Films like The Fifth Element and Total Recall introduced the concept of autonomous vehicles to our collective subconscious and, in a way, inspired tech firms and car manufacturers to develop driverless technology. The idea of AI-powered vehicles (such as self-driving cars, unmanned public transportation buses, and pilot-less areal vehicles) however, has now been around for some time. Are we any closer, though, to realizing the potential of AI in automobiles of the future than we were a decade back? Nissan and Delphi, for instance, have released official press statements claiming the same. Small-scale autonomous public transportation experiment has already been carried out in China.

European companies processing personal data may be discouraged from using artificial intelligence technologies after GDPR comes into effect. A recent report by Center of Data Innovation, a US-based group, says GDPR provisions addressing AI in the context of protecting consumer interests may slow down AI research and innovation. AI guidelines in Europe's comprehensive privacy law establish rights of data subjects which are not to be subjected to decisions based on automated processing. "By both indirectly limiting how the personal data of Europeans gets used and raising the legal risks for companies active in AI, the GDPR will negatively impact the development and use of AI by European companies," said the report. Under Article 22 of the General Data Protection Regulation, companies would need to manually look at decisions made by algorithms which may prove to be a disincentive for deploying AI in the first place.

Chinese facial recognition technology developer SenseTime Group Ltd may be worth as much as $US4.5 billion. SenseTime says investors including Chinese e-commerce company Suning.Com and Singapore state fund Temasek Holdings helped close its series-C fundraising round. But the biggest pile-in came from Alibaba, which topped the round up to $US600 million. The company would not disclose its total valuation, but "two people with knowledge of the matter" told Reuters it brought SenseTime's value up to around $US4.5 billion. The company has claimed it "set a world record" for the amount raised in a single funding round by an AI firm. A series-B push led by China's CDH Investments and state-backed fund Sailing Capital in July valued the startup at over $1.5 billion.

It has been estimated that by 2020, humans will lose roughly 5 million jobs to robots. Is yours one of them? If your job involves negotiating, helping and assisting others and generating original and creative ideas, then you are seen to be safe from new artificial intelligence takeovers. The jobs seen to be at risk include certain sales jobs, as well as telemarketers and bank clerks. Those jobs are seen to involve less social interaction with the public, compared to roles such as nurses, therapists and social workers, which also require a certain degree of empathy and care.

SHINTO, Japan, April 13 (Reuters) - Japanese engineer Masaaki Nagumo had always dreamed of suiting up as a robot from "Mobile Suit Gundam," his favorite animation series growing up. Now he has made it a reality by creating a giant humanoid inspired by the science fiction franchise. Developed at Sakakibara Kikai, a maker of farming machinery, LW-Mononofu is an 8.5-meter (28-feet) tall, two-legged robot weighing in at more than 7 tonnes. It contains a cockpit with monitors and levers for the pilot to control the robot's arms and legs. "I think this can be turned into a business opportunity," Nagumo, 44, told Reuters, noting the popularity of the iconic series that has spawned movies, manga, video games and more. Sakakibara Kikai has developed other robots and amusement machines alongside its main agriculture equipment business and rents them out for about 100,000 yen ($930) an hour, for kids' birthday parties and other entertainment, he said.

Police in southeast China have reportedly arrested a fugitive spotted in a crowd of 50,000 people attending a pop concert thanks to some eerily accurate facial recognition technology. According to local reports, the man was arrested while attending a show by Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung in the Nanchang, Jiangxi province. The man's full name hasn't been released but he is described in reports by his family name, Ao. "Ao was suspected to be involved in an economic crime and was listed on a national online system," police officer Li Jin is quoted as saying. "He was very shocked and had a blank face when we caught him." Ao had reportedly thought that he was safe to attend the crowded event because he considered that there was minimal chance that he would be identified in such a large group of people.

Advanced machine learning and high-resolution satellite images are set to revolutionise the Australian grape and wine community's regional mapping and vineyard insights. World leading agricultural artificial intelligence software, GAIA (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture), has been developed by Consilium Technology, in partnership with DigitalGlobe and Wine Australia. The software provides groundbreaking insight into the health and quantity of all vineyards across Australia – effortlessly and in real-time. The partnership's initial co-investment will see GAIA deployed in Australia's wine regions to prove that the technology can deliver accurate, timely and cost-effective information about Australia's winegrape vineyards. DigitalGlobe is the world's leading provider of high-resolution Earth imagery.

In internet era, users grant Internet companies permission on collecting their personal data for connecting with creditable users and content out of convenience. For example, the magazine publishes articles on Facebook because Facebook allows users to subscribe their article. At the same time, the publisher can manage their subscribers' relationship with messenger system. The recommendation system helped to rank users and their content published. All the free services are sponsored from advertisements, which pay the cost of internet space and traffic.

In internet era, users grant Internet companies permission on collecting their personal data for connecting with creditable users and content out of convenience. For example, the magazine publishes articles on Facebook because Facebook allows users to subscribe their article. At the same time, the publisher can manage their subscribers' relationship with messenger system. The recommendation system helped to rank users and their content published. All the free services are sponsored from advertisements, which pay the cost of internet space and traffic.

Data is the fuel that drives the machine learning algorithmic engines and ultimately provides the business value. In his session at Cloud Expo, Ed Featherston, a director and senior enterprise architect at Collaborative Consulting, discussed the key considerations around quality, volume, timeliness, and pedigree that must be dealt with in order to properly fuel that engine. Speaker Bio Ed Featherston is a director/senior enterprise architect at Collaborative Consulting. He brings 35 years of technology experience in designing, building, and implementing large complex solutions. He has significant expertise in systems integration, Internet/intranet, and cloud technologies, Ed has delivered projects in various industries, including financial services, pharmacy, government and retail.