In her SXSW session, titled Dark Days: AI and the Rise of Fascism, Crawford, who studies the social impact of machine learning and large-scale data systems, explained ways that automated systems and their encoded biases can be misused, particularly when they fall into the wrong hands. "Just as we are seeing a step function increase in the spread of AI, something else is happening: the rise of ultra-nationalism, rightwing authoritarianism and fascism," she said. All of these movements have shared characteristics, including the desire to centralize power, track populations, demonize outsiders and claim authority and neutrality without being accountable. Machine intelligence can be a powerful part of the power playbook, she said. One of the key problems with artificial intelligence is that it is often invisibly coded with human biases.

They were largely unheard of a few years ago, but robo-advisers are on the rise in the financial services industry, with OCBC Bank entering the fray. The lender on Saturday started a trial of an online platform that will use computers to offer portfolio management advice. The pilot is aimed at accredited investors - those with net personal assets of more than $2 million. It will eventually be open to all investors. Mr Aditya Gupta, OCBC's head of e-business for Singapore, said a fixed timeline for the pilot has yet to be determined.

There was a point in time when brands were the aspiration, but in our new world, brands have become entirely subservient to people. The explosion in data availability and advances in AI are changing the relationship brands have with their customers. In the past, deregulation and access to marketing tools gave way for the proliferation of commoditized services. A hyper-competitive world, where choice is abundant, was born. Surviving meant optimizing quality for a lower cost.

Preview: Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) faces challenger Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) in a middleweight unification bout Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. Coverage of the fight will be on HBO pay-per-view. On the line are the WBA (Super), WBC, and IBO middleweight titles with two boxers entering the fight on knockout streaks. Golovkin, a native of Kazakhstan, has knocked out 23 opponents in a row. Jacobs, a native of Brooklyn, has 12 knockout victories in a row.

Medical supplies and equipment based on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic technology will dominate the global health care sector in the future, industry watchers said Sunday. The remarks were made during the Korea International Medical Clinical Laboratories and Hospital Equipment Show (KIMES) at the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) in southern Seoul where nearly 1,300 medical instrument manufacturers from both home and abroad showcased their latest medical technologies and products. The annual event, the 33rd of its kind, is hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The ministry said the goal of the event is to navigate the future of the global health care industry, which is largely seen as the next new growth engine. Global IT giant IBM Corp. showcased its AI-based supercomputer called "Watson" that can diagnose and treat cancer, one of the leading causes of the death in the world.

The drones fell out of the sky over China Lake, California, like a colony of bats fleeing a cave in the night. Over 100 of them dropped from the bellies of three Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, their sharp angles cutting across the clear blue sky. As they encircled their target, the mechanical whir of their flight sounded like screaming. This was the world's largest micro-drone swarm test. Conducted in October 2016 by the Department of Defense's Strategic Capabilities Office and the Navy's Air Systems Command, the test was the latest step in what could be termed a swarm-drone arms race.

HEN shown photographic images under a free-viewing (i.e task-free) paradigm, human eyes preferentially fixate on image locations which are visually salient. Multiple studies [1]-[5] have demonstrated that this fixation mechanism is bottom-up, predominantly driven by image content and richness of detail (color, texture etc.). This explanation, while satisfactory for photographic images, seems inadequate for certain categories of images such as line drawings. In particular, one class of line drawings - hand-drawn sketches - are sparse and largely devoid of detailed content. In addition, they are typically binary images containing virtually no color-based information (see Figure 1). Even so, multiple studies have demonstrated a "fixations-intonothing" phenomenon [6]-[9], wherein the eye fixations on the same stimulus by multiple subjects fall on empty regions, yet exhibit enough regularity to make gaze-based inferences. One possible explanation is that the first eye fixation conveys all there is to know ('Gestalt') about the underlying scene semantics [10] and the regularity in rest of the fixations is a statistical anomaly. However, a more intriguing explanation is that these empty region fixations aim to implicitly verify the overall consistency of the scene content depicted in the sketch [11], [12]. Which of these explanations is correct?

TRAVELLERS sometimes have to show their travel documents five times when catching a flight: at check-in, at security, then occasionally at outbound immigration, before another check when boarding. Finally there is passport control at the destination. Each is a potential queue. So regular flyers will be interested in anything that might speed up the process. One answer could be facial-recognition technology.

Artificial intelligence will have a dramatic impact on business by 2020, according to study released this week by IT services, consulting and business solutions provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The firm's study, "Getting Smarter by the Day: How AI is Elevating the Performance of Global Companies," shows that 84 percent of the 835 executives TCS surveyed from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America said their companies see the use of AI as "essential" to competitiveness. Artificial intelligence in the real world: What can it actually do? What are the limits of AI? And how do you go from managing data points to injecting AI in the enterprise?

DJI Technology Inc, the largest civilian drone maker, is claiming in a new study that "59 lives have been saved by civilian drones in 18 different incidents, with one life a week being saved by drones on average." The study was published on March 14, 2017, and is based on reports in the news. The majority of the rescues have occurred in USA and China, although instances have occurred in Canada and Turkey as well. One third were saved by civilians using their hobbyist drones and not by emergency personnel, showing their far-reaching abilities. The Hindu of Dec 7 reported that in Chennai, India during heavy flash floods the city police "were able to locate as many as 200 people with the help of drones and rescued all of them."