HYDERABAD: Apple quietly acquired a little-known Hyderabad-based startup a few months ago for an undisclosed amount and while little is known about what Tuplejump does, the word is that this is part of the Cupertino-based giant's exploration into artificial intelligence. Known in the trade as an acqui-hire, nearly all of Tuplejump's 16 employees are in the process of becoming Apple staffers. A back-of-the-envelope calculation by an expert put the valuation at about 20 million (Rs 27 crore). "When there is a talent hire, the cost of hiring is usually calculated based on the last few years' salary," the expert said. "So, for a 16-member team, I think it would probably come up to around 4 million a year -- making this deal for something around 20 million (including for possible IP evaluation)."

I had the pleasure of participating in Milan's FI-WARE VIP Bootcamp (4–6th May, 2016), under invitation by EBAN. There, along with several other investors and entrepreneurs, we assisted 15 startups from all across Europe to improve the structure and the presentation of their VC pitches. One of the people who actively participated, giving their full support to the event (and as a volunteer, nonetheless) was Federico Travella, founder and CEO of NoviCap, an extremely interesting venture in the "fintech" sector that came up with an innovative way of providing working capital for every kind of business. In discussion with Federico and other participants, the topic of AI was brought up, seen as a contributing factor to increasing unemployment, and through that, to social discontent and political instability. It's surely an interesting subject and is connected to the broader issue of technological progress and its social impact.

At its peak, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed as many as 70,000 people, building maritime vessels like the USS Maine, Missouri and Monitor. Military shipbuilding isn't coming back to Brooklyn anytime soon, and neither are those particular jobs. But industry is returning to the borough -- just not shipping in the military sense. Think more along the lines of product shipping, thanks to facilities like tech incubator New Lab. This is about more than giving startups a place to set up shop.

Approximately 8 of the 319 million people in the United States read the Wall Street Journal, about 2 percent of the population. If you look at the language -- standardized English -- being fed into many natural language processing units, it's based on the language of that 2 percent. And many machines literally use the venerable, business-focused newspaper to better understand the English language. It might seem like an obvious choice. Standardized English is taught in schools, it's used in legal documents, and it sets the basis for formal society.

The word on the streets of India's start-up world is that any mention of artificial intelligence (AI) makes venture capitalists drool. From Sequoia India to Tata Sons Ltd's chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, reputed investors are adding companies working on AI to their portfolio. This is only to be expected, given that the entire tech world can't stop talking about how AI, machine learning and neural networks will completely change the world over the next few decades. But it's also a daunting task for Indian companies, given that all the big global players are pouring massive resources into the space. There are several Indian companies that have taken AI out of the lab and found real-world applications for it.

Uber's security chief is worried about safety on Uber rides, specifically about making sure that your driver is who they say they are. That's why Joe Sullivan has announced that the firm is bringing its Real-Time ID Check to the US so that he can be sure your Uber driver is legit. Essentially, while a driver is out and about, their phone will sporadically pipe up and ask them to take a selfie that can then be compared to the one on file. Should it not match, their account will be temporarily suspended and an operative will "look into the situation." The safety selfies feature is being supported by Microsoft's Cognitive Services, which will be doing the selfie-based comparisons.

If we actually end up discovering aliens then they'll probably just wipe us all out, Stephen Hawking has said. When we made contact with any aliens it would probably be like when the Native Americans first met Christopher Columbus. And, in that case, things "didn't turn out so well" for the people being visited, Professor Hawking has said. Stephen Hawking made the warning in a film posted online, Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places. It showed him taking a spacecraft across the cosmos, visiting different locations across the universe.

Internet experts and highly engaged netizens participated in answering an eight-question survey fielded by Elon University and the Pew Internet Project from late November 2013 through early January 2014. Self-driving cars, intelligent digital agents that can act for you, and robots are advancing rapidly. Will networked, automated, artificial intelligence (AI) applications and robotic devices have displaced more jobs than they have created by 2025? Describe your expectation about the degree to which robots, digital agents, and AI tools will have disrupted white collar and blue collar jobs by 2025 and the social consequences emerging from that. Among the key themes emerging from 1,896 respondents' answers were: - Advances in technology may displace certain types of work, but historically they have been a net creator of jobs. This page holds the content of the survey report, which is an organized look at respondents elaborations derived from 250 single-spaced pages of responses from ...

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly on a buying spree for machine learning companies. It seeks to enhance its expertise in artificial intelligence and for this purpose, the tech giant acquired another machine learning company, Tuplejump, which is based in India. Tuplejump is also present in US and has an exceptional machine learning team. Along with acquiring its business, Apple has also reportedly attained its team which is now based in Seattle along with Turi. This move was followed by its previous purchases, where it acquired Perceptio at the end of FY15, as well as Turi few months back.