Google's latest take on machine translation could make it easier for people to communicate with those speaking a different language, by translating speech directly into text in a language they understand. Machine translation of speech normally works by first converting it into text, then translating that into text in another language. But any error in speech recognition will lead to an error in transcription and a mistake in the translation. Researchers at Google Brain, the tech giant's deep learning research arm, have turned to neural networks to cut out the middle step. By skipping transcription, the approach could potentially allow for more accurate and quicker translations.

Research commissioned by Google has found that young people consider three of the company's products among the top ten "coolest" brands in the world. According to the search giant's'It's Lit: A guide to what teenagers think is cool' study, Google-owned YouTube is the world's coolest brand, with Google in third place and Chrome – a web browser – in tenth, ahead of the likes of Apple and Spotify. "For Generation Z, what's cool is also a representation of their values, their expectations of themselves, their peers, and the brands they hold in the highest regard," notes Google. "To Gen Z, Google search and that's part of makes it cool," reads the report. The research also found that Google is more popular amongst teenagers than Twitter, with 42.2% of the study's participants said to be on the platform and 35.4% on Twitter.

FILE- In this Feb. 2, 2017 file photo, the logo of Mercedes is photographed at the annual news conference at the company's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Automaker Daimler AG and parts supplier Bosch Group say they are teaming up to make driverless cars that they say could be on city streets at the start of the next decade. The companies would combine expertise in car making, sensors and software so that people in a specific part of town could order a shared car through their smart phone. The driverless car would then come pick them up and take them where they want to go. The companies said Tuesday, April 4, 2017 the system would let people make better use of their time in cars and help those who do not have driver's licenses.

BERKELEY – Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers recently took exception to current US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's views on "artificial intelligence" (AI) and related topics. The difference between the two seems to be, more than anything else, a matter of priorities and emphasis. Mnuchin takes a narrow approach. He thinks that the problem of particular technologies called "artificial intelligence taking over American jobs" lies "far in the future." And he seems to question the high stock-market valuations for "unicorns" – companies valued at or above $1 billion that have no record of producing revenues that would justify their supposed worth and no clear plan to do so.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web, was declared recipient of the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery's AM Turing award on Tuesday. In an interview with the Guardian, Berners-Lee discussed the "appalling" attitude of Republican politicians seeking to roll back net neutrality protections, how his own legacy intersects with the great Alan Turing's, and the astonishing progress of the web since he launched the very first website on 1 August 1991. Berners-Lee hasn't rested on his laurels since creating the information space in which this article is being read: the 61-year-old information scientist, now at Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spent years fighting to protect an open internet and against privatization of personal data. The 51-year-old prize could scarcely go to a more appropriate recipient. Turing's innovations helped to standardize computing, and Berners-Lee helped to make standardized conversation between computers possible for the layman.

Uber is using a range of psychological tricks to encourage its drivers to work longer hours, often at times and locations that are less lucrative to them, according to a new report. The taxi app company manipulates drivers with app alerts and low-value rewards, with hundreds of social scientists and data scientists said to be involved in the experiment. According to the New York Times, Uber is trying to replicate techniques that make video games and TV addictive. These include achievement badges, an alert system that tells drivers they're close to hitting an earnings target when they try to log off and an algorithm called'forward dispatch', which enables drivers to book their next fare before completing their current one. 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.

When restaurant reservation service OpenTable recruited him from dating app EHarmony, Joseph Essas received assurances that he could keep living in Los Angeles. Essas wasn't sure how, but OpenTable's then-Chief Executive Matt Roberts said, "Trust me, we're going to make this work." But after getting his bearings, he saw an easy way to persuade the company to cut his commute. Hiring software developers in San Francisco is cumbersome and expensive. In Los Angeles, it's easier -- and Essas could pull from his network of contacts developed in four prior executive roles in the region.

The already crowded race to put fully self-driving cars on the road just got a bit more congested. Daimler, Mercedes-Benz's parent company, plans to launch a customer-serving, driver-free taxi service in as little as three years, it announced today. The German giant is just the latest to make this kind of pledge. Ford and BMW aim to do the same thing by 2021. General Motors and Google's Waymo are eyeing a similar timeframe without committing to a specific date. Meanwhile, Uber has been shuttling passengers around Pittsburgh in self-driving cars since September (with humans up front to monitor the system).

It takes no less than 45 minutes of playing Tequila Works' upcoming game for their creative director to tell a story from his childhood. It is no aimless reminiscence -- Rime, as Raúl Rubio says, "is about childhood memories. So we put a little bit of ourselves in the game." The Serrano-based studio's upcoming release is a "single-player puzzle adventure game" and has already drawn comparisons to classics like LucasArts adventure games, The Legend of Zelda and projects from Team Ico. Rubio finds these comparisons to industry staples equal parts flattering and terrifying.

Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming a vital part of most industries, which is why businesses are looking to the fast-growing technology as the future. Now in its second year, the AI Summit is the world's foremost event solely dedicated to covering AI for businesses, and encompasses everything from Machine Learning & Deep Learning, to Cognitive Computing. After holding successful shows in London, San Francisco, New York and Tokyo, the Summit is storming back to the British capital. AI Summit London will not only offer a unique opportunity to listen to keynote speeches from industry leaders across a wide range of industries, but also a chance to engage with these business leaders in person, network, discuss the transformative impact of AI with senior decision makers. The event is widely recognised for its keynote program.