The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), Australia's national research computing service, has purchased four IBM Power System servers for high performance computing in a bid to advance its research efforts through artificial intelligence, deep learning, high performance data analytics, and other compute-heavy workloads. With 35,000 researchers in total on its books, the NCI operates as a formal collaboration of the Australian National University, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), and Geoscience Australia, as well as through partnerships with a number of research-intensive universities that are supported by the Australian Research Council. Turnbull's agile struggle is all glitz and no grunt Australian government to continue focus on digital delivery in 2017 Australian ISPs to block piracy sites from the pocket of content owners TPG outbids MyRepublic to snag Singapore's fourth telco license Turnbull's agile struggle is all glitz and no grunt Friday's announcement follows a development process NCI undertook with the IBM Australia Development Laboratory and its Linux and Open Technology team. According to NCI, the development lab provides OpenPower development capability and locally develops IBM's Power System firmware, with the decision to purchase the new servers strongly influenced by its direct access to the local IBM Power development team, NCI said. "In order to tackle the challenges of today's world -- from cancer to climate change -- organisations need accelerated computing that can drive big data workloads," said Mike Schulze, director for IBM Australia Development Laboratory. "NCI plays a critical role in supporting some of Australia's largest research projects, and this new system and architecture will be key for it to achieve higher levels of performance and greater computing efficiency."

Australia's NCI gets supercomputing systems from IBM for AI and analytics Civilization's Giant AI Battle Royale Died, Returns Way Better What the heck is machine learning, and why should I care? Stay up-to-date on the topics you care about. We'll send you an email alert whenever a news article matches your alert term. It's free, and you can add new alerts at any time.

A Russian company has launched a programme that can identify a stranger among 300 million Twitter users in less than a second. The social media platform has responded to the new software, called "FindFace", saying it its use is in "violation" of its rules and it is taking the matter "very seriously". Trump'obviously aware' Russia behind election hacks, White House says Syria's Assad says Donald Trump will be Russia's'natural ally' Trump'obviously aware' Russia behind election hacks, White House says Syria's Assad says Donald Trump will be Russia's'natural ally' "We see lots of opportunities for Twitter users on the service," Artem Kukharenko, co-founder of NTechLab told BuzzFeed. "We think this is something many people will use," he added, claiming the technology could be used to reduce spam profiles. "Not in the US, but in other countries there is a real problem of politicians, reporters, finding that someone created a fake account for them. "I was involved back in Russia with scandals with a fake account posing as a politicians that tweeted something and created political scandal." he said. Christopher Weatherhead, Technologist at Privacy International said: "The software created by NTechLab highlights the ease to which cross-referencing profiles photos is possible.

UNITED NATIONS – The "nightmare scenario" is rising for a hacking attack on a nuclear power plant's computer system that causes the uncontrolled release of radiation, the United Nations' deputy chief warned Thursday. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told a Security Council meeting that extremists and "vicious nonstate groups" are actively seeking weapons of mass destruction "and these weapons are increasingly accessible." Nonstate actors can already create mass disruption using cybertechnologies -- and hacking a nuclear plant would be a "nightmare scenario," he said. The open council meeting focused on ways to stop the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons by extremist groups and criminals. Members unanimously approved a resolution to strengthen the work of the council committee monitoring what countries are doing to prevent "nonstate actors" from acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction, known as WMDs.

SAN FRANCISCO – The dwarf planet Ceres, an enigmatic rocky body inhabiting the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is rich with ice just beneath its dark surface, scientists said on Thursday in research that may shed light on the early history of the solar system. The discovery, reported in a pair of studies published in the journals Science and Nature Astronomy, could bolster fledgling commercial endeavors to mine asteroids for water and other resources for robotic and eventual human expeditions beyond the moon. NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been orbiting Ceres, the largest of thousands of rocky bodies located in the main asteroid belt, since March 2015 following 14-month study of Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt. The studies show that Ceres is about 10 percent water, now frozen into ice, according to physicist Thomas Prettyman of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, one of the researchers. Examining the makeup of solar system objects like Ceres provides insight into how the solar system formed.

BERLIN – Eight years late and billions over budget, European officials flipped the switch Thursday on a satellite navigation system meant to rival the U.S.-made GPS service that's become a staple feature of smartphones and cars worldwide. The Galileo system, named after the Italian engineer and astronomer, is designed to provide commercial and government customers with more precise location data than GPS. Being able to pinpoint a position is critical to a growing range of products and systems, including real-time logistics, self-driving cars and drone delivery services. Satellite systems such as GPS also play an important role in providing precision timing for financial transactions and energy grids. The launch of the first 18 Galileo satellites was hit by delays and several failures.

Autonomous cars will begin travelling on CityLink and the Monash and Tullamarine freeways in Victoria, Australia next year. Beginning in March, the trial will monitor how the cars interact with real-life road conditions such as overhead lane signals, electronic speed signs, and line markings. The cars will also be trialled in semi-autonomous mode with drivers inside and capable of taking the steering wheel if needed to prevent accidents. Australian government to continue focus on digital delivery in 2017 Australian ISPs to block piracy sites from the pocket of content owners TPG outbids MyRepublic to snag Singapore's fourth telco license NBN equity to cost government cash balance AU$2.1b annually by 2027 NBN equity to cost government cash balance AU$2.1b annually by 2027 The trial is expected to take up to two years and will be managed by tolling company Transurban, CityLink's owner. It's also expected that road users will need to wait at least 10 years before they can own a driverless car given the technology being tested is in its infancy.

When I was a scrawny little chap, shortest in my high school class, I always wanted a super power. Wanted doesn't capture the feeling. I would have given a limb for a super power. I read a lot of books back then (and now) and landed on a super power that had something to do with the brain. I eventually landed on Prof. Xavier of the X-Men.

Directed graphs occur throughout statistical modeling of networks, and exchangeability is a natural assumption when the ordering of vertices does not matter. There is a deep structural theory for exchangeable undirected graphs, which extends to the directed case via measurable objects known as digraphons. Using digraphons, we first show how to construct models for exchangeable directed graphs, including special cases such as tournaments, linear orderings, directed acyclic graphs, and partial orderings. We then show how to construct priors on digraphons via the infinite relational digraphon model (di-IRM), a new Bayesian nonparametric block model for exchangeable directed graphs, and demonstrate inference on synthetic data.

Loom.ai is a software designed to transform 2D selfies into 3D avatars Machine learning calculates the details of a person's face And artificial intelligence fills in missing areas of the 2D image The more data it is fed, the better it is at predicting expressions and features Loom.ai is a software designed to transform 2D selfies into 3D avatars Machine learning calculates the details of a person's face Loom.ai Bizarre'Death Star' spotted over Japan: Alien hunters claim... What would REALLY happen if an asteroid struck the ocean:... Revealed: 'Natural thermostat' that cools the air in Earth's... Meet Cameron, the adorable four-year-old who has created 9... Bizarre'Death Star' spotted over Japan: Alien hunters claim... What would REALLY happen if an asteroid struck the ocean:... Revealed: 'Natural thermostat' that cools the air in Earth's... Meet Cameron, the adorable four-year-old who has created 9... The 3D avatar faces are complete with emotions that can be seen in their eyes mouth and the movement of their face. They can appear sad, happy (like Rihanna's avatar), interested or even angry - however, there is only a small set of emotions available at the moment. Users just have to upload a font facing image, such as this image of Elon Musk (left) of themselves or someone else to the Loom.ai