Powerful machine-learning methods have taken the tech world by storm in recent years, vastly improving voice and image recognition, machine translation, and many other things. Now these techniques are poised to upend countless other industries, including the world of finance. But progress may be stymied by a significant problem: it's often impossible to explain how these "deep learning" algorithms reach a decision (see "The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI"). Adam Wenchel, vice president of machine learning and data innovation at Capital One, says the company would like to use deep learning for all sorts of functions, including deciding who is granted a credit card. But it cannot do that because the law requires companies to explain the reason for any such decision to a prospective customer.

When I spoke to Tasha Hedstrom this winter, she had been sober for more than 61 days. After struggling with opioid addiction for 15 years, Hedstrom is taking Vivitrol, a drug that blocks the pleasurable effects of opioids and reduces cravings. She goes to a court-mandated recovery program three days a week and tracks her progress on a phone app she found on Facebook, called Triggr Health. Hedstrom says she has never found peer support programs like Narcotics Anonymous helpful. I feel like people are talking about using and glorifying it," she says. Triggr has been a different way to access support. In addition to tracking the number of days she has been in recovery, the app connects Hedstrom to a team of recovery coaches, who chat with her periodically throughout the day by text and app message. If she has not contacted Triggr for a full day, the team contacts her. Generally, they talk about how her day is going or goals she has set for herself, but recently they helped her through an unexpected challenge. A stranger followed her car into a lot and parked next to her, then offered her drugs. "It's not just about addiction," she says. You need to have backup supports."

He enrolled in the NYC Data Science Academy 17-week remote bootcamp program, taking place from January to April 2017. This post is based on his third class project focusing on web scraping in Python. The original article can be found here. Clean technology continues to undergo significant advancements spanning technology, sustainability, financial, and policy issues. Given the field's large scope, there is no shortage of news outlets covering the action.

Since the 2016 presidential election, one topic dominating political discourse is the issue of "Fake News". A number of political pundits claim that the rise of significantly biased and/or untrue news influenced the election, though a study by researchers from Stanford and New York University concluded otherwise. Nonetheless, fake news posts have exploited Facebook users' feeds to propagate throughout the internet. Obviously, a deliberately misleading story is "fake news" but lately blathering social media discourse, is changing its definition. Some now use the term to dismiss facts counter to their preferred viewpoints, the most prominent example being President Trump.

"Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured." At the time of the tweet, AP's account had around two million followers. The post was favourited, retweeted, and spread. At 13:13, AP confirmed the tweet was fake. Three minutes later, then-White House press spokesman, Jay Carney, confirmed that there had been no explosion and that the president was alive and well.

A river of red-hot lava was caught flowing out from Mount Etna in breathtaking new drone footage. Smoking magma can be see rolling down the snow-topped mountainside as the drone glides in and out of the red-hot flow. The latest outpouring comes just weeks after an eruption forced a BBC reporter and a scientist to flee for their lives. Etna, at 3,330 metres (10,926 feet), is the highest volcano in mainland Europe. The volcano, one of the most active in the world, has been largely dormant for the last two years.

While laser weapons have been a staple in science fiction films for decades, the US military is inching closer to making these a reality. Lockheed Martin has announced a 60 kW laser weapon that soon will be installed on an Army truck for testing against mortars and small drones. And experts believe that lasers even more powerful than this could be widely used as soon as 2020. Lockheed Martin's laser is 60-kilowatt, and invisible to the naked eye. By focusing the beam onto a target, the technology rapidly heats the inside of an incoming mortar round, causing it to explode mid-air.

WOODSIDE, CALIFORNIA – Robert W. Taylor, who was instrumental in creating the internet and the modern personal computer, has died. Taylor, who had Parkinson's disease, died Thursday at his home in the San Francisco Peninsula community of Woodside, his son, Kurt Taylor, told the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. In 1961, Taylor was a project manager for NASA when he directed funding to Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, who helped develop the modern computer mouse. Taylor was working for the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1966 when he shepherded the creation of a single computer network to link ARPA-sponsored researchers at companies and institutions around the country. Taylor was frustrated that he had to use three separate terminals to communicate with the researchers through their computer systems.

From lifting weights to driving a jeep, Russia's humanoid has learned a range of skills for when it takes off for a mission to the moon in 2021. Deemed the'cyber cosmonaut', Fedor has now demonstrated a new skill that is vital in developing its fine motor skills and decision algorithms. The massive robot's latest venture brought it to a shooting range where it squared up in front of a target, pulled the trigger and shot its first handgun with both hands. Fedor has now demonstrated a new skill that is vital in developing its fine motor skills and decision algorithms. The massive robot's latest venture brought it to a shooting range where it squared up in front of a target, pulled the trigger and shot its first handgun using both hands Russia's plan to build a colony on the moon has begun taking shape.

Robert W. Taylor, who was instrumental in creating the internet and the modern personal computer, has died. Taylor, who had Parkinson's disease, died Thursday at his home in the San Francisco Peninsula community of Woodside, his son, Kurt Taylor, told the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. In 1961, Taylor was a project manager for NASA when he directed funding to Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, who helped develop the modern computer mouse. Taylor was working for the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1966 when he shepherded the creation of a single computer network to link ARPA-sponsored researchers at companies and institutions around the country. Taylor was frustrated that he had to use three separate terminals to communicate with the researchers through their computer systems.