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Pentagon probing civilian casualties in Yemen raid, denies navy firing on al-Qaida; HRW demands redress

The Japan Times

WASHINGTON/SANAA/DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – The U.S. military said Thursday it is investigating last weekend's raid by U.S. special operations forces in Yemen and that innocent civilians, including children, were apparently killed. U.S. Central Command said civilians may have been hit by gunfire from aircraft called in to assist U.S. troops, who engaged in a ferocious firefight with militants from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's Yemen affiliate. The military said the civilians may not have been visible to the U.S. forces because they were mixed in with combatants who were firing at U.S. troops "from all sides to include houses and other buildings." Nasser al-Awlaki told The Associated Press that among the children killed was his 8-year-old granddaughter Anwaar, an American citizen. Her father was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Yemeni-American cleric killed in a U.S. airstrike in Yemen in 2011.


We Tried Hater, The Dating App That Matches People Based On What They Hate

Huffington Post - Tech news and opinion

The most fun part of Hater is definitely swiping through the offerings of items you either hate or like. The seemingly endless list include things like "biting ice cream" or "Facebook stalking." There's a fair amount of political items, like "Vladimir Putin" and "Build the Wall," but they're sprinkled amidst lighthearted things like "The Bachelor," "Twitter" and "Staying Up Late." There are also a handful of sexual things featured, like "69," "The Missionary Position," and "Butt Selfies."


How To Use Artificial Intelligence To Enhance Customer Experience

#artificialintelligence

When we think of artificial intelligence, most people think of two specific things: androids, and the future. We think of creations that will look, more or less, like humans, and things which are far off from our modern times. Artificial intelligence (for better or worse) doesn't look like androids that do our laundry or pilot our spaceships (yet) but it is absolutely here – perhaps even the White House is getting involved. The very best businesses and brands are learning how to manipulate artificial intelligence to boost their brands and improve their customer interactions. In Sweden, there is a retail bank called Swedbank which has integrated Nina, an intelligent virtual assistant, into its system.


Nato must do more to counter Russia's cyber-weaponry, says Fallon

The Guardian

Nato must begin to compete on the cyber-battlefield to counter Russian hacking aimed at undermining democracy in the US and western Europe, the British defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, has said. In his most hard-hitting comments yet about Russia, he accused it of targeting the US, France, Germany, Holland, Bulgaria and Montenegro, which is due to become a full Nato member this year. Fallon blamed Russia for helping create the age of fake information. "Today we see a country that, in weaponising misinformation, has created what we might now see as the post-truth age. Part of that is the use of cyber-weaponry to disrupt critical infrastructure and disable democratic machinery," he said.


[Introduction to Special Issue] Prediction and its limits

Science

A major challenge for using data to make predictions is distinguishing what is meaningful from noise. The image represents one approach that visually indicates the complexity of the problem by highlighting some links in a network and deleting other possible links, with the hole indicating the more meaningful information. We have tried to predict the future since ancient times when shamans looked for patterns in smoking entrails. As this special section explores, prediction is now a developing science. Essays probe such questions as how to allocate limited resources, whether a country will descend into conflict, and who will likely win an election or publish a high-impact paper, as well as looking at how standards should develop in this emerging field.


Game publisher offers to demo games for developers affected by Trump's immigration ban

Mashable

The upstart indie games publisher is taking steps to directly help developers that were planning to attend the 2017 Game Developer's Conference but can't, because of the Trump administration's controversial immigration ban affecting seven predominantly Muslim nations. SEE ALSO: The video games industry responds to Trump's immigration ban It works like this: if you're a game developer from one of the seven affected nations -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- and you had a game to show at GDC, get in touch with Devolver. You'll find all the info for submitting your game right here. Here's the message Devolver blasted out on Twitter: If you canceled plans to demo a game at GDC due to the US immigration ban, we'd like to demo it on your behalf. The upcoming GDC has already taken a very anti-Trump stance against the immigration ban.


Majority of NHS Trusts still rely on paper records – but half are looking to AI, research shows

#artificialintelligence

More than 90% of surveyed trusts say they still rely on hand-written reports - Photo credit: Flickr, ad.mak, CC BY 2.0 According to figures released following a Freedom of Information request by the communications solutions company Nuance, 93% of the 30 trusts that responded said they handwrite reports. The same proportion said they relied on traditional word processing methods to type up electronic patient records. However, the FoI also indicated an increasing interest in AI across the NHS, with 43% of trusts reporting that they were considering how to use AI as a way of allowing patients to "self-help" when accessing health services. In a statement published alongside the FoI responses, Nuance said that such technology included virtual assistants, speech recognition technology and chat-bots. Last year, Enfield Council became one of the first local authorities to use AI assistance, with the introduction of IPSoft's Amelia systems to help residents carry out online tasks.


Bayesian models in R (Code examples)

#artificialintelligence

In statistics, making decisions always involves some amount of uncertainties. This could be due to the unknown parameters or quantities. For example if a company is releasing a product in the market, the population who will be activity seeking the product and the amount of market the product will capture compared to other products are uncertainties. Bayesian analysis can be applied in statistics when probability has uncertainty in the statistical model. Bayesian analysis can also be applied as an elastic augmentation of maximum likelihood.


UK revenge porn helpline 'to close' in March due to government cuts, says Labour MP

The Independent - Tech

The UK's revenge porn helpline is set to close next month, according to Labour MP Sarah Champion. The helpline, which launched in February 2015, offers support to men and women affected by revenge porn, where explicit images or videos of them have been shared without their consent. Speaking in the House of Commons today, Ms Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, asked why the government was cutting funding for the helpline. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.


The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Society Terah Lyons TEDxBeaconStreet

#artificialintelligence

Terah Lyons, discusses how Artificial Intelligence is currently handled by our government, and how this may change overtime. Terah Lyons is a Policy Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer at The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.