Artificial Intelligence, Blockchains, cryptography, Patents

WHAT IS THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered!   As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, was submitted by Jose in Miami and he asks what is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)?

Jose, you came to the right place.  NIST is not a well-known federal agency, nevertheless it has an important function.  Let’s quickly review its history, mission, organization, followed by an overview of its six laboratories. 

NIST BACKGROUND

I was surprised to learn NIST was established in 1901.  Holy foresight, Batman!  NIST is an independent agency, meaning it has its own Administrator, but falls within the U.S. Department of Commerce.  NIST says its mission is to “… promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.”  

We should not be surprised to learn NIST is among the nation’s oldest physical science laboratories. Furthermore, it’s no surprise that Congress established NIST in 1901.  Why? At the time the USA was a rising industrial star with an eye on catching and surpassing the UK and Germany. For our factories and industries to effectively compete, the USA required standardized measurements and technology.  Understanding the moment, USA leaders used public policy to push industrialization, akin to what China does today and we continue to do with the CHIPS Act as the most recent example.  Nothing new, Batman!

Of course, the agency has evolved and today NIST functions with a core competency of measurement science, rigorous traceability, and development and use of standards. NIST received an enormous vote of confidence from President Biden when he issued Executive Order (EO) 14110:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/01/2023-24283/safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence

The EO assigned NIST a prominent role in artificial intelligence policies and programs, specifically related to research, development, and implementation. 

NIST Six Laboratories:

Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL).  According to NIST, the Communications Technology Lab was established in 2014 to unite their many wireless communications efforts. CTL focuses on developing precision instrumentation and creating test protocols, models, and simulation tools to enable a range of emerging wireless technologies. Is that your Bat-Phone ringing?!

Engineering Laboratory.  The Engineering Laboratory has a broad mandate of promoting U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology.  Using its discretion, EL built the following portfolio:  1) advanced manufacturing; 2) disaster resistant buildings, infrastructure, and communities; and 3) sustainable and energy efficient manufacturing, materials, and infrastructure.  Holy resistant to hurricanes, Batman!

Information Technology Laboratory.  ITL claims its mission is to cultivate trust in information technology and metrology.  ITL uses, its non-regulatory influence, and world-class measurement and testing facilities, computer science, mathematics, statistics, and systems engineering to achieve the mission.

Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) conducts measurement science research.  MML is focused on research related to industries in the chemical, biological and material sciences fields. MML researchers perform fundamental and applied research, evaluate data, and create other programs and tools to assure the quality of measurement results.

Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML).  PML is dedicated to measuring.  PML’s activities range from fundamental measurement research through provision of measurement services, standards, and data across the following areas:

  • length, mass, force and shock, acceleration
  • time and frequency
  • electricity, temperature, humidity
  • pressure and vacuum
  • liquid and gas flow
  • electromagnetic, optical, microwave, acoustic, ultrasonic, and ionizing radiation

I wrap it up with a proverb from Finland:  There are always people to grab the branches when there are people to carry the spruce.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchains, Sports AI

IS THERE A ROLE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN SPORTS?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, was submitted by Riezl in Las Vegas and she wants to know is there a role for AI in sports?

Riezl, you came to the right place.  You pose a fascinating question worthy of a thorough answer. The answer is yes!  I will discuss how AI may impact sports betting, sport analytics, and sports medicine.  Let’s start with sports betting, but first a disclosure. I do not endorse gambling, nor any company mentioned in this article.   

SPORTS BETTING

MySports.AI is an application that uses advanced machine learning algorithms, to predict outcomes. A unique feature of Mysports.AI, is its ability to customize different betting strategies for each player, catering to various funds and betting cycles. The platform provides back-tested records, allowing players to analyze the profitability of various events under each betting strategy. Mysports.AI backers say the model has undergone tens of thousands of machine learning training sessions.

SPORTS ANALYTICS

Sport analytics was popularized by the movie, Money Ball.  Sports analytics involves collecting and analyzing relevant statistics to facilitate decision making.  Acceptance of analytics in sports is commonplace and soon AI will join the club.  New York University offers a sports analytics certificate https://www.sps.nyu.edu/professional-pathways/certificates/sports-management/sports and a required course is artificial intelligence and machine learning!

Sports are competitions set within a multi-billion-dollar business milieu.  Not surprisingly there are on-field and off-field analytics. On-field refers to improving the performance of teams and players.  For example, in the NBA the analytics indicate superior three-point shooting is essential.  No team can expect to hoist a championship trophy if they are dearth of three-point shooters. Holy Stephon Curry, Batman!  AI algorithms are being used in Formula 1 to improve racing tactics and to automated tire replacement strategies. Piccinotti (2021).  Even tennis racquets are going high-tech with the advent of rackets based on Real HawkEye computer vision system data! There are several on-field analytics AI firms including  GeminiSports.com.

Last, certain sports require considerable human judgment to determine the winner, i.e., gymnastics and ice skating. Recently, Fujitsu created an AI to analyze the performance of a gymnast’s movements using 3D laser sensors (Atiković et al., 2020).

Off-field analytics is concerned with the business of sports. Teams have multiple revenue sources, including ticket sales, merchandise, parking, television broadcast, etc. and expense centers. AI powered sports business analytics can discover ways to maximize revenues, reduce costs, improve fan acquisition, marketing strategies, and perhaps the financial impact of a new sponsorship.  As shown by Chmait et al. (2020a), the relationship between the success of athletes and their salaries is an important value proposition to explore. GWI.Com and others are focused on AI in sports business.

Sports Medicine Analytics and AI

If we enter the time machine and travel to 1995, we discover researchers such as Bartlett discussing potential applications of artificial intelligence in sports performance! In 2006, Bartlett published Artificial Intelligence in Sports Biomechanics: New Dawn or False Hope, wherein he correctly predicted multi-layer artificial neural networks (aka Deep Learning) will take center stage in sports technique analysis.  Other researchers such as Brockett, are using AI to detect patterns that lead to injuries. Fister et al. (2015) has researched whether nature-inspired AI algorithms can investigate safe and effective training programs since 2015.

I end with a proverb from Rwanda:  All proverbs have a good reason for existing.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchains

AND NOW A WORD ABOUT AIRDROPS?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, submitted by Danny in Los Angeles, and he wants to know about airdrops.

Danny, you came to the right place.  If you take the term literally, you might think someone is dropping air on your head which would be absurd!  Let’s start with a definition.

Airdrops is a term native to and used exclusively in crypto.  You won’t find reference to airdrops in any other market or industry.  Best of all, airdrops are free!  No charge.  Nada.  Zero.  However, nothing is truly free, meaning we must dig a little deeper.

Let’s start with the obvious; airdrops are a marketing strategy.  The point is to raise awareness and adoption of the project doing the airdrop.  Holy obvious, Batman! Generally, start-up blockchain companies are most likely to engage in airdrops.  The first airdrop occurred in 2014 by AuroraCoin, in Iceland.  El Salvador gave every citizen $30 of Bitcoin to those who installed the government built crypto wallet.  A government-built wallet from a corrupt government to encourage a decentralized money system.  Holy, are you serious, Batman!

Airdrops vary.  I’ll explain a few staring with Standard.

Standard Airdrop.  Standard Airdrop is the simplest.  Participants need only provide their wallet address and basic information. The airdrop quantity may vary depending on several factors, including number of participants, and the amount available, to name just two.

Bounty Airdrop.  To earn bounty airdrops, users must perform certain tasks.  Tasks vary, but generally revolve around raising project awareness, e.g., posting on social media, tagging a company, retweeting a post.  Some projects award airdrops for recruiting other users, think multi-layer marketing, Batman!

Holder Airdrop.  Holder airdrops are often automatic and based on a formula of quantities of tokens a holder possesses, and duration held. It is a way to reward commitment and loyalty.  Only the financially faithful, Batman!

Exclusive Airdrop.  As the name suggest, exclusive airdrops are reserved for selected individuals.  Who are the exclusive?  Generally, they are people who spend the most time on the project, contribute to the project, post about the project, and/or stake their holdings with the project.  Staking is generally the most effective way to get airdrops.  Holy, hoity-toti, Batman! 

Raffle Airdrops.  Raffle airdrops occur when a project decides to give away X number of tokens, based on a lottery.  However, the lottery may not be completely random.  The lottery may be weighted to give advantage to holders.     

If nothing is free nor perfect, what are the downside of airdrops.  In a word–SCAMS!  I’ll give you two scam types, starting with dusting.

In a dusting scam, the thief will send micro amounts of a valuable coin, e.g., Bitcoin, to a recipient.  The idea is to entice the victim to attach their wallet to a crooked phishing website, via a legit service such as Metamask, to claim their airdrop.  After a user connects their wallet and enters their password the scammer drains the stash!  Holy, where is my money Batman!  The second is enticing market participants to invest in a fraudulent, or non-existent project.  Either way your money is vaporized!  Two more quick points.  Tokens from airdrop projects might be worthless because the project fails, and/or token illiquidity.  Hence, keep the champagne on ice but the cork in the bottle!  Lol!

I end with a proverb from Niger:  Ashes fly back into the faces of those who throws them.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Blockchains

ARE BLOCKCHAINS AND CHARITIES A PERFECT MATCH?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, comes from Lisa in Naperville, and she wants to know if blockchain technology and charity are a perfect match?

Lisa, you came to the right place.  Prior to your question, I hadn’t considered a possible marriage between blockchain technology and charity work.  That’s my fault.  The answer is … read this article and decide for yourself!

In traditional charity, benefactors expect their donations will be accepted and deployed congruent with their intent by the charity administrator.  In other words, based on trusting intermediaries.  What if there was a technology that would remove the need for trusted intermediaries? Suppose that technology allowed a peer-to-peer exchange of value, without permission, and need for trust because all transactions are subject to verification on a digital distributed ledger for anyone to confirm, at any time, from anywhere?  That would be incredible! Breaking news, the technology exist–its blockchain combined with crypto currency!  Holy obvious, Batman! Hold on, the tsunami of reasons for pairing blockchain with charity are only beginning to flood in. 

Blockchain technology removes unnecessary intermediaries, making the donation process faster.  For example, donations can be sent and received directly on-chain, making transactions quick.  What perhaps previously took 8 steps, and several middlemen, can be reduced to maybe 4 using blockchain technology.  However, this pairing goes beyond the removal of intermediaries.

With blockchain technology benefactors can verify transactions independently.   In other words, matching blockchain and charity flows beyond eliminating middlemen.  The point is there is no need to trust because the proof is in the blockchain.  Sweet! 

A third reason is efficiency.  Charities that utilize smart contracts, via blockchains, have a tremendous advantage over their competitors.  With smart contracts, charities can automate transactions when predetermined criteria are satisfied.  Thus far we have faster, more efficient, and trustless reasons.  Let’s talk about international charities. 

Speaking from personal experience, sending money overseas is expen$$$ive and s-l-o-w—but not with blockchain technology.  With a couple of mouse clicks money is sent instantly and for just pennies.  Moreover, with blockchain and smart contracts the potential pool of donors is worldwide, making it reason number five!  You are on a roll now Batman, please mention NFTs.

Charities need to raise awareness to succeed and issuing NFTs could be a means to draw attention.  NFT stands for non-fungible token, therefore each NFT is unique.  A charity could raise funds by selling a series of NFTs or an NFT collection set in a raffle, for example.  Holy storytelling, Batman! 

Using blockchain technology for charitable purposes is not worry free.  For example, crypto currencies fluctuate in value; hence, a benefactor may exceed their intended donation, or under deliver.  Either way, it complicates budgeting for the charity.  Sending stable coins is a possible solution because they are pegged to specific assets, i.e., U.S. Dollar, Euro, Yen, etc. but that too could be a hurdle. 

What hurdle?  The challenge of the digital divide.  Not every charity organization has the technical skills to handle crypto currencies.  Cyber security may be a challenge.  For instance, transactions can be hacked or compromised.  Send out the Bat signal! 

Government regulations are always a consideration.  Some nations permit charities to accept crypto donations; others might incarcerate in the BIG house for doing so! 

I end with this Panamanian proverb: If you want no disappointments, don’t indulge in illusion

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Blockchains, China, cryptography, Patents, Yogi Nelson

WHY ALL THE FUSS ABOUT 3924 3924, 3924, 3924, 3924, 3924, 3924

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, submitted by Albert from Iowa and his question is, why the number 3924?

Albert, you came to the right place.  Let’s talk about this number, 3,924.  According to the Blockchain Global Patent Authorization, as of December 2020, there were 3,924 patents granted for blockchain technology worldwide.  For a new technology, 3,924 is a staggering number and as I said previously the number reflects 2020 statistics.  Holy worldwide adoption, Batman!

This naturally leads to the next question.  What countries lead in blockchain patents?  According to Lexology, U.S. companies accounted for 39% of all patents granted, South Korea comes in second with 21%, and China was a close third at 19%.  In other words, the US, South Korea, and China accounted for 79% of all blockchain patents globally up to year 2020.  But that is backward looking data.  If we want to understand the next wave, we must examine pending patent applications as that tells a forward-looking story. Okay, let’s do it.

In Digital Finance by Baxter Hines, he cites The Block as the source for pending patents.  According to that source, Chinese companies should dominate the next wave of blockchain patents.  In fact, the top five companies with blockchain patents pending are all Chinese.  Tencent, Alibaba, and Ant Financial alone have 1,263 patents pending whereas the top three American companies (Walmart, IBM, and Microsoft) have only 123.  Is there more to the story?  I think so.  Read on. 

Let’s go back to 2019.  In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping identified the advancement of blockchain technology as a national priority and declared China will “lead the next wave of digital transformation” and called for greater study, investment, and regulation.  What happened next?

Well, in typical top-down authoritarian fashion, more than 35,000 firms responded to Xi’s appeal by registering their companies as “blockchain related” and expanding the use of blockchain technology into their businesses’ operations.  Holy jumping right on the task, Batman! But hold on there is more to the story.

Of the 35,000 that responded only 730 qualified for the Chinese government’s blockchain certification (2%).  Nevertheless, more than 10,000 blockchain patent applications were filed!  But quantity and quality are not always synonymous, and the Chinese government approved only a small fraction of the applications.  Perhaps, Xi needed to be more explicit in his order.  I suggest he try this next time: “Listen up comrades.  We need lots of high-quality world class blockchain patents.”  Lol!

Research and development into blockchain technology is big business.  There is a battle for blockchain technology supremacy between the US and China, with South Korea in the hunt also.  The winner of this battle will have an advantage across many developing technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI).  Many technology analysts are forecasting a fuse of blockchain, AI, and the internet of things (IOT) converging into a tsunami of tech advancements in the next decade.  Hold on to your safety belts, Batman!

I close today with a proverb from Denmark, where people say:  Never advise anyone to go to war or to marry.  Wise words indeed!

Until next time.

Yogi Nelson