A contest aimed at automating the detection of lung cancer shows how machine learning may be poised to overhaul medical imaging. The challenge offered $1 million in prizes for the algorithms that most accurately identified signs of lung cancer in low-dose computed tomography images. The winning algorithms won't necessarily be adopted by clinicians, but they could inspire algorithmic innovations that find their way into medical imaging. Low-dose CT scans have shown great potential in recent years for detecting lung cancer earlier. They use less radiation and do not require a contrast dye to be injected into the body.

When Siri is asked whether she has a boyfriend, the iPhone's digital assistant is usually quick to deflect the question with a quip about drones always trying to pick her up. Takechi is the creator of Hikari Azuma, a miniskirt-wearing avatar. She can hold a basic conversation and wake you up in the morning by turning on the lights. Hikari will message you at work and greet you when you return home. She'll also set you back about ¥300,000.

In the competition among voice-assistant devices, Amazon's Echo gadgets are taking the lead. Amazon is set to control 70 percent of the voice-enabled speaker device market this year, a forecast from eMarketer released Monday predicted. Amazon's Echo devices forecast leaves other voice-assistant devices behind, including Google Home. Google Home is expected to control 23.8 percent of the market while the remaining amount will divided among smaller players, including Lenovo, LG, Harmon Kardon and Mattel. Read: Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Which Device Has More Answers?

HSBC has revealed how the success of five machine learning-related pilot projects is set to pave the way for deeper and faster adoption of cloud technologies across its business. A well-implemented cloud management strategy allows users to maintain control over public, private and hybrid clouds. This email address is already registered. By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent. By submitting your personal information, you agree that TechTarget and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers.

Given the ubiquity of fakes among re-sellers, buyers often examine pre-owned fashion to deduce authenticity, often analyzing the stitching, font size and interior labels. But sometimes, a copy is just so well-made that the human eye can't tell it from the original. Entrupy is a portable scanning device that instantly detects imitation designer bags by taking microscopic pictures that take into account details of the material, processing, workmanship, serial number, and wear/tear. It then employs the technique of deep learning to compare the images against a vast database that includes top luxury brands and if the bag is deemed authentic, users immediately get a Certificate of Authenticity. After launching as a paid service in September 2016, the New York-based venture now has over 130 paid customers, almost all of whom are American businesses drawn to the 97.1 percent accuracy rate, explained Entrupy CEO Vidyuth Srinivasan.

EVEN robots want to talk politics these days. Chatbots could soon be reading news articles and then discussing them with us. Voice-activated assistants such as Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri can check the weather but are left stumped by more complicated conversations, says Alan Black at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. Now Black and a team of computer speech researchers have launched a competition to create a chatbot that can understand a news or Wikipedia article and then talk about it with a human. "I'd like to have a system that reads the news in the morning, and I'd like to be able to talk about the news without having to go read it myself," Black says.

Diagnosing disease is one of the more labor-intensive aspects of the healthcare system. It also happens to be one that is particularly well-suited to being performed by machine learning algorithms. While work in this area is in its early stages, the technology is evolving rapidly and appears poised to transform diagnostic medicine. Thanks largely to the huge volumes of data collected from patients, medical diagnostics is an ideal domain for machine learning. Much of the diagnostic data is image-based, such as X-rays, MRI scans, and ultrasound imagery, but can also include things like genomic profiles, epidemiological data, blood tests, biopsy results, and even medical research papers. As a result, there is a wealth of data available for training neural networks and for other machine learning techniques.

The emerging regulatory technology or regtech market, driven by artificial intelligence, is helping to reduce fraud in the financial services sector, but how is the so-called future of compliance computing progressing? There can, it seems, be little doubt that big financial institutions are throwing what Mr Sulistyo calls "an insane amount of people" at the regulatory compliance problem. "An informed estimate for financial institutions is now around 10 to 15 per cent of total workforce dedicated to governance, risk management and compliance," he says. Unsurprisingly, he adds that the best risk professionals are in such high demand they are "as rare as unicorns and more expensive than their weight in gold". Mr Sulistyo says if you talk to London bankers, they are already hailing AI-driven regtech as a kind of magic silver bullet and saviour of the financial industry.

Amazon wants you to have long, real conversations with Alexa, its popular personal digital assistant. The e-tail giant recently released new tools to app developers that allow Alexa to whisper, show emotion and pause naturally, like we humans do. And that's just the start, says Rohit Prasad, Amazon's head scientist for Alexa, who is playing a key role in the retailer's efforts in artificial intelligence for Alexa--using computers to converse with us. "I truly believe that for AI to be useful in our daily lives, it has to be something you can connect with," Prasad said in an interview here. "Conversation is the next step, to be more human-like."

Samsung was granted permission by South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to test run self-driving cars, Yonhap News reported. Samsung's autonomous vehicle is apparently under development and based on deep-learning technology, the report said. The approval Monday by officials will allow the company to test the self-driving vehicle on the roads. Samsung wants to develop top-of-the-line sensors and computer modules backed by artificial intelligence and deep-learning technologies. That technology would improve vehicles' self-driving capabilities, even in bad weather conditions, the report said.