As we progress further into Industry 4.0, finance needs to further leverage new technologies to add real value to a business's bottom-line, yet it remains in its infancy stages. Industry 4.0 has impacted a range of industries, and with the digitisation of industrial value chains, many forget about finance, which has only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leveraging new technologies. Disruptive technologies such automation, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Bots, blockchain and machine learning are thrusting the global economy into a new digital era. Instead of seeing all these new developments in isolation, finance must focus rather on connection points, finding ways to optimise them to provide greater value to the organisation. Companies risk losing ground if they do not understand the changes and opportunities Industry 4.0 brings.

A study by the University of London and Vanson Bourne for WP Engine has concluded that transparency, trust and humanness are key drivers to unlock value in artificial intelligence (AI). The study, which surveyed consumers and enterprise companies with 1,000 employees or more in the US, the UK and Australia, found a large proportion of businesses are already well on their way towards widespread AI implementation. Chris Brauer, director of innovation at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: "Our research shows enterprises investing in AI are already seeing astounding return on investment and performance outcomes. Consumers are demanding that innovating with AI in digital experiences clearly prioritises and expresses values around privacy, trust, and transparency. "Only by laying a solid foundation of ethics and values that guide the implementation of all facets of an AI solution will companies truly be able to fully harness the value of AI." The study reported that 85.5% of businesses ...

CHINA is selling deadly'Blowfish' drones which can decide who lives and who dies to armies in the war-torn Middle East, say reports. The unmanned war machines are capable of launching autonomous strikes with their arsenal of mortar shells, grenade launchers and machine guns. They are said to be "impossible to defend" against and the Pentagon has already made it clear it fears they will end up in the wrong hands. Some military experts fear the proposed sale of the AI mini-choppers will spark even more bloodshed in the troubled region, reports news.com. "They would be impossible to defend yourself against," warns University of New South Wales Professor of Artificial Intelligence Toby Walsh.

China is selling its most advanced "fully autonomous" military drones with fears that it could lead to a bloodbath in the Middle East. The Asian superpower is reportedly selling AI-enhanced combat drones to the region, with potentially disastrous consequences. Prof Toby Walsh, of the University of NSW, in Australia, said: "They would be impossible to defend yourself against. "Once the shooting starts, every human on the battlefield will be dead." US Defence Sec Mark Esper has said that China is selling drones programmed to decide themselves who lives or dies. He told a conference on Artificial Intelligence: "As we speak, the Chinese government is already exporting some of its most advanced military aerial drones to the Middle East as it prepares to export its next generation stealth UAVs when those come online.

AntWorks, a global provider of artificial intelligence and intelligent automation solutions powered by fractal science, today announced an exclusive partnership with the SEED Group, a member of The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum. The partnership will support expansion of intelligent automation within the Middle East (ME), a region where AI is expected to become a US$320 billion by 2030. The SEED Group establishes groundbreaking companies with a strong presence in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and will work with AntWorks to offer ethical AI solutions for GCC companies with ANTsteinTM SQUARE, the world's first and only Integrated Automation Platform (IAP), powered by fractal science. AntWorks seek to replicate its success across Asia, the UK and US, where the organisation has automated entire business processes end-to-end for many clients across the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), transportation, logistics and public sector, among others. With successful adoption of AntWorks' IAP solution, businesses will stand to save millions and realise increased performance and efficiency by automating and processing business data, including unstructured data, which will make up 80% of the world's data by 2025.

In the past few years, deep learning has transformed artificial intelligence research and led to impressive performance in various difficult tasks. However, it is still unclear how the brain can perform credit assignment across many areas as efficiently as backpropagation does in deep neural networks. In this paper, we introduce a model that relies on a new role for a neuronal inhibitory machinery, referred to as ghost units. By cancelling the feedback coming from the upper layer when no target signal is provided to the top layer, the ghost units enables the network to backpropagate errors and do efficient credit assignment in deep structures. While considering one-compartment neurons and requiring very few biological assumptions, it is able to approximate the error gradient and achieve good performance on classification tasks. Error backpropagation occurs through the recurrent dynamics of the network and thanks to biologically plausible local learning rules. In particular, it does not require separate feedforward and feedback circuits. Different mechanisms for cancelling the feedback were studied, ranging from complete duplication of the connectivity by long term processes to online replication of the feedback activity. This reduced system combines the essential elements to have a working biologically abstracted analogue of backpropagation with a simple formulation and proofs of the associated results. Therefore, this model is a step towards understanding how learning and memory are implemented in cortical multilayer structures, but it also raises interesting perspectives for neuromorphic hardware.

NEW YORK: Two paintings up for auction in New York highlight a growing interest in artificial intelligence-created works - a technique that could transform how art is made and viewed but is also stirring up passionate debate. The art world was stunned last year when an AI painting sold for $432,500, and auctioneers are keen to further test demand for computer-generated works. "Art is a true reflection of what our society, what our environment responds to," said Max Moore of Sotheby's. "And so it's just a natural continuation of the progression of art," he added. Sotheby's will put two paintings by the French art collective Obvious up for sale on Thursday, including'Le Baron De Belamy'.

Climate change has emerged as the biggest threat to humanity, with devastating consequences such as extreme weather events, climate migration, and a sharp decline in biodiversity. While the brunt of climate action is shouldered by green parties and public activists like the young Greta Thunberg, in recent years many industries have stepped up innovation to try and do their bit. The informatics industry in particular has been flexing its R&D muscle to propose bleeding-edge solutions. A recent paper published by a group of high-profile AI experts and IT professionals explores the potential that can be found "at the nexus of climate change and machine learning". Headed by David Rolnick, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, the paper puts a spotlight on "high-impact opportunities for real-world change" present in such ML fields as artificial intelligence, computer vision, unsupervised learning, and more.

Climate change has emerged as the biggest threat to humanity, with devastating consequences such as extreme weather events, climate migration, and a sharp decline in biodiversity. While the brunt of climate action is shouldered by green parties and public activists like the young Greta Thunberg, in recent years many industries have stepped up innovation to try and do their bit. The informatics industry in particular has been flexing its R&D muscle to propose bleeding-edge solutions. A recent paper published by a group of high-profile AI experts and IT professionals explores the potential that can be found "at the nexus of climate change and machine learning". Headed by David Rolnick, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, the paper puts a spotlight on "high-impact opportunities for real-world change" present in such ML fields as artificial intelligence, computer vision, unsupervised learning, and more.

In any normal year, Cambridge Analytica would have been the biggest story. Facebook alone had a royal flush of scandals, including a huge data breach in September, becoming the subject of multiple class action lawsuits for discrimination, accusations of inciting ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, potential violations of the Fair Housing Act, and hosting masses of fake Russian accounts. Throughout the year, Facebook executives were frequently summoned to testify, with Mark Zuckerberg himself facing the US Senate in April and the European Parliament in May. News broke in March that Google was building AI systems for the Department of Defense's drone surveillance program, Project Maven. The news kicked off an unprecedented wave of tech worker organizing and dissent.