Do you have something to hide?

17

October

2017

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Ask a random passenger on the street how they feel about secret services tracking the online communication on their devices. The one half will respond with: “Go right ahead, I have nothing to hide”, while the other half will argue their privacy is jeopardised.

In 2017, the Dutch government accepted a new law concerning the rights of secret services, that allows them to track online communication and basically “hack” all devices of a citizen. The new law was introduced because the old version was from 2001. There was no Facebook, no WhatsApp, the main communication channel was… regular telephone. It comes as no surprise, that the law was updated.

The part of this new law, the “Sleepwet”, that makes Dutch people go crazy, is the part that states that not only suspects can be tracked, but also the people in their environment and well, basically anyone the secret services want to track down.

Supporters of the new law often state that they have “nothing to hide”. Furthermore, they refer to the fact that the old law was outdated.

Opponents of the new law state that the most suspects and perpetrators of terrorist attacks, appear to be in the sight of secret services before the terrorist attack and therefore there is no big advantage in tracking down people on greater scale. Also, data about all Dutch people will be stored for a certain period of time: who decides how the data is treated, and when it is deleted? The minister is responsible to supervise this, based on the new law, which states that people can be tracked down for the purpose of “research-related” research. According to a report of the CTIVD (a committee for supervision on the secret services), a lot of aspects of the new law are rather vague and “inaccurate”. Furthermore, the privacy of innocent people would be in danger.

I feel that we should realize our personal information is really valuable, and should not be exposed at any time the secret services want. What is your opinion about the new law? Do you have something to hide?

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Humans & Machines, a love-hate relationship?

12

October

2017

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With Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the limits of endowing a machine with our intelligence are close to being surpassed. But what does this mean? Will machines replace humans soon? Should we love machines? Of should we fear them?

Everyone confronted with technology regularly encounters the concepts Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) someday. Artificial Intelligence is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider “smart”. Machine learning is a current application of AI, based on the idea that machines should be able to learn themselves using datasets.

This is a huge leap forward in technology, as the technologies involved in machine learning go beyond human knowledge. For example, how easy is it to explain explicitly, how one should ride a bicycle? Much of the knowledge humans have, we cannot fully explain. This makes it impossible to write instructions for that knowledge. Riding a bicycle is just one example. What about explaining how to recognize a tree, your mother’s voice or your lover’s face?

Humans have difficulties explaining and articulating their knowledge. With machine learning, the limit of only being able to present machines with the intelligence we can articulate, is to be overcome.

When I talk to my friends and family about this subject, the first response I usually get is: “Well that is dangerous, machines will be taking over our jobs soon..! And maybe, sooner or later, machines will be in charge of weapons and wars.”

However, machines are very good at answering questions, but not at posing them. Also, they are very good at assessing a person, but not at changing them. Humans have the social skills to be proud, be ashamed and show compassion in order to persuade, motivate and inspire other human beings. Something a machine is not capable of. Do not fear machines, engage the opportunities they offer to develop yourself into a manager, or into any other employee, who can master the machine and who is therefore of immense importance in today’s companies.

As long as you keep posing the questions machines have to answer, you will be unreplaceable. What is the next question you want your machine to answer?

Sources:

  • Brynjolfsson & McAffee (2017), “The business of Artificial Intelligence”, Harvard Business Review
  • Marr, B (2016), “What is the Difference between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?”, Forbes

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Technology of the Week – Traveling to the Future

22

September

2017

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With the rise of Airbnb or couchsurfing, it becomes clear how integrated the sharing economy has become. These platforms have disrupted the hotel and travel industry tremendously. What consequences does this disruption have for the market?

In this video, you are given an overview pf this particular industry. It is an interesting industry to look at in terms of digital development and industry disruption. With the rise of the internet, major changes disrupted the travel industry. Companies started to offer flights, hotels and complete travel agencies online instead of through the previous physical travel agencies. The internet made this industry a newly vulnerable market with low barriers of entry, attractive profitable customers and incumbents with little chance to defend themselves (Granados, Kauffman & King, 2008). Consequently, the online travel market is very large and keeps on growing. In the future, it is likely that new platforms will take the current platform’s place due to more disruptive innovation. Therefore, established companies should keep a serious eye on new trends and technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, to avoid becoming irrelevant. When we take a look at startups, it is very easy to enter the market for them since the market range is very broad and growing, but it becomes more difficult to penetrate the market for them due to competition with companies with more resources to invest in these new technologies.

Nowadays it is very easy to plan and organize your own holiday, because there is simply more information available. The more traditional travel agencies seem to have slowly become redundant. The way we make our travel plans are obviously changing which can be assigned to several disruptive factors and technologies (Floater & Mackie, 2016). To start off, traveller expectations are changing due to advanced technologies and social media. In the future, the fusion of social media and booking will increase in significance. Metasearch will only further improve this by actually knowing the intent of the keywords used and the contextual meaning (Redondo, 2014). Furthermore, big data & artificial intelligence make it possible and necessary to have real-time data and on-demand services. Lastly, Virtual Reality makes it possible to immerse customers to their wanted destination and robots could be used to give information and translations to customers. We can conclude from this that the world for a more personal experience in travel lies ahead of us.

However, when economies stagnate and security fears arise, these future plans could be substantially more narrow. In this case, it is likely that customers are more hesitant to share personal information with regard to their feelings of unsafety. In addition, countries could become more nationalistic and focused on regulations in order to ensure their safety and economies. Consequently, the travel market would be more fragmented and the offerings would comply with a mass market approach (Amadeus & A.T. Kearney, 2017). A mass market in tourism would mean that customers pay a relatively low price for their holidays through package deals.

Disruptions in other industries could also affect the future of this particular industry. For example, new ways of transport could mean faster ways to reach destinations. Artificial intelligence could lead to software that is able to plan a trip based on your spending pattern, your hobbies and taste, without you having to provide any information. Did you come across other technologies that could lead to the next disruptive innovation in your opinion? What do you think that the future of travel looks like? And how should existing businesses in this industry prepare for the future?

References:
Amadeus & A.T. Kearney (2017). What if? Imagining the Future of the Travel Industry. Retrieved from : http://www.amadeus.com/documents/reports/what-if-imagining-the-future-of-the-travel-industry.pdf
Cameron, M. (2013). A brief overview and evolution of the travel industry. Retrieved from: https://www.cbtravel.com/blog/2013/10/a-brief-overview-and-history-of-the-travel-industry/?doing_wp_cron=1505999648.8360440731048583984375
Floater, G. & Mackie, L. (2016). Travel distribution: The end of the world as we know it?. London School of Economics and Political Science
Granados, N. F., Kauffman, R. J., & King, B. (2008). How has electronic travel distribution been transformed? A test of the theory of newly vulnerable markets. Journal of Management Information Systems, 25(2), 73-96.
Redondo, S. (2014, 22 November). SEO 101: What is Semantic Search and Why Should I Care?. Retrieved from : https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101-semantic-search-care/119760/

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