Artificial intelligence is likely to transform the public sector by automating many government tasks—including making combat decisions. But, according to experts at a recent symposium held  at Harvard University, this “over-the-horizon” technology can only guide and inform government leaders. There will always be a need for human decision making—and for clear ethical standards to prevent harmful intentions.

At the September 20 conference, “AI-Government and AI Arms Races and Norms,” organized by the Michael Dukakis Institute (MDI), Professor Marc Rotenberg underscored the growing gap between informed government decision-making and the reality of our technology-driven world. “Governments may ultimately lose control of these systems if they don’t take action,” he told some 60 attendees.

Rosenberg, who teaches at Georgetown University Law School, is President of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and a member of the AI World Society Standards and Practice Committee,

Prof. Matthias Scheutz, Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory at Tufts University, said the greatest risk caused by AI and robotics technologies is when unconstrained machine learning is out of control. This can happen when AI systems acquire knowledge and start to pursue goals that were not intended by their human designers, he said. For example, “If an AI program operating the power grid decides to cut off energy in certain areas for better power utilization overall, it will leave millions of people without electricity, which consequently turns out to be an AI accidental failure.”

Scheutz also said that common preventive solutions inside and outside the system are largely insufficient to safeguard AI and robotics technologies. Even with “emergency buttons,” the system itself might finally set its own goal to prevent a shutdown previously set up by humans.

The best way to safeguard AI systems is to build ethical provisions directly into the learning, reasoning, recognition and other algorithms. In his presentation, he demonstrated “ethical testing” to catch and handle ethical violations.

Here’s a link to video of Scheutz’s talk. https://youtu.be/66EeYzkTxwA

Prof. Joseph Nye, emeritus of Harvard University, who created the concept of “Soft Power” diplomacy, focused on the expansion of Chinese firms in the US market and their ambition to surpass the US in AI. Nye said the notion of an AI arms race and geopolitical competition in AI can have profound effects on our society. However, he added, predictions that China will overtake the US in AI by 2030 are “uncertain” and “indeterminate” because China’s only advantage is having more data and little concern about privacy.

Nye also point out that as people unleash AI, which is leading to warfare and autonomous offensives, we should have treaties in place to control the technology, managed perhaps by international institutions that will monitor AI programs in various countries.

During the symposium, Tuan Nguyen and Michael Dukakis, cofounders of the Michael Dukakis Institute (MDI), announced MDI’s cooperation with AI World–the industry’s largest conference and expo covering the business and technology of enterprise AI, to be held in Boston December 3-5, 2018.

Nguyen said, “Our cooperation marks the determination between two organizations toward achieving the goal of developing, measuring, and tracking the progress of ethical AI policy-making and solution adoption by governments and corporations.” Nguyen also introduced Eliot Weinman – Chairman of AI World Conference and Expo as a new member of AIWS Standards and Practice Committee.

Conference details are published in the current issue of AIWS Weekly.
–Dick Pirozzolo

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR, content and digital marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

Dick Pirozzolo is a member of the Group; the Michael Dukakis Institute, formed by Boston Global Forum, is his client. 

Still thinking about the fabulous Georgia O’Keeffe show I saw last Sunday at the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, MA. “Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style,”  is a retrospective going back to O’Keeffe’s high school years. It continues through her experiences in Chicago, Texas, New York City, Lake George, New Mexico and beyond her lifetime, to the present day.

The exhibit  features not only her art work through those years, but also year-book entries, photos of and by O’Keeffe, video of a conversation in which she says she was lucky that her work coincided with her time and was liked but that her paintings might have been better if she’d remained unknown.

Central to the show is the distinctive clothing she designed and wore–presented in relation to her paintings.

The show includes video from a 2018 fashion show in which models prance on a runway. wearing styles like those originated by OKeefe.(immediately below)

My friend E remarked on O’Keeffe as a feminist force. But while O’Keeffe was a ground breaker in the art world and is sometimes referred to as “the mother of abstract art,” a PEM commentary points out that she insisted throughout her career that she did not want to be considered a female artist…but simply an artist.

I did wonder what would have happened if famed New York City photographer Alfred Stieglitz, 30 years her senior, had not seen her work when she was a young artist and championed it–and her; if she had not moved to New York and married him; if he had not taken and shown photograph after photograph of her; if she had not had the safety and freedom afforded by Stieglitz and his family wealth in NY and Lake George. But an example of the early commercial artwork (left), on which she embarked to supplement her Texas teaching salary, makes me certain she would have become renowned on her own.

While I love most of O’Keeffe’s  paintings, I’m less enamoured of her fashion, which the show presents as an element of her artwork.  In my view, it seems to have become more traditionally masculine–with chunky-looking  black suits ordered from a men’s clothier in Hong Kong– as she moved on in life.(Or, as women’s societal roles changed?) 

I’ve  seen quite a few O’Keeffe shows over the years..several in New York, and one in Glens Falls, NY, near Lake George– but this is the first I’ve seen that incorporates and integrates so many aspects of her life.

I would have liked to have been told a bit more about O’Keeffe’s childhood and family and about her relationship with Stieglitz, but then, there’s Wikipedia for that. All in all, I found the exhibit of an artist who worked well into her 90s enriching and inspirational.

Should also mention the wonderful docent and ceramic artist/jewelry maker who told me that the unlabelled photos were taken by O’Keefe and encouraged me and other visitors to share our comments and photos on Instagram.  Also, btw, the PEM  cafeteria serves the richest, thickest hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

Georgia O’Keefe, Art, Image, Style will be at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, Dec. 1-April 1, 2018. 

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant  basedin Cambridge, MA. She is the author of Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s, and Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR and content marketing firm based in Kendall Square. :

In an interview with Lisa Mullins on “Here and Now” a daily program of National Public Radio,  author Anita Harris reflected on how her college years shaped her career path.  The interview, which aired June 11, focused on Harris’s book, Ithaca Diaries, a memoir and social history of her years at Cornell University in the 1960s.

Those years “gave me courage to start a newspaper and become a journalist,” said Harris about her time at Cornell.  “They gave me the courage to fight for social change through my work and my writing.  They have me the courage to work with students and help them understand better their own place in the world.”

Harris attended Cornell University during a time of racism and world turmoil.  In Ithaca Diaries, she writes about heavy topics such as the tearing up and burning of draft cards by students opposed to the Vietnam war and demonstrations for civil rights.

“There were all kinds of demonstrations and eventually all hell broke loose,”said Harris.  “At the university, nationally, and internationally students were demonstrating and even rioting all over the world.”

While Harris tried to focus on her studies and stay “sane,”  she also explored and wrote about Cornell’s dating scene, which was filled with “boys, and frats and football games,” she told Mullins.

Harris used her journals, letters to her parents, and Cornell’s independent student newspaper, the Daily Sun, to help tell her story, which takes readers on a coming-of-age journey from Harris’ arrival on campus  in 1966 with her pink suitcase to her graduation day, when she led a demonstration against the military.

“One reason I wanted to write the book was to understand what had happened and how it still affects me today,” said Harris.  “To this day, I think back to the events of that time.”

“Ithaca Diaries” can be purchased on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Ithaca-Diaries-Coming-Age-1960s/dp/0692294988.

Harris’ “Here and Now” interview  is available at http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/06/11/ithaca-diaries-anita-harris.

— Morgan Brittney Austin
Morgan Brittney Austin is a 2015 graduate of LaSalle College, near Boston.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

Harold Simansky and Skeletom at Cambridge Innovation Center

Pleased to report that, after a stressful month, Harold Simansky’s Kickstarter campaign reached its goal of $25,000. The kickstarter will help fund BTW, a magazine devoted to beautiful, sustainable living.
Here’s a picture of Harold at the Cambridge Innovation Center—sweating it out near my favorite deskmate, SkeleTom (SkeleTom is QUIET!)  With my own Kickstarter (to help fund my forthcoming book, Ithaca Diaries,) still underway, I know that you can  feel like you’re turning into a skeleTom, waiting for contributions to roll in. Congrats to Harold and the BTW team.
–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning marketing and PR firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square.

Butterly-from Ariana Pharma Website

Our Cambridge Innovation Center colleague Ariana Pharma reports that it has joined the WIN consortium as an official technology partner. Congrats! Here’s the release. 

Paris, France, and Cambridge, Massachusetts USA, 29 October 2014 – Ariana Pharma, developer of innovative clinical data analysis and diagnostic solutions for the healthcare sector, today announced it has joined the WIN Consortium as an official technology partner. The Consortium (Worldwide Innovative Networking in personalized cancer medicine) is a global collaboration of 40 leading organizations whose aim is to develop more effective cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, shorten clinical trial timelines and reduce the overall cost of cancer care.

The new WIN/Ariana partnership is expected to accelerate the translation of personalized medicine discoveries into widely available new standards of care for all cancer patients, leading to significantly improved clinical outcomes and a higher quality of life for cancer patients.

As a technology partner of the WIN Consortium, Ariana will have early access to the latest research, key opinion leaders, leading academic groups and personalized medicine clinical trials. Ariana uses OncoKEM^®, a proprietary clinical decision support platform for personalized medicine, to transform big data into better therapeutic decisions for cancer patients.

Ariana Pharma Founder and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mohammad Afshar said: “We are delighted to be an official technology partner of the WIN Consortium where we can continue to leverage our expertise in patient stratification, multi-marker diagnostic optimization and data mining to transform complex clinical data into actionable information. Our expanded access to the leading global stakeholders in personalized medicine will allow us to test new hypotheses, to enhance interaction to yield valuable feedback and thus accelerate the development process and commercialisation of these critical new services for the global cancer community.”

“We are delighted to welcome Ariana Pharma in our consortium. Ariana Pharma provides outstanding computational skills enabling the translation of academic projects into commercial tools to support the therapeutic decision for cancer patients,” said Dr. John Mendelsohn, Chairman of the WIN Consortium.

WIN is recognized for pioneering the evolution of next-generation clinical trials, which test personalized treatment selection strategies rather than single drugs. These strategies are driven by algorithms that match targeted therapies or combination therapies to individual tumor biological profiles based on diagnostic analysis of genomic data and other information.

In 2013 the WIN Consortium chose Ariana Pharma to develop and globally commercialize ground-breaking decision support software in WIN’s WINTHER trial, the first state of the art clinical trial in personalized cancer medicine to help clinicians choose the best therapies for cancer patients. Ariana retains exclusive global rights to commercialize software and algorithms validated by the WINTHER clinical trial through Ariana’s OncoKEM^® platform.

About Ariana Pharma

Ariana Pharma develops innovative clinical data analysis and diagnostic testing solutions to help the healthcare sector better adapt patient treatments to individual biological characteristics. Ariana Pharma’s KEM^® technology enables personalization of therapies, improves the efficacy and safety of patient treatment, reduces risks and drug development costs, and accelerates time to market. KEM^® is the only FDA tested technology that systematically explores combinations of biomarkers, producing more effective biomarker signatures for personalized medicine. Founded in 2003 as a spin-off of the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, the company opened a subsidiary in the United States in 2012.For more information, please visit www.arianapharma.com

About the WIN Consortium

Founded in 2010, WIN is an initiative from the Institut Gustave Roussy (France) and University of Texas MD Anderson cancer center (USA). WIN is unique structurally in that it brings together organizations from academia, business and not-for-profits to focus on translating the latest advances in personalized cancer medicine into the standard of care. WIN is built on the recognition that all stakeholders in personalized cancer therapy must collaborate and share information, in order to effectively bring the latest innovations in personalized cancer care to the patient. WIN is a non-profit organization formed by 40 renowned members: Academic cancer centres (25 centres in 16 countries), companies (Blue Cross Blue Shield, Agilent Technologies, GE Healthcare, Oracle Health Services, Foundation Medicine, Millennium Takeda, AstraZeneca and Pfizer), non-profit organizations such as EORTC, Fondation ARC and Sage Bionetworks. WIN organizes an annual symposium in Paris dedicated to personalized medicine. For further information, please visit www.winconsortium.org  and www.winsymposium.org.

–Anita M Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning pr and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA. {Ariana is not our client]. AMH.

With three days to go, the kickstarter campaign for BTW (Behind the Walls)  –a multi-platform media company devoted to beautiful, healthy, energy efficient and sustainable home, .is 85% funded.  Led by our friend and Cambridge Innovation Center colleague Harold Simansky, BTW needs $3K to get to $25K tor will take in nothing at all. I hope you’ll support the project. Here’s a link to the kickstarter site:

Harold writes:

Environmentally sound, healthy homes can be as stylish as they are sustainable; as beautifully designed as they are responsible; as glam as they are green… and a lot less expensive than you might think.

Now that eco-awareness is (finally and thankfully) skyrocketing, the country has exploded with new ideas for the home—everything from innovative, energy-saving technologies and home automation systems to products, decors, and furnishings that are toxin-free, sustainable and beautiful. Now you can live a green life at home without having to choose between what’s eco-friendly and what’s style-friendly, what’s efficient and what’s expensive.

BTW is here to keep homeowners on the cutting edge, building a community that shares our vision of healthy, energy-efficient and sustainable building and renovation practices, met with beautiful design. We’re also here to educate the community about service providers and funding—in the form of thousands of rebates and incentive programs—to make that possibility a reality. We want to make it clear that living a healthy, energy-efficient, and happy green lifestyle is within reach… and it all begins in the home.

What We Do

We’re creating a vibrant community of forward-thinking homeowners with BTW: Behind the Walls, a multi-platform media company that combines a magazine (both print and online), a website, social media, videos, blog posts, creative events, and—soon to come—podcasts and ecommerce, to help consumers envision and create a new kind of home and lifestyle.

Our goal is to help all homeowners understand, as they undertake some 20 million home improvement projects every year, how to do it more efficiently, more stylishly, greener, and healthier, using the best products, services and funding.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/959029715/btw-the-magazine-of-beautiful-healthy-and-sustaina?ref=home_featured

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and digital marketing firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Cambridge, MA.

Hi! I’m thrilled with the outpouring of support for Ithaca Diaries– including that of current students and recent grads.

Alex Tomasi, a 2014 Boston University communications grad (and race car driver!)  has offered a beautiful, whimsical poster as a new reward–(shown below the cover photo).

You can meet Alex and other 20-something supporters– Erin Euler, Eric Morris (Cornell 2012),  Grant Randall  and Ben Whiting  via their brief You Tube videos….and I hope at the launch party in January.

Any and all contributions welcome–including $1 and $5.  Every little bit helps–and also raises projects in the kickstarter rankings and attracts more views. It would also be great if you’d’ share this email and the kickstarter link on social media.

Here’s the kickstarter link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1639099206/ithaca-diaries-coming-of-age-in-the-1960s.

It does look like we’ll reach the goal soon…which means that Ithaca  Diaries will be available for holiday gift giving. Additional $$ will allow a Kirkus review to let bookstores and libraries know it’s available–and still more will go toward an interactive Web site.

Many many thanks,
Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing firm, based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.