I'd be willing to bet that if you were asked to list ten uses for your smartphone, you probably wouldn't include "medical device" in your answer. But as smartphones become increasingly capable, highly-portable computing platforms, researchers are looking to the computer in everyone's pocket as a way to improve global health. As Wired UK declared earlier this year, the next revolutionary medical device is likely to be your smartphone. Scientists have already developed smartphone-based apps that can monitor asthma, detect skin cancer, and diagnose traumatic brain injuries. The latest app that joins the "doctor in your pocket" list is helping screen for anemia.

Any future war with Russia or China would be "extremely lethal and fast" and produce violence on the scale not seen for 60 years, according to US generals. Artificial intelligence and automated weapons systems will accelerate any future conflict, Major General William Hix has warned. "A conventional conflict in the near future will be extremely lethal and fast," he told a future-of-the-Army panel on Tuesday, Defense One reports. "And we will not own the stopwatch." General Hix described his vision of accelerated future warfare: "The speed of events are likely to strain our human abilities.

Artificial Intelligence technology development, application, and production are growing rapidly. As we being to understand the scope of the change that lies ahead, two simple questions come to mind. First, is it even possible to ensure that the technology is developed solely for the benefit of the humankind and not to cause harm? Second, if such an ideal is achieved, who controls and monitors it? The first assumption we have to make – and frankly it is not a big leap – is that artificial intelligence technology, like other technologies, can be used to do both good and bad.

If you have been to or watched any event this year from Microsoft such as Build, Ignite or TechDays Online, you'll know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is core to Microsoft's overall vision for how we'll help every person and organisation on the planet achieve more. Microsoft's vision include is about three bold ambitions: AI is central all of these ambitions and technologies like Azure Machine Learning, Cortana Analytics, Cognitive Services and the Microsoft Bot Framework here today and ready for you to start building AI into your applications. Future Decoded is Microsoft's annual UK event which brings together business and technical people from across the UK to learn about the latest in Microsoft technology and the partner ecosystem that surrounds it. The two days will be split into a business focus on the first day and a technical focus on the second day. The afternoon of Technical Day will be split into several tracks focusing on specific technologies, one of those tracks is the Artifical Intelligence track.

Its traditional aversion to risk has meant the legal profession has not been in the vanguard of new technology. But it is seen as ripe for disruption -- a view that is based not least on pressure from tech-savvy corporate clients questioning the size of their legal bills and wanting to reduce risk. As more law firms become familiar with terms such as machine learning and data mining, they are creating tech-focused jobs like "head of research and development" or hiring coders or artificial intelligence (AI) experts. Change is being driven not only by demand from clients but also by competition from accounting firms, which have begun to offer legal services and to use technology to do routine work. "Lawtech" start-ups, often set up by ex-lawyers and so-called because they use technology to streamline or automate routine aspects of legal work, are a threat too.

Artificial intelligence has always been a hot topic. The problem of creating a machine that can think, make its own decisions and at the same time lacks human limitations, has always aroused controversies. Because what is the artificial intelligence, what do we know about it? Is it going to be human's best friend or maybe the worst enemy? We all remember what the infamous Skynet has done to our planet in Terminator series, right? We can also recall this nasty feeling of a cold shiver running down our spines when Neo has woken up from the Matrix.

Machine learning – the technology which allows machines to learn from data and self-improve – has significant potential for advancing a range of industries, as we've previously discussed in relation to manufacturing and the professions. On 8 September, the Royal Society held a workshop on the use of machine learning in the UK pharmaceutical sector. We explored what machine learning could do, and barriers to its use, with global pharmaceutical companies, sector associations, regulators, start-ups and SMEs. This blog post gives a few highlights from the discussion. Its ability to spot patterns in large volumes of data gives machine learning a range of applications in the pharmaceutical sector.

Customers at Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest may soon be sorting out issues with help from a virtual chatbot. Web-based Luvo will be able to answer simple queries such as how to order a replacement card. Designed using IBM Watson technology, the virtual agent is able to understand and learn from human interactions. In future, Luvo may be able to understand if a customer was feeling frustrated or unhappy and change its tone and actions accordingly, IBM said. The service will initially be rolled out to RBS and NatWest customers, starting in December with about 10% of RBS customers in Scotland.

PARIS – Molecular machines, which earned their inventors the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday, are a fraction of the width of a human hair but strong enough to move things 10,000 times their size. The devices have yet to find practical use in nanoscale engineering, but scientists look forward to the day when microscopic motors or delivery vehicles will be omnipresent, whether in the human body or a microchip. Inspired by natural proteins, which act as biological "machines" within cells, synthetic nanobots can be prodded by light or changes in temperature to produce mechanical motion. Their use in localized drug delivery is "probably the most short-term achievable" application, according to Nicholas White of the Australian National University's Research School of Chemistry. The tiny machines, constructed from groups of molecules, may be used to protect the human body from exposure to the toxic effects of certain medicines, such as those used in chemotherapy.

Jin Kawaguchiya gave up a career in finance to help revive Japan's ailing dairy industry, one robot at a time. In a country that relies increasingly on imported foods like cheese and butter, Japan's milk output tumbled over two decades, touching a 30-year low in 2014. Costs rose faster than prices as the economy stagnated, eroding profit, and aging farmers quit the business because they could not find enough young people willing to take on the hard labor of tending to cows every day. But technology is altering that dynamic. On Hokkaido, Japan's top dairy-producing region, Kawaguchiya transformed the 20-cow farm he inherited from his father-in-law 16 years ago into Asia's largest automated milking factory.