This week, I had the pleasure of attending my first Gartner Symposium in Barcelona. A huge industry event, hosting around 7,500 CIOs and IT executives from around the world, that explores the technology and trends that will shape the future of IT and business into 2020 and beyond. Interestingly, this year's demographics saw the Nordics represented by around 20% of attendees – impressive for a region of only 27 million people collectively. Compare that to the UK and Ireland, who made up only 19% of attendees, but boast over double the population, at 63 million. Perhaps the reputation of the Nordic countries being amongst the most tech-savvy in the world is well earned?

New York– After looking at standard ECG tests, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help identify patients most likely to die of any medical cause within a year, claim researchers. To reach this conclusion, researchers from Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania analyzed the results of 1.77 million ECGs and other records from almost 400,000 patients. The team used this data to compare machine learning-based models that either directly analyzed the raw ECG signals or relied on aggregated human-derived measures (standard ECG features typically recorded by a cardiologist) and commonly diagnosed disease patterns. The neural network model that directly analyzed the ECG signals was found to be superior for predicting one-year risk of death. Surprisingly, the neural network was able to accurately predict risk of death even in patients deemed by a physician to have a normal ECG.

Google buys Fitbit for 2.1 billion. With the news of Amazon's Health Navigator acquisition coming just one year after acquiring PillPack – in the same week that Google acquired Fitbit – there should be little doubt that the healthcare landscape continues to go through a seismic shift. In fact, it has been over the last five years. By 2020, $24 billion will be available for healthcare tech spend (according to an estimate from Statista) and it is clear to all the titans--Apple, Google, Amazon, Salesforce--that the largest battleground in the tech world is and will continue to be healthcare. And, while the analysts have been split on whether this Google-Fitbit marriage is a wearable play or a healthcare play, make no mistake: this is a healthcare play.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation will transform our world. The current debate centers not on whether these changes will take place but on how, when, and where the impact of artificial intelligence will hit hardest. In this post, I'll be exploring both optimistic and pessimistic views of artificial intelligence, automation, job loss, and the future. Questions around the impact of artificial intelligence and automation are critical for us to consider. While technology isn't inherently good or evil, in the hands of humans, technology has a great capacity for both.

NEC Corporation, a leader in IT and network technologies, and VAXIMM AG, a Swiss/German biotech company focused on developing oral T-cell immunotherapies, today announced that the companies have signed a strategic clinical trial collaboration agreement and an equity investment agreement to develop novel personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, which is non-exclusive to both parties, NEC will provide funding for a Phase I clinical trial. NEC and VAXIMM will co-develop personalized cancer vaccines using NEC's cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which is utilized in its Neoantigen Prediction System, and VAXIMM's proprietary T-cell immunotherapy technology. The vaccines are planned to be evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial in various solid tumors. VAXIMM will be responsible for conducting the clinical trial, which is expected to be initiated in 2020.

Tuesday's best early Black Friday deals on Amazon are on some of the most popular holiday gifts. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA Today's newsroom and any business incentives. Coming back from a long weekend is always hard, especially one that's so close to the holidays, like Veteran's Day. If you're just settling back into the office, chances are you could use a few distractions, and lucky for you, we've got five of them--specifically in the form of these great deals you can snag on Amazon.

Marketers in 2019 will find it hard to be successful without understanding the cultural transformation that's happening in this country. Between 2012 and 2017, the US multicultural population – Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans – grew to 11.7 million people. Notably, these groups are younger and growing at a faster rate than their White counterparts. This makes multicultural marketing an essential component of all advertising campaigns. Yet, even the most seasoned and "culturally woke" brands can have trouble navigating this cultural transformation and shifts in consumer behavior.

Bipartisanship in modern politics can seem kind of like an unbelievable, mythical creature. But in recent months, as Congress considered regulation of one of the most controversial topics it faces -- how, when, or if to use facial recognition -- we've gotten glimpses of a political unicorn. In two House Oversight and Reform committee hearings last summer, some of the most prominent Republicans and Democrats in the United States Congress joined together in calls for legislative reform. Proponents of regulation ranged from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a frequent Trump supporter on cable news. On Friday, Jordan was also appointed to the House Intelligence Committee to confront witnesses in public presidential impeachment hearings that begin this week.

Woodside and IBM will work together to re-imagine the way work is done using next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to help Woodside realize its vision of an "intelligent plant." Announced today at IBM's Cloud Innovation Exchange in Sydney by Woodside CEO Peter Coleman and IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty, the collaboration will include Woodside becoming a member of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, which is a collaborative industrial-academic laboratory focused on advancing fundamental AI research. Woodside will also join the IBM Q Network, making it the first commercial organization in Australia to join IBM's quantum computing network. Woodside and IBM will use quantum computing to conduct deep computational simulations across the value chain of Woodside's business. During the past five years Woodside and IBM have worked together to implement cognitive solutions, enabling advances in health and safety, planning and operations, and project engineering.

Most large banks in the US are pursuing AI fairly assiduously, but JPMorgan Chase stands out for the depth of its commitment to the technology, the breadth of projects it has adopted, and the focus on driving actual business change from its AI initiatives. The Bank, the largest in the US and 6th largest in the world in terms of total assets, has AI projects or production applications in all the usual areas of banking: risk, fraud prevention, marketing, investment banking, wealth management advice, trading, back office automation, and customer engagement (particularly in the corporate banking area thus far). But JPMorgan Chase distinguishes itself from other banking firms in its level of investment, its hiring of AI academic stars, and its coordinated approach to the management of AI and analytics. JPMorgan Chase spends $11 billion a year on technology, and about half of that amount is devoted to research on new and emerging technologies. Its research investments cover a wide variety of domains, including investments in AI startups and AI-based hedge funds.