On August 9, 2019, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker signed into law first-of-its-kind legislation regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Illinois.

The financial services industry has seen a great deal of disruption from digital-based alternatives. Many of these challengers use advanced technology and expanded data sets to offer apps that provide financial solutions at a lower cost, with less friction and greater personalization than traditional bank or credit union offerings. Toronto-based startup Flybits believes that the best way to compete in the future is not just by developing innovative products and services, but by becoming the repository of choice for data in addition to money. "I definitely see that banks are in a perfect position, if they innovate right, to be the perfect data vaults for the future – managing the privacy and also the data of their customers," says Hossein Rahnama, CEO and Co-Founder of Flybits, in an exclusive interview for Banking Transformed, a new podcast from Jim Marous and The Financial Brand. "Using AI and machine learning, there is the potential to build a'data marketplace' for banks, fintechs and other data providers to partner and build more services together."

The concept of randomness is easy to grasp on an intuitive level but challenging to characterize in rigorous mathematical terms. In "Algorithmic Randomness" (May 2019), Rod Downey and Denis R. Hirschfeldt present a comprehensive discussion of this issue, incorporating the distinct perspectives of "statisticians, coders, and gamblers." Randomness is also a concern to "modelers" who depend on simulation models driven by random number generators or analytic models built using probabilistic assumptions. In such cases, the underlying mathematical model is often an ergodic stochastic process, and the issue is whether the output of the simulator's random number generator or the observed behavior of the real-world system being modeled is "random enough" to establish confidence in the model's predictions. In a sense, this highly pragmatic perspective represents a less restrictive approach to the issue of randomness: if any of the strong criteria described by the authors are satisfied, the output of the simulator's random number generator or the observed behavior of the system being modeled should be sufficiently random to establish confidence in a model's predictions.

In the interview, Ms. Huang relates some interesting patterns she has observed with regards to AI adoption. The sorts of companies BMW iVentures is seeing and investing in are primarily using AI to focus on streamlining workflows, optimizing processes, and reducing overall costs. Since AI holds the ability to analyze complex datasets and identify data patterns very quickly, it can provide fast results and identify very specific needs or circumstances without necessarily relying on a team of people who need to try to process more than they can reliably count on. Already, AI has managed to identify trends that have helped to innovate the ways that companies do business, by providing customized customer interactions and identifying needs for clients. The biggest struggle with data, particularly in the automotive industry where the actual process of taking customer feedback and turning that into a future product can take several years, is ensuring that the data being referenced is still relevant.

Natural language processing is a particular interest of mine, as I assume it is for many of you. Keeping up on the rapid advances in NLP is one thing. Filtering these advances through the lens of seasoned researchers and innovators is another. I find that following a well curated list of NLP folks on social media can help in both of these challenges. In that regard, this is my list of suggested NLP researchers and innovators to follow.

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY – President Donald Trump's top economic adviser is playing down fears of a looming recession after last week's sharp drop in the financial markets and predicting the economy will perform well in the second half of 2019. Larry Kudlow said in Sunday television interviews that consumers are seeing higher wages and are able to spend and save more. "No, I don't see a recession," Kudlow said. Let's not be afraid of optimism." A strong economy is key to Trump's reelection prospects.

How often do you think you're touched by data science in some form or another? Finding your way to this article likely involved a whole bunch of data science (whooaa). To simplify things a bit, I'll explain what data science means to me. "Data Science is the art of applying scientific methods of analysis to any kind of data so that we can unlock important information." If we unpack that, all data science really means is to answer questions by using math and science to go through data that's too much for our brains to process.

How often do you think you're touched by data science in some form or another? Finding your way to this article likely involved a whole bunch of data science (whooaa). To simplify things a bit, I'll explain what data science means to me. "Data Science is the art of applying scientific methods of analysis to any kind of data so that we can unlock important information." If we unpack that, all data science really means is to answer questions by using math and science to go through data that's too much for our brains to process.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang proudly proclaimed on an analyst earnings call this week that artificial intelligence is the "single most powerful force of our time." Nvidia reported Q2 earnings and revenues that beat analysts' expectations as demand for graphics and artificial intelligence chips picked up. After the earnings call, I interviewed Huang about the company's progress. During the analyst call, he said there are more than 4,000 AI startups working with the company -- as compared to 2,000 AI startups in April 2017. In our interview, Huang said the actual number of AI startups Nvidia is tracking is closer to 4,500.

The main IJCAI2019 conference started on August 13th. The organizers gave the opening remarks and statistics, and announced the award winners for this year. I was last here 22 years ago, and it's nice to be back. Over the next 2-3 days I'm hoping to post a few links and descriptions of the exciting search work my students and colleagues will be presenting here. Super proud that our paper got distinguished paper honorable mention today @IJCAIconf #ijcai2019 .