In the past, the terms business analyst and data scientist have sometimes been used interchangeably, and indeed, in a small company, the lines between the two sorts of jobs may blur. But as more and more companies look to big data for business insights, they are shifting from relying on business analysts to predict what the future of a business might look like, and moving towards using data scientists and machine learning to interpret data and predict trends. What's the difference, you might ask? While the end result of these two jobs is often similar, a business analyst and a data scientist use different tools to get there. In general, data scientists have much greater technical expertise, especially in computer programming, systems engineering, and statistics.

The next time you enter a query into Google's search engine or consult the company's map service for directions to a movie theater, remember that a big brain is working behind the scenes to provide relevant search results and make sure you don't get lost while driving. As Fortune's Roger Parloff wrote, the Google Brain research team has created over 1,000 so-called deep learning projects that have supercharged many of Google's products over the past few years like YouTube, translation, and photos. With deep learning, researchers can feed huge amounts of data into software systems called neural nets that learn to recognize patterns within the vast information faster than humans. In an interview with Fortune, one of Google Brain's co-founders and leaders, Jeff Dean, talks about cutting-edge AI research, the challenges involved, and using AI in its products. The following, done against the backdrop of the 50th annual Turing Award, an honor in computer science from the Association for Computing Machinery, has been edited for length and clarity. A lot of human learning comes from unsupervised learning where you're just sort of observing the world around you and understanding how things behave.

The Nihon Ki-in (Japan Go Association) announced on Nov. 29 that it will hold the "World Go Championship" in March next year in which top Go players from Japan, China and South Korea will compete against artificial intelligence (AI) software. The first-prize winner will receive 30 million yen. From Japan, 9th-dan Yuta Iyama, who holds the Honinbo qualification and six major titles, and "DeepZenGo," a Go software developed in Japan, will take part in the championship. It has not been decided on who will take part in the event from China and South Korea. The championship will be held at the Nihon Ki-in Kansai general headquarters in Osaka's Kita Ward from March 21 to 23.

Last month, at the world's leading general management conference--the Drucker Forum in Vienna Austria--Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School and Director of the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, declared provocatively that we are living in "the Age of Agile." The full text of Julian's important talk is set out below. He also has a new book coming out next year entitled Fast/Forward: Make Your Company Fit For the Future. Earlier this week, I discussed these issues with Julian. Steve Denning: In your talk, you spoke about three possible forms of organization: bureaucracy, meritocracy and adhocracy. Could you tell us more? Julian Birkinshaw: Bureaucracy is about and occupying roles and following rules. Meritocracy is a knowledge-based view of the organization, including big data and analytics. Adhocracy is an action-based view of the organization focused on capturing opportunities, solving problems and getting results. Denning: Where does "the age of Agile" fit into this scheme?

Does every painter leave a fingerprint? Accurately distinguishing the artwork of a master from a forgery can mean a difference in millions of dollars. In the Painter by Numbers playground competition hosted by Kiri Nichol (AKA small yellow duck), Kagglers were challenged to identify whether pairs of paintings were created by the same artist. In this winner's interview, Nejc Ilenič takes us through his first place solution to this painter recognition challenge. His combination of unsupervised and supervised learning methods helped him achieve a final AUC of 0.9289.

I f anyone can calm fears of a robot apocalypse, it's Kevin Kelly. Over the years -- first as the founding executive editor of Wired, then as the author of books like What Technology Wants and Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World -- he has become one of the 21st century's most prescient theorists not only on the future of technology but also on our constantly evolving relationship with it. In his latest book, The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that Will Shape Our Future, Kelly writes about the unstoppable trends that we often fear when it comes to technological progress. In a recent interview with Slack, he laid out his vision of the future of work and some simple reasons why we may want to reconsider some of our deep-rooted anxieties about it. Why do you think there's such a huge amount of fear around automation and AI?

Friday is here, and we learned that Magic Leap's wondrous demo video last year was all CGI magic, that scientists have discovered a dinosaur tail with feathers, and explain why Pebble fans might not be happy with the company's new owners. For the last couple of years, Magic Leap has been promising a groundbreaking augmented reality experience. Despite hiring hundreds of employees and snagging big-name financial backers (like Google) it hasn't actually shown off the technology publicly, leaving all of us to wonder what's going on. The Information reports that the company has had trouble implementing some of its patented fiber-optic technology, and may be preparing a wearable headset that's closer to what we've seen from Microsoft's HoloLens than the WETA-created demo video it posted last year. On Thursday John Glenn died at the age of 95 in Columbus, Ohio.

The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry. Jody Mulkey is the Chief Technology Officer at Ticketmaster. An accomplished technologist and inspirational engineering leader, he is known for building high performance systems and teams. Prior to Ticketmaster, the Texas native spent over 14 years at Shopzilla Inc, a leading source for connecting buyers and sellers online that reaches a global audience of over 40 million shoppers monthly. As Chief Information Officer of Shopzilla, he led the overall the technology development and operations of the company.

Hey, you know that I'm big supporter of women in tech. I'm actually partnering with Women Who Tech for the 4th Women Startup Challenge at Google and focused on women-led ventures in artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). Note: if you haven't applied you have until December 12th to get your applications in. The winner will receive $50,000 as a cash grant, and $15,000 in probono legal services by global law firm Paul Hastings, LLP. All finalists will join join Samsung for a special startup showcase and reception featuring the 10 finalists.

Astro Teller has an unusual way of starting a new project: He tries to kill it. Teller is the head of X, formerly Google X, the advanced technology lab of Alphabet. At X's headquarters not far from the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., Teller leads a group of engineers, inventors, and designers devoted to futuristic "moonshot" projects like self-driving cars, delivery drones, and Internet-beaming balloons. To turn their wild ideas into reality, Teller and his team have developed a unique approach. It starts with trying to prove that whatever it is that you're trying to do can't be done--in other words, trying to kill your own idea. As Teller explains, "Instead of saying, 'What's most fun to do about this or what's easiest to do first?' we say, 'What is the most likely reason this project won't make it?' The ideas that survive get additional rounds of scrutiny, and only a tiny fraction eventually becomes official projects; the proposals that are found to have an Achilles' heel are ...