Mady Delvaux wrote a report urging European politicians to enforce regulation around AI and robotics. European politicians have voted in favour of a controversial report calling for regulation on robots and artificial intelligence (AI). The vote, which took place in France on Thursday, was based on a report from the Legal Affairs Committee, which warned that there is a growing need for regulation to address increasingly autonomous robots and other forms of sophisticated AI. The report passed 396-to-123, with 85 abstentions. "MEP's (Members of the European Parliament) voted overwhelmingly in favour of the report," said a spokesperson for the European Parliament.

Add artificial intelligence (AI) into the equation--and more than a few apocalyptic movies about such learning-enabled machines taking over the human race--and the fear factor is ratcheted up a bit. Though ethical concerns are prevalent, executives across the globe say AI is nonetheless certain to develop further in their businesses. According to a study released this week by Infosys, 71 percent of the 1,600 senior business decision-makers surveyed say that the rise of AI in the workplace is inevitable, pointing to positive changes for business prospects, employees and society. The study--commissioned by Infosys and conducted by independent market researcher Vanson Bourne--set out to investigate the approach and attitudes that senior decision-makers in large organizations (at least 1,000 employees and $500 million in annual revenue) have toward AI technology and how they see the future application and development of AI in their industries. Although AI definitions can vary, it is generally considered as an activity traditionally performed through human intelligence that can now be done by a computer.

Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has efficient high-level data structures and a simple but effective approach to object-oriented programming. Python's elegant syntax and dynamic typing, together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal language for scripting and rapid application development in many areas on most platforms. The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are freely available in source or binary form for all major platforms from the Python Web site, https://www.python.org/, The same site also contains distributions of and pointers to many free third party Python modules, programs and tools, and additional documentation.

China set a record high in terms of venture capital (VC) investments in 2016, despite a global slowdown. The strong performance is expected to continue with artificial intelligence (AI) an additional focus for investors, finds latest KPMG analysis. Investment by VCs in China increased 19 percent year on year to USD31 billion in 2016, although deal volumes declined 42 percent to 300 from 513 a year earlier, according to Venture Pulse, KPMG's quarterly global report on VC trends. The strong performance is attributed to a number of mega-deals recorded early in the year. The report highlights that artificial intelligence and cognitive learning are poised to transform almost every aspect of people's lives.

Google announced today that Google Assistant will start rolling out to devices running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and 7.0 (Nougat) later this week. Previously, the Assistant was only available on Google's Pixel phones, Home personal assistant, Allo messaging app and Android wear devices. Google is at the forefront of machine and deep-learning based natural language processing which they have used to power their vaunted speech recognition system. Google Assistant leverages this research to enable two-way, context-sensitive, conversational interactions between the user and the device. The Assistant syncs across devices and apps like Allo and Google Calendar and it allows voice-control of enabled smart-home devices.

The backdrop for Professor Arrow's influential early work was the centuries-long recognition that majority voting can produce arbitrary outcomes. Consider a legislature choosing its leader from among three candidates: Alice, Betty and Harry. If the legislature were to vote first on Alice versus Betty, with the winner running against Harry, it could come to a different decision than had it first started by voting on Alice versus Harry. Because the order with which the legislature takes votes is arbitrary, the ultimate winner of this system of majority voting becomes arbitrary. That puts politics in an awkward corner.

OK, here we go again. A couple of days ago, Square reported the results of its Q4 and full year 2016 business results. The results and attendant guidance can be broadly characterized as another quarter of beat and raise. Interestingly to me, was that the raise part was more on earnings. The company is now forecasting growth of 30% in adjusted revenues but it expects adjusted EBITDA to more than double in 2017. Over the past year that I have been following the name, I have been particularly impressed with the company's strategy of being able to offer lots of pieces of IT services that merchants needed in order to be successful. The shares jumped 21% last week and have reached an all-time high since the company went public in late 2015.

"Go, go!" was the thought racing through Grégoire Courtine's mind. The French neuroscientist was watching a macaque monkey as it hunched aggressively at one end of a treadmill. His team had used a blade to slice halfway through the animal's spinal cord, paralyzing its right leg. Now Courtine wanted to prove he could get the monkey walking again. To do it, he and colleagues had installed a recording device beneath its skull, touching its motor cortex, and sutured a pad of flexible electrodes around the animal's spinal cord, below the injury.

Technology is about change just about everything in healthcare--here's how. The future of healthcare is happening right now. While that future is just barely forming, we are beginning to see how technology is now scratching the surface of an entirely different landscape when it comes to healthcare delivery both within and outside of the U.S. According to PwC Health Research Institute's annual report, 2017 is the year to prepare for the arrival of several technologies poised to disrupt the industry. This myriad of tech-driven innovation will impact just about everything from supply chain and operations to business models and essential healthcare management practices and procedures. Here's a look at report's eight proposed technologies poised with the potential to change it all: We are already witnessing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare through IBM's Watson, a supercomputer that first impressed us by beating Jeopardy opponents but is now tasked with beating a jeopardy of a different kind--cancer.

I made this announcement to 54,210 members of the Digital Health group on LinkedIn. If you're on LinkedIn, please do join the group, which allows you to opt in to receiving these announcements in addition to connecting with thousands of other global stakeholders in digital health. Note that I will continue to update this announcement up until sending out the final version via LinkedIn. Dr. Watson, AI, has stumbled in a very costly way at the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center. As Matthew Herper, Sr. Editor for Pharma & Healthcare at Forbes writes, MD Anderson has benched IBM's Watson in a "setback for artificial intelligence in medicine".