Workplace robots could increase inequality, warns IPPR

The Institute for Public Policy Research saidrobots would not necessarily be bad for the economy.

However, it warned lower-skilled jobs were much more likely to be phased out in the coming decades, and only higher-skilled workers would be able to command better wages.

The government said it was committed to making automation work for everyone.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a centre-left think tank, most jobs would be "transformed by automation, not eliminated".

This could raise UK productivity growth by between 0.8% and 1.4% annually, and give economic growth a significant boost.

However, these gains might not be shared evenly, as on average, low-wage jobs had five times more "technical potential" to be automated than highly-paid jobs, according to the IPPR.

The sectors most at risk include:

transportation (where 63% of jobs could be automated)

manufacturing (58%)

wholesale and retail trade (65%)

At the same time, the IPPR said workers capable of using advanced machines would see their incomes rise, extending the earnings gap.

"Our analysis shows that jobs with the potential to be automated are associated with £290bn of wages each year," said research fellow Carys Roberts.

"Much of this will be replaced through increased wages due to higher productivity and new jobs created, but a substantial portion could also be transferred from wages to profits."

She added: "Within that, some people will get a pay rise, while others are trapped in low pay, low productivity sectors."

'Resilient and diverse'

She said the jobs most at risk of automation were disproportionately based in poorer areas of the country, and held by women and those from ethnic minorities.

"To avoid inequality rising, the government should look at ways to spread capital ownership, and make sure everyone benefits from increased automation," she said.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the UK's labour market was "resilient and diverse" and that advances in technology were helping to "bring new jobs".

"The government is committed to ensuring that the UK is to able to seize the opportunities and overcome the obstacles that exist in this area," he said.

"Government is working closely with industry to ensure the benefits of new technologies are felt across different sectors of the economy up and down the country, while creating new high-skill, well-paid jobs."

Uber: Softbank takes large stake in ride-hailing firm

Japanese giant Softbank is set to take a large stake in Uber, expanding its holdings in transportation companies around the world.

Softbank led a consortium that reportedly agreed to invest at least $8bn for a roughly 15% stake in the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company.

The group will buy most of the shares from early investors in a deal that values Uber at about $48bn (£35.7bn).

Uber said the investment would fuel its expansion and technology investments.

The deal, which includes additional investment, is expected to be closed in early 2018.

Uber said: "We look forward to working with the purchasers to close the overall transaction, which we expect to support our technology investments, fuel our growth and strengthen our corporate governance."

As part of the deal, Uber's board will expand from 11 to 17 directors, with Softbank's investor group taking two of the new seats.

The shake-up was supported by Uber's new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who has said he hopes to list Uber's shares publicly in 2019.

The change is expected to reduce the influence of former chief executive Travis Kalanick, who was ousted from the top role in June but remains a board member.

The moves come as Uber concludes a difficult year, in which it faced a sexual harassment scandal, investigations by regulators and a lawsuit over allegedly stolen technology, among other challenges. It also continues to experience steep losses.

Uber: Softbank takes large stake in ride-hailing firm

Japanese giant Softbank is set to take a large stake in Uber, expanding its holdings in transportation companies around the world.

Softbank led a consortium that reportedly agreed to invest at least $8bn for a roughly 15% stake in the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company.

The group will buy most of the shares from early investors in a deal that values Uber at about $48bn (£35.7bn).

Uber said the investment would fuel its expansion and technology investments.

The deal, which includes additional investment, is expected to be closed in early 2018.

Uber said: "We look forward to working with the purchasers to close the overall transaction, which we expect to support our technology investments, fuel our growth and strengthen our corporate governance."

As part of the deal, Uber's board will expand from 11 to 17 directors, with Softbank's investor group taking two of the new seats.

The shake-up was supported by Uber's new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who has said he hopes to list Uber's shares publicly in 2019.

The change is expected to reduce the influence of former chief executive Travis Kalanick, who was ousted from the top role in June but remains a board member.

The moves come as Uber concludes a difficult year, in which it faced a sexual harassment scandal, investigations by regulators and a lawsuit over allegedly stolen technology, among other challenges. It also continues to experience steep losses.

Apple has apologised after facing criticism for admitting it deliberately slows down some ageing iPhone models

The company now says it will replace batteries for less and will issue software in 2018 so customers can monitor their phone's battery health.

Some customers had long suspected the company slowed older iPhones to encourage customers to upgrade.

Apple admitted slowing some phones with ageing batteries but said it was to "prolong the life" of the devices.

In a statement posted on its website, the firm said it would reduce the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 (£58) to $29 (£21) for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later.

It said it was pushing ahead with measures to "address customers' concerns, to recognise their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions".

"At Apple, our customers' trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support - and we will never forget that or take it for granted," it said.

Microsoft Gives Productivity Tools More AI Chops

on Wednesday announced new artificial intelligence features and functionality for several of its flagship products and services, including Office 365, Cortana and Bing, at an event in San Francisco. Harry Shum, EVP of Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research, demonstrated some of the new capabilities

Building on the progress the company has made in integrating AI over the past year, the new enhancements are designed to help users perform increasingly complex and complicated tasks.

"AI has come a long way in the ability to find information, but making sense of that information is the real challenge," said Kristina Behr, a partner design and planning program manager with Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence and Research group.

One of the advances, machine reading comprehension, will improve an AI-based system's understanding of context -- for example, recognizing that one's cousin is a family member.

Search Benefits

Bing users will get more personalized answers, Microsoft said, such as restaurant recommendations based on travel destinations, or a greater variety of answers to offer different perspectives on a topic.

AI guidance might help users figure out the exact questions they want to ask if their search queries are too vague to deliver meaningful results.

Bing will utilize visual search as a way to help people seek information about items or objects in photos. This functionality will comprise the use of object recognition along with machine reading comprehension.

An Office AI

Microsoft announced improvements in AI integration with its Office 365 tools as well. The spreadsheet program Excel, for example, will employ machine learning as a way to analyze data and predict trends via pivot tables and charts. The new AI tools also will be able to extract insights from smaller sets of data.

Importantly, use of the new AI functionality won't require more advanced training in Excel for users to determine which sets of data should be used to gain deeper insights.

More Conscious Cortana

Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana will get an upgrade as well, allowing it to make use of machine reading comprehension to summarize search results. Cortana also will be able to sort through a user's emails to identify the most important ones and even read them aloud during a commute, for example. Use of that functionality will extend to emails from multiple accounts, including on competing services such as Gmail.

Cortana also has been enhanced with "skills chaining," allowing it to suggest additions to one's calendar after tickets have been booked, for example.

Astute AI

These AI advances likely will be subtle and may go unnoticed by many users.

"AI will creep more and more into our lives," said Roger Entner, principal analyst at Recon Analytics.

"Ideally it will help to make tools like Bing, Cortana and Office 365 more userful," he told TechNewsWorld.

"This is the good AI, not the Terminator AI," noted Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

"In most cases, AI functions will be transparent to users just like they are in search engines today," he told TechNewsWorld.

The AI functionality simply makes the tools more efficient and useful.

"Think of this as reducing some of the simple tasks -- not the human part of the equation," McGregor suggested, "and think about intelligent digital assistants and word predictors or spell checkers that are more reliable than the ones we have today. This will be the most common form of AI -- embedded solutions that make the tools we use better, from search engines to scientific research."

How Far to Take It

Although the most extreme AI danger may lie in the rise of machines that overpower human controls, there are more subtle menaces to consider when it comes to the place it will take in our lives.

"It is upon us to draw a line," said Entner.

"Examples like Google and its all-encompassing 'data kraken' make it clear how blurry the line is between really useful and really creepy -- like when your Android phone constantly asks you if you are actually shopping at the store you are at," he pointed out. "Big brother [could be] watching all the time."

Social Media or Social Disease?

l media evolving into an antisocial medium? Days after one of its former execs argued that the answer is yes, Facebook published a post addressing the issue.

"I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works," Chamath Palihapitiya, who once served as vice president for growth at Facebook, told an audience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business last week.

"The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created are destroying how society works," he maintained.

There is a lack of civil discourse and cooperation on social media, as well as widespread distribution of misinformation and mistruth, according to Palihapitiya.

"It's not an American problem," he said. "This is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem."

Good and Bad Social Media

Some people feel bad after using social media, but others do not, wrote Facebook Director of Research David Ginsberg and Research Scientist Moira Burke.

"According to the research, it really comes down to how you use the technology," they said.

"For example, on social media, you can passively scroll through posts, much like watching TV, or actively interact with friends -- messaging and commenting on each other's posts," Ginsberg and Burke pointed out.

"Just like in person, interacting with people you care about can be beneficial, while simply watching others from the sidelines may make you feel worse," they explained.

Wellness Through Better New Feeds

To help foster interaction, Facebook has made a number of changes to its services, Ginsberg and Burke noted.

For example, it has started demoting clickbait headlines and false news, and prioritizing posts from people users care about to foster more meaningful interactions and reduce passive consumption of low-quality content.

It also added a "snooze" feature allowing users to hide posts from a person, group or page for 30 days.

Take a Break is another tool designed to remove stressful content. It gives users more control over when they see an ex-partner, what their ex can view, and who can look at past posts about the relationship.

In addition, the company has launched several suicide prevention initiatives, the Facebook researchers wrote.

Facebook has invested US$1 million toward research to better understand the relationship between media technologies, youth development and well-being, they added.

PR Awareness

Facebook's acknowledgment that there's more to social media than fun and sharing, and its moves to address the darker aspects of its community may not be entirely altruistic, suggested John Carroll, a mass communications professor at Boston University.

Still, "it's a sign their awareness of bad PR has started to rise," he told TechNewsWorld, .

"Many people think these steps are largely cosmetic. I don't see a lot of newfound enlightenment in Mark Zuckerberg these days," Carroll added. "He's in a position of influence and importance in the world that he doesn't want to face up to."

Two Sides to Interaction

Social media can both foster and inhibit interaction, asserted Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the University of Southern California.

"It can extend out social interactions to times and places when we wouldn't otherwise be able to interact with each other," she told TechNewsWorld.

"Usually to interact with people, you need to be in proximity to each other," North explained. "Social media allows us to be together even when we are physically apart."

However, social media interaction differs from proximity interaction because it's done through a device and involves content creation.

"That can interfere with people interacting more personally," North said.

Avoiding Social Media Blues

There are a number of ways for individuals to avoid the potential negative consequences of social media, said Brian Primack, director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health.

There is a connection between increased depressive symptoms and the increased proportion of social media friends you don't know in real life to those you do know, he noted.

"We also found that your mental health is better if you report that a higher proportion of your friends is what you would consider 'close' friends," Primack told TechNewsWorld.

Limiting the number of social platforms you participate in can be beneficial, as the number of platforms a person uses can be a predictor of poor mental health, he observed.

Establish strict guidelines for when and where you use social media, may be helpful, Primack ventured.

"Many families are declaring evening time to be device free," he noted. "They have everyone in the family drop their devices in a box at the front door, so that everyone can really focus on each other during a family dinner and other evening activities." 

US Fingers North Korea for WannaCry Epidemic

 United States on Tuesday accused North Korea of responsibility for a global ransomware attack that locked down more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries earlier this year.

The U.S. now has enough evidence to support its assertion that Pyongyang was behind the WannaCry attack in May, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert told reporters at a White House press briefing.

Bossert made the same accusation in an op-ed published Monday in The Wall Street Journal.

If the United States has new evidence linking North Korea to WannaCry, however, it hasn't released any of it to the public, which could pose problems.

"Accurate attribution for cyberattacks is almost always a difficult task, and it's doubly so when the evidence leading to the conclusion can't be shared," noted Tim Erlin, vice president of product management and strategy at Tripwire.

"If we're going to have national security organizations delivering these types of conclusions on attribution to the public, we need to find a way to develop trusted output. The mantra of 'trust us' doesn't cut it here," he told TechNewsWorld.

The Problem With Attribution

Speculation has connected North Korea to WannaCry since June, when the NSA said it believed Pyongyang was behind the attack. The British government reached the same conclusion in October, and the CIA concurred in November.

While there is evidence indicating that North Korea launched the ransomware virus, that evidence isn't definitive, maintained James Scott, a senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology.

"It is important to understand that attribution is rarely definitive because adversaries can easily obfuscate their actions using technical anti-analysis maneuvers," he told TechNewsWorld.

"They plant false indicators to mislead attribution," he continued. "They leap-frog through multiple foreign networks and systems, they outsource layers or the entirety of their attacks to cyber mercenaries, and they utilize malware available to multiple adversaries from Deep Web markets and forums."

Lazarus Connection

One strong indicator of North Korea's involvement with WannaCry is the malware's connection to the Lazarus Group, which has been tied to Pyongyang, observed Chris Doman, a threat engineer at AlienVault.

There are two data points that link Lazarus to WannaCry, he told TechNewsWorld: a number of rare code overlaps exist in the programs; and Lazarus planted an early version of WannaCry on a Symantec customer.

"The U.S. government may have additional information, but the evidence provided at the time by the private sector was pretty strong," Doman said.

The evidence linking Lazarus to Pyongyang is equally strong, he added. "There are a very small number of publicly assigned Internet addresses assigned to North Korea, and they pop up in Lazarus attacks. The attacks have dated back to at least 2007, and often contain other clues, such as North Korean fonts."

The Gang That Couldn't Code Straight

Although the evidence is circumstantial, the case that North Korea was behind WannaCry is a good one, said Scott Borg, CEO of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.

"WannaCry was incompetently written and managed -- so we're attributing to North Korea something that's well within its capabilities, because it didn't demonstrate a lot of capabilities," he told TechNewsWorld. "Unlike some of the other things that have been attributed to North Korea, this is plausible and highly likely."

A number of recent reports have touted North Korea as a rising cyberpower, but Borg disputes that.

"WannaCry is an example of North Korea's limitations. This was not a competently written piece of ransomware. The whole thing was badly bungled," he said.

"I'm sure the criminal organizations making money off of ransomware were furious with the creators of WannaCry because they undermined the credibility of the whole racket," Borg added.

Why Now?

Since there was strong public evidence of North Korea's connection to WannaCry for months, the timing of the U.S. condemnation may be tied to other concerns.

For example, the United States may want to shine a spotlight on Lazarus.

"Lazarus has been particularly active recently," AlienVault's Doman said. "I'm seeing numerous new malware samples from them daily. A lot of their current activity involves stealing bitcoin and credit card numbers."

The condemnation also comes on the heels of the administration's announcement of a new security policy.

"They may have felt this was an appropriate time because they were going to be reaching out to other countries to do something about the cybersecurity threat and bad actors like North Korea," James Barnett, a former Navy Rear Admiral and head of the cybersecurity practice at Venable, told TechNewsWorld.

Locked Armory

The timing of the condemnation also could be part of the White House's campaign to paint Pyongyang as a global threat.

"It's more about the administration's message that North Korea is a dangerous actor than it is about cybersecurity," said Ross Rustici, senior director of intelligence services for Cybereason.

"They're trying to lay the groundwork for people to feel like North Korea is a threat to the homeland," he told TechNewsWorld.

Whatever response the administration decides to make to North Korea's cyberattacks remains to be seen, but financial problems could render it a hollow one, according to Kris Lovejoy, president ofBluVector.

"The U.S. government's ability to procure technology to protect public sector institutions and private sector infrastructure is hampered because there's no ability to execute on its procurement processes," she told TechNewsWorld. "It's ironic that we're rattling our sabers while we've locked the cabinet and not allowed ourselves to get to the armor."