One of my dreams, when I was young, is to be able to control things by clapping or snapping. I wanted to learn wizardry back then just to do that. Now that I am old and technology gets upgraded from time to time, there are now things that we can control by voice(which is almost similar to my clapping and snapping dream). This is somehow the start of making my childish dreams possible. I am so excited to write about this thing because I find it really exciting to use not just for me but for everyone in our family.

Bengaluru: Disruptive technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are making their way into classrooms as humanoid robots to teach students and interact with them as teachers do, at a school in Bengaluru. "Our robots impart lessons daily in five subjects to about 300 students in Classes 7-9 in four sections by turns. They also interact with them and respond to questions in the subjects," Indus International School's chief design officer, Vignesh Rao, told IANS here. Though the 5 foot 7 inch robots, dressed in formal female attire, do not replace real teachers, they complement them in teaching lessons in the subjects and reply to FAQs (frequently asked questions) from students. "We have programmed the interactive robots to answer questions students frequently ask on the subjects and related to them. With AI in play, the robots are able to respond to questions and doubts of our wards after a lesson is taught," said Rao.

In contrast to the science fiction portrayal of evil computers plotting to overthrow humankind, artificial intelligence (AI) in fact seems poised to help improve human health in a multitude of ways, including flagging suspicious moles for dermatologist follow-up, monitoring blood volume in military field personnel and tracking flu outbreaks via Twitter. The Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CCTSI) recently held the 7th annual CU-CSU Summit on the topic of "AI and Machine Learning in Biomedical Research", with over 150 researchers, clinicians and student attendees from all three CU campuses and CSU. Ronald Sokol, MD, CCTSI director, said, "The purpose of the CCTSI is to accelerate and catalyze translating discoveries into better patient care and population health by bringing together expertise from all our partners." Rather than individual campuses operating in silos, the annual Summit brings together clinicians, basic and clinical researchers, post-doctoral fellows, mathematicians and others to highlight ongoing research excellence, establish collaborations and increase interconnectivity of the four campuses. This year's conference on AI hit capacity for registration, including attendance by more mathematicians and with more poster submissions than the preceding six events.

If you are a US university student, you will soon have the option of getting your takeaways delivered by robot thanks to the ambitious expansion plans of Estonian startup Starship. Started in Estonia by ex-Skype entrepreneurs Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, the company about to dramatically increase the number 6-wheeled delivery bots roaming the streets, following a $40m Series-A funding round. While questions are being raised about the economics of such a robot delivery business, the company is unabashed. Lex Bayer, chief executive, tells Sifted that the company plans to expand to 100 US university campuses over the next two years. With a typical fleet of robots being somewhere between 25 and 50, that could mean more than 5000 robots in service by 2021.

See what these two great business minds agree on as well as disagree regarding artificial intelligence. "In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of time magazine as the best CEO. Machines will do what human beings are incapable of doing. Machines will partner and cooperate with humans, rather than become mankind's biggest enemy." "Sooner or later, the U.S. will face mounting job losses due to advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics."

Although a bank's business has basically stayed the same over the last couple of decades, how a bank operates has drastically shifted. The fundamental pillars of a bank, according to Mike Telang, executive vice president and head of enterprise architecture at Wells Fargo, now focus on mostly security, regulation, and innovation. When it comes to technology trends in the financial services industry, Telang said its impact on a bank depends heavily on where the bank is in its maturity lifecycle. "I think it depends on the lifecycle of the maturity of where you are as a bank at that point in time and you've got to find a solution for that ... you have a lot of trends like blockchain, you have a lot of trends like security, so we are applying the technology to the use case that suits us best," Telang said during a panel session at VMworld 2019 in San Francisco last week. Looking at emerging technologies, Telang described the challenges Wells Fargo has faced in adopting machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).

AI will have a huge impact on healthcare. It is currently moving out of the laboratory and into real-world applications for healthcare and medicine. Many startups are using modern data and AI technologies to tackle problems related to workflow optimization and automation, demand forecasting, treatment and care, diagnostics, drug discovery, personalized medicine, and many other areas. Some of these companies are beginning to speak publicly about their AI initiatives; our upcoming Artificial Intelligence conferences in San Jose and London have a strong roster of speakers who will describe applications of AI in Health and Medicine. AI's transition to the real world can be challenging. This article highlights new projects and tools that can alleviate and address these challenges.

The financial services industry is undergoing profound shifts facilitated by technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), but according to Refinitiv, AI will be the single greatest enabler of competitive advantage in the financial sector. Refinitiv's newly released inaugural 2019 Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning Global Survey found that financial institutions have gone beyond experimenting with and testing machine learning, to applying machine learning models. According to the study, 90% of the C-level executives and data scientists surveyed have already deployed machine learning either in pockets or more fully across their businesses. Approximately three quarters said that machine learning is a core component of their business strategy, and that they are making significant investments in it. "The benefits extend beyond automating rules-based repeatable tasks once done by humans," said Tim Baker, the Global Head of Applied Innovation of Refinitiv.

Although corporate leaders have talked about skills gaps for years, the spread of automation and artificial intelligence is prompting some of the biggest companies -- including Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, SAP, Walmart, and AT&T, to name just a few -- to take action, not with small pilots but with comprehensive plans to retrain large segments of their workforces. These programs signal that the "future of work" is no longer an event on the distant horizon. Our latest research finds that the occupational mix of the economy is already shifting in ways that will accelerate over the next decade. Although we estimate that only 5% of all occupations can be fully automated, the activities in nearly all jobs will evolve. As intelligent machines take over many physical, repetitive, or basic cognitive tasks, the work that remains will involve both more technical and digital skills and more personal interaction, creativity, and judgment.

AI is already delivering tangible benefits for organizations – but where is the technology headed next? How is artificial intelligence (AI) impacting customer experience (CX) now, and where is it going in the future? What new benefits is it unlocking for organizations and what will it mean for the workforce of tomorrow? These are the questions we posed to five of the industry's leading analysts during EmpowerCX Americas 2019, Sitel Group's annual client event. "Artificial intelligence is already helping contact centers improve two key metrics – reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction," states Juan Gonzalez, Research Director for Frost & Sullivan in Latin America.