A fortnight ago the bank had announced that it will soon introduce a humanoid IRA - intelligent robotic assistant to help its branch staff in servicing customers. "In the next 18-24 months we are looking at atleast 15-20 humanoids in our branches with different manifestations and versions, it may be different looking with a different name," said Nitin Chugh, Country Head, Digital Banking, HDFC Bank. "Specific humanoids will be built to cater to needs of customers in those branches." Developed using Robotics and Artificial Intelligence technologies, IRA will be positioned near the Welcome Desk, where it will greet customers and guide them to the relevant counter in the branch such as Cash Deposit, Foreign Exchange, Loans, among others in the first phase. In the next phase, IRA's capabilities will be enhanced further by introducing features such as Voice and Face recognition for customer identification, Voice-guided navigation, Balance enquiry, and Cheque deposit among others.

Given how artificial intelligence-led robots and machines are doing even non-repetitive jobs that require cognitive skills, most analysis on them paint a never-before kind of across-the-board job destruction with, unlike in the past, no new job-creating areas coming up--the 2016 Oxford Martin School-Citi report said automation in developing countries puts 85% the jobs at risk. New research by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) paints a less grim picture--while around 5% of jobs that exist today are completely automated immediately, around 30% of the work done in around 60% of jobs can also be automated by 2055. As a result, while talking of very large productivity gain of 0.8-1.4% per annum, MGI point to the need for man and machine to work together to derive this benefit, and it is not just at low-skill jobs that the challenge will arise. A fourth of even a CEO's job, MGI says, can be offloaded to an algorithm/AI entity. For the rest, it depends.

Google and a number of unnamed search engine companies are in talks with entertainment firms over a new code designed to reduce how many links to pirated content appear in search results. Following discussions chaired by the UK's Intellectual Property Office, the companies have come to the agreement that the new measures should be introduced on 1 June, reports TorrentFreak. A deal is said to be "extremely close" to being signed. 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.

The client required a solution involving Artificial intelligence to disintermediate the process between vehicle buyers/seller and the platform. In the first month of implementation, chatbot dispatched 9793 initial offers and client observed 5.5% increase in the initial offers generated.

Artificial intelligence is already well-established in the world of targeted advertising and recommendations. But AI is also rapidly evolving on social media as a way to help brands quickly and efficiently discover, engage with, and learn from their followers. Although there is no one definition for it, we can summarize social artificial intelligence as a form of collecting and sifting through customer history, user-generated content, and data from social media channels to generate more relevant content and, as a result, a more meaningful experience for followers. Social AI has the ability to provide a better social experience overall. For an example of what social AI can do, we just have to look at Facebook.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. The race is heating up to launch self-driving cars worldwide, and Asia is off with a jolt as some 10 million driverless cars are predicted to hit the roads by 2020. China has piloted a self-driving bus, while Tokyo is laying the foundation for driverless vehicles in time for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Going by the simplest definition, Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. It is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans.By Atul Rai Artificial intelligence has been one of the buzzing trends of 2016. From partnerships with top-notch ecommerce and OEMs players to attracting the interests of investors, Artificial Intelligence clearly left its mark across different sectors. While that seems only the beginning for one of the most disruptive technologies of our generations, 2017 is going to witness the sector come into its full bloom in India. Standing at the cusp of another year, this is about time we discussed the top emerging trends in artificial intelligence in the New Year, 2017.

Ever have a hard time understanding a road sign in another country? Computer vision startup Mapillary thinks it has a solution. You know how Google hopes to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful?" Swedish startup Mapillary wants to do the same thing with the world's road signs. As it turns out, from warnings about polar bears to alerts concerning "invisible cows," there are some pretty darn unusual roadside messages you'll come across as you travel the globe.

Deep Learning, as a branch of Machine Learning, employs algorithms to process data and imitate the thinking process, or to develop abstractions. Deep Learning (DL) uses layers of algorithms to process data, understand human speech, and visually recognize objects. Information is passed through each layer, with the output of the previous layer providing input for the next layer. The first layer in a network is called the input layer, while the last is called an output layer. All the layers between the two are referred to as hidden layers.

Rethink Robotics is taking the wraps off a massive project that the company has been working on for two years. "It's been a big part of our development that the world hasn't seen," says Rethink founder and CTO Rodney Brooks. "I've been so excited about this because I know what it can do." A little over a year ago, Rethink started shipping Sawyer, a collaborative robot designed to be faster, stronger, and more precise than the company's first cobot, Baxter, which didn't "sell like hotcakes," as Brooks had expected. But developing a brand-new robot was just part of Rethink's post-Baxter plans: Another goal was completely rebuilding its software platform, called Intera, which is responsible for controlling all of Sawyer's functions as well as allowing users to program the robot.