Asia
Are we prepared for more killer police robots? Noel Sharkey
When a police robot is used to kill, one has to ask if we are at a tipping point. The dangerous events in Dallas, in which 12 policemen were shot, made it seem permissible to repurpose a robot to apply lethal force. When an armed suspect refused to surrender, a Remotec robot armed with plastic explosives was dispatched to kill him. This wasn't Robocop and it didn't operate autonomously. It was a bomb disposal robot remotely controlled by police officers.
Statistics and Advanced Analytics Face-Off the Chinese Air Pollution Problem - Statistics Views
Back in December of 2015, Beijing city government issued its first red alert to signal that air pollutant levels were significant enough to cause risk to human health. As part of active red alert protocols, the city demands that automobile usage be reduced by 50%, and that heavy-load vehicles like garbage trucks and semis be banned from the road. This, in turn, slows local business, industry, and commerce to a near grinding halt. Flight cancellations are another common and undesirable side effect of these red alert transportation restrictions. Even worse still, however, are the ways in which this level of air pollution is affecting human health throughout Beijing and China at-large.
Deep Learning: The Future of Healthcare Data
Big data in healthcare can now be measured in exabytes, and every day more data is being thrown into the mix in the form of patient-generated information, wearables and EHR systems. Traditional methods of analysis are no longer enough to handle, let alone take proper advantage of, the potential that healthcare data holds. This is where deep machine learning (or simply, "deep learning") comes in. However, its greatest power lies in its ability to extract value from data in ways that humans and traditional machine learning methods cannot. Deep machine learning has applications in a number of healthcare areas.
AI start-ups being sold to Twitter, Microsoft and Apple for up to 10m per employee
The race to acquire artificial intelligence talent has inverted the "laws" of M&A, with pre-revenue AI firms such as UK-based Magic Pony being sold to Twitter for about 10m per employee. Magister Advisors, the global M&A advisory firm to the technology industry, notes that AI firms without revenues are more valuable than those with, as buyers look for pristine competitive advantage, and that Britain is amongst top tier for AI innovation. Twitter just paid 150m for 14-person Magic Pony, a UK-based AI visual search company barely anyone had heard of before the deal. At 10m per employee it marks a high water mark in AI for what is essentially a team acquisition. Magister has tracked 26 AI driven deals since 2014 in the US, Europe and Israel, 11 of which involved companies with less than 50 employees which were acquired largely, or entirely, for the team and capability. Across all 11 deals, the median price paid per employee has reached 2.4m, meaning a high quality AI company with 40 employees would be valued at near 100m - even if it had little or no revenue.
#FredinChina: Chinese man beats a machine in face recognition contest
So everyone in China has been following the European Championship in France, and this time it's the game between France and Iceland that made a lot of noise, generating 2.8 billion media impressions! It was fascinating for Chinese people as they really admired this team from Iceland. They discovered that Iceland is a country of only 330 thousand people, which is just a city for them. Shanghai for example has 25 million inhabitants! For a country so small to reach that stage of a Soccer Championship was just amazing for them.
Battlefield video game to be adapted for TV by company behind Mr Robot and True Detective
The production company behind True Detective and Mr Robot, Anonymous Content, will be working alongside Paramount on the project, with Academy Award winner Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta taking up executive producer roles. Since it was launched in 2002, Battlefield has proven to be an enormously successful videogame franchise, taking players from World War Two, to the Vietnam war, to the year 2020, circling back to World War One with this year's upcoming Battlefield 1 release. Considering its wide array of time periods and the fact that it doesn't have an established cast of returning characters for players to become attached to, Battlefield might not seem like the most obvious choice for a televised narrative adaption. However, success that's not based on player love of specific characters and the wide variety of settings to choose from could give the show's creators the freedom required to do something interesting and exciting whilst still pleasing fans of the series. Though it could also result in a war programme that's tied to Battlefield in name and little else.
Twitter introduces significantly larger animated GIF sizes
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
Artificial intelligence can transform your business
Artificial intelligence (AI) and a world in which machines threaten humanity's status quo has been the preserve of science fiction for decades. In the Eighties, Terminator was set in a post-apocalyptic world in which cyborgs rule, RoboCop's protagonist was part-man, part-machine and Short Circuit toyed with the idea of robots developing human-like minds, with rather more endearing results. The reality is the bot has bolted. AI is walking and talking among us. In 2016, we use voice-recognition systems, driverless cars are being trialled and robotic hotel receptionists work in Japan.
Stefanini Launches Artificial Intelligence Platform, Sophie
Southfield, MI, June 2016 – Stefanini, a 1B global IT provider, announced today that the company is launching Sophie, its artificial intelligence platform with the ability to turn data into valuable solutions. Aware of the latest trends, Stefanini has invested and developed this platform over the last 3 years as a Research & Development and pilot project for clients in Brazil, and now, the company is launching the platform in the United States. "We are very proud to introduce Sophie for our clients in North America, reinforcing Stefanini's commitment to connect people and technology innovations with a goal to create business value," said Antonio Moreira, Stefanini CEO, North America and Asia Pacific. "Our artificial intelligence platform can improve the end-user experience and deliver smarter and more efficient services," affirmed Mr. Moreira. Technology research firm Gartner forecasts that by 2017, autonomics-based managed services and cognitive platforms will fuel a significant reduction in the cost of IT services by automating repetitive tasks currently tackled by humans.
Prime Day Shows Amazon Is So Powerful It Can Make Up Its Own Holiday
Today is Amazon's second annual Prime Day, the made-up shopping holiday where Amazon makes hundreds of thousands of discounted deals available to Prime members. And chances are it will go even better for Amazon this year than it did the last. Amazon launched Prime Day a year ago to commemorate its 20th anniversary, and in spite of what many subscribers viewed as a rather lame product lineup, the company said it sold more on Prime Day than on Black Friday in 2014--34.4 million items sold, or 398 per second. Beyond the sheer number of deals, Prime Day reveals much about Amazon's deeper strategy for selling more. Amazon keeps oiling its logistics machine to make delivery faster: this year customers in more than 25 US metro areas will be able to get their Prime Day hauls in an hour or less via Prime Now, Amazon's superfast same-day delivery service.