San Diego, Calif., Oct. 24, 2018 -- A team of U.S. computer scientists is receiving a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation to make machine learning more secure. The grant establishes the Center for Trustworthy Machine Learning at a consortium of seven universities, including the University of California San Diego. Researchers will work together toward two goals: understanding the risks inherent to machine learning; and developing the tools, metrics and methods to manage and mitigate these risks. The science and arsenal of defensive techniques emerging within the center will provide the basis for building more trustworthy and secure systems in the future, as well as fostering a long-term research community within this essential domain of technology, researchers said. "This research is important because machine learning is becoming more pervasive in our daily lives, powering technologies we interact with, including services like e-commerce and Internet searches, as well as devices such as Internet-connected smart speakers," said Kamalika Chaudhuri, a computer science professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering, who will be leading the UC San Diego portion of the research.

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 25, 2018--DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), the world's leading independent, end-to-end IT services company, today announced the opening of the DXC Digital Innovation Lab in Singapore. Developed with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the DXC Digital Innovation Lab Singapore is an advanced environment for the incubation of ideas, learning and innovative technology solutions developed by data scientists and enterprise solution experts. The lab will benefit DXC employees, clients and partners, as well as the technology and business communities of Singapore, the region and beyond. The DXC Digital Innovation Lab Singapore is an extension of DXC Labs, whose goal is to ensure that DXC masters the emerging technologies it needs in order to lead clients through accelerating digital transformation. At the innovation lab, digital specialists will explore novel technologies, develop prototypes and create reference architectures for rapid business deployment.

Volocopter is preparing to run inner-city tests of its autonomous air taxis in Singapore, starting in the second half of 2019. The company and the city-state's civil aviation authority are determining the scope of the tests, which Volocopter plans to conclude with public demo flights. The vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles look like a cross between a helicopter and a drone, and have 18 rotors working to get you from one place to another. Volocopter claims its machine can fly two people up to 30 kilometers, while it can account for micro turbulences close to skyscrapers to keep your rides smooth. "We are getting ready to start implementing the first fixed routes in cities," Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter said in a press release.

The UAE's aviation authority has signed an agreement which will explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the country's air traffic management. The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Searidge Technologies have signed the deal to cooperate in pursuing research and development activities. The collaboration is the first in the region and will bring together the technical expertise of Canada-based Searidge Technologies in digital airport solutions and the operational expertise of GCAA, a statement said. Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, director general of the GCAA, confirmed that it is the UAE's strategy to explore new technologies and applications in the aviation industry. "We look forward to working with Searidge and believe this collaboration will help advance the use of technology in aviation to optimize safety and efficiency in the UAE and around the globe. The MoU agreement will promote, develop and reinforce administrative, technical and scientific cooperation," added Ahmed Al Jallaf, assistant director general Air Navigation Services, GCAA.

Inc. in June pitched its facial recognition technology -- which can identify people from surveillance footage using image databases -- as a tool for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, showing that Amazon continued to push the software to law enforcement agencies as criticism swirled from the company's workforce and civil liberties groups. Employees in the Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit met with the federal agency in California to present its artificial intelligence tools, according to emails obtained by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. Those tools include Rekognition, which uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos. The software enables law enforcement to track individuals from cameras in public places. The American Civil Liberties Union in May criticized the use of the technology by police departments in Oregon and Florida, saying it threatened civil rights.

WILSONVILLE, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) today announced the FLIR Firefly camera family, the industry's first deep learning inference-enabled machine vision camera. The FLIR Firefly, which integrates the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU), is designed for image analysis professionals using deep learning for more accurate decisions, and faster, easier system development. Traditional rules-based software is ideal for straightforward tasks such as barcode reading or checking a manufactured part against specifications. The FLIR Firefly combines a new, affordable machine vision platform with the power of deep learning to address complex and subjective problems such as recognizing faces or classifying the quality of a solar panel. The FLIR Firefly leverages the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPU's advanced capabilities in a compact and low-power camera, ideal for embedded and handheld systems.

Toptal, a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand, today announced the launch of its two new on-demand talent specializations to meet the rising demand for skilled artificial intelligence and data science engineers. Tapping into Toptal's private network of highly skilled software professionals, the new specialized service will connect organizations with freelance artificial intelligence and data science professionals who are experts in machine learning, deep learning, data architecture, and data mining. "Businesses across every sector are moving quickly to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and data science optimization. For many of them, access to high-quality talent is the critical hurdle," said Taso Du Val, Toptal co-founder and CEO. "With these service offerings, Toptal is providing businesses with the unique opportunity to quickly staff their AI and data science initiatives with elite talent. Our company was made by engineers for engineers, so we care deeply about matching our clients with experts who have the exact skills and real-world experience they need to realize their goals."

The new service offerings will leverage Toptal's unparalleled network of global talent to help businesses staff artificial intelligence and data science projects Toptal, a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand, today announced the launch of its two new on-demand talent specializations to meet the rising demand for skilled artificial intelligence and data science engineers. Tapping into Toptal's private network of highly skilled software professionals, the new specialized service will connect organizations with freelance artificial intelligence and data science professionals who are experts in machine learning, deep learning, data architecture, and data mining. "Businesses across every sector are moving quickly to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and data science optimization. For many of them, access to high-quality talent is the critical hurdle," said Taso Du Val, Toptal co-founder and CEO. "With these service offerings, Toptal is providing businesses with the unique opportunity to quickly staff their AI and data science initiatives with elite talent. Our company was made by engineers for engineers, so we care deeply about matching our clients with experts who have the exact skills and real-world experience they need to realize their goals."

Synechron Inc., a New York-based technology consulting and outsourcing firm, has started deploying data science and artificial intelligence-based applications for banking, financial services and insurance companies. These applications, or accelerators, will help financial services companies solve complex business problems by discovering relationships between events that impact one another and cause a future event to happen, the company said in a press release. Faisal Husain, co-founder and chief executive of Synechron, said the data science accelerators provide a powerful causation platform and business-driven use cases for four complex financial services challenges. Synechron said its s AI data science experts have developed a set of accelerators that allow financial services companies to address business challenges related to investment research generation, predicting the next best action for a wealth management client, high-priority customer complaints, and predicting risk on mortgage. The accelerators combine Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning algorithms and data science to solve problems.

BURNHAM, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 22, 2018--Large-scale organisations are becoming increasingly open about the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), robotic and automation technologies, according to research announced today by Redwood Software. Analysing the 2017/2018 annual reports of all 100 publically listed companies, 39 per cent mentioned the use of automation across the business, 34 per cent cited AI and 21 per cent of the reports nodded to the use of robotics. In comparison to last year's results, mentions of robotics were up 162 per cent, while references to AI more than tripled, highlighting a 386 per cent increase year-on-year. While all three technologies were raised across the reports for a variety of reasons, insurance company Aviva said it was looking to both AI and robotic automation to increasingly transform the efficiency of operations, as well as transform the customer experience. Meanwhile, online British supermarket Ocado mentioned AI, robotics and automation are helping drive innovation and create a sustainable technological advantage in an increasingly competitive market.