These days, you hear a lot about machine learning (or ML) and artificial intelligence (or AI) – both good or bad depending on your source. Many of us immediately conjure up images of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Terminator cyborgs, C-3PO, Data from Star Trek, or Samantha from Her when the subject turns to AI. And many may not even be familiar with machine learning as a separate subject. The phrases are often tossed around interchangeably, but they're not exactly the same thing. In the most general sense, machine learning has evolved from AI. In the Google Trends graph above, you can see that AI was the more popular search term until machine learning passed it for good around September 2015.

Ahead of the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday, our Oscar Effects series puts the spotlight on each of the five movies nominated for "Visual Effects," looking at the amazing tricks filmmakers and their effects teams used to make each of these films stand out as visual spectacles. Ernest Cline's 2011 novel Ready Player One was once thought to be un-adaptable with its legions of licensed characters from television, movies, video games, and comic books assembling for a sprawling adventure within a virtual universe known as OASIS. And then along came Steven Spielberg to prove the skeptics wrong. Spielberg's adaptation of Ready Player One not only managed to translate the grand scope of its source material, but it also managed to deliver a film jam-packed with the iconic characters and pop-culture references that made the book so popular among a certain generation of readers. It did so with the help of a talented visual effects team led by four-time Academy Award nominee Roger Guyett, who was tasked with not only building a virtual universe populated by a host of familiar and not-so-familiar characters, but also making sure that the digital avatars of the film's lead characters were capable of conveying just as much emotion as their human counterparts. Digital Trends spoke to Guyett about the experience of bringing Ready Player One to the screen, building virtual universes, and finding genuine emotional depth among more than half a million CG creations.

ViSenze, an image recognition startup that delivers visual search tools designed for online retailers such as ASOS and Rakuten, recently revealed that it had secured $20 million in a Series C funding round. Both Sonae IM and Gobi Ventures co-led the financing round, which also included the participation of other investors, including returning backers WI Harper and Rakuten. Established back in 2012, ViSenze has so far raised a total of 34.5 million dollars (its previous funding round was a Series B held in September 2016). ViSenze customers include the likes of Uniqlo, Zalora, and Urban Outfitters, who bill the Singapore-based company's software portfolio as a "personal shopping concierge" that helps shoppers in finding or discovering products based on automatic photo tagging, visual search, and suggestions based on their browser history. The company's verticals include intellectual property, furniture, jewelry, and fashion.

The developer of Fortnite, Disney and other major companies have pulled their advertising from YouTube amid horror over the way videos of children were being used. The development comes after it emerged that videos on the site appeared to be getting watched as part of a phenomenon that saw users share suggestive posts of children and then pass them around. As part of what appears to be a network used by those interested in watching such suggestive videos of children, apparently innocent videos – of very young people dancing or taking part in gymnastics, for instance – would be hit by comments from users linking the posts together. That would then encourage the site's algorithms to suggest more videos, allowing people to pass them around without having explicitly done so. The blogger who discovered the phenomenon described it as a "soft-core pedophilia ring" that appeared to be operating relatively openly, though using hidden methods.

High net-worth individuals are being found on networking sites like LinkedIn by gangs, who pay criminals more than £250,000 per year to find potential targets for so-called sextortion scams. A typical example of a sextortion scam can involve forming an online relationship with a married person and then threatening to reveal details of the affair with their partner unless a ransom is paid in bitcoin. Researchers at cyber security firm Digital Shadows tracked the activity of cybercrime groups over a seven month period between July 2018 and February 2019, revealing the methods used to prey on potential victims. The gangs are offering annual salaries averaging £276,300 to accomplices who help target high-worth individuals, such as company executives, lawyers and doctors, researchers said. For accomplices with programming skills, these salaries rise to more than £840,000 per year.

Shortly after President Trump issued his vague AI executive order, the US Defense Department outlined a more comprehensive strategy. "The impact of artificial intelligence will extend across the entire department, spanning from operations and training to recruiting and healthcare," DoD CIO Dana Deasy said. Given the concerns about the so-called AI'arms race', that final point will cause a sigh of relief in some people – at least for those who believe it. The DoD will rapidly prototype new innovations, increase research and development, and boost training and recruitment. Rather than AI replacing jobs, the DoD believes it will empower those currently serving: "The women and men in the US armed forces remain our enduring source of strength; we will use AI-enabled information, tools, and systems to empower, not replace, those who serve."

SAN FRANCISCO - Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled a smartphone Wednesday that when folded open can be used as a tablet, becoming the first major manufacturer to offer the feature as it strives to stoke excitement in a slumping market. The South Korean giant also appeared to get the jump on rivals by announcing the first smartphone for fifth-generation -- or 5G -- wireless networks, while stepping up its efforts in artificial intelligence and wearables. The Galaxy Fold, unveiled at a San Francisco event, serves as a smartphone with a 4.6-inch display but also opens like a book to become a 7.3-inch tablet. "We are giving you a device that doesn't just define a new category, it defies category," said Samsung's Justin Denison at the event. The Fold will be available April 26, starting at $1,980, the company said.

Frank n Raf Market Research LLP As per Frank n Raf latest Research report, The global industrial robotics market size is expected to reach USD 41.23 billion by 2020., increasing at a CAGR of 7.0% through the forecast period. The accelerated expansion of the automotive industry worldwide and increasing adoption of robotics in the non-automotive industry including chemicals, food & beverage, rubber & plastics, and electronics/electrical are stoking the growth of the market. Companies executing industrial robots are frequently realizing substantial financial advantages, which is pointing to a surge in installation of robots in modern manufacturing plants. Combination of robots with production processes help increase productivity, reduces overheads, contributes a high degree of flexibility, improves quality, and reduces waste to a large range as compared to the outcome of manual labor, which consequently drives the market. Industrial robots have been effective for the formation of a new ecosystem distinguished by rewarding, lucrative, and high-paying jobs.

Internet of Business's comprehensive guide to where Industry 4.0 will lead manufacturers in the year ahead. Most manufacturers believe they are leading their markets in Industry 4.0 technologies, despite evidence to the contrary. There is a huge gap between the many companies that are exploring digital manufacturing strategies – via technologies such as automation, robotics, AI, and the Internet of Things – and those that are implementing them successfully. With Brexit looming, many manufacturers and solutions providers fear what this will mean for the wider European industrial community, which depends on the free movement of people and confident investment. The UK Budget recently sought to soften this blow by reinforcing the UK's commitment to a strong environment for international scientific collaboration. As part of this investment in R&D, the government will increase the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund by £1.1 billion, supporting technologies of the future. This includes up to £121 million for the Made Smarter initiative to support the transformation of manufacturing through digitally enabled technologies, such as the Internet of Things and virtual reality.

In a packed auditorium in San Francisco on Monday night a competition of man versus machine took place. In this case, man won. A grand finalist at the 2016 World Debating Championship took up the challenge of a live debate against an artificial intelligence machine in front of an audience of thousands. Harish Natarajan, 31, from London took on IBM's latest AI machine following the Watson Project. Project Debate, which resembles a tall speaker with a small screen, has been developed over the course of seven years by a team of dozens of people in multiple countries including Israel and India.