Data and AI need to be unified: the best AI applications require massive amounts of constantly updated training data to build state-of-the-art models. So far, Apache Spark is the only unified analytics engine that combines large-scale data processing with state-of-the-art machine learning and AI algorithms. Combining Spark AI topics, this conference is a unique "one-stop shop" for developers, data scientists, and tech executives seeking to apply the best tools in data and AI to build innovative products. The sessions and training at this conference will cover data engineering and data science content, along with best practices for productionizing AI: keeping training data fresh with stream processing, quality monitoring, testing, and serving models at a massive scale. The conference will also include deep-dive sessions on popular software frameworks--e.g., Delta Lake, MLflow, TensorFlow, SciKit-Learn, Keras, PyTorch, DeepLearning4J, BigDL, and deep learning pipelines.

Older people in Japan are strapping on exoskeletons to help meet the physical demands of their jobs and remain in the workforce for longer. Japan's population is rapidly ageing, with a record 28 per cent of people aged 65 or older. This has led to a shortage of workers, particularly in manual labour industries like construction, manufacturing and farming.

Cimon, the world's first AI-powered astronaut assistant, has returned to the International Space Station--this time with a heightened ability to analyse human emotion. The objective, according to the researchers who fine-tuned the robot after its first successful mission aboard the spacecraft, is to transform Cimon from a scientific assistant into "an empathetic companion". As was the original Cimon, which spent 14 months in space, the new and improved Cimon-2 is a joint project by IBM, Airbus and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Cimon-1 returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) in August. Cimon-2 is heading back to the space station on a SpaceX rocket that launched 4 December from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In the battle between future markets and higher market shares, automated systems and artificial intelligence technology is what will decide the winner, taking them ahead of their competitors. The next decade in AI and ML is expected to turnover 21B Euros worldwide. However, the only possible impediment it needs to address is Data Privacy. As the usage becomes more wide spread, security and privacy aspects of AI & ML are becoming supremely important as people are more conscious and concerned about how their data is being protected and how safe their data actually is. While the benefits of the advancements are immense, the risks are also increasingly becoming higher.

ALICANTE has been named the Spanish base for the European artificial intelligence investigation centre. The provincial capital will now become part of the European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) network, which aims to give the competitive edge over the US and Asia in terms of IA, and which is made up of some 20 centres in 10 European nations and Israel. The news Alicante had been chosen was made public this week in Vancouver at a gathering of the international scientific community. Valencia government president Ximo Puig maintained the approval of Alicante's candidacy was the result of his administration's backing for the idea that "the Valencian Community, and Alicante in particular, becomes a reference point in southern Europe for investigation into new technology and in an inclusive IA, centred on people and which increases the productivity of the socio-economic structure." It is, Puig said, "a great opportunity to attract excellent talent to the Valencian Community and to Alicante, and well as to highlight the value of what we already have."

So is DuckDuckGo no good? Surprised you did not mention it. Following last week's article about privacy and surveillance capitalism, several readers wrote in about the absence of DuckDuckGo, and it was mentioned a dozen times in the comments. I have suggested this privacy-oriented search engine a few times since 2012, and I think it's worth a go. However, I'm answering Murray's earlier query along the same lines because I can use his email verbatim rather than cobbling together a joint question from multiple sources.

As we come towards the end of the year, industry experts discuss how the clinical research market has evolved and how they are looking to prepare for the challenges to overcome in 2020. The past year saw CluePoints, a software developer providing clinical trial monitoring services, build on its agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide its services supporting the regulator's oversight of the clinical trial market. Asked about how market demands have shifted since 2018, the company's CCO, Patrick Hughes pointed to the ICH E6 (R2) good clinical practice (GCP) guidance, which'became a reality' for sponsors and clinical research organizations (CROs). As a result, this made 2019, "the year in which we have seen the biggest momentum shift across the industry in the adoption of a risk-based approach to trial management," Hughes said. Risk-based quality management in clinical trials focuses on identifying the most important compliance risks in a study and setting them as a priority in order to prevent and avoid potential disruptions.

The Major League Baseball team, the Oakland Athletics, for many years a poorly performing and unsuccessful team, surprised everybody during the 2000-2001 season. The team had a remarkable run of wins, led the Major League in performance, and broke a number of League records. Michael Lewis, in his bestselling book, "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game", describes the secret to this turnaround. The A's new, young and unexperienced manager, Billy Beane, "revolutionized" the team's roster by releasing a number of star players (despite the protests of his closest advisors) and instead, signing a number of unknown players. He chose these players by using a model/algorithm that was based on several professional, well-defined baseball parameters.

Deputy Mayor of the City of The Hague Saskia Bruines, says: "The use of Artificial Intelligence offers many opportunities to potentially improve the lives of our citizens. However, this requires the development of a responsible and transparent approach to the use of AI, which is an important topic for Europe, the Netherlands and The Hague in particular. CLAIRE has set itself the mission to develop that approach for Europe. I am therefore proud and thrilled that CLAIRE has chosen to establish its European headquarters in The Hague. This will contribute to making the international city of Peace and Justice a very relevant place for the development of the responsible use of AI in Europe in the coming years."

Europe will find it difficult to achieve many of its goals, such as the Green Deal, without AI. And without a fully developed, multi-party 5G ecosystem, Europe will fall further behind, writes Abraham Liu. Abraham Liu is Huawei's Chief Representative to the EU Institutions Over the past few months, Huawei has been the target of some pretty harsh attacks by a foreign administration on its reputation, trust, and its reliability. But these attacks are also attacks on Europe's ability to choose its own digital destiny. The 5G and ICT industry supply chain is one of the most integrated supply chains in the world. Ours is truly a global industry.