March 2, 2017 --Computer engineers have created some amazingly small devices, capable of storing entire libraries of music and movies in the palm of your hand. But geneticists say Mother Nature can do even better. DNA, where all of biology's information is stored, is incredibly dense. The whole genome of an organism fits into a cell that is invisible to the naked eye. That's why computer scientists are turning to microbiology to design the next best way to store humanity's ever-increasing collection of digital data.

It makes sense for large technology companies like Google and Microsoft to open source AI and machine learning solutions because they have overlapping vertical interests in providing vast cloud services. These come into play when a certain machine learning library becomes popular and users deploy it on the cloud and so forth. It is less clear why financial services companies, which play a much more directly correlated zero sum game, would open up code that they paid the engineering team to create. It's interesting that hedge funds, traditionally thought to be the most secretive of financial institutions, have been proactive in pushing an open source software agenda. AQR Capital Management was probably patient zero when it came to opening up their code around data storage – and this move, shepherded by software engineer Wes McKinney, kickstarted the popular Pandas libraries project.

Tristan Fletcher, co-founder of London artificial intelligence startup Informed Actions, describes how evolving quantitative approaches are going well beyond finance to advance humanitarian goals in health care. The approaches are being used to improve ambulance services in South Africa and tackle pollution in China. Fletcher was speaking at Newsweek's Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Capital Markets conference, in London, March 2.

The Achilles tendon is a powerful body part connecting calf muscle to heel bone, enabling springing leaps and hurdles that make sports stars seem superhuman. But exactly how it connects to the bone hasn't been fully understood -- until now. Researchers from multiple disciplines took a microscopic look and found an extremely thin tissue layer that enables the tendon's great expansive strength. A team of biochemists and biophysicists from the Technical University of Munich headed by physician Dr. Rainer Burgkart applied a sequence of investigatory methods to get a close look. First, a series of multiscale microscopic photos of the boundary layer between tendon and bone were combined into a single large image, which revealed the former's tissue splitting into dozens of tiny fibers.

The truth is that "artificial intelligence" is a broad term that refers to much more than what has been popularized in pop culture... and it's a branch of science that will have irreversible impact on the marketing world. Before we get into how, here is a short glossary of terms and some background information that will help you get the most out of this issue. A way of talking about the algorithms that computers use to build their own models based on example input. It describes a computer that can move beyond fully descripted code and learn from experience, just as humans do. Deep learning is also sometimes known as neural networks.

Boston Dynamics, the Alphabet-owned robotics company, unveiled a new robot this week that robotics experts say is unlike anything they've ever seen before. The massive legged, wheeled machine is called Handle. Marc Raibert, the CEO of Boston Dynamics, called it "nightmare inducing." "It's very impressive," said Vikash Kumar, a robotics researcher at the University of Washington. "Nothing like this has been shown before." What sets Handle apart is its ability to move with confidence and an understanding of what its body is capable of -- it's remarkably lifelike.

Google is about to make more Androids even smarter. The tech giant is rolling out its Google Assistant to devices running on the Nougat and Marshmallow versions of its Android software. The firm first revealed the expansion at the Mobile World Congress and users in the US will be the first to receive the update – Australia, Canada, the UK and Germany are set to follow. Google is rolling out its Google Assistant to devices running on Nougat and Marshmallow. The firm first revealed the expansion at the Mobile World Congress and users in the US will be the first to receive the update – Australia, Canada, the UK and Germany are set to follow. Google has yet to reveal a detailed list of Android devices that are eligible to download Google Assistant.

The Terminator, Ava and bicentennial man Andrew Martin have one thing in common -- all are robots with human tissue that makes them look like real humans. While they may pass for humans in their own cinematic universe, they are now viewed differently by real-life scientists. Apparently, scientists are now seeing the most practical use of humanoid robots in the field of medicine. For two University of Oxford biomedical researchers Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy and Andrew Carr, building robots with human tissue is very possible and should be the next breakthrough in regenerative medicine. They say that robots are actually what the human race needs if people want tissue transplants that actually work and do not require human donors.

In a feat reminiscent of the controversial victory by supercomputer'Deep Blue' over world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a computer program has managed to beat a string of professional poker players at the game. DeepStack, as it was called, defeated 10 out of 11 players who took part in a total of 3,000 games as part of a scientific study into artificial intelligence. The 11th player also lost, but by a margin that the researchers decided was not large enough to be statistically significant. This is not the first time a computer has won at poker. Libratus, a program developed by Carnegie Mellon University academics, won $1.76m (£1.4m) from professionals in January, for example.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most evocative and confusing terms in technology. According to Accenture, artificial intelligence (AI) could add an additional US$814 billion in 2035 to the UK's economy--with growth rates increasing from 2.5 percent to 3.9 percent in 2035. We have seen a machine master the complex game of Go, previously thought to be the most difficult challenge of artificial processing. We have witnessed vehicles operating autonomously, including a caravan of trucks crossing Europe with only a single operator to monitor systems. We have seen a proliferation of robotic counterparts and automated means for accomplishing a variety of tasks.