In the 2016 movie Hidden Figures, the very human, relatable protagonists worried that the installation of an IBM mainframe at NASA in 1961 would make their jobs redundant. "This IBM's going to put us all out of work." "There's only one thing to do: Learn all we can. "Somewhere down the line, a human being's going to have to push the buttons." Many employees today are equally nervous about alarmist headlines related to the creeping influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Yet most managers and HR leaders aren't fully prepared to deal with these concerns. You need to make your people comfortable with the future by explaining what AI will mean to them in real terms, what it's going to look like in your industry, how it's going to benefit them and even how it may impact them if we all don't proactively get in front of it. The first step to leading your employees through this cycle of change is to educate yourself. Before you talk with your employees about AI, you have ...

WASHINGTON – Looking for that perfect recipe, or a new flavor combination that delights the senses? Increasingly, players in the food industry are embracing artificial intelligence to better understand the dynamics of flavor, aroma and other factors that go into making a food product a success. Earlier this year, IBM became a surprise entrant to the food sector, announcing a partnership with seasonings maker McCormick to "explore flavor territories more quickly and efficiently using AI to learn and predict new flavor combinations" by utilizing data collected from millions of data points. The partnership highlights how technology is being used to disrupt the food industry by helping develop new products and respond to consumer preferences and offer improved nutrition and flavor. "More and more, food companies are embracing digitization and becoming data-driven," said Bernard Lahousse, co-founder of Foodpairing, a startup with offices in Belgium and New York that develops digital food "maps" and algorithms to recommend food and drink combinations.

DavidsTea has brewed up a partnership with Heyday to create its own AI-powered chat platform, part of a larger digital transformation at the Montreal tea retailer. Heyday is a company that provides AI-powered conversational commerce platforms for retailers in a range of categories, including auto brand Ford, food brand Danone and luxury-goods brand LVMH. The two companies started working together earlier this year and the new platform is still being developed, with the goal of launching it in the lead-up to the crucial Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days that kick off the holiday shopping season. Partnering with Heyday is part of a larger digital transformation the company is undergoing, says DavidsTea's new vice president of ecommerce, Damon Sloane. He joined DavidsTea in April, having worked in a series of digital and marketing roles over the past decade.

According to Insilico Medicine, a Maryland-based company developing artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery and biomarker development, partnerships between artificial intelligence (AI) companies and biotechs is often impeded by contractual issues. To develop a more flexible partnering process, Insilico Medicine recently contracted Hill Dickinson, an international commercial law firm based in the UK, to create a standardized documentation system. According to Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine, the universal partnership agreement is intended to simplify and standardize the partnership process. Standardized documentation will be integrated into the automated partnering system already in use by Insilico and will be developed using machine learning. "To our knowledge, it is the first time in AI for drug discovery that someone developed a universal flexible partnering agreement that describes the multiple partnering options and provides the ability to structure the agreement in a semiautomatic manner," he told us.

Following this, many companies are now starting to utilize AI to give an efficient and pleasant experience to their customers. In recent years, AI is also making vital changes in Bangladesh's real estate sector. Historically, people who want to buy property had no option other than to visit places and personally find property. Today, however, they can easily see thousands of properties just by clicking on their mobile phone anytime, anywhere through companies such as Bproperty.com. AI is, hence, playing a vital role in how consumers view properties.

DAN Programmatic, empowered by the Data Sciences Division of the Dentsu Aegis Network in India along with AMNET, the network's programmatic arm has announced the launch of'DAN Vision for Creative', a machine learning and neuroscience based engine. According to the company, it will deliver insights into the predicted performance of a creative even before the creative has actually run. The company added that'DAN Vision for Creative', through its sophisticated technology, endeavors to accurately present a visual heat map of effective elements of a creative and forecast the likelihood of its performance based on algorithms that have been trained over the performance of thousands of creatives and analysing millions of elements. Read Also: Agency Reckoner 2018-19: Top 15 Digital Marketing Agencies "One of the biggest game changers in modern marketing is the use of data to better the decision making capabilities of professionals to yield better outcomes. Creativity without data is a shot in the dark. Even when a creative professional claims to follow his gut, he or she is in reality analysing data generated through experiences for a particular outcome. Having co-founded an agency that deploys new age solutions to solve common problems, 'DAN Vision for Creative' is just the right weapon to solve the age old creative problem of "Why are certain creatives performing better than the others?." It is creating for us a unique differentiator by providing a justification or even starting points for our creative approach to deliver brand success," Sidharth Rao, CEO and co-founder, Dentsu Webchutney, said.

Before joining RollWorks, I was the CEO of Figure Eight, the leading training data platform for Machine Learning teams. Figure Eight sold its platform into the automotive, financial services, media and entertainment, retail, and technology industries supporting both Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer Vision use cases. Thus, I have a broad and deep understanding of the current state of AI and Machine Learning in the real world. Beyond Figure Eight, my experience with Computer Vision goes back almost 30 years when I was working on primitive object identification for robots in manufacturing plants when I was studying engineering at Cambridge University. I have a 25-year history with AI and Machine Learning.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese artificial intelligence provider Megvii Technology Ltd, backed by Alibaba, has filed for an IPO of at least $500 million in Hong Kong, two people said, coming at a time of political unrest in the city and potential first recession in a decade. Megvii, widely known for its facial recognition platform Face, may raise as much as $1 billion in the planned initial public offering, said one of the people, who expected the deal to take place in the fourth quarter of the year. The Beijing-based firm is moving ahead with its planned float while some other companies have postponed or slowed down their listing plans due to the lack of financial and political stability in Hong Kong. Reuters reported last week that China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, also a big shareholder of Megvii, had delayed its up to $15 billion listing in Hong Kong. The city is on the verge of its first recession in a decade as nearly three months of frequently violent anti-government protests have plunged the city into turmoil, with the benchmark Hang Seng share price index falling to seven-month lows in mid-August.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA, held a strategic summit with Huawei to increase cooperation on investments and to exchange the best global solutions, experiences, and practices in innovation, disruptive technologies, smart grids, digital transformation, automation, cloud platforms, and Artificial Intelligence, AI. The summit was attended by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of DEWA, and Charles Yang, President of the Middle East Region at Huawei Technologies. The summit witnessed the launch of a joint AI laboratory, through which DEWA and Huawei will develop and implement AI digital services for the Middle East. The two sides also launched a training and development programme for DEWA staff in different areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and disruptive technologies. "DEWA supports the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who instructed the Dubai Government to deliver services that are 10 years ahead of other cities, and to work under the leadership of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, and H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai. These directives have guided DEWA's strategy to shape the future and enhance its role in serving the community to become a leading global, sustainable, and innovative corporation," said Al Tayer.

Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 5/25/18) and Privacy Policy (updated 5/25/18). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.