In a feat reminiscent of the controversial victory by supercomputer'Deep Blue' over world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a computer program has managed to beat a string of professional poker players at the game. DeepStack, as it was called, defeated 10 out of 11 players who took part in a total of 3,000 games as part of a scientific study into artificial intelligence. The 11th player also lost, but by a margin that the researchers decided was not large enough to be statistically significant. This is not the first time a computer has won at poker. Libratus, a program developed by Carnegie Mellon University academics, won $1.76m (£1.4m) from professionals in January, for example.

This article was originally published on International Business Times. Space, far from being the final frontier, may turn out to be the key to unlocking unknown insight about planet Earth. From retail traffic levels to agriculture to poverty mapping, the up-and-coming Californian company is taking a scientific approach to data by partnering with satellite firms to blast rockets into space and watch key industrial changes from the black sky above. By 2020, there will be enough satellites in space to take real-time surveillance of the entire world, said AJ DeRosa, an Orbital Insight executive during Newsweek's AI and Data Science conference in London on March 1. "Yes, Skynet is here," he laughed. Yet, Orbital Insight is not hoping to become an AI-based overlord.

To disengage the clutch, the researchers shine the molecule with a different light, and the cell-like robot stops moving. The effect is a tiny blob that flails and moves under human control, in a manner not unlike that of an amoeba. This is a robot whose movement starts and stops on a researcher's command, but the direction of that movement isn't yet something the team can really steer. In the paper, the researchers contemplate changing the robot's tiny, spherical body into a more asymmetric one, or configuring DNA that responds in specific ways to specific environments, so the robot can move more reliably towards environmental signals. "From a robotics point of view," the authors write in the paper's discussion section, "we believe that designing molecular devices and integrating them into a system will be an important means of realizing a programmable and controllable function for engineering applications."

Arrival Amy Adams stars in this elegant, involving science-fiction drama that is simultaneously old and new, revisiting many alien-invasion conventions but with unexpected intelligence, visual style and heart. Elle Paul Verhoeven's brilliantly booby-trapped thriller starring Isabelle Huppert is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners. The Founder Michael Keaton gives a performance of ratty, reptilian brilliance as Ray Kroc, the American salesman who turned a California burger stand into the global fast-food behemoth that is McDonald's, in John Lee Hancock's shrewd and satisfyingly fat-free biopic. I Am Not Your Negro As directed by the gifted Raoul Peck, this documentary on James Baldwin uses the entire spectrum of movie effects, not only spoken language but also sound, music, editing and all manner of visuals, to create a cinematic essay that is powerful and painfully relevant. La La Land Starring a well-paired Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, writer-director Damien Chazelle's tuneful tribute to classic movie musicals is often stronger in concept than execution, but it's lovely and transporting all the same.

Three heads are better than one. This is perhaps what electronics company Sony and LG and instant messaging app Line are thinking now that they have partnered together to develop a smart speaker that would rival Amazon Echo and Google Home and an AI assistant that would be worthy competitor for Alexa, Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. Leading this partnership is the popular chat app who is now ready to foray into the world of artificial intelligence. Line has a strong following in Asian countries, especially in Japan and South Korea. But it needs support to venture into this new market and realize its goal of launching its own intelligent assistant and smart speaker.

The head of decommissioning for the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant said Thursday that more creativity is needed in developing robots to locate and assess the condition of melted fuel rods. A robot sent inside the reactor 2 containment vessel last month could not reach as close to the core area as was hoped for because it was blocked by deposits, believed to be a mixture of melted fuel and broken pieces of structures inside. Naohiro Masuda, who heads the decommissioning unit of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., said he wants another probe sent in before deciding on methods to remove the reactor's debris. Reactor 2 is one of the Fukushima reactors that melted down following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Tepco needs to know the melted fuel's exact location as well as structural damage in each of the three wrecked reactors to figure out the best and safest ways to remove the fuel.

WHEN someone goes into cardiac arrest, survival depends on how quickly the heart can be restarted. Enter Amazon's Echo, a voice-driven computer that answers to the name of Alexa, which can recite life-saving instructions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a skill taught to it by the American Heart Association. Alexa is accumulating other health-care skills, too, including acting as a companion for the elderly and answering questions about children's illnesses. In the near future she will probably help doctors with grubby hands to take notes and to request scans, as well as remind patients to take their pills. Alexa is one manifestation of a drive to disrupt an industry that has so far largely failed to deliver on the potential of digital information.

SYS-CON Events announced today that TechTarget has been named "Media Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. TechTarget storage websites are the best online information resource for news, tips and expert advice for the storage, backup and disaster recovery markets. By creating abundant, high-quality editorial content across more than 140 highly targeted technology-specific websites, TechTarget attracts and nurtures communities of technology buyers researching their companies' information technology needs. By understanding these buyers' content consumption behaviors, TechTarget creates the purchase intent insights that fuel efficient and effective marketing and sales activities for clients around the world. All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020.

Do students learn as much when they read digitally as they do in print? For both parents and teachers, knowing whether computer-based media are improving or compromising education is a question of concern. With the surge in popularity of e-books, online learning and open educational resources, investigators have been trying to determine whether students do as well when reading an assigned text on a digital screen as on paper. The answer to the question, however, needs far more than a yes-no response. In my research, I have compared the ways in which we read in print and onscreen.

New technology lets your deceased loved ones live on forever in your smartphone. A South Korean firm has unveiled an app that allows users to snap selfies and chat with avatars of their dead friends or family members in a bid to help mourners'overcome their wounded-heart'. Called'With Me', the app combines 3D technology and artificial intelligence to recreate the image and personality of those who have passed away. A South Korean firm has unveiled an app that allows users to snap selfies and chat with avatars of their dead friends or family members in a bid to help mourners'overcome their wounded-heart' With Me was designed by the South Korean firm, ELROIS. It was created for those who lost a friend or family member and is having a hard time moving on, as users can interact and communicate with their lost loved one's avatar.