Paro the furry seal cries softly while an elderly woman pets it. The upright Tree guides a disabled man taking shaky steps, saying in a gentle feminine voice, "right, left, well done!" Robots have the run of Tokyo's Shintomi nursing home, which uses 20 different models to care for its residents. Allowing them to help care for the elderly -- a job typically seen as requiring a human touch -- may be a jarring idea in the West. But many Japanese see robots positively, largely because they are depicted in popular media as friendly and helpful.

The investment is part of an AI strategy laid out by President Emmanuel Macron at the elite College de France research institute in Paris, the French presidency said. The goal is to make better use of the French higher education system that trains computer engineers and mathematicians only to see them leave for jobs at top U.S. tech companies. Some of them have secured high-level positions at Alphabet, the parent company of search engine Google, and Facebook, which opened an AI research centre in Paris in 2015. Macron's AI plan was inspired by a government-commissioned report by Cedric Villani, the self-styled "Lady Gaga of Mathematics" and winner of the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Villani, who is also a lawmaker in Macron's party, said in the report the brain drain to Silicon Valley companies showed the excellence of French schools.

Political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica still has not deleted the entirety of the Facebook user data it acquired through questionable means in 2015 despite requests that it do so, Channel 4 News reported. According to a new report from the British broadcaster, Cambridge Analytica still maintains a database of personal information and interests pertaining to 136,000 individuals located in the state of Colorado. Cambridge Analytica reportedly has not completely deleted the Facebook data it acquired. It is unclear as to why the political firm is still hanging onto the sizable chunk of data, which purportedly contains a detailed personality and psychological profile for each person. Cambridge Analytica typically uses such information for political advertising campaigns.

Abstract--In this paper, we address the issue of how to enhance the generalization performance of convolutional neural networks (CNN) in the early learning stage for image classification. This is motivated by real-time applications that require the generalization performance of CNN to be satisfactory within limited training time. In order to achieve this, a novel hierarchical transfer CNN framework is proposed. It consists of a group of shallow CNNs and a cloud CNN, where the shallow CNNs are trained firstly and then the first layers of the trained shallow CNNs are used to initialize the first layer of the cloud CNN. This method will boost the generalization performance of the cloud CNN significantly, especially during the early stage of training. Experiments using CIF AR-10 and ImageNet datasets are performed to examine the proposed method. Results demonstrate the improvement of testing accuracy is 12% on average and as much as 20% for the CIF AR-10 case while 5% testing accuracy improvement for the ImageNet case during the early stage of learning. It is also shown that universal improvements of testing accuracy are obtained across different settings of dropout and number of shallow CNNs.

WIRE)--Aella Data, a leading innovator in AI-driven cybersecurity solutions, officially exits stealth mode today with the launch of Starlight Pervasive Breach Detection System (PBDS), the industry's first AI-driven pervasively deployable solution. Founded by security industry veterans, Aella Data's Starlight PBDS is the only system that can be deployed pervasively across all network infrastructures. It unifies collected data and conducts advanced analysis to deliver high-fidelity, actionable alerts that reduce detection time from months to mere minutes, and alert volume from thousands to the critical few. The company formally launches at RSA Conference 2018 with a growing list of key customers and partners. Aella Data's launch and its disruptive technology is timely in a world gone awry with increasingly costly and far-reaching cyberattacks.

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the'Artificial Intelligence for Humanity' event in Paris on March 29, 2018. The French president is to unveil on March 29 a bold plan to make France a centre of reference for artificial intelligence research, aimed at drawing homegrown and foreign talent in a field dominated by US and Chinese players. Businesses have been falling over themselves to show their investments in artificial intelligence. France wants to be in the AI game too, and President Emmanuel Macron believes that being on the forefront of the next big technology wave will help make his economy, which has experienced an uptick in growth and investment thanks to recent reforms, more competitive. Macron announced Thursday that his government would spend $1.5 billion on a number of initiatives to boost AI research in France, part of an effort to help the country plug a talent and research gap that exists between Europe, and both the U.S. and China.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with researchers during a visit concerning artificial intelligence at the Institut Curie Hospital in Paris, March 29, 2018. RM7.14 billion) of public money into artificial intelligence research by 2022 in a bid to catch up with the United States and China and reverse a brain drain. The investment is part of an AI strategy laid out by President Emmanuel Macron at the elite College de France research institute in Paris, the French presidency said. The goal is to make better use of the French higher education system that trains computer engineers and mathematicians only to see them leave for jobs at top US tech companies. Some of them have secured high-level positions at Alphabet, the parent company of search engine Google, and Facebook, which opened an AI research centre in Paris in 2015.

Emmanuel Macron and his government are launching a big initiative around artificial intelligence today. They want to turn France into one of the leading countries when it comes to artificial intelligence. "[Artificial intelligence] is a technological, economical, social and obviously ethical revolution," Macron said in a speech. "This revolution won't happen in 50 or 60 years, it's happening right now. There are new opportunities and we can choose to follow some innovations or not." Some of the best mathematics and engineering schools are in France, and some of the best data scientists and AI researchers come from France.

Suicide is a growing public health concern. In Canada, 4,000 lives are claimed by suicide each year – that is 10 lives per day. For every one of these suicide deaths, there are five people hospitalized following self-injury, 25 to 30 suicide attempts and seven to 10 people affected by each tragedy, according to analysis by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Suicide rates are highest among certain groups – such as Indigenous Peoples, immigrants and refugees, prisoners and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) community – and are on the rise. The impacts of suicide are felt widely.

The Marine Corps has held 10 days of battle simulations and exercises to test out new urban warfare technologies. The exercises, dubbed Urban 5th Generation Marine Exploration and Experimentation 2018 (U5G), ran from March 15 to 25 in Camp Pendelton in southern California. Multiple naval warfare centers and military laboratories joined 48 private companies for U5G, where NCOs tested out some 79 technologies and offered feedback. The experimental equipment included anti-drone weapons, sensors that see through walls, 'smart' networked radio, micro drones, an enhanced thermal imager with information displays, as well as autonomous vehicles and enhanced munitions. 'This whole week was introducing us to new technology and getting feedback from us as the end user,' said Marine Sgt.