Google will create business tools and products based on its own artificial intelligence technology, seeking to entice more companies to rent its cloud-computing services. The Alphabet Inc. unit plans to offer services such as audio transcription and image identification built around its machine-learning software. Google has used this technology for its own products, and is now making the capabilities available for other companies to rent and access over the Internet. The company also said it won several new large cloud customers, including the interactive division of Walt Disney Co., which now runs a web-subscription service on Google's cloud, and Coca-Cola Co., which rented Google servers for a World Cup marketing campaign. Google wants to broaden the appeal of its cloud services to more corporate customers.

"Science often follows technology, because inventions give us new ways to think about the world and new phenomena in need of explanation." Or so Aram Harrow, an MIT physics professor, counter-intuitively argues in "Why now is the right time to study quantum computing". He suggests that the scientific idea of entropy could not really be conceived until steam engine technology necessitated understanding of thermodynamics. Quantum computing similarly arose from attempts to simulate quantum mechanics on ordinary computers. So what does all this have to do with machine learning?

In a sparse lecture room at Stanford University, six students are rehearsing a presentation they'll later give to a roomful of VIPs from the university's artificial intelligence lab. Papers are strewn across the table. Hoodies hang over the cloth-covered cushion chairs. One student wears a pair of Pi earrings. Another wears a t-shirt that reads: "i: Be rational! A sheet of white poster board sits in the corner, with a few words scrawled in black marker. "Monitoring Hand Sanitation in Hospitals Using Computer Vision," it says. After a while, they give it a dry run. Scripts in hand, the students describe the images they captured from cameras mounted above hand dispensers at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and they explain the machine learning techniques they've used--including something called "climbing the hill"--to analyze the footage and automatically determine whether doctors and visitors are practicing proper hand hygiene.

Editor's note: Kevin Gray is president of Cannon Gray LLC, a marketing science and analytics consultancy. He would like to thank Marco Vriens of Ipsos for his helpful comments on a draft of this article. Machine learning gets a lot of buzz these days, usually in connection with big data and artificial intelligence (AI). But what exactly is it? Broadly speaking, machine learners are computer algorithms designed for pattern recognition, curve fitting, classification and clustering.

Microsoft has unleashed a social media AI onto the internet -- and she can be a bit of a jerk. On Wednesday, the company released Tay.ai, an artificial intelligence chat bot "with no chill" aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds living in the United States. Tay will talk on social networks popular with many youths, like Facebook, Kik Messenger, Snapchat and Twitter. A chat bot is a program designed to mimic human behaviour in conversation. Microsoft's Technology and Research team, along with the team behind its search engine Bing, built Tay to study "conversational understanding."

March 24--Hey, millennials: Microsoft wants to chat with you. The Redmond company introduced tay.ai Wednesday, an emoji-fluent, snarky chat bot aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds in the United States. The bot will reply to messages sent to it on any of those platforms in a style mimicking teenage Web speak. Tay, Microsoft says, was built by mining public data and using machine-learning technology and input from a staff that includes improvisational comedians.

BlinQ is a dating app that has developed a new feature recently. With the help of an AI developed by the University of Zürich, the app now can rank photos by attractiveness on a six-point scale. The worst one is simply "Hmm…" and the best is "Godlike". But let's test it with a bunch of video game (and other) examples and see how well they perform. Wario and Link from the CD-i Zelda games were too much for its face recognition feature (which certainly means they're both way above "Godlike"). But it works with almost everything else.

Life essentials made better and more affordable." These are the types of startups that partner Paul Buchheit said were demoing today at Y Combinator's Winter 2016 Demo Day 2. Yesterday, we covered the first 60 startups from the batch, and picked our 7 favorites. Buchheit went on to say about today's big aspirations, "Those challenges may seem too large or too complex for a startup to solve. But as Kyle and Dan showed us with Cruise, often the hardest problems are the best investments." He was referring the GM's 1 billion acquisition of Cruise, a YC startup that built self-driving car tech. Today, the room was jam packed, with more chairs brought in for rich investors who were forced to sit on the floor yesterday. Buchheit joked about the first YC batch in summer 2005, saying "Back then no one wanted to go to Demo Day." Someone in the crowd yelled, "15 people wanted to go to Demo Day." Now, there are several hundred VCs avidly watching the presentations. Over the past few years, Y Combinator has expanded to accept startups from a much wider range of industries than traditional apps, including biotech, energy, hardware, and international logistics. When we spoke to investors in the past, some worried they might not have the expertise necessary to evaluate these companies. Now, YC President Sam Altman tells me many VCs have "hired other experts" to fill the gaps. He says "it's become fashionable to hire a Chief Science Officer." As a result, Altman believes that when it comes to funding, these alternative startups "seem to be doing just was well if not a little better" than their traditional software batchmates. Spinal Singularity – Better catheter Last year, over 5 million people were catheterized. Spinal Singularity wants to tap into the 2 billion urinary catheter market with a connected catheter that allows you to control the flow of urine by actuating a magnetic valve. The connected catheter is minimally invasive, and can be inserted or extracted in your own home.

Auto makers need to push regulators around the world for consistent rules to allow autonomous cars to proliferate, the chief executive of Renault SA RNO -1.16 % and Nissan Motor NSANY -1.97 % Co. said Wednesday. Carlos Ghosn, speaking at the New York International Auto Show, said he expects autonomous vehicles to become more commonplace in coming years, eventually changing lanes on highways and driving through cities on their own. His companies plan to offer 10 autonomous-drive models by 2020. But differing regulations could present hurdles to clearing them for operation, he said. "It's very important that we…lobby in every single country with the regulatory authorities to take our eyes off the road and our hands off the wheel," Mr. Ghosn said, noting that his companies are working with U.S. and Japanese regulators.

Researchers have developed a system to revolutionize future roadways, doing away with traffic lights to eliminate long waits and reduce emissions. The project, initiated by the MIT Senseable City Lab, proposes'slot-based intersections' for self-driving cars, which designate individual times for each vehicle to enter the roadway. To avoid traffic delays and short stops, autonomous vehicles would use sensors to communicate with those around them while maintaining a safe distance. Researchers have developed a system to revolutionize future roadways, doing away with traffic lights to eliminate long waits and reduce emissions. The project proposes'slot-based intersections' for self-driving cars, which designate individual times for each vehicle to enter the roadway Each autonomous car would be equipped with sensors to'communicate' with the cars around it.