The random-forest technique has emerged in recent years as a powerful way to analyze large data sets while avoiding some of the pitfalls of other data-mining methods. It is based on the idea that some future event can be determined by a decision tree in which an outcome is calculated at each branch by reference to a set of training data. However, decision trees suffer from a well-known problem. In the latter stages of the branching process, decisions can become severely distorted by training data that is sparse and prone to huge variation at this kind of resolution, a problem known as overfitting. The random-forest approach is different.

Data has always been a business game changer as a rear view indicator. It's been defined as the new oil. Most of the time, data gets collected, stored, and then analyzed to find the right insights through multiple sets of tools. With this cumbersome approach, reaching those critical data points requires considerable time. In the process, opportunities are lost and greater costs are accumulated.

Clinicial researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh have developed an artificial intelligence software for identifying and quantifying small vessel disease, a frequent cause of dementia and stroke in older people, from CT scans. The investigators have already tested the software at Imperial's Charing Cross Hospital, demonstrating that the technology rivals that of MRI scans coupled with specialized clinicians in spotting and measuring small vessel disease. Because CT scans are used, which are considerably faster to perform than MRI scans, and that the assessment may not need any human input, the technology can help speed up triage of patients presenting at emergency rooms with signs of stroke or dementia. The study used historical data of 1082 CT scans of stroke patients across 70 hospitals in the UK between 2000-2014, including cases from the Third International Stroke Trial. The software identified and measured a marker of SVD, and then gave a score indicating how severe the disease was ranging from mild to severe.

According to the Blackbaud 2016 Charitable Giving Report, only 7.2 per cent of individual donations are made online in the UK. Due to the expansion of mass internet access, this statistic is surprising. It seems that charities are yet to take full advantage of the new digital channels and innovative technologies that could maximise their reach and success. However, this is beginning to change. Technology is being used by a range of charitable organisations to increase donations, improve campaigns, and to build a stronger relationship with supporters.

Ubisoft's most-spotlighted (and most-leaked) game of E3 was definitely Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a new entry in the game that is…going back to making the series an annual franchise, even if Ubisoft said they were steering away from that. While Odyssey looks a lot like an Origins reskin, this time set in ancient Greece, it's going pretty hard into full-on RPG territory, complete with individual pieces of armor with different rarities, dialogue trees and even romance options for your character, where you can play as either the male Alexios or female Kassandra, both angling to become Spartan legends. What has been consistently weird about Assassin's Creed Odyssey is that other than looking like an Assassin's Creed game, there are almost no traces of…Assassins at all, at least as we've come to know them. There is an "assassin" skill tree, but that's a lower case "a" along with hunter and warrior skill trees. The only thing that seems remotely connected to the Assassin's Creed universe at all is that it seems pretty clear that your treasured weapon, the spear of Leonidas, is a Piece of Eden, giving you supernatural powers in combat.

Bill Gates, captured on April 19, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Tech titans have a long history of making book recommendations. In 2015, Mark Zuckerberg launched a book club via Facebook, noting a must-read every two weeks. The year opened with Moisés Naím's The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used to Be and closed out with David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World; in between were titles on racism, genetics, religion, medicine, and sociology, and a smattering of science fiction novels. Jeff Bezos, owner of "bookstore killer" Amazon, had a book list on the platform in 2013 that included a variety of entrepreneur-focused books, like the iconic The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen and Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins.

Uber has submitted a patent for a feature that uses artificial intelligence to detect if its customers are drunk, simply by the way they use their smartphone. The'Predicting User State Using Machine Learning' patent aims to identify people in an "abnormal state" from factors including number of typos made, walking speed, and who precisely a customer clicks on buttons and links on their phones. "The user behaviour may be compared against the user's prior behaviour to determine differences in the user behaviour for this request and normal behaviour of prior requests," the patent states. "The system can alter the parameters of a service based on the prediction about the state of the user requesting the service." This means that Uber drivers could theoretically refuse to accept passengers deemed to be in an inebriated state.

Robots could replace as many as 10,000 human jobs at the banking giant Citi within five years, its president told the Financial Times. "We've got 20,000 operational roles. Over the next five years could you make it 10,000?" Jamie Forese, the president of Citi and chief executive of the bank's institutional clients group, told the Financial Times in an interview. Forese said the most likely areas for automation were in technology and operations, which accounts for almost 40% of the headcount at Citi's investment-banking arm.

Passengers scan their passports at the gates of a new, automated airport in Singapore. Automation and AI may soon free people to tackle the social aspects of commerce and innovation. This is the second article in a weeklong series about artificial intelligence. The first installment can be read here. One activity humans should be exceptionally good at is innovation.

Driving a car is one of the most fun things to do, well, not so much when you're stuck in hours of traffic. Still, one has to realize that despite the fun aspect, driving is not as safe as we would like due to our constant need to grab our smartphones. Additionally, most vehicles on public roads today lack the built-in smarts to aid drivers during their daily commute. That's where Chris comes into play, a device designed to help drivers enjoy their journey without having to sacrifice safety. Chris is a digital assistant for drivers that allows them to enjoy apps and other features on their mobile device without the need to for physical interaction.