University of Helsinki, Finland offers online Artificial Intelligence course and anyone anywhere can enroll for free!

"The level of growth that AI stands to bring to the UAE's economy is unparalleled. The nation's leaders already understand the impact of this powerful technology, evidenced by the appointment of the first Minister of AI last year. While AI-led growth will be felt across a wide variety of industries, the financial services sector has the most to gain -- which isn't surprising, given that many of its jobs can be significantly augmented with AI and machine learning. In addition, Accenture reports have already shown that banking executives globally are taking action to transform their businesses through the use of AI," said Amr El Saadani, managing director of Accenture's Financial Services practice in the Middle East and Turkey. The report identifies five key strategies for policy makers to consider when looking to implement AI: growing the local talent pipeline using AI; advocating for a code of ethics for AI; becoming the global testbed for social AI; preparing the next generation of workers for the AI future; and minimising the impact of labour market dislocation.

UPDATED British Prime Minister Theresa May is to announce plans to commit millions of pounds to a new artificial intelligence strategy for early-stage cancer diagnosis. The aim is to reduce deaths from prostate, ovarian, lung, and bowel cancer by 10 percent within 15 years – saving an estimated 22,000 lives a year. In the first of a new series of speeches on the UK's industrial strategy, the prime minister will say, "Late diagnosis of otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths. "The development of smart technologies to analyse great quantities of data quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy than is possible by human beings, opens up a whole new field of medical research, and gives us a new weapon in our armoury in the fight against disease." May is expected to ask the technology industry and cancer charities to work with the NHS to develop new algorithms that can use a mix of patient data, genetic markers, and lifestyle information to warn GPs of the risk of common cancers developing. News of the government's strategy comes on the same day that the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust announced that it has embarked on a new AI programme to improve the treatment of patients who have had a heart attack, in a project that could see wider use of AI to inform treatment decisions across the organisation. The Trust, which was named as the NHS' Global Digital Exemplar of the year, will use technology from healthcare specialist, Deontics. The new system will enable doctors on the Trust's acute cardiac unit (ACU) to access AI-driven evidence-based clinical treatment recommendations that are tailored to each patient's needs. Deontics uses cognitive computing and healthcare-specific logic to act like a "clinical sat-nav" for doctors, according to a joint announcement this morning. This enables them to make treatment decisions that are dynamically informed by relevant standards and guidelines, such as those issued by NICE, and the latest good practice from published papers and other reputable sources. These are then applied directly to the needs of individual patients. "Some of our most frail and elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome are getting some of our most powerful drugs," explained the Trust's chief clinical information officer, Mike Fisher. "Using AI-technology means we should reduce the potential for overprescribing drugs for patients at lower levels of risk.

South Korea, Germany and Singapore are the world's top-ranked nations in preparing their economies for the smooth integration of intelligent automation, according to an index and report released by ABB and The Economist Intelligence Unit. The report, 'The Automation Readiness Index (ARI): Who is ready for the coming wave of innovation?' provides a snapshot across a set of 25 countries of current government-led efforts to anticipate the resulting changes and shape the outcomes of technological progress. In assessing the existence of policy and strategy in the areas of innovation, education and the labour market, the study finds that little policy is in place today that specifically addresses the challenges of Artificial Intelligence and robotics-based automation. In addition, the report says that governmental policies and programs must ensure that the rapid adoption of automation technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) don't leave people unprepared for the new, more human-oriented jobs that will be needed as robots and algorithms take on more of the routine task that can be and will be automated. The report also claims that the engagement between policymakers, industry, educational specialists and other stakeholders is necessary for countries' preparedness for the coming wave of intelligent automation.

Could artificial intelligence upend concepts of nuclear deterrence that have helped spare the world from nuclear war since 1945? Stunning advances in AI--coupled with a proliferation of drones, satellites, and other sensors--raise the possibility that countries could find and threaten each other's nuclear forces, escalating tensions. Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov settled into the commander's chair in a secret bunker outside Moscow. His job that night was simple: Monitor the computers that were sifting through satellite data, watching the United States for any sign of a missile launch. It was just after midnight, Sept. 26, 1983.

Artificial intelligence plays a role in nearly everyone's life now, so it only seems fair that everyone should also have the opportunity to learn exactly what it is and how it functions. At least, that's what Helsinki University in Finland thinks. The school is offering the world's first online artificial intelligence course geared towards beginners, as Engadget reports. Not only can anyone with web access enroll, but it's also free. Because the course only takes about 30 hours to complete, it's possible it might help people get to know--and form opinions on--artificial intelligence.

The Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence now offers a free six-part online course, The Elements of AI, available to anyone. I like free stuff: Especially when there's no catch. Sign up is quick and simple, and there's no application process. Completion of the course will earn you a LinkedIn certificate and, if you're enrolled in a Finnish university, you can get a couple credits. It's happening, Join 15k digital minds to shape what's next for your business More importantly, you'll get a free education designed to introduce students to the basic concepts surrounding artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning.

The Drone Racing League partner with France's Group AB, and is kicking off this year's DRL World Championship season with a race at the Allianz Riveria Stadium in Nice, France. The drone racing has been raised from an underground hobbyist activity in parking lots across the country to an authentic eSport with celebrated events all over the world. The event will mark the first professional drone race in France. "We're incredibly excited to extend our partnership with Allianz, who has a proud history of supporting innovative sports and auto racing, and to expand the reach of pro-drone racing in collaboration with Groupe AB, the predominant racing media company in France," said Nicholas Horbaczweski, the founder of Drone Racing League. "I think that fans define what we are," concluded Horbaczewski.

These IoT devices and assets are equipped with electronics, including transducers such as sensors and actuators, connectivity/communication electronics and software to capture, filter and exchange data about themselves, their internal/external state and the environment they physically reside in. The connection of IoT'things' and usage of IoT data drives various purposes in the lives of consumers and in business, healthcare, innovation, mobility, cities and society. The many potential goals of IoT are segmented into IoT use cases: reasons for which IoT is deployed such as health monitoring, asset tracking, environmental monitoring, predictive maintenance and home automation. There are hundreds of IoT use cases, depending on the industry and/or type of application. Some IoT use cases exist across industries, others are more vertical. IoT is an essential driver for customer-facing innovation, data-driven optimization and automation, digital transformation, innovation, research and ...

There's a saying that the eyes are the window into the soul. While at first glance this seems like a piece of idiomatic frivolity, a new algorithm developed by an international team of researchers from Australia and Germany shows that there is some truth to this, showing that the movements of one's eyes and the size of one's pupils can predict certain aspects of personality. The findings, which were published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, suggest there is a link between the way we move our eyes and personality traits. For instance, people who are more curious in nature tend to move their eyes more, while more open-minded people will find themselves staring at abstract images for longer periods of time. "Personality traits characterize an individual's patterns of behavior, thinking, and feeling," wrote the researchers in their paper.