TUM is the only German university among the ten most influential institutions in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The top spots in the rankings are held by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Carnegie Mellon University, both in the USA, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, with which TUM maintains a close partnership. Half of the top ten positions are held by Asian universities. The only European representative apart from TUM is the University of Granada in Spain, which ranks fourth. The report also includes country rankings.

Millions are at stake in Fortnite's new Summer Skirmish.Credit: Epic Games Epic Games announced today the new'Summer Skirmish' event: 8 weeks of competitive play and $8 million in prize money. That's just a small slice of the esports money the developer and publisher has set aside for the 2018/2019 Fortnite: Battle Royale competitive season. Earlier this year the company announced $100,000,000 in prize money will flush the coffers of the best teams and players in the coming year. The Summer Skirmish series will last 8 weeks and each week will see a new format, keeping us all on our toes from week-to-week. For the inaugural week, competitive Duos competitions will kick things off.

Fractal Analytics, (http://www.fractalanalytics.com), a global leader in AI solutions that power human decision-making in Fortune 500 companies, today announced the launch of ai.now, a brand new conference focused on how Fortune 500 businesses can better leverage artificial intelligence for their organizations. The half-day event, which includes a number of sessions and roundtable discussions, will take place on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at the One World Trade Center in New York City. Fractal Analytics' ai.now is the only industry event of its kind, designed to help Fortune 500 attendees from a wide-range of industries - CPG, financial services, healthcare, insurance, telecom, and retail - learn how to practically implement artificial intelligence for their business. Ford will explore how AI and automation will usher in a new era of man and machine collaboration, with a realistic view of what the future of work, and our place in it, will look like, from education to law, agriculture to healthcare, management and beyond. "As investments in AI, machine learning and data science surge among Fortune 500 companies, they are seeking ways to realize and maximize the full potential of these new technologies," said Pranay Agrawal, Co-founder & CEO, Fractal Analytics.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 10, 2018--The following is an opinion editorial provided by Naveen Rao of Intel Corporation. This press release features multimedia. Naveen Rao was the founder of Nervana and is now corporate vice president and general manager of the Artificial Intelligence Products Group at Intel Corporation. Most people agree that artificial intelligence (AI) will transform modern society in positive ways. From autonomous cars that will save thousands of lives, to data analytics programs that may finally discover a cure for cancer, to machines that give voice to those who can't speak, AI will be known as one of the most revolutionary innovations of mankind. But this fantastic future is a long way off, and the path to get us there is still under construction.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The following is an opinion editorial provided by Naveen Rao of Intel Corporation. Most people agree that artificial intelligence (AI) will transform modern society in positive ways. From autonomous cars that will save thousands of lives, to data analytics programs that may finally discover a cure for cancer, to machines that give voice to those who can't speak, AI will be known as one of the most revolutionary innovations of mankind. But this fantastic future is a long way off, and the path to get us there is still under construction. Never before has society undertaken such a significant transformation so deliberately, and no blueprints exist to guide us.

Summary GlobalData's "Artificial Intelligence Adoption, Usage & Investment Trends in the Telecoms Industry", report examines the advancement in adoption of AI within the global telecom industry along with the key benefits influencing the deployment and projected investments in AI over the next two years.The report highlights the use cases and applications that have highest growth potential in driving the implementation of AI in the global telecom industry. Additionally, the report covers the information about the market opportunities expected to influence the investment in AI and challenges/ barriers encountered by telecoms businesses. The majority of telecom industry executives consider that their organization is in the development phase of implementing artificial intelligence (AI).Due to significant value and potential that AI has to offer to telecom enterprises companies are moving towards AI solutions and use cases. Improved operational efficiency is expected to be the most beneficial factor of AI for telecom companies over next two years.In total, 40% of surveyed industry executives revealed that their company has plans to invest more than US$1 million in AI during 2018-2020. Moreover, the rising popularity of AI applications within the telecom industry is supported by the increasing complexity in networking caused by growing volume of IoT devices, cloud migrations, the increasing number of OTTs and the arrival of 5G. However, lack of skill-sets and making changes to traditional organizational structures are major challenges faced by the telecom companies to adopt AI.

GUESS?, Inc. ("GUESS") (NYSE: GES) has reached another major milestone in its partnership with Alibaba Group ("Alibaba") (NYSE: BABA) to bring artificial intelligence to the fashion world to provide customers with a more enriching shopping experience that combines online and offline shopping behaviors. Rounding out a comprehensive partnership that began in 2013 with the launch of GUESS in Tmall, this year, GUESS also became a global strategic partner of Alibaba's FashionAI project, an initiative to give shoppers a glimpse of what the future of fashion retail will look like powered by artificial intelligence. With the launch of the interactive concept shop driven by Alibaba AI, GUESS and Alibaba saw the implementation of the O2O (online-to-offline) project come to life, marking the maturity of the unified customer experience concept. On July 4, 2018, Alibaba launched the pilot FashionAI concept shop on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) campus, pairing GUESS' extensive retail knowledge and latest collections with advanced Alibaba AI and other technologies on the sidelines of the 2018 Fashion and Textile Conference. Besides the FashionAI concept store's futuristic appeal, the project was aimed at providing a better retail experience for shoppers and to help brands better use analytics in ordering and maintaining inventory.

Waymo is ready for a dramatic next step after eight years of preparation, most of it as the Google Self-Driving Car project. The Alphabet Inc. unit has begun testing autonomous vehicles on public roads without human safety drivers at the wheel, and early next year will make its robotic chauffeurs available to Phoenix-area commuters. Speaking at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said on Tuesday that company technicians are already hailing its Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans in and around Phoenix via a mobile app and leaving it to the artificial intelligence operating the vehicles to figure out how to get to requested destinations. Within a few months, Waymo vans loaded with laser LiDAR, radar, cameras, computers, AI and no human safety drivers will pick up Arizonans registered in its "Early Riders" program. People will get to use our fleet of on-demand vehicles to do anything from commute to work, get home from a night out, or run errands," Krafcik said. "Getting access will be as easy as using an app; just tap a button and Waymo will come to you, and take you where you want to go." Google's push to perfect driverless cars, stretching back to 2009, ignited a tech race in the auto industry that represents the biggest change in personal transportation since horses were replaced with horseless carriages more than a century ago. But Waymo has to move fast to lock in its early-mover status as autonomous vehicle programs at dozens of companies, ranging from General Motors to BMW to Uber to Tesla to Baidu, race to catch up and commercialize their own driverless tech. The Alphabet company appears to be first to operate an autonomous fleet without safety drivers, a transition that keeps it ahead of fast-moving rivals, at least for now. "We recently surveyed 3,000 adults across the United States, asking them when they expected to see self-driving vehicles – ones without a person in the driver's seat – on their roads.

WASHINGTON--A new initiative kicks off today to evaluate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and situational awareness technologies during critical incidents. The effort is a joint partnership between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and Canada's Department of National Defence science and technology organization, Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science (DRDC CSS) to ensure both American and Canadian next generation first responders are better connected, protected and fully aware during critical incidents. Over the next two years, the two countries will collaborate on new research and development projects, hold joint workshops and field experiments and share best practices and lessons learned to ensure the safety and effectiveness of first responders and the public. "Canadian and American responders have very similar requirements," said John Merrill, DHS S&T's Director of Next Generation First Responder Apex Program. "By jointly determining research and development priorities between the two countries, we can reach our goal faster and more efficiently, eliminating duplication of effort and optimizing funding."

Autonomous-driving company Torc Robotics may not be as well known as, say, Waymo, but that may change soon as Torc looks to expand. The company is looking to nearly double its number of employees in order to continue developing tech for self-driving cars. Torc unveiled its Asimov (named after science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov) autonomous-driving system last year, and gave public demonstrations at CES 2018. The company is headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, and continues to test self-driving cars there and in Las Vegas. Last year, it sent one of its modified Lexus RX SUVs on a cross-country trip. But the company's history goes back further.