There is growing concern across the board that we might be losing control over cybersecurity. The rapid changes in how we use technology to communicate and the increased number of connected devices means the points of entry or breach are growing. Because the pace of change has been so rapid, security hasn't adapted fast enough and hackers are taking full advantage. The traditional ways of dealing with cyber threats are beginning to look hopelessly inadequate. This concern goes right to the top.

The folks over at x.ai – creators of Amy, the artificial intelligence answer to scheduling meetings – have had a shot at showing exactly what it looks like inside their bot's brain, using AI, of course. The team used a powerful deep-learning model, a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), to trawl 500,000 words in its database, looking at their sequence in a sentence to understand what they mean, then predicting how to categorize them. This year's edition of TNW Conference in Amsterdam includes some of the biggest names in tech. Without a human ever telling the RNN the definitions of different word groups, it has managed to understand that Stanford is different from Instagram, and that Jesse, Luke and Jason are names. This data was cut to down to the 3,500 most frequently used words and has then been projected into a 2D shape in order to show the relationships the AI has made between different words.

For decades robots have won the affection of humans in pop culture -- whether it was R2-D2 in Star Wars or Rosie the Robot in the Jetsons. But as popular as these machines have been on screen, we haven't seen similar robots enter our everyday lives. Now that appears on the verge of changing as the technology sector increasingly invests in robotics. Funding to private robotics companies doubled in 2015 to reach a record high of 587 million, according to CB Insights. And robots were the dominant theme at a conference Amazon held earlier this week to encourage inspiration and creativity in tech's hottest fields.

Reinforcement learning, a key Google DeepMind algorithm, could overhaul news recommendation engines and greatly improve users' stickiness. After beating a Go Grandmaster, the algorithm could become the engine of choice for true personalization. My interest for DeepMind goes back to its acquisition by Google, in Jan. 2014, for about half a billion dollars. Later in California, I had conversations with artificial intelligence and deep learning experts; they said Google had in fact captured about half of the world's best A.I. minds, snatching several years of Stanford A.I. classes, and paying top dollar for talent. Acquiring London startup DeepMind was a key move in a strategy aimed at cornering the A.I. field.

This week, a short novel written by an AI program did well in a Japanese literary contest, scientists spotted traces of a possible new particle that could shake the foundations of physics and a team of researchers discovered in the human genome a "nearly intact" genetic blueprint for a 700,000-year-old stowaway virus. A short novel written by a Japanese artificial intelligence software program passed the first screening round for the Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. "The day a computer wrote a novel," the program wrote near the end of the piece, "the computer, placing priority on the pursuit of its own joy, stopped working for humans." A team of scientists from Tufts University and the University of Michigan Health System has found a "nearly intact" genetic copy of an ancient virus that spliced itself into our DNA. The team doesn't rule out the possibility that it could come alive again.

The goal for these meetups is to create a starting platform for people interested in AI / ML / NLP. Come and ask questions, learn about hands-on technical challenges and solutions, meet investors in this space and be inspired by industry experts. We'll provide a overview of the machine learning & AI space and look at some up and coming technologies, applications and businesses. Don't see it as a talk, rather as ideas for discussion topics...ask questions, interject ideas and get excited!

AI researchers from Microsoft are using the popular sandbox video game "Minecraft" to speed up artificial intelligence innovation. The research project, which is currently being conducted at the Microsoft Research facility in New York City, aims to improve what researchers call general artificial intelligence, which is akin to the complex way human beings learn, decide, and resolve problems. Though numerous theoretical studies have been conducted on general artificial intelligence, researchers have been hampered by the lack of practical methods of exploring the technology. "Minecraft," the intellectual property for which was acquired by Microsoft in 2014, provides the perfect setting for artificial intelligence research. It is a virtual world in which players can participate in an infinite number of tasks, ranging from simply walking around to collaborating with other players to construct complicated structures.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

There are more mobile phones than humans on earth. That presents a unique opportunity for big data and, more importantly, the insights from the data to be applied to greater social good. At this week's PAPIs Connect--a predictive application programming interface (API) conference in Valencia, Spain--Nuria Oliver, the scientific director of Telefonica's R&D program, spoke about how to adapt this data via machine learning. Today, we touch on two of the situations she presented where big data and machine learning gave insight into how governments can better address crises, whether it's a natural disaster or a disease outbreak. In this piece we aren't talking about personalized data or even that which we're offering via our social media accounts.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Friday that Moscow will deploy a range of missile systems on the Kuril islands, claimed by Japan, as part of its military build-up in the far-eastern region, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The islands have been a reason of tense relations between Moscow and Tokyo. "The planned rearmament of contingents and military bases on Kuril islands is under way. Already this year they will get Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems as well as new-generation Eleron-3 unmanned aerial vehicles," Shoigu said during a ministry meeting, AFP reported. Russia has been investing in military infrastructure on the Kuril islands, which Japan considers its territory, leading to strained relations between the two nations.