How did you end up working in Information and Data Sciences at Microsoft Research? Paul Bennett: I started quite a while ago. Originally looking first at just philosophical problems of how we reason about things.

Modern technology makes it possible to sequence individual cells and to identify which genes are currently being expressed in each cell. These methods are sensitive and consequently error prone. Devices, environment and biology itself can be responsible for failures and differences between measurements. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München joined forces with colleagues from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the British Wellcome Sanger Institute and have developed algorithms that make it possible to predict and correct such sources of error. The work was published in'Nature Methods' and'Nature Communications'.

Ethics and accountability will be among the most significant challenges for artificial intelligence (AI) in 2019, according to a survey of researchers at Georgia Tech's College of Computing. In response to an email query about AI developments that can be expected in 2019, most of the researchers – whether talking about machine learning (ML), robotics, data visualizations, natural language processing, or other facets of AI – touched on the growing importance of recognizing the needs of people in AI systems. "In 2019, I hope we will see AI researchers and practitioners start to frame the debate about proper and improper uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning in terms of human rights," said Associate Professor Mark Riedl. "More and more, interpretability and fairness are being recognized as critical issues to address to ensure AI appropriately interacts with society," said Ph.D. student Fred Hohman. Questions about the rights of end users of AI-enabled services and products are becoming a priority, but Riedl said more is needed.

GLAAD says it added the video game category partly to "leverage the gaming community to grow LGBTQ acceptance." The nominees are: Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, and The Sims Mobile.

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with deep tech investors, taking the temperature of their particular fields at the start of 2019, and reflecting on the year gone by. The first three installments dived into quantum computing, space and biotech. What does 2019 hold for the AI field? This was my question to Azeem Azhar, a strategist, investor, product entrepreneur and analyst, with a hugely popular newsletter Exponential View. He is Senior Advisor for AI to the CTO of Accenture, and a Venture Partner with Kindred Capital.

Sometime around 1am on a warm night in June 2017, Fei-Fei Li was sitting in her pyjamas in a Washington, DC hotel room, practising a speech she would give in a few hours. Before going to bed, Li cut a full paragraph from her notes to be sure she could reach her most important points in the short time allotted. When she woke up, the five-foot three-inch expert in artificial intelligence put on boots and a black and navy knit dress, a departure from her frequent uniform of a T-shirt and jeans. Then she took an Uber to the Rayburn House Office Building, just south of the United States Capitol. Before entering the chambers of the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, she lifted her phone to snap a photo of the oversized wooden doors. Then she stepped inside the cavernous room and walked to the witness table. The hearing that morning, titled "Artificial Intelligence – With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility," included Timothy Persons, chief scientist of the Government Accountability Office, and Greg Brockman, co-founder and chief technology officer of the non-profit organisation OpenAI. But only Li, the sole woman at the table, could lay claim to a groundbreaking accomplishment in the field of AI. As the researcher who built ImageNet, a database that helps computers recognise images, she's one of a tiny group of scientists – a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table – who are responsible for AI's recent remarkable advances. That June, Li was serving as the chief artificial intelligence scientist at Google Cloud and was on leave from her position as director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Most emerging scan-and-go solutions are still not completely frictionless, as consumers have to physically scan their products. They are also too expensive for retailers, requiring major upfront spend and ongoing infrastructure maintenance (e.g. In an interview with RTIH, he says: "By offering a checkout-free retail experience based on the shopping cart, our solutions drive value across the business – from payments to marketing to merchandising to loyalty – with a low cost of entry." His company has tested its Artificial Intelligence Cart (AIC) concept at various exhibitions, including the MWC in Barcelona and Vivatech in Paris in 2017, and in 2018 at the GTC in Tel-Aviv. "The reactions from leading retailers were very motivating and constructive from the beginning. Retailers have increasingly been investing in technology like artificial intelligence to compete against retail giants like Amazon, so the proven results and unique approach our platform offers have been met with excitement," he says.

Language is a tool, and just like any tool, it has equal capacity to inflict both good and bad on the world. Language is a beautiful, human thing; the connective tissue that transfers culture, knowledge and critical information across borders and generations. It's that second function -- the divisive one -- that inspired developer Rami Ismail and voice actor Sarah Elmaleh to produce a conference for game creators that removes language as a barrier to entry. Gamedev.world is billed as the first truly global online games conference, with plans to host 48 hours of expert panels and live Q&A sessions on Twitch, YouTube and Mixer, translated in real-time into English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Simplified Chinese. It's all scheduled to take place later this year. "If games can be played by anyone, and made by anyone, we want to make sure everyone feels like they truly belong here," Ismail told Engadget.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. In addition to our traditional advice, every Thursday we feature an assortment of teachers from across the country answering your education questions. Have a question for our teachers? Email askateacher@slate.com or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. This week's Ask a Teacher panel: Matthew Dicks, fifth grade, Connecticut Cassy Sarnell, preschool special education, New York Carrie Bauer, middle and high school, New York Amy Scott, eighth grade, North Carolina My fourth-grade daughter is a joy to be around, a good friend, and a well-behaved student.

Fellow AI Group member Dr. Sarah-Jayne Gratton is one half of'The Influencers'. Together with husband Dean, they advise some of the biggest tech brands in the world, including Oracle, IBM and Siemens, about how to build and maintain vital new and existing global customer relationships. With a PhD in Psychology and Marketing, you currently play a significant role in advising global brands such as Huawei and Ericsson on how to optimise how they communicate their brands to their customers. What is the single biggest impact that you believe AI integration will have upon the constantly evolving conversation between a brand and its customers, Sarah-Jayne? AI is already having a significant impact on the brand conversation!