For a couple of days this week, I attended the EmTech NEXT conference at MIT, which is organized by MIT Technology Review. The focus of the event was that fabled idea "The Future of Work," and if you are on the side of the humans, the future seems pretty bright. Virtually every speaker (MIT folks, AI and robotics leaders) came out in favor of augmentation over automation. They say that AI and robots won't take our jobs, but rather augment them by doing the things we humans don't do so well. I must say that I was a bit surprised that augmentation has become the consensus view among experts.

There are many significant indicators of the rapidly increasing growth of AI applications. First, the number of start ups providing AI support to healthcare providers has escalated [1]. There have been over 100 healthcare start-ups using machine learning and AI over the past 3 years, offering support in everything from remote patient monitoring, drug discovery, image diagnostics, and much more. According to a 2016 report from CB Insights [1], about 86% of healthcare provider organizations are currently using AI in some way. Furthermore, this is likely to rise substantially during the next decade.

Tinder is giving its users new ways to flirt. The dating app announced on Tuesday that it's testing a feature that will let users send Bitmojis to their matches. For now, it's only available for users in Mexico and Canada, but Tinder may eventually launch Bitmojis in the app globally. Tinder is giving its users new ways to flirt. The dating app announced on Tuesday that it's testing a feature that will let users send Bitmojis to their matches US users are expected to gain access to Bitmojis in the app by the end of this summer, Tinder told Engadget.

Prototypes of BVLOS drones, so called because they travel "beyond the visual line of sight" of operators, are being tested by Italy's Snam, Europe's largest gas utility, and EDF's network subsidiary, RTE in France. Snam told Reuters they have been doing field-testing with BVLOS drones in the Apennine hills around Genoa. It hopes to have it scouting a 20 kilometer (12.4 miles) stretch of pipeline soon. RTE has also been testing a long-distance drone that have flown 50 kilometers (31 miles) inspecting transmission lines and sending back data that allowed technicians to create a virtual model of a section of the grid. RTE plans on investing 4.8 million euros ($5.6 million) on drone technology over the next two years.

If you're a fan of the World Cup, you probably had your sights set on a winner before the tournament kicked off. Maybe you really liked how Spain's team was shaping up (despite the coaching shifts), or you wanted to root for an underdog such as Japan or Croatia. Goldman Sachs, which knows a little something about probability and risk, built a sophisticated data model to predict the World Cup's eventual winner. This model leveraged machine learning to simulate 1 million possible evolutions, and updated throughout the tournament, according to Bloomberg. With that kind of setup, you'd think that the algorithms would get at least a few match outcomes right.

There are different approaches to predict the results of FIFA World Cup. One approach is to simulate every single match in a paired comparison in terms of team's capabilities and the winning odds. Zeileis, Leitner, and Hornik (2018) used the same technique, and they predicted that Brazil would win the FIFA World Cup 2018 with a probability of 16.6%, and it is followed by Germany (15.8%) and Spain (12.5%) [1]. Swiss Bank UBS also predicted the same three teams as the top 3 teams but in a different order. They predicted Germany (24.0%) as the champion, followed by Brazil (19.80%) and Spain (16.1%).

Running a background check for a sensitive job in an investment bank, government office or large corporation traditionally takes 10 to 15 days. In today's fast-moving world, where a tweet can change everything in a matter of seconds, that's too long. Shlomo Mirvis had been conducting background checks the old fashioned way for Israeli intelligence firm Kela. Mirvis had to do his work manually. "The world of background checks hardly changed in the last 40 years," he tells ISRAEL21c.

Most people find it a pain to receive parcels in wide time slots like, say, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., so when delivery startup Paack offered a service in which everyone could narrow that window down to one hour, with no extra charge, it had a challenge on its hands. The startup's routing engine worked but needed to be more efficient. Enter Prowler.io, a Cambridge, U.K.-based machine-learning startup that bills itself as a decision-making platform for any company with complex problems to solve. Paack's contact at venture firm Balderton in London introduced it to Prowler in February 2018, and within months its delivery vans and trucks were being coordinated by an intelligent, digital simulation. With the beta test over, Paack's CEO, Fernando Benito, sees a potential benefit to his bottom line. Some of his startup's deliveries are now 15% more efficient, he tells Forbes.

A recent study of 34 major banks across several geographies (US, EU, Singapore, Africa, Australia, India) by MEDICI Team found that 27 out of these 34 banks have implemented AI in their front-office functions in the form of chatbots, virtual assistants, and digital advisors. Across these regions, some of the most prominent banks in this space are Bank of America, OCBC, ABN Amro, YES BANK, etc. Front-office applications have certainly seen a significant increase in intensity, scope, and adoption. In reality, however, the AI strategy in the US banking industry is far more diverse. Automation is one of the more explored areas of AI/ML application. The estimated global market potential of RPA is projected to be $8.75 billion by 2024.

Catalan nanotechnology engineer Sergi Santos holds the head of Samantha, a sex doll packed with artificial intelligence providing her the capability to respond to different scenarios and verbal stimulus, in his house in Rubi, north of Barcelona, Spain, March 31, 2017. Picture taken March 31, 2017.