Through the half century history of AI, the direction of research and funding has been dominated by the military and intelligence. Over the last decade that has shifted with the now huge commercial investment by Amazon, Google, Alibaba, Tencent and others. But through this time there has been very little serious interest, and almost no funding, for AI as a tool for empowering citizens or consumers, and relatively little for AI for public benefit. This may now be changing. A good reason for wanting to change things is the ambivalent state of public attitudes.

'Fortnite' has become a cultural phenomenon and mega-hit for video game developer Epic Games, boasting 125 million players around the world. What is it that makes this game so immensely popular, and how did it come to be? A chain of gyms in Europe is hoping to help kids fight the flab with Fortnite-inspired classes. David Lloyd gyms is the latest to jump on the "Fortnite" bandwagon with its "Emote Royale" classes, in a bid to get kids to "swap controllers for choreography." The classes were designed with the help of a number of 12-year-old "consultants" who ensured the accuracy of the dance moves being taught.

There is considerable hype around data science. Websites and social media are flooded with articles on Big Data, Data Science, and Data Analytics. These fields are projected as top fields, while data scientists are considered as saviours of the world and hence are supposed to be highest paid professionals. Most articles project how, using data science, companies have become super-intelligent in understanding their customers and hence are now able to sell products and services in a sophisticated manner. The marketing is now based on customers' differential purchasing interest and buying behaviour.

Artificially intelligent software has now picked up a devastating new skill after observing humans. A pair of brainiacs – Jessica Hodgins at Carnegie Mellon University in the US and Libin Liu at DeepMotion, a Silicon Valley startup creating realistic graphics using AI – have trained a virtual character that can show off its believable b-ball skills in real time. It's harder than it sounds, honest. The joints in the arms, hands, and fingers have to be realistically simulated in order to demonstrate its basketball powers. And even though it exists in a virtual world, the character has to take gravity into account, and maintain its balance and control while moving.

Bio: Shailendra is a keynote speaker, influencer and a thought-leader in the Artificial Intelligence space . With an experience of over 23 years working with Corporates, Software Vendors and Consulting companies, Shailendra has delivered over One Billion Dollars through advanced analytics. He has established and lead several data science businesses and teams to generate revenue and drive incremental growth by creating multiple Artificial Intelligence solutions across a variety of sectors, including Telcos, Financial Services, Retail and Public Sector. Shailendra has published multiple articles about Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain; and recently published an Amazon bestseller "Making Money Out of Data" which showcases five business stories from various industries on how successful companies make millions of dollars in incremental value using analytics. Shailendra has held senior executive level positions at SAP, IBM, Accenture, Woolworths and Coles with Asia and ANZ mandates.

The removal of Tommy Robinson's account was done "in error" and he is now back on the site, Instagram has said. The site looked to have joined a whole host of technology companies in taking a stand against the far-right and conspiracy theorists when it removed the activist. But it said soon after that the ban was a mistake and has been retracted. "The account @realtommyrobinson was removed in error and has since been reactivated," an Instagram spokesperson said. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Twitter will not suspend Alex Jones or Infowars because they have not broken any rules, its CEO has said. Just about every other major technology company – including Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify – have all acted to either completley ban or punish the controversial conspiracy theorist radio host. But Twitter says that his posts are not in contravention of any rules and so he will stay up. That is despite Jones having used the platform to amplify his beliefs, which include claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting did not actually happen at all and that those mourning murdered loved ones were paid actors. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Whenever something serious happens, we usually try and determine cause and effect. What was it that caused this thing to unfold the way it did? Whilst the theory is nice, we often employ some rather dubious explanations to try and explain the series of events. There have been attempts in the past to generate mathematical models for general causality, but they haven't been particularly effective, especially for more complex problems. A new study from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India, has attempted to use AI to do a better job.

Despite the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, we're still in the early stages of adopting machine learning in the enterprise, according to a new survey released today by O'Reilly Media. The survey also found that large-scale production deep learning rarely happens on the cloud, and that companies pursuing machine learning are actively embracing privacy, security, and fairness. Nearly half (49%) of the 11,400 people who took O'Reilly's survey this June indicated they were in the exploration phase of machine learning and have not deployed any machine learning models into production. That compares to 36% of who said they were an early adopter (models in production from two to five years), while 15% considered themselves sophisticated users (models in production for more than five years). "A lot of people are very interested in machine learning, but a lot of them are in the getting-started phase in terms of actually putting these things into productions in products and services," O'Reilly's Chief Data Scientist Ben Lorica tells Datanami.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] will invest 25 trillion won ($22 billion) over the next three years in artificial intelligence, 5G mobile technology, electronic components for autos, and the biopharmaceutical business, Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday.