Mobile US named Nokia to supply it with $3.5 billion in next-generation 5G network gear, the firms said on Monday, marking the world's largest 5G deal so far and concrete evidence of a new wireless upgrade cycle taking root. No.3 U.S. mobile carrier T-Mobile - which in April agreed to a merger with Sprint to create a more formidable rival to U.S. telecom giants Verizon and AT&T - said the multiyear supply deal with Nokia will deliver the first nationwide 5G services. The T-Mobile award is critical to Finland's Nokia, whose results have been battered by years of slowing demand for existing 4G networks and mounting investor doubts over whether 5G contracts can begin to boost profitability later this year. But cash-strapped telecom operators around the world have been gun-shy over committing to commercial upgrades of existing networks, with many seeing 5G technology simply as a way to deliver incremental capacity increases instead of new features. Advances in mobile data networks in the next decade could bring a number of benefits, according to the White House.

One is offshoring of white-collar work. In the short run it hasn't had much of an impact, but in the long run it's going to have a huge impact. Think about a place like India. If a tiny portion of India's population reaches college educated, upper-middle class status, say 5 per cent--that's like 65 million people. That's double the population of Canada, competing with Canadians for jobs.

From the world's largest tech companies to start-ups, everyone is looking for people well-versed with Artificial Intelligence (AI). But a career in this business is no cakewalk: A lot of mathematics, constant leaning and understanding human behaviour are just some of the ways to get a foothold in this fast-growing industry. We spoke to five AI professionals, who tell us that a career in this field is about many different things, from data analysis, text and image recognition to linguistics--and no, evil robots do not figure in the list. AI researcher and founding member, Qure.ai Ghosh, 26, spends his days looking at X-rays. "I am almost a semi-radiologist.

The United States military's Africa Command has confirmed that its forces began deploying armed drones in Niger earlier this year. The West African country's government granted American forces permission in November 2017 to arm their drones - but neither side had previously confirmed their deployment. "In coordination with the Government of Niger, US Africa Command has armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft already in Niger to improve our combined ability to respond to threats and other security issues in the region. Armed ISR aircraft began flying in early 2018," Samantha Reho, spokeswoman for US Africa Command told The Associated Press on Monday. The armed drones are currently deployed to Niger's Air Base 101 in the capital, Niamey.

Bidalgo is applying artificial intelligence to the art of creating effective ads for mobile apps and games. The company is launching Creative AI, a technology that makes it easier for advertisers to design ads that perform well in a world inundated with advertisements. Tel Aviv-based Bidalgo spent the past year creating the technology, which will be integrated into its self-serve ad automation platform. Customers can upload their data into Bidalgo's platform, and the AI goes to work analyzing it. Bidalgo has trained its AI with image and video-recognition technology to identify every component of the creative material in an ad, down to each individual pixel.

Imagine you were traveling on business and you just arrived into town and had an emergency. Your luggage was sent to the wrong city or you were late for a critical meeting and you needed directions to the convention center. The check-in counter has a dozen guests waiting and the concierge is busy. Well, you may be in luck, because a four-foot robot with an open tablet computer and no waiting line is standing in the corner, and just may be able to come to your assistance. Pepper is an intelligent assistant that costs a bit more than a smart speaker, and can engage you in ways that go beyond ordering pizza or playing your favorite Top 40 tunes on the radio.

The group has since cancelled plans to launch the product to its clients. "It didn't work," Martin Young, the firm's chief executive, told our sister publication Fund Selector Asia. "On the way up the algorithm had done very well." But as the markets went into a downturn in February, it did very poorly, he added. The disappointing performance has prompted the company to shelve the launch.

Spotify is hosting podcasts by Alex Jones's controversial Infowars podcast. A vast number of the company's customers are threatening to cancel their subscriptions over the streaming service's decision to keep the podcasts up. Jones has attracted criticism over a wide variety of false claims and personal attacks, including suggestions that the Sandy Hook massacre and other mass shootings were hoaxes. Those conspiracy theories and rumours are often shared on his Infowars shows, including on the podcast. 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.

We won't be able to comfortably live on Mars, experts have revealed. Scientists – as well as science fiction fans – have long hoped that we might be able to change Mars so it has an Earth-like atmosphere, allowing us to comfortably live there. Plans to do so have included dropping thermonuclear weapons at the planet's poles – an idea supported by Elon Musk. But there simply isn't enough carbon dioxide on the planet to allow the atmosphere to ever become habitable for humans, according to new research. At best we could achieve only a fiftieth of what is needed, and would only be able to raise the surface temperature by less than 10 degrees Celsius, the study published in Nature Astronomy reveals.

It is amply established that whether in science or business, machines will represent the greatest collaborators for human beings. Some of the early wins that have been witnessed across sectors is almost complete disintermediation, but, will AI ever be cognitive to customer needs? A click away from your next decision: The Indian e-commerce players were some of the natural early adopters of AI in India, with not just bots taking over from humans, but also building in an experience that the customer now expects and appreciates. They were followed by brick-and-mortar retailers to gather stock keeping unit (SKU)-performance and customer preferences to personalise their product promotions. Today, it is no longer restricted to e-commerce; a lot of other sectors, especially traditionally inclined ones like real estate and even B2B (business to business) firms are seeing the value of an online experience that counsels customers into making informed decisions, while still keeping it human. Bots at play: From virtual tours of a place to understanding your carbon-footprint based on where you choose to stay, to farmers getting AI assistants to predict weather patterns and when to sow next, these bots have clearly taken over much of the mundane tasks with very little human intervention.