Imagine that a person's brain could be scanned in great detail and recreated in a computer simulation. The person's mind and memories, emotions and personality would be duplicated. In effect, a new and equally valid version of that person would now exist, in a potentially immortal, digital form. This futuristic possibility is called mind uploading. The science of the brain and of consciousness increasingly suggests that mind uploading is possible – there are no laws of physics to prevent it.

The University of Toronto and the affiliated Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence have announced the recruitment of two rising stars in machine learning research as part of a continued drive to assemble the best AI talent in the world. Chris Maddison and Jakob Foerster will both come to U of T having completed their doctoral research at the University of Oxford. He earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in computer science at U of T – the latter under the supervision of University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton. A senior research scientist at Google-owned AI firm DeepMind, Maddison will join U of T's departments of computer science and statistical sciences in the Faculty of Arts & Science as an assistant professor next summer. Foerster, a research scientist at Facebook AI Research, will start as an assistant professor in the department of computer and mathematical sciences at U of T Scarborough in fall of 2020.

Recently the 10 year old daughter of my friend Ed asked him if Artificial Intelligence means we can stop thinking. We both were perplexed and were not able to give an answer to this curious question. This extremely smart question cannot be simply answered with a yes or no. It triggered my own thinking and curiosity, after we had just mentioned the word Innovation. How will Artificial Intelligence contribute to Innovation in a Corporate Environment?

After expanding its "all-in-one" AI bundle, which includes 3 FDA 510(k) clearances, the deep learning medical imaging analytics company, Zebra Medical Vision, is now announcing a new joint partnership with Intelerad Medical Systems, a leader in enterprise workflow solutions. The joint program will leverage Intelerad's newly released Odyssey designed to encourage the adoption of artificial intelligence without the prohibitive costs usually associated with such programs. The positive impact of artificial intelligence technology has been demonstrated in many fields, including that of radiology. Indeed, AI can help radiologists increase productivity, improve clinical decisions and, ultimately, provide high-quality care when the technology is tightly managed and smartly integrated in the workflow. Odyssey harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and the technology behind the Intelerad worklist to offer an unparalleled workflow management solution, comprised of the clinical AI engine, powered by Zebra-med's AI1 "all-in-one" bundle of FDA cleared AI applications.

As you leave for work, your car accesses your phone calendar to determine the destination you're headed for and already knows the shortest and fastest route to take. In case you encounter heavy traffic, the car automatically notifies your office that you are running late! While this might seem like a clip from a futuristic movie, scenarios like these are already taking shape. Enter the world of Internet of Things, popularly referred to as IoT. So far the internet had mostly connected people to information, people to people, and people to business.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) will decide how agriculture, businesses, and industries work in the future, said V. Neethi Mohan, Chairman of Young Entrepreneur School, here on Saturday. He was addressing a session on the impact of technology on business, during the second edition of Sangamam 2019, a conference on emerging digital technologies for entrepreneurs, organised by Digit-All, a forum of Tamil Nadu Chamber Foundation. To meet the global food requirement, which is expected to double by 2050, agriculture needs technological intervention, said Mr. Neethi Mohan. "Artificial Intelligence will help in precision agriculture, which will determine the nutrient and moisture level in the soil. Using AI, a drone survey is done to identify where there is a need for the use of pesticides. We need to equip our farmers to efficiently utilise the technology," he said.

Cognex CGNX recently announced the acquisition of Seoul-based SUALAB, a developer of deep learning-based vision software. Although the financial terms of the acquisition have been kept under wraps, per a Pulse article the transaction price is estimated to be $168.6 million. Deep learning allows Cognex to solve the most complex vision application operations in factories faster, easier and in a cost-effective manner. The addition of SUALAB's Intellectual property and highly skillful engineering team, which specializes in deep learning, is expected to strengthen the company's product portfolio. The latest acquisition will help Cognex to reap benefits from strong prospects of the global deep learning system software market.

The latest market analysis report on the Deep Learning market performs industry diagnostic as a way to accumulate valuable data into the business environment of the Deep Learning market for the forecast period 2019 – 2026. The subject matter experts behind the research have collected vital statistics on the market share, size and growth as a way to help stakeholders, business owners and field marketing personnel identify the areas to reduce costs, improve sales, explore new opportunities and streamline their processes. Unbiased perspective on intangible aspects such as key challenges, threats, new entrants as well as strengths and weaknesses of the prominent vendors too are discussed in this market intelligence report. By offering expert assistance, it would be able to assist humans in extending their capabilities. Organizations are using deep learning networks to get valuable insights from huge amount of data.

If you have seen one of the many schematic charts full of logos illustrating the autonomous vehicle ecosystem, you would be forgiven for being confused. Most, like the one linked to in the above paragraph, dive deep into the layers of technology involved in enabling cars to drive themselves. It provides a nice summary for people in the industry (with good eyesight). To the layperson, however, this can add to the confusion about how autonomous vehicles work. Also, it is important to note that the majority of the companies and the technologies represented only have to do with the vehicles.

As we can see from the hardening religious impulse in our current authoritarian, autocratic moment, the traditionalist defense of "civilization" ultimately rests upon the complicated, combined influence of the major Abrahamic revealed religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). The Abrahamic faiths – based as they are on divine revelation, sacred texts and prophetic moments – require a creator-centric moral order that exists outside of time and space. In the last millennium, Thomist natural law – the philosophical thread of law and logic running through many of our core assumptions about "the West" – has extended and refined, but in no way refuted, these central premises of the Abrahamic religions. In The Creation Project, my argument has been that the axis of conflict in the coming decades will be a civilizational battle between two irreconcilable, non-liberal (i.e., non-Enlightenment) regimes and worldviews – backward-looking, creator-centered natural law and forward-looking creation-centered complexity science. In prior posts, I have specifically focused on Princeton professor Robby George's views on natural law because his ideas distill nearly everything about the foundational beliefs of western civilization that complexity science calls into question, and that require root-and-branch reassessment.