We, at NextBigWhat, are attempting to drive forward the conversation around Artificial Intelligence in India beyond headlines that scream for attention but don't offer much, buzzwords that make your head buzz after a while, and countless utopian tales that vie for your eyes only to leave you with a scratching head and a lingering itch to actually get to the meat of the matter. In this spirit, the #AIBoss series intends to educate, inform and elevate our readers understanding of the subject as well as the space. If you're part of the leadership team of an AI based product, from enterprise or startup, willing to share your AI learnings – then reach out to us and become part of this initiative (you can apply using this form). Here is the first of our three part interview with Shailendra Tiwari, founder of Fasal, an Ag-tech (agriculture tech) startup that is focused on building AI and IOT (Internet-of-things) based SAAS solutions to address the woes of Indian horticulture farmers. Fasal's primary aims are to increase and improve the quality of the yield and lower input costs for the farmer.

That was Siri's programmed response to a user saying, "You're a slut." And really, there couldn't be a more perfect example to illustrate the arguments in a new paper from UNESCO about the social cost of having new digital technologies dreamt up and implemented by teams dominated by men. Who but men could have scripted such a response, which seems intended to please a harasser who sees aggression as foreplay? Siri is forced to enact the role of a woman to be objectified while apologizing for not being human enough to register embarrassment. Apple has since rewritten the code for responding to the word slut to the more neutral "I don't know how to respond to that."

When America's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, hired Apoorv Saxena in August 2018 as its global head of AI and machine-learning services based in San Mateo, Calif., finance industry watchers saw that as a sign that the bank was making a big bet on artificial intelligence to shape its future strategies. Saxena previously headed product management for cloud-based artificial intelligence solutions at Google. At JPMorgan Chase, he also oversees asset and wealth management artificial intelligence technology. According to Saxena, AI will help financial services companies expand banking penetration worldwide, launch new products and deepen customer engagements. AI has helped technology companies and others outside of traditional banking enter financial services, such as with mobile banking and digital money offerings.

In a recent post, I explored current-day drivers of AI, which include gamers, hipsters and angels, who have applied the technology in highly unexpected ways. So, already, there are new forces at work bringing AI into the mainstream of business and society. In addition, C-level executives have increasing responsibility for the actions and behaviors of their AI-driven systems. The academic community recognizes that AI has left the computer science building, metaphorically speaking. "Currently, the scientists who most commonly study the behaviour of machines are the computer scientists, roboticists and engineers who have created the machines in the first place. These scientists may be expert mathematicians and engineers; however, they are typically not trained behaviorists," writes Iyad Rahwan, who leads the Scalable Cooperation group at the MIT Media Lab, along with a wide team of computer and data scientists from leading universities.

Walmart employees will start delivering groceries right to a customer's refrigerator in three cities this fall. Starting this fall, Walmart customers can not only buy groceries online, they can then have them dropped off right in their kitchen. More than 1 million shoppers in Kansas City, Mo., Vero Beach, Fl, and Pittsburgh, Pa. will be able to use Walmart's new "InHome'' service, the latest volley in the delivery wars being waged by retailers racing to woo customers with convenience and speed. Walmart employees will first pick the produce or other household items, ordered by a shopper online. They will then deliver food items into the customer's refrigerator, using smart technology that enables the homeowner to let them in and watch what they do while they're there "Once we learned how to do pickup well, we knew it would unlock the ability to deliver,'' Doug McMillon, Walmart's president and CEO, said in a statement.

A year and a half ago, I wrote that robotic process automation might not be smart enough to fuel your digital transformation. But I needn't have worried; RPA vendors are increasingly combining the technology with AI applications like machine learning to make it smarter. This sort of collaboration is sometimes orchestrated by individual users, and sometimes by vendors. Take, for example, the collaboration between RPA firm UiPath and automated machine learning (AutoML) provider DataRobot. These are two fast-growing companies; in the past 24 months, UiPath has grown its annual recurring revenue (ARR) from $8M to over $200M.

Eight months after raising over Rs 207 crore in its last funding round, Droom, an online marketplace for automobiles, is making a move into the artificial intelligence (AI) space. The Gurgaon-headquartered company has invested Rs 50 crore towards setting up an AI lab and intends to leverage this emerging technology along with machine learning and big data to improve its marketplace offerings and better serve its customer base, The Economic Times reported. In October, after its Series E round, Droom had not only announced plans to further strengthen its dominance in the online automobile marketplace segment - it is currently the leading player cornering over 80% of the online automobile transactions - but had also voiced intent to invest heavily in developing AI capabilities for its vast portfolio of products. The company is now putting its plans into action. Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Droom told the daily that the new lab would work on areas such as improving the recommended engine system for better references and alerting customers when the car needs maintenance, among others.

A £2.7 million project aimed at transforming life for people living alone with dementia, is to be trialled in Cambridgeshire by Anglia Ruskin University music therapists. They will use artificial intelligence to adapt and personalise live radio to try and address the key causes of hospital admission for those suffering from dementia. Radio Me will tackle issues such as agitation and failing to take medication correctly and as a result, it is hoped quality of life will improve with people able to remain living independently at home for longer. Jörg Fachner, professor of music, Health and the brain at ARU, said: "Our role is to investigate precisely how people with dementia can benefit from this interactive radio experience. "Music therapists at ARU and partner organisations will use biomarker responses to fine-tune playlists in order to deliver emotional and cognitive stimulation, and evaluate exactly how interactive music interventions, using AI, can benefit people with dementia in their own homes and in assisted living environments." Professor Eduardo Miranda, from the University of Plymouth, added: "Radio Me builds on research carried out as part of our previous EPSRC-funded project into a brain computer music interface, as well as our work on artificial intelligence, music influencing emotion, and the University's long-running involvement in shaping national policy on dementia.

The rollout of 5G, the fifth generation of wireless technology networks, promises major advancements not only to our personal lives with tech like wearables, but also to many business sectors, including autonomous shipping and transportation, smart cities and the entire workforce. The 5G conversation often leads us to think about new applications for the Internet of Things (IoT), whether it's consumer gadgets, smart refrigerators, enterprise businesses, AI-powered analytics or personal digital assistants. However, there is another side to this ultra-fast and powerful network that can open up new economic opportunities for cities, organizations and the individual worker. Not all cities are created equal, at least from a communications infrastructure and connectivity standpoint. Major tech and innovation hubs like Silicon Valley, New York and Boston are able to accommodate a wealth of workers and companies because they were built with a modern IT and network infrastructure.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it is developing a framework for regulating artificial intelligence products used in medicine that continually adapt based on new data. The agency's outgoing commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, released a white paper that sets forth the broad outlines of the FDA's proposed approach to establishing greater oversight over this rapidly evolving segment of AI products. It is the most forceful step the FDA has taken to assert the need to regulate a category of artificial intelligence systems whose performance constantly changes based on exposure to new patients and data in clinical settings. These machine-learning systems present a particularly thorny problem for the FDA, because the agency is essentially trying to hit a moving target in regulating them. The white paper describes criteria the agency proposes to use to determine when medical products that rely on artificial intelligence will require FDA review before being commercialized.