In the last decades, Artificial Intelligence has shown to be very good at achieving exceptional goals in several fields.
The brain strategy for storing memories is more efficient than that of Artificial intelligence (AI), suggested the findings of a novel research.
The new study, carried out by SISSA scientists in collaboration with Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience & Centre for Neural Computation, Trondheim, Norway, has been published in 'Physical Review Letters'.
In the last decades, Artificial Intelligence has shown to be very good at achieving exceptional goals in several fields. Chess is one of them: in 1996, for the first time, the computer Deep Blue beat a human player, chess champion Garry Kasparov.
Neural networks, real or artificial, learn by tweaking the connections between neurons. Making them stronger or weaker, some neurons become more active, some less, until a pattern of activity emerges. This pattern is what we call "a memory". The AI strategy is to use complex long algorithms, which iteratively tune and optimize the connections.
The brain does it much simpler: each connection between neurons changes just based on how active the two neurons are at the same time. When compared to the AI algorithm, this had long been thought to permit the storage of fewer memories. But, in terms of memory capacity and retrieval, this wisdom is largely based on analysing networks assuming a fundamental simplification: that neurons can be considered as binary units.
The new research, however, shows otherwise: the fewer number of memories stored using the brain strategy depends on such an unrealistic assumption. When the simple strategy used by the brain to change the connections is combined with biologically plausible models for single neurons response, that strategy performs as well as, or even better, than AI algorithms. How could this be the case?
Paradoxically, the answer is in introducing errors: when memory is effectively retrieved this can be identical to the original input-to-be-memorized or correlated to it. The brain strategy leads to the retrieval of memories that are not identical to the original input, silencing the activity of those neurons that are only barely active in each pattern.
Those silenced neurons, indeed, do not play a crucial role in distinguishing among the different memories stored within the same network. By ignoring them, neural resources can be focused on those neurons that do matter in an input-to-be-memorized and enable a higher capacity.
Overall, this research highlighted how biologically plausible self-organised learning procedures can be just as efficient as slow and neurally implausible training algorithms.
SOURCE- https://www.hindustantimes.com/
Researchers during a recent study have found that a nuclear war could trigger an unprecedented El Nino-like warming episode in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This might lead to slashing algae
populations by forty per cent along with lowering the fish count.
The research, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, shows that turning to the oceans for food if land-based farming fails after a nuclear war is unlikely to be a successful strategy - at least in the equatorial Pacific.
"In our computer simulations, we see a 40 per cent reduction in phytoplankton (algae) biomass in the equatorial Pacific, which would likely have downstream effects on larger marine organisms that people eat," said lead author Joshua Coupe, a post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Environmental Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "Previous research has shown that global cooling following a nuclear war could lead to crop failure on land, and our study shows we probably can't rely on seafood to help feed people, at least in that area of the world."
Scientists studied climate change in six nuclear war scenarios, focusing on the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The scenarios include a major conflict between the United States and Russia and five smaller wars between India and Pakistan. Such wars could ignite enormous fires that inject millions of tons of soot (black carbon) into the upper atmosphere, blocking sunlight and disrupting Earth's climate.
With an Earth system model to simulate the six scenarios, the scientists showed that a large-scale nuclear war could trigger an unprecedented El Nino-like event lasting up to seven years. The El Nino-Southern Oscillation is the largest naturally occurring phenomenon that affects Pacific Ocean circulation, alternating between warm El Nino and cold La Nina events and profoundly influencing marine productivity and fisheries.
During a "nuclear Nino," scientists found that precipitation over the Maritime Continent (the area between the Indian and Pacific oceans and surrounding seas) and equatorial Africa would be shut down, largely because of a cooler climate.
More importantly, a nuclear Nino would shut down the upwelling of deeper, colder waters along the equator in the Pacific Ocean, reducing the upward movement of nutrients that phytoplankton - the base of the marine food web - need to survive. Moreover, the diminished sunlight after a nuclear war would drastically reduce photosynthesis, stressing and potentially killing many phytoplankton.
"Turning to the sea for food after a nuclear war that dramatically reduces crop production on land seems like it would be a good idea," said co-author Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick. "But that would not be a reliable source of the protein we need, and we must prevent nuclear conflict if we want to safeguard our food and Earth's environment."
SOURCE- https://www.hindustantimes.com/
Earth’s ice is melting faster today than in the mid-1990s, according to new research that shows the loss is now following the worst-case scenarios for climate change, which has nudged global temperatures ever higher.
Altogether, an estimated 28 trillion metric tons of ice have melted away from the world’s sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers since the mid-1990s. Annually, the melt rate is now about 57% faster than it was three decades ago, the researchers say in a study published on Monday in the journal The Cryosphere.
“The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Sea-level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century,” said researcher Thomas Slater of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, University of Leeds, according to a statement by the university.
News agency Reuters quoted Slater as adding: “It was a surprise to see such a large increase in just 30 years”.
While the situation is clear to those depending on mountain glaciers for drinking water, or relying on winter sea ice to protect coastal homes from storms, the world’s ice melt has begun to grab attention far from frozen regions, Slater noted.
Aside from being captivated by the beauty of polar regions, “people do recognise that, although the ice is far away, the effects of the melting will be felt by them,” he said.
The melting of land ice — on Antarctica, Greenland and mountain glaciers — added enough water to the ocean during the three-decade time period to raise the average global sea level by 3.5 centimeters.
Ice loss from mountain glaciers accounted for 22% of the annual ice loss totals, which is noteworthy considering it accounts for only about 1% of all land ice atop land, Slater said.
Across the Arctic, sea ice is also shrinking to new summertime lows. Last year saw the second-lowest sea ice extent in more than 40 years of satellite monitoring. As sea ice vanishes, it exposes dark water which absorbs solar radiation, rather than reflecting it back out of the atmosphere. This phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, boosts regional temperatures even further.
source - https://www.hindustantimes.com/
A veteran rocket from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company launched 143 spacecraft into space on Sunday, a new record for the most spaceships deployed on a single mission, according to the company.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10 a.m. EST from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It flew south along the eastern coast of Florida on its way to space, the company said.
The reusable rocket ferried 133 commercial and government spacecraft and 10 Starlink satellites to space – part of the company’s SmallSat Rideshare Program, which provides access to space for small satellite operators seeking a reliable, affordable ride to orbit, according to the company.
SpaceX delayed the launch one day because of unfavorable weather. On January 22 Musk, also chief executive of Tesla Inc ., wrote on Twitter: “Launching many small satellites for a wide range of customers tomorrow. Excited about offering low-cost access to orbit for small companies!”
SpaceX has previously launched to orbit more than 800 satellites of the several thousand needed to offer broadband internet globally, a $10 billion investment it estimates could generate $30 billion annually to help fund Musk’s interplanetary rocket program, called Starship.
SOURCE - https://indianexpress.com/
Laura Burrows is a Senior Marketing Specialist for Experian. With over seven years of experience in content creation within the financial services industry, Laura strives to provide thought leadership that helps businesses succeed and grow. Her content has been featured in numerous top-tier industry publications, including Forbes, Business Insider and Financial Advisor Magazine..
The future is, factually speaking, uncertain. We don’t know if we’ll find a cure for cancer, the economic outlook, if we’ll be living in an algorithmic world or if our work cubical mate will soon be replaced by a robot. While futurists can dish out some exciting and downright scary visions for the future of technology and science, there are no future facts. However, the uncertainty presents opportunity
From the moment you wake up, to the moment you go back to sleep, technology is everywhere. The highly digital life we live and the development of our technological world have become the new normal. According to The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), almost 50% of the world’s population uses the internet, leading to over 3.5 billion daily searches on Google and more than 570 new websites being launched each minute. And even more mind-boggling? Over 90% of the world’s data has been created in just the last couple of years.
With data growing faster than ever before, the future of technology is even more interesting than what is happening now. We’re just at the beginning of a revolution that will touch every business and every life on this planet. By 2020, at least a third of all data will pass through the cloud, and within five years, there will be over 50 billion smart connected devices in the world.
At the rate at which data and our ability to analyze it are growing, businesses of all sizes will be forced to modify how they operate. Businesses that digitally transform, will be able to offer customers a seamless and frictionless experience, and as a result, claim a greater share of profit in their sectors. Take, for example, the financial services industry – specifically banking. Whereas most banking used to be done at a local branch, recent reports show that 40% of Americans have not stepped through the door of a bank or credit union within the last six months, largely due to the rise of online and mobile banking.
According to Citi’s 2018 Mobile Banking Study, mobile banking is one of the top three most-used apps by Americans. Similarly, the Federal Reserve reported that more than half of U.S. adults with bank accounts have used a mobile app to access their accounts in the last year, presenting forward-looking banks with an incredible opportunity to increase the number of relationship touchpoints they have with their customers by introducing a wider array of banking products via mobile.
Rather than viewing digital disruption as worrisome and challenging, embrace the uncertainty and potential that advances in new technologies, data analytics and artificial intelligence will bring. The pressure to innovate amid technological progress poses an opportunity for us all to rethink the work we do and the way we do it. Are you ready?
Recently, I shared articles about the problems surrounding third-party and first-party fraud. Now I’d like to explore a hybrid type – synthetic identity fraud – and how it can be the hardest type of fraud to detect.
Synthetic identity fraud occurs when a criminal creates a new identity by mixing real and fictitious information. This may include blending real names, addresses, and Social Security numbers with fabricated information to create a single identity.
Once created, fraudsters will use their synthetic identities to apply for credit. They employ a well-researched process to accumulate access to credit. These criminals often know which lenders have more liberal identity verification policies that will forgive data discrepancies and extend credit to people who appear to be new or emerging consumers. With each account that they add, the synthetic identity builds more credibility.
Eventually, the synthetic identity will “bust out,” or max out all available credit before disappearing. Because there is no single person whose identity was stolen or misused there’s no one to track down when this happens, leaving businesses to deal with the fall out.
More confounding for the lenders involved is that each of them sees the same scam through a different lens. For some, these were longer-term reliable customers who went bad. For others, the same borrower was brand new and never made a payment. Synthetic identities don’t appear consistently as a new account problem or a portfolio problem or correlate to thick- or thin-filed identities, further complicating the issue.
As mentioned, when synthetic identities bust out, businesses are stuck footing the bill.
Annual SIF (synthetic identity fraud) charge-offs in the United States alone could be as high as $11 billion. – Steven D’Alfonso, research director, IDC Financial Insights1
Unlike first- and third-party fraud, which deal with true identities and can be tracked back to a single person (or the criminal impersonating them), synthetic identities aren’t linked to an individual. This means that the tools used to identify those types of fraud won’t work on synthetics because there’s no victim to contact (as with third-party fraud), or real customer to contact in order to collect or pursue other remedies.
Preventing and detecting synthetic identities requires a multi-level solution that includes robust checkpoints throughout the customer lifecycle.
During the application process, lenders must look beyond the credit report. By looking past the individual identity and analyzing its connections and relationships to other individuals and characteristics, lenders can better detect anomalies to pinpoint false identities.
Consistent portfolio review is also necessary. This is best done using a risk management system that continuously monitors for all types of fraudulent activities across multiple use cases and channels. A layered approach can help prevent and detect fraud while still optimizing the customer experience.
With the right tools, data, and analytics, fraud prevention can teach you more about your customers, improving your relationships with them and creating opportunities for growth while minimizing fraud losses.
To wrap up this series, I’ll explore account takeover fraud and how the correct strategy can help you manage all four types of fraud while still optimizing the customer experience. To learn more about the impact of synthetic identities, download our “Preventing Synthetic Identity Fraud” white paper and call us to learn more about innovative solutions you can use to detect and prevent fraud
2020 is finally over – been there, done that. And while it seems safe to say most everyone is all too eager to kick off a new calendar year, the reality is we’re still reeling – and will continue to reel – through the economic impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
As we inch closer to the one year marker of when many businesses were sent home – across all industries, including those tech-inclined and those less so – the understatement of the year is that the world has since changed as have consumer communication preferences, how businesses and customers interact, tweaked definitions of privacy, and new (heightened) expectations of evolving a positive customer experience with minimal friction and maximum security.
While last year’s predictions of entering a new set of Roaring 20’s may not have panned out the way we had initially imagined, many of the trends thought to evolve over the last 365 days did. As we all look toward a post-pandemic world, here are six top trends to keep tabs on throughout 2021.
1. Data
Data as a commodity and as a business differentiating factor has reached an all-time high. It’s doing more across the entire customer lifecycle and can elevate businesses to best prep for growth, especially as consumers begin to look for more financial products (whether looking for financial assistance as the CARES Act accommodation period ends, or to take advantage of the booming mortgage industry, etc.).
Data can also give more insights into consumers than ever before. Far beyond just credit scores and financial data, today’s data sets can reveal consumers’ lifestyle preferences, their preferred communication channels, their rental histories, and so much more. With alternative credit data and non-traditional data (including consumer-permissioned data), businesses can get a holistic picture of their customers’ payment behaviors. That streaming media service monthly payment may seem minimal, but now could increase your credit score through Experian Boost.
Experian is still making big strides in all efforts to use data for good. As of December 31, 2020, Experian Boost has “boosted” Americans’ credit scores nearly 47 million points. Additionally, throughout 2020, Experian worked with financial institutions and credit furnishers to continue to put consumers first and serve as the consumer’s bureau.
Coming up in 2021? Using data for differentiation, which can ultimately drive business growth. From instant prescreens to identifying your best customers (and offering them cross-sell and upsell opportunities to increase retention and customer loyalty) to helping customers that may be on the brink of financial distress and connecting them with management solutions to help them get back on their feet, data can help businesses – and their customers – get there.
2. Fraud and Friction (And the Reduction of Both)
With the pandemic, fraud saw increases across the board. Here are just some quick stats:
And, unsurprisingly, consumer and business sentiments toward fraud are also evolving with these increasing trends. For example, according to Experian’s North America Trends Report, half of consumers continue to site security as the most important factor of their online experience. Additionally, there’s been an increase in the percentage of businesses who have recently increased or are planning to increase fraud budget from 76% in 2019 to 89% as of Sept. 2020.
More complex phishing schemes and increased fraudster activity is due in part to numerous industries having to shift to online processes and business transactions overnight. Adoption for mobile wallets has jumped 11% since July 2020, according to the 2020 Global Insights Report. Systems and technology that were not ready or not armed with the necessary infrastructure left critical access points open that could be exploited by fraudsters.
Fraud exists across the customer lifecycle, at every access point. And while fraud is complex, with Experian as your partner, solving it isn’t. Innovative technology enables businesses to prevent fraud by identifying credible customers and applying the correct treatment to the riskiest consumer and business accounts. We can help you develop a layered risk management strategy so you can focus resources on growing and protecting your customer relationships.
3. A New Administration – Changing of the Guards on the Regulatory Front
With the new year enters the inauguration of a new president and administration. Though there is still much to be determined, certain areas are drawing a lot of attention with this changing of the guards. The highlights?
The CFPB. Priorities and leadership could change. With COVID-19 top of mind, it is likely there will be aggressive agendas put forth to help protect the millions of consumers who have suffered economic distress and harm as a result of the pandemic.
Data Portability. With an increased consumer appetite to port their data, questions and concerns around data security – and how to verify for a third party asking for the data – are also on the rise. There are a number of issues facing financial institutions around data portability, one of the largest being defining the line between consumer account information and proprietary data.
All things privacy – state vs. national bills. The debate continues on how to move forward (whether privacy legislation will be handled by the states or at the national level), but for now it seems there is more progress at the state level. California was the first state to push through state-level privacy legislation in the form of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. Twenty-four states are considering legislation that would require consent before collecting or disclosing personal information with third parties.
4. Analytics + Digitalization – Smarter, Better, Faster
COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation for many. Some companies were ready, having already started making the headway in years prior, while others struggled – and some continue to struggle. The pandemic – and its corresponding recovery – is reason now, more than ever, to get some of your digital transformation priorities checked off of your list. Your customers demand it and your business needs it. Tackling analytics and digitalization not only brings your business up to speed, but improves your decisioning, enhances your offerings, and enables better platforms and data usage.
In addition to digitalization, artificial intelligence for credit decisioning and personalized banking can also be expected to be a top trend, especially AI that is ethical and explainable, as will the increasing adoption and implementation of cloud computing. As consumer experience continues to reign supreme, any and all technology to enhance and improve that experience – think chatbots and virtual assistants – will also likely increase in presence.
5. Verification & Identity
Identity has been a trending topic over the last few years, brought on by increasingly digital lifestyles and the intersection of personalization, frictionless transactions and adequate security. Identity verification and verification of other information such as income, employment and the like are increasingly needed in a today’s pandemic and tomorrow’s post-pandemic world.
Leveraged across the lifecycle and during critical customer interactions, the need is especially heightened for insights, data accuracy, and diversification of data sets – to name a few. And while it was already established that identity verification is not just for marketing services, there are now even greater needs for financial institutions to be able to confidently know that their customers are who they say they are.
Some areas to keep your eye on in 2021? Identity, income, assets and employment.
6. Redefining the Modern Mortgage
As has been a common trend, spurred by the disruption caused by COVID-19, the mortgage industry is one of the many to have a magnifying glass brought to its areas for improvement. Some of those areas include operational efficiency, digital adoption and transparency. In line with the better and faster needs that lenders are continually trying to pace with, the need for speed is hitting mortgage originations, with an ideal situation outlined as closing in 30 days or less. Creating operational efficiencies through faster, fresher data can be the key for lenders to more accurately assess a borrower’s ability to pay upfront.
Additionally, now, as most mortgage lenders are breaking previous origination records by a landslide (thanks pandemic), there’s new focus on other performance indicators.
With such impetus, the modern mortgage is constantly evolving, incorporating customer-centric facets including a seamless digital process, providing meaningful customer experiences and leveraging the latest and greatest technology to better future-proof the industry through scalable technology, while aiming to reduce costs.
For all your needs in 2021 and beyond, Experian has you covered
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