Yoshua Bengio is recognized as one of the world's leading experts in artificial intelligence and a pioneer in deep learning. Since 1993, he has been a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operational Research at the Université de Montréal. He is the founder and scientific director of Mila, the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence, the world's largest university-based research group in deep learning. He is a member of the NeurIPS board and co-founder and general chair for the ICLR conference, as well as program director of the CIFAR program on Learning in Machines and Brains and is Fellow of the same institution. In 2018, Yoshua Bengio ranked as the computer scientist with the most new citations, worldwide, thanks to his many publications.

Lama Nachman, is an Intel Fellow & Director of Anticipatory Computing Lab. Lama is best known for her work with Prof. Stephen Hawking, she was instrumental in building an assistive computer system to assist Prof. Stephen Hawking in communicating. Today she is assisting British roboticist Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan to communicate. In 2017, Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan received a diagnosis of motor neurone disease (MND), also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. MND attacks the brain and nerves and eventually paralyzes all muscles, even those that enable breathing and swallowing.

The future comes too soon and in the wrong order." "It is our moral responsibility not to stop the future but to shape it." The pandemic is hurtling the world into a Technology 4.0-transformed "future of work" much earlier than anticipated in the ILO's Centennial Declaration of 2019. India's global significance in mastering the future of work through technology-adaptive and high-productivity human capital employing the largest global cohort of 820 million youth is huge. Along with declining fertility rates and women's empowerment, this could yield a large demographic dividend of high growth rates for decades, despite short-term shocks.

To learn the best, you must learn from the finest. Geoffrey Hilton is called the Godfather of Deep Learning in the field of data science. Mr. Hinton is best known for his work on neural networks and artificial intelligence. A Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, he is accredited for his exemplary work on neural nets. The co-founder of the term, "Data Science", Jeff Hammerbacher developed methods and techniques for capturing, storing and analysing a large amount of data.

In addition to her roles as founder and CEO of fintech start-up Flamingo AI and as adjunct professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management, Dr Catriona Wallace is a campaigner for ethics in the artificial intelligence sector. She also helmed the second ever woman-led company to list on the ASX-listed company. Many people have concerns about our growing reliance on artificial intelligence. How do you feel about it? Artificial intelligence (AI) is the fastest-growing technology sector in the world, likely to replace 40 per cent of jobs in the next five years, especially in industries such as tourism, media, telecommunications and banking.

Data science has made key contributions in the battle against COVID-19, from tracking cases and deaths to understanding how populations move during travel restrictions to vaccine design. The Harvard Data Science Initiative is working to support faculty members, students, and fellows in designing and applying the tools of statistics and computer science and creating a community to foster the flow of ideas. The year-old Harvard Data Science Review published a special issue online this summer dedicated to COVID-19 that will be updated with the latest findings, with a goal of fostering innovation and keeping the conversation going about how data science can help meet the COVID-19 challenge. The Gazette spoke with Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-director of the initiative, and Xiao-Li Meng, the review's editor in chief and the Whipple V.N. Jones Professor of Statistics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, about how data science can be used to meet today's challenges, and in turn, challenges facing the field. GAZETTE: How is data science important to our understanding of and response to COVID-19? DOMINICI: Data science is on the front page of The New York Times probably every single day.

The recruitment process has come a long way since the days of paper CVs. Thanks to a decade-long digital transformation, online job sites, virtual portfolios, and even Skype interviews are now staples in global talent acquisition, but could artificial intelligence (AI) elevate the hiring landscape and take the recruitment process one step further? AI has become somewhat of a buzzword lately. When we think of AI, we often think of human-like robots which can mimic our behaviour (and potentially take over the world someday). However, although artificially intelligent robots do exist, the term AI typically applies to any self-learning machine that can analyse data and provide insights that make us smarter, more efficient and better at the things we do every day.

While there are so many how-to courses for hands-on techies, there are practically none that also serve business leaders – a striking omission, since success with machine learning relies on a very particular business leadership practice just as much as it relies on adept number crunching. Rather than a hands-on training, this specialization serves both business leaders and burgeoning data scientists alike with expansive, holistic coverage of the state-of-the-art techniques and business-level best practices. There are no exercises involving coding or the use of machine learning software. Brought to you by industry leader Eric Siegel – a winner of teaching awards when he was a professor at Columbia University – this specialization stands out as one of the most thorough, engaging, and surprisingly accessible on the subject of machine learning. Across this range of topics, this specialization keeps things action-packed with case study examples, software demos, stories of poignant mistakes, and stimulating assessments.

One of the responsible things to do when a year is ending is to reflect on it. What accomplishments you have made, what challenges did you face, what did you learn, and how you can make the remainder of the year count. One experience that I can definitely share, and hopefully it would be beneficial to readers, is being awarded the 2019 Bertelsmann Tech Scholarship and receive the Deep Learning Nanodegree from Udacity, completely free of charge. And this year, Bertelsmann Tech is opening another scholarship application, which you should definitely try if you have a passion for data and cloud tech. Many people have asked online what it was like to apply for the Bertelsmann Tech scholarship, win it, and complete the Nanodegree from Udacity.

Sanjeev is a recipient of the 40 Under 40 Data Scientists award, at the Machine Learning Dev Summit for his research in autonomous tech.