Artificial intelligence is changing the finance industry, with some early big movers monetizing their investments in back-office AI applications. But as this trend widens, new systemic and security risks may be introduced in the financial system. These are some of the findings of a new World Economic Forum report, The New Physics of Financial Services – How artificial intelligence is transforming the financial ecosystem, prepared in collaboration with Deloitte. "Big financial institutions are taking a page from the AI book of big tech: They develop AI applications and make them available as a'service' through the cloud," said Jesse McWaters, AI in Financial Services Project Lead at the World Economic Forum. "It is turning what were historically cost centres into new source of profitability, and creating a virtuous cycle of self-learning that accelerates their lead." The report, which draws on interviews and workshops with hundreds of financial and technology experts, observes that the "size of the prize" driven through these as-a-service offerings and other applications of AI is much larger than that of the more narrow applications that drive efficiency through the automation of human effort.

KSI and Logan Paul are about to have one of the most anticipated boxing matches in the world. And they'll be doing the entire thing on the internet. The YouTubers have promised "the biggest internet event in history" and it looks set to be watched by a huge number of people. Actually watching it is relatively easy, for a boxing match. It will be streamed on YouTube, as you might expect, and will cost $10 or £7.50.

Sony is bringing its iconic Aibo robotic dog back to the U.S. for the first time in more than a decade -- though this time, the pricey gadget will feature some cloud-connected features that make it more expressive and engaging than previous iterations. The U.S. relaunch of Aibo, which was announced Thursday, will be the sixth-generation of the company's line of robotic dogs, first introduced in 1999 and discontinued in 2006. Since re-introducing it in Japan this past January, Sony says it has already sold over 20,000 Aibo units over a seven-month period. The new Aibo, for better or worse, shares a similar design language with its predecessors, though it looks much more like an actual dog thanks to a pair of large, expressive OLED eyes that blink, get drowsy and show anger. Compact motors designed by Sony give Aibo 22 axes of movement, making it much more lifelike than Sony's previous robots -- though traditional dog-based activities, like scratching its ears or stretching its legs, look pretty comical compared to the real thing.

The Big Data analytics sector is poised for exponential growth in India boosting job opportunities in the IT sector. It is expected to witness a multi-fold growth by 2025, said Suresh Katta, founder of U.S.-based software firm Saama Technologies. Delivering a talk on'Data Analysis' at VIT-AP Amaravati campus on Thursday, he said there were a lot of opportunities to work in data science in the next 20 years. Mr. Katta said by focussing on new technologies, students could find work anywhere in the world. He said there was great demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deep Learning, Machine Learning and Analytics, adding to the employment opportunities. He said a major chunk of the workforce in the IT would have to re-skill themselves in data science to make the most of this employment boom.

Social media giant Facebook and NYU School of Medicine's Department of Radiology have collaborated to examine how artificial intelligence can boost the speed of MRI scans. The project, dubbed fastMRI, will focus first on altering how MRI machines operate. Usually, scanners gather raw numerical data and turn it into cross-sectional images of internal body structures. When more data has to be captured, the scan takes longer. Overall, the scan can take anywhere from 15 minutes to more than an hour.

This past November, Sony announced that it was reviving its robot dog Aibo. The iconic robotic pet, introduced in 1999, won a lot of fans all over the world but had been discontinued for over a decade. The company said the new Aibo, with more advanced mechatronics and AI, would be available for purchase early this year, but only in Japan. Now Sony is announcing that, after selling 20,000 new Aibos to Japanese consumers, it is making the robot canine available also in the United States. At an event at its U.S. headquarters in New York City, the company said it will be offering a "limited first litter edition" bundle starting next month, with expected delivery before the holidays.

Enteroviruses are important drivers of global health, but few countries undertake enterovirus surveillance. Pons-Salort and Grassly used Japanese surveillance data to model the interplay between the ratio of susceptible and immune individuals, accounting for declining birth and death rates, incomplete surveillance, and seasonality of infection (see the Perspective by Nikolay and Cauchemez). Enteroviruses have highly predictable yet highly nonlinear dynamics. The model also reveals signatures of increased pathogenicity and of antigenic change and transmissibility. Science, this issue p. 800; see also p. 755 Human enteroviruses are a major cause of neurological and other diseases.

A decade ago, just three of the 2,500 students enrolled in leadership and organizational change professor Brian Uzzi's classes knew about machine learning. Five years ago, three became 10%, and now, this topic is "the number one thing all students want to learn about," Uzzi says. Machine learning is definitely a hot topic these days, and both Uzzi and management and organizations professor Adam Pah (left), who together have been studying machine learning for more than two decades, have some ideas about its benefits, pitfalls and vast potential. Pah: In the common sphere, the terms "machine learning" and "artificial intelligence" are used pretty interchangeably. I think of artificial intelligence as a nonhuman entity performing a task with what would appear to be the intelligence of a human.

ARIMA, Syria, and mapping The Cure: Enjoy these new, intriguing, and overlooked datasets and kernels.

This week, Lyft announced they'd hit the milestone of their 5,000th self-driving commercial ride. The company has a fleet of autonomous cars in Las Vegas that mostly shuttle riders between different hotels on the strip. Even more exciting for Lyft--and for the future of transportation--is that the robot drivers received an average rating of 4.96 stars out of 5. It will take a while for people to get fully comfortable with driverless vehicles, but it seems they're off to a decent start. Raj Kapoor, Lyft's chief strategy officer and business head of autonomous driving, shared this news in a presentation at Singularity University's Global Summit. He went on to tell the audience what's happening on the front lines of autonomous transportation, and what he sees as the biggest problems in the field that need solving.