The Race Is On to Control Artificial Intelligence, and Tech’s Future
人工智慧大戰 搶攻科技未來
By JOHN MARKOFF and STEVE LOHR

The resounding win by a Google artificial intelligence program over a champion in the complex board game Go last month was a statement – not so much to professional game players as to Google’s competitors.
Google人工智慧系統上個月在複雜的圍棋賽中大敗一位棋王是一項宣示－向Google競爭對手宣示的成分多過向職業棋手。

Many of the tech industry’s biggest companies, like Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft, are jockeying to become the go-to company for AI. In the industry’s lingo, the companies are engaged in a “platform war.”
科技業許多規最大的公司，如亞馬遜、Google、IBM和微軟，正競相成為人工智慧的最頂尖公司。用業界的行話，這些公司正在進行「平台戰爭」。

A platform, in technology, is essentially a piece of software that other companies build on and that consumers cannot do without. Become the platform and huge profits will follow. Microsoft dominated personal computers because its Windows software became the center of the consumer software world. Google has come to dominate the Internet through its ubiquitous search bar.
科技的平台，基本上是做為其他公司的發展基礎，且為消費者所不可或缺的一件軟體。一旦成為平台，龐大的利益也就隨之而來。微軟宰制個人電腦，是因為「視窗」軟體成了消費者軟體世界的中心。Google則巳透過無所不在的搜尋欄，宰制著網際網路。

If true believers in AI are correct that this long-promised technology is ready for the mainstream, the company that controls AI could steer the tech industry for years to come.
如果人工智慧的真正信仰者說對了，此一長期被看好的科技已準備成為主流，能掌控人工智慧的公司，就能主導未來的科技產業。

“Whoever wins this race will dominate the next stage of the information age,” said Pedro Domingos, a machine learning specialist and the author of “The Master Algorithm,” a 2015 book that contends that AI and big-data technology will remake the world.
機器學習專家佩德羅．多明哥斯說：「誰能贏得這場競賽，誰就能主宰資訊時代的下一個階段。」他也是「大師級演算法」的作者，這本2015年出版的書主張，人工智慧和大數據科技將重塑世界。

At the University of Toronto, IBM pursued a startup called Ross Intelligence that makes a smart legal assistant, and extended a free offer to use its AI software, called Watson. For IBM, the financial payoff would come if startups like Ross generated sales, followed by a revenue-sharing arrangement. “No upfront costs at all,” said Andrew Arruda, chief executive of the startup, which moved to Silicon Valley last year.
在多倫多大學，IBM追求做出智慧法律助理的新創公司「羅斯智慧」，並提供它的「華生」（Watson）人工智慧軟體供免費使用。對IBM而言，像羅斯之類的新創公司若能有營收，藉由雙方的營收分享合約，IBM將在財務上獲取回報。這家新創公司去年搬到了矽谷，執行長安德魯．阿魯達說：「完全沒有前置成本。」

For years, tech companies have used man-versus-machine competitions to show they are making progress on AI. In 1997, an IBM computer beat the chess champion Garry Kasparov.
多年來，科技公司利用人與機器的競賽來展示他們在人工智慧方面的進展。1997年，IBM的電腦打敗了西洋棋王加里．卡斯帕羅夫。

Now, Google’s AI program is drawing additional attention and pointing to a consolidation among tech’s biggest companies.
現在，Google的人工智慧程式吸引了更大的注意，也顯示科技業各大公司將進行整合。

By 2020, the market for machine learning applications will reach $40 billion, IDC, a market research firm, estimates. And 60 percent of those applications, the firm predicts, will run on the platform software of four companies – Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft.
市場研究公司IDC估計，到2020年時，機器學習應用軟體市場將達到400億美元。這家公司預測，這些應用程式的60%將在四家公司－亞馬遜、Google、IBM和微軟的平台軟體上跑。

Intelligent software applications will become commonplace, said Jeff Dean, a computer scientist who oversees Google’s AI development. “And machine learning will touch every industry.”
督導Google人工智慧發展的電腦科學家傑夫．狄恩說，智慧軟體應用將很普及，「而機器學習將觸及每個產業」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/technology/the-race-is-on-to-control-artificial-intelligence-and-techs-future.html

2016-04-10．聯合報．D2．紐約時報賞析．田思怡譯

說文解字看新聞 張佑生

冷戰年代，西洋棋是美、蘇爭霸的一環，1986年的音樂劇Chess便以美蘇棋王在曼谷對弈為背景。30年後，換成在首爾的圍棋人機大戰（man-versus-machine competitions）轟動全球。資訊時代（the information age），人工智慧（artificial intelligence）與大數據技術（big-data technology）才是王道。

請注意intelligence和information的區別。前者除了指聰明智慧，也有「情報」的意思，美國中央情報局（CIA）的英文是Central Intelligence Agency。已遭裁撤的行政院新聞局（GIO），英文是Government Information Office。

報導說，科技業巨擘拚命卡位（jockeying）要當AI的一哥（the go-to company）。

Jockey源自賽馬、騎師，動詞片語jockey for position跟賽馬一樣，是「爭奪有利位置」、「搶占一席之地」。例如候選人爭取最佳電視曝光：The candidates were jockeying for position, trying to get the best television exposure.

形容詞go-to意指「靠譜」，有狀況時找他（她）準沒錯。NBA很愛用這個詞，說某人是某隊的go-to guy（player），進入決勝期（down the stretch）球給他就對了。林書豪效力的夏洛特黃蜂隊，go-to guy是控衛華克（Kemba Walker）。

Ubiquitous是無所不在的。The company’s advertisements are ubiquitous.（企業廣告鋪天蓋地）。尼采在《查拉圖斯特拉如是說》（Thus Spake Zarathustra）中寫道：But God is ubiquitous and omniscient.（上帝無所不在，無所不知。）

Baby Boomers Are Finding a Second Career in Politics
美國嬰兒潮世代 政界尋找第二春
By AMY ZIPKIN

Steven Ponto was a senior lawyer at a financial services technology company when it was sold in 2009. Some colleagues were relocating to Jacksonville, Florida, the headquarters of the new parent, but he didn’t want to leave the small city outside Milwaukee where he had lived since 1990.
史蒂芬．龐托曾在一家金融服務科技公司擔任資深律師，這家公司在2009年賣掉了。一些同事搬到佛羅里達州傑克森維爾，也就是新的母公司總部所在地，但他不想離開從1990年就居住的密爾瓦基郊區小城。

He chose a severance package and considered a second career. Friends encouraged Ponto to run for mayor of his city, Brookfield, Wisconsin. He spent about $20,000 on the campaign.
他選擇拿遣散費，並考慮另闢事業第二春。朋友鼓勵龐托競選他居住的威斯康辛州布魯克菲爾德市的市長。他大約花了2萬美元競選。

“I wanted to bring professionalism to the mayor’s office,” said Ponto, 68, who also holds a master’s degree in public administration.
68歲的龐托同時擁有公共行政碩士學位，他說：「我想把專業智能帶到市長辦公室。」

In this election year, the two presidential front-runners are both already well past the traditional retirement age. But the interest in running for office among baby boomers may be even more compelling at lower levels, with more people like Ponto bringing substantial resumes to a second career in politics.
在今年這選舉年，兩位領先的總統參選人都早已過了退休年齡。但嬰兒潮代對較低層級公職的參選興趣也許更強烈，更多人和龐托一樣，把豐富的資歷帶進政壇的事業第二春。

In choosing to run for office, said Jennifer Lawless, a professor of government at American University in Washington, “your informal circle matters as much as formal recruitment from elected officials, party leaders or activists.”
華府美利堅大學的政府學教授珍妮佛．勞勒斯說，選擇競選公職，「你的私人人脈與民選官員、政黨領袖或政治活躍人士的正式徵召同等重要。」

The number of positions available is sizable, although their hours, responsibilities and compensation vary widely. In doing research for a 2012 book “Becoming a Candidate,” Lawless found just over 18,000 elected officials at the state level in legislatures. She identified a further 320,000 elected officials in municipal, town and county governments. Another 180,000 serve as elected school district and special district officials.
公職空缺數量龐大，不過，工作時間、責任和酬勞差別很大。勞勒斯為她2012年出版的書「成為一位候選人」做研究時，發現州議會層級的民選官員職位略多於1萬8000個。她在市、鎮和郡政府又找出32萬個民選官員職位。另外有18萬人擔任民選的學區和特區官員。

Older people are filling an increasing number of them, in many ways an extension of their broader interest in political activism.
填補這些空缺的年長者愈來愈多，有很多情況是延續他們對政治活動的廣泛興趣。

“Baby boomers are a generation of amateur enthusiasts for political causes,” said Neil Howe, a historian and demographer and the president of LifeCourse Associates, a consulting firm in Great Falls, Virginia.
歷史學家、人口學家兼維吉尼亞州大瀑市「生命歷程協會」顧問公司總裁尼爾．霍威說：「嬰兒潮世代是政治運動業餘愛好者世代。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/your-money/baby-boomers-are-finding-a-second-career-in-politics.html

2016-04-10．聯合報．D2．紐約時報賞析．田思怡譯