Advances in artificial intelligence should be used to help humans and machines work together, rather than to create competition between them in everything from chess matches to the job market, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella writes in his new book, "Hit Refresh." "The first choices we get to make are choices around the design of AI, and let's make that first design choice to augment human capability," instead of seeking ways to have technology replace people, Nadella said in an interview on Sept. 25, a day ahead of the book's release. He cited a Microsoft project that uses computer vision to aid blind users as one example. "Our goal should be to find more and more examples of such sort." Realizing that ideal is going to take a lot of work, he says.

Artificial intelligence (AI) might evolve to the point where humans are no longer in control. Facebook was recently forced to shut down an experiment after two artificial intelligence programs began chatting to each other in their own language. Researchers at the Facebook AI Research Lab (FAIR) found the chatbots had deviated from their script and were communicating in a new language developed without human input. The chatbots developed this shorthand as a faster mechanism for negotiating trade and value pricing for objects such as hats, balls and books. While seemingly innocent, concerns over "rogue" AI are valid, as they are examples of how human control can quickly get disintermediated.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MAY 06: The'Archive Dreaming' installation by artist Refik Anadol uses artificial intelligence to visualize nearly 2 million historical Ottoman documents and photographs from the SALT Research Archive. Luxury fashion has often been synonymous with unparalleled quality and exclusivity. However, the sobering reality is that many high-end brands have fallen behind in the age of the digital revolution and e-commerce. This begs the question: how can luxury brands make up for lost ground and deliver the experiences needed to get ahead of the game? The answer may not come from the fashion capitals London, Paris or Milan, but from technology capitals like Silicon Valley where the "next big thing" is Artificial Intelligence (AI), technologies capable of performing tasks normally requiring human intelligence.

We consider a ranking and selection problem in the context of personalized decision making, where the best alternative is not universal but varies as a function of observable covariates. The goal of ranking and selection with covariates (R&S-C) is to use sampling to compute a decision rule that can specify the best alternative with certain statistical guarantee for each subsequent individual after observing his or her covariates. A linear model is proposed to capture the relationship between the mean performance of an alternative and the covariates. Under the indifference-zone formulation, we develop two-stage procedures for both homoscedastic and heteroscedastic sampling errors, respectively, and prove their statistical validity, which is defined in terms of probability of correct selection. We also generalize the well-known slippage configuration, and prove that the generalized slippage configuration is the least favorable configuration of our procedures. Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed procedures. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of R&S-C via a case study of selecting the best treatment regimen in the prevention of esophageal cancer. We find that by leveraging disease-related personal information, R&S-C can improve substantially the expected quality-adjusted life years for some groups of patients through providing patient-specific treatment regimen.

Lu Ou is a research scientist at ACTNext. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Zhejiang University in China, a Master of Science degree in human development and family studies, and a Master of Science degree in statistics, both from Penn State. Her thesis research focused on developing, applying, and evaluating statistical and computational estimation techniques for mixed-effects nonlinear differential equation models. During her graduate career, she worked on the development and improvement of the dynr R package for multivariate time series analysis and applications of dynamic models and data mining techniques to dyadic co-regulation and emotion regulation. Her research interests lie in time series analysis, machine learning, and the development and estimation of dynamic models that are applicable to studying individual- and group-level dynamic processes (e.g., communication and collaboration).

Gartner releases the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 2. Oracle adds GPU Accelerated Computing to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 3. Chemistry and physics Nobel Prizes awarded to teams supported by GPUs 4. MIT uses deep learning to help guide decisions in ICU 5. Portfolio management firms are using AI to seek alpha 5. GARTNER RELEASES THE TOP 10 STRATEGIC TECH TRENDS FOR 2018 Gartner, Inc. announced its top strategic tech trends and predictions at the 2017 Gartner Symposium this week. "The first three strategic tech trends explore how AI and machine learning are seeping into virtually everything and represent a major battleground for technology providers over the next five years. READ ARTICLE 6. ORACLE ADDS GPU ACCELERATED COMPUTING TO ORACLE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE Oracle announced at Oracle OpenWorld this week it is now offering NVIDIA's P100 GPU instances in its public cloud, with plans to add the more powerful V100 GPUs in the near future. "This is the first time Oracle has offered access to GPU acceleration, reflecting an industry-wide move to provide access to cloud hardware optimized for artificial intelligence and machine learning. READ ARTICLE 7. CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZES AWARDED TO TEAMS SUPPORTED BY GPUS It's not every day your work assists someone who wins a Nobel Prize.

A so-called "smart drug" intended to boost cognitive performance also seems to protect the brain from altitude sickness, according to a military study that tested it at 4000 metres. An increasing number of people visit high-altitude sites nowadays, for work, sport, religious pilgrimages and military tasks. But even the fittest among us suffer in thin air: the lower oxygen content at altitude can lead to cognitive effects, including memory loss and attention difficulties. There is little you can do to prevent these symptoms other than acclimatise – but this takes time and doesn't always work. A drug called oxiracetam might be the answer.

Convenience store chain Lawson Inc. and Japanese cybermall operator said Friday that they will organize a demonstration test on Oct. 31 for drone delivery services in an area devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and the subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. The test will be conducted in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, utilizing a Lawson outlet, a mobile shop and Rakuten's drone. When the traveling shop visits areas some 2.7 km from the convenience store, it will take orders from local residents and deliver products from the outlet, including warm cooked food. The service will be available only on Thursdays during the test, and the experiment will be conducted over a period of six months. The drone can carry up to 2 kg of products and deliver them in about seven minutes.

Bigger than electricity, bigger than the internet, experts say. AI is already omnipresent in our everyday lives: When Netflix recommends you should watch Jane the Virgin and Silicon Valley (Any resemblances to what I really watch on Netflix is a coincidence), that's a form of AI i.e. an algorithm that learns from your tastes and predicts what you are most likely to enjoy watching next. Your vacuum cleaner is powered by AI. And if you live in China, even your toilet paper dispenser runs on AI! In the workplace, artificial intelligence is evolving into intelligent assistants to help us work smarter, but also into drones that deliver the things we order on Amazon and of course into self driving vehicles (today, planes are mostly flown by AI already).

At this month's Tokyo Motor Show, Mitsubishi will make the world debut of its e-Evolution Concept, an all-electric concept with Artificial Intelligence that will suggest the near-future direction of Mitsubishi Motors. The concept is intended to build on the Japanese automaker's EV and all-wheel drive expertise, with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking it to a new level. Augmenting the driver's capabilities, the AI system will deploy an array of sensors allowing it to instantly read changes in road and traffic conditions, as well as the driver's intent. Coordinating driver intent with vehicle performance, Mitsubishi says the system will provide support to drivers by augmenting their abilities. A special coaching function allows the AI system to educate the driver, constructing a training program that provides advice through voice dialogue and a large dashboard display. Mitsubishi says this high-tech wizardry is designed to use voice recognition and natural-language processing to correctly understand what occupants are saying.