In 2018, researchers at MIT and the auto manufacturer BMW were testing ways in which humans and robots might work in close proximity to assemble car parts. In a replica of a factory floor setting, the team rigged up a robot on rails, designed to deliver parts between work stations. Meanwhile, human workers crossed its path every so often to work at nearby stations. The robot was programmed to stop momentarily if a person passed by. But the researchers noticed that the robot would often freeze in place, overly cautious, long before a person had crossed its path.

AI is the catalyst to business transformation all over the world. It decides on how you engage with your customers to how you operate as an organization. If you are wondering what you need to consider when planning your AI roadmap, then The AI Summit London Tech Week 2019, offers all the answers and more. Engage with world leading organisations, hear from the brightest minds and gleam exclusive insights into pioneering AI projects from all corners of industry, like never before. NetApp, with Data Fabric, is the data authority for AI.

IBM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have joined forces to establish an MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab in Cambridge that will pursue research in artificial intelligence (AI) with a focus on healthcare and cybersecurity, as well as on commercialising AI technologies born out of the lab. Touted as one of the largest university-industry AI collaborations and investments, the 10-year, $240 million initiative is expected to hire and bring together over 100 AI-focused scientists, professors, and students. In addition to IBM's plan to commercialise technologies developed within the lab, the pair will encourage MIT faculty and students to launch new companies that will focus on commercialising inventions and technologies that are developed at the lab. "The field of artificial intelligence has experienced incredible growth and progress over the past decade. Yet, today's AI systems, as remarkable as they are, will require new innovations to tackle increasingly difficult real-world problems to improve our work and lives," said Dr John Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, Cognitive Solutions and Research.

Ford wants to use walking robots to help self-driving cars deliver packages. LAS VEGAS – The arrival of the machines is inevitable. And Sin City knows it. MGM Resorts International this year plans to install at Las Vegas resorts an unknown number of automated beverage systems programmed to mix hundreds of different drinks – all at the touch of a button. It's a job that for many years depended on the hands of living, breathing service workers.

Great Learning, India's leading Ed-tech platform for working professionals today announced that it is expanding its geographic footprint globally to Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. The company will offer three of its most popular programs in Data Science & Business Analytics (PGP-DSBA - a special international variant of its business analytics program PGP-BABI ranked #1 in India for the last 4 years), Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (PGP-AIML) and Cyber Security (SACSP - Stanford Advanced Computer Security Program) in these geographies. Offered in association with two of the top universities of the world, Stanford University and The University of Texas, Austin, these online programs have already attracted learners from 17 countries including the UK, Singapore, South Africa, UAE, etc. These programs, designed and developed by the top-notch faculty of UT Austin and Stanford, are delivered online by Great Learning, utilizing its unique mentored-learning model where personalized mentorship is provided by expert instructors from Great Learning's 750 Global Guru network. The mentors include industry veterans from companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Walmart.

I mentioned in my last article that Artificial Intelligence is a large field, to get to being a large field it must have been around for some time, which it has. The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was coined in 1956 at the Dartmouth Conference (New Hampshire) by Stanford University Professor John McCarthy (although he was an assistant professor at Dartmouth at the time). You could argue that AI has deep roots in Formal Reasoning but that would open up a huge philosophical debate and would probably take significantly more space and time to write and read! So why now, if AI has been around for 70 years what has changed in the past few years that has propelled AI into the mainstream? The answer is that the perfect wave has hit, three things have come together to give us the adoption rates that we see.

We are in the foothills of an AI journey. On April 8 the EU issued in-depth guidelines on developing and implementing trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. The guidelines identify fundamental requirements for AI in Europe and set a global standard for efforts to advance AI that is Ethical and Responsible. "It's like putting the foundations in before you build a house. Now is the time to do it," said Liam Benham, Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, in Europe.

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Climate change: I am inevitable. Robert Downey Jr.: I am Iron Man. That's basically what went down during the opening keynote at Amazon's new re:MARS tech and innovation conference in Las Vegas. Avengers actor Robert Downey Jr. made the very Tony Stark-like announcement that he'd be launching a new organization focused on solving environmental woes using artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. "Between robotics and technology, we could probably clean up the planet significantly, if not entirely, within a decade," he said on Tuesday night.

Artificial intelligence is putting new teeth on the old saw that cheaters never prosper. New companies and new research are applying the cutting edge technology in at least three different ways to combat cheating -- on homework, on the job hunt and even on one's diet. In California, a new company called Crosschq is using machine learning and data analytics to help employers with the job reference process. The technology is meant to help companies avoid bad hires and compare how job candidates present themselves with how their references see them. In Pennsylvania, Drexel University researchers are developing an app that can predict when dieters are likely to lapse on their eating regimen, based on the time of day, the user's emotions -- even the temperature of their skin and heart rate.