Less
than a decade after breaking the Nazi encryption machine Enigma and helping the
Allied Forces win World War II, mathematician Alan Turing changed history a
second time with a simple question: "Can machines think?"
As the novel coronavirus
(COVID-19) continues to spread across the world, governments and hospitals are
being overwhelmed with an influx of patients. Under such circumstances, one of
the key challenges they must address is managing their resources and developing
care and hospitalization strategies that can prioritize the riskiest patients. This
is one area where artificial intelligence can help, experts at Jvion believe.
The company, which specializes in clinical AI, is undertaking a data analysis
project that will inform COVID-19 readiness strategies and help hospitals take
a proactive approach to manage patient populations in the inpatient and
outpatient settings.
Artificial
intelligence (AI) is wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with
building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require
human intelligence. But even in a recent oratorical competition on AI, most
students related AI to Chitti, the robot in Enthiran and how things could go
wrong, if machines were to think and act on their own !!
The Grand National is a
National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool,
England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap steeplechase over an official
distance of about 4 miles and 2½ furlongs, with horses jumping 30 fences over
two laps. It is the most valuable jump race in Europe, with a prize fund of £1
million in 2017. An event that is prominent in British culture, the race is
popular amongst many people who do not normally watch or bet on horse racing at
other times of the year. The most recent running of the race, in 2019, was won
by Tiger Roll ridden by jockey Davy Russell for trainer Gordon Elliott.
The
next Grand National meeting will take place in 2021 following its cancellation
in 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic making it the first such cancellation
since the end of the Second World War... .. will it be run in 2020 is the Q !
confused !!
Have you ever
ventured into a Race course – it is not simply madhouse, it is scientific
dissection of predicting results.
Gamblers know that odds are heavily stacked. It is not the best horse that wins always nor
the best jockey – then how to spot the dark horse ? There
are too many variables and too many possible outcomes. Front-runners break a
leg. Jockeys fall. Champion thoroughbreds decide, for no apparent reason, that
they’re simply not in the mood. It could boil down to “animated roulette.” Play for long enough, and
failure isn’t just likely but inevitable—so the wisdom goes. Yet it thrills !!
The US
election result came as a surprise to many – the President-elect included – but
not MogIA. The predictive artificial intelligence system out-figured most
professional pollsters, calling Donald Trump’s electoral success. A rival
system called UNU picked Hillary Clinton to win the popular vote, which she
duly did, and it correctly predicted another notoriously difficult to call
American race, the Kentucky Derby. Both systems were scientific, systematic and analysed its
results by listening to people. MogIA scans public social networks, while UNU
surveys respondents, taking that human opinion and “amplifying” it into a
system called “swarm intelligence”. There
similarly is AI Race Predictor which can give the probability of winning for
every single horse in a race. Which
horse you choose to bet is your choice and could be influenced by odds offered
by bookies.
So on a
given day at the Indian Derby – it could % of probability of winning for Chaitanya Chakram @ 47%; Squanderer 37%;
Vibrant Approach 13, Elusive Pimpernel 22%; Golden Glade 27% Budha Smile 41% -
one need not place bet on Chaitanya Chakram which could have a decimal odd but
Golden Glade offered 8-1 – one could be inclined to bet on the latter.
Horse racing is something
like a religion in Hong Kong, whose citizens bet more than anyone else on
Earth. Their cathedral is Happy Valley Racecourse, whose grassy oval track and
floodlit stands are ringed at night by one of the sport’s grandest views: neon
skyscrapers and neat stacks of high-rises, a constellation of illuminated
windows, and beyond them, lush hills silhouetted in darkness. On the evening of
Nov. 6, 2001, all of Hong Kong was talking about the biggest jackpot the city
had ever seen: at least HK$100 million (then about $13 million) for the winner
of a single bet called the Triple Trio. The wager is a little like a trifecta
of trifectas; it requires players to predict the top three horses, in any
order, in three different heats. More than 10 million combinations are
possible. When no one picks correctly, the prize money rolls over to the next
set of races. That balmy November night, the pot had gone unclaimed six times
over. About a million people placed a bet—equivalent to 1 in 7 city residents.
Now read this interesting article
in MailOnline – with the 2020 Grand National at Aintree understandably
cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Virtual Grand National takes its
place. Usually an appetiser before the main event, the virtual version of the
world-famous steeplechase takes centre stage on Saturday.
Running for three years
now the Virtual Grand National uses special technology to create a virtual form
of the Aintree showpiece. As Aintree lies deserted, millions are set to tune in
for the Virtual Grand National on Saturday.
The Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) revealed on Wednesday that
betting companies will donate their profits from the Virtual Grand National to
the NHS Charities Group to help in the fight against Covid-19.
Like other virtual racing,
which happens all the time, the Virtual Grand National, deploys computer
generated imagery (CGI) technology and algorithms to create a simulated version
of the race. The technology takes on board form of the runners as well as their
going preferences to produce a result. The
Virtual Grand National features 40 runners and the 30 fences, including The
Chair and Becher's Brook, that make Aintree's race so special. Cause of Causes
won the Virtual Grand National before finishing second in the real thing in
2017, Tiger Roll was victorious in both a year later and Rathvinden was first
past the post in the Virtual Grand National and finished third at Aintree in
2019.
The Virtual Grand National
is pre-recorded and will be shown on ITV on Saturday at 5pm. The TV special will feature the 40 horses and
riders who were most likely to run in the Aintree spectacular on Saturday
evening and will try to answer the key question in racing. The Gordon-Elliott
trained Tiger Roll heads the field with other runners we witnessed at the
Cheltenham Festival just a few weeks ago also in the line-up. Alongside Tiger
Roll is Bristol De Mai, Elegant Escape, Top Ville Ben, Beware the bear,
Peregrine Run, Total Recall, Story teller, Magic of light, Any second Now among
others.
For this virtual race,
bookies are taking placements but all profits made by major betting outlets
will be given to NHS Charities Together, which covers more than 140 NHS
charities. Bets on the Virtual Grand National could raise £1million to support
the battle against coronavirus, according to research by GrandNational.org.uk.
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
2nd Apr 2020.
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