Google's artificial intelligence can play the ancient game of Go better than any human. It can identify faces, recognize spoken words, and pull answers to your questions from the web. But the promise is that this same kind of technology will soon handle far more serious work than playing games and feeding smartphone apps. One day, it could help care for the human body. Demonstrating this promise, Google researchers have worked with doctors to develop an AI that can automatically identify diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause blindness among adults. Using deep learning--the same breed of AI that identifies faces, animals, and objects in pictures uploaded to Google's online services--the system detects the condition by examining retinal photos.

A 2013 study by Oxford University researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne has estimated that 47% of jobs in the US could be replaced by machines in the next 20 years. Many people feel uneasy about the idea of robots or machines taking over jobs that are currently occupied by humans but the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating at a rapid rate. Consequently, so is the automation of the workforce. As of yet, nobody knows what the result will be, however, it is certain that the move towards automation will create a lot of disruption. Daniel Susskind, lecturer at Oxford University and author of The Future of Professions, recently told Quartz "it's hard to escape the conclusion that there will be less for people to do."

Driving so-called'conversational commerce' is the next phase in the travel company-customer relationship but it's a complicated affair, as Pamela Whitby has been finding out In what Thomson is hailing as an'industry first', last week the holiday group said it would trial a travel search tool using IBM's Watson Technology, which uses natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence to allow computers to think like a human. In a company press release, Jeremy Osborne, Director of Strategic Innovation, TUI UK&I is quoted saying: "We wanted to test whether a conversational search experience would resonate with our customers as a new, fun and easy way to find their ideal holiday". And the response, it seems, was overwhelmingly positive with 77% of participants in the survey saying they would find a virtual assistant useful. The idea is that Thomson customers will be able to interact via a simple chat interface to get responses in real-time to their holiday queries.For the uninitiated, this may sound like Thomson is launching a chat bot. But the group's conversational tool, which is still in beta, is still one step away from this. IBM's Watson Technology, which Thomson is using, is not a chat bot solution in itself, but rather a tool to use for NLP and eventually artificial intelligence that will help make bots smarter.

But what exactly is machine learning? And how is it different to what we call artificial intelligence and the term deep learning frequently used today? Artificial intelligence is the general term for a series of methods, tools and technologies that imitate human cognition, including recognition, learning, planning, reasoning and the ability to solve problems. One of these methods is machine learning, aimed at making the computer capable of performing these cognitive skills. Machine learning is based on data and expert knowledge, out of which computers extract significant patterns and transfer these patterns to other data in order to generate predictions and recommendations.

Xiaoice is an artificial intelligence software. She has a'cute' voice, can instantly comment on weather data and big news events, and she has a job on morning TV. The Chinese live program, 'Morning News,' introduced the AI last year (pictured) The'death ray' that can knock out drones from more than a... Meet your housemates: Incredible images show the PARASITES... Is there an ancient civilisation on Mars? UFO hunters claim... Could we soon REGROW our limbs? Worm DNA may unlock the...

These are the people who qualify for membership in Mensa, an exclusive international society open only to people who score at or above the 98th percentile on an IQ or other standardized intelligence test. Mensa's mission remains the same as when it was founded in Oxford, England, in 1946: To identify and nurture human intelligence for humanity's benefit, to foster research in the nature of intelligence, and to provide social and other opportunities for its members. Nautilus spoke with five present and former members of the society: Richard Hunter, a retired finance director at a drinks distributor; journalist Jack Williams; Bikram Rana, a director at a business consulting firm; LaRae Bakerink, a business consultant; and clinical hypnotist John Sheehan. Together, they reflect on the meaning of genius, whether it can be measured, and what IQ has to do with it. If you pass that test, all it proves is that you have a certain IQ. That is not the same as making you an intelligent person, never mind a genius.

Today we Google for information, but in the future, we might not need to. Instead we may rely on our butler, namely the intelligent, voice-activated digital assistant on our smart phones or smart watches, or, like Amazon's Echo and Alphabet's Home. Rather than searching the web, we'll be able to ask our digital assistant how to remove the stain from our shirt. It'll perform other perfunctory tasks, like adding groceries to our shopping list, checking the weather, sending a text, or ordering an Uber. Maurice E. Stucke (@MauriceStucke) is a co-founder of the Konkurrenz Group and a law professor at the University of Tennessee.

The combined domestic output of eight major Japanese automakers fell 3.2 percent in October from a year earlier to 743,086 vehicles for the first decline in three months, according to data from major automakers. Six of the eight carmakers reported declines, with Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s domestic output tumbling 23.4 percent to 44,279 vehicles due to a temporary halt of minicar production in the wake of a fuel economy data manipulation scandal that erupted in April. Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday its domestic output fell 6.1 percent in October to 260,426 vehicles, the first decline in three months, reflecting slower growth in exports to the Middle East and North America. Domestic production at Suzuki Motor Corp. dived 13.3 percent from the year before to 62,206 vehicles due to sluggish sales of its minicars -- or vehicles with engines no larger than 660 cc -- since a tax hike on that vehicle category. Nissan Motor Co.'s output at home jumped 36.6 percent to 95,490 vehicles thanks mainly to strong sales of its new Serena minivan, which is equipped with self-driving vehicle technology.

The'DroneGun' blocks drones from flying and can also jam their GPS Gun is designed to stop drones carrying explosives or other weapons It weighs only 13lbs (6kg) and can be operated by just one person It disables drones in a safe and controlled manner, away from target zones The'DroneGun' blocks drones from flying and can also jam their GPS The DroneGun is a signal-jamming rifle capable of taking out an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from 1.2 miles (2km) away'I spy, with my little drone...': This is the world's... China unveils its answer to Amazon's Echo: The $118 LingLong... The AI that gives you a voice: Lip-reading machine... Why Mars astronauts risk going BLIND: Scientists finally... 'I spy, with my little drone...': This is the world's... China unveils its answer to Amazon's Echo: The $118 LingLong... The AI that gives you a voice: Lip-reading machine... Why Mars astronauts risk going BLIND: Scientists finally...

The 2014 movie The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing, the UK coding genius who built the influential Turing Machine, helped defeat the Nazis, but who also accepted chemically castration as an alternative to being gaoled for homosexual offences. Treated disgracefully by the establishment, he was finally pardoned by the Queen in 2013, following a public apology by then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009. The film was overdue recognition for the work Turing had done in computing and winning World War II for the allies. During the War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, an hour's drive north of London and while Turing died at the tragically young age of 42 and can't come back, Bletchley Park has since resurrected itself as a national monument for the work done there. The Government bought the 581-acre site in 1938 and it was reopened in 1993 as a museum, but is now expected to play a vital role in the current coding threat of cybersecurity, not secret Nazi codes.