Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank has upgraded its voicebot's capabilities to include artificial intelligence- (AI-) based conversational banking. This has been made possible by boosting the software's library with 1.5 lakh utterances captured over the past year. The AI capability, which was already introduced in a beta version, has increased customer fulfilment in self-service mode by more than six times. The bank is also using the library of queries it receives at the call centre to power the'Keya' chatbot, which is available on all three platforms -- net banking, mobile banking and the website. With the voicebot, customers can now complete simple transactions such as ordering a cheque book or paying bills through voice instructions.

Last year's Camp Fire in California was devastating. California's hillsides are still green, thanks to a surplus of rain in the past few months, but the state is already exhorting homeowners to build 100 feet of "defensible space" around their homes, an ominous warning of the coming wildfire season. Cape Analytics, a data startup, wants to do one better, using images from the air and data analytics to identify homes most at risk from a fast-moving wildfire. The Mountain View, California-based company said Wednesday that it is releasing a new product that makes use of its machine learning tools for aerial imagery to assess wildfire risks to people's homes. The primary customer for the product is insurance companies, who can use the tools to assess risk and notify homeowners if that risk can be mitigated.

Three years after the release of the initial National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, the Trump administration issued an update Friday, bringing forward the original seven focus areas and adding an eighth: public-private partnerships. "The landscape for AI R&D is becoming increasingly complex due to the significant investments being made by industry, academia and non-profit organizations, and AI advancements are progressing rapidly," Michael Kratsios, deputy U.S. chief technology officer, said in a call with reporters ahead of the release. "The federal government must therefore continually reevaluate its priorities for AI R&D investments to ensure that investments continue to advance the cutting edge of the field and are not duplicative of industry investments." The original strategic plan was issued by the Obama administration in 2016, with President Trump calling for an update through a February 2019 executive order. The administration asked for public comment last year, garnering feedback from 58 stakeholders.

With people examining further into the universe of innovation, artificial intelligence or AI is presently ubiquitous. Interestingly, albeit artificial intelligence is an innovation of interest at this moment, the idea has been around for over seven-plus decades now. With increased awareness about the transformative intensity of AI, the adoption of AI is presently being seen across numerous enterprises. From enormous banks like HDFC Bank to e-commerce business players like Pepperfry, AI is being utilized for a large variety of use cases. Eyeballing is of fundamental significance in the credit decision procedure, and the bot emulates a human by eyeballing the client demographics for the individuals who have applied for advances against the already existing base.

A year ago, network security specialists spotted a worrying new trend: hackers began unleashing ransomware attacks on really big targets--America's cities. Atlanta, Baltimore, and Greenville, N.C. would later grind to a halt after devastating computer outages disrupted everything from the collection of parking tickets to the sale of new homes. The next big thing that keeps computer scientist Adam Kujawa up at night? Ransomware powered by artificial intelligence, a development that could give exploits such as RobbinHood and WannaCry a potent new makeover to evade cyber defenses, burrow into computer networks and wreak mayhem. In recent years, artificial intelligence and machine learning have been a godsend to IT security professionals, enabling them to detect malware sooner--even the moment it enters the wild--keeping networks more secure and corporate assets safer. But the same technologies that are supercharging network defenses could become a powerfully destructive counter-threat in the wrong hands, experts warn.

A radical electric passenger drone developed by Airbus has completed its first full transition flight, proving its ability to take off vertically and accelerate to over 100 miles per hour before slowing down for a soft landing. Vahana, the project working to bring the craft to life under Airbus's innovation arm, shared incredible footage of the accomplishment this week. The test marked Vahana's 66th flight, a number it has since surpassed by more than a dozen. In a blog post announcing the milestone, Vahana's Zach Lovering said the test'represents everything we set out to achieve when we began our flight test campaign.' The successful full transition flight was performed on May 3 in Oregon. 'In the video, you'll see Vahana take off vertically and then accelerate forward, much like in other videos we've shared,' Lovering explains.

NASA is gearing up for a rescue operation that they hope will save a critical instrument on its Mars lander that remains trapped just centimeters below the surface. In March, after less than a year on Mars' surface, NASA's InSight Lander reported that a critical instrument -- a'mole' probe that is designed to burrow into the planet and assess heat emissions -- hit a snag. For several months, the probe, which was meant to bore 16 feet downward, has been trapped just 30 centimeters beneath the planet's surface after less than a month into its burrowing process. A newly devised plan, however, could extricate the probe once and for all. NASA's InSight probe will try to save a critical instrument that is trapped beneath Mars' surface.

The exciting promise of personalization may not be here yet (at least not at scale), but it's not far off. Advances in technology, data, and analytics will soon allow marketers to create much more personal and "human" experiences across moments, channels, and buying stages. Physical spaces will be reconceived, and customer journeys will be supported far beyond a brand's front door. While these opportunities are exciting, most marketers feel underequipped to deliver. A recent McKinsey survey of senior marketing leaders finds that only 15 percent of CMOs believe their company is on the right track with personalization.

M. Pell (The Microsoft Garage): Surfacing The Invisible Deceptively powerful and stunningly beautiful, this monumental leap forward in conveying the invisible effectively has always been right there in front of us, waiting to be unlocked, hiding in plain sight. All it took was the convergence of human ingenuity, artificial intelligence, and the rise of a medium capable of magic.

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA--Every time you talk, your body moves in sync, whether it's something as subtle as eyes widening or more extreme movements like flailing arms. Now, researchers have designed an artificial intelligence that knows how you're going to move based purely on the sound of your voice. Researchers collected 144 hours of video of 10 people speaking, including a nun, a chemistry teacher, and five TV show hosts (Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, and Seth Meyers). They used an existing algorithm to produce skeletal figures representing the positions of the speakers' arms and hands. They then trained their own algorithm with the data, so it would predict gestures based on fresh audio of the speakers.