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Our third group of summarizers will be presenting their work here (although they've requested a little more time).
Thanks to our third courageous team,
for their upcoming, no-doubt brilliant efforts!
My wife got her second shot yesterday. She's been working in a nursing home for the last year. Almost every one of the residents of that nursing home have tested positive, and most of the staff. Why is it that it's taken this long for her, a front-line health worker, to get vaccinated?
Someone, somewhere, in government has to make the decisions about whom to vaccinate, and when. I know that, in your discussion on-line, many of you seemed to feel that you are not qualified. But do you think that the politicians making many of these decisions are better qualified than you?
You may have had already far more mathematical training than they.
To summarize responses in the on-line discussion I have randomly selected (from among those with only one or fewer turn so far, other than those in the previous group above) the following:
If you all want to chat about this, remember that we have an office hour zoom at 9:00 on Wednesdays. That goes for the rest of you, too, of course! Everyone's welcome.
Artificial intelligence promises to make our lives better: optical and digital scans save us from remembering passwords; Siri suggests new recipes you might like. But more nefarious applications of AI have led to governments surveilling their populations (even as they suggest that they're only looking out for "bad actors"); AI algorithms have falsely accused citizens of crimes, right here in the US.
I heard several of you in this past week's discussion talking about linear algebra: I'm delighted. Linear algebra is everywhere! Google's search algorithm is just an application of linear algebra; eHarmony (one of the earliest dating sites) had its 29 dimensions of compatability: "eHarmony is the only relationship site on the web that creates compatible matches based on 29 dimensions scientifically proven to predict happier, healthier relationships."
So you're being matched up with your soul-mate by some soul-less computer algorithm, built on linear algebra -- but it's "intelligent", so what the heck....
This week we look at how mathematics is being used (and abused) in the AI biz.
Santa notes that