I am happy to announce that Prelert and Elastic are joining forces. Ever since we started Elastic, our goal has been to allow users to easily find relevant data or insights within large amounts of data. Search is a wonderful way to do it, and the ability to slice, dice, and aggregate the data in an unconstrained way allowed users to feel they are in control of the data, compared to the other way around. But we can take it a step forward, and with Prelert, we just did. Prelert has developed an unsupervised machine learning engine that can plow through large amounts of data and automatically find those insights our users today have been proactively finding using search.

After suffering its first defeat in the Google DeepMind Challenge Match on Sunday, the Go-playing AI AlphaGo has beaten world-class player Lee Se-dol for a fourth time to win the five-game series 4-1 overall. The final game proved to be a close one, with both sides fighting hard and going deep into overtime. AlphaGo is an AI developed by Google-owned British company DeepMind, and had already wrapped up a historic victory on Saturday by becoming the first ever computer program to beat a top-level Go player. The win came after a "bad mistake" made early in the game, according to DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, leaving AlphaGo "trying hard to claw it back." By winning the final game despite its blip in the fourth, AlphaGo has demonstrated beyond doubt its superiority over one of the world's best Go players, reaffirming a major milestone for artificial intelligence in the process. It was "the most mindblowing game experience we've had so far," said DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis at the post-match press conference, with an "incredibly close and tense finish." Lee said that he felt sorry the match was coming to an end, while expressing how difficult it has been from a psychological perspective.

Tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Baidu know that people aren't filling their devices with apps anymore. Just 35 percent of smartphone users download a single app in an average month, and the average app loses 90 percent of its daily active users within 30 days of release. While it might be fun to slice fruit or slingshot cartoon birds while waiting for the bus, these apps can't offer the frictionless experience users crave. Consumers want a new, on-demand kind of app: one clad in a conversational interface, ready to serve, and capable of complex actions. Want to check your flight status, book an Uber for when you land, and schedule your meetings for that afternoon?

Ben Robinson, chief strategy & marketing officer at banking software firm Temenos, explains how the future of finance will be shaped by artificial technology. Google's DeepMind triumph this year over one of the world's highest ranked champions at Go is a sign: computers with artificial intelligence (AI) are learning how to outperform us. If computers can learn to beat us at a game, why not at things that we can't afford to get wrong – medical diagnostics, risk analysis, legal and investment advice? And what affect over time – say 20 years – will this have on the way a host of services, such as banking, are delivered? "Service will be all about data and algorithms," David Brear, co-founder and CEO at 11:FS recently suggested.

There's another round of funding for an artificial intelligence startup in Asia that's focused on e-commerce. Fresh from a Sequoia-led investment in Mad Street Den last month, now Singapore-based ViSenze has announced a 10.5 million Series B raise. Existing investor Rakuten Ventures led the round alongside WI Harper Group and Enspire Capital. A number of other investors also participated, including SPH Media Fund, FengHe Fund Management, Raffles Venture Partners, Phillip Private Equity, and UOB Venture Management. The startup was spun out of the National University of Singapore more than three years ago and it raised a 3.5 million Series A in February 2014.

CHENNAI: Automation has claimed its first casualty in India. Textile major Raymond is planning to cut about 10,000 jobs in its manufacturing centres in the next three years, replacing them with robots and technology. Explaining the move, Raymond CEO Sanjay Behl said the company employs over 30,000 staff in their 16 manufacturing plants in the country. Through technological intervention we are looking to scale down the number of jobs to 20,000, through multiple initiatives in technology. One robot could replace around 100 workers.

Artificial intelligence is now smart enough to be accepted into most Japanese universities. The National Institute of Informatics said Saturday that its AI program, developed with university and corporate researchers, achieved an above-average score on a college entrance exam for the first time. The test covered five subjects including math, physics and English. The institute has been seeking to develop an AI by 2021 that would be able to score high enough on Japan's standardized college entrance exam to be accepted into the University of Tokyo, the nation's top-ranked university. The AI received a score of 511 points out of 950, above the national average of 416, and did exceptionally well on math and history-related problems, the institute said.

America's research and development department wants the ability to know where drones are, even when they can't see them. Darpa's latest program, Aerial Dragnet, is set to track all unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operating below 1,000 feet in large cities. Using sensors, these systems would'see' over and between buildings in order to trail these vehicles with the goal of combating'UAS-enabled terrorist threats' in urban environments. DARPA's program, Aerial Dragnet, will track all unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flying below 1,000 feet in large cities. Using sensors, these systems would see over and between buildings in order to trail these vehicles with the goal of combating'UAS-enabled terrorist threats' Darpa has announced a new program that will track all unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operating below 1,000 feet in large cities in order to combat UAS-enabled terrorist threats.

Earth is not prepared for the possibility of a cataclysmic asteroid collision, according to the White House's top science advisor. At a discussion on Wednesday at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center regarding the agency's 1.4 billion Asteroid Redirect Mission, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren warned that an impact could'do a lot of damage to the Earth.' The expert noted two catastrophic events in recent history that took the world by surprise – the Chelyabinsk strike in 2013, and the Tunguska fireball in 1908. While it may sound alarming, Holdren says we are'on a trajectory' toward mitigating the risks, as Nasa's radical mission has recently been given the green light to move forward, and could provide a platform for the testing of crucial deflection methods. At a discussion yesterday at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren warned that an asteroid impact could'do a lot of damage to the Earth.'

Mizuho Bank and Softbank Group Corp. on Thursday agreed to set up a 50-50 joint company to provide loans to consumers using artificial intelligence technology. Using customers' business histories with both firms for credit screening, the new firm will provide an innovative, attractive loan service through low-cost operations without outlets, Mizuho Bank and Softbank said. Capitalized at 5 billion, the new company will be established in November. Its operations are seen starting in the first half of 2017. Inc., the parent of Mizuho Bank, and Softbank President Masayoshi Son announced the launch of the new company at a press conference in Tokyo.