Last week I was talking to one lead engineer of a Singapore company which is building a benchmarking system for robot solutions. Having seen my presentation at ROSCON2016 about robot benchmarking, he asked me how I would benchmark solutions that are non-ROS compatible. I said that I wouldn't dedicate time to benchmark solutions that are not ROS-based. Instead, I suggested I would use the time to polish the ROS-based benchmarking and suggest that vendors adopt that middleware in their products. Benchmarks are necessary to improve any field.

DISCUSSION TOPICS: – How fast will the AI workforce arrive at your company's office?

Relying on 300-pound bear-faced robots to help nursing home residents get out of bed in the morning is much more effective if those folks actually have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Elderly people dealing with social isolation and loneliness are at increased risk of a variety of ailments, from cardiovascular disease and elevated blood pressure to cognitive deterioration and infection. In short, being old and alone can kill you. But robots aren't just good for improving the elderly's movement, they're surprisingly adept at keeping retirees socially, emotionally and mentally engaged as well. These support robots are already springing up around Japan, where in 2016 the annual birth rate dropped below a million for the first time since 1899 and a quarter of the population is already greying.

Twenty years ago today, Skynet, the fictional artificial intelligence network and antagonist of the "Terminator" movie franchise, became self-aware. In the films, a Silicon Valley tech company built the network of supercomputers for the U.S. military to replace the humans who control America's nuclear arsenal. The idea was that the program would offer better reaction times and fewer mistakes than humans and engage in strategic warfare unencumbered by emotion, political incentives or ego. According to dates cited in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," the network was activated on Aug. 4, 1997 and started thinking on its own on Aug. 29, 1997. But Skynet had a problem.

Indonesian artificial intelligence based chatbot platform Kata.ai has reportedly secured $3.5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by the Taiwanese Trans-Pacific Technology Fund (TPTF). The investors that participated in the round are Korea-based Access Ventures, MDI Ventures, VPG Asia, and Convergence Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesian state-run telecommunications provider Telkom. The Series A funding round also saw participation from Red Sails Investment and angel investor Eddy Chan. As per reports, TPTF principal Barry Lee will be joined Kata.ai as a board member. With the newly-raised capital, the company is looking to expand operations to emerging markets in Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries.

Dan Tepfer is an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer who has played venues from Tokyo's Sumida Triphony Hall to New York's Village Vanguard. He also has a degree in astrophysics and writes computer programs. Born to a mother who sang in the Paris Opera and a plant-geneticist father who brought a Macintosh Plus home in the 1980s, Tepfer sees the worlds of art and science as entirely complementary. In his latest project, Acoustic Informatics, Tepfer uses a player piano, the automated instrument that occasionally appears in airports and Wild West saloons. Next month, he will present his first concert in New York City -- where he's lived for more than a decade -- to showcase this project at the Jazz Gallery, a venue known for its experimentation.

As published by Insights Success Magazine "Tea. You do not want to get out of bed. But the alarm on your mobile phone is ringing, and you've got things to do. So with those four iconic words, spoken into your WhatsApp, with your eyes still scrunched closed, Unified Inbox's (UIB) UnificationEngine (UE) Intelligent IoT Messaging platform hasn't just unified communications, it's turned on the smart water kettle in your kitchen. Seamlessly bringing together Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and unified messaging, thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP), those four words are boiling the water for your morning cup of tea. UIB makes it as easy for you to chat, via voice and text message, with your "things" as it is with your friends. Unified Communications company UIB's patented UE is the world's first true intelligent IoT messaging platform. UE's device- and platform-agnostic middleware enables machines and equipment to communicate with both people and things. Users can remotely control connected devices using simple natural language messages (e.g., "Tea, Earl Grey Hot" or simply, "Boil water") and receive alerts and notifications (e.g., ""Your water will be ready in two minutes" and "You have three days of milk left, shall I re-order?") on the communications channels you already use.

The UK--s House of Lords recently announced a public call for experts to weigh in on issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). A Select Committee is to look at the economic, ethical and social implications of advances in AI. There has been much talk about AI -- will it help to tackle global poverty, malnutrition and inequality as this UN conference explored? Or is Elon Musk correct in his belief that AI is --vastly more risky than North Korea--? There are plenty of examples of AI already in use today, like this European bank using --Amelia--* to improve customer service, and it seems pretty clear that the technology can deliver very tangible advantages.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has constituted a task force to foster artificial intelligence in the manufacturing sector. The task force is designated to prepare for industrial revolution 4.0 and digitise the manufacturing sector. In a statement, she said, "With rapid development in the fields of information technology and hardware, the world is about to witness a fourth industrial revolution." Sitharaman in her statement added that "the power of big data, high computing capacity, artificial intelligence and analytics will be used to digitise manufacturing in India." Inc42 earlier reported that Nirmala Sitharaman used her MPLAD funds for setting up an incubator and coworking space in Mangaluru.

The Nikka platform is only the beginning for ADDO AI, which launched in January. Khanna said they'll expand this initiative into Bangladesh and the Philippines as well. In the latter, they'll use AI to streamline the complex insurance processes related to the country's many typhoons. Depending on its strength, a typhoon may only wipe out a portion of a farmer's fields. But insurance companies won't pay out on policies until they've conducted loss assessments, which quickly add up when you consider that many small farmers own only a hectare of land and there can be up to 20 typhoons a year, Khanna said.