Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said the partnership illustrates the commitment both companies have made to advancing the use-cases of AI. Nvidia and Chinese search engine giant Baidu are teaming up to develop a cloud-based platform for use in artificially intelligent, self-driving cars. The partnership combines Nvidia's self-driving computing platform with Baidu's cloud and mapping technology to develop an algorithm-based operating system capable of powering complex navigation systems in autonomous vehicles. The open platform will be available for branded car OEM consumer vehicle offerings, as well as fleets of driverless commercial vehicles. The companies are going after Level 3 autonomous vehicle control, which means the car can drive itself (and park itself) in some circumstances, but with a competent human driver at the ready.

Not many people can answer that question.

Work on a new project by Deakin University and Melbourne-based software company Ytek has begun, aimed to develop skills of those training in the emergency response, defence, and aerospace sectors using machine learning algorithms. Dr James Zhang, a researcher from Deakin University's Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation, is working with Ytek to develop simulation solutions used to train surgeons, emergency workers, soldiers, and pilots. As part of the project, Zhang and Ytek will research how machine learning algorithms can help monitor and evaluate a trainee's conduct in mission-critical simulations by using sensors on training tools, such as manikins, to evaluate how trainers can assess students in practical training. Ytek CEO Richard Yanieri said the desired outcome of the project is to improve the practical training for students. "We've been working with Deakin's School of Medicine to understand their needs so that we can tailor a solution that works for this industry," he said.

Machine learning has become a core component of companies' analytic initiatives and is no longer the "fine china" only brought out for special occasions, according to a manager with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, which today announced that its Vertica analytics database now runs popular classes of machine learning algorithms. While previous versions of Vertica could run R algorithms -- as opposed to shipping them off to run on a Hadoop cluster or another adjacent system -- Vertica 8.0 will be the first version of the flagship columnar database that formally supports a broad collection of popular machine learning algorithms, according to Jeff Veis, vice president of marketing for Big Data Platforms at HPE (NYSE: HPE). "It used to be niche, or maybe like fine china for special occasions, to use machine learning, and now it's showing up as a must-have for almost all our customers," Veis tells Datanami. "It's becoming very important to do that form of advanced analytics. We brought that in-database so you can run it across your whole data set."

The first intelligent robots that humans interact with on a regular basis will likely be self-driving cars--not a humanoid working in the cubicle next door. Drive.ai, an autonomous vehicle tech startup founded by former graduate students working in Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Lab, officially came out of stealth mode--a temporary quiet period to avoid alerting competitors--on Tuesday with some details about what it's building and a high-profile addition to its board. Steve Girsky, who sat on the General Motors board for seven years until June, has joined the Drive.ai The Mountain View-based startup, which has raised 12 million from an undisclosed venture capital firm and strategic investors, was forced out of stealth in April when it was awarded a license to test autonomous vehicles in California. But until now, little was known about what Drive.ai was working on. The startup is focused on developing deep learning software--a sophisticated form of artificial intelligence--and applying it to everything the self-driving car does from recognizing objects to making decisions.

Zhang Yaqin, president of Baidu Inc, speaks at the global business forum during Baidu Technology Innovation Conference 2016, on Sept 2. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc seems to be dazzling the world nonstop. Robin Li, its chairman and chief executive, announced "Baidu Brain" on Thursday, the core of the tech company's plans on artificial intelligence, which consists of three parts - artificial intelligence algorithms, computing power and big data. The next day, at the global business forum also during Baidu Technology Innovation Conference 2016, Baidu's President Zhang Yaqin said the company's revenue coming from its global business has more than quintupled by September from a year earlier. Baidu's globalization, along with "Baidu Brain", is the next big vision for the company, said Zhang.

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the announcement today during the Baidu World Conference, noting that the companies will unit to merge their individual technical capabilities to crate a new self-driving car architecture from scratch: "end-to-end, top-to-bottom, from the cloud to the car," as Huang explained. Baidu will use the platform created in tandem with NVIDIA to roll out self-driving taxis in China. Though that's the primary purpose for the partnership, the software's applications are numerous, as both Baidu and NVIDIA are working to make it open for other automotive creators to fit with their own plans for self-driving vehicles. NVIDIA already has its own ideas for autonomous cars, with the Drive PX supercomputer for processing data that's inbound from various sensors, a cloud-based 3D map, and an AI operating system. It's called Drive PX 2, and Volvo is already testing it with a set of self-driving vehicles.

The Chinese Internet giant Baidu Inc. has been making big progress in applying deep learning neural networks to 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 in Beijing that it's offering the artificial intelligence software that its own engineers have been using for years as open source. Available in an early version on GitHub with full availability Sept. 30, it's code-named PaddlePaddle, for PArallel Distributed Deep LEarning. Deep learning is 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.

AI is also emerging as a force for startups and emerging companies, too, as several entrepreneurial ventures in North Carolina are demonstrating in "fintech." Financial technology, better known as fintech, startups account for 10 percent of the some 90 companies chosen to present at the upcoming Council for Entrepreneurial Development's annual venture conference. A new report cites the plunging costs and advances of artificial intelligence as key drivers. AI's impact alone in one sector of fintech shows its potential. According to Juniper Research, fintech platforms are being used for review and approval/disapproval of unsecured consumer loans at a remarkable rate.

Sept. 03--Production of Boeing's large 777 twinjet in Everett is significantly backed up, with incomplete jobs on each aircraft forcing catch-up work, some of which is being finished only after the jets roll out onto the airfield. Scrambling to fix the mess, they've kept 777 deliveries on track only by working long overtime hours, including weekends, with just two days off a month. Workers blame the new 777 robotic fuselage assembly system that management has been ramping up. This critical new technology, which Boeing must get right before the forthcoming 777X, automates the precise drilling and fastening together of fuselage panels for the big moneymaking jet. Boeing executives insist the robotics -- known as Fuselage Automated Upright Build, or FAUB -- are not the major hang-up.