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The new Pyboard D-series micro-controller is now available for purchase at a rather hefty price of £43 ($56), offering developers a low-powered device for running programs created with MicroPython, a stripped-back version of the hugely popular Python 3 programming language. The standout feature of the Pyboard is that it runs MicroPython on bare metal, making Python an operating system for running electronic projects on devices with as little as 16kB of RAM. The software and hardware is the brainchild of UK-based programmer and physicist Damian George, who launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014 to bring to life micro-controllers for making tiny, low-powered robots that can bleep, flash and detect objects. Pyboard micro-controllers are aimed at developers who know Python, the world's third most popular language behind Java and JavaScript, which is sweeping the developer world right now. As opposed to the better-known $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W, which runs on Linux, Pyboards rely on MicroPython for operating system functionality and access to low-level hardware.

Government usually isn't the place to look for innovation in IT or new technologies like artificial intelligence. But Ott Velsberg might change your mind. As Estonia's chief data officer, the 28-year-old graduate student is overseeing the tiny Baltic nation's push to insert artificial intelligence and machine learning into services provided to its 1.3 million citizens. "We want the government to be as lean as possible," says the wiry, bespectacled Velsberg, an Estonian who is writing his PhD thesis at Sweden's Umeå University on how to use AI in government services. Estonia's government hired Velsberg last August to run a new project to introduce AI into various ministries to streamline services offered to residents.

In medicine, diseases can be detected at a much earlier stage, and we can support the elderly to live a more independent life, simply by identifying deviations from their usual behaviour and body movements. The UK Government recently announced that AI could help the National Health Service predict those in an early stage of cancer, to ultimately prevent thousands of cancer-related deaths by 2033. The algorithms will examine medical records, habits and genetic information pooled from health charities, the NHS and AI. Virtual nurses could transform patient care, being available round the clock to answer questions, monitor patients and provide quick answers. Beyond healthcare, AI could inform a better allocation of resources in energy, logistics and transport, as well as support the digital advertising industry with more efficient marketing.

AI is, at heart, about making machines smarter, so that they can think and act like humans (or even better). We need only look at the popularity of devices like smart phones, smart fitness trackers and smart thermostats to see how consumers wholeheartedly embrace products and services that can make their life easier, smarter, more streamlined, more connected.

LIKU baby humanoid robots are demonstrated on the Torooc Inc. stand on the opening day of the MWC Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. At the wireless industry's biggest conference, over 100,000 people are set to see the latest innovations in smartphones, artificial intelligence devices and autonomous drones exhibited by more than 2,400 companies. On February 11, 2019, President Trump signed an executive order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence and in February 2019, a survey by Protiviti called Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning indicated that only 16% of business leaders surveyed are getting significant value from advanced artificial intelligence (AI) in their companies. The report also found that companies of all sizes and across industries are investing heavily in advanced AI with an average of $36M spent in the fiscal year 2018. Of those same companies surveyed, 10% plan to increase their budgets over the next two years.

Artificial intelligence technology is continually evolving and finding its way into more industries and applications. Many businesses, especially smaller ones, struggle to decide whether they should invest in an AI plan. Doing so can be both time-consuming and costly, but it might pay off in the long run. The members of Forbes Technology Council generally agree that artificial intelligence, even on a small scale, can benefit most modern businesses. Below, 11 of them recommend some first steps for businesses to take when deciding on an AI plan.

An army of'killer robots' that will assist infantry on the battlefield has been unveiled in propaganda footage released by Russia The video, released by the Kremlin, appears to showcase the state's latest drone technology. That includes and AI-controlled driverless tank that follow the aim of a soldier's rifle to obliterate targets with its own weaponry. Russia's Advanced Research Foundation (ARF) said the ultimate goal is to have an army of robots entirely controlled by Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Currently the drones are deployed alongside infantry who remotely control the vehicles, but in the future the tech will be fully autonomous. That means the military hardware will be able to target and kill enemies without any human intervention.

Folded and sealed with a dollop of red wax, the will of Catharuçia Savonario Rivoalti lay in Venice's State Archives, unread, for more than six and a half centuries. Scholars don't know why the document, written in 1351, was never opened. But to physicist Fauzia Albertin, the three-page document--six pages, folded--was the perfect thickness for an experiment. Albertin, who now works at the Enrico Fermi Research Center in Italy, wanted to read the will without unsealing it. In a 2017 demonstration, Albertin and her team beamed X-rays at the document to photograph the text inside.

DeepMind's Research Platform Team has open-sourced TF-Replicator, a framework that enables researchers without previous experience with the distributed system to deploy their TensorFlow models on GPUs and Cloud TPUs. The move aims to strengthen AI research and development. Synced invited Yuan Tang, a senior software engineer at Ant Financial, to share his thoughts on TF-Replicator. How would you describe TF-Replicator? TF-Replicator is a framework to simplify the writing of distributed TensorFlow code for training machine learning models, so that they can be effortlessly deployed to different cluster architectures.

Antoine Bruel, head of growth at Braincities and Céline Pluijm, key account manager at Wiidii share their thoughts on why France is fast-becoming a leader in establishing'AI for humanity', fresh from Hello Tomorrow… Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere. Across industry verticals, it's being used to enable businesses and organisations to work smarter and faster than ever before. From automating repetitive transactions and manual tasks to powering customer support platforms, AI is transforming the way we work, live and interact with the world. According to PwC research, AI is estimated to provide $15.7 trillion in economic growth by 2030, creating opportunities for innovation on a global scale. AI, however, is as much a source of fascination as it is a cause for concern.