Marrakech International Storytelling Festival 12-20 February

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Written by northsouth

Category: Art&Entertainment

Published: 10 February 2022

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MARRAKECH, Morocco - Excitement is growing as more than forty storytellers from five continents gather for the first edition of the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival, from 12 to 20 February.

A week-long series of events respecting and building on a tradition of storytelling that is as old as the Red City itself. Guest of Honour will be Haj. Ahmed Ezzarghani the most revered of the master storytellers in the Marrakech tradition. The festival is multilingual with telling in English as well as many other languages including Darija and Amazigh.

It is supported by several partners including the British Embassy Morocco, the Marrakech Storytellers Union and The Al Muniya Association, in addition to twenty-four Marrakech Riads providing complimentary accommodation for international tellers.There will be storytelling in all these “Maisons d’hôte”as well as nine festival venues.

Three workshops are planned including a session on women in storytelling.All events will be unticketed and free of charge to make them as inclusive as possible.A full schedule is attached.

A highlight of the festival will be on Wednesay 18th February with a procession from Dar Bellarjto the Jemaa El Fnaa square. Throughout the evening five storytelling circles will operate simultaneously, each overseen by one of the five surviving master storytellers of Marrakech.

All the festival tellers will participate as well as some honoured guests. “We are delighted to join this crossroads of cultures, hosting renowned storytellers and offering the opportunity to curious minds to travel through stories and explore different cultures."-Simon Martin –British Ambassador to Morocco.

Jaafar Kansoussi President of the Al Muniya Association commented, “Popular culture is transmitted mainly orally in the circles of the Halqa, this unique open-air pulpit”.

The festival is a launch event for a new World Storytelling Cafe located at 9 Souk de Fassis near to the Ben Yussef Madrassa.

This follows a renowned online project which broadcast more than a thousand hours of storytelling during the pandemic.

Lucie Andersen-Wood founder of the Henna Cafe commented, “We believe storytelling has a powerful potential for connection, healing and education, we aim to establish our venue as a tourist attraction as well as an ongoing resource for the local community.

”Venues include: Jemaa El Fnaa, Al Muniya Centre, Café Clock, World Storytelling Café, Café Arabe, Dar Bellarj, Henna Café, University Cadi Ayyad, Complex Mohamed VI de Habous.

Storytellers include: Abderrahim AL-Azzalia, Mohamed Bariz, Mohamed Rguibi, Ahmed Bouchama, Oujbair Mohamed, Aiachi Benjakan, Sef Townsend, Zahra Afsah, Baden Prince, Amy Douglas, Eamonn Keenan, Gary Cordingley, Chip Colquhoun, Paul Jackson, Maria Gillen, Shane Ibbs, Riika Palonen, Maria Credali, Dave Tonge, Norman Perrin, Juliana Marin, Colin Urwin, Clare Goodall, Dawn Ellis, John Row, Zouhair Khaznaoui, Sara Kchirid, Mariam Cannan, Mustapha Lhanch, Brahim Daldali, Mohamed Koucham, Latifa Amghare, Hajiba Makouri, Youness Makouri and Abderrahim Aggouram.

Programme

Monday 14 February 2022: 15:00 Panel discussion: "National Stories" Led by Colin Urwin, Riikka Palinen. At the Al Muniya Marrakech School of Storytelling.

Tuesday 15 February 2022: 11:00 ZOOM session ACE novation presents tribal storytelling and dance. Join online or at World Storytelling Cafe.
15.00 Panel discussion: The Challenge of Motherhood for WorkingArtists, led by Amy Douglas, Sarah Lloyd Winder at Dar Bellarj.

Wednesday 16 February 2022: 12.00 Gary Cordingley tells in collaboration with artist Sabba Khan in anevent facilitated by the British Council. Venue TBC.

14.00 Book launch. Yassine Adnane launches his latest novel at Dar Bellarj.
16.00 Storytellers gather at Dar Bellarj before processing through the Medina to Jemma al Fnaa square.
Early evening, all our Storytellers in Halqa at Jamaa El Fna Square.

Thursday 17 February 2022: 15.00 Keeping the Tradition alive, discussion led by Amy Douglas,Zouhair and Maria Gillen at World Storytelling Cafe.

Saturday 19 February 2022: 11.00 Hybrid (ZOOM) Australasian and Asian tellers plus festival tellers.Online and at World Storytelling Cafe.
19.00 Irish and North American storytellers at Riad Les Yeux Bleus.

For Media Contacts: Mike Wood + 44 7968 063227 or Zouhair Khaznaoui 065029604

2024 tech trends: AI’s true power will come to the fore

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Written by northsouth

Category: ICT

Published: 06 February 2024

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By Rob Godlonton

The public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, in retrospect, looks like as much of an inflection point for the IT industry as the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent shift to remote working models. But as much traction as artificial intelligence gained during 2023, that was just the beginning for the technology — 2024 is when AI will burst into the mainstream.

Analysts are forecasting staggering growth, with IDC predicting that the worldwide AI software market will grow from US$64-billion in 2022 to nearly $251-billion in 2027. That excludes generative AI solutions and platforms, a market which IDC says was worth nearly $16-billion worldwide in 2023. The generative AI market is expected to touch $143-billion by 2027.

Generative AI’s compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73.3% between 2023 and 2027 is more than twice the rate of growth in overall AI spending and almost 13 times greater than the CAGR for worldwide IT spending over the same period. This is a story that is likely to dwarf every other story in IT for years to come.

Here are some of my predictions for 2024:

1. AI bypasses the trough of disillusionment and goes mainstream for businesses

AI isn’t new, and many companies are already using it for a range of applications, from targeted marketing to fraud detection. But with the advent of generative AI, AI has morphed from an arcane tech used by data scientists and other specialists into a powerful tool that anyone can use to automate tasks or augment their work.

This is as much of a game-changer as it was to put smartphones into everyone’s hands. I’ve been in tech long enough to have seen the early days of personal computing, the rise of the internet, and the advent of smartphones and web 2.0. I believe that AI and especially gen AI will transform how we live and work even more profoundly than any those technologies.

I have also seldom seen such excitement among enterprises for taking an emerging tech from proof of concept to production in such a short time. The ability to find meaning in vast amounts of unstructured data (such as large language models), rapidly create content from code, summarise complex documents and optimise knowledge work has applications in nearly every process and function in business.

The applications are limited only by our imaginations — from producing tailored content for each customer and generating product ideas, to finding trends in unstructured data like voice recordings or streamlining creation of contracts. We’re already seeing a range of start-ups rushing to market with solutions built on platforms like GPT-4, indicating that the age of AI innovation is in full swing.

2. New attack surfaces drive convergence of OT and IT

Cybersecurity will remain a top-of-the-agenda concern for CIOs and the rest of the C-suite throughout 2024, with recent high-profile ransomware attacks and data breaches highlighting just how vulnerable South African companies are. Tools such as AI (expect to see hackers using gen AI and deepfake technology for more sophisticated social engineering attacks) and ransomware-as-a-service enable cybercriminals to launch more attacks with less effort.

Companies, meanwhile, are struggling to protect a wider attack surface, with remote work, mobilised business processes and internet-of-things devices offering new entry points into corporate networks for bad actors. One of the frightening trends that has unfolded in recent years is the growing incidents of cyberattacks that target critical infrastructure such as utilities, ports, pipelines and manufacturing plants.

These attacks target operational technologies such as Scada systems or industrial internet-of-things sensors used to manage physical processes in plants, factories and other asset-intensive settings. One of the major trends I’m thus expecting to see is the continued convergence of operational technology (OT) and IT. This convergence will increase the scope and responsibilities of CIOs in South Africa.

OT attacks can be devastating, so safeguarding hardware, software and other technology used to monitor and control physical processes, devices and infrastructure will be a priority. Companies will need to align standards, policies, tools, processes and staff between IT and OT to protect their assets in the world of the fourth Industrial Revolution, where physical processes and digital technology are blurring together.

3. Cloud optimisation becomes a priority

Most South African organisations started migrating to the cloud several years ago and have progressed far into the journey. But as they’ve moved more of their workloads to the cloud, complexity has spiralled in their cloud environments. Large businesses are running complex multi-cloud and hybrid cloud setups, leveraging private clouds as well as public cloud services from international hyperscale providers and offerings from local service providers.

Gaining a transparent view of costs and performance across all these providers is far from easy, especially when different cost centres and development teams are working independently. Wastage of resources through practices such as overprovisioning is commonplace, and factors such as rand/dollar volatility and data ingress and egress costs complicate budgeting even further.

Global research from Foundry shows that two-thirds of IT decision makers expect their cloud budget to increase in the next 12 months and that more than a third cite controlling cloud costs as their top challenge in making the most of their cloud strategies. As such, one of the major trends we’ll see in the next year is a more concerted focus on cloud cost control.

Especially with the global competition they face for people with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure skills, local companies will turn to strategies such as automation of operations and centralisation of resources as ways to control costs. There will also be more focus on maturing cloud financial operations (FinOps) — the tools and methodologies enterprises use to get better visibility into variable cloud spending, curb wastage and ensure accountability.

4. DEX and DaaS: The new frontiers of end-user computing

The debate about remote and hybrid working models continues to rage, but the reality is that most companies still need to support work-from-anywhere for at least part of their workforce. They also face growing challenges in optimising costs, ensuring bulletproof security and resilience, and facilitating productivity for teams that could be scattered across dozens of locations.

Even though tools to manage end-user computing environments have improved dramatically in recent years, many companies are looking for ways to optimise costs and streamline administration. Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) is becoming an attractive model to many companies, with Gartner forecasting that DaaS revenue will grow from around $2.4-billion in 2022 to $3.2-billion in 2024.

DaaS enables organisations to offer employees secure access to applications, content and business services from nearly any internet-connected device with a modern web browser. Not only does this help reduce the admin burden, but it also enables companies to sharpen the end-user experience. DaaS platforms with digital employee experience (DEX) tools enable companies to use data-driven insights, such as employee sentiment, to improve the end-user experience.

Bias, racism and lies: facing up to the unwanted consequences of AI

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Written by northsouth

Category: ICT

Published: 31 December 2020

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GENEVA - Powerful digital tools using artificial intelligence (AI) software are helping in the fight against COVID-19, and have the potential to improve the world in many other ways. However, as AI seeps into more areas of daily life, it’s becoming clear that its misuse can lead to serious harm, leading the UN to call for strong, international regulation of the technology.

The phrase "artificial intelligence" can conjure up images of machines that are able to think, and act, just like humans, independent of any oversight from actual, flesh and blood people. Movies versions of AI tend to feature super-intelligent machines attempting to overthrow humanity and conquer the world.

The reality is more prosaic, and tends to describe software that can solve problems, find patterns and, to a certain extent, "learn". This is particularly useful when huge amounts of data need to be sorted and understood, and AI is already being used in a host of scenarios, particularly in the private sector.

Examples include chatbots able to conduct online correspondence; online shopping sites which learn how to predict what you might want to buy; and AI journalists writing sports and business articles (this story was, I can assure you, written by a human).

And, whilst a recent news story from Iran has revived fears about the use of killer robots (Iranian authorities have claimed that a "machine gun with AI" was used to assassinate the country’s most senior nuclear scientist), negative stories connected with AI, which have included exam grades incorrectly downgraded in the UK, an innocent man sent to jail in the USA, and personal data stolen worldwide, are more likely to concern its misuse, and old-fashioned human error.

Ahead of the launch of a UN guide to understanding the ethics of AI, here are five things you should know about the use of AI, its consequences, and how it can be improved.

1) The consequences of misuse can be devastating

In January, an African American man in the US state of Michigan, was arrested for a shoplifting crime he knew nothing about. He was taken into custody after being handcuffed outside his house in front of his family.

This is believed to be the first wrongful arrest of its kind: the police officers involved had trusted facial recognition AI to catch their man, but the tool hadn’t learned how to recognize the differences between black faces because the images used to train it had mostly been of white faces.

Luckily, it quickly became clear that he looked nothing like the suspect seen in a still taken from store security cameras, and he was released, although he spent several hours in jail.

And, in July, there was uproar in the UK, when the dreams of many students hoping to go to the university of their choice were dashed, when a computer programme was used to assess their grades (traditional exams had been cancelled, because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

To work out what the students would have got if they had sat exams, the programme took their existing grades, and also took into account the track record of their school over time. This ended up penalising bright students from minority and low-income neighbourhoods, who are more likely to go to schools that have, on the whole, lower average grades than schools attended by wealthier students

These examples show that, for AI tools to work properly, well-trained data scientists need to work with high quality data. Unfortunately, much of the data used to teach AI is currently taken from consumers around the world, often without their explicit consent: poorer countries often lack the ability to ensure that personal data are protected, or to protect their societies from the damaging cyber-attacks and misinformation that have grown since the COVID-19 pandemic.

2) Hate, division and lies are good for business

Many social media companies have come under fire from knowledgeable sceptics for using algorithms, powered by AI, to micro-target users, and send them tailored content that will reinforce their prejudices. The more inflammatory the content, the more chance that it will be consumed and shared.

The reason that these companies are happy to "push" socially divisive, polarizing content to their users, is that it increases the likelihood that they will stay longer on the platform, which keeps their advertisers happy, and boosts their profits.

This has boosted the popularity of extremist, hate-filled postings, spread by groups that would otherwise be little-known fringe outfits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has also led to the dissemination of dangerous misinformation about the virus, potentially leading to more people becoming infected, many experts say.

3) Global inequality is mirrored online

There is strong evidence to suggest that AI is playing a role in making the world more unequal, and is benefiting a small proportion of people. For example, more than three-quarters of all new digital innovation and patents are produced by just 200 firms. Out of the 15 biggest digital platforms we use, 11 are from the US, whilst the rest are Chinese.

This means that AI tools are mainly designed by developers in the West. In fact, these developers are overwhelmingly white men, who also account for the vast majority of authors on AI topics. The case of the wrongful arrest in Michigan is just one example of the dangers posed by a lack of diversity in this highly important field.

It also means that, by 2030, North America and China are expected to get the lion’s share of the economic gains, expected to be worth trillions of dollars, that AI is predicted to generate.

4)The potential benefits are enormous

This is not to say that AI should be used less: innovations using the technology are immensely useful to society, as we have seen during the pandemic.

Governments all around the world have turned to digital solutions to new problems, from contact-tracing apps, to tele-medicine and drugs delivered by drones, and, in order to track the worldwide spread of COVID-19, AI has been employed to trawl through vast stores of data derived from our interactions on social media and online.

The benefits go far beyond the pandemic, though: AI can help in the fight against the climate crisis, powering models that could help restore ecosystems and habitats, and slow biodiversity loss; and save lives by helping humanitarian organizations to better direct their resources where they are most needed.

The problem is that AI tools are being developed so rapidly that neither designers, corporate shareholders nor governments have had time to consider the potential pitfalls of these dazzling new technologies.

5) We need to agree on international AI regulation

For these reasons, the UN education, science and culture agency, UNESCO, is consulting a wide range of groups, including representatives from civil society, the private sector, and the general public, in order to set international AI standards, and ensure that the technology has a strong ethical base, which encompasses the rule of law, and the promotion of human rights.

Important areas that need to be considered include the importance of bringing more diversity in the field of data science to reduce bias, and racial and gender stereotyping; the appropriate use of AI in judicial systems to make them fairer as well as more efficient; and finding ways to ensure that the benefits of the technology are spread amongst as many people as possible.