FF: 15 May 19th, 2017 News and Chat About Artificial Intelligence with Sean Lane

Today’s guest is Sean Lane, CEO of CrossChx, and we have a great chat about artificial intelligence.

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CrossChx: https://crosschx.com/

In the News

President Trump met with Juan Manuel the President of Columbia yesterday and held a joint news conference.  The President emphasized counter drug trafficking in partnership with Columbia.  

Other key points include the President’s claims that illegal border crossings in the U.S. are down 73%, he wants the U.S. to work with South American countries on the Venezuelan problem, and also promised that MS-13 gang members will be gone from the U.S. soon.

President Trump also took to Twitter today as he tweeted, “this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” and “with all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel!”

The tweets were in response to Wednesday’s news that the Department of Justice appointment former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Following a closed door Senate session in which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared, reporters sought reaction and comment to President Trump’s displeasure with the appointment of special counsel.  

After the same Senate session, Senator Dick Durbin was asked about Rosenstein’s explanation regarding why he appointed a special counsel to look into Russian allegations.

In International News

Coalition forces struck Syrian pro-regime forces on Thursday in a a de-confliction zone near At Tanf.  The Syrian government backed forces posed a threat to U.S. partner forces and ignored warnings to turn around their convoy.  Some of the warnings include an aircraft show of force and warning shots.  Russian attempts to dissuade pro-regime movements toward At Tanf were also ignored.   

For all the background information regarding events leading up to the current conflict in Syria, be sure to listen to our shows from May 8th and 9th where we chat with Islamic Professor of History Brian Glyn Williams.  

U.S. Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Elaine Duke met with EU officials in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss, “serious evolving threats to aviation security and approaches to confronting such threats.”  Specifically, there was talk of expanding the laptop ban in carry on baggage to flights coming from Europe.  Airline trade groups urged alternative security measures instead.

The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on the chief and justices of the Venezuelan supreme court in retaliation for the court seizing powers from the opposition led congress earlier in the year.  The justices will have any U.S. assets frozen and are barred from traveling to the U.S.

Several protests have occurred in Venezuela in the last several weeks that have led to over 40 deaths.  Protests are in opposition to Venezuela’s ruling president consolidation of power and the severe poverty that the country is experiencing.       

In Tech News

The FCC voted 2 to 1 today in favor of rolling back net neutrality regulations put in place by President Obama’s administration.  A Democratic FCC commissioner explained that the vote jeopardizes the ability of the open internet to function tomorrow as it does today while Republican commissioners argue that regulating the internet as if it was a utility has reduced companies investment into broadband infrastructure.

The FCC will keep the issue open for public comment until a final vote is taken at a later date.  

A side note as we comment on the dysfunction of the news media.  Several media outlets are reporting that the FCC have already received over a million comments regarding the net neutrality issue recently.  However, those outlets fail to mention that most comments were bots associated with a cyber attack meant to bring down the FCC’s website and not actual people commenting on the potential repeal of regulation.  Regardless of where you stand on the net neutrality rules, don’t be misled by fake news.           

Google revealed a new processor this week at Google I/O.  The processor is designed to train and execute machine learning systems that help with everything from speech recognition to robotics.  The processor will not be sold, but will be available in Google's data centers so that users can access them in the cloud as they seek to develop artificial intelligence platforms.