From MOOCs (Massive open online courses) to the use of iPads in schools, there's no doubt that technology is changing the way that we learn. Chatbots could have a similar effect, too -- by offering a means by which children can better interact with the subjects they're studying. That was the conclusion reached by UK-based tech company rehabstudio. During a recent hackathon event, they came up with the idea of creating an "edubot" that would enable kids to ask questions to a tyrannosaurus rex (called Tina) using Facebook Messenger. The finished product was a collaboration between rehabstudio (providing the tech) and National Geographic Kids (providing the data.)

The spacecraft, whose name means stork in Japanese, will deliver some 5.9 tons of supplies, the heaviest load transported by a Kounotori ship. It is the largest among the cargo ships owned by Japan, the United States and Russia. Friday's launch, which followed Russia's failure in the launch of a Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress supply ship on Dec. 1, has raised the success rate of Japan's H-2 rocket launches to 97.3 percent. Of the 37 launches so far, all but one succeeded. In addition to water and food, Kounotori 6 will also deliver Japanese-made large lithium-ion batteries to replace batteries used at the ISS, experimental equipment for a new cooling system and equipment to measure cosmic radiation in real time.

In this AI Podcast, Bryan Catanzaro from Nvidia describes how machines with Deep Learning capabilities are now better at recognizing objects in images than humans. Catanzaro has been in AI since the beginning. Or, as Michael says, as "about as long as it has really worked." It's a journey that's taken him from UC Berkeley, where he earned his Ph.D., to NVIDIA, to Baidu -- where he worked on a team that's made a number of deep learning breakthroughs -- and back to NVIDIA. Along the way, he's seen deep learning make incredible advances.

There's been some stunning progress in artificial intelligence of late, but it's been surprisingly flat. Now AI researchers are moving beyond two-dimensional images and pixels. The work could have a big impact on robotics and self-driving cars, helping to make machines that can learn how to act more intelligently in the real world. "An exciting and important trend is the move in learning-based vision systems from just doing things with images to doing things with three-dimensional objects," says Josh Tenenbaum, a professor in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. "That includes seeing objects in depth and modeling whole solid objects--not just recognizing that this pattern of pixels is a dog or a chair or table." Tenenbaum and colleagues used a popular machine-learning technique known as generative adversarial modeling to have a computer learn about the properties of three-dimensional space from examples.

As Vatican lights Christmas tree, Pope reflects on Nativity scene'A gravely critical moment': Catholic scholars call on Bishops to support the four Cardinals Listen to God for guidance to build a better world Pope's prayer for the Immaculate in Piazza di Spagna Be like Mary – say yes to God, but not halfway, Pope Francis says'A gravely critical moment': Catholic scholars call on Bishops to support the four Cardinals ROME: Artificial intelligence is "an extremely important goal that has not been achieved yet," said Stanislas Dehaene, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the College de France, adding that "we don't want to create a system full of machines that don't share our intuitions of what should be a better world." The Vatican hosted a high-level discussion in the world of science, gathering experts to discuss the progress, benefits and limits of advances in artificial intelligence. A new conference at the Vatican drew experts in various fields of science and technology for a two-day dialogue on the "Power and Limits of Artificial Intelligence," hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences. Among the scheduled speakers were several prestigious scientists, including Stephen Hawkins, a prominent British professor at the University of Cambridge and a self-proclaimed atheist, as well as a number of major tech heads such as Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, and Yann LeCun of Facebook. The event, which ran from Nov. 30-Dec.

I always liked to do something with my hands, and once in grades 4-5, I decided to build a robot. It was made of plywood, and almost my height. The robot was equipped with a vibration motor (brushes for clothes as his feet plus eccentric motors), so that he could move. His eyes were light bulbs with a conical reflector made from a tin can. He raised his hand when you came closer to him, thanks to a photo diode reacting to changes in lighting which was built into his chest.

Earlier this week we warned that as the trend to robotization accelerates, millions of (mostly) low-skilled American jobs will be lost in the next five years, replaced by robots as companies seek to maintain high profit margins in a time of rising wages and growing inflation. One company, however, can not wait that long. British outsourcing giant Capita, a company whose contracts include collecting the BBC license fee, is preparing to fire thousands and replace them with robots after clients cut spending following Brexit vote in a move some fear will be repeated across the country, leading to more than 1 million job losses according to the Guardian. Capita, a FTSE 100-listed firm that also runs the London congestion charge, said it needed to axe 2,000 jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive in response to poor trading. The company said it would use the money it saved to fund investment into robotic workers across the whole company.

Home » Brain Function » Dementia risk in older adults can be predicted with a new risk index tool Dementia risk in older adults can be predicted with a new risk index tool By: Devon Andre Brain Function Friday, December 09, 2016 - 11:00 AM Dementia risk in older adults can be predicted with a new risk index tool. Preventing dementia is becoming a worldwide concern as rates of mental decline are expected to climb. While the risk of developing dementia can be somewhat curbed with lifestyle changes, detecting the most vulnerable population segments is still a challenge. Researchers from Finland and Sweden addressed the challenges of recognizing dementia by using a novel machine learning approach. They developed a dementia risk index tool which helps assess a person's risk of dementia in order to determine the appropriate preventative measures.

There's been some stunning progress in artificial intelligence of late, but it's been surprisingly flat. Tagged In United States Dollar Natural Language Processing Speech Recognition Interactive Voice Response Optical Character Recognition Unity has hired Uber's former head of machine learning, Dr. Danny Lange, to take on the problems of augmented reality and virtual reality gaming AI. Unity's explosive growth is allowing it to focus on making its engine more friendly and capable when it comes to AR/VR gameplay and Dr. Lange will help develop machine learning and AI algorithms needed for computer-controlled enemies and allies in a truly three-dimensional setting. There's been some stunning progress in artificial intelligence of late, but it's been surprisingly flat. Unity has hired Uber's former head of machine learning, Dr. Danny Lange, to take on the problems of augmented reality and virtual reality gaming AI.

A talking monkey seems like a thing of science-fiction, cartoons, and goofy advertisements. But new research suggests monkey speech may be closer to reality than commonly thought. Macaques actually have vocal anatomy capable of human-like speech, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances. "This suggests that what makes people unique among primates is our ability to control the vocal apparatus, not the apparatus itself," Thore Jon Bergman, an evolutionary biopsychologist at the University of Michigan who was not part of the research, writes in an email to The Christian Science Monitor. Researchers studying non-human primates had previously hypothesized that the shape, size, or structure of the vocal anatomy in the animals' heads might be holding them back from making the sorts of sounds that make up human speech.