AI helps unlock some of the Beatles greatest secrets, British Airways gets slapped with a fine by the GDPR, and Bill Gates describes Steve Jobs as a wizard.
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A team of researchers from Harvard University and Canada’s Dalhousie University are using machine learning technology to try and figure out who wrote some of the most disputed tracks in the Beatles’ extensive archive of songs. John Lennon and Sir Paul are frequently co-credited on several songs, but some of them had remained a mystery – until now. The researchers developed an algorithm over the course of three years and applied it to 70 Lennon and McCarney songs with established authorship. The algorithm, which is being widely discussed on LinkedIn, managed to correctly differentiate the Lennon’s tracks from Sir Paul’s with 76 per cent of overall accuracy. This new model was then applied to eight songs that to this day were disputed. The full results can be found on ITWorldCanada.com
Reddit users are fascinated by the GDPR’s first publicly imposed penalty since the new regulations were put in place last year. British Airways is facing a record fine of 183 million pounds (or approximately $300 million CAD) by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Media reports indicate that the ICO said the incident took place after users of British Airways’ website were diverted to a fraudulent site. The incident was first disclosed September 2018, and the airline had initially said approximately 380,000 transactions were affected. Stolen data did not include travel or passport information. The ICO watchdog said poor security arrangements led to the breach, and that British Airways has co-operated with its investigation. Until now, the biggest penalty was £500,000, or $820,000 CAD, imposed on Facebook for its role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. That was of course the maximum fine allowed under the old data protection rules that applied before GDPR.
And lastly, also trending on Reddit, a recent interview with Bill Gates and his comments about Steve Jobs’ leadership style. The billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft was asked about leadership styles recently, and after addressing his own reputation of being hard on people and how things sometimes went “too far”, his attention turned to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Gates says Jobs’ leadership style was a good example of a “don’t do this at home” adding “I have yet to meet any person who in terms of picking talent, hyper motivating that talent, who could match him.” Jobs was a master at “casting spells” Gates adds, to keep Apple employees motivated.