In a deal that made few ripples outside the energy industry, two very large but relatively obscure companies, Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger Limited, announced a joint venture called Sensia. The new company will "sell equipment and services to advance digital technology and automation in the oilfield," according to the Houston Chronicle. Yet the partnership has ramifications far beyond Houston's energy corridor: It's part of a growing trend that sees major tech companies teaming with oil giants to use automation, AI, and big data services to enhance oil exploration, extraction, and production. Rockwell is the world's largest company that is dedicated to industrial automation, and Schlumberger, a competitor of Halliburton, is the world's largest oilfield services firm. Sensia will be, according to the press release, "the first fully integrated digital oilfield automation solutions provider."

Nasa-funded scientists have developed a new kind of DNA-like structure that can store and transmit information – and could lead to new ways of finding alien life. The breakthrough discovery suggests there might be alternative, unimagined forms of DNA-based life as we know it on Earth. Life on other worlds might be built using different molecular systems of the kind the researchers developed in the lab, Nasa experts have suggested. The new molecular system will allow scientists who are looking for life elsewhere in the universe to re-think what they are actually looking for, researchers said. DNA is a complex molecule that allows the genetic information that makes us who we are to be stored and then transmitted.

Samsung chose to unveil not just one but five new phones at its Unpacked event this week, complementing its range of Galaxy S10 devices with the innovative Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy S10, S10, S10e, S10 5G and Fold all offer something unique for users, be it size, specs, or the ability to unfold and transform into a tablet. Combined with the vast range of non-Samsung alternatives – the iPhone XS, the Google Pixel 3, the Huawei P30 Pro, to name just three – it may seem more difficult than ever to decide which device is the right one to buy. As American psychologist Barry Schwartz wrote in Paradox of Choices, having too many options "no longer liberates but debilitates" consumers. With prices ranging from around £700 to close to £2,000 for the new Samsung phones, making the wrong choice could be costly.

The world's two biggest economies are sparring over U.S. allegations that Beijing uses predatory tactics in a drive to make Chinese companies world leaders in such advanced industries as robotics and driverless cars. Those tactics, the Trump administration argues, include cyber-theft, the unfair subsidizing of state-owned Chinese companies, the use of regulations to hobble China's foreign competitors and pressure on American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market.

Some industries across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region have already adopted AI technology, but others remain skeptical and don't yet see a compelling need to invest in artificial intelligence. That, very simply, is a mistake. This may be due to businesses thinking accessing AI capabilities requires a heavy investment in complex technology or hard to find skills. In fact, it's the opposite; most advanced technology companies are building AI and machine learning capability into their products and making it readily accessible to everyday business users. Put simply, preparing your enterprise for the future requires fully embracing artificial intelligence.

Applying just a bit of strain to a piece of semiconductor or other crystalline material can deform the orderly arrangement of atoms in its structure enough to cause dramatic changes in its properties, such as the way it conducts electricity, transmits light, or conducts heat. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and in Russia and Singapore have found ways to use artificial intelligence to help predict and control these changes, potentially opening up new avenues of research on advanced materials for future high-tech devices. The findings appeared in early February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in a paper authored by MIT professor of nuclear science and engineering and of materials science and engineering Ju Li, MIT Principal Research Scientist Ming Dao, and MIT graduate student Zhe Shi, with Evgenii Tsymbalov and Alexander Shapeev at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Russia, and Subra Suresh, the Vannevar Bush Professor Emeritus and former dean of engineering at MIT and current president of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Already, based on earlier work at MIT, some degree of elastic strain has been incorporated in some silicon processor chips. Even a 1% change in the structure can in some cases improve the speed of the device by 50 percent, by allowing electrons to move through the material faster.

We wish to make constant improvements so we can develop a world-leading algorithm for 2D/3D facial recognition that can compete with solutions already presented from leading IT Giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM. We also wish to indulge in the development of DMS (driver monitoring system) that can be used in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. Also, we want to help our customers to understand how to use our technology across different verticals. We are also looking to expand our presence to other markets and to set up a headquarter in China and USA.

Spotify's latest update is drawing anger from users who claim it has hidden one of its most important buttons. The company recently released a redesigned version of its app for iOS and Android that brought a minor tweak to the way the app looks. But that minor tweak has caused major upset among the users who have disagreed with designers' latest choices. The most controversial of the changes is that the "repeat" and "go to queue" buttons have fallen off the now playing screen that users regularly see while listening to music. Instead, people must bury into menus if they want songs to keep playing or to see what's coming up next.

What eventually becomes cutting-edge in retail and payments often originates in places that are dedicated to security, not commerce. New technology often starts out at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) or NATO, for instance. Former Israeli intelligence agents or military members have taken the knowledge they gained during their service and contributed to artificial intelligence (AI), fraud prevention and other efforts that do make -- or can end up making -- a difference in the daily lives of consumers. Now, the time might be right to at least consider adding prisons to that mix. Let's not get ahead of ourselves -- there is little chance that any prison system will become a miniature Silicon Valley.

The driverless vehicle race is being run on computing power instead of horse power. This shift has created opportunities for companies other than OEM (original equipment manufacturers) to be a part of the increasingly software-driven automotive world. Intel (INTC) is one name which is on its way to become a dominant force in this space. Here's a look at some developments made by Intel in 2018. Intel announced its restructuring in 2016 from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.