TechReview | Tech Story of the Year: Tay, Microsoft's AI Chatterbot

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Feature •  Tech Story of the Year: Tay, Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatterbot:

"As many of you know by now, on Wednesday [March 23, 2016] we launched a chatbot called Tay. We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay. Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values ... The logical place for us to engage with a massive group of users was Twitter. Unfortunately, in the first 24 hours of coming online, a coordinated attack by a subset of people exploited a vulnerability in Tay. Although we had prepared for many types of abuses of the system, we had made a critical oversight for this specific attack. As a result, Tay tweeted wildly inappropriate and reprehensible words and images. We take full responsibility for not seeing this possibility ahead of time. We will take this lesson forward as well as those from our experiences in China, Japan and the U.S. Right now, we are hard at work addressing the specific vulnerability that was exposed by the attack on Tay."--Learning from Tay’s introduction | blogs.microsoft.com

Afterwards, Microsoft accidentally re-released Tay, the AI chatbot, on Twitter on March 30, 2016: Microsoft's Tay chatbot returns briefly and brags about smoking weed | mashable.com.

Madhumita Murgia of The Telegraph called Tay a public relations disaster:

Tay was built to speak like a  teen girl and released as an experiment to improve Microsoft’s automated customer service. Instead, “she” turned into a complete PR disaster - within hours of being unleashed on Twitter, the “innocent teen” bot was transformed into a fascist, misogynistic, racist, pornographic entity. Her tweets, including phrases like “Heil Hitler”, were disseminated widely as an example of why Twitter reflects the worst of humanity ... This is an example of artificial intelligence at its very worst - and it’s only the beginning. 

#EthicalRobots: Yoon-Myung Kim from Software Policy & Research Instit. suggests 3 methods to learn ethics from the @TayandYou fiasco. pic.twitter.com/aKvQKgsT4P

— Matthew Stender (@StenderWorld) December 16, 2016

Human faces for #ChatBots are like skeuomorphism for apps... not sure if it's correct UX cc: @Microsoft @TayandYou @ZoChats pic.twitter.com/1kJa2oaIOi

— Leonel More 📌 (@leonelmore) December 26, 2016

The only person I know who died on twitter was @TayandYou. We miss you Tay, please come back.😔

— Dron Rathore (@heavenhackers) December 26, 2016

Read more about Tay on Wikipedia.org. See also: How will bots make money? Here are 7 business models | VentureBeat.com and The 200 billion dollar chatbot disruption | VentureBeat.com and, of course, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned’ | The WashingtonPost.com  January 29, 2015.

Other Tech News: 

•  FBI/DHS Joint Analysis Report: A Fatally Flawed Effort | Medium.com: "... It adds nothing to the call for evidence that the Russian government was responsible for hacking the DNC, the DCCC, the email accounts of Democratic party officials, or for delivering the content of those hacks to Wikileaks. It merely listed every threat group ever reported on by a commercial cybersecurity company ... and lumped them under the heading of Russian Intelligence Services (RIS) without providing any supporting evidence that such a connection exists ..." See also: Something About This Russia Story Stinks | RollingStone.com: "Nearly a decade and a half after the Iraq-WMD faceplant, the American press is again asked to co-sign a dubious intelligence assessment ... President Obama issued a terse statement seeming to blame Russia for the hack of the Democratic National Committee emails ...

"The problem with this story is that, like the Iraq-WMD mess, it takes place in the middle of a highly politicized environment during which the motives of all the relevant actors are suspect. Nothing quite adds up. If the American security agencies had smoking-gun evidence that the Russians had an organized campaign to derail the U.S. presidential election and deliver the White House to Trump, then expelling a few dozen diplomats after the election seems like an oddly weak and ill-timed response. Voices in both parties are saying this now."

See also: Creator of NSA's Global Surveillance System Calls B.S. On Russian Hacking Report | WashingtonsBlog.com.

•  Alibaba's Magical Numbers: Population in the United States is a factor .24 of that of China (324 million people in the US vs. China 1.37 billion). Offsetting that however is that consumer spending is much higher in America than China. The United States has a GDP of $18 trillion of which $12.3 trillion (~68%) is driven by consumer spending. China GDP is estimated at $11 trillion of which approximately 37% is estimated to be driven by consumer spending. Taking 68 over 37 implies that Americans outspend the Chinese by a factor 1.8 on consumer spending.

"Combining the factors (12 x 1.8 x .24) gives us an estimate of how Alibaba's customers' mobile purchase behavior is close to 5 times higher than the mobile shopping behavior of consumers in the States. That is an incredible factor and outside of Alibaba's metrics, I could not find any source that corroborated or justified that multiple."--SeekingAlpha.com

Quick Takes:

• Uber's Loss Exceeds $800 Million in Third Quarter on $1.7 Billion in Net Revenue | Bloomberg.com: "Ride-hailing company's annual loss may hit $3 billion by year's end."
• Fake News: The Guardian Caught Deceptively Editing Quotes from Julian Assange Interview | Breitbart.com
• Amazon WorkMail now supports a wider range of email client applications, including Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Mac and those that use the IMAP protocol | AWS.amazon.com
• iPhone Battery Problem: Time for Apple to Come Clean | Fortune.com
• T-Mobile is the first major US carrier to roll out update to remaining Samsung Galaxy Note 7s that prevents battery from charging--androidauthority.com.
• Google Pixel smartphone owners are experiencing a wide range of issues | BGR.com
• Xiaomi-backed online bank to launch services soon | Reuters.com
• Fraud in Silicon Valley: Startups Show Their Unethical Underside | fortune.com: "As the list of startup scandals grows, it’s time to ask whether entrepreneurs are taking “fake it till you make it” too far."
• Rigged? U.S. companies want to play China’s game. They just can’t win it. | WashingtonPost.com
• South Korea fines Qualcomm $854 million for violating competition laws | Reuters.com
• Nokia has now filed 40 patents suits in 11 countries against Apple--Nokia.com
• BlackBerry Hype Machine Keeps Pumping | SeekingAlpha.com
• Toshiba flags hit of 'billions of dollars' on U.S. nuclear acquisition | Reuters.com
• Defining Apple's Domestic And International Tax Situation | SeekingAlpha.com
• ICYMI: EU accuses Facebook of misleading it in WhatsApp takeover probe | Reuters.com

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TechReview: Alibaba $BABA & Facebook $FB Q3 Stellar Results A #FAIL?

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Feature • This past week Q3 2016 reports from two of the biggest tech companies in the world, Alibaba Group and Facebook, each showed stellar results for the quarter:

•  Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) sales of $5.14B beat estimates as cloud revenue more than doubled, sales from the new digital media and entertainment division quadrupled, more at Alibaba Group $BABA Q3 2016 Results, LIVE Webcast Nov 2 Replay.

•  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) reported revenue of $7.01B (+55.8% Y/Y) beating consensus estimates by $90M, and Q3 EPS $1.09 which beat the consensus by $0.12, more at Facebook $FB, GoDaddy $GDDY, Q3 2016 Webcasts, Nov 2, 5pm ET.

Nonetheless, the market wasn't impressed:

On the other hand, maybe both stocks got caught up in the U.S. Presidential pre-election jitters: S&P 500 index marks its longest losing streak in 36 years | WashingtonPost.com: "... retreat of the stock market ahead of the 2016 election continued Friday, with the market falling for a ninth straight day. Wall Street is now in its longest period of decline in more than three decades [since 1980 when Ronald Reagan won over Jimmy Carter]. Investors continue to focus on the U.S. presidential election, which has become too close for comfort for some investors ... "

Translation: Wall Street thought "the fix was in" and this year's election would be a Hillary Clinton Coronation. A proven stock market metric (86% accuracy since 1928), the S&P 500 index, is signaling Donald Trump will win the election.  

Other Tech News:

•  Google: Oh Schmidt! - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) | SeekingAlpha.com: "As Donald Trump cut into Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls this week, Wikileaks revealed how Alphabet (Google) executive chairman Eric Schmidt offered extensive help to Clinton's campaign."

•  Huma Abedin doesn’t know how those thousands of Clinton emails ended up on Weiner's hard drive, but we do: If you set up Yahoo on Apple Mail or Outlook or any of the other services, it will store a copy of your email on the hard drive.--McClatchyDC.com

•  Wikileaks Has Chilling Effect on Ambassadorships for big donors including "super bundlers at [Hollywood] studios, networks or agencies"--HollywoodReporter.com

•  How dominant is Amazon? "According to a 2015 survey from Bloomreach of U.S. and U.K. consumers about their shopping habits over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, for example, 87% of U.S. and 90% of U.K. consumers said they would check Amazon at least once during their shopping process. 47% of U.S. and 46% of U.K. consumers said they’d check Amazon for 50% or more of their holiday purchases."--WebsiteMagazine.com

•  Google Cloud? Bloomberg.com: Google was once a cloud pioneer, having spent years stringing together data centers to support its search business. But it squandered that lead by allowing others to market such infrastructure as a service first. Alphabet, Google’s parent, is now intent on narrowing the gap with Amazon.com and Microsoft, in large part because it needs to build a reliable revenue stream that doesn’t come from ads ..." What happpened? 1) Google lost its focus under the leadership of the 'Billionaire Boys' Larry Page & Sergey Brin who were more interested in their money-losing Alpha Bets; 2) Google DNA: “The perception from people is that Google is still quirky to use. It’s like everyone is speaking standardized English, and Google [is] the French speaker.”--Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare.com

•  Has Apple $AAPL lost its way? Apple just told the world it has no idea who the Mac is for | Medium.com. See also: Smartwatch is Dead, Market Implodes, Apple Watch Shipments Collapse | Wolf Street.com: "Apple Watch is still the market leader with a 41.3% share, but shipments collapsed by 71.6% year-over-year, to just 1.1 million watches, down from 3.9 million a year ago. "

•  Google Pixel Camera Flaw Angers Users | forbes.com: "... some users in the same thread remain unconvinced, stating that other types of flare, not covered by the fix, are in evidence from the Pixel’s camera ..."  See also Why Google’s New Phone Will Soon Be Irrelevant | Fortune.com.

•  How smartphones made Shenzhen China's innovation capital | Vox.com: it's all about “consumer-grade smartphone technology.”

•  Why Slack may live to regret its smarmy letter to Microsoft | TheVerge.com "... there’s nothing to be gained from posting disingenuous open letters to the competition."

•   Google disputes EU antitrust charges saying "the Commission had failed to take into account competition from Amazon, merchant platforms, social media sites, mobile web and online advertising by companies such as Facebook and Pinterest."--CNBC.com. See also Google's Travel Business Is Already Twice the Size of Expedia's | Skift.com.

•  Good Cybersecurity Doesn’t Try to Prevent Every Attack | hbr.org: "It’s far more important to focus on two things: identifying and protecting the company’s strategically important cyber assets and figuring out in advance how to mitigate damage when attacks occur."


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TechReview | Tech News | Feature: Hurricane Overhyping A SafetyThreat?

Domain Mondo's new weekly review of technology news:

Feature •  Is Hurricane overhyping actually helping or hurting?

4,001 Days: The Major Hurricane Drought Continues | DrRoySpencer.com: Oct 7, 2016: "... 4,001 days since the last major hurricane (Wilma in 2005) made landfall in the United States. A major hurricane (Category 3 to 5) has maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph, and “landfall” means the center of the hurricane eye crosses the coastline. This morning it looks like Matthew will probably not make landfall along the northeast coast of Florida ... Media hype also exaggerates the problem ... most of the warned population is under the impression they, personally, are going to experience such extreme conditions ... I don’t think we will solve the over-warning problem of severe weather events any time soon ..." 

Hurricane Matthew, 07 Oct 2016, off the NE coast of FL (NOAA water vapor satellite image)

There are real negative consequences when you subject a large population to unnecessary mandatory evacuations. What are the costs, in terms of injury and loss of life (e.g., traffic accidents due to fleeing the evacuation area, etc.), and economic losses? No one knows, no study has been done as far as I know. The reason we will continue to have over-warning a/k/a over-hyping (see this and this) is mainly because it feeds the whole government-media-industrial complex--media hype is good for ratings, politicians and government officials get a lot of free publicity as well as justification for whole bureaucracies funded by taxpayers, and sales (and prices) spike for everything from supplies to contractor repairs (scam artists are already in Florida ready to exploit the vulnerable). In other words, there is too much money being made for there to be an end to overhyping.

Having encountered hurricanes while bluewater sailing, and residing in Florida in 2004 when 4 hurricanes (3 major) hit the state, I will share my experience. There are two primary categories of things you need to know when it comes to hurricanes:

1. Hurricane: its location, direction and forward speed of movement (projected path), and maximum sustained winds (Category 1,2,3,4,5).
2. You: your location, including elevation (on land), your infrastructure (housing, utilities, supplies, transport), your own capabilities to cope with hurricane conditions, and finally, your responsibilities to others (e.g., parents, spouse, children, etc.)  

From an assessment of the above, one must decide (in advance) whether to 1) evacuate, or 2) shelter-in-place. Based on what I know, and have experienced, and speaking only for myself, I probably would not have evacuated for Hurricane Matthew unless I was living in a low-lying (storm surge is the biggest danger) coastal area in the affected area (in Florida, e.g., along the east coast from Palm Beach to the GA-FL state line). Everyone's situation is different. However there are key facts about Hurricane Matthew that the media either ignored or were ignorant of: in the northern hemisphere, when a hurricane is moving north (like Matthew), the eastern half of the hurricane is the most dangerous because you add  wind speed to the hurricane's forward motion speed, whereas on the western side (the 'Florida side' in Matthew's case, or counterclockwise from its leading edge), you subtract the hurricane's forward motion speed from the hurricane's wind speed, read more here (pdf).

Finally, for the techies, note that the eye of Hurricane Matthew passed directly over a weather buoy (hat tip: Hacker News | news.ycombinator.com):

Other Tech News:

• Who will buy Twitter? Recode.net reported this week that everyone has lost interest in acquiring Twitter $TWTR (see this week's chart below) other than perhaps Salesforce.com, Inc., $CRM, whose CEO is Marc Benioff. We should know something definitive before the end of the month. See also: Why Twitter Will Be Bought | SeekingAlpha.com and "Twitter is a news medium. It’s all about information."--Today’s Twitter Rules | Lefsetz.com.

Twitter shares dropped 20% from Wednesday's close thru Friday

• Google Pixel, Home, etc: A Guide to Google's Gear:

Google is taking shots at Amazon, Apple and Samsung with its new line up of hardware products announced Tuesday. Here's a look at the five new products the company is launching for the 2016 holiday season. Video above published by WSJ.com Oct 5, 2016.

Remember when Google bought Motorola and actually made smartphones? Well, Google's back in the smartphone business (with help from HTC and others), and if you want a premium smartphone, priced accordingly, here's your chance. Google Smartphones: Pixel is $649 for 32GB, $749 for 128GB; Pixel XL is $769 for 32GB, $869 for 128GB; pre-order now, ships Oct. 20 in Quite Black, Really Blue, Very Silver. Buy via Google store, Project Fi, BestBuy, or Verizon. 

•  How is the Apple iPhone 7 Doing? (NASDAQ:AAPL)--SeekingAlpha.com: "Data points suggest new phones off to a slow start. Supply issues and SE model likely influencing sales."

•  EU vs Google: The European Union’s competition regulator is intending to force changes to Google-parent Alphabet Inc.’s ($GOOG, $GOOGL) business practices and levying significant fines for breaching the EU’s antitrust rules, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal--WSJ.com. Google has until October 31 to reply to EU's Android antitrust charges.

•  A billion here, a billion there--Verizon wants $1B discount on [$4.8B] Yahoo deal after reports of hacking, spying | New York Post.

•  Fake Internet Traffic: Audience Numbers Are Garbage, And Nobody Knows How Many People See Anything--Techdirt.com: "... internet traffic is [at least] half-fake and everyone's known it for years, but there's no incentive to actually acknowledge it ... so much of the advertising industry is pure waste ..."

•  Julian Assange vows Google & US election leaks as WikiLeaks.org turns 10--CNET.com: Assange denied reports that he intended to harm the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, although he did describe the reaction to leaks of Democratic emails as "neo-McCarthy-esque hysteria." Asked if he had any affinity for Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump, Assange said, "I feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They are two people that are tormented by their ambitions."

•  Political activists turning to chatbots--AI bots (artificial-intelligence-powered bots) that respond to user queries on platforms like Facebook Messenger, as a way of staying in contact with "hard to reach younger, mobile-centric voters"--Politico.com.

•  Amazon.com Inc. ($AMZN) is cracking down on biased customer reviews by banning incentivized reviews of free or discounted products--TheVerge.com.

•  Uber-killer? A Waze.com trial program is now confirmed to be gradually extending to Waze Rider users in the San Francisco area--SeekingAlpha.com. For more: waze.com/carpool.

•  Earnings Season (Q3 2016 earnings results) preview:  For third quarter (ending Sep 30), 2016, the estimated earnings decline for the S&P 500 is -2.1%. If the index reports a decline in earnings for Q3, it will mark the first time the index has recorded six consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in earnings since FactSet.com began tracking the data in Q3 2008--read more here (pdf).

Companies on Domain Mondo's coverage list:
Alibaba BABA
Alphabet GOOG
Amazon AMZN
Apple AAPL
Facebook FB
GoDaddy GDDY
Neustar NSR
Rightside NAME
Twitter TWTR

Verisign VRSN

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo

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Smartphone Industry Disrupted by BLU: Life One X2 First Look (video)

Life One X2 First Look:

Move over Apple, Samsung, and Google Pixel--here comes BLU (domain: bluproducts.com).

Video above published by BLU on Sep 22, 2016. You can pre-order now to get a 10% discount--only for 48 hours--September 22nd & September 23rd--get the Life One X2 starting at $134.99 for 16GB+2GB, and $179.99 for 64GB+4GB at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZHFSBC

Domain Mondo watches technology trends and Miami-based BLU is getting a lot of attention in the smartphone industry. The New BLU Life One X2 has added significant improvements in technology from the original Life One X, such as Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 430 processor, Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 3.0, and 5.2-inch 1080p Full HD with a gorgeous curved Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

More info:

• http://bluproducts.com/devices/life-one-x2/
• PDF: http://s536785483.onlinehome.us/salesguides/images/salesguides/life-one-x2-sg.pdf
• Blu reveals latest smartphone in the $150 Life One X2 | AndroidGuys.com

The New BLU #LifeOneX2 has great features such as Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 3.0,1080p Full HD and more! Pre-order now @amazon for 48HR sale! pic.twitter.com/ffqQNxk19U

— BLU Products (@BLU_Products) September 22, 2016

For a good wireless carrier deal, check out T-Mobile offerings (some available only online) including these money-saving plans:

If you have access to Wi-Fi, why do you need an expensive wireless carrier plan?


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