Morning sky

Even the ugly parts of Tel Aviv look nice.

Night run sky

View from this evening’s 5K run.

This week’s long run

Yesterday was blistering hot, so I ran this morning instead. A lot of rowers were out on the Yarkon.

At the Daniel Center for rowing, stopped for a moment to admire the sky.

The sun was out in full strength, which made for some pretty dramatic lighting, with all the clouds.

Ducks and rowers (this was taken on my way back).

This cheeky little egret was waiting by a group of pretty terrible fishermen. They would toss it all their small fry, which is much more convenient than having to go fish for them itself.

Monthly antique market at the port.

My cat, totally unimpressed that I ran 9K this morning.

IBM Watson Tel-Aviv Summit

I was at the IBM Watson summit in Tel Aviv today. A very impressive event, with a slurry of local celebs taking part in it.

Yair Nizani, an Israeli comedian, MCed.

Marina Maximilian Blumin “sang” (lip synced).

The usual buzzwords were thrown around: disruptive technologies, cognitive learning/age, Software/Product/Infrastructure as a service.

What wasn’t said was:

These technologies cost people jobs, without providing them with alternative means to proved for themselves.

These technologies have deep social implications, but the people making them and funding them give little to no thought to what is the true cost of these technologies.

Machine learning/cognitive learning can improve our world, but they can also cause immense suffering. Unless we constantly consider the ethical implications of these advances (as best we can), we will be the creators of our own dystopia.