The typical multi-task learning methods for spatio-temporal data prediction involve low-rank tensor computation. However, such a method have relatively weak performance when the task number is small, and we cannot integrate it into non-linear models. In this paper, we propose a two-step suboptimal unitary method (SUM) to combine a meta-learning strategy into multi-task models. In the first step, it searches for a global pattern by optimising the general parameters with gradient descents under constraints, which is a geological regularizer to enable model learning with less training data. In the second step, we derive an optimised model on each specific task from the global pattern with only a few local training data. Compared with traditional multi-task learning methods, SUM shows advantages of generalisation ability on distant tasks. It can be applied on any multi-task models with the gradient descent as its optimiser regardless if the prediction function is linear or not. Moreover, we can harness the model to enable traditional prediction model to make coKriging. The experiments on public datasets have suggested that our framework, when combined with current multi-task models, has a conspicuously better prediction result when the task number is small compared to low-rank tensor learning, and our model has a quite satisfying outcome when adjusting the current prediction models for coKriging.

As the availability and importance of temporal interaction data--such as email communication--increases, it becomes increasingly important to understand the underlying structure that underpins these interactions. Often these interactions form a multigraph, where we might have multiple interactions between two entities. Such multigraphs tend to be sparse yet structured, and their distribution often evolves over time. Existing statistical models with interpretable parameters can capture some, but not all, of these properties. We propose a dynamic nonparametric model for interaction multigraphs that combines the sparsity of edge-exchangeable multigraphs with dynamic clustering patterns that tend to reinforce recent behavioral patterns. We show that our method yields improved held-out likelihood over stationary variants, and impressive predictive performance against a range of state-of-the-art dynamic graph models.

Jeremy Bloom and his polite' family sometimes tell Amazon Alexa to zip it.' Jeremy Bloom has a polite family. But after a few frustratingly failed attempts in which Bloom politely asked Alexa to turn down the volume at dinner time, he shouted instead, "Alexa, zip it." "To our surprise, the music immediately stopped," says the Pittsburgh-area commercial lender. "We got a huge laugh out of that. And while not the best lesson in manners for the kids, it is common for us to tell Alexa to'zip it' now."

Is Kenya ready for five 5G network? With Asia and other continents of the world taking steps to become a global leader in 5G and the Advanced Intelligence (AI) technology, Kenya will be ranked one of the first East African countries to tap into this, with the completion of the Data Centre by Huawei in Konza Smart City. This would help to revolutionize several industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, transport, health sector, making factory automation, as well as communication between self-driving vehicles to regulate traffic. According to Ms Pamela Tutui, a director at Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), Kenya is set to borrow ideas from a campus in China's Shenzhen City to lift Konza Smart City to a technology hub in Africa. "Smart cities is bringing solutions to a city that is not smart. Like in Nairobi what is stopping us from having street lights, from looking at our road networks and to go beyond just taxis and looking into our busing lanes," says Ann Theresse Jatta Ndong – Director UNESCO regional Eastern Africa.

"Please think forward to the year 2030. Analysts expect that people will become even more dependent on networked artificial intelligence (AI) in complex digital systems. Some say we will continue on the historic arc of augmenting our lives with mostly positive results as we widely implement these networked tools. Some say our increasing dependence on these AI and related systems is likely to lead to widespread difficulties. Our question: By 2030, do you think it is most likely that advancing AI and related technology systems will enhance human capacities and empower them? That is, most of the time, will most people be better off than they are today? Or is it most likely that advancing AI and related technology systems will lessen human autonomy and agency to such an extent that most people will not be better off than the way things are today? Please explain why you chose the answer you did and sketch out a vision of how the human-machine/AI collaboration will function in 2030.

Security officers keep watch in front of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign at the annual Huawei Connect event in Shanghai, China September 18, 2019. Rapid advances in digital technologies amplify the potential for data acquisition from and influence over other states. One state aggressively pursuing digital advantage globally is China, especially in its leveraging of artificial intelligence (AI). This memo presents recent data from multiple sources and initial analysis to set the stage for discussion about the profound implications of imminent digital power by China. A leading concern for those states not presently engaged in AI and related technologies is that they will fall behind those that are already heavily innovating and investing.

Chiniki Guard, a Nigerian Information Communication Technology (ICT) startup application has won the best prize of 10,000 USD in the Artificial Intelligence category competition at the ongoing Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX). GITEX is a global annual and biggest technology gathering in the Middle East,North Africa and South Asia with theme "Synergising the Mind and Technology Economy."aqq Chiniki Guard is an Artificial Intelligence security solution for retail stores,supermarkets to monitor,detect and alert shop owners of shoplifting as well as suspicious behaviour in real time. Chiniki Guard is among the 34 startups in the category of the Supanova finalists at the GITEX Futurestars competition. Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)Mr Abdulhakim Bashir,the Founder of Chiniki Guard, said the opportunities at GITEX had accorded him the win and would enable him widen the scope of his business.

About 3.85 million people studied Japanese at a record 18,604 institutions overseas in fiscal 2018, with the number of institutions soaring in Asia, according to a survey released this week. The number of Japanese language institutions jumped nearly fourfold to 818 in Vietnam from the previous survey in fiscal 2015 and nearly tripled to 400 in Myanmar, said the survey by the Japan Foundation, a government-backed organization conducting international cultural exchange programs. The number of Japanese learners overseas rose 5.2 percent to 3,846,773, led by a 169.0 percent surge to 174,461 in Vietnam, it said. The survey found a record high 142 countries and territories offering Japanese language education, five more than the fiscal 2015 level. The five include East Timor, Zimbabwe and Montenegro.

An autonomous idea-creation system that already has invented patentable concepts has itself now been patented. The U.S. Patent and Trade Office has awarded a patent to Stephen L. Thaler, president and CEO of Imagination Engines Inc., for his Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS). Formally, the patent is titled "Electro‐Optical Device and Method for Identifying and Inducing Topological States Formed Among Interconnecting Neural Modules," which Thaler says constitutes a "successor to deep learning and the future of artificial general intelligence." With DABUS, "vast swarms of neural nets join to form chains that encode concepts gleaned from their environment," Thaler said in a press release. "It also teaches the noise‐stimulation of such neural chaining systems to generate derivative concepts from their accumulated experience (i.e., idea formation)."

Much has been said about data being the new oil that will fuel businesses in the future. But the reality is that it's not about the amount of data that organizations have access to, but how effective their decisions are based on that data. Therefore, data alone will not be the new oil, rather intelligence will fuel the digital economy, and organizations that can create intelligent business processes to deliver contextualized and consent-based experiences will win in this new data-driven world. As intelligence (and technology in general) increasingly underpins future business models, there is a big question around the role of IT moving forward. The CIO needs to be part of boardroom discussions driving decision-making around the broader business (and digital) strategy.