CATONSVILLE, MD, September 23, 2019 - Chatbots, which use artificial intelligence to simulate human conversation through voice commands or text chats, incur almost zero marginal costs and can outsell some human employees by four times, so why aren't they used more often? According to new research, the main contributor is customer pushback. The machines don't have "bad days" and never get frustrated or tired like humans, and they can save money for consumers, but new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science says if customers know about the chatbot before purchasing, sales rates decline by more than 79.7%. The study authors, Xueming Luo and Siliang Tong (both of Temple University), Zheng Fang of Sichuan University, and Zhe Qu of Fudan University, targeted 6,000 customers from a financial services company. They were randomly assigned to either humans or chatbots, and disclosure of the bots varied from not telling the consumer at all, to telling them at the beginning of the conversation or after the conversation, or telling them after they'd purchased something.

Investing in emerging technologies can be extremely risky. It can also be extremely rewarding – and not just for your bank account. Technologies like artificial intelligence have the potential to change the world in many different ways. One of the industries where AI is already making real advances is healthcare, such as the ability to design and validate drug candidates to treat disease in less than two months. That has attracted the attention of plenty of deep-pocketed investors into AI healthcare startups, which have made more deals than any other AI industry since 2014, according to research firm CB Insights, with more than 80 AI diagnostics and medical imaging companies leading the way across 150 deals and counting.

Swipe right for "would like to meet", left for "wouldn't". Seven years after Tinder made choosing a date as simple as flicking your thumb across a smartphone screen, it is by far the most-used dating app in the UK and the US. Downloaded 300m times and with more than 5 million paying subscribers, it is the highest-grossing app of any kind in the world, according to the analysts App Annie. For Americans, apps and online dating are the most common way to meet a partner. "It's an amazing responsibility, and an amazing privilege," says Elie Seidman, Tinder's 45-year-old chief executive.

Recent surveys, studies, forecasts and other quantitative assessments of the progress of AI highlighted the rapidly increasing expectations regarding the business benefits of AI and the low incidence of business gains so far; the increasing adoption of AI by businesses worldwide and the challenges in its implementation and integration with exiting processes; and how companies respond to AI by both reducing and training their workforce. The report estimated the combined AI spending from large-capitalization financial institutions at more than $150 billion annually. In the past two years, BB&T Corp. has embraced a digital-first approach to plugging in artificial intelligence and robotics into its back-office, customer-service and compliance operations. That should eclipse the 1,281 companies that raised $16.8 billion in all of 2018, according to the 3Q 2019 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor [VentureBeat] "The values of AI designers or the purchasing administrators are not necessarily the values of the bedside clinician or patient. Those value collisions and tensions are going to be sites of significant ethical conflict"--Danton Char, assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University Medical Center "I don't yet fully subscribe to the view that the machine is completely autonomous and operates without human intervention. At least as of today, and probably the foreseeable future, the AI machine is just another tool"--Andrei Iancu, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, speaking about recognizing AI systems that develop new products as inventors "If leaders think about AI like a balance sheet, then they're missing the point. You need to get emotional attachment to the disruptive nature that it can bring"--Werner Boeing, CIO, Roche Diagnostics "The major upside for us is driving more engagement....Right behind that is the ability to monetize this and generate incremental revenue for us and for our clubs....This data's going to be hugely valuable"--Dave Lehanski, NHL senior vice president of business development and global partnerships

Google's Pixel phones are the company's preferred way of showcasing its AI chops to consumers. Pixel phones consistently set the phone camera bar thanks to Google's AI prowess. But many of the AI features have nothing to do with the camera. The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL unveiled this week at the Made by Google hardware event in New York City continue this tradition. Camera improvements aside, the Pixel 4 makes a play for a new arena that Google clearly wants to rule: offline natural language processing.

An international competition in artificial intelligence and robotics is set to take place in Dubai this week. The First Global Challenge aims to foster a culture of innovation and creativity in students across the UAE. The four-day event begins on October 24 at the Dubai Festival Arena and more than 1,500 young people are expected to attend. The theme of this year's contest is'Ocean Opportunities', with students competing to tackle issues from pollution to sustainability. "This event comes amidst repeated international calls to strengthen cooperation to find effective solutions to the issue of marine pollution by working on the adaptation of the latest technology," said Ahmed Al Falasi, Minister of State for Higher Education and Advanced Skills.

CHIBA, JAPAN--Technology has made its way into just about everything we have and everywhere we go, even the bathroom – and the bed, the work uniform, and many other unlikely places. No place is that clearer than in Japan at the CEATEC tech trade show just outside of Tokyo. You may not see all of these things in a store, home or office near you anytime soon – CEATEC's emphasis on research made it look a bit like a science fair compared to such larger gadget gatherings as CES in Las Vegas and IFA in Berlin. But Japan's longstanding status as a leading indicator of technology makes it likely that some of these things will wind up in your life. On this convention's first day, All Nippon Airways president and CEO Shinya Katanozaka talked up the airline's plans to let people skip flying by experiencing other places through robot avatars.

Researchers from China and South Korea have created an AI that can predict El Niño up to 18 months before it occurs. El Niño is a weather event that can occur every 2-7 years, where the area of warmer water in the western Pacific Ocean around Australia spreads across the Pacific. This leads to warmer air rising across the Pacific, causing severe rainfall and drastically changing wind direction and strength across the Pacific. This has huge knock on effects on weather worldwide. El Niño can cause colder winters in northern Europe and droughts in countries such as Australia and Malaysia.

Last week, the UAE announced the launch of the Mohammed bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), a graduate-level institution in Abu Dhabi. The world's first university of its kind, which is accepting applications for September 2020, aims to develop a workforce ready to navigate a rapidly changing, technologically advancing world. This announcement is indicative of how our economies and workforce are changing, and the UAE's continuous effort to stay ahead of the curve. A 2016 study by Stanford University exploring what our lives will be like in 2030 with the influence of artificial intelligence (AI), found that almost all areas will be impacted by this technology. Our career paths are continuously evolving, and if our skills don't evolve, we will fall behind. For instance, when I graduated from university ten years ago with a degree in mass communication, I didn't know that most of what I would be working on in my company nowadays -- from creating 10-second social media videos and exploring the digital culture to working with social influencers -- would be things we didn't even explore in the classroom.

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) will begin its journey on 6 September 2020 and cross the Atlantic Ocean, from Plymouth to Plymouth. Like its namesake in 1620, MAS will rely to some extent on favourable weather to complete its crossing as it will be powered by state-of-the-art hybrid propulsion system, utilizing wind, solar, state-of-the-art batteries, and a diesel generator. MAS will carry three research pods containing myriad sensors that scientists will utilize to conduct persistent, ground-breaking research in meteorology, oceanography, climatology, biology, marine pollution and conservation, and autonomous navigation. MAS is being coordinated through a partnership lead by ProMare, a non-profit charity established to promote marine research and exploration throughout the world. The research pods will be coordinated by Plymouth University, a world-leading centre of excellence for marine and maritime education, research and innovation.