The world's largest AI research conference is underway in Vancouver, Canada. Researchers are presenting more than 1,400 papers at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference, ranging from work that organizers believe has had the greatest impact over the past decade to Yoshua Bengio's continued march toward consciousness for deep learning. But even as the conference showed theoretical research and neuroscience-related papers on the rise alongside categories like algorithms and deep learning, the mushrooming of the event itself -- and the associated growing pains -- was a constant theme, and it speaks to the growth of the AI field in general. Organizers said that at the start of the conference Sunday, they expected about 400 people to show up for registration. All told, NeurIPS 2019 welcomed 13,000 attendees, up 40% from the prior year.

Recently, Dr. France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation, gave a presentation at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness meeting in Washington, D.C. She holds an extraordinary record of accomplishment and has made a tremendous impact on academia and the U.S.'s scientific community. Córdova is also the youngest person -- and first woman -- to serve as Chief Scientist at NASA. Her journey began with her love for STEM. In some ways, the future of work is largely linked to STEM.

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By now, almost everyone knows a little bit about artificial intelligence, but most people aren't tech experts, and many may not be aware of just how big an impact AI has. The truth is most consumers interact with technology incorporating AI every day. From the searches we perform in Google to the advertisements we see on social media, AI is an ever-present feature of our lives. To help nonspecialists grasp the degree to which AI has been woven into the fabric of modern society, 12 experts from Forbes Technology Council detail some applications of AI that many may not be aware of. Calling customer service used to be as exciting as seeing a dentist.

With the turmoil in cybersecurity and the mind-blowing advances in AI, it is only natural that cybersecurity practitioners consider further employing learning techniques to help secure their organizations and improve the efficiency of their security operation centers. But with great fears come great opportunities for both the good and the evil, and a myriad of bad deals. This paper discusses ten issues in cybersecurity that hopefully will make it easier for practitioners to ask detailed questions about what they want from an AI system in their cybersecurity operations. We draw on the state of the art to provide factual arguments for a discussion on well-established AI in cybersecurity issues, including the current scope of AI and its application to cybersecurity, the impact of privacy concerns on the cybersecurity data that can be collected and shared externally to the organization, how an AI decision can be explained to the person running the operations center, and the implications of the adversarial nature of cybersecurity in the learning techniques. We then discuss the use of AI by attackers on a level playing field including several issues in an AI battlefield, and an AI perspective on the old cat-and-mouse game including how the adversary may assess your AI power.

It's that time when we start to look ahead to what next year holds for the life science sector...Lu Rahman outlines 2020s big medtech players A decade ago the healthcare advances create by AI would have seemed the stuff of dreams. But back in 2018 Theresa May announced plans to use artificial intelligence and data to transform the way certain diseases like cancer. The technology is moving at a pace – this year we heard that a team led by the University of Surrey had filed the first ever patent for inventions autonomously created by AI without a human inventor. Professor Ryan Abbott explained the implications this had for the life science sector: "These filings are important to any area of research and development as well as any area that relies on patents. Patents are more important in the life sciences than in many other areas, particularly for drug discovery. AI has also been used extensively in the drug discovery process for a long time for tasks like screening of compounds and in silico analysis. These tasks can be the foundation for patent filings. "As AI is becoming increasingly sophisticated, it is likely to play an increasing role in R&D including in the life sciences.

Contrary to what some data scientists may like to believe, we can never reduce the world to mere numbers and algorithms. When it comes down to it, decisions are made by humans, and being an effective data scientist means understanding both people and data. When OPower, a software company, wanted to get people to use less energy, they provided customers with plenty of stats about their electricity usage and cost. However, the data alone were not enough to get people to change. In addition, OPower needed to take advantage of behavioral science, namely, studies showing people were driven to reduce energy when they received smiley emoticons on their bills showing how they compare to their neighbors!

CHICAGO – Agribusiness is increasingly turning to natural and sustainable alternatives to chemicals as consumers rebuff genetically modified foods and concerns grow over Big Ag's role in climate change. At the heart of the trend are innovations that harness beneficial microorganizms in the soil, including seed-coatings of naturally occurring bacteria and fungi that can do the same work as traditional chemicals, from warding off pests to helping plants flourish, according to a global patent study by research firm GreyB Services. Much of the research in crop biotech is centered in the United States, China, Germany, Japan and South Korea, according to the U.N. agency WIPO. "Both entrepreneurs and investors are saying, 'Hey, the writing is on the wall, we're entering a post-chemical world,'" said Rob LeClerc, chief executive officer of AgFunder, an online venture-capital platform. "The seed companies who have billions in market cap are like'We need to do something,' and everyone recognizes the opportunity."

A leading expert in artificial intelligence has issued a stark warning against the use of race- and gender-biased algorithms for making critical decisions. Across the globe, algorithms are beginning to oversee various processes from job applications and immigration requests to bail terms and welfare applications. Military researchers are even exploring whether facial recognition technology could enable autonomous drones to identify their own targets. However, University of Sheffield computer expert Noel Sharkey told the Guardian that such algorithms are'infected with biases' and cannot be trusted. Calling for a halt on all AI with the potential to change people's lives, Professor Sharkey instead advocates for vigorous testing before they are used in public.

Cameras powered by 5G and artificial intelligence could be used to enhance worker safety. As workers enter a restricted safe zone--a place where only properly dressed workers can enter--cameras could scan the area to ensure everyone has the proper gear, even preventing doors from opening if a worker isn't wearing a hardhat, Katibeh says. "If you prevent a safety issue, that kind of pays for itself a hundred times over," says Chandra Brown, the CEO of MxD, a nonprofit in partnership with the Department of Defense that equips factories with innovative digital tools. In July, AT&T announced a collaboration with MxD's Chicago Innovation Center, which is dedicated to developing manufacturing innovation, to showcase 5G use cases and applications.