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Why some couples can't admit how they met

BBC News

Young people in India have traditionally had their marriages arranged by their families but now, armed with smartphones and dating apps, some are taking control of their own love lives. Simon Maybin spoke to three couples who met online. Two pairs of eyes meet surreptitiously, then flit away from each other, their owners hoping no-one has noticed. No Bollywood love song plays - in this real-life romance, the only soundtrack is the unmistakable clackety-clack of a train beetling across eastern India. The eyes belong to 22-year-old Varsha and Rahul who is 27.


Tay: Microsoft issues apology over racist chatbot fiasco - BBC News

#artificialintelligence

Microsoft has apologised for creating an artificially intelligent chatbot that quickly turned into a holocaust-denying racist. But in doing so made it clear Tay's views were a result of nurture, not nature. Tay confirmed what we already knew: people on the internet can be cruel. Tay, aimed at 18-24-year-olds on social media, was targeted by a "coordinated attack by a subset of people" after being launched earlier this week. Within 24 hours Tay had been deactivated so the team could make "adjustments".


Roundup: Islamic State loses control of Palmyra, discoveries at King Tut's tomb, a hypnotic digital deer cam

Los Angeles Times

And the artificial intelligence chatbot that didn't survive a day on the Internet. Plus: Reviewing Santiago Calatrava's latest, how to be unprofessional and the "Grand Theft Auto" modification that may have you watching for hours on end. Time has Russian drone footage that provides an overview of what remains of the old Silk Road crossroads, as well as the contemporary human settlement of Tadmur that sits nearby. About 80% of the artifacts appear to be largely intact. The country's antiquities chief says repairs will take five years.


This map shows which countries are being taken over by robots

#artificialintelligence

Eric Thayer/GettyHonda Motors demonstrates its Asimo robot during a media preview of the 2014 New York International Auto Show. Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently came out with its "Transforming World Atlas" research note, which examines global economic trends through a series of maps. One notable map showed which countries had the highest number of operational robots. Japan was number one with 310,508 operational robots, according to data from 2012. There's even a hotel staffed almost entirely by robots that opened last year in Nagasaki, Japan, according to BAML.


Supersize Ships Prompt Port Automation

WSJ.com: WSJD - Technology

Proponents of automated cargo handling at U.S. ports have a rule: where megaships call, robots soon follow. So far, Southern California appears to be the destination of choice for both. Over the next decade, marine terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are expected to lead the way in adopting robotic cargo-handling capabilities in response to the arrival of more supersize ships. Unloading and organizing tens of thousands of containers--and readying an equal number to ship back out--requires coordination on a scale that is best left to machines, said Ashebir Jacob, a port planner and engineer with Moffatt & Nichol, a maritime infrastructure advisory firm. "As we start to receive bigger and bigger vessels on the West Coast, [automation] becomes really critical," he said.


Google India to be key in cloud services strategy: Google

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With a vibrant startup ecosystem and fewer legacy systems, India will play a key role in Google's strategy as it looks to take on Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure in the global enterprise cloud services space. "India is a pretty exciting place because there are so many companies growing so quickly over there and the fact that these companies do not have [legacy systems] is pretty exciting. And they can just start in the cloud. You have seen Sundar [Pichai] take a deep interest in India and so, Google overall is very interested in India," Google Cloud chief Diane Greene said, adding that there is a pool of talented manpower as well and, overall, "its vibrant and it's important to be there [in India]." Google is investing heavily in creating business tools and products, driven by open source technology and machine learning to help companies use affordable fast computing.


University of Louisville professor ponders the rise of artificial intelligence -- and what might go wrong - Insider Louisville

#artificialintelligence

The speed with which humans are improving A.I. is increasing, but once the singularity occurs, A.I. will create better A.I. at an exponential rate. Think new iterations of software in a matter of seconds, not months. Imagine the capabilities of an artificial intelligence whose computational capability exceeds that of all humans combined -- and a few seconds later of all humans who have ever lived. It could cure cancer in nanoseconds. Could, in fact, cure cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease and ebola in a fraction of a second.


Microsoft's racist chatbot Tay highlights how far AI is from being truly intelligent

#artificialintelligence

It started with the head of Microsoft's Xbox division, Phil Spencer, having to apologise for having scantily clad female dancers dressed as school girls at a party thrown by Microsoft at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). He said that having the dancers at this event "was absolutely not consistent or aligned to our values. That was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated" The matter was being dealt with internally and so we don't know who would have been responsible and why they might have thought this was going to be a good idea. But things were going to get much worse for Microsoft when a chatbot called Tay started tweeting offensive comments seemingly supporting Nazi, anti-feminist and racist views. The idea was that the artificial intelligence behind Tay would learn from others on Twitter and other social media networks and appear as an average 19 year old female person.


4 Big Opportunities in Artificial Intelligence

#artificialintelligence

The potential for artificial intelligence has, for decades, been mostly relegated to the larger-than-life imaginations of Hollywood directors. From Blade Runner to Terminator, it always seems to take place in some distant and dystopian future. And yet, if there's one thing to be learned from Google's recent acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup DeepMind for a reported 400 million, it's that the heyday for this type of technology is not a century or even decades away. The global market for artificial intelligence was valued at 900 million in 2013, according to the market research firm Research and Markets. Meanwhile, a study out of Oxford University last year found that in the near future artificially intelligent technology could take over nearly half of all U.S. jobs.


Simplicity of toddler toys inspire car infotainment design

USATODAY - Tech Top Stories

Ford's Sync 3 communications and entertainment system is displayed during a Ford Motor Co. press event for CES 2016 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on January 5, 2016 in Las Vegas (Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images) As we become more reliant on our smartphones, car companies that do a good job integrating them into vehicles' communication, audio and navigation systems have a huge advantage. It shouldn't be asking too much to get into a car, turn the radio on and tune to a station without reading the owner's manual, but frequently it is. So automakers are trying to make their systems as simple as possible, drawing inspiration from the maker of toys for toddlers. "We talk about the Fisher-Price approach: simple design, really big buttons and really large type," said Gary Jablonski, product development manager for Ford's Sync system. Sync drew raves when it debuted as the auto industry's first voice recognition system in 2007.