AI Data Flywheel

AI Data Flywheel — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Data-centric AI

    Data-centric AI

    Data-centric AI is an approach within artificial intelligence that emphasizes on improving the quality, consistency and representativeness of the data used to train machine learning models, rather than focusing primarily on optimizing model architectures or algorithms. This idea has gained traction as researchers and practitioners have come to believe that many performance limitations of machine learning systems stem from issues such as noisy labels, biased datasets, and lack of coverage in the data. Data-centric AI involves disciplined approach to data cleaning, augmentation, labeling, and governance that improves model performance and reliability in applications such as computer vision, natural language processing, and further.

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  • Business rule management system

    Business rule management system

    A BRMS or business rule management system is a software system used to define, deploy, execute, monitor and maintain the variety and complexity of decision logic that is used by operational systems within an organization or enterprise. This logic, also referred to as business rules, includes policies, requirements, and conditional statements that are used to determine the tactical actions that take place in applications and systems. == Overview == A BRMS includes, at minimum: A repository, allowing decision logic to be externalized from core application code Tools, allowing both technical developers and business experts to define and manage decision logic A runtime environment, allowing applications to invoke decision logic managed within the BRMS and execute it using a business rules engine The top benefits of a BRMS include: Reduced or removed reliance on IT departments for changes in live systems. Although, QA and Rules testing would still be needed in any enterprise system. Increased control over implemented decision logic for compliance and better business management including audit logs, impact simulation and edit controls. The ability to express decision logic with increased precision, using a business vocabulary syntax and graphical rule representations (decision tables, decision models, trees, scorecards and flows) Improved efficiency of processes through increased decision automation. Some disadvantages of the BRMS include: Extensive subject matter expertise can be required for vendor specific products. In addition to appropriate design practices (such as Decision Modeling), technical developers must know how to write rules and integrate software with existing systems Poor rule harvesting approaches can lead to long development cycles, though this can be mitigated with modern approaches like the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard. Integration with existing systems is still required and a BRMS may add additional security constraints. Reduced IT department reliance may never be a reality due to continued introduction to new business rule considerations or object model perturbations The coupling of a BRMS vendor application to the business application may be too tight to replace with another BRMS vendor application. This can lead to cost to benefits issues. The emergence of the DMN standard has mitigated this to some degree. Most BRMS vendors have evolved from rule engine vendors to provide business-usable software development lifecycle solutions, based on declarative definitions of business rules executed in their own rule engine. BRMSs are increasingly evolving into broader digital decisioning platforms that also incorporate decision intelligence and machine learning capabilities. However, some vendors come from a different approach (for example, they map decision trees or graphs to executable code). Rules in the repository are generally mapped to decision services that are naturally fully compliant with the latest SOA, Web Services, or other software architecture trends. == Related software approaches == In a BRMS, a representation of business rules maps to a software system for execution. A BRMS therefore relates to model-driven engineering, such as the model-driven architecture (MDA) of the Object Management Group (OMG). It is no coincidence that many of the related standards come under the OMG banner. A BRMS is a critical component for Enterprise Decision Management as it allows for the transparent and agile management of the decision-making logic required in systems developed using this approach. == Associated standards == The OMG Decision Model and Notation standard is designed to standardize elements of business rules development, specially decision table representations. There is also a standard for a Java Runtime API for rule engines JSR-94. OMG Business Motivation Model (BMM): A model of how strategies, processes, rules, etc. fit together for business modeling OMG SBVR: Targets business constraints as opposed to automating business behavior OMG Production Rule Representation (PRR): Represents rules for production rule systems that make up most BRMS' execution targets OMG Decision Model and Notation (DMN): Represents models of decisions, which are typically managed by a BRMS RuleML provides a family of rule mark-up languages that could be used in a BRMS and with W3C RIF it provides a family of related rule languages for rule interchange in the W3C Semantic Web stack Many standards, such as domain-specific languages, define their own representation of rules, requiring translations to generic rule engines or their own custom engines. Other domains, such as PMML, also define rules.

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  • Freddy II

    Freddy II

    Freddy (1969–1971) and Freddy II (1973–1976) were experimental robots built in the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception (later Department of Artificial Intelligence, now part of the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh). == Technology == Technical innovations involving Freddy were at the forefront of the 70s robotics field. Freddy was one of the earliest robots to integrate vision, manipulation and intelligent systems as well as having versatility in the system and ease in retraining and reprogramming for new tasks. The idea of moving the table instead of the arm simplified the construction. Freddy also used a method of recognising the parts visually by using graph matching on the detected features. The system used an innovative collection of high level procedures for programming the arm movements which could be reused for each new task. == Lighthill controversy == In the mid 1970s there was controversy about the utility of pursuing a general purpose robotics programme in both the USA and the UK. A BBC TV programme in 1973, referred to as the "Lighthill Debate", pitched James Lighthill, who had written a critical report for the science and engineering research funding agencies in the UK, against Donald Michie from the University of Edinburgh and John McCarthy from Stanford University. The Edinburgh Freddy II and Stanford/SRI Shakey robots were used to illustrate the state-of-the-art at the time in intelligent robotics systems. == Freddy I and II == Freddy Mark I (1969–1971) was an experimental prototype, with 3 degrees-of-freedom created by a rotating platform driven by a pair of independent wheels. The other main components were a video camera and bump sensors connected to a computer. The computer moved the platform so that the camera could see and then recognise the objects. Freddy II (1973–1976) was a 5 degrees of freedom manipulator with a large vertical 'hand' that could move up and down, rotate about the vertical axis and rotate objects held in its gripper around one horizontal axis. Two remaining translational degrees of freedom were generated by a work surface that moved beneath the gripper. The gripper was a two finger pinch gripper. A video camera was added as well as later a light stripe generator. The Freddy and Freddy II projects were initiated and overseen by Donald Michie. The mechanical hardware and analogue electronics were designed and built by Stephen Salter (who also pioneered renewable energy from waves (see Salter's Duck)), and the digital electronics and computer interfacing were designed by Harry Barrow and Gregan Crawford. The software was developed by a team led by Rod Burstall, Robin Popplestone and Harry Barrow which used the POP-2 programming language, one of the world's first functional programming languages. The computing hardware was an Elliot 4130 computer with 384KB (128K 24-bit words) RAM and a hard disk linked to a small Honeywell H316 computer with 16KB of RAM which directly performed sensing and control. Freddy was a versatile system which could be trained and reprogrammed to perform a new task in a day or two. The tasks included putting rings on pegs and assembling simple model toys consisting of wooden blocks of different shapes, a boat with a mast and a car with axles and wheels. Information about part locations was obtained using the video camera, and then matched to previously stored models of the parts. It was soon realised in the Freddy project that the 'move here, do this, move there' style of robot behavior programming (actuator or joint level programming) is tedious and also did not allow for the robot to cope with variations in part position, part shape and sensor noise. Consequently, the RAPT robot programming language was developed by Pat Ambler and Robin Popplestone, in which robot behavior was specified at the object level. This meant that robot goals were specified in terms of desired position relationships between the robot, objects and the scene, leaving the details of how to achieve the goals to the underlying software system. Although developed in the 1970s RAPT is still considerably more advanced than most commercial robot programming languages. The team of people who contributed to the project were leaders in the field at the time and included Pat Ambler, Harry Barrow, Ilona Bellos, Chris Brown, Rod Burstall, Gregan Crawford, Jim Howe, Donald Michie, Robin Popplestone, Stephen Salter, Austin Tate and Ken Turner. Also of interest in the project was the use of a structured-light 3D scanner to obtain the 3D shape and position of the parts being manipulated. The Freddy II robot is currently on display at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, with a segment of the assembly video shown in a continuous loop.

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  • General Problem Solver

    General Problem Solver

    General Problem Solver (GPS) is a computer program created in 1957 by Herbert A. Simon, J. C. Shaw, and Allen Newell (RAND Corporation) intended to work as a universal problem solver machine. In contrast to the former Logic Theorist project, the GPS works with means–ends analysis. == Overview == Any problem that can be expressed as a set of well-formed formulas (WFFs) or Horn clauses, and that constitutes a directed graph with one or more sources (that is, hypotheses) and sinks (that is, desired conclusions), can be solved, in principle, by GPS. Proofs in the predicate logic and Euclidean geometry problem spaces are prime examples of the domain of applicability of GPS. It was based on Simon and Newell's theoretical work on logic machines. GPS was the first computer program that separated its knowledge of problems (rules represented as input data) from its strategy of how to solve problems (a generic solver engine). GPS was implemented in the third-order programming language, IPL. While GPS solved simple problems such as the Towers of Hanoi that could be sufficiently formalized, it could not solve any real-world problems because the search was easily lost in the combinatorial explosion. Put another way, the number of "walks" through the inferential digraph became computationally untenable. (In practice, even a straightforward state space search such as the Towers of Hanoi can become computationally infeasible, albeit judicious prunings of the state space can be achieved by such elementary AI techniques as A and IDA). The user defined objects and operations that could be done on the objects, and GPS generated heuristics by means–ends analysis in order to solve problems. It focused on the available operations, finding what inputs were acceptable and what outputs were generated. It then created subgoals to get closer and closer to the goal. The GPS paradigm eventually evolved into the Soar architecture for artificial intelligence.

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  • Microsoft Azure

    Microsoft Azure

    Microsoft Azure, sometimes stylized Azure, and formerly Windows Azure, is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It offers management, access and development of applications and services to individuals, companies, and governments through its global infrastructure. Microsoft Azure supports many programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. Azure was first introduced at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October 2008 under the codename "Project Red Dog". It was officially launched as Windows Azure in February 2010 and later renamed to Microsoft Azure on March 25, 2014. == Services == Microsoft Azure uses large-scale virtualization at Microsoft data centers worldwide and offers more than 600 services. Microsoft Azure offers a service level agreement (SLA) that guarantees 99.9% availability for applications and data hosted on its platform, subject to specific terms and conditions outlined in the SLA documentation. === Computer services === Virtual machines, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), allowing users to launch general-purpose Microsoft Windows and Linux virtual machines, software as a service (SaaS), as well as preconfigured machine images for popular software packages. Starting in 2022, these virtual machines are now powered by Ampere Cloud-native processors. Most users run Linux on Azure, some of the many Linux distributions offered, including Microsoft's own Linux-based Azure Sphere. App services, platform as a service (PaaS) environment, letting developers easily publish and manage websites. Azure Web Sites allows developers to build sites using ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, Java, or Python, which can be deployed using FTP, Git, Mercurial, Azure DevOps, or uploaded through the user portal. This feature was announced in preview form in June 2012 at the Meet Microsoft Azure event. Customers can create websites in PHP, ASP.NET, Node.js, or Python, or select from several open-source applications from a gallery to deploy. This comprises one aspect of the platform as a service (PaaS) offerings for the Microsoft Azure Platform. It was renamed Web Apps in April 2015. Web Jobs are applications that can be deployed to an App Service environment to implement background processing that can be invoked on a schedule, on-demand, or run continuously. The Blob, Table, and Queue services can be used to communicate between Web Apps and Web Jobs and to provide state. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) provides the capability to deploy production-ready Kubernetes clusters in Azure. In July 2023, watermarking support on Azure Virtual Desktop was announced as an optional feature of Screen Capture to provide additional security against data leakage. === Identity === Entra ID connect is used to synchronize on-premises directories and enable SSO (Single Sign On). Entra ID B2C allows the use of consumer identity and access management in the cloud. Entra Domain Services is used to join Azure virtual machines to a domain without domain controllers. Azure information protection can be used to protect sensitive information. Entra ID External Identities is a set of capabilities that allow organizations to collaborate with external users, including customers and partners. On July 11, 2023, Microsoft announced the renaming of Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID. The name change took place four days later. === Mobile services === Mobile Engagement collects real-time analytics that highlight users' behavior. It also provides push notifications to mobile devices. HockeyApp can be used to develop, distribute, and beta-test mobile apps. === Storage services === Storage Services provides REST and SDK APIs for storing and accessing data on the cloud. Table Service lets programs store structured text in partitioned collections of entities that are accessed by the partition key and primary key. Azure Table Service is a NoSQL non-relational database. Blob Service allows programs to store unstructured text and binary data as object storage blobs that can be accessed by an HTTP(S) path. Blob service also provides security mechanisms to control access to data. Queue Service lets programs communicate asynchronously by message using queues. File Service allows storing and access of data on the cloud using the REST APIs or the SMB protocol. === Communication services === Azure Communication Services offers an SDK for creating web and mobile communications applications that include SMS, video calling, VOIP and PSTN calling, and web-based chat. === Data management === Azure Data Explorer provides big data analytics and data-exploration capabilities. Azure Search provides text search and a subset of OData's structured filters using REST or SDK APIs. Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database service that implements a subset of the SQL SELECT statement on JSON documents. Azure Cache for Redis is a managed implementation of Redis. StorSimple manages storage tasks between on-premises devices and cloud storage. Azure SQL Database works to create, scale, and extend applications into the cloud using Microsoft SQL Server technology. It also integrates with Active Directory, Microsoft System Center, and Hadoop. Azure Synapse Analytics is a fully managed cloud data warehouse. Azure Data Factory is a data integration service that allows creation of data-driven workflows in the cloud for orchestrating and automating data movement and data transformation. Azure Data Lake is a scalable data storage and analytic service for big data analytics workloads that require developers to run massively parallel queries. Azure HDInsight is a big data-relevant service that deploys Hortonworks Hadoop on Microsoft Azure and supports the creation of Hadoop clusters using Linux with Ubuntu. Azure Stream Analytics is a Serverless scalable event-processing engine that enables users to develop and run real-time analytics on multiple streams of data from sources such as devices, sensors, websites, social media, and other applications. === Messaging === The Microsoft Azure Service Bus allows applications running on Azure premises or off-premises devices to communicate with Azure. This helps to build scalable and reliable applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Azure service bus supports four different types of communication mechanisms: Event Hubs, which provides event and telemetry ingress to the cloud at a massive scale, with low latency and high reliability. For example, an event hub can be used to track data from cell phones such as coordinating with a GPS in real time. Queues, which allows one-directional communication. A sender application would send the message to the service bus queue and a receiver would read from the queue. Though there can be multiple readers for the queue, only one would process a single message. Topics, which provides one-directional communication using a subscriber pattern. It is similar to a queue; however, each subscriber will receive a copy of the message sent to a Topic. Optionally, the subscriber can filter out messages based on specific criteria defined by the subscriber. Relays, which provides bi-directional communication. Unlike queues and topics, a relay does not store in-flight messages in its memory; instead, it just passes them on to the destination application. === Media services === A PaaS offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming, or analytics. === CDN === Azure has a worldwide content delivery network (CDN) designed to efficiently deliver audio, video, applications, images, and other static files. It improves the performance of websites by caching static files closer to users, based on their geographic location. Users can manage the network using a REST-based HTTP API. Azure has 118 point-of-presence locations across 100 cities worldwide (also known as Edge locations) as of January 2023. === Developer === Application Insights Azure DevOps === Management === With Azure Automation, users can easily automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, often prone to cloud or enterprise setting errors. They can accomplish it using runbooks or desired state configurations for process automation. Microsoft SMA === Azure AI === Microsoft Azure Machine Learning (Azure ML) provides tools and frameworks for developers to create their own machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) services. Azure AI Services by Microsoft comprises prebuilt APIs, SDKs, and services developers can customize. These services encompass perceptual and cognitive intelligence features such as speech recognition, speaker recognition, neural speech synthesis, face recognition, computer vision, OCR/form understanding, natural language processing, machine translation, and business decision services. Many AI characteristics in Microsoft's products and services, namely Bing, Office, Teams, Xbox, and Windows, are driven by Azure AI Services. Microsoft Foundry (formerly known as Azure AI Studio)

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  • AlphaGo Zero

    AlphaGo Zero

    AlphaGo Zero is a version of DeepMind's Go software AlphaGo. AlphaGo's team published an article in Nature in October 2017 introducing AlphaGo Zero, a version created without using data from human games, and stronger than any previous version. By playing games against itself, AlphaGo Zero: surpassed the strength of AlphaGo Lee in three days by winning 100 games to 0; reached the level of AlphaGo Master in 21 days; and exceeded all previous versions in 40 days. Training artificial intelligence (AI) without datasets derived from human experts has significant implications for the development of AI with superhuman skills, as expert data is "often expensive, unreliable, or simply unavailable." Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, said that AlphaGo Zero was so powerful because it was "no longer constrained by the limits of human knowledge". Furthermore, AlphaGo Zero performed better than standard deep reinforcement learning models (such as Deep Q-Network implementations) due to its integration of Monte Carlo tree search. David Silver, one of the first authors of DeepMind's papers published in Nature on AlphaGo, said that it is possible to have generalized AI algorithms by removing the need to learn from humans. Google later developed AlphaZero, a generalized version of AlphaGo Zero that could play chess and shōgi in addition to Go. In December 2017, AlphaZero beat the 3-day version of AlphaGo Zero by winning 60 games to 40, and with 8 hours of training it outperformed AlphaGo Lee on an Elo scale. AlphaZero also defeated a top chess program (Stockfish) and a top Shōgi program (Elmo). == Architecture == The network in AlphaGo Zero is a ResNet with two heads. The stem of the network takes as input a 17x19x19 tensor representation of the Go board. 8 channels are the positions of the current player's stones from the last eight time steps. (1 if there is a stone, 0 otherwise. If the time step go before the beginning of the game, then 0 in all positions.) 8 channels are the positions of the other player's stones from the last eight time steps. 1 channel is all 1 if black is to move, and 0 otherwise. The body is a ResNet with either 20 or 40 residual blocks and 256 channels. There are two heads, a policy head and a value head. Policy head outputs a logit array of size 19 × 19 + 1 {\displaystyle 19\times 19+1} , representing the logit of making a move in one of the points, plus the logit of passing. Value head outputs a number in the range ( − 1 , + 1 ) {\displaystyle (-1,+1)} , representing the expected score for the current player. -1 represents current player losing, and +1 winning. == Training == AlphaGo Zero's neural network was trained using TensorFlow, with 64 GPU workers and 19 CPU parameter servers. Only four TPUs were used for inference. The neural network initially knew nothing about Go beyond the rules. Unlike earlier versions of AlphaGo, Zero only perceived the board's stones, rather than having some rare human-programmed edge cases to help recognize unusual Go board positions. The AI engaged in reinforcement learning, playing against itself until it could anticipate its own moves and how those moves would affect the game's outcome. In the first three days AlphaGo Zero played 4.9 million games against itself in quick succession. It appeared to develop the skills required to beat top humans within just a few days, whereas the earlier AlphaGo took months of training to achieve the same level. According to Epoch.ai, training cost 3e23 FLOPs. For comparison, the researchers also trained a version of AlphaGo Zero using human games, AlphaGo Master, and found that it learned more quickly, but actually performed more poorly in the long run. DeepMind submitted its initial findings in a paper to Nature in April 2017, which was then published in October 2017. == Hardware cost == The hardware cost for a single AlphaGo Zero system in 2017, including the four TPUs, has been quoted as around $25 million. == Applications == According to Hassabis, AlphaGo's algorithms are likely to be of the most benefit to domains that require an intelligent search through an enormous space of possibilities, such as protein folding (see AlphaFold) or accurately simulating chemical reactions. AlphaGo's techniques are probably less useful in domains that are difficult to simulate, such as learning how to drive a car. DeepMind stated in October 2017 that it had already started active work on attempting to use AlphaGo Zero technology for protein folding, and stated it would soon publish new findings. == Reception == AlphaGo Zero was widely regarded as a significant advance, even when compared with its groundbreaking predecessor, AlphaGo. Oren Etzioni of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence called AlphaGo Zero "a very impressive technical result" in "both their ability to do it—and their ability to train the system in 40 days, on four TPUs". The Guardian called it a "major breakthrough for artificial intelligence", citing Eleni Vasilaki of Sheffield University and Tom Mitchell of Carnegie Mellon University, who called it an impressive feat and an “outstanding engineering accomplishment" respectively. Mark Pesce of the University of Sydney called AlphaGo Zero "a big technological advance" taking us into "undiscovered territory". Gary Marcus, a psychologist at New York University, has cautioned that for all we know, AlphaGo may contain "implicit knowledge that the programmers have about how to construct machines to play problems like Go" and will need to be tested in other domains before being sure that its base architecture is effective at much more than playing Go. In contrast, DeepMind is "confident that this approach is generalisable to a large number of domains". In response to the reports, South Korean Go professional Lee Sedol said, "The previous version of AlphaGo wasn’t perfect, and I believe that’s why AlphaGo Zero was made." On the potential for AlphaGo's development, Lee said he will have to wait and see but also said it will affect young Go players. Mok Jin-seok, who directs the South Korean national Go team, said the Go world has already been imitating the playing styles of previous versions of AlphaGo and creating new ideas from them, and he is hopeful that new ideas will come out from AlphaGo Zero. Mok also added that general trends in the Go world are now being influenced by AlphaGo's playing style. "At first, it was hard to understand and I almost felt like I was playing against an alien. However, having had a great amount of experience, I’ve become used to it," Mok said. "We are now past the point where we debate the gap between the capability of AlphaGo and humans. It’s now between computers." Mok has reportedly already begun analyzing the playing style of AlphaGo Zero along with players from the national team. "Though having watched only a few matches, we received the impression that AlphaGo Zero plays more like a human than its predecessors," Mok said. Chinese Go professional Ke Jie commented on the remarkable accomplishments of the new program: "A pure self-learning AlphaGo is the strongest. Humans seem redundant in front of its self-improvement." == Comparison with predecessors == == AlphaZero == On 5 December 2017, DeepMind team released a preprint on arXiv, introducing AlphaZero, a program using generalized AlphaGo Zero's approach, which achieved within 24 hours a superhuman level of play in chess, shogi, and Go, defeating world-champion programs, Stockfish, Elmo, and 3-day version of AlphaGo Zero in each case. AlphaZero (AZ) is a more generalized variant of the AlphaGo Zero (AGZ) algorithm, and is able to play shogi and chess as well as Go. Differences between AZ and AGZ include: AZ has hard-coded rules for setting search hyperparameters. The neural network is now updated continually. Chess (unlike Go) can end in a tie; therefore AZ can take into account the possibility of a tie game. An open source program, Leela Zero, based on the ideas from the AlphaGo papers is available. It uses a GPU instead of the TPUs recent versions of AlphaGo rely on.

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  • D3web

    D3web

    d3web is a free, open-source platform for knowledge-based systems (expert systems). Its core is written in Java using XML and/or Office-based formats for the knowledge storage. All of its components are distributed under the terms of the Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL). The d3web diagnostic core implements reasoning and persistence components for problem-solving knowledge including decision trees, (heuristic) rules, set-covering models and diagnostic flowcharts. The software can be integrated into foreign applications (embedded or OEM), but a number of off-the-shelf components already exist. == Components == d3web is a component-based software platform providing applications for authoring and using/executing problem-solving knowledge. The following applications are primarily using d3web: KnowWE (Knowledge Wiki Environment): A semantic wiki building on JSPWiki. Problem-solving knowledge can be authored and executed through the wiki interface. Developed knowledge bases can be exported to be used in OEM or embedded reasoners. Additionally, knowledge exchange via OWL ontologies is provided. KnowME (Knowledge Modelling Environment): A rich-client application for the development of d3web knowledge bases. Problem-solving knowledge can be authored and executed within the desktop application. Developed knowledge bases can be used in OEM or embedded reasoners. The software KnowME is no longer under active development. It is replaced by the KnowWE component (see above). Dialog2: A web-based application for demonstrating the capabilities of the d3web core reasoner. The web servlet is based on Java Server Faces. It can be used out of box or as a starting point for own developments for building knowledge-based interview systems. == Application Domains == A number of industrial and academic projects already used or are currently using the d3web platform. The main application domains are: medical diagnosis, documentation, and therapy: technical fault diagnosis monitoring of technical devices. Some applications (both, commercial and free) created using the d3web diagnostic engine: SmartCare(c): a medical closed-loop system for weaning mechanically ventilated patients, created by Dräger SonoConsult Archived 2011-12-16 at the Wayback Machine: a medical support system for evaluating sonographic examinations (German only) eDOC: a web-based system for self-diagnosing various medical issues (German only) == History == The development of d3web originates from the research work of Prof. Dr. Frank Puppe (University Würzburg, Germany) going back to the 1980s, starting with the medical expert systems MED1 and MED2 . Whereas the original systems were focussed on medical diagnosis the applicability of the approach was generalized by the successor D3 . As the predecessors were implemented in the LISP programming language, d3web is a full Java re-implementation.

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  • Chainer

    Chainer

    Chainer is an open source deep learning framework written purely in Python on top of NumPy and CuPy Python libraries. The development is led by Japanese venture company Preferred Networks in partnership with IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Chainer is notable for its early adoption of "define-by-run" scheme, as well as its performance on large scale systems. The first version was released in June 2015 and has gained large popularity in Japan since then. Furthermore, in 2017, it was listed by KDnuggets in top 10 open source machine learning Python projects. In December 2019, Preferred Networks announced the transition of its development effort from Chainer to PyTorch and it will only provide maintenance patches after releasing v7. == Define-by-run == Chainer was the first deep learning framework to introduce the define-by-run approach. The traditional procedure to train a network was in two phases: define the fixed connections between mathematical operations (such as matrix multiplication and nonlinear activations) in the network, and then run the actual training calculation. This is called the define-and-run or static-graph approach. Theano and TensorFlow are among the notable frameworks that took this approach. In contrast, in the define-by-run or dynamic-graph approach, the connection in a network is not determined when the training is started. The network is determined during the training as the actual calculation is performed. One of the advantages of this approach is that it is intuitive and flexible. If the network has complicated control flows such as conditionals and loops, in the define-and-run approach, specially designed operations for such constructs are needed. On the other hand, in the define-by-run approach, programming language's native constructs such as if statements and for loops can be used to describe such flow. This flexibility is especially useful to implement recurrent neural networks. Another advantage is ease of debugging. In the define-and-run approach, if an error (such as numeric error) has occurred in the training calculation, it is often difficult to inspect the fault, because the code written to define the network and the actual place of the error are separated. In the define-by-run approach, you can just suspend the calculation with the language's built-in debugger and inspect the data that flows on your code of the network. Define-by-run has gained popularity since the introduction by Chainer and is now implemented in many other frameworks, including PyTorch and TensorFlow. == Extension libraries == Chainer has four extension libraries, ChainerMN, ChainerRL, ChainerCV and ChainerUI. ChainerMN enables Chainer to be used on multiple GPUs with performance significantly faster than other deep learning frameworks. A supercomputer running Chainer on 1024 GPUs processed 90 epochs of ImageNet dataset on ResNet-50 network in 15 minutes, which is four times faster than the previous record held by Facebook. ChainerRL adds state of art deep reinforcement learning algorithms, and ChainerUI is a management and visualization tool. == Applications == Chainer is used as the framework for PaintsChainer, a service which does automatic colorization of black and white, line only, draft drawings with minimal user input.

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  • Capture the flag (cybersecurity)

    Capture the flag (cybersecurity)

    In computer security, Capture the Flag (CTF) is an exercise in which participants attempt to find text strings, called "flags", which are secretly hidden in purposefully vulnerable programs or websites. They can be used for both competitive or educational purposes. In two main variations of CTFs, participants either steal flags from other participants (attack/defense-style CTFs) or from organizers (jeopardy-style challenges). A mixed competition combines these two styles. Competitions can include hiding flags in hardware devices, they can be both online or in-person, and can be advanced or entry-level. The game is inspired by the traditional outdoor sport with the same name. CTFs are used as a tool for developing and refining cybersecurity skills, making them popular in both professional and academic settings. == Overview == Capture the Flag (CTF) is a cybersecurity competition that is used to test and develop computer security skills. It was first developed in 1996 at DEF CON, the largest cybersecurity conference in the United States which is hosted annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference hosts a weekend of cybersecurity competitions, including their flagship CTF. Two popular CTF formats are jeopardy and attack-defense. Both formats test participant’s knowledge in cybersecurity, but differ in objective. In the Jeopardy format, participating teams must complete as many challenges of varying point values from a various categories such as cryptography, web exploitation, and reverse engineering. In the attack-defense format, competing teams must defend their vulnerable computer systems while attacking their opponent's systems. The exercise involves a diverse array of tasks, including exploitation and cracking passwords, but there is little evidence showing how these tasks translate into cybersecurity knowledge held by security experts. Recent research has shown that the Capture the Flag tasks mainly covered technical knowledge but lacked social topics like social engineering and awareness on cybersecurity. == Educational applications == CTFs have been shown to be an effective way to improve cybersecurity education through gamification. There are many examples of CTFs designed to teach cybersecurity skills to a wide variety of audiences, including PicoCTF, organized by the Carnegie Mellon CyLab, which is oriented towards high school students, and Arizona State University supported pwn.college. Beyond educational CTF events and resources, CTFs has been shown to be a highly effective way to instill cybersecurity concepts in the classroom. CTFs have been included in undergraduate computer science classes such as Introduction to Information Security at the National University of Singapore. CTFs are also popular in military academies. They are often included as part of the curriculum for cybersecurity courses, with the NSA organized Cyber Exercise culminating in a CTF competition between the US service academies and military colleges. == Competitions == Many CTF organizers register their competition with the CTFtime platform. This allows the tracking of the position of teams over time and across competitions. These include "Plaid Parliament of Pwning", "More Smoked Leet Chicken", "Dragon Sector", "dcua", "Eat, Sleep, Pwn, Repeat", "perfect blue", "organizers" and "Blue Water". Overall the "Plaid Parliament of Pwning" and "Dragon Sector" have both placed first worldwide the most with three times each. === Community competitions === Every year there are dozens of CTFs organized in a variety of formats. Many CTFs are associated with cybersecurity conferences such as DEF CON, various editions of SANS Institute's NetWars, HITCON, and BSides. The DEF CON CTF, an attack-defence CTF, is notable for being one of the oldest CTF competitions to exist, and has been variously referred to as the "World Series", "Superbowl", and "Olympics", of hacking by media outlets. The NYU Tandon hosted Cybersecurity Awareness Worldwide (CSAW) CTF is one of the largest open-entry competitions for students learning cybersecurity from around the world. In 2021, it hosted over 1200 teams during the qualification round. In addition to conference organized CTFs, many CTF clubs and teams organize CTF competitions. Many CTF clubs and teams are associated with universities, such as the CMU associated Plaid Parliament of Pwning, which hosts PlaidCTF, and the ASU associated Shellphish. Some community CTFs are online and open to all participants. The SANS Institute Holiday Hack Challenge and TryHackMe Advent of Cyber. === Government-supported competitions === Governmentally supported CTF competitions include the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge and ENISA European Cybersecurity Challenge. In 2023, the US Space Force-sponsored Hack-a-Sat CTF competition included, for the first time, a live orbital satellite for participants to exploit. === Corporate-supported competitions === Corporations and other organizations sometimes use CTFs as a training or evaluation exercise, with benefits similar to those in educational settings. In addition to internal CTF exercises, some corporations such as Google and Tencent host publicly accessible CTF competitions. == In popular culture == In Mr. Robot, a qualification round for the DEF CON CTF competition is depicted in the season 3 opener "eps3.0_power-saver-mode.h". The logo for DEF CON can be seen in the background. In The Undeclared War, a CTF is depicted in the opening scene of the series as a recruitment exercise used by GCHQ. Go Go Squid!, a Chinese television series, is based around training for and competing in highly stylized CTF competitions .

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  • Colossus (supercomputer)

    Colossus (supercomputer)

    Colossus is a supercomputer developed by xAI. Construction began in 2024 in Memphis, Tennessee; the system became operational in July 2024. It is currently the world's largest AI supercomputer. Colossus's primary purpose is to train the company's chatbot, Grok. In addition, Colossus provides computing support to the social-media platform X and to other projects of Elon Musk, such as SpaceX. In 2025, it expanded to neighboring Southaven, Mississippi across the Tennessee–Mississippi border. As of May 6, 2026, Anthropic has agreed to rent all compute capacity at the Colossus 1 data center. == Background == Colossus was launched in September 2024 at a former Electrolux site in South Memphis to train the AI language model Grok. Within 19 days of the project's conception, xAI was ready to begin construction. The site was chosen because the abandoned Electrolux building could be repurposed to expedite construction and its proximity to a nearby wastewater treatment facility provided a water source. As of February 2025, xAI plans to build an $80 million facility to process additional wastewater for use at the supercomputer. === xAI === Musk incorporated xAI in March 2023 with the stated purpose of understanding the "nature of the universe". The team includes former members of OpenAI, DeepMind, Microsoft, and Tesla. Musk was one of the founding members of the company OpenAI, investing up to US$45 million in 2015. He left OpenAI in 2018, reportedly to avoid conflicts of interest with Tesla. It has also been reported that he had made a bid for leadership at OpenAI and left when his proposal was rejected. The exact reasons for his departure from the company are unclear. Both Dell Technologies and Supermicro partnered with xAI to build the supercomputer. It was originally powered by 100,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and was constructed in 122 days. 3 months after the first 100,000 GPUs were deployed, xAI announced that they had increased the system to 200,000 GPUs and that they intended to continue increasing the computer's processing power to 1 million GPUs. As of April 2025, xAI claimed Colossus was the largest AI training platform in the world. == Choice of location == xAI selected Memphis, in southwestern Tennessee, as the site for Colossus in part because an existing industrial facility allowed the project to proceed more quickly than constructing a new data center. Elon Musk was initially told that building a data center would take 18–24 months. The company instead searched for a vacant facility and selected the former Electrolux factory in Memphis. Electrolux opened the facility in 2012 and operated it for about eight years before closing it in 2020 after relocating operations to Springfield, Tennessee. The building covered 785,000 sq ft (72,900 m2) and had been purchased by Phoenix Investors in December 2023 for $35 million . Because the structure was already in place, work on the supercomputer could begin immediately rather than waiting for a new facility to be constructed. According to Forbes, xAI considered seven or eight other sites before selecting Memphis, and Musk finalized the decision to build in Memphis in about a week. The decision was finalized in March 2024, after which construction began. xAI publicly announced in June 2024 that Colossus would be built in Memphis. The building itself was not the only reason xAI selected Memphis. According to the Greater Memphis Chamber, the company chose the city because of its "reliable power grid, ability to create a water recycling facility, proximity to the Mississippi River and ample land". The city was also able to provide the large amounts of electricity and water needed to operate the supercomputer. At full capacity, the system was expected to require 150 megawatts of electricity and millions of gallons of water per day. The project also relied on partnerships with local and regional organizations including Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the City of Memphis, and Shelby County. The city also provided financial incentives for the project. == Environmental impact == AI data centers consume large amounts of energy. At the site of Colossus in South Memphis, the grid connection was only 8 MW, so xAI applied to temporarily set up more than a dozen gas turbines (Voltagrid’s 2.5 MW units and Solar Turbines’ 16 MW SMT-130s) which would steadily burn methane gas from a 16-inch natural gas main. Aerial imagery in April 2025 showed 35 gas turbines had been set up at a combined 422 MW. These turbines have been estimated to generate about "72 megawatts, which is approximately 3% of the (TVA) power grid". The higher number of gas turbines and the subsequent emissions requires xAI to have a major source permit. In Memphis, xAI was able to avoid some environmental rules in the construction of Colossus, such as operating without permits for the on-site methane gas turbines because they are "portable". The Shelby County Health Department told NPR that "it only regulates gas-burning generators if they're in the same location for more than 364 days". However, in a January 2026 ruling, the EPA revised its New Source Performance Standard and announced that large methane gas turbines require permits even for temporary operations. In November 2024, the grid connection was upgraded to 150 MW, and some turbines were removed. Along with high electricity needs, the expected water demand is over five million gallons of water per day. While xAI has stated they plan to work with MLGW on a wastewater treatment facility and the installation of 50 megawatts of large battery storage facilities, there are currently no concrete plans in place aside from a one-page factsheet shared by MLGW. == Community response == The plan to build Colossus in Memphis was unknown to residents, City Council members, and environmental agencies. Many did not find out about the project until the day before, or the day of, as they watched the announcement on the local news. Keshaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution, stated that there is a historical lack of transparency and communication surrounding environmental issues in Memphis. Some community members in Memphis have expressed concern about the potential for additional air and water pollution caused by the supercomputer. In a letter to the Shelby County Health Department, the Southern Environmental Law Center stated the emissions from the turbines make the facility "...likely the largest industrial emitter of NOx in Memphis..." This is due to data supplied by the manufacturer showing that "...xAI emits between 1,200 and 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx)..." At a public Shelby County Commissioner's hearing on April 9, 2025, residents living near the site of Colossus voiced complaints about air quality, noting that they have chronic respiratory issues related to living in a polluted section of Memphis. One woman said she smells "everything but the right thing and the right thing is the clean air." Other residents voiced frustration that Brent Mayo, the senior xAI official responsible for building out xAI's infrastructure, did not attend the meeting to discuss community concerns. Keshaun Pearson also stated that "We're getting more and more days a year where it is unhealthy for us to go outside." People living near the site of Colossus have said they were not offered the opportunity for a public review of the plans, nor were they provided with information on how their community could potentially benefit. The community is also concerned about the strain on the power grid. Memphis's peak demand is around 3 GW. In November 2024, TVA approved xAI's request for access to more than 100 megawatts of power to Colossus which is supplied by MLGW. In December 2022, MLGW imposed (then rescinded) rolling blackouts during several days of extreme cold, straining the power grid. In a letter to the TVA, the SELC "urged the agency to 'prioritize Memphis families' access to reliable power over the 'secondary purpose' of serving xAI". == Current progress == In early December 2024, Ted Townsend detailed how the power of Colossus doubled in its processing capability. When it first went online in September 2024, it was using "100,000 Nvidia H100 processing chips". This initial launch demonstrated Colossus to be the largest supercomputer globally. The maximum power consumption increased from 150 to 250 MW. As of June 2025, the supercomputer consists of 150,000 H100 GPUs, 50,000 H200 GPUs, and 30,000 GB200 GPUs. Another 110,000 GB200 GPUs are to be brought online at a second data center, also in the Memphis area. The expansion of this supercomputer has already been discussed and will be the second phase of the project. xAI also plans to increase Colossus to 1 million GPUs. Because the supercomputer currently utilizes gas turbines for power, alongside 168 Tesla Megapack battery storage units. xAI is also looking to add more

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  • Script theory

    Script theory

    Script theory is a psychological theory which posits that human behaviour largely falls into patterns called scripts because they function the way a written script does, by providing a program for action. Silvan Tomkins created script theory as a further development of his affect theory, which regards human beings' emotional responses to stimuli as falling into categories called affects: he noticed that the purely biological response of affect may be followed by awareness and by what we cognitively do in terms of acting on that affect, so that more was needed to produce a complete explanation of what he called human being theory. These scripts fall under the larger cognitive concept called schemas, which are organized chunks of information. A schema is a script that has the potential to lack the specificity of the sequence of events. A schema becomes a script is when there is an ordering to it that requires action, such as the process of starting a car (get in, put on the seatbelt, turn the car on, release the emergency brake, etc.). In script theory, the basic unit of analysis is called a scene, defined as a sequence of events linked by the affects triggered during the experience of those events. Tomkins recognized that affective experiences fall into patterns that we may group together according to criteria, such as the types of persons and places involved and the degree of intensity of the effect experienced—the patterns of which constitute scripts that inform behavior in an effort to maximize positive affect and to minimize negative affect. == In artificial intelligence == Roger Schank, Robert P. Abelson and their research group extended Tomkins' scripts and used them in early artificial intelligence work as a method of representing procedural knowledge. In their work, scripts are very much like frames, except the values that fill the slots must be ordered. A script is a structured representation describing a stereotyped sequence of events in a particular context. Scripts are used in natural-language understanding systems to organize a knowledge base in terms of the situations that the system should understand. The classic example of a script involves the typical sequence of events that occur when a person drinks in a restaurant: finding a seat, reading the menu, ordering drinks from the waitstaff, etc. In the script form, these would be decomposed into conceptual transitions, such as MTRANS and PTRANS, which refer to mental transitions [of information] and physical transitions [of things]. Schank, Abelson and their colleagues tackled some of the most difficult problems in artificial intelligence (i.e., story understanding), but ultimately their line of work ended without tangible success. This type of work received little attention after the 1980s, but became very influential in later knowledge representation techniques, such as case-based reasoning. Scripts can be inflexible. To deal with inflexibility, smaller modules called memory organization packets (MOP) can be combined in a way that is appropriate for the situation.

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  • Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act

    Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act

    The Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, also referred to as SB-53, is a 2025 California law which mandates increased transparency for companies building artificial intelligence. SB-53 is primarily focused on assessing and reducing potential catastrophic risks from AI, and is the first bill addressing such risks to be passed into law in America. The bill requires companies to create publicly accessible documents assessing potential "catastrophic risk[s]" from their AI models, as well as publishing documentation on how the model incorporates national and international safety standards. SB-53 also sets up whistleblower protections and procedures for alerting the government to a "critical safety incident". == History == SB-53 was preceded in 2024 by the unsuccessful Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act ("SB-1047"), a proposed bill authored by Senator Scott Wiener which was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Afterwords, Newsom created a "Joint California AI Policy Working Group" to provide recommendations for AI regulation, which guided the drafting of SB-53. Senator Scott Wiener introduced the bill on January 7, 2025, and after a series of amendments, SB-53 passed the Senate 29-8 on September 13. Governor Gavin Newsom approved the bill on September 25, passing it into law. == Provisions == SB-53 applies primarily to companies making at least $500 million in yearly gross revenue. It defines a “frontier model” as any AI trained with over 1026 FLOPS (including fine-tuning), including unreleased internal models. Both the financial and computational thresholds must be met before most of the law is applied, although the threshold can be lowered or otherwise updated by the California Department of Technology in an annual review starting in 2027. Most of the bill's provisions are focused on "catastrophic risks" from AI, which are defined as incidents in which a model contributes to more than 50 deaths or serious injuries, or causes more than one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) in economic damage from AI-assisted acts (such as cyberattacks or the creation of biological weapons). The bill requires companies to provide publicly accessible safety frameworks for frontier AI models, describing how the company tests for catastrophic risk from its AI, and how it implements protections against such risks. This includes addressing the possibility that the AI may attempt to circumvent internal guardrails or oversight mechanisms. (Certain safety incidents, such as dangerously deceptive model behavior, physical injury, or death, must be reported to California Office of Emergency Services (OES) within 15 days, unless the incident poses imminent physical risk, in which case it must be reported immediately.) The company must follow its published framework, and if any changes are made, the framework should be updated within 30 days, and justification for said changes must also be made public. Additionally, all frontier companies are required to publish basic information about newly released frontier models (such as terms of service, supported languages, and intended use), although only large companies (making over $500 million annually) need to publish full safety frameworks. SB-53 also establishes various whistleblower protections for covered employees. Large companies must have anonymous whistleblowing channels in place which protect employees from retaliation from reporting risks to state or federal authorities if they have reasonable cause to believe that their employer is substantially risking public health and safety.

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  • MinID

    MinID

    MinID is an electronic login system used to secure a range of internet services in the Norwegian public sector. The communication done with MinID is encrypted to secure information from unauthorized usage. Everyone registered in the Norwegian Population Register over the age of 13 years can create a public ID with MinID. As of April 2010, more than 2 million people living in Norway had created user accounts with MinID. To create a public ID, PIN-codes from the Norwegian Tax Administration are needed. == Purpose == The purpose of MinID is to communicate an electronic identity, so that users are authorized to use electronic services, in a secure way. MinID has a user database where social security numbers and PIN-codes are saved. MinID can be used to access more than 50 online services from various Norwegian public agencies, including the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, the Directorate of Taxes and the State Educational Loan. == Controller == The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (Digdir) is the controller of the personal data handled by MinID. The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (Norwegian: Digitaliseringsdirektoratet) or Digdir is a government agency subordinate to the Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance. It is responsible for help the public sector achieve quality, efficiency, user friendliness, openness and participation, as well as helping the public sector be organized and led in a good way with good intersectoral cooperation. == User profile == Users of MinID have a user profile that contains their mobile phone number and/or e-mail address. This data is used to administrate MinID use. The e-mail address is needed in order to send the user a temporary password if he or she forgets the password. The phone number is needed in order to send an SMS-code at log in or a temporary password if the user forgets the password. == Transparency, correction and deletion == According to the law users can claim full access of the handling of their own personal data. Users also have the right to information about how this data are handled and saved, and how they can correct or delete inaccurate data. Users can at any time choose to delete themselves as a user of MinID. The user profile will then be deleted from the MinID user database. == Extradition to others == MinID passes on the user's social security number and chosen language to the public services he or she logs on to, so that the user can go to other public services without a new login.

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  • Aidan Gomez

    Aidan Gomez

    Aidan Gomez is a British-Canadian computer scientist working in the field of artificial intelligence, with a focus on natural language processing. He is the co-founder and CEO of the technology company Cohere. == Early life and education == Gomez grew up in Brighton, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics. He was pursuing a PhD in computer science from the University of Oxford. He paused his studies to launch Cohere. He was granted the PhD in 2024. == Career == In 2017, as a 20 year-old intern at Google Brain, Gomez was one of eight authors of the research paper "Attention Is All You Need", which is credited with changing the AI industry and helping lead to the creation of ChatGPT. The paper proposed a novel deep learning architecture called the transformer, that enables machine learning models to analyze large amounts of data for patterns, and then use those patterns to make predictions while leveraging GPU parallelization. It has been commonly adopted for training large language models and in the development of generative AI. In the same year, Gomez founded FOR.ai, a program to help researchers learn machine learning techniques in a collaborative format. An outgrowth of this project was Cohere For AI (now Cohere Labs), which released Aya, an open-source multilingual LLM. As a PhD student, Gomez worked as a machine learning researcher at Google Brain. At that time, he co-authored the paper "One Model to Learn Them All" about multi-task learning by a single neural network. In 2019, Gomez left Google Brain to launch Cohere, an enterprise-focused company that helps businesses implement AI into chatbots, search engines, and other products. As of Sept 2025, Cohere has raised about US$1.6 billion at valuation north of $7 billion, as Gomez leads the company as its CEO. Gomez was named to the 2023 Time 100/AI list of the most influential people in the field of artificial intelligence. He and his fellow Cohere founders Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst were named number 1 on 2023 Maclean's AI Trailblazers Power List. In April 2025, Gomez was elected to the board of Rivian. == Views on AI == Gomez has stated that warnings regarding the existential risk from artificial intelligence are overblown, and that real risks involve the automated spread of misinformation on social media. He said that the United States would win the AI arms race over China.

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  • Eimear Kenny

    Eimear Kenny

    Eimear E. Kenny is a researcher in population genetics and translation genomics, and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Health, and Endowed Chair and Professor of Genomic Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is known for novel approaches in computational genomics, advancing the study of human genetic variation and its connection to disease risk and diagnosis. Her research has laid the foundation for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and genomics into precision medicine and routine clinical care. By combining genomics, computer science, and medicine, her work leverages genomic sequencing technologies and machine learning algorithms to uncover insights that improve patient care, accelerate genomic data analysis, and enable the future of AI-driven healthcare. She has led multiple genomics-based clinical trials, applying computational biology and AI in clinical settings to advance genomic medicine and precision healthcare. == Research == A recipient of the Early-Career Award from the American Society of Human Genetics (USA), Kenny, as of 2024, leads a team in genetics, computer science, and medicine, focusing on genetic ancestry, large-scale genomics, clinical trials, and genomic medicine at the Institute for Genomic Health. The lab works to advance understanding of genetic ancestry and its impact on health in order to inform better clinical medicine models. She is recognized for her work to leverage biobanks for translational genomics and her development of new genetic tests an strategies for health care management. In one study, she and her colleagues investigated genetic disorders that might be under-diagnosed due to insufficient data, and found a variant in a collagen gene associated with Steel syndrome. This syndrome caused short stature and bone and joint issues and was thought to be rare. However, the study revealed it is common in individuals with Puerto Rican ancestry. Three of Kenny's genomic medicine clinical trials assessed how to bring new technology, such as digital apps, or information, such as polygenic risk scores, into routine clinical care. In the 2010s, Kenny was instrumental in several large-scale sequencing studies, including the 1000 Genomes Project, the Exome Sequencing Project, the Genome Sequencing Project, and the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine. In 2012, she led work that discovered the variant responsible for blond hair in Melanesia, work that was featured in the Smithsonian NHGRI Human Genome Exhibit in Washington, D.C. In 2017, her group was one of the first to demonstrate that polygenic risk scores derived in predominantly European populations have reduced accuracy when applied in populations now widely acknowledged as a major challenge in the field of genomic risk prediction. As of 2024, she is Principal Investigator in many NIH-funded international consortium focused on computational genomics and genomic medicine, including Electronic Medical Records and Genomics, Polygenic Risk Methods in Diverse Populations, and the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium. In 2023, Kenny played a key role in a groundbreaking advancement in genomics research by helping to map a diverse human pangenome—a major shift from reliance on a single reference genome. Unlike the earlier genetic map, based on one man of mixed European and African ancestry in Buffalo, this new pangenome project captures far greater human genetic diversity. As reported by The Washington Post, Kenny's work demonstrates how a more inclusive human genome can drive discoveries in rare genetic diseases, improve genomic medicine, and accelerate the future of precision healthcare. Kenny was co-developer and current license holder for Random Forest adMIXture (RFMix), a patented software for inferring continental and sub-continental ancestry at genomic loci. == Education and career == Kenny graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BA in Biochemistry in 1999 and did a masters in Bioinformatics at Leeds University. She received her PhD in Computational Genomics at Rockefeller University, and did her post-doctoral work in the lab of Dr. Carlos D. Bustamante at Stanford University. === Academic appointments === As of 2024, at Mount Sinai, she serves as the Endowed Chair and Professor of Genomic Health, Professor at the Department of Medicine and Professor at the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences. Since 2018 she has served as the Founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Health, and since 2022, she also serves as the Founding Director of the Center for Translational Genomics. She is also the Director of Translational Research, Division for Genomic Medicine. Former appointments include Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and Member at The Charles Bronfman Institute of Personalized Medicine, both at Mount Sinai. She was also Bioinformatics Programmer at the California Institute of Technology, and research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. == Publications == As of 2024, Kenny is an advisor to Cell Genomics. Google Scholar reports 50,623 citations, an h-index of 66 and an i10-index of 130. The five most-cited articles she contributed to are: Auton, A; Brooks, LD; Durbin, RM; Garrison, EP; Kang, HM; Korbel, JO; Marchini, JL; McCarthy, S; McVean, GA; Abecasis, GR (2015). "A global reference for human genetic variation". Nature. 526 (7571): 68–74. Bibcode:2015Natur.526...68T. doi:10.1038/nature15393. PMC 4750478. PMID 26432245.. Cited by 14847 Abecasis, GR; Auton, A; Brooks, LD; DePristo, MA; Durbin, RM; Handsaker, RE; Kang, HM; Marth, GT; McVean, GA (2012). "An integrated map of genetic variation from 1,092 human genomes". Nature. 491 (7422): 56–65. Bibcode:2012Natur.491...56T. doi:10.1038/nature11632. PMC 3498066. PMID 23128226.. Cited by 8287 Jacob A. Tennessen et al. Evolution and Functional Impact of Rare Coding Variation from Deep Sequencing of Human Exomes.Science337,64–69(2012).DOI:10.1126/science.1219240 Cited by 1886 Taliun, D.; Harris, D.N.; Kessler, M.D.; et al. (2021). "Sequencing of 53,831 diverse genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed Program". Nature. 590 (7845): 290–299. Bibcode:2021Natur.590..290T. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03205-y. PMC 7875770. PMID 33568819.. Cited by 1369 Vilhjálmsson, BJ; et al. (2015). "Modeling Linkage Disequilibrium Increases Accuracy of Polygenic Risk Scores". Am J Hum Genet. 97 (4): 576–92. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.09.001. PMC 4596916. PMID 26430803.. Cited by 1327

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