Solving a Rubik's Cube is an impressive feat by itself, but now, a robot can do it in record time, cracking the 3D puzzle about 10 times faster than the human who holds the world record. In just over half of a second (0.637 seconds), the Sub1 Reloaded robot made each side of the Rubik's Cube show a single color. This breaks the previous record of 0.887 seconds achieved by an earlier version of the same machine using a different processor. German technology company Infineon staged the record attempt at the Electronica trade fair in Munich this week, as a way to highlight its self-driving-car technology. The company provided one of the Sub1 Reloaded robot's microchips.

Google's streaming music service can now predict what you want to listen to next Why Google Bets Voice-Powered Devices Are The Future Of Computing? Stay up-to-date on the topics you care about. We'll send you an email alert whenever a news article matches your alert term. It's free, and you can add new alerts at any time.

Some scientists, such as Stephen Hawking and Stuart Russell, believe that if advanced AI someday gains the ability to re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate, an unstoppable "intelligence explosion" could lead to human extinction (Technological Singularity). There is no doubt that the studies and research on Artificial Intelligence, if only targeted to commercial profit, military power and technological speculation paradigms, represent today one of the greatest existential threat to humanity. There are many laboratories in the world developing technologies associated with AI, but only some of them make their progress known. But from the signals – albeit fragmented – we get, it is extremely easy to understand an exposure to significant risks, even if masked by the opaque veil of "modernity". In order to clarify and avoid generalizations: simple positive implementations of AI are already part of our everyday since long time. Every time we turn on a last generation washing machine, or browse on Google or Facebook, complex adaptive algorithms guide us and facilitate the task, learning our behavior or our needs.

Amazon is launching its Spotify rival, Amazon Music Unlimited, in the UK with a headline price of £9.99 a month and access to a library of "over 40 million" songs. Those figures are comparable to competitors like Spotify and Apple Music, but where Amazon is focusing its competition is on a pair of special offers, as well as the tight integration with its own hardware ecosystem. The service is cheaper for those with an Amazon Prime subscription, the company's all-you-can-eat free delivery package. The monthly cost drops by £2, to £7.99, and an annual payment plan is available for £79 a year, taking the equivalent monthly fee to £6.58. That's how Amazon is hoping to entice users to upgrade from its other free streaming service, Amazon Prime Music.

Report discusses "special responsibilities for government which follow from its use of artificial intelligence and big data" A report by the Government Office for Science has warned that making the most of artificial intelligence, including in the public sector, will require the government to pay strong attention to ethics and governance. The report, Artificial intelligence: opportunities and implications for the future of decision making by government chief scientific advisor, Sir Mark Walport and Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill, says it is important that the government actively works to bring this about. "Reaping the benefits of this revolution in information technology will require an approach to ethics and governance that enables innovation, builds trust among citizens, establishes a stable environment for businesses and investors, and fosters appropriate access to the data necessary for computer science to develop this technology still further," the report said. "The right form of governance for artificial intelligence, and indeed for the use of digital data more widely, is not self-evident. It is important to consider forms of data governance that cover all elements of the increasingly complex space, from responsibly generating data from people's behaviour to remaining accountable for autonomous software agents. Additionally, any approach adopted must be flexible, able to adapt to new uses and more advanced forms of artificial intelligence. There are many models that can be considered. But the important task is to set out what needs to be done before considering how it is to be achieved."

Such sentiment analysis, however, comes with a heavy workload and also requires mathematical models. "There are three ways to make improved predictions – a better model, better data, and more data," says Jeremy Perlman, VP Europe for Trifacta, which helps RBS, Santander and PepsiCo analyse data. "The problem is that data created on social media and the web is expanding at a ridiculous rate, so machine learning will be critical to making better predictions at massive scale." Since computing power is increasingly exponential with the birth of super-computing in the cloud, the need to analyse more and more data shouldn't be a major hurdle. "Computational devices can very effectively, with high precision and rapidly, gather millions of tweets, posts or similar and run sentiment analysis – to understand likes and dislikes," says Jepson.

What is artificial intelligence and how is it being used? What benefits is it likely to bring for society and for government? What is artificial intelligence and how is it being used? What benefits is it likely to bring for society and for government?

Spending on cognitive systems and artificial intelligence (AI) across a broad range of industries will drive worldwide revenues from nearly $8.0 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020. In its Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive/Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide IDC said the market for cognitive/AI solutions will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.1 per cent over the 2016-2020 forecast period. According to David Schubmehl, research director, Cognitive Systems and Content Analytics at IDC, "Software developers and end user organizations have already begun the process of embedding and deploying cognitive/artificial intelligence into almost every kind of enterprise application or process" "Recent announcements by several large technology vendors and the booming venture capital market for AI startups illustrate the need for organizations to be planning and undertaking strategies that incorporate these wide-ranging technologies," he said. Schubmehl said identifying, understanding, and acting on the use cases, technologies, and growth opportunities for cognitive/AI systems will be a differentiating factor for most enterprises and the digital disruption caused by these technologies will be significant. The ability to recognize and respond to data flows using algorithms and rule-based logic enables cognitive/AI systems to automate a broad range of functions across many industries.

The Bank of England is using its new fintech accelerator to work with startups on developing proof-of-concepts (POCs) in data analytics, information security and distributed ledgers. Launched in June, the accelerator is designed to boost the BofE's practical experience with fintech, with firms invited to apply to work with it on POCs that address challenges unique to the central bank. Speaking at Web Summit in Lisbon this week, BofE COO Charlotte Hogg invited new applications and gave an update on the project, revealing that the bank is working with BMLL Technologies on a POC that uses a machine learning platform, applied to historic limit order book data, to spot anomalies and facilitate the use of new tools in analytical capabilities. A second POC, with Enforcd, uses an analytic platform designed specifically to share public information on regulatory enforcement action. Meanwhile, two firms - Anomali and ThreatConnect - are working on technologies to collect, correlate, categorise and integrate cyber security intelligence data.

Investors believe it is "inevitable" that artificial intelligence will destroy millions of jobs and that governments are unprepared for such an impact, according to a survey published on Thursday. Artificial intelligence (AI), or the process by which computers or robots take on tasks that need human intelligence, is one of the key themes of this week's Web Summit in Lisbon. The poll among 224 venture capitalists attending the conference showed 53 percent believed AI would destroy millions of jobs and 93 percent saw governments as unprepared for this. The survey also found that 83 percent of the investors canvassed expect Britain's exit from the European Union to damage Europe's economy and 77 percent believe it will damage British startups. London is widely seen as the main tech startup hub in Europe, thanks to its large pool of talent and a much bigger pool of funding than in rival centres.