In this paper, we discuss the problem of minimizing the sum of two convex functions: a smooth function plus a non-smooth function. Further, the smooth part can be expressed by the average of a large number of smooth component functions, and the non-smooth part is equipped with a simple proximal mapping. We propose a proximal stochastic second-order method, which is efficient and scalable. It incorporates the Hessian in the smooth part of the function and exploits multistage scheme to reduce the variance of the stochastic gradient. We prove that our method can achieve linear rate of convergence.

This paper considers the problem of adaptively searching for an unknown target using multiple agents connected through a time-varying network topology. Agents are equipped with sensors capable of fast information processing, and we propose a decentralized collaborative algorithm for controlling their search given noisy observations. Specifically, we propose decentralized extensions of the adaptive query-based search strategy that combines elements from the 20 questions approach and social learning. Under standard assumptions on the time-varying network dynamics, we prove convergence to correct consensus on the value of the parameter as the number of iterations go to infinity. The convergence analysis takes a novel approach using martingale-based techniques combined with spectral graph theory. Our results establish that stability and consistency can be maintained even with one-way updating and randomized pairwise averaging, thus providing a scalable low complexity method with performance guarantees. We illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithm for random network topologies.

The day before the election, as millions of Americans were feeling confident that the vast majority of the country shared their opinions, a pair of researchers at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute published a paper that looked closely at something many of us ignored: the provenance of political tweets. Where do they come from? How many are, in reality, made by humans? And if not, who is designing these crude straw-bots? Analyzing Twitter during three televised debates, they discovered that 20% of all political tweets were made by bots.

Microsoft knows that Minecraft can get kids into programming, and it's banking on that strategy again this year. It just teamed up with Code.org to introduce the Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, a tutorial that teaches young newcomers (6 years old and up) how to create a simple game. The Designer uses a drag-and-drop interface to illustrate familiar code concepts, such as object-oriented programming and loops, while letting imaginations run wild in Minecraft's blocky universe. You can make chickens that drop gold, and otherwise set rules that are as logical or ludicrous as you'd like. The tutorial is available right now in 10 languages, and it'll be available in 50 languages by the time Computer Science Education Week kicks off on December 5th.

Emerging Technologies Like Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning and Internet of Things Help Revolutionize Public Sector Agencies, Accenture Report Finds Survey results show meeting customer expectations is one of the lowest ranked priorities ARLINGTON, Va.; Nov. 15, 2016 – Advanced analytics and other emerging technologies are revolutionizing the way governments and public service agencies are trying to address citizen demands, helping to overcome persistent challenges such as regulatory compliance, outdated legacy IT infrastructures and organizational cultures, according to a new research report from Accenture. The report, Emerging Technologies in Public Service, examines the adoption of emerging technologies across agencies with the most direct interaction with citizens or the greatest responsibility for citizen-facing services: health and social services, policing/justice, revenue, border services, pension / social security and administration. As part of the report, Accenture surveyed nearly 800 public service technology professionals across nine countries to identify emerging technologies being implemented or piloted. These technologies include advanced analytics/ predictive modeling, the Internet of Things, intelligent process automation, video analytics, biometrics/ identity analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing/ generation. The survey found that while more than two-thirds (70 percent) of public sector agencies are evaluating the potential of emerging technologies, only a small percentage (25 percent) is moving beyond the pilot phase to full implementation.

My name is Victoria, and I'll be your conference operator today. Welcome you to the NVIDIA Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute. After the speakers' remarks there will be a question-and-answer period. I will now turn the call over to Arnab Chanda, Vice President of Investor Relations at NVIDIA. You may begin your conference. With me on the call today from NVIDIA are Jen-Hsun Huang, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Colette Kress, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind you that our call is being webcast live on NVIDIA's Investor Relations website. You can hear a replay by telephone until the 17 November, 2016. The webcast will be available for replay up until next quarter's conference call to discuss Q4 financial results. The content of today's call is NVIDIA's property. It cannot be reproduced or transcribed without our prior written consent. During this call, we may make forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and our actual results may differ materially. For a discussion of factors that could affect our future financial results and business, please refer to the disclosure in today's earnings release, our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q, and the reports that we may file on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of our statements are made as of today, the 10th of November, 2016 based on information currently available to us. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any such statements. During this call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. You can find a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures in our CFO commentary which is posted on our website. Revenue reached a record in the third quarter, exceeding $2 billion for the first time. Driving this was success in our Pascal-based gaming platform and growth in our datacenter platform, reflecting the role of NVIDIA's GPU as the engine of AI computing.

Nataliia Dmytriievska was 15 years old and enveloped by flames when she first heard the call of outer space. A year earlier her boyfriend had taught her the basics of poi, a Maori dance in which performers swing flaming, tethered weights to describe bright geometric shapes in the dark. Despite the burns and bruises she earned, Dmytriievska was a determined pupil. She would practice for hours each day, drawing flowers and other outlines around her body using dummy weights, before attempting the same perilous tricks using fire. Although money was never the primary motivation – "I simply love the fire; there is something magical when you feel like it's in your control," she said – after a few years Dmytriievska turned semi-professional. She joined a circus troupe in her home city of Kiev, Ukraine to help support her university studies. In June 2007, the troupe began rehearsals for an interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven. As the backing music sounded out for the first time – a pipe organ, played rhythmically, as if calling people to worship, soon joined by galloping guitars and a furious drumbeat – Dmytriievska took to the stage. But her mind was not on the performance. As soon as she finished the routine she left the stage, walked up to her friend on the mixing desk and asked: "Where is that music from?" Eve Online: how a virtual world went to the edge of apocalypse and back. The track, he said, came from Eve Online, a science-fiction video game. It is, he explained, a game set in a vast galaxy comprised of tens of thousands of stars and planets, and inhabited by half a million or so people from around the world, who explore and do battle together daily via the internet.

Machines are capable of understanding speech, recognizing faces and driving cars safely, making recent technological advancements seem impressively powerful. But if the field of artificial intelligence is going to make the transformative leap into building human-like machines, it'll first have to master the way babies learn. "Relatively recently in AI there's been a shift from thinking about designing systems that can do the sort of things that adults can do, to realizing if you want to have systems that are as flexible and powerful and do the kinds of things that adults do, you need to have systems that can learn the way babies and children do," developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, told International Business Times. "If you compare what computers can do now to what they could do 10 years ago, they've certainly made a lot of progress, but if you compare them to what a four year old can do, there's still a pretty enormous gap." Babies and children construct theories about the world around them using the same approach scientists use to construct scientific theories.

That fake news and misinformation on Facebook could have influenced the outcome of the US presidential election is worrying (Opinion, 15 November), but, in reality, this is only tinkering around the edges of a major problem. The first amendment of the US constitution was designed to protect freedom of the press. However, for the most part, the supreme court has failed to use it to rule on libel cases: hence tabloids such as the National Enquirer can get away with printing pretty much anything they like. It is possible to police the publishing and broadcasting industry – if nations are willing to do it. Sufficient staff (not robots) need to be employed to fact-check before publishing or broadcasting.

One of the big trends we've seen over the last five years is automation. At the same time, we're also seeing more intelligence built into tools we already have, like phones and computers. Where do you see this process in five years? In the future, I believe that there will be a co-existence between humans and artificial intelligence systems that will be hopefully of service to humanity. These AI systems will involve software systems that handle the digital world, and also systems that move around in physical space, like drones, and robots, and autonomous cars, and also systems that process the physical space, like the Internet of Things. You will have more intelligent systems in the physical world, too -- not just on your cell phone or computer, but physically present around us, processing and sensing information about the physical world and helping us with decisions that include knowing a lot about features of the physical world.