A machine-learning study that analysed hundreds of thousands of earthquakes beat the standard method at predicting the location of aftershocks. Scientists say that the work provides a fresh way of exploring how changes in ground stress, such as those that occur during a big earthquake, trigger the quakes that follow. It could also help researchers to develop new methods for assessing seismic risk. "We've really just scratched the surface of what machine learning may be able to do for aftershock forecasting," says Phoebe DeVries, a seismologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She and her colleagues report their findings on 29 August in Nature.

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that can allow robots to interact with autistic children undergoing therapy. People with autism see, hear and feel the world differently from other people, which affects how they interact with others. This makes communication-centred activities quite challenging for children with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs). To address this challenge, therapists recently began to use humanoid robots in therapy sessions. However, existing robots lack the ability to autonomously engage with children, which is vital for improving the therapy.

Armed with a mouse and computer screen instead of a scalpel and operating theatre, cardiologist Benjamin Meder carefully places the electrodes of a pacemaker in a beating, digital heart. Using this'digital twin' that mimics the electrical and physical properties of the cells in patient 7497's heart, Meder runs simulations to see if the pacemaker can keep the congestive heart failure sufferer alive - before he has inserted a knife. The digital heart twin developed by Siemens Healthineers is one example of how medical device makers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help doctors make more precise diagnoses as medicine enters an increasingly personalized age. Siemens Healthineers has built up a vast database of more than 250 million annotated images, reports and operational data on which to train its new algorithms. In the example of the digital twin, the AI system was trained to weave together data about the electrical and physical properties and the structure of a heart into a 3D image.

Optical Coherence Tomography allows ophthalmologist to obtain cross-section imaging of eye retina. Assisted with digital image analysis methods, effective disease detection could be performed. Various methods exist to extract feature from OCT images. The proposed study aims to compare the effectiveness of handcrafted and deep neural network features. The evaluated dataset consist of 32339 instances distributed in four classes, namely CNV, DME, DRUSEN, and NORMAL. The methods are Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), DenseNet-169, and ResNet50. As a result, the deep neural network based methods outperformed the handcrafted feature with 88% and 89% accuracy for DenseNet and ResNet compared to 50 % and 42 % for HOG and LBP respectively. The deep neural network based methods also demonstrated better result on the under represented class.

We investigate how generative adversarial nets (GANs) can help semi-supervised learning on graphs. We first provide insights on working principles of adversarial learning over graphs and then present GraphSGAN, a novel approach to semi-supervised learning on graphs. In GraphSGAN, generator and classifier networks play a novel competitive game. At equilibrium, generator generates fake samples in low-density areas between subgraphs. In order to discriminate fake samples from the real, classifier implicitly takes the density property of subgraph into consideration. An efficient adversarial learning algorithm has been developed to improve traditional normalized graph Laplacian regularization with a theoretical guarantee. Experimental results on several different genres of datasets show that the proposed GraphSGAN significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art methods. GraphSGAN can be also trained using mini-batch, thus enjoys the scalability advantage.

The term "artificial intelligence" (AI) was first coined in 1956, but it is only recently that the technology has become more available thanks to new hardware, datapoints, and accessible software solutions. Natural language processing (NLP) and predictive algorithms are already inside billions of devices in our pockets, homes, cars, and workplaces. Algorithms power the experiences and content we digest on a daily basis. In China, IBM created a project called Green Horizon, which uses AI to predict how bad pollution will be in Beijing up to 72 hours in advance. The solution employs adaptive machine learning to determine the best combination of models and data sources to use.

The fact that increasingly complex automation is applied to problems that were solved entirely by humans opens the door to great opportunities but also to fallouts and shortcomings. According to consulting firm Accenture, American companies are expected to invest 35 trillion dollars in cognitive technologies before 2035, and that does not take into account other big players, such us Europe, China or Japan. Governments, such the French, are recognizing the importance of AI for the economy and the society. In Spain, the Ministry of Digital Agenda (Minetad) has created a group of experts that is working on a White Paper on AI.

Artificial intelligence stopped prostate cancer from spreading in a patient with an advanced form of the disease, new research shows. An unnamed patient with tumours that had spread outside his prostate was given a combination of an experimental drug and an approved cancer medication. AI technology, known as CURATE.AI, was used to continuously assess how well the patient responded to the drugs, with the medications' doses being adjusted accordingly. These dose changes reduced cancer markers in his blood to the lowest levels they had ever been, with CT scans also revealing the patient's tumours had not spread further. Lead author Professor Dean Ho, from the National University of Singapore, said: 'The unique ability for CURATE.AI to rapidly identify the drug doses that result in the best possible treatment outcomes allows for optimised personalised medicine.

Sony's chief executive says the company is not planning to allow Fortnite players on PlayStation to compete cross-platform because it feels their console offers the best experience for gamers. The technology giant caused controversy earlier this year when the battle royale game launched on the Nintendo Switch, but existing PlayStation players discovered they could not move or change platforms on the same account – despite Xbox and PC players being able to do so. In spite of vocal protests from gamers in response, Sony has not yet changed its policy. New chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida said the company believes the best experience is on PlayStation 4. The technology giant caused controversy earlier this year when the battle royale game launched on the Nintendo Switch, but existing PlayStation players discovered they could not move change platforms on the same account – despite Xbox and PC players being able to do so. Speaking at the IFA technology show in Berlin, Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida said he felt playing on the PlayStation 4 was the best experience for gamers and therefore should not be compromised.

Sharp's newest fridge freezer doesn't have a water fountain or a voice assistant. Instead it houses a vacuum-packing slot that will help keep produce fresh for longer, reduce food waste (leftovers!) and, yes, even prep food for that millennial cooking style of choice -- sous vide. The VacPac Pro fridge-freezer had its debut at IFA 2018, and doesn't require proprietary bags. You can use any sealer bag, and the slot will suck out the air at the touch of a button -- which we proceeded to do on some plastic fruit. The company believes the method can extend the longevity of meat and dairy by up to eight times, and a spokesperson confirmed that the sealed bags are ideal for sous vide-style preparation, ensuring perfect edge-to-edge cooking, retaining the juices, nutrients and other good things.