Apple is attending Interspeech 2019, the world's largest conference on the science and technology of spoken language processing. The conference, of which Apple is a Platinum Sponsor, will take place in Graz, Austria from September 15th to 19th. For Interspeech attendees, join the authors of our accepted papers at our booth to learn more about the great speech research happening at Apple. Apple continues to build cutting-edge technology in the space of machine hearing, speech recognition, natural language processing, machine translation, text-to-speech, and artificial intelligence, improving the lives of millions of customers every day. If you're interested in opportunities to make an impact on Apple products through machine learning research and development, check out our teams at Jobs at Apple.

Spotted: Eddy Travels is an AI-enabled personal travel assistant that operates within popular chat applications, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Slack and Telegram. Based on the user's chat conversations, Eddy uses a language processing system that makes tailored travel recommendations. This enables to unify all booking needs to one place, from flights to hotels. Eddy even recommends personalized activities. For example, if your friend mentions taking a trip to Tanzania, Eddy could recommend a safe area to stay in, accommodation, the best travel insurance, tours, etc.

Spotted: Eddy Travels is an AI-enabled personal travel assistant that operates within popular chat applications, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Slack and Telegram. Based on the user's chat conversations, Eddy uses a language processing system that makes tailored travel recommendations. This enables to unify all booking needs to one place, from flights to hotels. Eddy even recommends personalized activities. For example, if your friend mentions taking a trip to Tanzania, Eddy could recommend a safe area to stay in, accommodation, the best travel insurance, tours, etc.

KFC is using facial recognition and AI in China. A large interactive screen greets customers with an image of themselves, taken from in-built cameras. After guiding them through the order process, and entertaining them along the way, the AI has learned two things: what they look like and what they like to eat. It lets people pay using facial recognition too, and the next time they visit it will not only recognize them, it will remind them of their last order.

"Alexa, what is natural language processing?" Pose that question to Alexa – or Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, or any other voice-activated digital assistant – and it will use natural language processing (NLP) to try to answer your question about, um, natural language processing. That makes Alexa and its ilk a natural example of NLP in action: NLP is a core technology that enables virtual assistants to process your verbal queries and respond with some degree of accuracy. But that doesn't necessarily define NLP; it just points to a popular real-world application of NLP. Plus, the voice assistant example is actually too narrow: Natural language processing isn't just about speech but also written text. Moreover, NLP is already ubiquitous, and your smartphone assistant is only one common example of its everyday use.

More than 100 fully autonomous cleaning robots are coming to Singapore this year, made by local manufacturer Lionsbot.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are forecast to add US$15 trillion to the global economy by 2030. According to the findings of our Index and as might be expected, the governments of countries in the Global North are better placed to take advantage of these gains than those in the Global South. There is a risk, therefore, that countries in the Global South could be left behind by the so-called fourth industrial revolution. Not only will they not reap the potential benefits of AI, but there is also the danger that unequal implementation widens global inequalities. AI has the power to transform the way that governments around the world deliver public services. In turn, this could greatly improve citizens' experiences of government. Governments are already implementing AI in their operations and service delivery, to improve efficiency, save time and money, and deliver better quality public services. In 2017, Oxford Insights created the world's first Government AI Readiness Index, to answer the question: how well placed are national governments to take advantage of the benefits of AI in their operations and delivery of public services? The results sought to capture the current capacity of governments to exploit the innovative potential of AI. The 2019 Government AI Readiness Index, produced with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), sees a development of our methodology, and an expansion of scope to cover all UN countries (from our previous group of OECD members). It scores the governments of 194 countries and territories according to their preparedness to use AI in the delivery of public services. The overall score is comprised of 11 input metrics, grouped under four high-level clusters: governance; infrastructure and data; skills and education; and government and public services. The data is derived from a variety of resources, ranging from our own desk research into AI strategies, to databases such as the number of registered AI startups on Crunchbase, to indices such as the UN eGovernment Development Index. We divided the countries by region, principally following UN groupings, with the chief exception of the Western European and Others Group, which we separated to allow more in-depth analysis of higher scoring governments.

Our built environment is becoming one big computer. "Smartness" is coming to saturate our stores, workplaces, homes, cities. As we go about our daily lives, data is made, stored, analyzed and used to make algorithmic inferences about us that in turn structure our experience of the world. Computation encircles us as a layer, dense and interconnected. If our parents and our grandparents lived with computers, we live inside of them.

CANBERRA – An Australian government minister on Wednesday expressed concern for three Australians arrested in Iran on suspicion of spying and separated their plight from a tense standoff in the Middle East over the weekend attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham was responding after Iran on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that it is holding three Australian citizens, including two British dual nationals, on suspicion of espionage. "The government continues to seek information and clarity around these matters," Birmingham told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We are concerned for the welfare of these individuals and work to make sure their treatment is as fair as possible." Iran confirmed the arrests of Melbourne University Middle East expert Kylie Moore-Gilbert in October and travel blogging couple Mark Firkin and Jolie King in July as fallout continues from Saturday's fiery missile and drone attack on the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was headed to Jiddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss possible responses to what U.S. officials believe was an attack coming from Iranian soil.

WASHINGTON – The United States is eager to spur innovation in its defense industry at a time when China is investing in advanced technologies including fifth-generation, or 5G, high-speed communications equipment, artificial intelligence systems and hypersonic weapons. In contrast to a vibrant U.S. industry, Japanese defense-related companies have long been part of a "lukewarm environment where business opportunities are guaranteed but profits are limited," a Japanese defense industry source said. In March, the U.S. Air Force held a new event to hear presentations from about 60 small and startup businesses, with contract money available on the spot to those with innovative ideas. Speed, as well as originality and innovation, is essential in competition between major powers, according to then-Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson. In particular, the United States is alarmed by China's development of hypersonic weapons, as its existing missile defense equipment is unable to shoot such weapons down.