New research published today by the Artificial Intelligence Forum of New Zealand (AI Forum) is calling for urgent action to progress the use of AI to address some of New Zealand's most pressing social, environmental and economic challenges, and not wait for a formal Government-led national strategy. The study called'Towards Our Intelligent Future' positions AI as a fundamental tool to tackle issues highlighted by the Treasury's new Living Standards Framework for Wellbeing, launched in December 2018, and also the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It reveals how New Zealand can benefit from AI supporting wellbeing and sustainability, along with the multi-billion dollar boost to the economy it could provide by 2030. By then, models from McKinsey and PwC show global GDP could be 14 percent higher with AI, and New Zealand could gain between 5.6 and 10.4 percent of total GDP, compared to a scenario without AI. It also shows New Zealand is performing reasonably well in the international AI discussion but highlights an urgent need to invest more and secure supply of homegrown talent.

Trajectory modelling had been the principal research area for understanding and anticipating human behaviour. Predicting the dynamic path by observing the agent and its surrounding environment are essential for applications such as autonomous driving and indoor navigation suggestions. However, despite the numerous researches that had been presented, most available dataset does not contains any information on environmental factors---such as the occupancy representation of the map---which arguably plays a significant role on how an agent chooses its trajectory. We present a trajectory dataset with the corresponding occupancy representations of different local-maps. The dataset contains more than 120 locally-structured maps with occupancy representation and more than 110K trajectories in total. Each map has few hundred corresponding simulated trajectories that navigate from a spatial location of a room to another point. The dataset is freely available online.

There's no denying the crisis created by a sudden rise in automated phishing attacks. And while IT leaders are using AI to take security to the next level, what if this technology falls into the wrong hands- the bad guys? The dawn of the internet and advances in computing means we're able to trigger an exact solution to complex problems in diverse areas – ranging from astrophysics and biological systems to automation and precision. But at the same time, these systems are inherently vulnerable to cyber threats. In this fast-paced world where innovations come and go in the blink of the eye, cybersecurity remains top-of-mind, especially for companies dabbling with data-rich transformations such as the Internet of Things (IoT).

'You oughta be in pictures," goes the 1934 Rudy Vallée song. And, as of last week, pretty much anyone can be. The entry requirements for being a star fell dramatically thanks to the launch, in China, of a face-swapping app that can decant users into film and TV clips. Zao, which has quickly become China's most downloaded free app, fuses the face in the original clip with your features. All that is required is a single selfie and the man or woman in the street is transformed into a star of the mobile screen, if not quite the silver one. In other words, anyone who yearns to be part of Titanic or Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory or the latest J-Pop sensation can now bypass the audition and go straight to the limelight without all that pesky hard work, talent and dedication. A whole new generation of synthetic movie idols could be unleashed upon the world: a Humphrey Bogus, a Phony Curtis, a Fake Dunaway. Zao already has its first star: the 30-year-old artist and games developer Allan Xia, who unwittingly became the face of the app last weekend after inserting himself into a Leonardo DiCaprio montage. Western media outlets hadn't paid much attention to Zao, which can only be accessed by users with a Chinese phone account, until Xia, who is based in Auckland but has a Chinese number, uploaded his experiments. After that, every media story covering the app came embedded with a clip of him strutting around in a Hawaiian shirt in Romeo Juliet, and basking in the golden sunset on deck in Titanic. How long did it take to claw himself to the top of the A-list? All I did was take a selfie, which was then ranked by the app to give me an idea of how well it would be able to generate videos based on my photo. It's looking to match your facial features to what is already there in its library of clips."

Britain risks sleepwalking into a "ghastly, Orwellian, omniscient police state" unless it addresses the ethical dilemmas posed by new technologies such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence, the Met Commissioner has warned. Cressida Dick said while the digital age presented numerous opportunities to help in the fight against crime it was vital there was a strict legal framework to ensure it was not used inappropriately. In a speech delivered at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney, Australia, Ms Dick said it was important to remember that the role of technology and data was to enable humans "to make better decisions.'' She said: "We're now tiptoeing into a world of robotics, AI [artificial intelligence] and machine learning ... the next step might be predictive policing. "People are starting to get worried about that ... particularly because of the potential for bias in the data or the algorithm, [like] live facial recognition software."

In today's multifaceted energy world, a growing number of prosumer assets are increasing the complexity of power grids. This is even more important in an ever-changing climate that more and more generates huge storms such as the Typhoon Lekima which caused 9.3 Billion in damage (5th Costliest known Pacific typhoons) and more than 90 deaths in the Philippines, Taiwan and China earlier this year, or the recent monstrous Category 5 Hurricane Dorian in the Atlantic Ocean. The director-general of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, Joy Jibrilu, details the damage left in the aftermath from Hurricane Dorian and what the Bahamas will need to move forward especially on the infrastructures. This looks too similar to what we've seen in Porto Rico two years ago which suffered severe damage from the category 5 hurricane Maria. The blackout as a result of Maria has been identified as the largest in US history and the second-largest in world history.

AI has been applied to many real-world applications. Machine learning is a branch of AI based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify hidden patterns, and make decisions with little/minimal human intervention. Evolutionary computation is an umbrella of population-based intelligent/learning algorithms inspired by nature, where New Zealand has a good international reputation. This paper provides a review on evolutionary machine learning, i.e. evolutionary computation techniques for major machine learning tasks such as classification, regression and clustering, and emerging topics including combinatorial optimisation, computer vision, deep learning, transfer learning, and ensemble learning. The paper also provides a brief review of evolutionary learning applications, such as supply chain and manufacturing for milk/dairy, wine and seafood industries, which are important to New Zealand.

A New Research on the Global Emotion Artificial Intelligence Market was conducted across a variety of industries in various regions to produce more than 150 page reports. This study is a perfect blend of qualitative and quantifiable information highlighting key market developments, industry and competitors' challenges in gap analysis and new opportunities and may be trending in the Emotion Artificial Intelligence market. Some are part of the coverage and are the core and emerging players being profiled IBM, Microsoft, Eyesight Technologies, Affectiva, NuraLogix, gestigon GmbH, Crowd Emotion, Beyond Verbal, nViso, Cogito Corporation, Kairos. Import and export policies that can have an immediate impact on the global Emotion Artificial Intelligence market. This study includes EXIM * related chapters for all relevant companies dealing with the Emotion Artificial Intelligence market and related profiles and provides valuable data in terms of finances, product portfolio, investment planning and marketing and business strategy. The study is a collection of primary and secondary data that contains valuable information from the major suppliers of the market.

Facebook is "considering" hiding the numbers of likes to others in posts, similar to an experiment it's doing with company-owned Instagram in several countries. The idea is to take away the popularity contest of posting, which makes people feel bad when their post doesn't perform with big numbers. According to Psychology Today, rejection in digital form (not getting many likes) can sting just as much as in the analog world. Among younger users on Instagram, posting becomes a contest to see who can get the most likes. Facebook wouldn't add more than that it's considering the move, but social media lit up with the possibilities.

RealtyAds is a digital marketing platform that is using AI to help the commercial real estate industry more successfully market their buildings, brokers, and brands to key, target audiences. Trevor Marticke: After graduating from Colgate University with a focus in Political Science and Economics, Trevor moved to Chicago and began his real estate career. He worked as a Tenant Advisor for Transwestern Commercial Services representing companies looking for office space. After 3 years, Trevor and his team were recruited to Cushman & Wakefield to grow their practice globally and continue representing firms as their real estate advisors. Over his career Trevor worked on transactions as far reaching as Sydney, Australia and sourced / executed more than $350mm in total transaction value.