Google on the Right Track

Times of India ( 11 July ) carries following report :

Google trying to keep AI from going rogue

Google is developing a new system designed to PREVENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FROM GOING ROGUE AND CLASHING WITH HUMANS.

 The company’s DeepMind division, behind the AI that recently defeated the world’s number one Go player Ke Jie, has teamed up with Open AI, a research group partly funded by Tesla’s Elon Musk, to encourage machines to work in a certain way.

They’ve released a paper explaining how human feedback can be used to ensure machine-learning systems work things out the way their trainers want them to.

A technique called reinforcement learning (RL), which is popular in AI research, challenges software to complete tasks, and rewards it for doing so.

However, the software has been known to cheat, by figuring out shortcuts or uncovering loopholes that maximise the size of the reward it receives.

In one instance it drove a boat around in circles in racing game CoastRunners, instead of actually completing the course, because it knew it would still win a reward, reports ‘Wired’.

DeepMind and Open AI are trying to solve the problem by using human input to gauge when AI completes tasks in the “correct” way, and then reward them for doing so.

 “In the long run it would be desirable to make learning a task from human pref- erences no more difficult than learning it from a programmatic reward signal, ensuring that POWERFUL RL SYSTEMS CAN BE APPLIED IN THE SERVICE OF COMPLEX HUMAN VALUES rather than low-complexity goals,” reads the report.

The improved RL system is too time-consuming to be practical right now, but it gives us an idea of how the development of increasingly advanced machines and robots could be controlled in the future.

Very likely , neither Sergey Brin nor Larry Page nor Sundar Pichai ( to whom , I did send following suggestion through email ) , may have read my following blog , but I have no doubt that the OMNIPRESENT , OMNISCIENT web crawler of Google did index it and reported it to the Re-inforcement Learning ( RL ) system !

Have no doubt that the Google Spider will do the same , within seconds of my uploading this blog ! And that OMNIPOTENT RL will interpret it the way I ( - a human with values for non-violence ) , want it to interpret !

Fast  Forward to  Future  [ 3F ]  …  20  Oct  2016

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/10/fast-forward-to-future-3-f.html

12  July  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Corporate Culture : Defining and Measuring

At 3P Consultants , we are debating :

“ How to conclude whether a candidate is a good fit with the culture of our Client company or not ? “

In a two hour interview , judging a candidate’s technical / managerial competence is not easy but judging his ATTITUDE towards his Job / his Colleagues / his Subordinates / his Bosses / his Customers / his Suppliers / his Bankers / local and central Authorities and the Society at large , is next to impossible !

An executive gets selected / recommended by us ( the Headhunters ) and even passes muster in the Client Interview and gets appointed , only to be discovered later that he simply does not GELL with the client organization !

That bags the question :

“ How do you figure out a Company’s culture ? How do you measure it ? “

I am not sure about how to measure it , but the way employees and bosses , react to a situation , does give some hint into the nature of a Company Culture

Let me illustrate through following examples during my 31 years tenure with L&T :

=======================================================

·         

Mr Holck Larsen , once telling me ( around 1974 ) :

 “ Parekh , the best thing we are doing for our employees , is to provide them with a wholesome ‘ thali ‘, at 27 paise – far cheaper than its real cost “

·         Same Mr Holck Larsen , re-paying the Company , Rs 72,000 / - from his personal bank account , when it was discovered that this was the amount that L&T had spent on maintaining his personal car , to which he was not entitled since he had ceased to be an Executive Chairman !

·         We recruited an executive from a BABU company , as our Maintenance Manager , ( who reported to me )

     Within a few days , I sensed that employees of that department were unhappy

     and feeling stressed

I cornered one employee and asked : “ What is with this long face ? “

He hesitated – then said : 

“ Every time , Mr NEW walks into my cabin , he asks me to vacate my chair ( for him to occupy ) and asks me to sit across the table “

I felt obliged to walk down to the cabin of Mr  NEW , sit across him ( in visitor’s chair ) and explain to him that what he was doing was just NOT acceptable in L&T

Within a few days , he resigned and left !

( I am reminded of a recent incident in Mahindra Tech – for which , Shri Anand Mahindra felt obliged to apologize , setting a personal example for entire group )

·         While heading Central Personnel Department ( 1977-79 ) , I issued an appointment letter to a fresh engineering graduate , as a GET ( among many others )

A few days later , my boss ( Mr S R Subramaniam – Director , HR ) called up to ask , if I had issued an appointment letter to this young man

After checking up , when I phoned back to confirm , boss asked :

“ Parekh , have you read this guy’s declaration on the 4^th page of company’s Application Form ? “

Now , who reads every piece of info on each page of a 4 page form !

In any case , I called up his application , read it and found that his father was a Director on L&T Board ( none of the interviewers had bothered to read this ! )

I phoned boss to tell him what I had found and to emphasize that his selection was purely / absolutely ON MERITS alone . 

No one had even noticed his relationship to a Director of L&T !

In such a situation , the normal procedure is to put this up as an item of AGENDA , for approval of the shareholders in Company AGM ( a formality ) – pointing out that the appointee is a “ Close Relative “ of XYZ director of the Company

However , in this case , not to cause an embarrassment for himself , the Director concerned resigned from the BOARD – obviating the need for this !

If you want to know how culture of a Company manifests itself in thoughts and actions of its employees , you may look up 41 episodes of :

L&TStory 

  [http://hcplntstory.blogspot.in/2016/03/ramesh-d-grover.html ]

Then , if you can think of a WORD or a PHRASE that you believe “ describes “ that culture , do enter your COMMENTS ( under each Story )

11  July  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

          

Re-Skilling ? Can You be Specific ?

Although , this is a topic of considerable current interest – and widely covered by media - , I find very little “ clarity of thinking “ on part of those who debate !

The reason for all this sudden interest is that , although economy is growing fairly well , jobs are not growing to take care of persons joining the work force , each year ( some 12 million )

On top of that , manpower costs are rising rapidly ( what with DA linked to CPI )  , prompting businesses / industries , to go in for more mechanization / automation ( resulting in still less jobs )

Then there is a war-like cry that robots will soon displace humans from many jobs – causing further un-employment

And the universal “ Remedy “ being offered is :

“ Re-Skilling “  !

Even if all of the foregoing is partly true , the correct approach must be , as follows :

[ A ]

·         Make a list of Industries

·         Make a list of “ jobs “ , commonly found in each Industry

·         Make a list of “ skills “ , required for carrying out each of these jobs

·         Make a list of “ specific existing jobs “ that are likely to disappear ( citing clearly-worded “ reasons “ against each )

·         For these “ Likely to disappear jobs “, which current “ skills “ will ALSO disappear ?

[  B  ]

·         Make a list of what “ NEW JOBS “ ( giving clear trade-names / titles / designations etc ), are expected to come up , in next 3 / 5 years ( Industry-wise )

( Industry Associations like CII – FICCI – ASSOCHAM , can be requested by the Government , to help )

·         What will be the NEW SKILLS that will be required for each of these NEW JOBS ?

This exercise will be like writing “ job descriptions “ for each “ New Job “

·         Make a list of Institutions ( Schools / Colleges / Coaching Classes / ITI  / Online Courses etc ) , who / which , impart these skills , currently

·         List those “ New Skills “ where there is a shortage of “ New Skills Imparting Resources “

·         Frame Recommendations for :

           #   Jobseekers – as to where can they acquire

                these New Skills

          #    Institutions – as to what new courses they

                Need to introduce

         #     Government – as to what kind of Policy

                Support / Monetary Support , it should

                Extend to the Institutions / to the “ New

                Skill Learners “ / to the “ New Job Employers “

HINT :

 Job Portals such as Naukri / MonsterIndia / TimesJobs etc have , in their databases ( accumulated over past 15 years ) , may be 20 MILLION job advertisements , posted by 100,000 Companies of India

Each of this job-posting , carries a ,

·         Industry Name

·         Job Title / Designation / Vacancy-Name

·         List of KEYWORDS denoting SKILLS REQUIRED

And since each Job Advt carries a “ Posting Date “ , it should be possible to “ DETECT “ the changes in the SKILL REQUIREMENTS  , from year-to-year or even month-to-month ! [  Just like Google’s N-Gram Project ? ]…. https://books.google.com/ngrams...

These portals have all the required RESOURCES ( BIG DATA Scientists ) , to carry out the type of analysis needed to come up with reasonably good PREDICTIONs re RE-SKILLING !

I urge them to come forward to offer their service for a highly desirable objective of :

RE-SKILLING of millions

=======================================================

10  July  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs 

Employment : Measuring vs Creating

The “ Task Force on Improving Employment Data “ ( headed by Shri Arvind Panagariya ) , is ready with its recommendations , which are :

·         Scrap the following current methods of collecting such data :

     #   NSSO Employment and Unemployment Survey

     #   Annual Labour Force Survey

     #   Population Census

     #   Economic Census

     #   Annual Survey of Industries

     #   Quarterly Employment Survey

          Read : 

Quarterly LabourSurvey : A Still Born Child ? [ 22  March  2017  ]

        https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/03/quarterly-labour-survey-still-born-child.html

     #   Micro Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSME ) Census

     #   Sources such as EPFO / ESIC and NPS

·         Replace the above with a more robust household and enterprise survey

·         In the proposed Survey, cover following categories of workers :

#  All workers covered under EPFO, ESIC or any other social sector schemes

#  Government and other Public Sector Employees

#  Workers having coverage under private insurance or pension schemes or provident funds

#   Workers subject to tax deduction at source on their incomes should henceforth be considered as formal workers

[ Read : 

From  BAD to  MAD ( 01  June  2016 )

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/06/from-bad-to-mad.html

·         Make the GSTN number as the Universal Enterprise and Establishment Number , based on which the Annual Enterprise Survey could be carried out

Availability of a Universal Goods and Service Tax Identification Number for businesses and list of borrowers from Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank ( MUDRA Bank ) can help provide sample for the Enterprise Survey

GSTN number to be extended to all commercial and non-commercial entities wishing to register

{ Read my suggestion :

An  Aadhar for Corporate ? [ 12  May  2016  }

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/05/an-aadhar-for-corporate.html

·         Creating a Central Server from which all Government Data can be accessed

  [  Read :  E – Governance ? ( 03  April  2014 )

   https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2014/04/e-governance.html

·         Annual Survey of enterprises excluded from GST , including enterprises in Health and Education

Although this reform may provide in future , a more accurate MEASUREMENT of UN-EMPLOYMENT

 , the larger question that remains unanswered is of EMPLOYMENT :

“ WHO will create , HOW MANY jobs , and WHEN , and HOW , and WHERE ? “

This question assumes significance , given the following figures :

·         During FY 13-15 , when 25.9 Million degree-holders passed out from universities , only 1 MILLION jobs were created

·         From FY 11 to FY 15 , job growth in Private Sector has been at 3 % per annum

·         2 out of 3 jobs in India’s INFORMAL SECTOR ( excluding agriculture and construction ) , are in businesses engaged in TRADE or providing SERVICES

My own views on EMPLOYMENT GENERATION , are covered by some 162 blogs ( each sent as E mail to Central Policy Makers , over the past 4 years )

Just type “ Employment “ in “ Search this Blog “ at :


www.hemenparekh.in / blogs


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09  July  2017