Tom Davenport has literally written the book on analytics. Actually, several of them, to be precise. Over the course of his career, Tom has established himself as the authority on analytics and how their role in the modern organization has evolved in recent years. Tom is a distinguished professor at Babson College, a research fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and a senior advisor at Deloitte Analytics. The discussion was timely as Tom had just written an article about a financial services company that had trained its employees on human-centered design so that they could ensure any use of AI would be customer-driven and valuable. "If you survey organizations and ask them, 'Does your company have a data-driven culture?' they almost always say no. Surveys even show a kind of negative movement over recent years in that regard. And it's because nobody really addresses that issue. They only address the technology side." Eventually, I think some fraction of [AI and analytics solutions] get used and are moderately effective, but there is not nearly enough focus on this. A lot of analytics people think their job is to create models, and whether anybody uses it or not is not their responsibility…We don't have enough people who make it their jobs to do that sort of thing. I think we need this new specialist, like a data ethnographer, who could sort of understand much more how people interact with data and applications, and how many ways they get screwed up.--Tom I don't know how you inculcate it or teach it in schools, but I think we all need curiosity about how technology can make us work more effectively. It clearly takes some investment, and time, and effort to do it.-- TD Wealth's goal was to get [its employees] to experientially understand what data, analytics, technology, and AI are all about, and then to think a lot about how it related to their customers.

Microsoft rose to dominance during the '80s and '90s thanks to the success of its Windows operating system running on Intel's processors, a cosy relationship nicknamed "Wintel". Now Microsoft hopes that another another hardware–software combo will help it recapture that success--and catch rivals Amazon and Google in the race to provide cutting-edge artificial intelligence through the cloud. Microsoft hopes to extend the popularity of its Azure cloud platform with a new kind of computer chip designed for the age of AI. Starting today, Microsoft is providing Azure customers with access to chips made by the British startup Graphcore. Graphcore, founded in Bristol, UK, in 2016, has attracted considerable attention among AI researchers--and several hundred million dollars in investment--on the promise that its chips will accelerate the computations required to make AI work.

New York (CNN Business)A secretive startup backed by Bill Gates has achieved a solar breakthrough aimed at saving the planet. Heliogen, a clean energy company that emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, said it has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius. This is an existential issue for your children, for my children and our grandchildren." Essentially, Heliogen created a solar oven -- one capable of reaching temperatures that are roughly a quarter of what you'd find on the surface of the sun. The breakthrough means that, for the first time, concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required to make cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes. In other words, carbon-free sunlight can replace fossil fuels in a heavy carbon-emitting corner of the economy that has been untouched by the clean energy revolution. "We are rolling out technology that can beat the price of fossil fuels and also not make the CO2 emissions," Bill Gross, Heliogen's founder and CEO, told CNN Business. Heliogen, which is also backed by billionaire Los Angels Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, believes the patented technology will be able to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry. "Bill and the team have truly now harnessed the sun," Soon-Shiong, who also sits on the Heliogen board, told CNN Business. "The potential to humankind is enormous.

With the rise of robots, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), the employees of today are in panic mode about the state of their future career prospects. Will they have a job in 20 years' time… 10 years' time… or even next year? The spectre of an apocalyptic, dwindling future workforce is terrifying for most people, especially in Africa, which is traditionally manpower-centric. But, the reality is that these super-intelligent machines and robots might well be doing humankind a massive favour. "Machine learning will enable technology to replace the work of hands and the workplace of the future will probably include much more head-work," says Deseré Orrill, chairman of data-led marketing company Ole!Connect.

Throughout her life, Eileen Lach has been a leader. Growing up in northeast Minneapolis, she knew at a young age she wanted to move to New York City and travel the world. Lach accomplished that and more, carving out a position on Wall Street early in her career and later serving as the first general counsel and chief compliance officer for The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She is considered a thought leader, especially in the area of ethics and artificial intelligence (AI). During a conversation with Lach last summer, it was hard not to be wowed by her achievements and admire her dedication to philanthropic causes.

Hologic is bringing artificial intelligence to breast cancer imaging with its latest product. The Marlborough, MA-based company has won a nod for the 3DQuorum Imaging Technology, powered by Genius AI. These analytics identify clinically relevant regions of interest and preserve important features during the reconstruction of the SmartSlices. This helps to expedite read time by reducing the number of images for radiologists to review, without compromising image quality, sensitivity or accuracy. With 3DQuorum technology, the number of 3D images to review is reduced by two-thirds, saving an average of one hour per eight hours of daily image interpretation time.

Big data and analytics (BDA) is a crucial resource for public and private enterprises nowadays. Thanks in large part to the evolution of cloud software, organizations can now track and analyze volumes of business data in real-time and make the necessary adjustments to their business processes accordingly. As the industry goes deeper into the age of AI, what big data trends should businesses be most wary of? Given that the BDA market is projected to become a more lucrative field in the following years, what does this mean to the way you should be conducting business moving forward? Should you be looking into harnessing BDA to move your business forward? Here are eleven big data trends impacting the current landscape to help you see the bigger picture. There are already clear winners from the aggressive application of big data to clear cobwebs for businesses. On the winning circle is Netflix, which saves $1 billion a year retaining customers by digging through its vast customer data.

HackNotice today launched HackNotice Premium, a threat monitoring service with real-time insights into potential breaches and data leaks. The premium version can tag the specific personal identifier (email, credit card information, social media account, and so on) that was compromised. HackNotice Premium also taps machine learning to gives consumers personalized response recommendations. The subscription service costs $4.95 per month or $49.95 per year (if you sign up this year, you'll get 50% off the first six months). HackNotice first launched in July 2018 as a free service for Android, iOS, and the web.

According to the new market research report "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Drug Discovery Market by Component (Software, Service), Technology (ML, DL), Application (Neurodegenerative Diseases, Immuno-Oncology, CVD), End User (Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, CRO), Region - Global forecast to 2024", published by MarketsandMarkets, the AI in Drug Discovery Market is projected to reach USD 1,434 million by 2024 from USD 259 million in 2019, at a CAGR of 40.8% during the forecast period. Some of the factors responsible for the growth of this market are growing number of cross-industry collaborations and partnerships, the need to control drug discovery & development costs and reduce the overall time taken in this process, the rising adoption of cloud-based applications & services, and the impending patent expiry of blockbuster drugs. On the other hand, a lack of data sets in the field of drug discovery and the inadequate availability of skilled labor are some of the factors challenging the growth of the market. "The services segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period." On the basis of offering, the Artificial Intelligence in drug discovery market is segmented into software and services.

Artificial intelligence (AI) specialists from the esports analysis and visualisation company will test prediction models at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2020. The initiative will feature two competitions, organised by Skybox Technologies and RFRSH Entertainment, in collaboration with Copenhagen Capacity. The first will offer a $5,000 reward for the team with the best code, and the second will offer invitations to BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen for the top 5 participating teams, where they will run their code during live matches. The winning team will be announced before the grand final. Not only is this fascinating technology in its own right, but holding a competition like this, at a prestigious event, could help kickstart some serious careers for those involved, so its fantastic to see Skybox, RFRSH and Copenhagen Capacity working together to foster innovation.