Measuring conditional dependence is an important topic in statistics with broad applications including graphical models. Under a factor model setting, a new conditional dependence measure based on projection is proposed. The corresponding conditional independence test is developed with the asymptotic null distribution unveiled where the number of factors could be high-dimensional. It is also shown that the new test has control over the asymptotic significance level and can be calculated efficiently. A generic method for building dependency graphs without Gaussian assumption using the new test is elaborated. Numerical results and real data analysis show the superiority of the new method.

We identify and analyze statistical regularities and irregularities in the recent order flow of different NASDAQ stocks, focusing on the positions where orders are placed in the orderbook. This includes limit orders being placed outside of the spread, inside the spread and (effective) market orders. We find that limit order placement inside the spread is strongly determined by the dynamics of the spread size. Most orders, however, arrive outside of the spread. While for some stocks order placement on or next to the quotes is dominating, deeper price levels are more important for other stocks. As market orders are usually adjusted to the quote volume, the impact of market orders depends on the orderbook structure, which we find to be quite diverse among the analyzed stocks as a result of the way limit order placement takes place.

MIT announced today that it's developed a speech recognition chip capable of real world power savings of between 90 and 99 percent over existing technologies. Voice technology has, of course, become nearly ubiquitous in mobile devices, thanks to the exponential growth of smart assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Home – but the new chip could help branch out in much simpler electronics. The team gives IoT devices a potential use case – devices designed to go months on end without charging or changing batteries. Speech input will become a natural interface for many wearable applications and intelligent devices. The miniaturization of these devices will require a different interface than touch or keyboard.

I discuss here off-the-beaten-path beautiful, even spectacular results from number theory: not just about prime numbers, but also about related problems such as integers that are sum of two squares. The connection between these numbers and prime numbers will appear later in this article. A few important unsolved mathematical conjectures are presented in a unified approach, and some new research material is also introduced, especially an attempt at generalizing and unifying concepts related to data set density and limiting distributions. The approach is very applied, focusing on algorithms, simulations, and big data, to help discover fascinating results. Even though some of the most exciting topics of mathematics are discussed here (including fundamental, century-old problems still unresolved as well as brand new hypotheses), most of the article can be understood by the layman. Among other things, you will learn some new ways to estimate Pi based on non-traditional experiments, or how a conjecture for prime numbers somehow generalizes to apply to Fibonacci numbers as well.

Do you think you can tell a piece of music composed by artificial intelligence (AI) from one created by a human composer? Before you read any further, let's find out. The following audio consists of two fragments, one written by AI, the other by a human. TNW Conference won best European Event 2016 for our festival vibe. See what's in store for 2017.

Even if they're not quite sure what it is or whether they are already using it. That was the big takeaway from a December study by B2B targeting platform Demandbase, which itself has implemented AI in its platform. And that's a key conclusion from another recent study, conducted by Forrester Consulting for Adgorithms, which has created an AI-driven marketing platform called Albert. The study, "AI: The Next Generation of Marketing," conducted in-depth surveys with 150 marketing executives. "Forrester found that confusion and misunderstanding of AI-driven marketing is quite prevalent today. Indeed, many marketers in our study have a very narrow view of current advanced contextual marketing capabilities, much less around AI-driven marketing tools that can make these contextual programs considerably more efficient and effective, while reducing the complexities marketers face in executing and orchestrating digital interactions. However, when the benefits of AI-driven marketing were proposed to them, they were overwhelmingly likely to find these benefits appealing."

Signature and behavioural based anti-malware are no match for next generation adversaries who use mutating hashes, sophisticated obfuscation mechanisms, self-propagating malware and intelligent malware components, according to the findings of a new report. The report, published by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), said that it is "no longer enough" to detect and respond to cyber-attacks and that artificial intelligence (AI) is necessary to offer the predictive quality that can give organisations a "much-needed edge on their more sophisticated, less burdened, and more evasive adversaries". The research paper, titled Signature Based Malware Detection is Dead, said that the average data breach costs $158 per stolen record, and is often undetected for 229 days. In some organisations, especially ones containing critical infrastructure, feature layers of incompatible technologies are "Frankensteined" together in a haphazard attempt at nominally meeting security standards. "Any unused technology in every layer exponentially increases cyber-security noise and could result in exploitable security vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, C-level executives suffer from security solution fatigue as the result of incessant product evaluations, investments, and failures," the paper said.

Does the idea of humanlike machines or machinelike humans freak you out? Maybe, but if we want to stay relevant in the face of the coming robot revolution, Elon Musk says we'll have to become more cyborg-like. Though he stopped short of warning humankind that "resistance is futile," Musk mentioned that we will have to merge with machines somehow. "Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," Musk told an audience at the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he was launching Tesla in the United Arab Emirates, CNBC reports (warning: link contains auto play video). "It's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output," he added, explaining that he means computers can communicate "a trillion bits per second", while we lumps of meat can only go at about 10 bits per second by typing.

Machine Learning is the latest craze in both the start-up and business world, with pitch decks and strategy presentations full of terms like ML and AI. To identify Financial Services companies that employ machine learning - and the topics they use it for - we have analyzed[1] data on Kaggle, an open innovation platform that intermediates "machine learning competitions". If you haven't come across Kaggle yet: Kaggle is an open platform with 750,000 registered data scientists. Companies and universities upload (anonymized) data and ask data scientists to offer predictions (e.g., "based on our customer data, predict who will go to hospital, and for how long"). The best researcher(s) are rewarded with prize money (and/or jobs), with companies paying as much as $3m for the most predictive model.

I have been tracking diffusion of workflow technology into healthcare for over two decades. Since 2011 I've annually searched every HIMSS conference exhibitor website for workflow-related material. I've seen emphasis on workflow go from very little to a lot, and mentions of workflow engines and business process management (BPM) go from almost zero to substantial. This kind of workflow technology has been around for decades outside of healthcare. It is finally flowing into healthcare and health IT in a big way.