Technology has the power to improve lives and tackle the great challenges of our time. At the University of Exeter, for example, Tim Dodwell is about to start a five-year project looking into how technology can make the aviation industry more sustainable and safer. He is one of the first five recipients of a new government fund for research fellowships into artificial intelligence (AI). His work will focus on how we can use machine learning and data processing to understand complex mathematical problems and build lighter and faster aircraft. The UK is the birthplace of AI, and it is fitting that these new fellowships are named after the man credited with inventing machine learning: Alan Turing.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS--By harnessing the power of imagination, researchers have nearly doubled the speed at which completely paralyzed patients may be able to communicate with the outside world. People who are "locked in"--fully paralyzed by stroke or neurological disease--have trouble trying to communicate even a single sentence. Electrodes implanted in a part of the brain involved in motion have allowed some paralyzed patients to move a cursor and select onscreen letters with their thoughts. Users have typed up to 39 characters per minute, but that's still about three times slower than natural handwriting. In the new experiments, a volunteer paralyzed from the neck down instead imagined moving his arm to write each letter of the alphabet.

The stock market can be a voracious beast to those that don't understand it, but nowadays, you don't even need to understand it to make money. The rise of the digital information age and AI has brought about a new way of stock trading called algorithmic trading. Sometimes referred to as automated trading or black-box trading, this is essentially a program that can trade stocks at high speeds and frequencies, perfectly in line with the market. These programs are given constraints and instructions like timing, price, amount, etc. and a user can fine-tune how they exactly work. So how does this all work then...? Let's take a look.

Machine learning (ML) represents one of the keys to thriving in the modern age of big data. Consider "just how big" big data is for most organizations. Even small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) deal with multiple data sources such as CRM tools, social media feeds, and transaction platforms. That's not even including internal data from HR platforms, submission forms, emails and media, and cloud-based tools that transmit metrics. All of that data means that unprecedented levels of insight are possible, but only if an organization can get a handle on the massive amounts of relevant data it has access to.

The next generation of UK scientists have been backed by government today (Thursday 24 October) to develop the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that will transform how people live and work and help tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges. A combined government and industry investment of £370 million will deliver 2,700 new PhD places in biosciences and AI. Of this, £200 million will fund 1,000 new PhD places over the next 5 years to study AI which could help diagnose diseases like cancer earlier and make industries, including aviation and automotive, more sustainable. The first 200 students will be studying at 14 universities across the country, working closely with 300 leading businesses, including AstraZeneca, Google, Rolls-Royce and NHS Trusts. A further £170 million will fund 1,700 places to study PhDs in biosciences helping to tackle issues like feeding the world's growing population and helping people stay healthier for longer.

You are a member of the Malta National AI Taskforce and were involved in drafting the government's national strategy for AI. What is your background in this regard - which are your areas of expertise? In terms of my undergraduate education, my background is in creative computing – combining computing technology with art and culture, which is what my job at MUŻA involves. I subsequently studied for a post-graduate degree in Artificial Intelligence, an area I always found interesting, especially when it comes to creative intersections with AI. I am very interested in computer interaction and computer vision, which are also my areas of expertise.

As businesses are increasingly depending on mobile footprints, competition is getting fierce to remain visible and discoverable in the app marketplace. Effortless and smooth user experience remains to be the key for most apps to stand out in the competition. This is why intelligent Chatbots equipped with the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have emerged as the most important mechanism for superb user experience. AI-powered Chatbots continue to make a transforming appearance for an increasing number of mobile apps across the niches. AI as a deeply embedded technology fetches most relevant business data and insights that businesses can use for replying to customer queries in the most contextual and relevant manner.

Here's a question scientists might ask more often: what if we succeed? That is, how will the world change if we achieve what we're striving for? Tucked away in offices and labs, researchers can develop tunnel vision, the rosiest of outlooks for their creations. The unintended consequences and shoddy misuses become afterthoughts – messes for society to clean up later. Today those messes spread far and wide: global heating, air pollution, plastics in the oceans, nuclear waste and babies with badly rewritten DNA.

It's raining on your walk to the station after work, but you don't have an umbrella. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a rain jacket in a shop window. You think to yourself: "A rain jacket like that would be perfect for weather like this." Later, as you're scrolling on Instagram on the train, you see a similar-looking jacket. You take a closer look.

WASHINGTON – Scientists have trained rats to drive tiny cars in exchange for pieces of cereal, and found that learning the task lowered their stress levels. Their study not only demonstrates how sophisticated rat's brains are, but could one day help in developing new nonpharmaceutical forms of treatment for mental illness, said senior author Kelly Lambert of the University of Richmond in Virginia on Wednesday. Lambert said she had long been interested in neuroplasticity -- how the brain changes in response to experience and challenges -- and particularly wanted to explore how well rats that were housed in more natural settings ("enriched environments") performed against those kept in labs. She and colleagues modified a robot car kit by adding a clear plastic food container to form a driver compartment with an aluminum plate placed on the bottom. Copper wire was threaded horizontally across the cab to form three bars: left, center and right.