China is on its way to becoming the first global superpower for Artificial Intelligence. The People's Republic of China has the most ambitious AI strategy of all nations and provides the most resources worldwide for its implementation. China combines a gigantic amount of data with talent, companies, research and capital to build the world's leading AI ecosystem. In 2017, the State Council of the People's Republic of China (also known as the Central People's Government) published the Artificial Intelligence Development Plan (here you can find the original document in English). This strategy is part of the even bigger national "Made in China 2025" plan and will also be linked to the new (digital) Silk Road.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can help India achieve the $5 trillion economy benchmark over the next five years. "Our government believes artificial intelligence, in different forms, can help us achieve the $5 trillion benchmark over the next five years, but also help us do it effectively and efficiently," Goyal said while inaugurating the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Knowledge Hub. The hub is an AI-powered learning ecosystem for the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. The minister referred to an Accenture report that said AI and machine learning have the potential to contribute nearly $1 trillion to the Indian economy by 2035 and said the Knowledge Hub created by NSE will fill in the gaps and help the financial sector to move into the future. Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat through a whole day with officials from various ministries to get the sense of urgency to understand the importance of AI and how it can help put the Indian economy on the fast track.

In the wonderful world of marketing technology (MarTech), the only constant is change--and 2020 will be no exception. Some trends will be the result of transformative technology becoming more accessible. On the other hand, data won't be as accessible as it once was between increased data regulation and privacy concerns. The key to navigating these trends successfully is keeping yourself informed on why they matter and what their impact will be. So, let's dive into three of the top MarTech trends to keep in mind over the next year.

Iris.ai is a top competitor in the third year of the $5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, and the XPRIZE crew is joining us in Helsinki to see what we and the Finnish AI community has to offer. AI Monday is a network of technology enthusiasts that organises monthly events around the world, including at Maria01. What better excuse to bring together smart, lovely, driven people across the community? The evening will, beyond the fun, include an introduction by us at Iris.ai, XPRIZE and AI Monday. A short presentation on what we should know about AI from Teemu Roos, Professor of Computer Science at University of Helsinki, and a panel discussion with Ville Hulkko from Silo.ai, Anu Passi-Rauste from Head.ai and Anita Schjoll-Brede from Iris.ai on the topic of the challenges and opportunities of running an AI business.

The rise of smart technology devices gave people more convenient lives, made businesses more efficient and productive, and even gives us better protection from risks and hazards. However, criminals and, in some cases, governments could use these smart devices against consumers. Preface: What are IoT and A.I.? IoT stands for the Internet of Things, the technology that allows everyday devices to connect with each other seamlessly using the Internet. If that didn't make sense to you, just think how your smart security cameras could open your door when its facial recognition detects your face approaching the door. Meanwhile, A.I. stands for artificial intelligence.

It sounds like a tagline for a science fiction film, but we need only look as far as the retail industry to see the truth in this statement. Robots have been with us for a while in retail, and technology powered through AI and machine learning to incorporate the voice of the customer to transform how retailers make product and pricing decisions is something I've been advocating for years. Amazon and many retailers are operating robots behind the scenes to help with inventory management. Walmart is building its robot army as well, and according to this ABI Research release, the company deployed 350 systems for inventory management across its stores in 2019 alone. As retailers look to trim costs and streamline operations, particularly along the supply chain, robots are only going to become more entrenched in retail's day-to-day operations, taking on greater roles and interacting with employees and consumers alike as AI becomes smarter.

Reproducibility has been an important and intensely debated topic in science and medicine for the past few decades.1 As the scientific enterprise has grown in scope and complexity, concerns regarding how well new findings can be reproduced and validated across different scientific teams and study populations have emerged. In some instances,2 the failure to replicate numerous previous studies has added to the growing concern that science and biomedicine may be in the midst of a "reproducibility crisis." Against this backdrop, high-capacity machine learning models are beginning to demonstrate early successes in clinical applications,3 and some have received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. This new class of clinical prediction tools presents unique challenges and obstacles to reproducibility, which must be carefully considered to ensure that these techniques are valid and deployed safely and effectively.

Cerner was interviewing Silicon Valley giants to pick a storage provider for 250 million health records, one of the largest collections of U.S. patient data. Google dispatched former chief executive Eric Schmidt to personally pitch Cerner over several phone calls and offered around $250 million in discounts and incentives, people familiar with the matter say. Google had a bigger goal in pushing for the deal than dollars and cents: a way to expand its effort to collect, analyze and aggregate health data on millions of Americans. Google representatives were vague in answering questions about how Cerner's data would be used, making the health-care company's executives wary, the people say. Eventually, Cerner struck a storage deal with Amazon.com The failed Cerner deal reveals an emerging challenge to Google's move into health care: gaining the trust of health care partners and the public.

Retailers in Asia-Pacific are struggling to unite online and offline data and this will hinder their ability to recognise customers who engage with their brands across both channels. Furthermore, while most acknowledge the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) to their organisation's competitiveness, few have started to deploy such tools. While some retail organisations recognised the need to straddle both the online and offline channels, the biggest challenge these omnichannel retailers faced today was pulling data from both realms to establish a common view of their customers, said Raj Raguneethan, Microsoft's Asia regional business lead for retail and consumer goods. This gap hindered their ability, for instance, to recognise customers who had engaged the brand online when they walked into a physical store. To plug the gap, Raguneethan said retailers should establish a data management platform to pull together all customer information and stitch these together to provide unified profiles of their customers. With the launch of its national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, alongside a slew of initiatives, the Singapore government aims to fuel AI adoption to generate economic value and provide a global platform on which to develop and testbed AI applications.

Nintendo Co. fans will soon be able to enjoy a life-sized video-game experience at a new attraction at Universal Studios Japan. Super Nintendo World is slated to open this summer in Osaka, featuring a Power Up Band wearable that lets visitors collect coins and battle bosses while exploring a physical environment. Users will track their progress via a smartphone app, according to the theme park operator, which is owned by NBCUniversal LLC. "Super Nintendo World will provide an experience you cannot have anywhere else," USJ Chief Executive Officer J.L. Bonnier said at a briefing in Osaka on Tuesday. He wouldn't divulge further details about rides or other digital offerings, or when they would be available.