Futurism A.I. (Series 01) launch event 06.26.19 at Lucidworks Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a key element in the digitalization of in-store retail by personalizing the customer experience and creating a more engaged business-to-consumer interaction. For retail companies, AI creates an opportunity to bridge the gap between virtual and physical sales channels. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a segment of computer science that typically refers to the creation of machines or computers capable of intelligent behavior. . Agnieszka Pilat is a Polish painter based in San Francisco. A desire to tell stories drew Pilat to the arts.

Research by neuroscientists at the University of Chicago shows how short-term, working memory uses networks of neurons differently depending on the complexity of the task at hand. The researchers used modern artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to train computational neural networks to solve a range of complex behavioral tasks that required storing information in short term memory. The AI networks were based on the biological structure of the brain and revealed two distinct processes involved in short-term memory. One, a "silent" process where the brain stores short-term memories without ongoing neural activity, and a second, more active process where circuits of neurons fire continuously. The study, led by Nicholas Masse, PhD, a senior scientist at UChicago, and senior author David Freedman, PhD, professor of neurobiology, was published this week in Nature Neuroscience.

For the first time, astrophysicists have used artificial intelligence techniques to generate complex 3D simulations of the universe. The results are so fast, accurate and robust that even the creators aren't sure how it all works. "We can run these simulations in a few milliseconds, while other'fast' simulations take a couple of minutes," says study co-author Shirley Ho, a group leader at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City and an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The speed and accuracy of the project, called the Deep Density Displacement Model, or D3M for short, wasn't the biggest surprise to the researchers. The real shock was that D3M could accurately simulate how the universe would look if certain parameters were tweaked -- such as how much of the cosmos is dark matter -- even though the model had never received any training data where those parameters varied.

For the first time, astrophysicists have used artificial intelligence techniques to generate complex 3D simulations of the universe. The results are so fast, accurate and robust that even the creators aren't sure how it all works. "We can run these simulations in a few milliseconds, while other'fast' simulations take a couple of minutes," says study co-author Shirley Ho, a group leader at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City and an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The speed and accuracy of the project, called the Deep Density Displacement Model, or D3M for short, wasn't the biggest surprise to the researchers. The real shock was that D3M could accurately simulate how the universe would look if certain parameters were tweaked -- such as how much of the cosmos is dark matter -- even though the model had never received any training data where those parameters varied.

Eight years ago, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, which together make up more than 97% of the global market for payment services, cut off funding to WikiLeaks (you could still donate to the Ku Klux Klan, the English Defence League or Americans for Truth about Homosexuality). The blockade, backed by Republican senators, was political: WikiLeaks had published Chelsea Manning's material documenting US military drone strikes and civilian killings in Iraq; stopping inflowing cash silenced Julian Assange's outfit, albeit temporarily. Perhaps it was time for a cryptocurrency to stride from the proverbial phone booth, underpants over its tights, and save the day? After all, bitcoin's philosophy was that it would cut out the middleman, whether state functionary or corporate lackey, and realise a radical future in which, for instance, Afghan women, prohibited from opening bank accounts, might work and get paid in bitcoin. Certainly, in December 2010 there was much enthusiasm from cypherpunks for WikiLeaks to link to bitcoin on their website for donations.

British workers are being shut out of decisions over the rising use of robots in the UK economy, according to a report. According to the commission on workers and technology, run by the Fabian Society and the Community trade union, almost six in 10 employees across Britain in a poll said their employers did not give them a say on the use of new technologies. Risking a future where workers' jobs get worse and people's voices go unheard over changes in the workplace, the findings come as a separate report finds the use of robots in poorer regions triggers the loss of almost twice as many jobs as in wealthier ones. In a study by the consultancy firm Oxford Economics, the rapidly growing use of robots is expected to have a profound impact on jobs across the world, resulting in up to 20m manufacturing job losses by 2030. Around 1.7m manufacturing jobs have already been lost to robots since 2000, according to the study, including as many as 400,000 in Europe, 260,000 in the US and 550,000 in China.

BANGKOK - An order for mobile phone users in Thailand's restive south to submit a photo of themselves for facial recognition purposes is causing uproar from opponents who see it as further curtailing the rights of the Muslim-majority population. But an army spokesman on Wednesday defended the move, saying the facial identification scheme is needed to root out insurgents deploying mobile phone-detonated home-made bombs. Thailand's three southernmost states -- Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- have since 2004 been rife with conflict between Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state, which annexed the region around a century ago. The tit-for-tat violence has claimed around 7,000 lives, mostly civilians of both faiths, and security forces have detained individuals suspected of being separatist rebels without warrants in the past. Now telecoms companies are requiring all users of the region's 1.5 million mobile numbers to submit a photo of themselves for facial recognition purposes following orders from the army -- a move that is drawing anger from rights groups as the deadline to register photos nears.

ARTIFICIALLY intelligent doctors are here. Thousands of people in the US and Europe have already been screened by an AI system for detecting diabetes-related blindness without the involvement of a human doctor. The system was approved last year after it outperformed trained professionals in a trial. More AI tests will kick off in the next few years. They look set to improve the diagnosis of many conditions, from breast and lung cancer to broken wrists and glaucoma.

Technology news website The Information reported earlier this month that the iPhone maker was considering acquiring the firm as a move to bring aboard some of its engineering talent to boost Apple's own self-driving efforts. One of hundreds of startups pursuing autonomous vehicles, Drive.ai had been running a small fleet of test shuttles in Texas, The Information reported. But the startup told California regulators that it plans to lay off 90 people in a permanent closure. The San Francisco Chronicle earlier reported the closure. In Silicon Valley, it is common for larger companies to acquire struggling startups primarily to hire their engineers, a move known in the industry as an "acqui-hire."

The Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI provide an assessment list that operationalises the key requirements and offers guidance to implement them in practice. This assessment list will undergo a piloting process: all stakeholders are invited to test the assessment list and provide practical feedback on how it can be improved. This feedback will allow for a better understanding of how the assessment list, which is aimed to offer guidance for all AI applications, can be implemented within an organisation. It will also indicate where specific tailoring of the assessment list is needed given AI's context-specificity. All interested stakeholders can participate to the piloting process and start testing out the assessment list. An open survey or "quantitative analysis" which will be sent to all those who register to the piloting; The piloting phase will run from the 26th of June until the 1st of December 2019.