As U.S. banks wrestle with the decision of whether to use artificial intelligence to help calculate credit scores and make loan decisions, a potential role model is MyBucks, a company that's been doing this for more than a year --and has even begun offering 15-minute, AI-based loans through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. MyBucks is a Luxembourg-based fintech that owns several banks and provides loans and basic banking products in seven African countries, Poland and Spain; it's expanding rapidly into other countries. U.S. regulators have signaled a willingness to accept banks' use of AI in lending. And the evidence so far, at least in MyBucks' case, shows that AI can improve credit quality and reduce defaults. MyBucks' Haraka app, which is now offered in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Swaziland and Kenya, and in early 2018 is expected to be introduced in the Philippines and India, can score a customer within two minutes.

The US military has deployed an advanced AI system to analyze drone surveillance video of ISIS in the Middle East, writes Gregory Allen. The military now will likely seek to expand the use of AI throughout its operations, bringing both promise and peril.

It sounds like a dream: Poor villagers are handed money regularly every month, for several years, with no conditions attached. An American organization is currently testing the model in Kenya. When the village elder came to her in September to invite her to a meeting under the acacia trees, Norah Odhiambo was skeptical. Storm clouds were gathering above nearby Lake Victoria, the 34-year-old relates, and she set aside the machete she uses to clear brush from her neighbor's field for a few shillings a day. A new aid organization called GiveDirectly, the village elder said, would like to introduce itself.

Smart machines, businesses as platforms, and the gig economy figure into Tom Friedman's riff on where the future of work could take global companies. Tom Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times and author of seven best-selling books. His work covers a broad range of topics, including globalization, the Middle East, and environmental challenges. Friedman is intrigued by the connections among people, businesses, technology, and institutions that shape the evolution of an increasingly complex world. His newest book, "Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations," explores the future of work, a topic also being examined by Deloitte U.S. and Deloitte LLP's Center for the Edge.

JOHANNESBURG – A group that monitors extremist organizations says the Islamic State group has posted what is thought to be the first video from IS-affiliated fighters in Somalia. The video posted online Monday calls on supporters to "hunt down" what it calls nonbelievers and attack churches and markets. The SITE Intelligence Group says the video urges supporters to take advantage of people's "drunkenness" over the holiday season to attack. The United States last month launched its first drone strikes against Islamic State group-affiliated fighters in Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has a small but growing presence of the fighters, many of them defectors from the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group.

The United States last month launched its first drone strikes against Islamic State group-affiliated fighters in Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has a small but growing presence of the fighters, many of them defectors from the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group.

In the next stage of artificial intelligence adoption, banks will use AI to help understand the intentions and emotions of customers and enable better interactions, according to a new report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN). A new report from Accenture has revealed that banks are set to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand customers' intentions and emotions, with the aim of enabling better interactions. The report, Accenture Banking Technology Vision 2017, draws on the analysis of an advisory board of more than two dozen individuals, interviews with technology luminaries and industry experts, and results of a survey of 579 bank executives in 31 countries across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and South America. The goal of the survey was to identify the key issues and priorities for technology adoption and investment. According to the report, more than three-quarters (78%) of bankers believe that AI will enable simpler user interfaces that will help banks create a more human-like customer experience.

With 5.5 Billion transistors, this is one of the most advanced ARM Processors for smartphones in the world, included in the Huawei Mate 10, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A73, quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, Mali-G72MP12 GPU, featuring the built-in neural network processing.

One of the greatest benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) to humankind is its influence on the medical field. "Powered by some of the most sophisticated technology, AI is assisting in improving medical diagnosis," says Anton Jacobs, managing director at African value-added technology distributor, Networks Unlimited. From an AI doctor and chatbot to AI's powerful applications, machine learning and deep learning, a world that used to be all about coding, is transitioning into using computer programming to assist in life-changing health issues such as early cancer detection. A massive advantage is that AI has the power to pool knowledge from the best specialists worldwide and provide it to patients anywhere geographically. "Imagine what this could mean to patients living in rural areas. They'd finally have the same access to knowledge as patients in top medical facilities," adds Jacobsz.

JOHANNESBURG - When the news broke last week of alleged accounting irregularities involving retail giant Steinhoff, its share price plummeted amid a flurry of investor fear and panic selling. According to Stuart Reid, the chief engineer at NMRQL Research, the warning signs were there but were ignored by many fund managers because of their inherent cognitive biases, highlighting the benefits of machine-learning-powered investing. "Most stock crashes are preceded by warning signals, but fund managers' inherent cognitive biases prevent them from seeing the wood for the trees," says Reid. This is why the algorithms behind the NMRQL SCI Balanced Fund, South Africa's first machine-learning-powered unit trust, administered by the Sanlam Collective Investments platform, were not invested in Steinhoff. "Our algorithms stopped picking Steinhoff in 2016," says Reid.