A startup called Lyrebird is using machine learning to clone people's voices, and its first efforts are nothing short of terrifying. The Canadian company posted a 30-second clip on SoundCloud Friday showing off the capabilities of its algorithms. Your ears are first struck with the familiar booming voice of Barack Obama. The artificial intelligence expertly captures his instantly recognizable up-and-down vocal patterns, and the way the former president puts emphasis on the last syllable of words, like in "technology" in the opening question. You can still hear robotic qualities the algorithm isn't yet capable of stripping out, but those mostly disappear when the mic turns over to Donald Trump.

A group of prominent academics and tech executives fear that the U.K.'s exit from the European Union could jeopardize the U.K.'s lead in the development of machine learning technologies. British researchers have played a critical role in advances in machine learning -– a kind of artificial intelligence in which software learns from experience or data. But as demand for related expertise proliferates across industries, the country faces a "substantial skill shortage in this area," concluded a report published by Tuesday by The Royal Society, one of the world's oldest and most well-known scientific organizations. Although the report doesn't mention Brexit specifically, it implies that the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union could exacerbate this skills gap. "As it considers its future approach to immigration policy, the U.K. must ensure that research and innovation systems continue to be able to access the skills they need," the report said.

Welcome to the Schindler Conference Call on key figures for the First Quarter 2017. I'm here together with Erich Ammann, our CFO we will go into all financial details later during the call. As an introduction to the remark it is fair to say that we continued our successful plan of the last year as we kept our direction towards top-line growth and also higher profitability. Let's have a closer look on our highlights of the first quarter 2017 on slide two. We made further operational and strategic progress. First, we were able to confirm our growth path. Orders received increased by 5.9% in local currencies and also operating revenue rose by 3.8% in local currencies. Operating revenue was therefore within our guidance of 3% to 5% growth in 2017. Our investments into our geographic diversification mainly into our strategic markets were paying off. Second, we also continued to improve our profitability. The EBIT margin increased to 11.5% and even 11.7% before restructuring costs. Net profit stayed flat at CHF179 million due to some temporary booking losses on the ALSO exchangeable bond. Third, we made further progress in our strategic initiatives. We are on track with our globally harmonized modular product platforms, but it is still a long way to go to finalize this, and we were also able to successfully launch our new Internet of Elevator and Escalator Solutions, Schindler Ahead. Yesterday, we launched officially our new Schindler Ahead initiative and I would like to stay a little bit with that topic. As you can see on slide number 3, we will create significant customer benefits in the future. We increased the uptime of our equipment with predictive maintenance, we offer comprehensive insights about all type of information of the equipment for a better building, maintenance and management, and we generate convenience with superior customer service by interactive and personalized passenger experience. On slide four, you find the solution concept of our enhanced service offerings. There are four elements to be mentioned. First the Cube, The Cube enables machine intelligence, all relevant machine data are collected, filtered and transmitted to the cloud platform. The Cube is an intelligent device, not only a transmitter or a gateway, as we can run apps and stream multimedia content and handle emergency calls. The second topic is the cloud platform. The cloud platform creates real time insights.

The "Queen of Clean" comedy Chonda Pierce was under fire earlier this year when she agreed to perform at President Donald Trump's inauguration. The comedian is sticking to her decision adding she has found it difficult lately to trust the media's reporting on his presidency. She also spoke to Fox News about her upcoming film "Enough," where she tackles topics like delving into the world of online dating after losing her husband in 2014. Fox News: You received a lot of backlash over performing at President Trump's inauguration. Looking back, would you do it again?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is making changes to its search algorithm to promote more authoritative content and demote "low quality" content such as Holocaust denials. The Internet giant is responding to growing pressure to make sure the top answers it provides to people's search queries are accurate and do not contribute to the spread of misinformation, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and offensive content on the Web. People searching Google will be able to more easily flag search results that are "unexpected, inaccurate or offensive," says Ben Gomes, vice president of engineering for Google Search. And search quality raters have received new guidance on how to spot and report this content, too. Features designed to get people answers more quickly and on more platforms such as smart speaker Google Home are contributing to the problem.

Lauri Love, the alleged computer hacker, has been alowed to challenge his extradition to the US. Authorities in America want Mr Love, who has Asperger syndrome, to face trial on charges of cyber-hacking. But his lawyers say that could mean a sentence of up to 99 years in prison if he is found guilty, and that he would not be able to cope with such punishment. The 32-year-old activist is alleged by the US to have stolen huge amounts of data from US agencies, including the Federal Reserve, the US Army, the Department of Defence, Nasa and the FBI in a spate of online attacks in 2012 and 2013. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

At that point, technological revolution was still in its deployment phase. In 1908 Henry Ford had introduced the idea of Fordism and the production line. It was a brand new concept. Sales of the Ford car accelerated pretty quickly, pretty exponentially for the time. There's the readjustment phase: Wall Street crashed in 1929, followed by the depression and then World War II.

PREDICTING HOW artificial intelligence technology will evolve in the following ten or 20 years, or even beyond, is very difficult to say the least. However, certain is the fact that there is much to be gained to go around for everyone. It is estimated that by the year 2018, robots will literally be supervising more than three million of us at work; and by 2020, smart machines will become a major investment priority amongst at least 30% of all CIOs. Right now, many different fields, spanning from customer service to journalism, are already being set aside by increasingly able AI that can replicate human abilities and experience. Already before our eyes is an aspect that we once thought only belonged in future technology.

Finally, it seems fans of the military shooter series Call of Duty are going to get what they've been wanting for almost a decade: the past. On Friday evening, Activision announced Call of Duty: WWII as the next instalment in the multi-million selling video game franchise, taking it back to the original setting. For several years, the games have been moving forward in time, advancing beyond the near-future setting of the Modern Warfare titles into the space battles of Infinite Warfare, introducing drones, robots and, most controversially, rocket packs, along the way. But as the diminishing returns from the game's annual instalments have shown, hardcore fans have become alienated by the endless new technological additions, preferring the'boots on the ground' authenticity of the first Call of Duty titles, with their cinematic renderings of Operation Overlord, the second battle of El Alamein and the advance on Berlin. It was similar feedback, aimed at the rival shooter series Battlefield, that encouraged Electronic Arts to set the latest title during the first world war – to critical and commercial success. There is no information yet on where in the conflict Call of Duty WWII will be set and fans will undoubtedly be watching closely on 26 April when Activision promises to reveal more.

PARIS – The government on Monday filed a candidacy for the city of Osaka to host the 2025 World Exposition with the Bureau International des Expositions in Paris. France has already submitted the bid of Paris, which is likely to be a tough rival for Osaka. The deadline for submitting bids is set at May 22, and the BIE will select the host city by a vote by member states at its general meeting in November 2018. The Japanese plan is based on the theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives." The papers for Japan's bid to host the event were submitted by Japanese Ambassador to France Masato Kitera, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Keidanren Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara, who serves as head of the bidding committee for the envisaged Osaka exposition.