Nothing is more associated with death and destruction than fire. It can produce a primal fear in all of us. So, when a university professor in Seoul, South Korea, challenged his class to use data to find solutions for complicated real-world problems, one student suggested analyzing information held by the city's Fire Department. The idea was to predict the probability of fires so that authorities could take action to make the city safer for its more than 9 million residents. Hongik University's Professor Jae Seung Lee and his students used artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to develop a new model that can now do just that.

Unmanned store concept adoption has increased in retail, as a growing number of convenience stores are to embrace the concept by the end of the year, Singapore retail companies Octobox, OMO Store and Pick & Go recently announced at the Singapore Retail Industry Conference and Exhibition, writes The Strait Times. Deployments such as palm scanners will allow shoppers to enter the kiosk, RFID will keep track of items purchased and AI will monitor movement inside the kiosk. These features as well as smart cameras and smart shelves will be used in data analysis to improve shoppers' journey and experience. The retail industry in the area is struggling with a lack of employees and severe competition from online retailers, but also suffers from "downside risks and the many uncertainties around the world," explained Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing at the event. With help and support in developing the concept from government agency Enterprise Singapore, Singapore retail companies hope to overcome the difficult times through innovation.

The big picture: For the past 5 years, Elon Musk and others have warned of a future disaster resulting from unchecked superintelligent AI. But today, much of the field is caught in a rather more elementary tug-of-war over which avenue will imbue AI even with the capacity for basic understanding. Since the field took shape in the 1950s, artificial intelligence has advanced in fits and starts, with various tribes claiming the vanguard at different points. The current period began in the early 2010s, when a trio of researchers in Canada brought AI out of a decadeslong funk by reviving deep learning, aided by new and powerful hardware. Now, some of those same pioneers are warning against leaning too heavily on their contributions, and researchers with one foot in adjacent fields are sounding an increasingly insistent alarm about AI's trajectory.

The invention of an artificial super-intelligence has been a central theme in science fiction since at least the 19th century. From E.M. Forster's short story The Machine Stops (1909) to the recent HBO television series Westworld, writers have tended to portray this possibility as an unmitigated disaster. But this issue is no longer one of fiction. Prominent contemporary scientists and engineers are now also worried that super-AI could one day surpass human intelligence (an event known as the "singularity") and become humanity's "worst mistake". Current trends suggest we are set to enter an international arms race for such a technology.

Artificial intelligence is changing the world, by making it possible to automate countless industries. Nowhere is this impact felt as strongly as in the logistics industry, where AI applications are quickly becoming the standard, rather than the exception. According to McKinsey, logistics companies stand to gain from $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion per year in economic value due to AI integration into manufacturing processes and supply chains. This article describes five ways AI is being deployed in the logistics sector, identifying the companies that are already using it for their benefit. Warehouse operations are becoming automated – everything from data collection to inventory management can be done by machines.

It costs approximately $1 a minute for the average call center to serve a caller. As such, reducing call volume by shifting calls to automated phone systems, online banking, and mobile apps can translate into big savings. For credit unions, outbound calling is an important channel for borrower communication, debt collection, and charge-off reduction. However, how can a credit union determine which borrowers to call? How soon and how often should the credit union call?

A startup hoping to democratize the use of artificial intelligence just got a big boost from one of the most prestigious firms on Wall Street and the world's largest insurance company. H2O.ai on Tuesday closed a $72.5 million series D funding round coled by Goldman Sachs and the Ping An Global Voyager Fund, a subsidiary of the China-based Ping An Insurance. Wells Fargo, NVIDIA, and Nexus Venture Partners, all previous investors, also participated in the round. The Silicon Valley-based company works across a variety of industries, including financial services, insurance, and healthcare, with a goal of giving every company the ability to use AI technology, regardless of their size or expertise in the tech. H2O Driverless AI, the company's flagship product, helps users deploy machine-learning techniques cheaper and faster than if they attempted to do it entirely on their own. Larger firms that already have established AI teams, such as those on Wall Street, are also using the company's tech.

The KickScooter T60 is a new self-driving scooter that was introduced in China to drive itself to a charging station. Most countries are falling behind with the new technology, having to gather their scooters around the town every night for them to be charged. However, this new idea prevents all that work as it uses AI to navigate its way back to the charging stations without a person.

I felt her article was lacking in discussion of causal inference and digital experimentation, to crucial ingredients to building a software platform decision-making. So I include links to two upcoming workshops and conferences on these subjects. "Do the right thing": machine learning and causal inference for improved decision making -- Neurips 2019 workshop

As Western powers continue to grapple with if or how to fit Huawei's 5G networks into their societies, reports have revealed the Chinese telecom giant is already well into researching 6G mobile technology. Presently, that network is slowly being rolled out in cities around the globe, and in Australia, access to the service has been slow, with coverage so far being provided by just Telstra and Optus. However, this week, tech website The Logic reported that Huawei was the latest company to join a small list of companies and universities commencing 6G's research and development. Huawei's research will happen at the company's Canadian lab, and Song Zhang, Huawei Canada's vice-president of research strategy and partnerships, told Logic the company was "in talks with Canadian university researchers" about the network's development. Yang Chaobin, the president of Huawei's 5G products, said that 6G would not be viable until 2030.