Basic machine learning technology is already used by some procurement applications in areas such as spend analytics and contract analytics. This is mostly limited to automating the processes of collecting, cleaning, classifying and analyzing expenditure data in an organization -- to identify savings or paths to greater efficiency. Today, procurement technology vendors are creating cognitive procurement advisors (CPAs) and virtual personal assistants (VPAs) that use natural-language processing (NLP) and natural-language generation to further increase automation and efficiency. "A procurement VPA can improve the end-user experience of traditional procurement tools and increase spend under management by guiding people to the correct purchasing tool," said Magnus Bergfors, research director at Gartner. "A CPA can provide summaries, recommendations and advice in everything from supplier assessments and performance management, to risk management and compliance."

We first heard about Harman Kardon's smart speaker earlier this month, but haven't gotten a chance to try it out or even see what it looks like in person. The Cortana-powered Echo rival made an oh-so-brief appearance here at Microsoft's keynote for Computex 2017. Even though we still couldn't physically touch it, we were at least able to take some (very few) close-up pictures of the device. We also caught a fleeting look at an upcoming HP Cortana speaker that looked sort of like a white Echo Dot, but that was only a picture on a slideshow -- the device itself was nowhere to be found at the event. We'll surely hear more about it soon enough, though.

In the advertising industry, we've been using'robots' to deliver personalization better than humans can for the past few decades. So if our digital intelligence grows and artificial intelligence takes over marketing activities, does it mean we'll all be replaced by robots? There aren't many industries left where robots don't coexist with humans. We like to believe that we're still somehow always ahead of robots. While they may be smarter and faster, human traits like creativity and empathy are features that machines have only had in sci-fi.

In Paris on May 20, a sleek, streamlined vehicle colored black, white and fluorescent yellow moved slowly around a race course on a blocked-off road. The futuristic vehicle looked like a winged torpedo and had a periscope-like camera-equipped object protruding from the rear of its body. The vehicle looked similar to a Formula One racing car, except that it was electric, and had no driver's seat. Logos saying "Roborace" festooned its body. The vehicle was operated not by a human driver but by artificial intelligence. Teams participating in driverless robot racing events use the electric car, which can travel at speeds of up to 320kph.

Using a familiar drag-and-drop interface, individuals can choose from a library of components and place them into the design. The tool suggests components that are compatible with each other, offers potential placements of actuators and can automatically generate structural components to connect those actuators. Once the design is complete, the tool provides a physical simulation environment to test the robot before fabricating it, enabling users to iteratively adjust the design to achieve a desired look or motion. "The process of creating new robotic systems today is notoriously challenging, time-consuming and resource-intensive," said Stelian Coros, assistant professor of robotics. "In the not-so-distant future, however, robots will be part of the fabric of daily life and more people -- not just roboticists -- will want to customize robots. This type of interactive design tool would make this possible for just about anybody."

Russia search and internet technology giant Yandex is showing off the self-driving vehicle prototype developed by its Yandex.Taxi on-demand ride service for the first time, and the video above is the first footage of the car in action. The prototype is meant to help Yandex test its software, which the company thinks it's uniquely well-positioned to develop for this emerging space. Yandex notes that it has navigation, geolocation, computer vision, and machine learning expertise from other ongoing products and services, including Yandex.Navigator and Yandex.Maps. "We use anonymised data that we receive from Yandex.Navigator users, which allows us to understand how to drive in a city with its traffic congestion, accidents, speed limits, road closures and other traffic events," Yandex.Taxi Head of PR Vladimir Isaev explained via email. "We have been using computer vision technologies in a number of our services for quite a while. We use them to find vacant parking spaces or read road signs, for instance, in our geolocation services."

There's a limit to how fast autonomous vehicles can fly while safely avoiding obstacles. That's because the cameras used on today's drones can only process images so fast, frame by individual frame. Beyond roughly 30 miles per hour, a drone is likely to crash simply because its cameras can't keep up. Recently, researchers in Zurich invented a new type of camera, known as the Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS), that continuously visualizes a scene in terms of changes in brightness, at extremely short, microsecond intervals. But this deluge of data can overwhelm a system, making it difficult for a drone to distinguish an oncoming obstacle through the noise.

Facebook Perspectives has launched in the UK, becoming the company's latest politically-focused online tool. Mark Zuckerberg recently accepted that the platform has a responsibility to combat the spread of "fake news", and the Facebook CEO wants to clean up the site ahead of the UK general election next month. Perspectives is a new interactive prompt that will appear in your News Feed, directly beneath articles about the general election. Clicking or tapping on it will take you to another Facebook page called Political Party Positions, in which you'll be able to compare the major political parties' perspectives on a number of issues, including housing, energy, the economy and foreign affairs. Aware of the intense scrutiny Perspectives will be subjected to, the company has been keen to stress the tool's apparent impartiality.

Kai-Fu Lee sees America as destined to lose to China in the race for leadership in AI. Kai-Fu Lee watched the U.S. beat China to global internet leadership during the dot-com bubble from the inside. Now with what he sees as an even greater technological revolution taking place in the fast-growing field of artificial intelligence, Lee doesn't expect China to take a backseat a second time. "China started slow, and American companies went international," Lee says during a May visit to Forbes Media's headquarters. "But simple math says China has a larger GDP. The market will be bigger."

Taipei, May 29 (CNA) Computex Taipei 2017, a global trade show for information communication technologies (ITC) and the Internet of Things (IoT), will focus on five themes, including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and IoT applications from May 30 to June 3, according to the organizers. While evolving in sync with global ICT industry trends, Computex 2017 positions itself as "Building Global Technology Ecosystems," focusing on such themes as AI and Robotics, IoT Applications, Innovations and Startups, Business Solutions, and Gaming and VR (virtual reality), said the Taipei Computer Association, one of the organizers. The trade show will have four featured exhibiting areas -- SmarTEX, which centers on IoT applications; InnoVEX, showcasing innovation and start-ups; iStyle, which shows Apple MFi licensing products; and gaming and VR. Exhibits and the high-profile CPX series forums will take place at Taipei World Trader Center, Nangang Exhibition Hall and Taipei International Convention Center, respectively. This year, for the first time ever American electric automobile manufacturer Tesla and computer maker Dell will join 1,600 businesses from around the world with booths at the annual ICT trade show in Taipei, the Taipei Computer Association said.