Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a popular choice for solving sequential anytime problems. However, it depends on a numeric feedback signal, which can be difficult to define. Real-time MCTS is a variant which may only rarely encounter states with an explicit, extrinsic reward. To deal with such cases, the experimenter has to supply an additional numeric feedback signal in the form of a heuristic, which intrinsically guides the agent. Recent work has shown evidence that in different areas the underlying structure is ordinal and not numerical. Hence erroneous and biased heuristics are inevitable, especially in such domains. In this paper, we propose a MCTS variant which only depends on qualitative feedback, and therefore opens up new applications for MCTS. We also find indications that translating absolute into ordinal feedback may be beneficial. Using a puzzle domain, we show that our preference-based MCTS variant, wich only receives qualitative feedback, is able to reach a performance level comparable to a regular MCTS baseline, which obtains quantitative feedback.

We generate pseudo-features by multivariate probability distributions obtained from feature maps in a low layer of trained deep neural networks. Then, we virtually augment the data of minor classes by the pseudo-features in order to overcome imbalanced data problems.

Facebook gives special protections to Tommy Robinson and allows people to racially abuse immigrants, according to a new report. Graphic images and videos of children, violent hate speech and racist content are not immediately or automatically removed from the site, according to footage taken by Channel 4's Dispatches. An undercover reporter filmed the people who review content to decide whether it should stay up to be viewed by the public, gaining an unprecedented insight into what is allowed to be posted on the platform. 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. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Forget Black Friday - one of the year's biggest shopping days is just hours away from kicking off, giving you the chance to rack up dozens of deals without even needing to take a single step away from your computer or phone. Amazon Prime Day - a 36-hour online sale open only to Amazon Prime users - kicks off in the US at 3 pm ET, offering a wide variety of savings and bargains that could save you hundreds of dollars on everything from a fancy new TV to your favorite mascara. But with so many deals on offer, how do you know that you're really getting the most out of your money? According to Sara Skirboll, RetailMeNot's shopping and trends expert, it's all about knowing what you want before the sales start, and being aware of what categories are most likely to offer the best bargains. 'Be ready when the festivities begin and check back often,' she told DailyMail.com.

A startup has developed a robot that might make it so you'll never accidentally kill a plant again. Called Hexa, the intelligent planter is just big enough to hold a medium-sized succulent and is equipped with spider-like legs that can walk into the sunlight when its plant passenger needs some vitamin D. Beijing-based robotics company Vincross created Hexa with the idea that humans might become more acquainted with robots in their home. Hexa can walk toward the light when the plant is in need of some sun and rotate or spin to get the right amount of sunlight. The six-legged robot is equipped with several motors, infrared and 720p cameras, as well as a Linux operating system. Hexa uses its legs to walk toward the light when the plant is in need of some sun and rotate or spin to get the right amount of sunlight.

Artificial intelligence is set to create more than 7m new UK jobs in healthcare, science and education by 2037, more than making up for the jobs lost in manufacturing and other sectors through automation, according to a report. A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers argued that AI would create slightly more jobs (7.2m) than it displaced (7m) by boosting economic growth. The firm estimated about 20% of jobs would be automated over the next 20 years and no sector would be unaffected. AI and related technologies such as robotics, drones and driverless vehicles would replace human workers in some areas, but also create many additional jobs as productivity and real incomes rise and new and better products were developed, PwC said. Increasing automation in factories is a long-term trend but robots such as Pepper, created by Japan's Softbank Robotics, are beginning to be used in shops, banks and social care, raising fears of widespread job losses.

Artificial Intelligence, which often is associated with complicated computing for high-end machines, is now coming of age to empower creative industries, such as fashion and design. Zarine Bajaj, a 36-year-old entrepreneur from Delhi, is using cutting-edge technology such as Artificial Intelligence to build solutions for fashion designers. The objective is to assist indie fashion designers to manage the complicated business side of their work. Zarine's startup Findow provides interactive and intelligent boutique solutions purposefully built to address the requirements of fashion designers, luxury and retail brands. The technology side of the platform aims to simplify critical elements such as purchasing, monetisation, customer management, store analytics, contextual selling capability of brands and to help them leverage technology in their daily work and not get put off with the intricacies and bulkiness of existing systems and thus resort to inefficient manual techniques.

The article was written by Amber Zhou, a Financial Analyst at I Know First. Artificial Intelligence (AI), was once the domain of fanciful science fiction books and films. But now the drive to eliminate human fallibility makes the technology stormily take the world across all industries, from self-driving cars to virtual assistants like Siri. Companies are significantly benefited from the cost saving from a variety of automated processes. Now programmers and data scientists are setting their sights on financial services.

Policymakers and technology experts said without a broad national strategy for driving artificial intelligence forward, the U.S. risks letting global competitors direct the growth of the budding industry. The Trump administration has taken a largely hands-off approach in regards to AI, arguing it's still too early for the government to get involved in the technology and any attempts at oversight could stifle its growth. But in a panel hosted Wednesday by Politico, experts were quick to point out the difference between burdening industry with regulations and addressing the issues at hand today. "Their notion that [artificial intelligence] isn't already upon us, or the view that it's not already affecting our lives in very profound ways … is in fact short-sighted. The toothpaste is already out of the tube," said Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., who founded the Congressional AI Caucus.

Most people find it a pain to receive parcels in wide time slots like, say, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., so when delivery startup Paack offered a service in which everyone could narrow that window down to one hour, with no extra charge, it had a challenge on its hands. The startup's routing engine worked but needed to be more efficient. Enter Prowler.io, a Cambridge, U.K.-based machine-learning startup that bills itself as a decision-making platform for any company with complex problems to solve. Paack's investors at Balderton in London introduced it to Prowler in February 2018, and within months its delivery vans and trucks were being coordinated by an intelligent, digital simulation. With the beta test over, Paack's CEO, Fernando Benito, sees a potential benefit to his bottom line. Some of his startup's deliveries are now 15% more efficient, he tells Forbes.