A couple of month's ago Google's Artificial Intelligence (AI) group, DeepMind, unveiled the latest incarnation of its Go playing program, AlphaGo Zero, an AI so powerful that it managed to cram thousands of years of human knowledge of playing the game, before inventing better moves of its own, into just three days. Hailed as a major breakthrough in AI learning because, unlike previous versions of AlphaGo, which went on to beat the world Go champion as well as take the Go online player community to the cleaners, AlphaGo Zero mastered the ancient Chinese board game from nothing more than a clean slate, with no more help from humans than being told the rules of the game. However, and as if that wasn't already impressive enough, it took its predecessor, AlphaGo, the AI that famously beat Lee Sedol, the South Korean grandmaster, to the cleaners as well, hammering it 100 games to nil. AlphaGo Zero's ability to learn for itself, and without human input, is a milestone on the road to one day realising Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), something that the same company, DeepMind, published an architecture for last year, and it will undoubtedly help us create the next generation of more "general" AI's that can do a lot more than just thrash humans at board games. AlphaGo Zero amassed its impressive skills using a technique called Reinforcement Learning, and at the heart of the program are a group of software "neurons" that are connected together to form a digital neural network.

NEW DELHI: As newer technologies like robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) take over, workers need to upskill or face the risk of lower wages and unemployment, ADB warned today. ADB's'Asian Development Outlook, 2018' has called for government action on skill development coupled with steps in labour regulation, social protection and income redistribution. It said jobs which require repetitive, routine tasks and workers who do not have the education or training to move easily to other occupation, may face slow growth in wages. "New technologies alter the skills required of the workforce and may cause unemployment as some firms downsize or close. They make the less-skilled more likely to experience lower wage growth, exacerbating income inequality," it said.

Whatever your view of morality may be, or what the potential impact may be on the future male-female interpersonal relationships, there is another, far more unsettling issue that is revealed on a tour of these factories. They are producing childlike toys for… for… well, for pedophiles. We have been led to believe that pedophilia is limited to a small number of perverts. The number of dolls being produced puts the lie to that contention. That fear was confirmed by one factory owner who admitted to being uncomfortable with producing these pedo-dolls but that the demand was too great and the money too good to turn his back on the business.

At JPR 2018 Dr. Anjum Ahmed will talk about Artificial Intelligence, The next frontier of Value-based Enterprise Imaging. This lunch meeting lecture will take place on May 4 at 12h45, in Hall G – Room J. Read more on AI: Dubai Health Authority highlights chest x-ray AI success Download the white paper!

Artificial intelligence has moved from science fiction to science fact. OPINION: You have probably chatted with Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri. Autonomous vehicles are proliferating in the air, on the water and on land. And you may be familiar with the personalised recommendations of Netflix. But did you know that your bank's decision to approve or deny your loan application may rely on the judgment of predictive algorithms?

When it comes to peddling the LG Electronics G7 ThinQ smartphone that goes on sale in the coming weeks, the South Korean tech giant has been asking a question internally: "What's it going to take to get consumers to choose LG?" The ability for LG and other phone makers to make major inroads into Apple and Samsung territory will likely hinge on them taking the kind of bold risks that few have exhibited so far. That's not meant to be an indictment of the G7 ThinQ, which on first impression is a very nice and solid--if not particularly inspiring--handset. But this latest flagship comes across as another me-too device, a good phone likely to get thrown into the mix with all the other iPhone and Galaxy look-a-likes. Specs-wise, the G7 ThinQ (pronounced "thin-cue") has a bright, 6.1-inch QHD display, powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and the kind of table-stakes features you've come to expect on a phone in this class, from wireless charging to water and dust resistance. There's no pricing yet, with the carriers accepting pre-orders later in the month, though I'm guessing it comes in around $700 or so, possibly less. I'm pleased LG is holding onto what is becoming an endangered species on high-end phones, a standard headphone jack.

A robot greets us as we walk in the front door of a local bank branch in downtown Shanghai. Can I help you?" the humanoid receptionist says as we approach. The question is coming from a pretty woman's face encased in a futuristic white helmet. The unmistakably female robot is holding a large touch screen in both hands and seems eager to help. Facial and voice recognition software identify my Mandarin-speaking friend who tells the "receptionist" what she wants before inserting her National Identification Card into a slot to gain entry to the bank. Once inside, a smaller robot trundles over to address us in a piercing child-like voice. We say we are here to open a bank account and it asks us to follow it to one of the automated telling machines at the back of the branch. "Sorry I am very short so I walk slowly.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been changing our lives for decades, but today its presence is bigger than ever before. Sometimes, we don't even realize it when a new AI-powered system, tool, or product appears and outperforms us, humans. The benefits of AI and automation for HR and the workforce don't come instantly, however. It's a journey and one can see the short-term benefits of this journey in automation, the medium-term benefits in augmentation and finally the long-term benefits in the amplification of human activities or tasks. Let's take a look at the various effects of AI and automation on HR and the workforce in more detail.

In recent times the Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the breakthrough technology. We have started learning the ways to communicate with devices. We are successful in directing machines to perform certain tasks using their intelligence. Of late, machines are performing many smarter activities using cognitive intelligence in contrast to natural intelligence (NI) displayed by human and other animals. AI is being used in many sectors and it has opened the doors of implementation of AI in many other emerging sectors.

Over the next few years, AI will bring about game-changing developments for the banking sector, reports Scott Thompson. "I do not see AI technologies currently adding significant competitive advantages to banks – challenger or traditional," says Devie Mohan, co-founder and CEO of fintech research company, Burnmark. "There are very few data points of AI use cases in banks to come to a steady conclusion." Mohan's note of caution is refreshing in a technology realm defined by hype, and by inflated expectations of AI's ability to transform entire sectors, such as banking. However, over the next five years the majority of banks will adopt AI.