For the first time, the railways will use artificial intelligence to control air circulation, signages and even supervision and maintenance work in the 10.28 km-long tunnel in Imphal as part of its 110 km railway line from Jiribam to Manipur's capital city. While the national transporter is already using this technique to detect flaws or problems in the signalling system on a real-time basis and rectifying it in order to avoid possible delays and mishaps, this is the first time that such a technology will be used in a tunnel in the country. "The system will control air circulation in the system, along with other aspects. It will alert the passenger in case of fire and help us in quick evacuation in case of any issue. This tunnel is specially unique as it also has a safety tunnel at every 500 meters," said Yogesh Verma, deputy chief, construction, Northeast Frontier Railway.

Google's quantum computing researchers have been planning a party--but new results from a competing team at China's Alibaba may have postponed it. The China-America corporate rivalry on an obscure frontier of physics illustrates a growing contest between nations and companies hoping to create a new form of improbably powerful computer. In March, Google unveiled a chip called Bristlecone intended to set a computing milestone. It could, Google said, become the first quantum computing system to perform a calculation beyond the power of any conventional computer--a marker known as quantum supremacy. The group's leader, John Martinis, suggested it could reach supremacy this year, updating an earlier prediction that his team might do so in 2017.

The White House unveiled a hands-off regulatory approach to foster the development of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Google previewed Duplex, an experimental service that lets its voice-based digital assistant book appointments on its own -- but it ended up raising broader questions. Glen Weyl, principal researcher at Microsoft and visiting senior research scholar in economics and law at Yale University, and Bloomberg's Mark Bergen discuss the status of the AI revolution with Emily Chang on "Bloomberg Technology." China's AI patents account for 22 pct of world's total: official -- www.xinhuanet.com China's patents in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry accounted for about 22 percent of the total globally, according to an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Mapping rural areas is a barrier to autonomous vehicles operating in those areas, but cars might not need maps at all.

I'm driving down the San Diego freeway, searching for my exit, feeling jumpy and a little bit lost. I'm hoping a few wrong turns early in my drive won't make me late. I still need time to stop off at a strip mall with a Starbucks and a big parking lot -- someplace I can put on deodorant and maybe a little makeup after my cross-country flight. I prefer to think this is because I want to appear professional to the human man I'm on my way to see: Matt McMullen, the founder of Abyss Creations and its offshoot robotics company, Realbotix. But once I find a place to park and start brushing my hair, I realize that some deranged sliver of myself feels as if I'm primping for romance. This is a complicated realization. In addition to McMullen, I'm about to meet Henry, the first available male sex robot. Henry is six feet tall, with six-pack abs and the customer's choice of penis. He's just a prototype at the moment -- you can't buy him -- but the two female models Realbotix developed alongside Henry will ship this summer. So far, there have been 50 preorders at $12,000 apiece. Henry, Harmony, and Solana have sturdy silicone bodies, and once they're synced up to a corresponding app, they can give compliments, recite poetry, tell jokes, and seduce.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Lu Qi, who oversaw Baidu Inc's (BIDU.O) shift to artificial intelligence (AI) after a damaging ad scandal in 2016, is stepping down as chief operating officer, China's biggest search engine said on Friday. Lu, a former Microsoft executive and AI expert who joined Baidu in late 2016, is currently responsible for day-to-day operations in its AI unit, which has become the company's core focus in the past year. He will remain vice chairman of Baidu and Vice President Wang Haifeng will now oversee the company's AI projects, Baidu said in a social media posting, adding Lu was stepping back for "personal and family reasons". Baidu's shares tumbled in New York on the news, ending 9.5 percent down on Friday. Lu is viewed as a top figure in the global AI industry, and joined Baidu at a time when the company was rebuilding investor confidence after a medical scandal linked to its search business led to strict new regulations that gutted the firm's ad revenue.

In case you missed the fintech forecasts for this year, this post will help you to quickly catch up! In the recent years, fintech VC funding has steadily increased, and so does the hype around anything that carries the slightest opportunity to reform the outdated operations in the sector. To filter the essentials, I sat down and read all the 2018 predictions and created an ultimate prediction guide based on my experience, believes and everything others forecasted, with a strong focus on the digital retail banking customer's viewpoint. Then I added a dose of skepticism to it! I see 2018 as a dual year. It is an opportunity for many: a test year for technologies (open APIs, distributed ledger technology, compliance to new regulations, AI solutions), as well as an opportunity for fintechs, neobanks and challengers to jump forward. Huge tech giants will noticeably tap on banking services and products, while the first bank-operated marketplaces will appear.

India's efforts come as the AI competition between China and U.S. intensifies, with China aiming to be the world leader in the space by 2030. India, meanwhile, is late to the game, and will probably not dominate in the field except in a few areas, experts said. IDC's Sharma said the country needs to resolve some issues first: "India stands a chance to compete at a global level, provided the hurdles are overcome." Challenges, she said, include poor data quality and integrity, as well as a lack of expertise. Those critiques would not be news to New Delhi.

SANTA CLARA l MUMBAI, April 27, 2018: Digitate, a software unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), today announced that its cognitive automation solution, ignio, won an award for the first use of machine learning within the workload automation (WLA) analytics industry from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). Connecting organizations across a common automation language, WLA builds skills that reduce errors, speed development and remove highly repetitive work, which increases productivity and reliability in defining automated tasks. As WLA continues to evolve, digitization increases and IT accelerates the integration of new technologies such as machine learning. In its quarterly WLA Radar Summary Report, EMA recognized ignio for Batch, underscoring how it keeps business processes running smoothly, reducing the time required to plan and make changes with impact analysis in minutes. Workload automation for batch jobs execution is critical to the proper operations for enterprises that have large numbers of transactions within banking and financial services, retail and manufacturing industries. For services running over 100,000 batch jobs on a daily basis, any failure could lead to business downtime the next day.

Indie game To The Moon developed a cult following since its 2011 release, with the heartbreaking RPG earning kudos for its plot and memorable soundtrack. It's about two doctors who try to help a man (kind of) fulfill his dying wish of going to the moon -- by going into his mind and creating artificial memories. A sequel, Finding Paradise, followed last December, but the saga doesn't end there: creator Kan Gao says there's a To The Moon animated film adaptation in the works. Gao did not reveal who was financing the movie, other than to say it has Chinese funding and there's a "pretty significant" budget in place -- one that's higher than that of animated hit Your Name. The bulk of the production will be carried out in Japan, Gao says, with major Japanese companies involved.

China, in a bid to be the biggest big brother of them all, has expanded its already massive facial recognition AI system. What a great idea: Students at the Hangzhou No. 11 middle school are being monitored by a set of three AI-powered cameras that provide real-time emotional recognition and analysis. According to a report from Hangzhou.com, the system is quite robust: How much time do you have in one day? What are you doing when you are not focused? Which teachers' classes do students like most?