London-based Trint, a startup co-founded by Emmy-winning journalist Jeff Kofman, is tackling a paint-point I know all too well: the time it takes to transcribe an interview (or any audio) accurately. To solve this particular problem the company is employing machine learning and speech-to-text technology to automate transcribing, but -- perhaps crucially -- outputting the result in a user interface that recognises that automation typically only gets the job partly done. Specifically, Trint integrates a web-based audio/video player and text editor, with the outputted automated transcription synced to the audio player's playhead. It's a deceptively simple idea but one that makes a ton of difference when checking (and editing) a transcription for accuracy. "We glue the text output of automated speech-to-text to the original source audio. And that means that you can follow it like karaoke," explains Kofman via an audio file transcribed by Trint.

To get a perspective on Google's cloud services in India, talking to Debashis Roy, vice president-IT of CESC, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned power distribution company, helps. A couple of years ago, every company in the $2.7 billion RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group had a different domain name for emails, lacking uniformity. For a legacy company, which traces its roots to pre-Independence India, having information stored in servers in remote destinations owned by Google, in different parts of the world, was a big culture shift. After putting emails in the cloud, Roy has taken the next step. He is running two pilots using Google's machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) services to improve customer satisfaction, reduce operating time, and boost revenue.

Commercial drones and self-driving cars will soon be joined by fleets of autonomous cargo ships that navigate the world's oceans using artificial intelligence. Several shipbuilders and shipping firms in Japan have joined forces to develop remote-controlled cargo vessels that could be launched by 2025, according to the country's Nikkei business newspaper. The ships would use the internet of things – connecting a range of devices over the internet – to gather data, such as weather conditions and shipping information, and plot the shortest, most efficient and safest routes. By removing the potential for human error, the companies believe the technology could dramatically cut the number of accidents at sea. Mitsui OSK Lines, Nippon Yusen and other firms will invest hundreds of millions of dollars developing the technology required to steer as many as 250 ships through busy shipping lanes and, according to the Nikkei, boost Japan's sagging share of the global shipbuilding market.

China is ramping up its efforts to develop artificial intelligence in manufacturing to boost its productivity as well as create new momentum in the future market, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said. The moves are part of the country's broad effort to integrate AI with the Made in China 2025 strategy, aiming to enhance efficiency and transform China into a global manufacturing powerhouse, according to Li Guanyu, deputy director of the information and software service division at the ministry. The ministry plans to release a white paper to drive the development of AI and its application in industries, Li said at the China International Big Data Industry Expo last month in Guiyang, Guizhou province. With its booming big data sector and mobile internet technologies, the nation has rapidly risen up the ranks of international AI research. The official said that now the country aims to use AI to drive the upgrade of its manufacturing, which is the backbone of the economy.

According to Google-Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study, Indian digital payments industry will grow to $500 billion by 2020, contributing to 15% of GDP. Digital transactions have seen a dramatic increase in India in the past year due to push from both government and the private sectors. In India, post demonetization, it was time for India to go on a cashless ride where more emphasis was laid on Paytm, Payment Bank Arrival, Telecomm Disruption through Jio, Make in India and Digital India Initiatives. Last month Paytm raised $1.4 billion from Softbank and apps like Whatsapp are exploring the unified payment inter surface (UPI) to launch its payment solution in India. Another digital payment brand, MobiKwik has grown its user base from 35 million to 55 million since November 2016 and has over 1.5 million merchants on its platform. India recently lost the tag of'fastest growing economy' as its gross domestic product (gdp) slumped to its lowest in more than two years in the March quarter.

How can we ensure that artificial intelligence provides the greatest benefit to all of humanity? By that, we don't necessarily mean to ask how we create AIs with a sense of justice. That's important, of course--but a lot of time is already spent weighing the ethical quandaries of artificial intelligence. How do we ensure that systems trained on existing data aren't imbued with human ideological biases that discriminate against users? Can we trust AI doctors to correctly identify health problems in medical scans if they can't explain what they see?

The terrifying faces may look like creatures from a horror movie, but these digital images were actually generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Pix2pix project has unleashed a new tool that analyzes portraits and fills them in with colors and textures using a technique called generative adversarial networks (GANs). During the process, the system determines if its result match the sketch and will keep repeating the generation process until its own passes as'real' – regardless of how nightmarish the results may look. The terrifying faces may look like creatures from a horror movie, but these digital images were actually generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Users are presented with an input box and an output box and are prompted to draw a face in input, select process and in seconds, the AI will reveal its version of the sketch.

Monday, June 5, Elon Musk responded to a tweet from New Scientist that shared an article with a somewhat ominous prediction: "AI will be able to beat us at everything by 2060, say experts." It's no secret that Musk is among those who believe that true AI is coming, and coming soon -- and that it's something we need to prepare for. The New Scientist article got its headline from a recent survey of more than 350 artificial intelligence researchers that together say there is a 50% chance that within 45 years AI will outperform us in all tasks. Musk just takes issue with the timing, arguing that the prediction is too linear. He's not alone, because when the surveyed researchers are limited by region, those from Asia predict 30 years on average, compared to the North American researchers who drag the overall average back to 45 years with their regional average of 74 years.

Porsche is establishing an "innovation office" in Israel, and investing eight figures in the effort, the German sports car manufacturer said in a statement released Thursday. "Porsche is a company that draws on innovation," the statement read. "And now it is establishing an'innovation office' in Israel."

In March this year, PWC released a report saying that 10 million UK jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI within 15 years. Prior to this in November 2016, the Bank of England said that AI posed a risk to almost half those employed in the UK and that a "third machine age" would hollow out the labour market, widening the gap between rich and poor. In a recent report the McKinsey Global Institute said that by 2025 AI will do the jobs of 140m knowledgeable and skilled workers globally. Let's not forget the truck drivers. In his speech at Harvard University recently, Mark Zuckerberg said that his generation will have to deal with "tens of millions" of jobs replaced by self-driving cars and trucks. In late May 2017, the International Transport Forum published a report warning that of the 6.4 million professional drivers that are projected to be needed in the US and Europe by 2030, that 4.4 million will be replaced by self-driving trucks.