Researchers now believe that language might have developed from cave drawings. Specifically, they think the ancient artwork located in caves with good acoustics might have inspired humans to develop the vocal communication that exists today. A new report on the theory from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hinges on the fact that caves allow for echoes. The researchers think that previously discovered cave drawings prove that the fundamental parts of speech were derived from artwork. The MIT team that worked on the new analysis said that taking a look in the depths of ancient caves can provide modern humans with answers about where languages stemmed from.

We are on the verge of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another unlike anything humankind has experienced before. The main driver for this technological revolution is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Technological change driven by AI will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: our sense of privacy, our notions of ownership, our consumption patterns, the time we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivate our skills, and nurture relationships. But the development and applications of artificial intelligence can also present a dystopian threat to our collective and individual well being. From SIRI to self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing rapidly. While science fiction often portrays AI as robots with human-like characteristics, AI can encompass anything from Google's search algorithms to IBM's Watson to autonomous robots and weapons systems. Artificial intelligence today is often referred to as narrow AI (or weak AI), which is designed to perform a narrow task (eg:facial recognition or only internet searches or driving a car). The other kind of Artificial Intelligence is termed general AI (AGI or strong AI) which is designed to "think," and solve problems much like humans.

Advances in artificial intelligence have the potential to supercharge medical research and better detect diseases, but it could also amplify the actions of bad actors. That's according to a report released this week by a team of academics and researchers from Oxford University, Cambridge University, Stanford University, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, artificial intelligence research group OpenAI, and others institutes. The report's authors aren't concerned with sci-fi doomsday scenarios like robots taking over the world, such as in Terminator, but more practical concerns. Criminals, for instance, could use machine learning technologies to further automate hacking attempts, putting more pressure on already beleaguered corporate security officers to ensure their computer systems are safe. The goal of the report is not to dissuade companies, researchers, or the public from AI, but to highlight the most realistic concerns so people can better prepare and possibly prevent future cyber attacks or other problems related to AI.

We can't be sure about what Spotify is actually trying to build in Stockholm, but its search for employees are in line with what you'd expect from a company trying to make a smart speaker. Last April, Spotify was looking for people with expertise in voice recognition and natural language processing. And more recently Spotify sought out someone with "graduate-level expertise" in natural language understanding to join its team in Boston and "multiple years of industrial experience in building conversational agents via speech or text (e.g., chatbots)." This focus on a spoken interface could apply to future, voice-controlled versions of the Spotify app, but it's not much of a stretch to think Spotify could be trying to build a Google Home or Sonos rival. Let's say for the sake of argument that's what's going on.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is leaving the board of OpenAI, the nonprofit research group he co-founded with Y Combinator president Sam Altman to study the ethics and safety of artificial intelligence. The move was announced in a short blog post, explaining that Musk is leaving in order to avoid a conflict of interest between OpenAI's work and the machine learning research done by Telsa to develop autonomous driving. "As Tesla continues to become more focused on AI, this will eliminate a potential future conflict for Elon," says the post. Musk will stay on as a donator to OpenAI and will continue to advise the group. The blog post also announced a number of new donors, including video game developer Gabe Newell, Skype founder Jaan Tallinn, and the former US and Canadian Olympians Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence increases the risk of its malicious use by states threatening world peace, criminals and terrorists, warns a new report quoted by Reuters and the France press. The study was published by 26 experts in the field of artificial intelligence, cyber security and robotics at the Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and non-governmental organizations. They urge governments and all stakeholders to limit potential threats related to artificial intelligence. Researchers say malicious use of artificial intelligence poses immediate threats to digital, physical and political security because it allows large-scale, precisely targeted and highly effective attacks. The study focuses on scenarios that may become reality in the next five years.

It's hard to imagine truckers embracing the wider use of artificial intelligence or "AI" within the freight transportation industry. I'm still quite leery of it myself, having watched The Terminator one too many times. Yet, if a new global survey of nearly 3,000 employees across eight nations conducted by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated is correct, it seems that more and more of them believe there is "a significant opportunity" for AI to help improve "the workplace experience" and, yes, believe it or not, the logistics/transportation sector is one of the leading industries in this regard. The survey – dubbed Engaging Opportunity: Working Smarter with AI and conducted by Coleman Parkes Research – polled hourly and salaried workers across a variety of industries in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Not only did the survey discern there may be more "ground level support" regarding the use of AI in the workplace, it also found that company management is being largely close-mouthed regarding AI developments – and that, not AI itself, is what's sparking the most unease about the technology among workers.

A new report authored by over two-dozen experts on the implications of emerging technologies is sounding the alarm bells on the ways artificial intelligence could enable new forms of cybercrime, physical attacks, and political disruption over the next five to ten years. The 100-page report, titled "The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation," boasts 26 experts from 14 different institutions and organizations, including Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Elon Musk's OpenAI, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The report builds upon a two-day workshop held at Oxford University back in February of last year. In the report, the authors detail some of the ways AI could make things generally unpleasant in the next few years, focusing on three security domains of note--the digital, physical, and political arenas--and how the malicious use of AI could upset each of these. "It is often the case that AI systems don't merely reach human levels of performance but significantly surpass it," said Miles Brundage, a Research Fellow at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute and a co-author of the report, in a statement. "It is troubling, but necessary, to consider the implications of superhuman hacking, surveillance, persuasion, and physical target identification, as well as AI capabilities that are subhuman but nevertheless much more scalable than human labour."

LONDON (Reuters) - A life-like avatar called Cora is being put through her paces by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), helping customers with basic queries and giving its digital banking drive a more human face. RBS, which recently axed a quarter of its branches and has announced thousands of job cuts in the past year alone as it reduces costs, will only deploy Cora to NatWest customers if the bank's female avatar passes her probation period. The digital teller, who wears a NatWest branded uniform and has an ear piercing and sparkling teeth, answers simple questions on getting a mortgage or what to do if a customer loses their card. "It could create another way for our customers to bank with us on top of the usual services we offer and be used to help answer questions round the clock, whilst cutting queuing times," Kevin Hanley, director of innovation at NatWest, said. Cora, which is undergoing advanced testing as part of a pilot program at RBS, could even be used to train members of staff, Hanley said on Wednesday.

Media Distillery will monitor all Austrian radio and television channels in real-time. In order to facilitate this big step, Media Distillery created and implemented new Austrian speech recognition software. We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership with APA-DeFacto and hope to successfully help Austrian clients keep track of their radio and television coverage.