedom to be provided to these AI programs in order to curb the possible damage they could cause. Even though this unexpected event had no to minimal damage/threat as it was run in a very controlled environment, but it had lot of experts consider the possibility of disruption it could create if such projects/simulations go out of hand. Engineer and inventor Elon Musk who has readily made his views on AI clear and stated that AI can be a reason to cause the third World War and that we should be aware of it, soon after which the mishap at FAIR laboratory took place. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft has also expressed his concerns regarding AI and stated that an AI system could enslave the entire human civilization in a time span as less as half-a-century.


Finally, looking towards the most primitive and most asked questions on AI and radically thinking over it, the question of loss of job can be answered based on empirical evidences such as the time of industrial revolution when industrialization was seen as a threat to most of the jobs that existed then, which is not really the case as we see it now. The jobs with much of repeat effort/labour will definitely be replaced by AI enabled machines thus increasing the overall efficiency, while the jobs which require human intervention on a logical and decision-making level will most probably always be safe with humans, so the loss of jobs to AI is not as grave a danger as it is generally perceived to be. As far as the question on survival of human civilization as a whole is considered, it remains to

be seen and we better not try to explore it. We humans have been always encouraged by the potential outcomes of new inventions and it has since ages fuelled our curiosity. The idea of AI is quite similar, i.e., learn from past experiences and look for newer opportunities to learn from. But in order to ensure the survival and prosperity of human life on earth, it is the need of the hour that a set of standard guidelines, rules and regulations are strictly mandated. This shall ensure not missing out on potential opportunities from AI and at the same time in curbing negative fallouts.

Page No. 17 ANALYTICA NEWS

Google’s AI Creates Much Better Machine-Learning Code Than Its Makers

Google’s AutoML system, introduced back in May, has recently produced machine-learning codes with higher efficiency than those made by its developers themselves. AutoML was developed as a solution to fill lack of top-notch talent in AI programming. To meet the demand for experts, Google developed AutoML to create self-learning code, and in a way, clone itself. Moreover, AutoML scored an 82% efficiency while sorting images based on their content. It was also given the task of locating multiple objects within an image. The code that AutoML wrote scored 43% while the best human-built program scored 39%.

Alien: Covenant Follow-Up Main Focus On

Artificial Intelligence

Of all the big hits coming out this year Alien: Covenant will be the most awaited. The Ridley Scott directed ‘monsters-in-space’ horror movie, is about the creation and end of the world. The shift in emphasis is set to be taken into the future of the series, as Scott has revealed the forthcoming sequel will focus more on AI than the aliens.

Indian Cops Have Big Plans On Using Big Data To Prevent And Solve Crimes

Recently, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is trying to use crime-related data analytics software to enable predictive policing techniques so that crime can be stopped beforehand. Hyderabad-based Advanced Data Research Institute (ADRIN) is developing a special software so that law enforcement agencies can map crime patterns and predictive analysis. “Not only offences, it will go a long way in predicting terrorist and Maoist attacks as well,” NCRB director Ish Kumar said.

Data Analytics, Social Media Trends To HelpBoost Security At Airports, Nuclear Bases

Data analytics and social media trends will be used for the first time in ensuring and monitoring security at the nation’s most vital assets such as airports, aerospace and nuclear installations. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the national agency assigned to secure these assets, has started a maiden and novel Social media trends and Media lab -- the Pattern Research For Institutional Social Media (PRISM) analytics -- at its HQ in Arakkonam nearby Chennai. The 1.80 lakh personnel-strong CISF is assigned to secure 59 airports and other vital installations under the command of the home ministry.

Big Data Analytics To Become A $16 Billion Industry By 2025: Experts

Big data analytics sector in India is likely to witness a 700% growth to reach $16 billion by 2025 from $2 billion currently, industry experts said. According to experts, India is now among the top 10 big data analytics markets in the world. However, Nasscom has set a competitive target of making the country one among the top three markets in the next three years. The government, industry and academia can collaborate to build an ecosystem to generate sustainable solutions by harnessing the power of big data and digital innovation," WNS Global Services Group CEO Keshav Murugesh said.

JPMorgan strategy’s AI to predict global markets

At the world’s most prominent debt dealer, traders can face trouble making sense of all the action that happens. Hence JP Morgan Chase & Co is fetching artificial intelligence to provide them a picture of the complete trading floor – and even predict where markets are going. MSX, a data analytics and machine-learning program, is being deployed in the bank’s fixed-income sales and trading operations,

Page No. 18 ANALYTICA NEWS

New York-based JPMorgan said in a statement. AI will compile data from all desks and orders to give traders and salespeople a more precise picture in real time and will help them anticipate market moves. Developed by London-based start- up Mosaic Smart Data, the program is already being used in JPMorgan’s rates trading.

India has 50000 new job opportunities in Analytics At a time when India’s IT industry is facing challenges in the form of layoff and other uncertainties, a new study reveals that the number of analytics jobs has nearly doubled in the past one year

and the demand for big data analytics jobs will continue to rise in the coming quarters.

The Analytics & Data Science India Jobs Study 2017 by Analytics India Magazine & Edvancer, one of India’s top online analytics training institute, suggests that the number of analytics jobs have increased nearly 100% in the last year from April 2016 to April 2017, with close to 50,000 positions related to analytics currently available to be filled in India. This increase is at nearly twice the rate in the previous year and suggests an increase in momentum of hiring in analytics and data science in India.

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