IBM is making machine learning technology available in the place where much of the world's enterprise data resides: the z System mainframe. Big Blue announced IBM Machine Learning, a cognitive platform for creating, training and deploying a high volume of analytic models in the private cloud. The platform draws on the core machine learning technology from its Watson Machine Learning service on its Bluemix public cloud offering. "Our mission is making data simple and accessible to clients," says Rob Thomas, general manager, IBM Analytics. "If you look at the data landscape today, over 90 percent of the data in the world today cannot be Googled. Most of that data resides behind corporate firewalls in private clouds."

It was one of those amazing "we're living in the future" moments. In an October 2013 press release, IBM declared that MD Anderson, the cancer center that is part of the University of Texas, "is using the IBM Watson cognitive computing system for its mission to eradicate cancer." Well, now that future is past. The partnership between IBM and one of the world's top cancer research institutions is falling apart. The project is on hold, MD Anderson confirms, and has been since late last year.

Elon Musk believes that artificial intelligence will create a cyborg race. During the World Government Summit in Dubai, the SpaceX founder explains that deep artificial intelligence - the kind that is much smarter than the smartest man in the world - can be a dangerous thing. During his talk, Elon Musk believes that robot automation and artificial intelligence will be taking over 15 percent of the global workforce. The SpaceX, Tesla and Hyperloop authority believes that humans are becoming more and more dependent on technology. He sees a world where human beings are already cyborgs.

It was one of those amazing "we're living in the future" moments. In an October 2013 press release, IBM declared that MD Anderson, the cancer center that is part of the University of Texas, "is using the IBM Watson cognitive computing system for its mission to eradicate cancer." Well, now that future is past. The partnership between IBM and one of the world's top cancer research institutions is falling apart. The project is on hold, MD Anderson confirms, and has been since late last year.

Apple has acquired Tel Aviv, Israel-based Realface, a machine learning startup whose facial recognition technology can be used to authenticate users, according to reports from Calcalist (in Hebrew) and The Times Of Israel. Founded in 2014, RealFace says it has developed an innovative way of recognising people, self-reportedly building A.I software that "brings back human perception to digital process". RealFace's software enables authentication, automated on-boarding & mobile conversion optimisation. The company, led by co-founder and Columbia Business School-trained Adi Eckhouse Barzilai, says it has proprietary IP in the field of'frictionless face recognition' and effective learnings from facial features. The Israeli startup is behind the Pickeez app, which automatically choses a user's best photos from various platforms using the RealFace recognition software.

Boeing Company has announced that it will partner again with the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, to host the fourth annual Machine Learning and Data Analytics Symposium (MLDAS) in Qatar. The event, to be held at the Qatar National Convention Centre on March 13 and 14, will feature top global experts discussing the latest solutions in the fields of machine learning, data mining, applied machine learning techniques and data analytics solutions. This year's event will focus on the growing use of deep learning and its potential impacts on the human condition, such as through autonomous vehicles and medical advances. Bernard Dunn, president of Boeing Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said, "Boeing is proud of the partnership with QCRI as we are congregating expertise from around the world to help elevate the already high benchmark being set in Qatar in the field of data analytics and machine learning. "In an increasingly digitised and automated world, bringing together such expertise will only continue to inspire innovation and regional talent." Dr Ahmed Elmagarmid, executive director, QCRI, said the symposium had enjoyed an extraordinary response from the scientific community in the past three years and the research institute looked forward to working with Boeing to expand its success. "The event is a huge success for Qatar and the region and we are grateful for the outstanding role that Boeing has played.

On December 2nd, 1942, a team of scientists led by Enrico Fermi came back from lunch and watched as humanity created the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction inside a pile of bricks and wood underneath a football field at the University of Chicago. Known to history as Chicago Pile-1, it was celebrated in silence with a single bottle of Chianti, for those who were there understood exactly what it meant for humankind, without any need for words. Now, something new has occurred that, again, quietly changed the world forever. Like a whispered word in a foreign language, it was quiet in that you may have heard it, but its full meaning may not have been comprehended. However, it's vital we understand this new language, and what it's increasingly telling us, for the ramifications are set to alter everything we take for granted about the way our globalized economy functions, and the ways in which we as humans exist within it. The language is a new class of machine learning known as deep learning, and the "whispered word" was a computer's use of it to seemingly out of nowhere defeat three-time European Go champion Fan Hui, not once but five times in a row without defeat.

A page from the notebook of British mathematician and pioneer in computer science Alan Turing, the World War II code-breaking genius, is displayed in front of his portrait during an auction preview in Hong Kong Thursday, March 19, 2015. This week's milestones in the history of technology include Alan Turing anticipating today's deep learning by intelligent machines and concerns about the impact of AI on jobs, Clifford Stoll anticipating Mark Zuckerberg, and establishing the FCC and NPR. Alan Turing gives a talk at the London Mathematical Society in which he declares that "what we want is a machine that can learn from experience." Anticipating today's enthusiasm about machine learning and deep learning, Alan Turing described how intelligent machines will work: Let us suppose we have set up a machine with certain initial instruction tables, so constructed that these tables might on occasion, if good reason arose, modify those tables. One can imagine that after the machine had been operating for some time, the instructions would have altered out of all recognition, but nevertheless still be such that one would have to admit that the machine was still doing very worthwhile calculations. Possibly it might still be getting results of the type desired when the machine was first set up, but in a much more efficient manner.

And Uber just bought a self-driving truck company. As self driving cars become legal in more states, we'll see a rapid automation of all of these driving jobs. If a one-time $30,000 truck retrofit can replace a $40,000 per year human trucker, there will soon be a million truckers out of work. And it's not just the drivers being replaced. Soon entire warehouses will be fully automated.

It is not every day that young Saudis wander down the street dressed as the Hulk or Doctor Doom. But for three days over the weekend, some 20,000 Saudis decked out in costumes and face paint queued to get into the kingdom's first-ever Comic Con, where robots, video games and giant anime figures filled a tent in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The global comics expo was held under the auspices of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, which has hosted a series of festivals, comedy shows and concerts this year. Saudi Arabia is trying to boost its entertainment sector as part of an economic and social reform drive aimed at creating jobs and weaning the country off its dependence on oil. "The level of entertainment has risen so much from previous years. There used to be no public places like this for families, there was no gender mixing, there was no entertainment, there were no shows," said Modah Al-Bakheet, a Jeddah resident.