Multimodal datasets contain an enormous amount of relational information, which grows exponentially with the introduction of new modalities. Learning representations in such a scenario is inherently complex due to the presence of multiple heterogeneous information channels. These channels can encode both (a) inter-relations between the items of different modalities and (b) intra-relations between the items of the same modality. Encoding multimedia items into a continuous low-dimensional semantic space such that both types of relations are captured and preserved is extremely challenging, especially if the goal is a unified end-to-end learning framework. The two key challenges that need to be addressed are: 1) the framework must be able to merge complex intra and inter relations without losing any valuable information and 2) the learning model should be invariant to the addition of new and potentially very different modalities. In this paper, we propose a flexible framework which can scale to data streams from many modalities. To that end we introduce a hypergraph-based model for data representation and deploy Graph Convolutional Networks to fuse relational information within and across modalities. Our approach provides an efficient solution for distributing otherwise extremely computationally expensive or even unfeasible training processes across multiple-GPUs, without any sacrifices in accuracy. Moreover, adding new modalities to our model requires only an additional GPU unit keeping the computational time unchanged, which brings representation learning to truly multimodal datasets. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach in the experiments on multimedia datasets featuring second, third and fourth order relations.

IBM has recently launched its inaugural IBM Women Leaders in A.I. in recognition of women advancing their company's journey to artificial intelligence across diverse industries around the globe--from California's County of Sonoma to South Africa's NedBank. There is an opportunity for women to not only contribute to Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) – one of the modern era's most important technologies – but help lead in its application across various industries around the globe. This position of influence is not solely to appease a diversity mandate or to stand guard against algorithmic biases. Women can stand up as one of the integral factors in bringing transparent, inclusive and trusted A.I. to business. Among those recognized on IBM's list of Women Leaders in A.I., we recognized a common success factor - shared a propensity for bringing stakeholders together for effective work.

Microsoft announced a $1 billion investment in OpenAI, a lab co-founded by Elon Musk to develop "artificial general intelligence." The investment is the start of a long-term partnership between the two organizations. OpenAI will ensure its services work on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, and the companies will collaborate on new supercomputers. OpenAI's stated mission is to develop "artificial general intelligence," or AGI. In layman's terms, AGI is AI that can think like a human (possibly even better) while carrying out complex tasks autonomously. Whether or not an AGI would immediately decide to incinerate humanity a la Skynet remains to be seen, but OpenAI at least claims its artificial intelligence would be safe and beneficial for the human race.

RIYADH – Saudi Arabia alleged Wednesday an attack by drones and cruise missiles on the heart of the kingdom's oil industry was "unquestionably sponsored by Iran," naming but not directly accusing Tehran of launching the assault. Iran denies being involved in the attack claimed by Yemeni rebels, and has threatened the U.S. that it will retaliate "immediately" if Tehran is targeted in response. The news conference by Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki comes after a summer of heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. over President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The U.S. alleges Iran launched the attack, which Yemen's Houthi rebels earlier claimed as a response to the yearslong Saudi-led war there that's killed tens of thousands of people. Al-Malki made a point not to directly accuse Iran of firing the weapons or launching them from inside of Iranian territory.

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune's daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here. There's enthusiasm about the healthcare industry--I badly want to call it infectious or contagious but fear that would be in poor taste--and it is abundantly evident at Fortune's Brainstorm Health conference in San Diego this week. The exceedingly well-funded startup is more than a curio, and its technology vastly bests annoying quad-copters. Zipline's drones are airplanes that land by an innovative tail hook mechanism. Technology is transforming healthcare, mostly for the good.

When some people think of artificial intelligence (AI), they think of humanoid robots turning against their creators in an apocalyptic science fiction movie. In reality, AI is already playing an increasing role in many existing and evolving technologies, from driverless cars to translation software, virtual assistance devices and monitoring agriculture and biodiversity. Satellite images provided by AI can assist policymakers in finding solutions to problems of hunger, drought and climate change, to name only a few. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says that promoting AI in Africa is a top priority for the organization. "Artificial intelligence can help us advance more rapidly towards the achievement of the SDGs by allowing better risk assessment, enabling more accurate forecasting and faster knowledge sharing, by offering innovative solutions in the fields of education, health, ecology, urbanism and the creative industries and by improving standards of living and our daily well-being," Ms. Azoulay explains.

A new viral tool that uses artificial intelligence to label people's selfies is demonstrating just how weird and biased AI can be. The ImageNet Roulette site was shared widely on Twitter on Monday, and was created by AI Now Institute cofounder Kate Crawford and artist Trevor Paglen. The pair are examining the dangers of using datasets with ingrained biases -- such as racial bias -- to train AI. ImageNet Roulette's AI was trained on ImageNet, a database compiled in 2009 of 14 million labelled images. ImageNet is one of the most important and comprehensive training datasets in the field of artificial intelligence, in part because it's free and available to anyone.

Interest in artificial intelligence is on the rise in Egypt as enterprises embrace emerging technology to expand into new markets, investors back AI startups and government initiatives support education and awareness of the technology. There is mounting evidence that private enterprise is embracing AI. Recently, for example, AI and anlytics vendor fonYou partnered with a mobile operator in Egypt to use its AI module to reach the unbanked, and Widebot just raised a six-figure (USD) Pre-Series A investment for its Arabic language chatbot. Meanwhile, the government is looking to develop AI capabilities in a number of ways, including launching its first AI faculty at Kafr El Sheikh University. Egypt is aiming to have 7.7 percent of its GDP derived through AI by 2030, a figure touted in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, The Potential Impact of AI in the Middle East.

US artificial intelligence firm Digital Reasoning has received investment from Standard Chartered Bank's innovation, investment and ventures arm, SC Ventures, that brings its Series D-1 funding round total to US$40 million. The artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning company will partner with Standard Chartered to expand its financial services product offerings in communications surveillance across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and other international markets. The fresh funds will help it to expand into use cases within financial institutions that are adjacent to its core business of e-communications and voice surveillance for compliance, the company said. It will also support the company's efforts to broaden its pre-trained model catalog, supporting growth in financial markets across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Digital Reasoning's Series D-1 funding round had a first close last year, led by BNP Paribas with participation from Barclays, Square Capital, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, Lemhi Ventures, HCA, and the Partnership Fund for New York City.

Digital Reasoning, today announced a strategic investment from SC Ventures, the innovation, ventures and fintech investments unit of Standard Chartered Bank, bringing its Series D-1 funding round total to $40 million. In addition to this investment, Digital Reasoning will partner with Standard Chartered Bank to expand its financial services product offerings in Communications Surveillance across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and other international markets. "Digital Reasoning is the leader in communications analytics, identifying and finding key risks and insights from human language and behavior. Doing this requires an increased understanding of diverse languages and contexts across numerous cultures," "Standard Chartered is a leading global bank with a very diverse footprint. Through the partnership, we believe we can accelerate our solutions' applicability across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Together we will further democratize using AI to understand the languages in markets where these new solutions can be used for good."