We study the problem of online learning in a class of Markov decision processes known as linearly solvable MDPs. In the stationary version of this problem, a learner interacts with its environment by directly controlling the state transitions, attempting to balance a fixed state-dependent cost and a certain smooth cost penalizing extreme control inputs. In the current paper, we consider an online setting where the state costs may change arbitrarily between consecutive rounds, and the learner only observes the costs at the end of each respective round. We are interested in constructing algorithms for the learner that guarantee small regret against the best stationary control policy chosen in full knowledge of the cost sequence. Our main result is showing that the smoothness of the control cost enables the simple algorithm of following the leader to achieve a regret of order $\log^2 T$ after $T$ rounds, vastly improving on the best known regret bound of order $T^{3/4}$ for this setting.

Some people are famous only among fans of a particular sport, a specific age group, or their hometown locals. Lauren Hayes, a 27-year-old model and entrepreneur, is famous at the automation software company IPsoft. At a recent conference the company hosted in New York, suited c-level executives stopped her in the hallway to take photos. An executive at one of the largest insurance companies in the United States told her that 65,000 of his employees loved her. And during his keynote presentation, the CEO of IPsoft, Chetan Dube, called Hayes on stage to guest star in a faux game show.

Back in February, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited ustwo games in south London. The Independent talked to him then. The original Monument Valley game had grossed over $15 million, and Cook came to see Monument Valley 2, which has been announced today. I talked to the developers about how the games, new and original, came about and the importance of the Apple App Store in shaping ustwo games. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Most of us regard self-driving cars, voice assistants, and other artificially intelligent technologies as revolutionary. For the next generation, however, these wonders will have always existed. AI for them will be more than a tool; in many cases, AI will be their co-worker and a ubiquitous part of their lives. If the next generation is to use AI and big data effectively – if they're to understand their inherent limitations, and build even better platforms and intelligent systems -- we need to prepare them now. That will mean some adjustments in elementary education and some major, long-overdue upgrades in computer science instruction at the secondary level.

Sounds like the beginning of a very nerdy joke, but it really happened (#2017). A few weeks ago in Denver, Colorado, a robot I was piloting over the internet from my computer in Idaho stood wheel-to-wheel with a similar'bot in a pink skirt controlled by a researcher in Germany. We introduced ourselves by yelling at each other's screens. Given the topic of the conference, this particular human-computer interaction was a little too on the HD touch-screen nose. But as much as we symbolized the future, we were also a political statement about a troubled present.

Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence system that can determine if an animal is in pain by analysing its expressions. The system, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK, uses five different facial expressions to estimate the severity of pain in sheep. The results could be applied to other types of animals, such as rodents used in animal research, rabbits or horses, researchers said. The system is able to detect the distinct parts of a sheep's face and compare it with a standardised measurement tool developed by veterinarians for diagnosing pain. Severe pain in sheep is associated with conditions such as foot rot, an extremely painful and contagious condition which causes the foot to rot away; or mastitis, an inflammation of the udder in ewes caused by injury or bacterial infection.

Silvia Chiappa is a Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind, working at the intersection of probabilistic modeling and deep learning. Prior to DeepMind, she worked at Microsoft Research Cambridge, at the Statistical Laboratory University of Cambridge and the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. I spoke with Silvia to learn about her career in science, how we can overcome barriers for women in tech, and more. How did you begin your work in science and technology? At the age of 12 I started to appreciate the elegance of maths when learning about trigonometry.

In humanity's latest blunder to unwittingly help A.I. take over the world, machine learning researchers have now made 45 hours of video game replays accessible to A.I. programs. Compiled by a collaboration between Germany's Aachen University and Microsoft's Machine Intelligence and Perception Group's research teams, the Atari Grand Challenge Dataset gives A.I. systems access to new ways of learning and improving skills that will help them overthrow humanity, like controlling anti-air guns, tactical evasion, and maneuvering within complex and treacherous environments. Okay, so they actually just got really good Ms. Pacman, Space Invaders, Video Pinball, and lesser-known Atari 2600 games like Q*Bert and Montezuma's Revenge. While we may be safe from the robot revolution for a while yet, these games did prove useful for training computers to learn and hone their skills over time. The masterminds behind the Atari Grand Challenge Dataset invited people to play those five games on their website and then collected data on how well the gamers were doing.

Apple has revealed iOS 11, the future of the iPhone. The software comes with a range of new features, including changes to Messages and other iOS apps. But it also added a range of "technologies" – new tweaks intended to make the apps run much better. That was in keeping with a focus in Apple on improving the experience of its software, turning up and tweaking things rather than adding a host of new features, something it also did in macOS. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Apple has officially launched HomePod, a Siri-powered talking music system for the home. It looks unusual, like a cross between Google Home and the Mac Pro, all wrapped up in mesh. Apple says it has "the power to rock the house", thanks to its use of seven different tweeters, and the huge bass woofer that sits right in the middle. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.