Project description Our society is changing. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies are playing an increasingly important role in our society. To this end Leiden University has started a new, university wide initiative to enable collaboration on the use of AI. By building on and expanding the already existing expertise of AI the project intends to advance science and improve the quality of our life. All the disciplines of the University of Leiden are involved: Archeology, Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Public Administration, Sciences, and also the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), to collaborate and appoint new staff with joint interests.

Sixteen hundred years after ancient Greek scientist Heron of Alexandria mentioned the rudimentary steam engine, the invention went on to create the first industrial revolution, allowing production to be mechanized and forging the modern age through industrial culture. This industrial culture led to subsequent industrial revolutions, which have driven the modern age. The second industrial revolution was driven by machines running on electricity and led to mass production of goods, as well as a further change in industrial culture driving new management practices, such as division of labour and just-in-time manufacturing to improve quality and output. The third industrial revolution began with the rise of electronics – the transistor and microprocessor – leading to the automation of production machinery and development of communication technologies – the Internet, Wi-Fi and cellular networks – and a cultural shift to people being empowered to work higher-level jobs, such as programming and engineering. Now, over 250 years after the steam engine helped spawn the industrial world, advances in computational technology, along with the merging of sensors and digital technologies, are changing the fundamentals of that world.

If digital workplaces are being disrupted by the ongoing development of artificial intelligence (AI) driven apps, by 2021 those disruptors could end up in their turn being disrupted. The emergence of a new form of AI, or a second wave of AI, known as augmented AI is so significant that Gartner is predicting that by 2021 it will be creating up to $2.9 trillion of business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally. Gartner defines augmented intelligence as a human-centered partnership model of people and AI working together to enhance cognitive performance. This includes learning, decision making and new experiences. "As AI technology evolves, the combined human and AI capabilities that augmented intelligence allows will deliver the greatest benefits to enterprises," Svetlana Sicular, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement..

Ever hear the one about how a group of monkeys could, given enough time, produce the entire works of Shakespeare? Well, apparently an AI being forced to watch 1,000 hours of Batman can be coerced into creating a script. Honestly though it looks like something that might cause the Joker to grimace in utter distaste since it's about one of the most nonsensical things around. Seriously, it's laughable enough that someone might want to pick it up and make a movie out of it, a parody at least. This kind of proves that as much as AI might be a perceived threat to some, there's not much chance that it's going to be much of a threat to writers in the near future since at this point computers still aren't quite expert at thinking around corners.

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. 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 Mr Rao. The private international day-cum-boarding school has 25 co-ed students in each of the four sections for Classes 7-9.

US tech giant, Cisco, is all wired to take partnerships to a new level. In the recently concluded flagship event Cisco India Summit 2019, the networking mogul emphasised on the significance of alliances to further crusade into a connected digital ecosystem. A large proportion of the company's business comes from the core verticals of BFSI, IT/ITeS, telecom and the Government. However, over the last 1415 months, it has started to focus on manufacturing, pharma, retail and healthcare, warehousing and logistics. Not surprisingly, with a plethora of products and solutions, and with the new world's huge appetite for networking, the horizon of opportunities for the company is endless.

The Japanese and French economy ministers agreed Monday to support the alliance between Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA in its bid to improve competitiveness in an auto industry rapidly shifting to electrified and self-driving vehicles, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. The telephone talks between Hiroshige Seko and French counterpart Bruno Le Maire came as the major auto alliance partners review their capital relationship after the arrest of former Nissan and Renault Chairman Carlos Ghosn last November for alleged financial misconduct. In a joint press release, the two ministers said they would support the two companies' discussions and their unified will to maintain and strengthen their cooperative relationship. The French government is the largest shareholder in Renault, which has a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan. Nissan in turn holds a 15 percent nonvoting stake in the French peer, a capital structure regarded by Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa as unbalanced.

Velodyne Lidar is the maker of the lidar units used by nearly all of the self-driving developments under way as of 2019. The company's lidar sensors are expensive, but it has worked with several automakers to lower costs considerably over the last few years. While some well-funded entrants (including Waymo and Cruise) have internal efforts under way to develop lower-cost lidar units of their own, Velodyne still has the potential to be an enduring leader in this space. Investors should be prepared to take a close look if and when the company announces plans for a public offering. Zoox is a secretive California-based start-up that is developing a self-driving system aimed at the ridesharing market.

Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine learning tools and "business intelligence capabilities" to specialize in dynamic pricing of …

Brain organoids -- also called mini-brains -- are 3D cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain in the laboratory. Brain organoids help researchers track human development, unravel the molecular events that lead to disease and test new treatments. Brain organoids do not replicate cognitive function, but researchers can check how an organoid's physical structure or gene expression changes over time or as a result of a virus or drug. University of California San Diego researchers have now taken brain organoids one step further, achieving an unprecedented level of neural network activity -- electrical impulses that can be recorded by multi-electrode arrays. Using data from babies born up to three-and-a-half months premature, the team developed an algorithm to predict their age based upon EEG patterns.