Hodjat, with 21 patents to his name, is co-founder and top scientist of Sentient Technologies Inc., a start-up that has spent nearly a decade -- largely in secret -- training an AI system that can scour billions of pieces of data, spot trends, adapt as it learns and make money trading stocks. The team of technology-industry vets is betting that software responsible for teaching computers to drive cars, beat the world's best poker players and translate languages will give their hedge fund an edge on Wall Street pros. The walls of Sentient's San Francisco office are dotted with posters for robots-come-alive movies such as "Terminator". Two guys are quietly monitoring the machine's trades -- just in case the system needs to be shut down. "If all hell breaks loose," Hodjat says, "there is a red button."

Pentesting tools like Metasploit, Burp, ExploitPack, BeEF, etc. are used by security practitioners to identify possible vulnerability points and to assess compliance with security policies. Pentesting tools come with a library of known exploits that have to be configured or customized for your particular environment. This configuration typically takes the form of a DSL or a set of fairly complex UIs to configure individual attacks. There are two major shortcomings with this approach (1) scanning doesn't yield perfect knowledge (2) scanning generates significant network traffic and can run for a very long time on a large network (Sarraute). It is perhaps due to these shortcomings (and maybe 0day exploits) that "most testing tools, provide no guarantee of soundness. Indeed, in the last few years, several reports have shown that state-of-the-art web application scanners fail to detect a significant number of vulnerabilities in test applications" (Doupé).

In the US, the number of manufacturing jobs peaked in 1979 and has steadily decreased ever since. At the same time, manufacturing has steadily increased, with the US now producing more goods than any other country but China.

Losing to a 12-year-old in Super Smash Bros. can be a real downer, but there are a few ways to prevent that. You can challenge kids who aren't as good, practice and improve on your own, or, if you have a few bucks to spend, get a video game tutor from Japanese company GameLesson. The service, which doesn't yet have a launch date, promises coaching for games like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Splatoon, Street Fighter V, and Shadowverse. These titles are big in the increasingly competitive eSports scene, which has been especially popular in Japan. Tutors will go directly to the homes of customers in Osaka and Tokyo, while online training is available everywhere else in the world.

This is the first of a multi-part series explaining the fundamentals of deep learning by long-time tech journalist Michael Copeland. Artificial intelligence is the future. Artificial intelligence is science fiction. Artificial intelligence is already part of our everyday lives. All those statements are true, it just depends on what flavor of AI you are referring to.

Bixby doesn't have the name recognition of Apple's Siri or the Google Assistant. That might change if rumors suggesting that a digital assistant called Bixby will be the new AI-infused helper inside Samsung's next big flagship phone prove correct. Samsung is expected to unveil the smartphone, presumably the Galaxy S8, in March, though the South Korean tech giant could tease its arrival later this month during the Mobile World Congress tech confab in Barcelona. One thing that's obvious: Samsung can't aim the spotlight on a new phone fast enough, not after the pricey and embarrassing battery-gate debacle that was the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung recently cited design and manufacturing flaws from two unnamed suppliers as the reason some lithium-ion batteries inside the phones caught fire. Whether it is called Bixby or something else, it appears a fresh voice-driven AI assistant will be one of the banner features inside Samsung's new phone, hardly surprising given the race to raise the IQs for such brainy digital assistants.

In America, 60 percent of digital media consumption now occurs on mobile or tablet devices instead of desktop computers. As people and technology have become increasingly mobile, so have their efforts to find love and sex. According to app analytics website AppAnnie, the dating application Tinder is one of the most popular tools to pursue modern romance and has been ranked as the most downloaded lifestyle app in America for nearly two years. As a social psychologist, I've focused my research on exploring why Tinder – as one of my interview participants put it – is so'evilly satisfying.' A researcher set out to explore why Tinder is so'evilly satisfying' and conducted a study with singles who use the app and those who do not A researcher from the University of Hawaii conducted a survey with a group of Tinder users and singles who do not use the app.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) wasn't kidding when it said the radiation levels inside Fukushima's nuclear reactor are the highest they've been since its meltdown in 2011. It had to pull out the robot it sent in to find the exact location of melted uranium fuel and to do preliminary cleanup inside the reactor, because it died shortly after it started its mission. Apparently, two of the machine's cameras suddenly became wonky, darkened and developed a lot of noise after merely two hours of scraping debris away. Those are all signs of extremely high radiation levels. Tepco believes the robot endured approximately 650 Sieverts of radiation per hour if it only lasted a couple of hours.

It's said that the Queen must think everywhere smells of paint, as a fresh coat is usually applied to spruce up places just before she visits. In which case, Tim Cook must think everyone he meets is very excitable, because there's nothing like a visit from the Apple CEO to create the feeling of A Special Event. Every person he meets is quietly fizzing with anticipation. Tim Cook has been having quite the week. On Monday and Tuesday he was whistlestopping round France and Germany, arriving in the UK on Wednesday.

Ever since rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S8 surfaced, there have been substantial reports hinting at the launch of a new smart assistant by Samsung. This new AI-powered voice assistant is said to be a strong competitor against Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Google's Google Assistant. This week, there's new proof that the South Korea giant could be introducing its rumored Bixby assistant with its upcoming flagship phones. SamMobile recently spotted a new trademark filing by Apple's biggest rival company. The application is apparently for the logo of its new AI assistant. Based on the document, the logo resembles not only the letter "B," but also the number "8" -- fueling speculations that Bixby is debuting with the Galaxy S8 and the larger Galaxy S8 Plus.