CANNES - Many a CMO is excited about the prospect of having machine-learning algorithms or artificial intelligence (AI) do the heavy lifting when it comes to harvesting actionable insights from the data onslaught. But Kevin Akeroyd, GM and SVP of Oracle Marketing Cloud, does his best to let them down easy, pointing out that there's still plenty to be done today. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he told Campaign Asia-Pacific on the sidelines of the Cannes Lions Festival in France. You know what, let's get you really, really good at listening and responding to data before you get yourself all hot and bothered about machine learning. In his view, many brands are not even listening to all the available data, tying it together and making an activation decision up into a consistent channel experience.

Hollywood fantasy: The reality of AI development is a little more nuanced and a lot less advanced than movies might have us believe. It's the theme of so many dystopian sci-fi books and movies: a super intelligent machine in charge of lethal military hardware becomes self-aware and decides to wreak havoc. But could it actually happen? At the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's annual conference in Texas last month, a workshop was held on the ethics of AI development and a panel discussed whether or not so-called'lethal autonomous weapons' should be banned. "There are many arguments, legal, ethical, political and technical for a ban," Toby Walsh, head of the Optimisation Research Group at Australia's research body NICTA and chair of the proceedings, told Fairfax Media.

With laptops and hand-held devices slowly replacing pencils and paper, some educators question the importance of teaching handwriting in the classroom. Although some say it is a nonessential motor skill, researchers have found evidence that in fact it helps children pay attention to and understand the written language. Brain scans in children who did not yet know how to print revealed they are unable to distinguish letters and respond to them'the same as to a triangle'. Although some say it is a nonessential motor skill, researchers have found evidence this skill helps children pay attention to and understand the written language. Brain scans in children who did not yet know how to print yet revealed they are unable to distinguish letters and respond to them'the same as to a triangle' You have to see letters in'the mind's eye' in order to create them on a piece of paper she explained.

An online learning program which can tell when a student is becoming bored and inattentive is one of the key developments forecast to reshape university education in Australia in the next five years, according to a new report. The 2016 NMC Technology Outlook for Australian Tertiary Education says that so-called "affective computing", which is able to use video imagery of facial expressions to discern human emotions, will soon be coupled with online learning platforms to encourage students to keep their minds on their work. The report says this is likely to be adopted by universities in the next four to five years. It forecast "online learning situations wherein a computerised tutor reacts to facial cues of boredom in a student in an effort to motivate or boost their confidence." "Software technology will literally learn to learn, interpreting and responding to learners' most nuanced gestures and emotions – whether they are feeling bored, intimidated or satisfied," says Brenda Frisk, head of learning technology at Open Universities Australia, a partner in the report.

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Save eBay? By The Street For eBay (EBAY), artificial intelligence could prove to be its salvation. The San Jose, Calif.-based e-commerce giant, which has been working to transform itself after spinning off PayPal Holdings (PYPL) last year, could reap some huge benefits if it can find out a way to effectively use AI, according to analysts. At the Code Conference earlier this month, eBay CEO Devin Wenig revealed that the company started getting very serious about using artificial intelligence last year, noting that e-commerce is essentially a data business and that AI may be more important for eBay than its peers due to the "breadth of its inventory." Wenig further explained that eBay plans to formulate a strategy focused on using data to predict what consumers might want and offering a wide selection of products.

The seabed holds some fascinating historical secrets, but unlike monuments on land, they're largely hidden from view. Now, archaeologists in the United Kingdom are using 3D printing to bring two historical shipwrecks to life for history enthusiasts and experts alike. Using data from photogrammetry (measuring the distance between objects from photographs) and sonar imaging, the researchers have produced scale models of a 17th-century shipwreck near Drumbeg, in Scotland, and the remains of the HMHS Anglia, a steamship that was used as a floating hospital during World War I. The steamship was sunk by a mine off the south coast of England. "It was a proof of concept for us, trying to establish what could be done using sound and light, but there are so many different applications you could use this for," said maritime archaeologist John McCarthy, a project manager at Wessex Archaeology who carried out dives at the Scottish site and was in charge of producing the 3D models.

We've noticed a lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) among online marketplaces, including eBay (eBay CEO Devin Wenig said AI technology will render the search box redundant), Alibaba (invested in Twiggle), and Amazon (CEO Jeff Bezos said we're at the beginning of a golden age of AI). According to Facebook's detailed post published on Wednesday, June 1, DeepText is a deep-learning artificial intelligence system that is able to understand the content of several thousand posts per second. The system will also be able to filter out malicious, hateful, or hurtful speech on the social network, along with photos that contravene Facebook's policies. Published By: Eunice Gettys on June 5, 2016 08:37 am EST Microsoft Corporation ( NASDAQ:MSFT) announced back in March that Windows 10 had exceeded 300 million active users, calculating from when the operating system was launched in mid-2015, making it the company's most successful operating system ever. Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business.

Driverless trucks will be safer and cheaper than their human-controlled counterparts, but that doesn't mean America's 3.5 million professional truck drivers are giving up to the machines without a fight. Across the US, truckers collectively haul more than 10bn tons of freight each year, but it's a tough job – the hours are long and lonely, the pay is low and the lifestyle is sedentary. "Picture the taxi drivers around the world acting in response to Uber," says Andy Stern, the former former president of the Service Employees International Union, referring to protests and violence that erupted in many cities as the 62.5bn Silicon Valley on-demand ride-hailing firm challenged conventional, regulated taxis. "Truck drivers will follow a similar pattern," says Stern. "There will be disruption in different places. You can imagine people ringing state capitals with their trucks."

Blizzard, the developer behind games like Hearthstone, World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has confirmed it is having issues with its Battle.net Reports of players not being able to log in to Battle.net Blizzard's customer service has since confirmed the problem. We're currently investigating an issue affecting our authentication servers, which may result in failed or slow login attempts. It is unclear if the problem arose because of a technical issue or if it was caused by a malicious attack.

NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND – A new maker of self-driving vehicles burst onto the scene Thursday in partnership with IBM's supercomputer platform Watson, and it is ready to roll right now. Arizona-based startup Local Motors is offering Olli, an electric minibus capable of carrying 12 people. It says the vehicle can be produced to order by 3-D printing. Olli was designed as an on-demand transportation solution that passengers can summon with a mobile app, like Uber rides. And it can be "printed" to specification in "micro factories" in a matter of hours. Olli will be demonstrated in National Harbor, Maryland, over the next few months with additional trials expected in Las Vegas and Miami.