All eyes are on Montreal these days as a hub for deep learning. "Clearly it's a place where everybody wants to be if we want to tap into that talent," says Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice-president of Microsoft Ventures in San Francisco. Montreal's pre-eminence as a deep learning centre can largely be attributed to the efforts of Yoshua Bengio, considered to be one of the three "co-fathers" of deep learning technology. Bengio not only engaged in cutting-edge research at the Université de Montréal long before deep learning was considered viable; his work has spawned an ecosystem that many say is unrivalled in the artificial intelligence (AI) world. That ecosystem includes the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) which has been funded by government and private sector parties, including Google and Microsoft, among other tech notables.

London (CNN)My first encounter at "Robots," a new exhibition at the Science Museum in London, was with an animatronic baby. It is unquestionably life-like and perfectly baby-sized, safety-pinned into a crisp white nappy and hanging upright on a wall. Every detail -- the latex skin, the mat of baby black hair -- seemed as realistic as a Ron Mueck sculpture. The left arm rose slowly, the mouth half-open, the eyelids flickering into a squint. I studied it intensely, half expecting a response -- a cry, a gurgle -- but without any desire to rescue the baby from the wall and cradle it. Side on, it was unmistakably a machine.

SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft, carrying 5,500 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station, abandoned its attempts to dock with the ISS early Wednesday after its GPS navigation system had some trouble. The docking maneuver, in which astronauts aboard ISS use the space station's robotic arm to engage Dragon, is now scheduled for 6 a.m. EST Thursday. During the live coverage Wednesday morning on NASA TV, commentator Rob Navias said: "Dragon aborted its approach to the International Space Station because of an apparent problem with what is called the filter on the Relative Global Positioning System (RGPS) hardware that basically tells the Dragon's on-board computers what its relative position in the sky is to the International Space Station." When the safety system on Dragon aborted its approach to the ISS, it was over 3,500 feet away. There was no impact to the space station, and crew onboard was in no danger.

Android users attempting to access Pornhub on their smartphones are being tricked into downloading malicious software. Cybercriminals have started disguising ransomware as the official Pornhub app, according to new research from security firm ESET. Rather than providing access to the site's library of adult content, these programs proceed to lock unsuspecting users out of their handsets, demanding a payout of $100 for their release. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Key Western markets are adopting protectionist trade policies, but the rise of Asia, automation, digital technologies and AI could make that difficult. The world is going through a turbulent time. The policies of the new US presidential administration, potential trade wars and the rise of Asia are together going to have a fundamental influence on the world's development, yet they are underpinned by longer-term changes in the world's power dynamics. When examining paradigm changes, it's important to separate the long and short term, since both may have different winners and losers. Maybe the most pressing question regarding global policies is whether the aim is to find win-win solutions or return to zero-sum policies.

They give new tools to the powerful and their challengers. In the Syrian city of Aleppo, the struggle to frame the conflict for the international community ran parallel to the battle for control over the land itself. While drone footage from Russia Today showed videos of rebel-held and heavily-bombed eastern Aleppo, Syria's Ministry of Tourism published footage of the city's intact western half, complete with the soundtrack from HBO's hit show Game of Thrones. Life with the regime was normal. Life with the rebels was hell.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was on his maiden official visit to Bengaluru on Monday where he participated in a discussion organised by Microsoft on the cloud-first, mobile-first world. The India-born Chief was joined by Infosys Co-Founder and former UIDAI Chairman, Nandan Nilekani and the interaction between the two most inventive minds of the IT industry focused on the changes happening in today's technology driven world and how artificial intelligence and augmented reality will be a pivotal driving force in the years to come. Noting Nilekani's work with the AADHAR, Infosys and other projects, Nadella lauded the UID design and the concept of India Stack, stating that the platform brings wide-ranging possibilities for start-ups to build customer-centric products. We were very fortunate that two different governments, of very different political persuasion, both supported the project and it has really accelerated, crossing a billion users in about 5 years," Nilekani replied. We actually thought, how do we layer APIs on it. The initial APIs were for authentication, and then we built a KYC capability to open a bank account/SIM card, and a great example is what Mukesh Ambani has done at Reliance Jio. It was possible only because of AADHAR eKYC, so it's actually a source of competitive advantage. The same technology has saved the government about $5 million by reducing waste."

While US tech giants like Google and Microsoft are racing to infuse artificial intelligence into their core products, tech companies in China are keen to ready their artificial neural network to solve complicated problems of city governance and healthcare. The AI team of Aliyun told the Global Times on Monday that it has made progress in fixing the problem over the past year as its self-developed AI system, dubbed ET, is breaking new ground in areas like video recognition and traffic prediction. In Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, at the intersection of Nanhua Middle Road and Baogang Avenue, one of the busiest crossings in the city, the average traffic jam index monitored by local authorities between 9 am and 1 pm fell 25.75 percent after using ET in September in 2016, the team disclosed in a statement. Based on those predictions, the computer will then come up "smart" measures such as intelligently controlling traffic lights to help traffic flow better, Hua said. Reshaping city governance is just a part of Aliyun's AI empire.

Only Homo sapiens, of all the descendants of Homo erectus, survived on earth whereas other species such as homo soloensis, homo denisova, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo floresiensis faded away more than 40,000 years ago. What advantages did Homo sapiens possess that helped them to flourish while other species are extinct? Apparently a cognitive revolution (according to Prof. Yuval Harari in his famous book Sapiens) triggered by some kind of genetic mutation provided Homo Species with more cerebral power and thus they acquired an ability not possessed by any other species – ability to imagine things that did not exist. This ability helped them to invent things including powerful communicative languages, religion, tools and more. Does current cognitive revolution ushered under various nomenclatures such as artificial intelligence, cognitive computing etc provide more powers, this time to machines and bring in unprecedented progress to human life?

Seeking to secure new areas of growth, Hyundai Motor, the nation's largest carmaker has launched an in-house research institute to foster future technologies, the company said Tuesday. The lab, named the Strategic Technology Research Institute, will focus on industries that are expected to expand long-term, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, new materials, the sharing economy and information and communications technology. The institute, in Uiwang, just south of Seoul, will also seek ways to commercialize the technologies and nurture startups there, Hyundai Motor said. Read also: Japan's latest mascot is a flying drone puppy The institute will be ran by two separate divisions: One with engineers in charge of research and development, and the other with market strategists developing business models in new technologies, the company added.