A recent paper from the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) lab describes how its researchers have used machine learning to train chatbot "dialogue agents" to negotiate. I first came across this development as reported by the website Futurism. Negotiating complex information technology services deals was how I made my living for many years, and so the news that artificial intelligence (AI) could one day take the place of a negotiator made me sit bolt upright. I perused the FAIR report, which in its abstract says that much of human dialogue occurs in semi-cooperative settings, where agents with different goals attempt to agree on common decisions. Negotiations require complex communication and reasoning skills, but success--arriving at a deal--is easy to measure, which made this an interesting task for its AI research.

To accelerate growth across the continent, Rockwell acquired Hiprom in 2011. Hiprom, a Johannesburg-based corporation, is a process control and automation systems integrator specialising in mining and mineral processing. When Rockwell acquired Hiprom, a company spokesperson revealed that the acquisition was a strategic play to strengthen their global project management and delivery capabilities in the mining, metals and minerals industries. According to John Lewis, Rockwell's current director of business partnering, Hiprom - which is still run out of South Africa - is now the group's global mining competency centre of excellence. In a recent podcast conversation I had with Lewis, he shared how Rockwell is adapting to changing times by hiring software developers and tech-savvy business specialists who can speak to the myriad optimisation challenges faced by their clients all over the world.

John Chambers, Chairman of Cisco System 3. Welcome to the Digital Economy Compass 3 Less talking, more facts – our idea behind creating the Digital Economy Compass. It contains facts, trends and key players, covering the entire digital economy. This very first edition will provide everything you need to know about the digital economy. In a global comparison, broadband speed is fastest in East Asia and Scandinavia Source: Akamai Technologies Note: Figure refers to Q3-2016; countries covered: broadband ranking – 147 1: Megabits per second 10 Average broadband speed in Top10 and selected countries (in Mbps1) South Korea 1 Hong Kong 2 Norway 3 23.6 18.2 Sweden 4 20.1 18.4 20.0 19.7 The sevenfold increase in global mobile data traffic is mainly driven by online video streaming Source: Cisco System; figures include only cellular mobile traffic (Wi-Fi or small cell from dual-mode devices are excluded) Note: Other mobile devices include Tablets, mobile PCs, M2M (incl. Pokémon Go was the most popular mobile game for iPhone users across the globe In cooperation with 19 Most downloaded iPhone apps per category and country in 2016 Categories covered: Shopping, Music, News, Gaming, Social Networks U.S. PandoraAmazon CNN Pokémon Go Messenger China Kugou Music Taobao Toutiao WeChat King of Glory Germany SpotifyKleinan zeigen Spiegel Online Pokémon Go WhatsApp U.K. SpotifyeBay BBC News Pokémon Go WhatsApp France DeezerWish Le Monde Pokémon Go Messenger Connectivity 21. "If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends."

Foreign Affairs Editor Gideon Rose discusses work and life in the age of automation. He speaks on "Bloomberg Surveillance." "Sophia," an artificially intelligent (AI) human-like robot developed by Hong Kong-based humanoid robotics company Hanson Robotics, is seen in Geneva on June 7, 2017. That's what influential economist John Maynard Keynes prophesied in his famous 1930 essay "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," forecasting that in the next century technology would make us so productive we wouldn't know what to do with all our free time. This is not the future Keynes imagined.

WIRE)--Glooko, the leader in diabetes data management, today announced $35 million in new funding to accelerate growth, expand international presence, and deepen expertise in data analytics. This round was led by Georgian Partners, a Toronto-based investor focused on applied analytics and machine learning. Other new investors include Insulet Corporation and Mayo Clinic who join existing investors Canaan Partners, Social Capital, Medtronic and Samsung NEXT in the round. Glooko will use the funds to accelerate growth by expanding its sales, marketing and development teams. The company will also increase commercialization efforts in France, Germany, the U.K., Asia and the Middle East, and further development efforts in data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide personalized insights that drive meaningful behavior change.

Global GDP will be 14% higher in 2030 as a result of AI – the equivalent of an additional $15.7 trillion. This makes it the biggest commercial opportunity in today's fast changing economy according to new research by PwC. Drawing on a detailed analysis of the business impact of AI Sizing the prize outlines the economies that are set to gain the most from AI. AI will contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030, more than the current output of China and India combined. Labour productivity improvements are expected to account for over half of all economic gains from AI over the period 2016-2030. Increased consumer demand resulting from AI-enabled product enhancements will account for the rest.

EyeSense, an iPad app developed in Egypt, has the ability to "learn" objects in its environment, having been trained by its users. A visually impaired person can point their device in the direction of where they think something might be–say, a coffee cup–and a voice will say that the app recognizes that object. "The key strength of the app is that it also recognizes basic facial expressions, like winks or smiles. This enhances human interaction," says Joanna Marczak, a spokesperson for its developer, ID Labs. To train the app, you place things in front of the device's camera at several angles, telling it about the items.

Artificial Intelligence Market Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Snapshot Globally, there is a wave of artificial intelligence across various industries, especially consumer electronics and healthcare. The wave is likely to continue in the years to come with the expanding base of applications of the technology. The global market for artificial intelligence is expected to witness phenomenal growth over the coming years as organizations worldwide have started capitalizing on the benefits of such disruptive technologies for effective positioning of their offerings and customer reach. According to a study by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global market for artificial intelligence is estimated to post an impressive 36.1% CAGR between 2016 and 2024, rising to a valuation of US$3,061.35 The upward growth of the market is, however, hampered by the low upfront investments.

Earlier this month, a resident in a rural province of South Korea found a small, sky-blue unmanned plane perched nose-up against a tree in a remote forest. The drone belonged to the North Korean military and apparently had flown south for five hours, capturing images of a sensitive new U.S. anti-missile system before crashing. It lacked missiles or other weapons like the larger, more advanced models used by U.S. forces in the Middle East. But South Korean officials and security experts consider such flights unlawful incursions. As world powers focus on North Korea's emerging nuclear capabilities, its drone program is raising concerns about espionage and aggravating already tense relations with its southern neighbor.

Welcome to the first post of my series Deep Learning for Rookies by me, a rookie. I'm writing as a reinforcement learning strategy to process and digest the knowledge better. But if you are a deep learning rookie, then this is for you as well because we can learn together as rookies! Deep learning is probably one of the hottest tech topics right now. Large corporations and young startups alike are all gold-rushing this fancy field. If you think big data is important, then you should care about deep learning. The Economist says that data is the new oil in the 21st Century. If data is the crude oil, databases and data warehouses are the drilling rigs that digs and pumps the data on the internet, then think of deep learning as the oil refinery that finally turns crude oil into all the useful and insightful final products.