ServiceChannel, the leading SaaS service automation platform for facilities managers and contractors, today introduced advanced machine learning capabilities to its flagship solution, enabling faster, more automated data-driven decision making capabilities for facilities managers. This Smart News Release features multimedia. "Machine learning is truly changing everything today, and the facilities management industry is no exception. With machine learning, our vision for transforming how facilities management professionals work is boundless," said Hugues Meyrath, chief product officer at ServiceChannel. "Decision Engine is revolutionizing decision making in facilities management by applying data and analytics to a previously arduous and manual process. This is the industry's first step toward adopting the incredible technologies commonplace in more traditional markets, enabling the automation of repetitive tasks and driving unprecedented efficiency."

A cute, robotic language tutor called Musio, has made it from crowdfunding campaign to full-fledged product with a debut in stores this week in Japan. Priced at JPY 98,000 (about US $900), Musio is now sold online through SoftBank's marketplace and Amazon Japan, and through a handful of brick-and-mortars stores. Musio's parent company, AI venture AKA Study, is the latest startup from Raymond Jung, a co-founder of the massively successful test-prep venture, Hackers Education Group, in South Korea. AKA employs about 50 full-time today, with most in Seoul, and a small office in Santa Monica, Calif. Technically, the company is headquartered in the U.S., but it's not making any consumer electronics for the American market yet.

In late February, the UN-Secretary General held a press conference, highlighting the risk of starvation in East Africa and the necessity to raise funds to address the emergency situations in Somalia and South Sudan. Drought has been back in these countries and their neighbours since 2016, leading to a huge current food crisis. While governments are trying to handle the situation, how could technology innovations help prevent starvation and improve agriculture management in the future? We met with Laurent Rivière, a French 30 years-old entrepreneur, who shared with us his view on the subject with a combination of engineer pragmatism and changemaker idealism . Founder and CEO at Sunbirds for two years, he explained to us how his "bird of the sun," his solar drone, is addressing the agriculture challenges of the 21st century.

Microsoft has started blocking Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 updates for computers running certain new chipsets. The company announced plans last January to block next-generation Intel, AMD and Qualcomm processors from system updates on older versions of Windows, but didn't reveal when support would be cut. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

The next time you're strolling through a Walt Disney theme park, your snugly hug or photo with your favorite character may be with a super realistic robot-- and not a person in a costume. Disney Enterprises Inc. announced it has filed a U.S. patent for a 3D printed, interactive, soft robot. The application describes the new "soft body" robot to be built specifically for "physical interaction with humans." Disney has a dedicated robotics research department, which is currently developing several projects designed to create a "future in which robots interact with humans in complex, unpredictable environments." If thoughts of a sci-fi world where sentient Disney characters take over the planet and wipe out humanity crossed your mind, fear not, the patent details the robots will actually be operated via a romote controlled device.

Amazon.com Inc. is embracing artificial intelligence to deliver goods more quickly, enhance its voice-activated Alexa assistant and create new tools sold to others through its cloud-computing division, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said in his annual shareholder letter. Changes ushered in by artificial intelligence and machine learning will help the companies that embrace them and put up barriers for those who don't, the world's second- richest man wrote in a 1,700-word letter released Wednesday. Bezos repeated familiar themes, such as the need to operate a business like it's always "Day 1" to keep a startup mentality and the ability to act quickly on limited information to stay ahead, what he calls "high-velocity decision making." His emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning was the most concrete indication of areas in which the e-commerce giant will continue to invest. Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being programmed, and is used in autonomous cars, speech-recognition and internet search engines.

Deep learning involves'training' a computational system to'understand' natural language, so inferring complex meaning rather than just understanding the surface meaning. The computer is then quizzed on the information and goes back to learn from its mistakes. These multiple layers help systems analyse and make decisions about data more independently, "Such as whether or not an email is spam, to use a simple example", explains Rob Speer, chief science officer at Luminoso, a Massachusetts-based text analysis and artificial intelligence company. "For many companies, a major reason to turn to deep learning over machine learning is that there are fewer steps of human intervention required to train the system before it can work with data." This significantly cuts staff effort and reduces the burden on the poor workies.

Hey Accenture, are you aware that your PR firm is pitching your latest corporate beta for a creepy face and emotion-monitoring algorithm as a party trick? Do you know what a party is? Have you read the definition? Would you call requiring people to download an app before they can get into an event a party-time kind of thing to do? Would you say that demanding that people scan their faces so they can be recognized by an algorithm fun times? Does having that same algorithm watch and record every interaction that happens in the Austin bar or event space you've filled with some light snacks and a bunch of free liquor count as rockin like Dokken? Do good hosts require people to become lab rats in the latest attempt to develop HAL?

Rick and Morty fans, you've got a week to get VR-ready for the series' debut in the virtual realm. Adult Swim and Owlchemy Labs, creator of Job Simulator, announced today that the long-awaited VR title, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, will land on April 20th (4/20, of course). The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive game puts you in the shoes of a Morty clone -- which means you should be prepared to be in constant danger. You'll be able to explore Rick's lab, the family home and, naturally, alternate worlds. And yes, it looks like there's lots of Job Simulator DNA in there.

Amazon.com Inc. is embracing artificial intelligence to deliver goods more quickly, enhance its voice-activated Alexa assistant and create new tools sold to others through its cloud-computing division, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said in his annual shareholder letter. Changes ushered in by artificial intelligence and machine learning will help the companies that embrace them and put up barriers for those who don't, the world's second- richest man wrote in a 1,700-word letter released Wednesday. Bezos repeated familiar themes, such as the need to operate a business like it's always "Day 1" to keep a startup mentality and the ability to act quickly on limited information to stay ahead, what he calls "high-velocity decision making." His emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning was the most concrete indication of areas in which the e-commerce giant will continue to invest. Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being programmed, and is used in autonomous cars, speech-recognition and internet search engines.