PROVO, Utah – Madeline MacDonald says she was an 18-year-old freshman at Brigham Young University when she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on an online dating site. She reported the crime to the school's Title IX office. That same day, she says, BYU's honor code office received a copy of the report, triggering an investigation into whether MacDonald had violated the Mormon school's strict code of behavior, which bans premarital sex and drinking, among other things. Now MacDonald is among many students and others, including a Utah prosecutor, who are questioning BYU's practice of investigating accusers, saying it could discourage women from reporting sexual violence and hinder criminal cases. Some have started an online petition drive calling on the university to give victims immunity from honor code violations committed in the lead-up to a sexual assault.

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – Drones fired more weapons than conventional warplanes for the first time in Afghanistan last year and the ratio is rising, previously unreported U.S. Air Force data show, underlining how reliant the military has become on unmanned aircraft. The trend may give clues to the U.S. military's strategy as it considers withdrawing more troops from the country, while at the same time shoring up local forces who have struggled to stem a worsening Taliban insurgency. U.S. President Barack Obama said in 2013 that the Afghan drawdown after 2014 and progress against al-Qaida would "reduce the need for unmanned strikes," amid concerns from human rights groups and some foreign governments over civilian casualties. On one level, that has played out; the number of missiles and bombs dropped by drones in Afghanistan actually fell last year, largely because the U.S.-led NATO mission ceased combat operations at the end of 2014 and is now a fraction of the size. Yet as the force has shrunk, it has leaned on unmanned aircraft more than ever, the air force data reveal, with drone strikes accounting for at least 61 percent of weapons deployed in the first quarter of this year.

TAIPEI – A Taiwan artist has refused to see the big picture and instead captured the likeness of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, to celebrate her inauguration next month, on a single grain of rice. Chen Forng-Shean, who has also sculpted the face of China's late Chairman Mao Zedong on rice, said the staple was a fitting medium for his work because it met the basic needs of ethnic Chinese. "Rice gives nourishment to the proverbial belly of the ethnic Chinese people. I used rice (as a medium) to encourage Taiwan's leader, Tsai Ing-wen, hoping that she can take care of the common people, so they don't need to endure hunger, and improve their financial situation," he said. He outlined the facial features and accompanying Chinese characters with a needle-point pen onto the surface before carving and then dabbing black paint into the grooves. It took three months and more than 10 tries to get the sculpture to Chen's satisfaction.

As cloud computing continues to disrupt traditional business models and big data continues to grow exponentially, techies and investors alike are looking for the top trends that will change how we do business in 2016 and beyond. Hybrid and public cloud services continue to rise in popularity, with investors claiming their stakes. Venture capital firms are investing most heavily in SaaS companies, proving that cloud solutions will be even more lucrative in the future. Some of the biggest names in tech are coming to TNW Conference in Amsterdam this May. While some have doubted Dropbox's ability to go public based on its 10 billion valuation, the fact that this leading SaaS company has raised 1.1 billion in six rounds of funding is pretty impressive.

Share the post "How artificial intelligence is changing our world – Intelligent Barbie dolls and other innovative uses – Part 2" Artificial intelligence is a field that has wide ranging applications across various industries as we saw in the first part of this series. Here are five other interesting uses of AI which will show you that with the right idea, there's literally no limit on what is possible with the technology. Have you ever wondered how an artificial neural network sees the world? DeepDream is made up of artificial neural networks (ANNs). This means that a computer is running stacked layers of artificial neurons which are used to process images.

In this post, I discuss a possible new approach to teaching Programming for Data Science. Programming for Data Science is focussed on the R vs. Python question. Everyone seems to have a view including the venerable Nature journal (Programming – Pick up Python). Here, I argue that we look beyond Python vs. R debate and look to teach R, Python and SQL together. To do this, we need to look at the big picture first (the problem we are solving in Data science) and then see how that problem is broken down and solved by different approaches.

AKITA – A northeastern city renowned for its cherry blossom is teaming up with a software developer to film the scene using drones, in a bid to boost tourism and assist in the upkeep of the trees. Senboku in Akita Prefecture, which boasts the cherry trees in its Kakunodate district, is one of the several areas nationwide designated as special zones where the use of drones for public purposes is allowed. This is intended to encourage economic revitalization. Infoteria Corp. will provide the technology and donate 1 million toward the care of the trees. Technicians flew a drone along a river bank in the city Wednesday, shooting vistas of early blossom.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a growing area, and for good reason. But where AI lacks, humans excel. Humans, sometimes to a fault, are great at collaborating and checking in on nearly everything to make sure it works. So doesn't it make sense for the humans and AI to work side by side? This is just what DigitalGenius is doing to provide top-notch customer service for you.

When artificial intelligence technology intersects with abundant oil and gas seismic data, the outcome could yield a more accurate depiction of what lies beneath the surface, enabling cash-strapped drillers to better target sweet spots and maximize returns. It's all based on algorithms that essentially teach computers how to solve complex problems--in this instance, how to quickly and accurately find subsurface faults that lead to lucrative hydrocarbon discoveries. Naveen Rao, the CEO of two-year-old startup Nervana Systems, compared the concept to the brain and its network of neurons. "Each neuron does a little bit of information processing. It combines that with the output of many other neurons, and the whole stack basically processes information that comes in through our sensors," Rao told Hart Energy.

Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI. The theoretical physicist, who has the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a new system developed by Intel to speak. Machine learning experts from the British company Swiftkey were also involved in its creation.