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  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 22% of more than 500,000 business websites contain some form of racial and gender bias, according to UserWay. Getty Images/iStockphoto Website accessibility tech provider UserWay has released an AI-powered tool designed to help organizations ensure their websites are free from discriminatory, biased, and racially charged language. The tool, Content Moderator, flags content for review, and nothing is deleted or removed without approval from site administrators, according to UserWay. UserWay's customers are using its AI-powered accessibility widget, an advanced AI-based compliance-as-a-service (CaaS) technology that ensures brands provide an accessible digital experience that meets strict governmental and ADA regulations, the company said. "Focusing on digital racism and bias is long past due, and our team is eager to contribute to the conversation positively," UserWay founder and CEO Allon Mason said in a statement. In June, Google announced that it would be reevaluating what it considers acceptable language, Mason noted. So far, Google has changed terms including "blacklist" to "blocked list," "whitelist" to "allowed list," and "master-slave" to "primary/secondary," among others, he said. "That was the spark that triggered us to build this tool. At the time, we were enhancing our AI-powered capabilities that supply [alternate] text descriptions of images for screen readers," Mason said. "We realized that if word choices can make our customers' digital content inaccessible even without intending to, UserWay should help." The goal of the Content Moderator isn't to censor or silence, he added, but to make web teams aware of problematic language in user-generated content or in content they may have overlooked. SEE: Robotic process automation: A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic) Discriminatory language on websites is pervasive Before launching Content Moderator, UserWay ran its rule engine across more than 500,000 websites. The findings were concerning, the company said. Some 22% of the sites scanned contained some form of biased, racially charged, or offensive language, UserWay said. Of those: 52% were sites with instances of racial bias 24% were sites with instances of gender bias 12% were sites with instances of age bias 5% were sites with racial slurs 3% were sites with disability bias Words that the tool most often flagged for gender bias included "chairman," "fireman," "mankind," "forefather," and "man-made," UserWay said. Many of these terms have only recently been understood to be divisive and prejudicial. It is an enormous task for most site owners to keep track of the latest consensus around culturally sensitive terms, the company noted. The tool aims to make this task simple, centralized, and scalable, UserWay said. SEE: Gender Decoder and blind resumes: How to remove bias in your hiring process (TechRepublic) How Content Moderator works Historically, content moderation software using AI to detect racial bias and divisive speech has been site-specific, expensive, and available only within large social media platforms, the company maintained. A website owner can drop in the UserWay widget and will be alerted to divisive or offensive language as it appears, in real time. The widget works in three steps: Scan: Content Moderator scans all the content on a website, both static and dynamic. Content Moderator scans all the content on a website, both static and dynamic. Flag: The tool then flags words and phrases that may inadvertently promote stereotypes or prejudice, including text that could be considered racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, xenophobic, violent, intolerant, or otherwise offensive. The tool then flags words and phrases that may inadvertently promote stereotypes or prejudice, including text that could be considered racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, xenophobic, violent, intolerant, or otherwise offensive. Review: Site administrators review the suggestions and choose the ones they would like to accept. They can also edit the suggestions to flow with the site's content or recommend alternative replacements that are then fed back into UserWay's AI. More inclusive speech is needed now In the past few weeks, many legacy brands such as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's, and Eskimo Pie, among others have yielded to mounting pressure from consumers to rid products of racial and ethnic stereotypes. Technology companies have likewise been reevaluating the usage of racialized words like "blacklist" and "whitelist" in favor of more inclusive language But brand integrity isn't the sole issue. Civil rights advocates, led by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have increased pressure to ensure websites are carefully moderated, and recent calls for repeal of Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act may expose online publishers to future legal action for defamation based on opinions or reviews created by platform users, according to UserWay. In tandem with UserWay's Accessibility Widget, Content Moderator helps organizations mitigate the legal risk of both ADA- and ADL-related violations, the company said "We all know a list of words that are mocking (to put it mildly) of a variety of racial groups, or a variety of religious groups, or other political or gender persuasions," UserWay quoted Israel W. Charny, Israeli psychologist, genocide scholar, and executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, as saying. "UserWay's … tool flags these words and allows you to change them, an act of voluntary editing with cultural sensitivity. Giving options for improvement reduces the onus of the coerciveness that some people are feeling." In the same way that HTML code is remediated, Content Moderator can help users pinpoint and update word choices on their site, Mason said. "While Google and Apple are approaching the issue as a simple search-and-replace, UserWay looks deeper into the problem of bias," he said. The tool looks to detect verbalization patterns that consistently and routinely marginalize and disempower specific cohorts, he said. Its dictionary is frequently updated to align with cultural and social changes. A content owner can choose to agree, modify, or ignore the Content Moderator's suggestions, Mason added. "We intend to empower users by making them aware of the content that exists on their site–especially legacy and user-generated text that may not reflect their brand values,'' he said. "More importantly, we hope that by removing blatantly and subtly offensive content, we can help these sites become barrier-free and inviting for all users." Tech News You Can Use Newsletter We deliver the top business tech news stories about the companies, the people, and the products revolutionizing the planet. Delivered Daily Sign up today Also see 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 Twitter has once again acted as judge, juro, and executioner. For four days, Twitter prevented the @BreitbartNews twitter account from posting, only restoring its permissions earlier today. This is in no small part because Twitter dragged its feet on Breitbart News’s appeal Twitter initially locked Breitbart News’s account because it posted a video of a press conference featuring Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and licensed doctors sharing their views and opinions on coronavirus and the medical response to the pandemic. The event was held by the organization America’s Frontline Doctors and organized by the Tea Party Patriots. In short, Twitter has punished a news organization for posting a video of a live-streaming of a press conference held by a congressman and licensed medical doctors. At the event, some of the doctors shared their opinion on hydroxychloroquine, highlighting it as a potentially helpful treatment in fighting COVID-19. One doctor called it a “cure.” Because Breitbart News’s Twitter account carried a video livestream of their comments, Twitter accused Breitbart of “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” As an aside, Breitbart News is a news company, not a licensed medical professional and has no editorial position on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. But for Twitter (which is also not a licensed medical professional) to assert the video contained potentially harmful information rings hollow. Hydroxychloroquine is not Tide Pods; it’s not something people can simply go down to the local drugstore, buy, and ingest without medical advice and supervision. In the United States, hydroxychloroquine is a legal, FDA approved medication available only by prescription; so a person would have to go to their doctor and get it prescribed after making a decision with their own doctor whether or not to take hydroxychloroquine. And, whether Twitter likes it or not, or thinks it should be otherwise, doctors are prescribing hydroxychloroquine on an off-label basis for COVID-19. Twitter trying to pretend it is not happening or wishing it was not happening is self-sophistry. Twitter has demanded that Breitbart News delete the following tweets before restoring access to the account. Breitbart appealed that decision, and pending appeal has been locked out of its account. Incredibly, Twitter took almost three full days to reply to Breitbart’s appeal – meaning time and traffic lost during a fast-moving election season. When Twitter finally did respond, it denied the appeal. Twitter then demanded that Breitbart News delete the following tweets before restoring access to the account and that Breitbart serve a 12-hour “time out” — meaning even more time and traffic lost during a fast-moving election season. (Update: Twitter has unrestricted Breitbart News’ Twitter account.) Twitter’s actions have public health implications. The tech giant is preventing the public, including the critically ill, from receiving information from physicians with first-hand experience treating COVID-19 patients. Twitter’s censorship denies the public access to information — and that can put lives, health, and the well-being of Americans at risk. Hydroxychloroquine is a commonly prescribed drug that has been approved for use in the United States since the 1950s and is widely prescribed to treat malaria. The effectiveness of the drug as a treatment for COVID-19 is still the subject of discussion and debate among medical professionals. Harvey A. Risch, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, has argued in Newsweek that “tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily” because use of the drug has become so politicized. A media panic broke out after President Trump referenced reports that the drug might be effective in treating COVID-19, leading to the drug briefly being banned in Ohio. That ban has now been reversed by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. The panic even extended to The Lancet, one of the oldest and perhaps the most prestigious medical journals in the world. A study, widely covered by the corporate media, claiming hydroxychloroquine is ineffective and potentially dangerous, had to be retracted by the journal after major discrepancies were found in the study’s data. Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who recently contracted COVID-19, announced yesterday that he would be taking the drug to treat the illness following advice from his doctor. I am taking #Hydroxychloroquine to treat my coronavirus diagnosis. It is what was decided as the best course of action between my doctor and me–not by government bureaucrats. How long until the tech tyrants censor this tweet? https://t.co/dzAYAXiQ8p — Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) July 31, 2020 Here is where things stand: There is no definitive medical study that answers the question of hydroxychloroquine’s usefulness in treating COVID-19, especially when used in conjunction with other medications. Many licensed professionals have reportedly treated COVID-19 patients with it, and some have reported at least anecdotal evidence of efficacy. Another way to put it is that the usefulness of hydroxychloroquine remains a topic of open discussion and debate. Twitter has decided that discussion and debate should not be happening, and is punishing anyone (even a news organization covering a third-party press conference), who in any way airs that discussion and debate. That is not Twitter’s “job.” And, in the end, it may be that Twitter is the one that has, by censorship and omission, effectively “spread” misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. Are you an insider at Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or any other company who wants to confidentially blow the whistle on wrongdoing or political bias? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at allumbokhari@protonmail.com. Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. His book #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election is out in September. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 Artificial intelligence is now mission-critical in most large organizations. Creating a Center of Excellence helps centralize the process and keep the focus on the business. Image: ShadeON, Getty Images/iStockphoto A Center of Excellence is "a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support, and training for a focus area," and they are commonly used in healthcare to focus on specific problems or disciplines. I advocate that they can be used in organizations for artificial intelligence (AI) as well. What makes AI a strong candidate for a dedicated Center of Excellence is its rapidly expanding role as mission-critical technology in enterprises. Companies are finding that people in many different business units—not just data science or IT—want to be or are already involved with AI. SEE: Natural language processing: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic) In some cases, people are bringing in their own AI tools and solutions, but there is a need to orchestrate this buying to avoid waste. In other cases, people are independently developing their own AI and AI budgets, so there is no assurance that accountability for total AI spend or deployment exists. Together, these factors make a strong argument for an AI Center of Excellence. Such a center would include people from multiple business units, as well as from data science and IT. The goal would be to combine efforts, ideas, and budgets for an integrated and well-orchestrated approach to AI. Here are six tips for building a strong AI Center of Excellence: 1. A multi-disciplinary staff Many enterprises have "citizen" scientists in end-user departments. They also have a separate data science or IT staff performing AI work. The Center of Excellence would bring all of these people together into a single, cooperative AI unit. SEE: Hiring Kit: Computer Research Scientist (TechRepublic Premium) 2. Standardized tools and methods One of the downsides that occurs when individual business units and IT go off on their own to purchased AI solutions and tools is that the solutions and tools don't interoperate well with each other. This creates AI silos with data that is very difficult to leverage throughout the company. A central mission of the AI Center of Excellence should be standard solutions and tools so that every project uses a uniform methodology. 3. An IT life cycle approach for AI AI and big data are now mainstream and mission-critical. The era of pure experimentation is over, and it's time to get AI projects into useful production. A good way to do this is to borrow a page from traditional IT by using a project life cycle methodology. The methodology could even be the standard: Define, develop, test, stage, and deploy-and-maintain methods for applications. SEE: Robotic process automation: A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic) One problem with many of today's AI projects is that they get stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of develop-test-retest, so they never make it into production. There should be more pressure for AI apps to make it into production so the apps can pay off for the company. 4. A user and IT outreach strategy for the CoE Because of its focus, a Center of Excellence can quickly become cloistered from the rest of the company. This can create a "silo." To avoid this, analysts from the Center should be assigned as liaisons to end business units and to IT. Continuous communications between the Center and the rest of the company assure that the Center stays in everyone's minds, which enables it to become integral to the company. SEE: 85% of organizations are using AI in deployed applications (TechRepublic) 5. An RTB goal A Center of Excellence should include some experimentation, but the end goal is always getting a return back to the business (RTB). To accomplish this, AI applications must be deployed in production where they deliver measurable value to operations, revenues, product development, and strategy. SEE: How to govern AI in your organization: 6 tips (TechRepublic) 6. Operational reviews every six months When you set up a new function, there are bound to be things that go well and others that need to be further tuned. Initially, the Center of AI Excellence should be reviewed every six months in order to effect tuneups based upon what has been learned. Data, Analytics and AI Newsletter Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Delivered Mondays Sign up today Also see 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 President Donald Trump criticized America’s top billionaires on Saturday for massively increasing their net worth during the coronavirus pandemic. “I actually agree with this,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Too much income disparity. Changes must be made, and soon!” The president shared a Business Insider video showing the net worth of wealthy CEOs like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose net worth rose by an estimated $48 billion from March to June. The video lists billionaires such as Zoom founder Eric Yuan boosting his net worth of $2.5 billion, while former Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer’s net worth increased by $15.7 billion, Casino magnate Shelden Adelson’s increased by $5 billion, and Elon Musk’s increased by $17.2 billion. This is the first time the president has indicated that a growing wealth disparity was a problem in the United States that needed to be fixed. The nine-minute video focuses on how the wealthy typically receive big financial profits during times of economic crisis and experience big tax cuts and breaks and store their money in offshore accounts. I actually agree with this. Too much income disparity. Changes must be made, and soon! https://t.co/YZx6gPDTMb — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2020 The video also proposes forming a Pandemic Profiteering Oversight Committee, more regulations to keep billionaires from offshoring their profits, including an emergency ten percent millionaire income surtax, a wealth tax, a progressive estate tax, and dramatic federal spending on charities. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 Natural language processing is still being refined, but its popularity continues to rise. This new, better version is likely to help. Image: chepkoelena, Getty Images/iStockphoto When you speak to a computer, whether on the phone, in a chat box, or in your living room, and it understands you, that's because of natural language processing. The computer voice can listen and respond accurately (most of the time), thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). SEE: Hiring kit: Data Scientist (TechRepublic Premium) Natural language processing (NLP) is the language used in AI voice questions and responses. The processing of language has improved multi-fold over the past few years, although there are still issues in creating and linking different elements of vocabulary and in understanding semantic and contextual relationships. Despite these continued efforts to improve NLP, companies are actively using it. NLP has been a hit in automated call software and in human-staffed call centers because it can deliver both process automation and contextual assistance such as human sentiment analysis when a call center agent is working with a customer. NLP has also been used in HR employee recruitment to identify keywords in applications that trigger a close match between a job application or resume and the requirements of an open position. SEE: An IT pro's guide to robotic process automation (free PDF) (TechRepublic) In our homes, we use NLP when we give a verbal command to Alexa to play some jazz. So there's no surprise that NLP is on nearly every organization's IT road map as a technology that has the potential to add business value to a broad array of applications. This is precisely why the recent breakthrough of a new AI natural language model known as GPT-3. is significant. What is GPT-3? With GPT-3, 175 billion parameters of language can now be processed, compared with predecessor GPT-2, which processes 1.5 billion parameters. This new GPT-3 natural language model was first announced in June by OpenAI, an AI development and deployment company, although the model has not yet been released for general use due to "concerns about malicious applications of the technology." SEE: IBM highlights new approach to infuse knowledge into NLP models (TechRepublic) "GPT-3 takes the natural language Transformer architecture to a new level," said Suraj Amonkar, fellow AI@scale at Fractal Analytics, an AI solutions provider. "It's built for all of the world's languages, and has machine translation." The possibilities with GPT-3 are enticing. For a government or a multinational corporation , the ability to rapidly localize text and voice-based messages or translate them into virtually any world language—and to do it with automation—opens access to new customers and better support for field offices in foreign countries that are supporting company products or operations. , the ability to rapidly localize text and voice-based messages or translate them into virtually any world language—and to do it with automation—opens access to new customers and better support for field offices in foreign countries that are supporting company products or operations. For research institutions and for medical and life sciences researchers , the ability to easily translate a paper that is written in a foreign language can be done rapidly. , the ability to easily translate a paper that is written in a foreign language can be done rapidly. For media, publishing, and entertainment companies, there can be a fast way to translate the spoken and written word into many different languages. How GPT-3 can help an organization If you're looking at the IT strategic road map, the likelihood of using or being granted permission to use GPT-3 is well into the future unless you are a very large company or a government that has been cleared to use it, but you should still have GPT-3 on your IT road map. There is also a strong argument that if you are the CIO of a smaller organization, that the evolution of NLP language modeling into GPT-3 capabilities should not be ignored because natural language processing and the exponential processing capabilities that GPT-3 language modeling endows AI with are going to transform what we can do with processing and automating language translations and analytics that operate on the written and spoken word. If you're doing business in a global economy, as almost everyone is, that capability will be invaluable. Data, Analytics and AI Newsletter Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Delivered Mondays Sign up today Also see 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago witnessed a 139 percent increase in murder during July 2020 when compared to July 2019. ABC7 reported there were 105 murders in July 2020, up from “the 44 reported in July 2019.” Moreover, there were 406 “shooting incidents” in Chicago during the month of July 2020, an increase of 75 percent “from the 232 last July,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Over a longer span of time, murders were up 51 percent from January 1, 2020, through July 31, 2020, compared to murders for the same period of time in 2019, according to the Sun-Times. Lightfoot blamed Chicago mayhem and bloodshed on gun friendly states during a July 26, 2020, appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. According to The Hill, Lightfoot told CNN, “Our gun problem is related to the fact that we have too many illegal guns on our streets, 60 percent of which come from states outside of Illinois.” She added, “We are being inundated with guns from states that have virtually no gun control, no background checks, no ban on assault weapons — that is hurting cities like Chicago.” Lightfoot did not mention that the Chicago area already has an “assault weapons” ban via a Cook County ordinance. Nor did she mention background checks are a federal requirement, mandated for all retail gun sales in every state of the Union, whether that is Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, or California. The mayor also failed to noted that her state, Illinois, requires everyone to obtain a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card before being allowed to possess a gun, and the process for obtaining that card includes a background check. AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 A new Harris Poll finds that Americans looking to gain an edge are trying to bolster their CV credentials with the most in-demand skills. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto There are 30 million unemployed Americans. A new Harris Poll commissioned by Zapier found that two out of five workers say they were let go by their employer due to COVID-19. At least 70% of current job seekers—those unemployed or employed and looking—believe the key to landing a new job is automation. The number is even higher (86%) among those with a college degree or higher. According to the survey, "The Job Seekers Report," 30% have added automation to their resumes, while 31% said they planned to do so. With so many job-seekers adding to their skill set with the key word "automation," the Zapier survey queried, "is it possible employers will notice the omission?" SEE: Managing AI and ML in the enterprise 2020: Tech leaders increase project development and implementation (TechRepublic Premium) It makes sense that many Americans are looking to develop new skills or hone-in on existing ones—they're competing with the 41% who lost jobs due to the pandemic, and those also unemployed, as well as those who have jobs but need or want to make a change. A majority (83%) either have learned automation skills or planned to do so in the near future. The need and desire for efficiency could be from the need to maximize crucial, available time. Work hours invariably come at the expense of those in the home who are remote-learning or those tasked with helping or even teaching those remote learners. Many are still working remotely, with offices closed, and are burdened with the uncertainty of when and if they'll return to their offices. Many businesses have already declared a switch to all remote, a virtual office. Those surveyed find the biggest benefits of automation are: Makes you more efficient—42% Helps you save time—42% Allows you to get more done in a day—37% Helps you be a better employee—35% Saves you frustration on tedious tasks—29% Helps you concentrate on important tasks—26% Saves you from having to learn technical skills—24% Automation skills are valued across a swath of industries and projects, including the obvious (and popular) robotics, mobile phones, healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, education, product delivery, transportation, DevOps, IT Ops, software testing, home-help products, and more. It's not only Zapier finding the rise of automation. As TechRepublic reported in May, automation could lead to another jobless recovery, according to Forrester. The firm's report, "The COVID-19 Crisis Will Accelerate Enterprise Automation Plans," indicated how critical automation will be to companies looking to "lower their exposure to future business disruption." Leslie Joseph, author of the Forrester report, said: "[A]utomation is a very big motion within most of the large SI's and consulting firms, who are aggressively upskilling their manpower. In fact, many SI's with large automation practices began with aggressively applying automation to their own internal delivery and back-office function, at significant scale." The article in TechRepublic noted, "Another caveat that may lead to fewer job losses is the expectation that large-scale automation of business processes and routine, repetitive tasks will not necessarily lead to large-scale job replacement." Joseph told TechRepublic: "Automation is not just like any standard technology implementation. It requires significant participation and support from the existing workforce. Successful automation leaders will bring their people along on the journey. This will include elements of reskilling of people whose jobs are sidelined by bots, to bring them back into helping run and manage the automation program itself." Methodology: Harris conducted the poll of 2,069 US adults, 18 or older, online between July 14 to July 16. Data, Analytics and AI Newsletter Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Delivered Mondays Sign up today Also see 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 A 69-year-old Trump-supporting grandmother outed her grandson as the suspect who allegedly threw a makeshift bomb outside a Portland, Oregon, federal courthouse Tuesday. The New York Post reported that Karla Fox recognized the alleged bomber as her grandson, Gabriel “Rico” Agard-Berryhill. In the hours after the attack, social media users sifted through videos showing a slim man wearing an olive-colored vest with the word “ICONS” printed on it, throwing an item over the fence at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse. Rioters threw a bomb at the front of the Portland federal courthouse. This wasn’t one of their usual firework explosives. #PortlandRiots #antifa pic.twitter.com/omCq0GtZMj — Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 28, 2020 Within seconds, there’s an explosion that covers the courthouse’s front door in flames. The suspect picks something up from the group and slips away from the camera’s view. Fox immediately recognized her grandson because she gifted him the vest. “I bought the vest for him after he found one online after getting hit with rubber bullets the night before at the protest,” Fox told the Post. (She even left a positive review on clothing site Hibbett: “I got this for my grandson who’s a protester downtown, he uses it every night and says it does the job.”) Agard-Berryhill told the Post via text message Thursday that he admitted misguided involvement, but did not outright say he was the bomber. “The device I’ve been accused of allegedly throwing was allegedly given to me by an unknown [protester] with full face coverings,” he wrote. “I was allegedly told that it was a strobe firework that wouldn’t damage the building or harm anyone around it.” Later that evening, Agard-Berryhill spoke with his probation officer and turned himself in. U.S. Marshals arrested him and booked him into the Multnomah County Detention Center. Authorities charged him with felony arson, and he faces at least five years behind bars if convicted. He was released without bail. The alleged bomb-throwing shocked Fox, a conservative who supports President Donald Trump and claimed that she did not know her grandson’s politics. Fox says her grandson told her last week that he was peacefully protesting and “protecting a girl.” “I believed all his stories,” Fox says. “He said he was just hanging out at Riot Ribs [an anarchist food co-op] and doing peaceful things.” Fox said her grandson is on probation for a felony conviction from when he was a minor. She said he spent two years at Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility in southern Oregon and spoke about changing his life for the better and getting a job at Amazon. 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 OptiVax tests potential vaccines for efficacy and population coverage, then designs vaccines for testing, all with artificial intelligence. Image: Shutterstock Researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a new combinatorial machine learning system that could both decrease research time needed for a COVID-19 vaccine and make it more effective, researchers said. The platform, called OptiVax, focuses on developing peptide vaccines, which are a different approach from common whole virus, DNA, and RNA vaccines currently among the more than 100 vaccines in development. Peptide vaccines are a relatively recent development in the vaccination game that are designed around one specific short amino acid string, called a peptide, that can be found in the target disease. Peptide vaccines use a synthetic version of the peptide that is created in a laboratory and not harvested from the disease itself. Traditional vaccines have a larger amount of genetic information in them that isn't useful in developing resistance and can lead to unwanted immune responses and dangerous reactions—it's these genetic elements that peptide vaccines are designed to eliminate, MIT said. The peptides included in a peptide vaccine are, ideally, the most effective at building an immune response without unnecessary material, and are effective across a wider range of individuals. SEE: The new normal: What work will look like post-pandemic (TechRepublic Premium) In the case of COVID-19, MIT researchers aren't trying to develop a pure peptide vaccine, but are trying to create a complementary peptide that can improve traditional vaccines targeting the spike proteins that cover the virus. ""Based on our analysis [of a common COVID-19 vaccine], we developed an augmentation to improve its population coverage by adding peptides. If this works in animal models, the design could move to human clinical trials," said CSAIL researchers Ge Liu and Brandon Carter. OptiVax works by first testing a wide variety of peptide fragments to figure out which would be the best candidates for a vaccine. The data gathered by those machine learning-powered tests are scored on a wide range of criteria, including how the peptides react to various human genetic samples that are sorted by geographic location. SEE: Return to work: What the new normal will look like post-pandemic (free PDF) (TechRepublic) A completed OptiVax test would end with a vaccine designed by the machine learning model that would "maximize population coverage in different geographical regions, and from the number of peptides displayed per individual to improve the chances the person will become immune," the researchers said. The MIT researchers behind OptiVax said that the next step after finding a proper peptide vaccine is animal testing, after which they would move on to human tests if a clinical trial is warranted. OptiVax isn't limited to usefulness in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, either: The CSAIL team said that it could be used as a model for developing and testing vaccines for a variety of diseases using machine learning. Data, Analytics and AI Newsletter Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Delivered Mondays Sign up today Also see 

  Published Date: 2020-08-02 

 During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “WSJ at Large,” Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott stated that thanks to a partnership between state and federal authorities in Portland, Thursday night was the first time “in over two months that federal agents didn’t face a direct and immediate threat of being burnt alive inside that federal building.” Scott said that Thursday night “was the first time…in over two months that federal agents didn’t face a direct and immediate threat of being burnt alive inside that federal building. The reason for that was because the state stepped up and partnered with us and actually took away the ability for the anarchists and these violent individuals to attack the federal building and the courthouse at will from a park across the street from city property. That partnership together now has made that entire area significantly safer. Because the federal agents are doing their job, and the state is doing their job. And that partnership, when it’s together like that, works.” He also said, “[W]hen I say burn down, the fireworks that you’ve heard about being aimed at our personnel, those are commercial grade. Those were the equivalent of the fourth of July fireworks you see in your cities, that go hundreds of feet up in the air, aimed directly at our personnel.” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett