by Teknita Team | Dec 21, 2022 | Security
Google Workspace, formerly known as Google Apps and later G Suite, is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet and Chat for communication; Currents for employee engagement; Drive for storage; and the Google Docs Editors suite for content creation. An Admin Panel is provided for managing users and services. Depending on edition Google Workspace may also include the digital interactive whiteboard Jamboard and an option to purchase such add-ons as the telephony service Voice. The education edition adds a learning platform Google Classroom and today has the name Workspace for Education.
The company developed mechanism to increase the security of mail data served by the Workspace (Gmail) service, calling it Client-Side Encryption (CSE). The solution gives Workspace customers the opportunity to implement their own mail encryption system, so data is protected before it reaches Google servers. Once the customer has enabled this encryption option, all attachments, emails, and embedded images are encrypted. However, CSE does not encrypt items such as email headers, subjects, timestamps, and recipient lists. Google explains that with CSE, content encryption is handled directly in the customer’s browser before any data is uploaded or stored in the Google cloud. This way Google’s servers cannot access the encryption keys.
CSE differs in one important respect from end-to-end encryption. For CSE, customers use encryption keys that are generated and stored in a cloud-based key management service. Therefore, administrators can control the keys and see who has access to them, and can always revoke a user’s access to the keys. With E2EE encryption, administrators have no control over customer keys and who can use them. They also cannot see what content users have encrypted. Those testing this mechanism should note that it is disabled by default and can be enabled at the domain or group level. Only then can the user click on the padlock icon to add CSE encryption to any message.
Google Workspace Client-side encryption is currently available for the following services:
- Google Drive for web browser, Drive for Desktop (non-Google file formats only), and Drive on Android and iOS (view-only for non-Google file formats).
- Google Meet for web browser only. CSE support for the Meet mobile app and meeting room hardware will be available in a later release.
- Google Calendar (beta) for web browser only.
You can read more about CSE here.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives.
We are always happy to hear from you.
Click here to connect with our experts!
by Teknita Team | Dec 20, 2022 | Uncategorized
The ear is one of the few parts of the body that remains relatively unchanged over our lifetime, making it a useful alternative to facial or fingerprint authentication technologies. This part of the body is unique to each person in the same way as a fingerprints. According to the researchers, even among identical twins, the shape of the ear is unique enough to still serve as a protection. An additional benefit is that, apart from the earlobe falling over time, the inside of the earlobe does not age as much over the years as our face.
The ear recognition software works similarly to face recognition. When a person gets a new phone, they have to register their fingerprint or face for the phone to recognize them. New devices often require users to place their fingers repeatedly over the sensor to get a full “picture” of their fingerprint. And face-recognition technology relies on users moving their faces in certain ways in front of their camera for the device to effectively capture their facial features. The ear recognition algorithm will work the same way.
While setting up a biometric device, the algorithm takes multiple samples of a person’s identity, such as facial images or fingerprints, and logs them into the device. When you go to unlock your device using a biometric, it takes a live sample to compare it to the logs on the device, such as a picture of your face or in this case, a picture of your ear.
Bourlai’s software uses an ear recognition algorithm to evaluate ear scans and determine if they are suitable for automated matching. He employed a variety of ear datasets with a wide range of ear poses to test the software.
The software that Professor Thirimachos Bourlai and his team are working on, has been tested on two large sets of ear images with accuracy of up to 97.25% of the time.
Ear recognition software could be used to enhance existing security systems, such as those used at airports around the world, and camera-based security systems, Bourlai said. His team also plans to enhance their proposed ear recognition algorithm to work well with thermal images as well to account for darker environments where it might be difficult to capture clear visible band images using conventional cameras.
You can read more about Ear Authentication Technology here.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives.
We are always happy to hear from you.
Click here to connect with our experts!
by Teknita Team | Dec 16, 2022 | Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning, Uncategorized
DoNotPay, the company that offers the “world’s first robot lawyer,” has announced a new AI-powered chatbot that will help you negotiate bills, unsubscribe, and more.
The latest tool from DoNotPay can have a back-and-forth conversation with a company’s customer service representative through live chat or email.
In a demo of the tool posted by DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder, the chatbot manages to get a discount on a Comcast internet bill through Xfinity’s live chat. Once it connects with a customer service representative, the bot asks for a better rate using account details provided by the customer. The chatbot cites problems with Xfinity’s services and threatens to take legal action, to which the representative responds by offering to take $10 off the customer’s monthly internet bill.
This tool builds upon the many neat services DoNotPay already offers, which mainly allows customers can generate and submit templates to various entities, helping them to file complaints, cancel subscriptions, fight parking tickets, and much more. It even uses machine learning to highlight the most important parts of a terms of service agreement and helps customers shield their photos from facial recognition searches. But this is the first time DoNotPay’s using an AI chatbot to interact with a representative in real time.
DoNotPay’s bot issues convincingly human-like answers throughout the entire interaction with Xfinity, save for a hiccup where the tool says “[insert email address]” instead of providing the customer’s actual email. Browder tells The Verge that DoNotPay will clean up some of its responses before it goes live — and make the bot sound less polite, as it’s pretty heavy on the “thank-yous.”
DoNotPay’s bot is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 API, the underlying toolset used by OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot that tons of people have been playing around with to generate detailed (and sometimes nonsensical) responses. DoNotPay’s tool is made for a specific purpose, though, and Browder seems to view it as an opportunity to expand the number of tasks it can tackle, like chatting with a representative to cancel a customer’s subscription or negotiating a credit report.
If the chatbot doesn’t know an answer to a particular question, Browder says it won’t start making things up. “It will just stop in its tracks and ask the user for help” when it’s unsure, Browder explains. The company’s working on ways to alert users whenever this happens so that they don’t have to sit in front of their computer and monitor the tool. Browder tells The Verge that users could eventually respond to the AI’s questions over text message so that it can continue its “conversation.”
You can read more about DoNotPay chatbox here.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives.
We are always happy to hear from you.
Click here to connect with our experts!
by Teknita Team | Dec 14, 2022 | Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning, Uncategorized
By building CICERO, Meta AI has created the first AI agent to achieve human-level performance in the complex natural language strategy game Diplomacy. CICERO demonstrated this by playing with humans on webDiplomacy.net, an online version of the game, where CICERO achieved more than double the average score of the human players and ranked in the top 10% of participants who played more than one game. The AI sent 5,277 messages to players in 72 hours of gameplay, and almost no one realized that they weren’t communicating with a human. Only one person expressed some suspicion, that one of the AI accounts is a bot.
This breakthrough rests in the achievement of combining two different areas of AI: strategic reasoning and natural language processing. The integration of these techniques gives CICERO the ability to reason and strategize with regard to players’ motivations, then use natural language to communicate, reach agreements to achieve shared objectives, form alliances and coordinate plans.
The Cicero is only able to play Diplomacy, but the technology behind it is relevant to many other applications. Current AI assistants can perform simple question-and-answer tasks, such as providing information about the weather, but with the further development of artificial intelligence, according to Meta AI specialists, they could even conduct long conversations to teach someone a new skill.
You can read more about Cicero here.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives.
We are always happy to hear from you.
Click here to connect with our experts!
by Teknita Team | Dec 12, 2022 | Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning, Uncategorized
The British artificial intelligence company – DeepMind – has created an AI tool that helps in writing the script – it will generate character descriptions, plot points, as well as dialogue and location descriptions. Artificial intelligence has certainly helped many people become an “artist”, and with the help of a new tool designed by DeepMind, it will also support aspiring screenwriters.
Dramatron is a system that uses large language models that could be useful for authors for co-writing theatre scripts and screenplays. Dramatron uses hierarchical story generation for consistency across the generated text. Starting from a log line, Dramatron interactively generates character descriptions, plot points, location descriptions and dialogue. These generations provide human authors with material for compilation, editing, and rewriting.
To assess the usability and capabilities of Dramatron, DeepMind engaged 15 playwrights and screenwriters for two-hour research sessions with users to co-create scenarios with the tool. Respondents suggested that it would be useful for world building and would help them test other approaches in terms of changing plot elements or characters. They also noted that AI can be a great way to “generate creative ideas.”
What about copyright?
Using Dramatron may raise questions about authorship. Last year, a UK appeals court ruled that artificial intelligence could not legally be considered an inventor and patented. DeepMind points out that Dramatron may display snippets of text that were used to train the language model, which, if used in a produced script, could lead to accusations of plagiarism. Therefore, it is always worth checking the generated scenario carefully in this respect.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives.
We are always happy to hear from you.
Click here to connect with our experts!
