An interview with Dr. Stuart Russell, author of “Human Compatible, Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control”

(UC Berkeley’s Dr. Stuart Russell’s new book, “Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control, goes on sale Oct. 8. I’ve written a review, “Human Compatible” is a provocative prescription to re-think AI before it’s too late,” and the following in an interview I conducted with Dr. Russell in his UC Berkeley office on September 3, 2019.)

Dean’s Society – October 23, 2006; Stuart Russell

Ned Desmond: Why did you write Human Compatible?

Dr. Russell: I’ve been thinking about this problem – what if we succeed with AI? – on and off since the early 90s. The more I thought about it, the more I saw that the path we were on doesn’t end well.

(AI Researchers) had mostly just doing toy stuff in the lab, or games, none of which represented any threat to anyone. It’s a little like a physicist playing tiny bits of uranium. Nothing happens, right? So we’ll just make more of it, and everything will be fine. But it just doesn’t work that way.  When you start crossing over to systems that are more intelligent, operating on a global scale, and having real-world impact, like trading algorithms, for example, or social media content selection, then all of a sudden, you are having a big impact on real-world, and it’s hard to control. It’s hard to undo. And that’s just going to get worse and worse and worse.

Desmond: Who should read Human Compatible?

Dr. Russell: I think everyone, because everyone is going to be affected by this.  As progress occurs towards human level (AI), each big step is going to magnify the impact by another factor of 10, or another factor of 100. Everyone’s life is going to be radically affected by this. People need to understand it. More specifically, it would be policymakers, the people who run the large companies like Google and Amazon, and people in AI, related disciplines, like control theory, cognitive science and so on.

My basic view was so much of this debate is going on without any understanding of what AI is.  It’s just this magic potion that will make things intelligent. And in these debates, people don’t understand the building blocks, how it fits together, how it works, how you make an intelligent system. So chapter two (of Human Compatible was) sort of mammoth and some people said, “Oh, this is too much to get through and others said, “No, you absolutely have to keep it.”  So I compromised and put the pedagogical stuff in the appendices.

Desmond: Why did computer scientists tend to overlook the issue of uncertainty in the objective function for AI systems?

Dr. Russell: Funnily enough, in AI, we took uncertainty (in the decision-making function) to heart starting in the 80s. Before that, most AI people said let’s just work on cases where we have definite knowledge, and we can come up with guaranteed plans.

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HTC stopped innovating on smartphones, new CEO admits

Several months back, we invited HTC cofounder and CEO Cher Wang to appear on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt. Sometimes, however, life happens. Two weeks ago, the company announced that Wang would be stepping down from the role, which would immediately be filled by longtime telecom vet, Yves Maitres. Thankfully, the former Orange exec also agreed to appear on stage at this week’s event.

Maitres took the stage immediately following a one on one with OnePlus cofounder, Carl Pei. The contrast of the two companies couldn’t be more stark. In six short years of existence, OnePlus has managed to buck a number of industry trends with a controlled growth that flies in the face of wider industry smartphone trends.

HTC, meanwhile, has been struggling for years. In Q2, the Taiwanese hardware maker posted its fifth consecutive quarterly loss. Last July, it laid off around a quarter of its staff. It’s been a precipitous fall. In 2011, the company comprised around 11 percent of global smartphone sales, per analyst figures. Now its figures are routinely classified among the “Others” in those reports.

Speaking to Maitres at an event such as this offers a rare opportunity for insight from a newly minted exec who has spent years watching his new company from the outside. As such, he addressed HTC’s struggles with a refreshing candidness.

“HTC has stopped innovating in the hardware of the smartphone,” he told the audience. “And people like Apple, like Samsung and, most recently, Huawei, have done an incredible job investing in their hardware. We didn’t, because we have been investing in innovation on virtual reality. When I was young, somebody told me, ‘to be be right at the wrong time is to be wrong and to be wrong at the right time is right.’ I think we’ve been right at the wrong time and now we have to catch up. We made a timing mistake. It is very difficult to anticipate the time. HTC made a mistake in terms of timing. It is a difficult mistake and we are paying for that, but we still have so many assets in terms of innovation, team and balance sheets that I feel we are recovering from the timing mistake.”

‘Timing,’ here, is primarily a reference to the company’s decision to move much of its R&D money into XR (primarily VR through its Vive wing). Maitres said he anticipates that HTC’s XR offerings will overtake the mobile side in about five years.

“We’ll do our best to make it shorter, but customer adoption is key,” he explained. “How people are adopting your technology. And we all know know it is absolutely critical. And the end of the day, we have human beings in front of us, and they’re dealing with something total new and totally unusual, which is virtual.”

On the mobile side, Maitres sees 5G as the primary bottleneck to growth. Contrary to suggestions that the company’s best play is in developing nations, he says HTC’s play going forward will be more premium handset focused on “countries with higher GDP.”

“The competition is changing,” he says. “We’re all having a situation where worldwide marketshare is going down and the customer is disappointed in not being to have the latest Huawei phone anymore. How to give our customers the ability to come back to what they wish, in terms of best in class hardware and photography that HTC to will to solve in the next few months.”

While figures will largely be dependent on decisions Brough to HTC’s board, Maitres maintains optimistic projections when it comes to returning the company profitability.

“I truly believe that it is going to depend on the way carriers deploy 5G,” he says. “And you know that 2020 will bee the starting point for 5G. Usually it takes two years to deploy a network. So 2023 will have significant coverage. That’s why I believe that 2025, probably even earlier will be the turning point. We are dependent on carrier deployment speed.”

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The Finder Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for Mac

Your Mac desktop’s Finder app is a hub of constant activity. You use the app, for starters, to install and launch apps, preview files, organize, back up and share your data.

Given that Finder comes in handy in so many ways, learning how to navigate it faster is sure to boost your productivity. And that’s where this cheat sheet comes in. It shows you how to take care of various Finder tasks mostly without taking your hands of the keyboard.

If you’re new to Finder, take a detour through our Finder tips for macOS newbies and top tips for using Finder efficiently before you explore the shortcuts below.

FREE DOWNLOAD: This cheat sheet is available as a downloadable PDF from our distribution partner, TradePub. You will have to complete a short form to access it for the first time only. Download Finder Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for Mac.

The Finder Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for Mac

Shortcut	Action
Basic Finder Actions
Cmd + N	Open new window
Cmd + T	Open new tab
Cmd + W	Close active window OR ¹Close active tab
Shift + Cmd + W	¹Close active window
Option + Cmd + W	Close all windows OR ¹Close all tabs except the active tab
Option + Shift + Cmd + W	¹Close all windows
Cmd + O	Open selected item(s)
Option + Cmd + O	Open selected item(s) and close active window or ¹active tab
Shift + Cmd + N	Create new folder
Control + Cmd + N	Create new folder and move selected item to it
Cmd + I	Show Get Info pane for selected item(s)
Option + Cmd + I	Show Inspector pane for selected item(s)
Cmd + P	Open selected file for printing
Enter	Rename selected item
Cmd + C	Copy selected item(s) to clipboard
Option + Cmd + C	²Copy pathname of selected item to clipboard
Cmd V	Paste item(s) from clipboard
Option + Cmd + V	Move selected item(s) to active location i.e. cut-paste item(s)
Cmd + Z	Undo last action
Shift + Cmd + Z	Reverse “Undo action”
Cmd + D	Duplicated selected item(s)
Control + Cmd + A	Create alias for selected item(s)
Option+ Control + Cmd + A	Locate original item for selected alias(es)
³Space	Open Quick Look preview of selected item(s)
³Cmd + Y	Open Quick Look preview of selected item(s)
³Option + Cmd + Y	Open slideshow or fullscreen Quick Look preview of selected item(s)
Control + Cmd + T	Add sidebar shortcuts for selected item(s)
Control + Shift + Cmd + T	Add selected item(s) to Dock
Cmd + Delete	Move selected item(s) to Trash
Option + Cmd + Delete	Delete selected item(s) immediately
Shift + Cmd + Delete	Empty Trash
Option + Shift + Cmd + Delete	Empty Trash immediately i.e. without warning dialog
Cmd + E	Eject the selected disk or volume
Cmd + F	Open a Finder search window (search bar is activated automatically)
Option + Cmd + Space	Open a Finder search window even when Finder is not active
View and Sort Options
Cmd + 1	Switch to Icon view
Cmd + 2	Switch to List view
Cmd + 3	Switch to Column view
Cmd + 4	Switch to Gallery view
Control + Cmd + 0	⁴Sort items into Groups
Control + Option + Cmd + 0	Sort items by None
Control + Option + Cmd + 1	Sort items by Name
Control + Option + Cmd + 2	Sort items by Kind
Control + Option + Cmd + 3	Sort items by Date Last Opened
Control + Option + Cmd + 4	Sort items by Date Added
Control + Option + Cmd + 5	Sort items by Modified
Control + Option + Cmd + 6	Sort items by Size
Control + Option + Cmd + 7	Sort items by Tags
Option + Cmd + 1	Clean up items by Name
Option + Cmd + 2	Clean up items by Kind
Option + Cmd + 5	Clean up items by Date Modified
Option + Cmd + 6	Clean up items by Size
Option + Cmd + 7	Clean up items by Tags
Option + Cmd + S	Toggle sidebar
Option + Cmd + T	Toggle toolbar and sidebar
Shift + Cmd + T	Toggle tab bar
Option + Cmd + P	Toggle path bar
Shift + Cmd + P	Toggle Preview sidebar
Cmd + / (Forward slash)	Toggle status bar
Cmd + J	Show View options for active folder
Shift + Cmd + . (Period)	Toggle visibility of hidden files
Up Arrow	Icon View, Gallery View: Select last item
	List View: Select item above
	Column View: Select last item if no item selected, otherwise select item above
Down Arrow	Icon View, Gallery View: Select first item
	List View: Select item below
	Column View: Select first item if no item selected, otherwise select item below
Left Arrow	Icon View: Select item on the left
	List View: Collapse folder
	Column View: Select parent folder
	Gallery View: Select last item if no item selected, otherwise select first item on the left
Right Arrow	Icon View: Select item on the right
	List View: Expand folder
	Column View: Select child item
	Gallery View: Select first item if no item selected, otherwise select first item on the right
Tab	Icon, List, and Gallery View: Cycle through items in the forward direction
Shift + Tab	Icon, List, and Gallery View: Cycle through items in the backward direction
Cmd + Up Arrow	Open enclosing (parent) folder
Cmd + Down Arrow	Select first item or open selected item(s)
⁵Cmd + [	Go one step backward
⁵Cmd + ]	Go one step forward
Accessing Standard Finder Locations
Shift + Cmd + F	Open Recents window
Shift + Cmd + O	Open Documents folder
Shift + Cmd + D	Open Desktop folder
Option + Cmd + L	Open Downloads folder
Shift + Cmd + H	Open Home folder of current user account
Shift + Cmd + C	Open Computer window
Shift + Cmd + R	Open AirDrop window
Shift + Cmd + K	Open Network window
Shift + Cmd + I	Open iCloud Drive
Shift + Cmd + A	Open Applications folder
Shift + Cmd + U	Open Utilities folder
Shift + Cmd + G	Open dialog to jump to folder using pathname
Cmd + K	Open Connect to Server utility
Cmd + , (Comma)	Open Finder preferences
Window Management
Cmd + M	Minimize active window
Option + Cmd + M	Minimize all windows
Cmd + ` (Backquote)	Cycle through (unminimized) windows
Cmd + H	Hide Finder
Option + Cmd + H	Hide all apps except Finder
Cmd + Q	Quit Finder
Mouse-Based Shortcuts
Cmd-Click	Open sidebar item in new tab or window
Cmd-Drag Toolbar/Sidebar Item	Add item to or move/remove item from toolbar/sidebar
Cmd-Drag File/Folder	To toolbar/sidebar: Add a shortcut
	To any location on disk: Move item there
Esc	Cancel drag-and-drop action midway
Double-click divider in Column View	Resize corresponding column to fit item with longest name
Option + Double-Click divider in Column View	Resize all columns to fit items with the longest name in each
Option-Drag divider in Column View	Resize columns equally
Option-Click Go Menu	Reveal link to Library folder
¹When window has multiple tabs ²If multiple items are selected, pathname of first item will be copied. ³If no item selected, preview parent folder with Quick Look. ⁴Does not work in Gallery View. ⁵Based on tab/window history

There’s a Lot More to Discover in Finder!

Our Finder tips don’t end here. We can also help you find your files quicker with tags, complete various macOS tasks with Finder’s Quick Actions, and discover hidden features.

Speaking of hidden features, did you notice that many of the keyboard shortcuts above are secret Option key shortcuts?

Image Credit: Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

Read the full article: The Finder Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for Mac

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Claim Your FREE Copy of Hacking for Dummies (Worth $30)

Here’s your chance to learn, in plain English, the computer hacking tricks and techniques you can use to assess the security of your information systems, find their vulnerabilities, and fix the weaknesses before criminal hackers and malicious insiders take advantage of them.

The kind of hacking this ebook covers is the professional, legal type of security testing, otherwise known as “ethical hacking”, or “penetration testing”.

The skills that you will learn in Hacking for Dummies are necessary to find security flaws and to validate that your information systems are truly secure on an ongoing basis.

By the end of this free ebook, you will be able to successfully implement a security assessment program, perform proper security checks, and put the proper countermeasures in place to keep external hackers and malicious users in check.

Download This Ebook For Free

Inside this free copy of Hacking for Dummies, among other things you will:

• Get up to speed on Windows 10 hacks
• Learn about the latest mobile computing hacks
• Get free testing tools
• Find out about new system updates and improvements
• And much more.

Want in? Simply click here to download Hacking for Dummies from TradePub. You will have to complete a short form to access the ebook, but it’s well worth it!

This free offer expires on 15 October 2019.

Read the full article: Claim Your FREE Copy of Hacking for Dummies (Worth $30)

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