When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
LA STAMPA

How AI Can Make The Internet Itself Run Better

'Many such devices connected to the internet are learning to run on their own.'
"Many such devices connected to the internet are learning to run on their own."
Andrea Daniele Signorelli

TURIN — From vacuum-cleaner robots that clean your house all by themselves to virtual assistants that can keep track of every appointment in your work agenda to self-driving cars that will soon be circulating on the streets of our cities: One of the most important applications of Artificial Intelligence is the ability to make our technological devices ever more autonomous, able to understand on their own how to accomplish a task. Yet it is curious that while many such devices connected to the internet are learning to run on their own, the system that supports this transformation — network infrastructure (routers, hubs, servers, etc.) — continues to largely be operated manually.

Recently, though, the situation has begun to change thanks to the efforts of two leading companies in the industry: Cisco and Juniper. The first launched its Intent-Based Network a few months ago, introducing a new generation of networks capable of independently learning how to handle the flow of data; the second responded with the Self Driving Network project, which takes inspiration from autonomous cars in its aim to completely transform the operation of networks. "Our goal is not to make some part of the network autonomous, but to make it so that it's able to handle it entirely on its own," Kireeti Kompella, Senior Vice President and CTO of Juniper, told La Stampa. The company, which has reached $5 billion in annual turnover, includes among its customers the world's top 10 telephone providers.

We must build greater responsibility into the machines.

Just as Cisco's Intent-Based Network is in its early stages, the road to Juniper's Self Driving Network is also long: "We have all the technologies that we need, but we still have to make progress in the field of machine learning (the technique of artificial intelligence) applied to networks," explains Kompella. "This technology is making giant strides with regard to voice and image recognition, and in many other fields, but as far as networks are concerned, we are still at the beginning."

How long will it take before we have networks that can be configured on their own, to understand how to manage themselves, to solve problems and perhaps most crucially, to defend themselves from intrusion and cyber attacks? "It's hard to make a prediction, but it might take about five years," explains the Juniper CTO. "At that point, it will be possible to anticipate problems and prevent them, quickly spotting the signals that indicate something is not right. It is an evolution that is essential, especially if we think of the exorbitant number of devices that will be connected to the Internet of Things."

AI giving a hand — Photo Samuel Zeller

Just as autonomous cars have raised several ethical dilemmas, self-driving networks are not immune to such questions. "Obviously, in our case, it is never a matter of life and death, as can be the case with autonomous cars. Nevertheless, the networks handle very sensitive data, and therefore we must build greater responsibility into the machines," says Kompella. "Whenever we increase their autonomy, we reduce our own and lose control of the details. In the world of technology there is a bad habit of moving ahead with each progressive step without stopping too much to reflect on the consequences."

Obviously, one of the consequences of network automation is jobs: What will happen to network engineers? "Human workers will be relieved of the most pressing and repetitive tasks, and will have time to focus on what is really important. In the future, however, new skills may be required, while service design will become increasingly important," says Juniper's CTO. "But it's also true that this is a problem that all of society is facing: Even elder care, considered one of the most protected professions, is automating."

In Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, many are talking about "universal basic income" as a solution to the problem of mass unemployment; but at that point another question arises: What will we do with all of our new spare time?"

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Ideas

Turkey: The Blind Spot Between Racial And Religious Discrimination

Before the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war, a social media campaign in Turkey aimed to take on anti-Arab and anti-refugee sentiment. But the campaign ultimately just swapped one type of discrimination for another.

photo of inside Istanbul's Eminonu New Mosque

Muslims and tourists visiting Istanbul's Eminonu New Mosque.

Levent Gültekin

-Analysis-

ISTANBUL — In late September, several pro-government journalists in Turkey promoted a social media campaign centered around a video against those in the country who are considered anti-Arab. The campaign was built around the idea of being “siblings in religion,” and the “union of the ummah,” or global Muslim community.

(In a very different context, such sentiments were repeated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the Israel-Hamas war erupted.)

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

While the goal is understandable, these themes are highly disconnected from reality.

First, let's look at the goal of the campaign. Our country has a serious problem of irregular migrants and refugees, and the administration isn’t paying adequate attention to this. On the contrary, they encourage the flow of refugees with policies such as selling citizenship.

Worries about irregular migrants and refugees naturally create tension in the society. The anger that targets not the government but the refugees has come to a point which both threatens the social peace and brought the issue to hostility towards the Arabs, even the tourists. The actual goal of this campaign by the pro-government journalists is obvious if you consider how an anti-tourist movement would hurt Turkey’s economy.

However, as mentioned above, while the goal is understandable, the themes of the “union of the ummah” and “siblings in religion” are problematic. The campaign offers the idea of being siblings in religion as an argument against the rising racism towards irregular migrants and refugees; a different form of racism or discrimination.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest