Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence has started working with the doctors and computers at London's Royal Free Hospital Trust; many of the first questions being asked concentrate on data security and patient confidentiality. About 1.6m patients a month are seen by the three hospitals that the Trust covers and, according to an agreement seen by the New Scientist magazine, the data includes patient information from the past five years. That data can't be used by Google in any other part of its business, it is stored by a third party and will have to be destroyed/given back when the agreement ends, according to the New Scientist. Google wants to apply machine learning to mine the data and help doctors by predicting care needs – both at the level of the individual patient and the wider community. If the pilot works then implications are huge: clever new algorithms will help make healthcare better and be more efficient at treatment. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could predict the outbreak of infectious diseases from scattered hospital admissions data before a human expert has noticed.

IBM's Watson has the ability to make a diagnosis. Apps can track and monitor patient emergencies. Our phones may soon be our medical advisors. Preventive and diagnostic medicine is on the cusp of an AI revolution that will no doubt save lives. But when it comes to matters of life and death, should decisions be left to machines?

San Francisco (AFP) - Amazon on Friday boasted that its virtual assistant Alexa is capable of 1,000 "skills," as the online retail giant bolsters defenses against rivals such as Google and Apple. The Seattle-based company said in a blog post that the programs were developed specifically for the voice-commanded Alexa software used in Amazon devices such as Echo and Fire TV. Amazon released voice-enabled wireless speaker Echo in late 2014, infusing it with virtual assistant smarts that enable it to answer questions or control linked devices upon command. A kit lets outside software developers create "experiences," similar in concept to apps, for Alexa. Alexa director Rob Pulciani said tens of thousands of developers are learning about and crafting programs that introduce users "to the magic and simplicity of hands-free, voice-driven interactions."

Everyone from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to Bill Gates is talking artificial intelligence at Code Conference 2016. When he's not building electric cars or helping to create the idea for a high-speed transit system, Elon Musk really wants citizens of Earth to go to Mars. During a wide-ranging interview at The Code Conference, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX discussed everything from life on Mars to the possibility that life is just an elaborate computer simulation. This wouldn't be the first time Musk has shared some wildly ambitious ideas and thoughts. Let's break down the three most interesting things Musk shared during his Code talk: Musk predicts the first humans will travel to Mars eight years from now, arriving on the red planet by 2025. Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with a goal of "enabling people to live on other planets," according to a description on the space tech company's website.

Creators of the popular game revealed this week that Minecraft has now been sold more than 100 million times – and a few copies have even made it to Antarctica. The figures combine sales from PC, console, and mobile versions of the game to create a user-base that'includes folks from every country and territory on the planet.' Creators of the popular game revealed this week that Minecraft has now been sold more than 100 million times – and a few copies have even made it to Antarctica. The figures combine sales from PC, console, and mobile versions of the game to create a user-base that'includes folks from every country and territory on the planet' Minecraft was created in 2009. At the start of the game, a player is put into a'virtually infinite game world.'

"When we look at what's happening with artificial intelligence, we see something that is very, very powerful, very valuable for military applications, but we also see a technology that is still quite fundamentally limited," DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar said at the Atlantic Council on May 2. Aiming to define those limits, a new Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program will try to answer a singular question: "What are the fundamental limitations inherent in machine learning systems?" Through a series of research areas of interest, the Fundamental Limits of Learning, or Fun LoL, program will assess the potential of focused investigations by developing, validating and applying a theoretical framework for learning, according to the recently released request for information. The two primary research areas focus on articulating a general mathematical framework to measure learning and applying that framework to existing machine learning methods to characterize capabilities of current techniques. Machines can master chess, Jeopardy! Because complex threats require machines to adapt and learn quickly, it is important that they be able to generalize creatively from previously learned concepts.

Mandarin Chinese is a notoriously difficult language to learn -- a labyrinth of semantic tones, elaborate characters and obscure idiomatic phrases. And in China, a land of infinite linguistic diversity, the government has spent decades struggling to unify the country under that one language, not without some controversy. David Moser, the author of "A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language," who has lived in China for more than two decades, talks about the thorny politics of Mandarin Chinese, which is known in Chinese as Putonghua. There are aspects of Chinese that make it hard for foreigners to learn, and there are aspects that make it difficult for native Chinese. I think the one that gets the most press -- and is in some sense the most controversial -- is the Chinese characters.

At Computex 2016, Intel presented its processors for powering video, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. According to the website deskeng.com, the opening act for Intel's keynote in Taipei, Taiwan, was a virtuoso Wushu artist's martial arts sequence. The show was augmented with the digital rings the martial artist wore. The gadgets dramatized her graceful movements with digital smokes and clouds corresponding to the vector and velocity of her movements. This was perhaps a reminder that the CPU maker is charging into the world of connected devices, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

At Computex 2016, Intel presented its processors for powering video, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. According to the website deskeng.com, the opening act for Intel's keynote in Taipei, Taiwan, was a virtuoso Wushu artist's martial arts sequence. The show was augmented with the digital rings the martial artist wore. The gadgets dramatized her graceful movements with digital smokes and clouds corresponding to the vector and velocity of her movements. This was perhaps a reminder that the CPU maker is charging into the world of connected devices, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

It is sixty years since scientists gathered for their historical meeting about artificial intelligence at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. It was a month-long brainstorming session during which scientists they explored the possibilities of thinking computers, and it kick-started a field of research that we're still benefiting from today. AI is revolutionizing areas ranging from transport to translation. Can it do the same for cybersecurity? Much of the action in AI today revolves around machine learning.