Historians have long debated whether the first major phase of compilation of Biblical texts took place before or after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. While they agree that key texts were written starting in the 7th century BC, the exact date of the compilation remains in question. These documents are dated to the latest phase of the First Temple Period in Judah, around 600 BC. A new interdisciplinary study, led by Dr. Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin of Tel Aviv University, Israel, suggests that widespread literacy was required for this massive undertaking and provides empirical evidence of that literacy in the final days of the Kingdom of Judah. Using cutting-edge computerized image processing and machine learning tools, Dr. Faigenbaum-Golovin and her colleagues at Tel Aviv University analyzed 16 ink inscriptions found in the desert fortress of Arad.

As robotics and 3-D printing technologies become more accessible to home tinkerers, men are (of course) building robots of beautiful women. Anyone who's turned on a TV in the past decade shouldn't be surprised to learn that one of the first--and creepiest--examples of this development involves movie star Scarlett Johansson. News broke on Friday about a Hong Kong designer who made a robot that looks just like the award-winning actress--although Ricky Ma, the robot's creator, wouldn't name the actress he modeled the bot on, choosing instead to call it Mark 1. It took Ma eighteen months and over 50,000 to complete the project, which he constructed on his patio with a 3-D printer and software that he taught himself how to use. The question, however, is one of precedent.

CHINA has rich talent sources and great potential on AI or artificial intelligence thanks to strong mathematics and IT research as well as local firms' expansion into AI, said LinkedIn in a report yesterday after the AlphaGo's winning in a machine-vs-human Go match. There are totally 250,000 people work and research on AI globally, mainly in the United States, Europe, India and China, according to LinkedIn, the world's largest business social network. Besides the eye-catching AlphaGo, the artificial intelligence is already part of people's lives, from applications used in navigation, Siri and Google Translate to robots deployed in manufacturing and stock-advice software. AI technologies have been evolving steadily alongside the development of the Internet, big data, cloud computing and graphic chips. The United States has the most AI talents with the top employers Google, developer of AlphaGo, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and Apple.

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors on Tuesday announced a plan to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based, Internet-connected car to create a new future lifestyle with a "driving, high-performing computer". The driving computer means a car will become a high-performing computer itself as the car, to be developed by Hyundai and Kia, will self-drive based on AI and connect to electronic devices while driving based on internet connectivity, Xinhua cited a joint statement as saying. The main concept of the project is a "hyper-connected and intelligent car", which means an interaction between cars home as well as home and office in addition to AI-based self-driving. To achieve the goal, the automakers will focus on four major themes, intelligent remote-controlling support service, perfect self-driving, smart traffic and mobility hub. The remote-controlling support service aims to check and examine cars on a real-time basis to detect potential emergency situations in advance.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told developers that bots via its Messenger Platform is the future, but what remains to be seen is whether users will go for them as they work out early artificial intelligence issues. At the F8 developer conference, Facebook took the wraps off of its bots for Messenger effort, a series of application programming interfaces and tools for business bots. Google, Apple and every enterprise vendor will have some form of them. Simply put, chat bots are automated and conversational reps that can talk up products, get you to stores, be helpful and an assistant at times. Bots get you the goods without the legwork. Every tech player will be talking some form of bots.

SEOUL/WASHINGTON – Ahead of a rare congress of the ruling party next month, secretive North Korea is revealing details of its weapons development program for the first time, showcasing its push to develop long-range nuclear missiles despite international sanctions. Until recently, information on the North's weapons program was hard to come by, with foreign governments and experts relying on satellite imagery, tiny samples of atomic particles collected after nuclear tests and mangled parts recovered from long-range launches. In just over a month, the North has published articles with detailed color photos on a range of tests and other activities that point to fast-paced efforts to build a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The reason for the revelations, many analysts say, is that Pyongyang believes that convincing the world, and its own people, of its nuclear prowess is as important as the prowess itself. Nevertheless, the isolated North's true capabilities and intentions remain unknown.

Cian Westmoreland was 18 years old when he enlisted in the US Air Force. Now 28, the former serviceman served with the 606 Air Control Squadron in Germany and the 73rd Expeditionary Air Control Squadron in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as an Air Force Technician. He built the communications infrastructure for the US military's drone programme in Afghanistan, which, according to a 2015 report by The Intercept led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians. In 2010, after four years in the military, he left the Air Force and joined other whistle-blowers speaking out about US drone policy. The group of technicians and operators wrote an open letter to US President Barack Obama.

There is growing expectation that in the near future, intelligence far beyond human understanding will produce new technologies by using knowledge and information around the globe to drastically change the world. By making excellent use of nanotechnology, the intelligence will cure any disease or injury, and also resolve environmental problems. If it were to bare its fangs at humans, it would become a threat that we could not compete with. The 2014 film "Transcendence" depicts a world in which AI is highly developed. Many countries have spent an enormous amount of money to take the lead in the field, and global "artificial intelligentization" is arriving at the point of no return. If this happens, we should choose a path of coexistence.

If the humans ain't broke, don't replace them with robots. Otherwise, your whole restaurant will itself be -- you guessed it -- broke. In a rather damning display of the limitations of technology, a fleet of useless robots meant to replace human servers have caused the demise of two restaurants in China. As it turns out, the answer to the question, "What can't robots do?" is actually, "a lot." Initially, Chinese restaurant chain Heweilai bought a whole staff's worth of automatons to wait on its patrons in three locations.

Classy started as a code challenge for a technical interview for a machine learning job in Tokyo. The challenge was to create an an application that uses a supervised learning algorithm to classify images based on their text content. This application was then wrapped in a server with a tiny REST API, and Classy was born. I can certainly make that happen! Let me know a little more about what you're working on using the contact form below and we'll get the ball rolling.