Microsoft's attempt to use machine learning to improve on the Duckworth-Lewis method in cricket has been dismissed by the current custodian of the system. For the uninitiated, the Duckworth-Lewis method, or D/L method for short, is used to calculate the score that the team batting second in a limited overs cricket match needs to reach if the match is affected by rain. For example, if the team batting first scores 400 in 50 overs for five wickets, but rain reduces the second team's innings to 40 overs, the D/L method may put forward a score of 300. It was invented by statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis and was first used in 1997 in a match between England and Zimbabwe. It is now regularly used at matches at all levels.

Not quite breathtaking speed, yet events of 1895 were still history in the making. It's hard to imagine anything that could transform the way we move around quite as much as this. Yet industry experts recently gathered at Frost & Sullivan's Intelligent Mobility conference in London to consider innovations that could be every bit as history making as the arrival of the first motor cars. From the rise of electric vehicles to the arrival of a super-connected world, to a shift towards car-sharing apps and a need to keep crowded cities moving, mobility is rapidly evolving. Add artificial intelligence (AI) to the equation, and the changes ahead seem even more dramatic. Our forefathers gazed in wonder at the horseless carriage – are we now staring at a world once more about to be transformed?

UK tech startup, habito, has launched the world's first artificially intelligent Digital Mortgage Adviser (DMA) allowing millions of consumers to discuss their mortgage needs from any connected device, 24/7, without requiring a human broker. Built using AI technology and habito's market-leading algorithm, the DMA marries all the elements of a customer's financial life (e.g. The DMA explains the impact consumers' decisions will have on each mortgage configuration as a traditional mortgage broker would, but in a fraction of the time (average 10 minutes). Habito has the ability to search hundreds of products (versus a handful), so once the advice is complete consumers can be sure they're on the best mortgage for them, which can result in savings of thousands of pounds per year*. In designing the new system, habito analysed hundreds of advice interviews in order to understand what consumers needed and what formed the basis of informative advice.

Managing and, preferably, optimizing your full financial portfolio, an investment portfolio, a pension plan and so on is traditionally a human task. It is done by various possible people such as investment managers, wealth managers, financial advisers and even accountants. Since just a few years a range of new fintechs hit the market with so-called robo-advisers or automated financial advice tools. They have been popping up (and keep popping up) in no time and some already even dissapeared. Automated financial advice and optimization is a hot and diverse market with the launch of several platforms, digital and/or mobile in a really short timeframe.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) today announced that IBM Watson is coming to the US Open Tennis Championships for the first time via a new cognitive concierge feature being piloted within the tournament's official mobile apps to enhance the fan experience at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The US Open mobile app Guest Services companion will pilot a Watson-enabled discovery tool that allows fans to input natural language questions and receive immediate responses about a range of tournament topics, such as transportation and directions, food and drink options, on-site services and facilities, as well as other topics. By tapping into the Natural Language API from the Watson platform, the AI-infused app will enable fans to ask questions in natural language and get the information they need to plan and navigate their tournament experience. For example, fans can ask questions like, "Where can I get a soda?" or "Where are the taxi stands?" Due to Watson's machine learning capabilities, the app also continuously learns from previous interactions helping further refine its responses over time.

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. 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. After watching such films, we can wonder why our scientists want to build intelligent machines in a first place. One would ask: why putting humanity at risk?

For the past year, the Dutch National Police and raptor training company Guard From Above have been investigating whether eagles could be an effective way of dealing with potentially dangerous drones. The trials have been a resounding success, and the Dutch police today announced that they're ready to operationally deploy an anti-drone team of specially trained bald eagles and their human partners. This video shows a demo that the Dutch police put on yesterday of a drone threatening a mock state visit. The eagle vs drone action starts at about 1:50. We use all kinds of technological solutions, like electromagnetic pulses, or even laser technology, and one of the projects is the use of birds of prey.

MIAMI – Nearly two thirds of the world's languages often use similar sounds for common objects, such as the "n" sound for nose, international researchers said Monday. The study challenges a long-standing principle of linguistics, which holds that the relationship between sound and meaning is completely arbitrary, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "These sound symbolic patterns show up again and again across the world, independent of the geographical dispersal of humans and independent of language lineage," said Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology at Cornell University. "There does seem to be something about the human condition that leads to these patterns. We don't know what it is, but we know it's there," added Christiansen, director of Cornell's Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.

From launching a yearlong anti-ISIS airstrike campaign in Syria to conducting naval exercises in the South China Sea this week, Russia's military might is showing no signs of slowing after its global expo promoting the country's brand new weapons of war concluded Sunday. The International Military-Technical Forum, an event held this past week near Moscow called "Army-2016," featured more than 11,000 pieces of modern military hardware to show "the maximum range of the export potential of Russian high-tech military products, represented in the form of natural samples on static display and in action on land, water and in the sky," the official website says. Some of the items on display included bombs, air defense systems and unmanned vehicles for both the air and ground that Sputnik News called robots. Below are photos and video of 10 key state-of-the-art weapons of war Russia had on display. The horwitzer armored truck that is also known as the "Phlox" comes with a powerful cannon mounted on top that has the ability to shoot with precision targets that are more than 6 miles away.

There are two problems facing marketers today. It can be overwhelming and time consuming to get through. That's where Datorama comes in. It's a SaaS-based, big data management platform for advertisers and ad agencies, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to make it easier to upload data, and to categorize it. The company closed 32 million in Series C funding, it was announced on Monday.