In 2018, you'd be forgiven for assuming that any sensitive app encrypts its connection from your phone to the cloud, so that the stranger two tables away at the coffee shop can't pull your secrets off the local Wi-Fi. That goes double for apps as personal as online dating services. But if you assumed that basic privacy protection for the world's most popular dating app, you'd be mistaken: As one application security company has found, Tinder's mobile apps still lack the standard encryption necessary to keep your photos, swipes, and matches hidden from snoops. On Tuesday, researchers at Tel Aviv-based app security firm Checkmarx demonstrated that Tinder still lacks basic HTTPS encryption for photos. Just by being on the same Wi-Fi network as any user of Tinder's iOS or Android app, the researchers could see any photo the user did, or even inject their own images into his or her photo stream.

Bater Makhabel (LinkedIn: BATERMJ and GitHub: BATERMJ) is a system architect who lives across Beijing, Shanghai, and Urumqi in China. He received his master's and bachelor's degrees in computer science and technology from Tsinghua University between the years 1995 and 2002. He has extensive experience in machine learning, data mining, natural language processing (NLP), distributed systems, embedded systems, the web, mobile, algorithms, and applied mathematics and statistics. He has worked for clients such as CA Technologies, META4ALL, and EDA (a subcompany of DFR). He also has experience in setting up start-ups in China.

Autonomous and electric cars, connectivity, and ridesharing are changing the way auto industry players think about value chains, data analytics, and manufacturing. Behind all the talk of robo-cars, electric vehicles, and increased car connectivity is a focus by major car companies on serving customers' more intricate technological needs. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, senior partners Asutosh Padhi and Andreas Tschiesner speak with McKinsey's Simon London about how four trends--autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification, and ridesharing--are paving the way for entirely new forms of mobility. Simon London: Welcome to the McKinsey Podcast. Let's start with a question. Is it your phone, your laptop, maybe you're wearing a smartwatch? Well, if you drive a car that's less than a few years old, it's probably smarter than any of these. And your next car will be even smarter: more sensors, more connectivity, more processing power. Perhaps even the ability to drive autonomously.

A university in east China's Zhejiang Province has introduced artificial intelligence (AI) to correct the test papers on the Chinese language course for its students. "It takes only 40 seconds for the AI to correct a Chinese essay," said a Chinese language professor at Zhejiang International Studies University. Eleven overseas students from six countries including Russia, Republic of Korea and Zambia sit a final exam in a university in east China's Zhejiang Province. Eleven overseas students from six countries including Russia, Republic of Korea and Zambia sat the final exam. Using different symbols, the AI corrector accurately marked for various errors, including redundancy, missing characters, incorrect selection and word order.

Businesses have long used data analytics to help direct their strategy to maximize profits. Ideally, data analytics helps eliminate much of the guesswork involved in trying to understand clients, instead systemically tracking data patterns to best construct business tactics and operations to minimize uncertainty. Not only does analytics determine what might attract new customers, often analytics recognizes existing patterns in data to help better serve existing customers, which is typically more cost-effective than establishing a new business. In an ever-changing business world subject to countless variants, analytics gives companies the edge in recognizing changing climates, so they can take initiate appropriate action to stay competitive. Alongside analytics, cloud computing is also helping make business more effective and the consolidation of both clouds and analytics could help businesses store, interpret, and process their big data to better meet their clients' needs.

After a recent seminar at Stanford, I had a chat with adjunct professor Jerry Kaplan about artificial intelligence embodiment. The question was: Who are the thinkers and companies who are really pushing AI theory? Some experts believe that for artificial intelligence or artificial general intelligence (AGI) to function peacefully and effectively in society, it needs a body. Thoughts vary on the level of embodiment, the mortality of that body, and the complexity of sensing abilities and empathy needed. So I did some research into the current state of robots and AI embodiment to identify the clusters and trends in this area of technology.

The Accenture Strategy report, Reworking the Revolution: Are you ready to compete as intelligent technology meets human ingenuity to create the future workforce?, estimates that if businesses invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top performing companies, they could boost revenues by 38 percent by 2022 and raise employment levels by 10 percent. Collectively, this would lift profits by US$4.8 trillion globally over the same period. For the average S&P500 company, this equates to US$7.5 billion of revenues and a US$880 million lift to profitability. Both leaders and workers are optimistic about the potential of AI on business results and on work experiences, according to the study. Seventy-two percent of the 1,200 senior executives surveyed said that intelligent technology will be critical to their organization's market differentiation and 61 percent think the share of roles requiring collaboration with AI will rise in the next three years.

Netflix's long list of suggested movies and TV shows is a fantastic example of a personalized user experience. In fact, about 70 percent of everything users watch is a personalized recommendation, according to the company. Getting to that point hasn't been easy, and improving on its recommendation system is an ongoing process. Netflix has spent well over a decade developing and refining its recommendations. In 2006, it launched the Netflix Prize to search for machine learning experts who could improve its previous algorithm.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can generate X-ray reports at Max Healthcare. This evolving tool -- in beta stage at present -- is being programmed with radiologists' knowhow, by scanning millions of patient records. And though it may not yet be able to read the blur on the film as tuberculosis, in five years, AI could make that interpretation as well. HDFC Bank products such as'loan in 10 seconds' are processed by machines. At travel platform Ixigo, bots handle most queries without people realising.

CHENNAI: Federal Bank & Niki.ai on Saturday announced the launch of a chatbot-based virtual assistant on FedMobile, the bank's mobile banking application. The bank has partnered with Niki.ai for powering the artificially intelligent bot. The chatbot feature offers mobile recharges, hotel room/ bus ticket reservation, household bill payments (electricity, water, DTH, data card, landline, broadband, gas), movie booking, events booking and cab booking. A user who wants to do a mobile recharge will simply have to type on the app "recharge my mobile number for Rs 100." The intelligent chatbot will pick up automatically the mobile number, identify the mobile operator and display the details for the user's confirmation.