Machine learning is gathering pace in China, with enterprises employing the technology to detect financial fraud, recommend products to consumers and streamline industrial operations, among various use cases. In a new report assessing key suppliers of machine learning platforms in China, IDC details its observations of the market and how major suppliers fare in supporting the needs of enterprises across industries. According to the analyst company, China's machine learning market – including hardware, software and services – was worth RMB1bn (US$139m) in 2018. But when applied in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, machine learning contributed RMB10bn to China's AI market last year. Chinese suppliers of machine learning platforms currently provide more than 30 classic machine learning algorithms, with support for mainstream frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch and Caffe.

The capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) are growing exponentially, especially in the area of creating synthetic images that are photorealistic. In 2014, generative adversarial networks (GANs) were introduced. A few years later, bidirectional GANs (BiGANs) were created. Then came along BigGANs that outperformed state-of-the-art GANs in image synthesis. But wait, there's more: Last week researchers from Alphabet Inc.'s DeepMind debuted BigBiGANs.

Artificial intelligence could be used to predict those at risk of a fatal heart attack up to five years in advance, new research has found. Experts at the University of Oxford have developed a "fingerprint", or biomarker, using machine learning. When a patient is admitted to hospital with chest pain, it's standard procedure for a coronary CT angiogram (CCTA) to be performed. If no narrowing of the arteries is detected – about 75% of cases – then the patient is sent home – yet some of them suffer a heart attack in the future. There's currently no method routinely used by doctors to spot all underlying red flags of a future heart attack.

Fraudsters are always looking for new ways to cheat someone out of money. A report claims that a company CEO was tricked by scammers who faked the voice of the parent company CEO to get the executive to transfer $243,000 to an external account. The story claims that in March, criminals used commercially available voice-generating AI software to impersonate the CEO of a German energy company with a division based in the UK. The thieves and their deepfake corporate CEO tricked the real CEO of the British energy company into transmitting funds into the claimed account of a Hungarian supplier. Guarantees were given that transfer would be reimbursed immediately.

Technology is everywhere in our lives today-- the workplace, in our homes, on our person and, now, in our schools. It figures that given the digital transformation of workplaces across industries-- and the increasing automation of our businesses-- the next generation of workers are early immersed in a culture of experimentation and innovation with emerging technologies and software. But that's not the sole aim of technology for education-- a growing market more commonly referred to as EdTech. It also offers an alternative to'traditional' classroom learning methods, engaging students which new, innovative formats, and the ability to tailor approaches to fit the individual student. According to a forecast laid out by Knowledgemotion CEO David Bainbridge in Forbes, the EdTech industry will reach a global value of US$252 billion by 2020.

Google has launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool that automatically detects grammar mistakes while messages are being composed in Gmail, and auto-corrects some common spelling mistakes. While some education experts support the use of high-tech grammar tools as a way to help people more clearly express their thoughts, critics say AI programs are only as smart as the humans who program them, and are often just as biased. Google's AI-grammar program underlines incorrect grammar with a blue squiggly line while the user writes an email. The user can click on the word in question to reveal Google's Grammar suggestions. Google trained the program by asking computational and analytical linguists to review thousands of grammar samples, which were then fed into statistical learning algorithms along with other "correct" text to establish a spelling and grammar correction model.

Michael Niedermayer used to fly drones for the U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency, gathering real-time, life-and-death intelligence on battlefields in Iraq. Now he pilots delivery robots for a San Francisco Bay Area startup that wants to disrupt burrito delivery. Postmates, which in mid-August received a permit to operate its Serve delivery robot in San Francisco and is already testing it for food delivery in Los Angeles, employs a growing team of "pilots" to remotely oversee, and at times steer, these four-wheeled food ferries. "We will probably see a drastic increase in our workforce over the next five years," says Postmates Chief Executive Bastian Lehmann. Across industries, engineers are building atop work done a generation ago by designers of military drones.

OYO Hotels & Homes, the world's third-largest and fastest-growing hotel chain, today announced it has …

Every aspect of life can be guided by artificial intelligence algorithms – from choosing what route to take for your morning commute, to deciding whom to take on a date, to complex legal and judicial matters such as predictive policing. Big tech companies like Google and Facebook use AI to obtain insights on their gargantuan trove of detailed customer data. This allows them monetize users' collective preferences through practices such as micro-targeting, a strategy used by advertisers to narrowly target specific sets of users. In parallel, many people now trust platforms and algorithms more than their own governments and civic society. An October 2018 study suggested that people demonstrate "algorithm appreciation," to the extent that they would rely on advice more when they think it is from an algorithm than from a human.