The Best Paper award for this year's International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) goes to "Compressed Linear Algebra for Large-Scale Machine Learning", authored by a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland and four senior researchers from IBM. Their method for compressing matrices for linear algebra operations promises to provide users significant increases in speed with less memory. In particular, the compression technology provides benefits at two different parts of the data science process. Before training a model, a data scientist typically goes through multiple iterations of feature engineering. Common feature engineering tasks include examining the data with descriptive statistics and transforming the values in columns to better suit the assumptions built into different types of machine learning models.

There is a surge of interest and research into Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is seen as the new technological revolution in the work place with machines tipped to replace most human jobs. There is significant improvement in the field of AI currently, than in the history of mankind, AI has been branded a failure or a hype in the past, but that notion does not seem to be the case anymore with the emergence of more sophisticated computer algorithms that have helped machines to pass the Turing Test – A test which determines whether or not a machine computer is capable of thinking like a human. Critics have branded the Turing test an emotionally unsatisfying test for intelligence but agreed that a machine passing the Turin test is an important milestone for AI. It is important to highlight that to get more conclusive results from tests of AI, the Turin test has had twists and variations from the original test by Alan Turing.

There is a massive amount of hype that surrounds AI. How much is fact, how much is fiction? This event is to decipher the status of AI technology currently by providing a group of AI experts to present and chat on the subject. The event will begin with two introduction presentations, one by Azeem Azhar on "Why the Boom Now?" and the second by Christoph Auer-Welsbach on IBM Watson and City.ai. Following, a panel discussion moderated by Tak Lo will ensue on "The Status of AI in Asia Today" with Sinuhe Arroyo, Jason Chiu, and Jeffrey Broer.

Steam rolled out of the pot, and my kitchen was filled with an intoxicating blend of scents. I'd cooked a turkey ragu before, but as soon as I opened the pot, I knew this would be an entirely different experience. There were the familiar, comforting notes of ground turkey and mushrooms, but there was also earthiness from the beets, the fire of serrano chile, and an unexpected brightness from the coriander seed (coriander seed!). My dinner wouldn't have been out of place at one of San Francisco's trendy food trucks or upscale restaurants, but coming out of my 15 IKEA pot, it was unbelievable. As I mixed in the pasta and ricotta cheese and took the first incredible bite, I realized that A.I. could do a lot more for me than just beating me at Go.

APPLE's events have often been compared to religious worship. Evangelical fans watch as the company's darkly-clad boss--first Steve Jobs, now Tim Cook--presents shiny new iSomethings in front of a screen showing colourful slides reminiscent of stained glass. Yet Apple's latest event, on September 7th, was a less rapturous affair. The iPhone 7, the firm's new smartphone, will come with a better camera, a faster chip and a brighter display, but will otherwise not be much of an improvement. The main novelty is that it no longer has a conventional jack for headphones, which have to plug into the charging port or be wireless (conveniently, Apple also introduced new untethered "AirPods", which will cost 160 a pair).

The Chinese Internet giant Baidu Inc. has been makingbig progressinapplying deep learning neural networksto improve image recognition, language translation, search ranking and click prediction in advertising. Now, it's going to give a lot of it away. The company, often called "China's Google," will announce Thursday at the annual Baidu World conference that it's offering the artificial intelligence software that its own engineers have been using for years as open source onGitHub. It's code-namedPaddlePaddle, for PArallel Distributed Deep LEarning. Deep learningis the branch of machine learning that attempts to emulate the way neurons work in the human brain to find patterns in data representing sounds, images, and other data. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and other companies have also been making big breakthroughs thanks to the ability to pump massive amounts of data into these artificial neural networks.

Dubai: Dubai Municipality has launched robots to help save lives on public beaches in Dubai, a first such initiative in the Middle East. The robot, which can reach a speed of 35kmph or approximately 12 times the speed of a human lifeguard, works by using remote control technology, said Dubai Municipality. The robot is about 125cm tall and can cover a distance of more than 130km. The robots are designed to withstand the worst climatic conditions. They can be used in the event of high waves or heavy ocean currents that are difficult for the human lifeguard to conduct rescue operations.

US lawmakers mull long and short-term CRs, and'minibus' appropriations packages. Out of the shadows, the SCO now needs to justify its long-term existence to a new president. Defense dollars are the big issue as the'Big Four' lawmakers met to negotiate the 2017 defense poli… In a recent visit, Lockheed Martin's proposed move of the F-16 production line to India was a subjec… Directed energy may be ready in the future, but Kendall is tempering excitement. In a recent visit, Lockheed Martin's proposed move of the F-16 production line to India was a subjec… The next administration will grapple with the F-35's move to full-rate production and the first set… Is MEADS Back in Running for Poland's Missile Defense Competition? The United States is set to approve the sale of Mk-48 heavyweight torpedoes for Taiwan.

Apologizing for delays and an "unusually difficult couple of weeks," Elon Musk tweeted Saturday that he finally will provide more details about promised updates to Tesla's Autopilot program. The Tesla CEO said he will do an hourlong Q&A with reporters, then publish information about Autopilot on Sunday to the company's blog. Musk had said on Aug. 31 that "major improvements" to Autopilot were coming and would be announced that day. But the next morning, a SpaceX rocket exploded in a fireball on the launch pad, putting the announcement on hold. Musk is the chief executive of both Tesla and SpaceX.