We are familiar with the famous saying "dog is a man's best friend," but no one could figure out exactly why this particular animal carries the capability of being so friendly toward humans. According to a study published Wednesday, the reason behind humans and dogs striking a common cord might be because the latter descended from wolves. The study found that hyper-social canines carry variants of the genes GTF2I and GTF2IRD1, the deletion of which, in humans, triggers the Williams-Beuren Syndrome, or more commonly known as the Williams syndrome. Bridgett vonHoldt of Princeton University and her colleagues studied a portion of DNA in dogs that included 29 genes. They noticed that deletion of part or all of this section due to prolonged domestication seemed to cause the overtly friendly nature in dogs.

You list your symptoms, answer a few questions about how long they've lasted and whether they seem to be getting worse. Then, without ever leaving home or queueing at the clinic, you get the diagnosis: a strained neck. Or, at least, eight out of 10 people with those symptoms have one. Would you like to have your case reviewed by a human doctor? The free app Ada, which offered up this diagnosis, was launched in the UK in April.

This article was first published on the IEC e-tech website. Rapid advances in technology are revolutionizing the roles of aerial, terrestrial and maritime robotic systems in disaster relief, search and rescue (SAR) and salvage operations. Robots and drones can be deployed quickly in areas deemed too unsafe for humans and are used to guide rescuers, collect data, deliver essential supplies or provide communication services. The first reported use of SAR robots was to explore the wreckage beneath the collapsed twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Drones and robots have been used to survey damage after disasters such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in Japan in 2011 and the earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015).

I was recently invited to participate as a panelist at Firebrand Talent's'Put it to the Panel' event on how Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is changing the marketing profession. And as I am often asked about this topic, in the spirit of sharing, here are some of my thoughts. I am often asked about which APIs and A.I. technology, marketers should consider. Artificial Intelligence enables marketers to personalise and create more effective customer experiences, and improve ROI. At the core, artificial intelligence is all about technology, which enables humans to make better, more informed decisions.

We should have been more specific. Organizers say this event is the first global robotics competition specifically for high school students. There have been other robotics competitions with teams from multiple countries.]

A team of Afghan girls whose plight resounded with the world won a silver medal for "courageous achievement" at an international robotics contest in the United States, with judges praising the group's "can-do attitude". The First Global Challenge event in Washington ended on Tuesday, having attracted teams of teenagers from more than 150 nations. But all eyes were on the squad of girls from Afghanistan, who had twice travelled 800 kilometres to the American embassy in Kabul, only to have their visa applications turned down. They were finally granted entry with just one week to go until the event began after their story had gone viral. In an interview with Al Jazeera, before US officials decided to allow them in the country, team member Rodaba Noori said: "We wanted to show our talents to the world so they would know that we do have skills."

Strict Minimum Message Length (SMML) is a statistical inference method widely cited (but only with informal arguments) as providing estimations that are consistent for general estimation problems. It is, however, almost invariably intractable to compute, for which reason only approximations of it (known as MML algorithms) are ever used in practice. We investigate the Neyman-Scott estimation problem, an oft-cited showcase for the consistency of MML, and show that even with a natural choice of prior, neither SMML nor its popular approximations are consistent for it, thereby providing a counterexample to the general claim. This is the first known explicit construction of an SMML solution for a natural, high-dimensional problem. We use the same novel construction methods to refute other claims regarding MML also appearing in the literature.

Tesla will partner with French renewable energy company Neoen to build the 100-megawatt battery farm in South Australia state. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the government should consider regulations for artificial intelligence because it poses "a fundamental existential risk for human civilization." Musk made the comments over the weekend during the National Governors Association's summer meeting in Providence, R.I. Musk says AI is the "scariest problem" because of its potential to harm humans beyond just disrupting the job market. Musk wants the government to set regulations in place to root out threats early. "AI is a rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation than reactive," said Musk. "By the time we're reactive in AI regulation, it's too late."

The Department of Defence has delved into researching'Trusted Autonomous Systems' (aka, robots), as part of the Turnbull government's $50 million investment into launching the Defence Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). The Defence CRC is a collaborative program that brings together academia, publicly funded research agencies, industry (particularly small to medium enterprises) to create an interlocking research and innovation capability that is focused on driving a Defence outcome. It is a federal government initiative of the Next Generation Technologies Fund, which complements the Defence Innovation Hub as the two core initiatives of the new Defence Innovation System outlined in the Government's Defence Industry Policy Statement. These two signature innovation research and development programs, together with the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, deliver on the government's $1.6 billion commitment to grow Australia's defence industry and innovation sector. Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne said the first Defence CRC will focus on Trusted Autonomous Systems to deliver'game-changing' unmanned platforms that ensure reliable and effective cooperation between people and machines during dynamic military operations.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck off the South Pacific island nation of Tonga on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake, at a depth of 97 km (60 miles), was located 180 km (112 miles) south-southwest of Neita in Tonga. No tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quake. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO urged governors to regulate artificial intelligence before it's too late.