Tata Consultancy Services polled 835 executives across 13 global industry sectors in four regions of the world, finding that 84% of companies see the use of AI as "essential" to competitiveness, with a further 50% seeing the technology as "transformative." Exploring the views and actions of decision makers from global companies with average revenues of $20 billion, the study revealed AI is spreading across almost all areas of a company. The biggest adopters of AI today are, not surprisingly, IT departments, with 67% of survey respondents using AI to detect security intrusions, user issues and deliver automation. However, by 2020, 32% of companies believe AI's greatest impact will be in sales, marketing or customer service, while 20% see AI's impact being largest in non-customer facing corporate functions, including finance, strategic planning, corporate development, and HR. Companies participated from a range of industries, including automotive, banking and financial services, energy, healthcare, life sciences, industrial manufacturing, and retail.

The way tech companies deal with online harassment and abuse is broken. YouTube allows anti-Semitism to stay live. Twitter waffles as targeted harassment runs rampant. Facebook takes down an iconic photo that shouldn't be banned. Now one German politician is tired of letting platforms make excuses.

We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher with a background in information theory for communication systems and ideally also on machine learning. The post is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) for a period of 24 months, which can be extended to two additional years. The post-holder will work, in collaboration with the Principal Investigator (Professor Osvaldo Simeone), on an ERC-funded project on fog communication, computing and storage. The main goal of the project is the development of fundamental theoretical insights, via network information theory, communication theory and machine learning, on the optimal performance and operation of fog-aided wireless networks. The post will be based in the Centre for Telecommunications research, Department of Informatics at the Strand campus of King's, located in the centre of London.

Until now, humans have held sway as the most dominant force on Earth. Despite lacking some of the physical attributes of a host of other species, we have conquered the planet by virtue of our mighty minds. Yet by 2025, a computer costing as little as $1,000 will have the equivalent processing speed of the human brain, according to Silicon Valley engineer and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis. And artificial intelligence systems are already faster and more accurate than humans when searching vast databases for anomalies or patterns in customer behaviour. They can also "learn" from what they have discovered and react to those findings.

Microsoft is currently finalising a major new update to Windows 10 that looks set to arrive in April, but users can try it out ahead of its launch. The Creators Update will introduce a raft of new features, including Paint 3D, Beam game streaming, new accessibility features, including braille support, as well as a multitude of performance and security tweaks and enhancements. In order to get a taste of them before they officially arrive, Windows 10 users can join Microsoft's Windows 10 Insider Program. Doing so gives you access to all of the latest Windows 10 builds as soon as they're available, and you can help shape the future of the operating system by providing feedback on the new features. However, before joining the Windows 10 Insider Program, be aware that you'll be signing up to use unfinished pre-release software that might not work as it's supposed to.

Geneva, March 7th - Goodyear has revealed its long-term vision for future smart, connected tires. In an evolving mobility ecosystem defined by the transition to driverless vehicles and shared mobility in urban centers, Goodyear aims to revolutionize the interaction between tires, vehicles and their surroundings. Goodyear unveiled the Eagle 360 Urban, its latest concept tire, at the Geneva International Motor Show. This 3-D printed sphere is the first concept tire to be powered by Artificial Intelligence and able to sense, decide, transform and interact. "A revolution will take place at the intersection of autonomy, mobility and connectivity. As this unfolds, tire technology will be even more important than it is today. To safely navigate their surroundings, the autonomous vehicles of the future will need to learn to cope with the millions of possible unknowns we face in every day driving scenarios. To do so they will need access to data and the ability to learn and adapt," said Jean-Claude Kihn, president of Goodyear Europe, Middle East and Africa.

On January 25, 1979, 25-year-old Robert Williams climbed into a storage rack to retrieve parts from a malfunctioning robot at Ford's Flat Rock plant in Michigan. The robot, not able to sense Williams' presence, swung round and struck him on the head, killing him instantly. The robot kept working for 30 minutes as Williams lay dead on the floor. His death, nearly forty years ago, makes Williams the first person to be killed as a result of actions by a robot. In August 1983, his family was awarded $10 million after a jury ruled against Unit Handling, the company that designed the one-ton machine.

Google has developed and open-sourced a new JPEG algorithm that reduces file size by about 35 percent--or alternatively, image quality can be significantly improved while keeping file size constant. Importantly, and unlike some of its other efforts in image compression (WebP, WebM), Google's new JPEGs are completely compatible with existing browsers, devices, photo editing apps, and the JPEG standard. The new JPEG encoder is called Guetzli, which is Swiss German for cookie (the project was led by Google Research's Zurich office). Don't pay too much attention to the name: after extensive analysis, I can't find anything in the Github repository related to cookies or indeed any other baked good. There are numerous ways of tweaking JPEG image quality and file size, but Guetzli focuses on the quantization stage of compression.

Joe Gordon likes to climb mountains. Among his conquests is Mount Teide, a 12,000ft volcano in Tenerife. "I like to walk up hills and mountains," he says. "I am a big fan of a healthy body and a healthy mind." It is perhaps just as well that he has a head for heights.

AlphaGo is beating humans at Go - What's the big deal? Rob Miles explains what AI has to do to play a game. What on Earth is Recursion?: https://youtu.be/Mv9NEXX1VHc Many thanks to Nottingham Hackspace for providing the location and being downright awesome Easter Egg: https://youtu.be/B8CujhUwVic This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.