Artificial intelligence is usually associated with futuristic sci-fi movies and the rise of the machines against humanity. What many people don't realise is that it's commonplace today, and something you've probably not noticed has become a critical part of your life. The intelligence Facebook uses to make friends suggestions or how Google photos recognises faces and places are both examples of AI, and machine learning, in action. AI is also being used in organisations worldwide to augment and assist human employees to do their jobs better and smarter. In South Africa, Stellenbosch-based CLEVVA has developed an AI platform that enables companies to rapidly and easily deploy Virtual Advisors across every aspect of their businesses.

The media interest surrounding deep learning has grown exponentially in the last few years. But what does it actually mean, and how will it change business and society? Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that refers to mapping artificial neural networks to recreate some of the same processes that the human brain performs, and using algorithms with speech, images and text, to recognise, identify and understand patterns in the data. Although this sounds simple, it involves complex processes and functions - but once trained, the application of deep learning algorithms could be world changing. For instance, a machine that learns like a human, but can rapidly process thousands of images and recognise patterns, is already showing promise for applying deep learning to medical imaging.

Monday 18th July 2016, Whitley: Sir Ben Ainslie has hailed Land Rover's artificial intelligence (AI) as a'game changer' ahead of the British America's Cup team's home event in Portsmouth (22-24 July). Land Rover, Title and Exclusive Innovation Partner to Land Rover BAR, is applying its big data processing power and machine learning expertise to help co-engineer the fastest boat in America's Cup history and bring the world's oldest sporting trophy to the UK for the first time. Land Rover engineers, embedded into the team for over a year, are using artificial intelligence to explore and find patterns in sailing performance data to help'make the boat go faster'. When testing, the sailing team receives over 16 GB of uncompressed data per day from sensors on the boat - the equivalent of filling an iPhone's memory. The ability to process and make sense of this volume of data is unprecedented in sailing.

Major landmarks around the world are Lighting It Up Blue on April 1 and 2 to raise awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) for World Autism Awareness Day at Forte Sangallo on April 02, 2016 in Nettuno, Italy. In recent months, artificial intelligence (AI) has been making its presence known in different fields of sciences. In fact, AI is deemed as a valuable asset in precision medicine. But now, a team of researchers is exploring the possibilities if machine learning could play a vital part in autism screening, diagnostics and intervention. Before delving deeper into the latest research on the importance of artificial intelligence in autism screening and diagnostics, let's first define the two most relevant subjects on the study - autism and machine learning. According to Autism Speaks, autism refers to the "general term used for group of complex disorders of brain development," which are marked by social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication difficulties, as well as repetitive behaviors.

Peering deeper and deeper into space will require telescopes with huge mirrors, but building, testing, and transporting those super-scopes will be a daunting challenge, a conference of future space leaders was told Thursday. Alberto Conti, a Northrop Grumman manager, said the James Webb Space Telescope, currently undergoing tests, has a mirror that's about 21 feet in diameter. Even at that size, Conti said it is difficult to find a facility large enough to test the mirror and a spacecraft that can transport it to the orbiting International Space Station. His solution, echoed by Jay Falker of NASA, is to use robots to begin building and testing the telescopes – in space, where there's plenty of elbow room. Robots in space were just one of the "wicked cool technologies" introduced at the Future Space Leaders conference on Capitol Hill last week.

Europe has a new speedcubing champion, Germany's Phillip Weyer. Weyer solved a Rubik's cube puzzle in an average time of 7.88 seconds in the Rubik's Cube European Championship 2016. The 2016 Championship held in Prague, Czech Republic, is the seventh Rubik's Cube European Championship. It had 18 categories, including the main category of the classic 3x3 cube, solving the cube blindfolded or only using the feet. Weyer told Reuters that it took years of hard work to get to the top.

Last week I hired a personal assistant named Amy Ingram. She set up four meetings for me, adding them to my calendar with the relevant contact details included. She rescheduled twice when the person I was supposed to meet had to cancel at the last minute. Instead of sending half a dozen emails per meeting, I only needed to compose one to kick things off. This all sounds like pretty simple stuff, but Amy isn't a human being: It's a virtual assistant made by the New York City startup X.ai.

What do you get if you combine the broad trends of smartphones, wearables, Internet of Things, an individual desire for control and healthcare costs for society? You get VCs investing in health-tech startups, that's what. And the latest evidence of this is Stockholm-based Lifesum raising a 10m funding round led by Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), with Draper Esprit, Bauer Media Group and SparkLabs Global Ventures. Lifesum, which tracks what you eat and your exercise, says it now has 15 million users. That's less than the 80 million users which MyFitnessPal had when it was acquired by athletic apparel maker Under Armour in February 2015.

Japan's All Nippon Airways has unveiled its newest Star Wars-themed passenger jet, which features a livery inspired by the lovable droid C-3PO. The design of the Boeing 777-200ER pays tribute to the humanoid robot and is the fourth in a series of liveries that celebrate the Hollywood film franchise. It will start flying on domestic routes in Japan from the end of March 2017, joining planes that feature R2-D2, BB-8 and a general Star Wars theme which shows R2-D2 and BB-8. The livery features a striking gold paint scheme and multi-coloured lines that represent the droid's body parts and wiring Japan's largest airline said the Boeing 777 will begin flying on domestic routes, including Tokyo and Osaka, from next March Check out this Sumo's drum game display The 3-CPO livery, unveiled this week at the Star Wars Celebration Europe event in London, has a striking gold paint scheme and lines that reflect the pivotal character's body parts and wiring. When it launches next year, the jet will serve mainly Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Okinawa and Fukuoka.

Last week at Microsoft's Build conference, CEO Satya Nadella said that the future of the company was "conversation as platform." In other words, less Windows and Office, and more Cortana and Tay--conversational interfaces that can understand the natural language of human users. If Nadella thought he was expressing some unique vision of the future, though, he was fooling himself. The idea of conversational UI has quickly colonized nearly every corner of Silicon Valley over the past year. Now seems like a good time to ask: What is a conversational interface?