At IBM Research, we are exploring new solutions for a range of health care challenges. One such challenge is emergency room (ER) overcrowding, which can lead to long wait times for treatment. Patients who use the ER for non-emergency situations are more likely to return to the ER multiple times (Poole et al. 2016), further contributing to overcrowding. Identifying those patients who are likely to return to the ER may enable hospitals to intervene to ensure access to necessary care outside the ER and potentially alleviate overcrowding. My team at IBM Research-China took on this challenge.

The world's first autonomous indoor drone surveillance system has been developed by two European companies. The unmanned machine carries out its own patrol route through the corridors and rooms of the building it is monitoring, landing itself on a wireless charging pad whenever it runs low on power. A surveillance camera attached to the quadrocopter records and streams real-time footage and alerts human guards to any potential threats. The engineers behind the system claim building owners could replace hundreds of static cameras with a few drones, saving costs while keeping their property secure. The world's first autonomous indoor drone surveillance system (pictured) has been developed by two European drone companies'Drones work best in surveillance applications and are more cost effective,' said David Trillo, CEO of Spanish communications and drone technology developer Avansig, one of two companies working to create the new system.

"We create open platforms and share our technology because it helps new ideas get out faster," Pichai said. Then he namechecked TensorFlow, the machine learning software Google developed and uses internally. The company open sourced the code in 2015, and it has since been downloaded more than 15 million times. "We created TensorFlow to make it possible for anyone to use AI," Pichai said. Such homilies to openness have become standard from the large tech companies competing intensely to develop AI technology.

The safety of our online lives has become increasingly important. Whether it be interference in elections, attacks by hostile forces, or online fraud, the security of the web feels fragile. Cybersecurity has reached a crossroads and we need to decide where it goes next. The outcome will touch each of us – will we pay more and yet still be less safe? Will we face higher insurance premiums and bank charges to cover the rising number of cyber-incidents?

Which AI applications are playing a role in automation or augmentation of the retail process? How are retail companies using these technologies to stay ahead of their competitors today, and what innovations are being pioneered as potential retail game-changers over the next decade? Innovation is a double-edged sword, and as with any innovation results are a mixed bag. While many AI applications have yielded increased ROI--this case study of AI in retail marketing segmentation is one example--others have been tried and failed to meet expectations, shining a light on barriers that still need to be overcome before such innovations become industry drivers. Below are 10 brief use cases across five retail domains or phases.

Although Einstein himself made many advances in physics, from special and general relativity to the photoelectric effect and statistical mechanics, there were many problems he couldn't solve during his life. How much better could AI have done? At the dawn of the 20th century, there were a number of crises in physics. Radiating objects like stars emitted a finite, well-defined amount of energy at every wavelength, defying the best predictions of the day. Newton's laws of motion broke down and failed when objects approached the speed of light.

"The only thing constant in life is change," said 17th century French thinker François de La Rochefoucauld. The Internet of Things explained: What the IoT is, and where it's going next. That goes for double in the tech industry. By 2006, the people of the world were doing 100 million Google searches every day--which, by the way, we thought was an enormous number at the time. Now, we're doing 4.5 billion searches a day--45 times as many--which shows just how far and wide the digital revolution is still sweeping the planet and embedding itself deeper and deeper into our everyday lives.

"The eyes are the window of the soul." Unless you're a state-of-the-art set of machine-learning algorithms with the ability to demonstrate links between eye movements and four of the big five personality traits. If that's the case, then Cicero was spot on. A joint project between the University of South Australia and the University of Stuttgart had an artificial intelligence track and monitor the eye movements of 42 human participants using a video-based eye-tracker from SensorMotoric Instruments. Of the "big five" personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism), the artificial intelligence was able to reliably identify four: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

China's progress towards its goal of becoming the world's leader in AI by the year 2025 remains unchecked. While its efforts still lag behind the US, thanks to the likes of Google and Microsoft, there's an alarming amount of research indicating the gap is shrinking. It's only been a year since TNW reported China's announcement it was shifting its national strategy to claim the artificial intelligence crown. In that time China has advanced its agenda to a startling degree, at least according to the experts. Air Force General VeraLinn "Dash" Jamieson, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on the Air Staff at the Pentagon, spoke last Thursday at a military event. She told attendees she was concerned that China is taking AI more seriously than other nations.

Check out the full schedule at the Artificial Intelligence Conference in London, October 8-11, 2018. Hurry--early price ends August 24. Judging by the list of countries putting out policy papers on AI and automation technologies, there is very strong interest in AI across the globe. In order to asses the current state of readiness across regions, we recently conducted a survey (full report forthcoming) of the state of adoption of machine learning tools and technologies (a lot of what is being currently described as AI is really ML). As we assembled the program for our inaugural Artificial Intelligence Conference in London this October, we recognized that many companies and organizations around the world are still very much in the early stages of adoption.