Bill Gates Says This Type of AI Will Be Worth “10 Microsofts”

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by finance.yahoo.com --Rex Moore, The Motley Fool  -- Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) founder Bill Gates was speaking to a group of college students in 2004. According to The New York Times, Gates was a bit concerned about the decline in the number of computer science majors, as well as the notion that the field had matured and there weren't many breakthroughs left to achieve in the area. One student expressed doubt that there would ever be another tech company as successful as Microsoft. Gates' reply is eye-opening: ''If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn, that is worth 10 Microsofts.'' He wasn't kidding...

Fast-forward to today, and of course someone has figured it out. This special kind of artificial intelligence is called machine learning. If anything, Gates was too conservative in his estimates. Experts say the market opportunity is now far, far greater than 10 Microsofts. And Gates isn't alone in his optimism. Other top business leaders are on board as well. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), said he thinks this new technology is the key to Amazon's future. Sun CEO Greg Papadopoulos is calling it "a real revolution." Even super investor Warren Buffett says that it will have a "hugely beneficial social effect."

When machines go to college We've referred to machine learning before as the beginning of today's AI explosion. It's "simply" software that ingests data, learns from it, and can then form a conclusion about something in the world. Thus, the key to understanding machine learning is that it's software that writes itself. Instead of explicitly programming software what to do, you instead provide it with large amounts of data and let it learn on its own. This allows machine learning to solve problems that earlier software with even billions of lines of code couldn't have solved. A more powerful subset of machine learning is deep learning, which essentially simulates how neurons in the human brain strengthen connections between one another to learn. If you're wondering how companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have grown to be among the largest in the world, part of the answer is how well they've integrated machine learning and deep learning into all aspects of their businesses.

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Lebanese Tourists Stranded Abroad after Travel Agency Scam

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by naharnet.com --Dozens of Lebanese tourists are stranded in Turkey and Georgia after falling victim to a scam pulled off by an unlicensed Lebanese travel agency, Lebanese TV networks reported on Thursday. “After we booked travel tickets and hotel rooms via the New Plaza Tours agency, we realized after arriving in Marmaris that the return tickets and hotel reservations were fake,” four of the victims, who are also lawyers, told MTV. “The aforementioned agency did not book them rooms in the hotel they arrived to, which forced them to spend their first night sleeping on the floor,” MTV said. Relatives of the Lebanese travelers meanwhile gathered outside the empty offices of the agency in Beirut after the owner fled abroad, TV networks said. A relative of one of the victims said he has contacted the Lebanese Tourism Ministry to complain and seek help, lamenting that ministry officials responded by blaming the tourists for trusting an “unlicensed agency.” The man also suggested that the agency enjoyed political protection.

Elissa, Lebanese pop star, retires from 'mafia-like' music industry

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by bbc.com --Elissa, one of the biggest pop stars in the Arab world, has announced her retirement, blaming what she called the "mafia-like" music industry. The Lebanese singer surprised fans on Monday by saying that her next album would be her last. She did not explain her mafia comparison, but complained last year about her music being blocked because of a deal by her record label, Rotana. During her career, Elissa's songs have challenged social taboos and politics. In a tweet, she said she had decided to make the announcement "with a heavy heart but with a lot of conviction".

Elissa, whose real name is Elissar Khoury, is one of the highest-selling female Arabic artists in the Middle East, with millions of records sold worldwide. She began her musical career after studying politics at Lebanese University, and first gained attention after winning a silver medal at a Lebanese music competition, Studio El Fan. Since then, the 46-year-old has released 11 studio albums and has won multiple awards for her work. Outside of music, she has also launched her own line of perfume, worked as a judge on television talent shows, and appeared in adverts for brands including Pepsi.

Her music has touched on several taboos, including abuse against women. Elissa herself has also taken controversial political stances, including aligning herself with a former Christian militia in Lebanon. She won new respect when she revealed she was being treated for breast cancer last year and produced a video featuring her sessions of radiotherapy. The video has been watched more than 22 million times on YouTube. Last year, Elissa also hinted at problems with her record label Rotana after it signed a deal with music streaming service Deezer. The deal saw her songs removed from a key Arab music streaming platform on which she had received hundreds of millions of plays.

Lebanese President: I Will Tend to Economic, Financial Reforms

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by aawsat.com --The Lebanese government is expected to begin implementing in October a set of economic and financial measures agreed by its top leadership that will boost economic growth, President Michel Aoun said on Sunday, vowing that he would tend to this himself. He was referring to decisions taken at a top-level meeting earlier this month with the aim of reviving an economy that has been growing slowly for years and is struggling with one of the world's heaviest public debt burdens.

After the Aug. 9 meeting, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said agreed steps included finishing the 2020 budget on time, drawing up a plan to start $3.3 billion of projects approved by parliament, full implementation of a power sector reform plan, and laws to fight tax evasion and regulate public tenders. "I will personally tend to the implementation path of the decisions of the financial and economic meeting" in cooperation with Hariri, Speaker Nabih Berri and other parties in government, Aoun said. In written comments to Reuters, Aoun said this aimed "to guarantee political stability in cabinet and outside it and to secure the greatest amount of productivity", including in the implementation of the 2019 budget and its reforms.

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A food critic feeds his love for Lebanese cuisine at the source

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By BILL ADDISON - RESTAURANT CRITIC -latimes.com --- I’ve been thinking lately about the ways that cuisines are transformed and reinterpreted when they’re translated from home cooking to a professional kitchen. It was the subject of my newsletter last week, in conversations with food writers Andy Baraghani and Naz Deravian on the subject of Persian restaurant menus. And it was, in essence, the impetus for a recent nine-day trip I took to Lebanon. I’d known Lebanese cuisine only from restaurants I’d reviewed over the years, mostly in Atlanta: mezze of hummus, tabbouleh, labneh (yogurt drained to the thickness of fresh cheese) and fatayer (small savory pies often filled with spiced spinach and pine nuts); falafel and kebabs and shawarma.

About seven years ago I had dinner at the home of a Lebanese American friend, Caline Jarudi, whose parents, Mona and Subhi, were visiting from overseas. Mona prepared a beautiful Lebanese dish of lamb shanks braised in plenty of pomegranate molasses, which matched the meat’s gaminess with its rich, overtly sour-sweet tautness. Caline’s sister, Natalie, made exquisite hindbe — dandelion greens sautéed in olive oil and covered in caramelized onions. Their airy hummus dialed back the garlic and tahini and pushed forward the lemon. This was not how I had experienced Lebanese cooking in American restaurants. It spurred my curiosity and ardor for the cuisine in new ways. At one point Caline suggested I follow the Lebanese Syrian cookbook author Anissa Helou on Instagram. Anissa and I met in London in 2015 and became occasional traveling buddies. We immersed ourselves in the Lebanese restaurants of Dearborn, Mich., the following year; we recently ate through Iranian restaurants together in Los Angeles. As Caline and I have become closer over the years, and I grew to love her family, a trip to Beirut became inevitable. We finally planned the trip this summer as a preamble to her brother Nadim’s wedding, which took place in Estonia. (Tallinn, Estonia, is a story for another time, but: bread.)

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PM Hariri: Saudi, UAE want to invest in Lebanon

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Reuters -- BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are looking to invest in infrastructure projects in Lebanon after ties have recovered, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said in comments from his office on Friday. Hariri, on a visit to Washington, also said there were negotiations "over financial and economic aid" with the United States, the Lebanese military's biggest foreign backer. Launching long-stalled reforms would help Lebanon unlock more than $11 billion pledged at the "Cedre" donor conference in Paris last year - the centrepiece of the Hariri government's plans to revive the sluggish economy.

"We will present to (Saudi and the UAE) the projects we have in Cedre because they want to contribute and invest. The relationship between us has returned to what it was before and may be better," Hariri told reporters during a visit in Washington, his office said in a statement on Friday. He added that talks were under way with Riyadh on some 23 economic deals, it said. Hariri's government, which has one of the world's highest levels of public debt worth around 150% of GDP, is seeking to bring down its fiscal deficit. Parliament passed the 2019 state budget in July. After years of low economic growth, Lebanon wants the funds promised by foreign donors in Paris for a capital investment programme to overhaul its infrastructure, with projects tackling transport, water and power sectors. Reuters