Image-processing algorithms to smartly identify, caption and moderate your pictures. Convert spoken audio into text, use voice for verification, or add speaker recognition to your app. Allow your apps to process natural language with pre-built scripts, evaluate sentiment and learn how to recognize what users want. Map complex information and data in order to solve tasks such as intelligent recommendations and semantic search. Add Google or Bing Search APIs to your apps and harness the ability to comb billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more.

Why are coal plants in the U.S. and Europe closing at an accelerating rate, while in Asia, coal consumption went up and helped fuel an overall 1.7% year-on-year increase in global carbon emissions? Part of the reason coal continues to grow in countries like China and India is that in these areas, unlike in the U.S., emissions data can be shoddy or hard to acquire. Without accurate information it is harder to hold facilities accountable and keep them in line with meeting emission reduction targets. To address this situation, we are partnering with WattTime and the World Resources Institute (WRI), to launch a new project which will use satellite imagery to quantify carbon emissions from every major power plant across the world. This effort is being funded as one of 20 projects in the Google AI Impact Challenge.

FUKUOKA: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned on Saturday that the increasing presence of technology giants using big data and artificial intelligence could cause a significant disruption to the world's financial system. The rapid development of financial technology (fintech) has increased access to cheap payment and settlement systems for low-income households in emerging countries where traditional banking networks are scarce. But it has raised concern about the increasing dominance of big technology firms in mobile payments, which could force global policymakers to rethink the way they regulate the banking system and ensure financial settlements are executed safely. "A significant disruption to the financial landscape is likely to come from the big tech firms, who will use their enormous customer bases and deep pockets to offer financial products based on big data and artificial intelligence," Lagarde told a symposium on financial technology held on the sidelines of the G20 finance leaders' meeting in Fukuoka, southern Japan. While such innovation may help modernize financial markets, they could make the financial system vulnerable such by putting payment and settlement systems under the control of a handful of technology giants, she added.

The spread of tuberculosis (TB) has diminished in the developed world, but it is still prevalent in the developing parts of the world such as in Asia and Africa. The rise of HIV in the 1980's also saw an increase in TB infections due to the weakened immune systems of patients with HIV. Currently about 1.6 million people die from TB each year, and 10 million people develop active TB infections, which is also contagious. Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria and it generally affects the lungs. Individuals can harbor the TB bacteria but show no symptoms.

Mobile developers have a great deal to pick up from progressive changes that on-device ML can offer. This is a result of the innovation's capacity to reinforce mobile applications--in particular, taking into consideration smoother customer experiences equipped for utilizing incredible highlights, for example, giving exact area-based recommendations or promptly detecting plant illnesses. This fast improvement of mobile Machine learning has occurred as a response to various basic issues that traditional Machine Learning has toiled with. In truth, the composing is on the divider. Future mobile applications will require faster preparing paces and lower latency.

In the 2012 sci-fi film'Prometheus', a robot is seen performing surgeries albeit without human control. While that may be a bit far-fetched -- as reel life is -- Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare is here to stay -- whether we like it or not. AI is making inroads into healthcare like never before with a promise to make healthcare faster, accessible to everyone and cut costs. Cut to India, and the health challenges are many and diverse. There is apalpable human resource shortage and often, healthcare does not reach remote areas.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned on Saturday that the increasing presence of technology giants using big data and artificial intelligence could cause a significant disruption to the world's financial system. The rapid development of financial technology (fintech) has increased access to cheap payment and settlement systems for low-income households in emerging countries where traditional banking networks are scarce. But it has raised concern about the increasing dominance of big technology firms in mobile payments, which could force global policymakers to rethink the way they regulate the banking system and ensure financial settlements are executed safely. "A significant disruption to the financial landscape is likely to come from the big tech firms, who will use their enormous customer bases and deep pockets to offer financial products based on big data and artificial intelligence," Lagarde told a symposium on financial technology held on the sidelines of the G20 finance leaders' meeting in Fukuoka, southern Japan.

What can we do about algorithmic bias? If you're a software developer or data scientist, IBM Research has an open source toolkit that helps you check bias in your data models. But it's not just technologists who can do something about algorithmic bias. You can start reclaiming digital space by exploring your choice in technology services. For example, by using search engines like DuckDuckGo, because unlike the voracious data vampire that is Google, it doesn't store your personal information to then use for targeted ads. You can also petition and lobby your government to adopt a governance framework for algorithmic accountability and transparency policy where "Algorithmic literacy" is introduced into curricular, and standardised notifications (to communicate type and degree of algorithmic processing in decisions) are made a requirement. Ultimately, we need to ask more of ourselves and tech companies. It's not enough to just employ critical thinking – we also need to employ civic thinking in how we build and use these technologies. This article first appeared in The Daily Maverick.

However, reaching consensus is likely to prove difficult on some key issues, in particular those involving trade. Participating nations have clashing interests, most notably the U.S. and China. "First, I would like to stress the importance of tapping into data, which is the source of innovation," Hiroshige Seko, minister of economy, trade and industry, said at the beginning of the digital economy session. Seko said that "ensuring the free flow of data internationally is indispensable to the economic development of the world as a whole." He then introduced a concept called "Data Fee Flow with Trust," or DFFT, which he said would promote free data flows while securing trust related to privacy and security.