This image provided by Google shows on a mobile device a summary box detailing state voting laws at the top of the search results whenever a request indicates a user is looking for the information. Google begins the how to vote feature in Google Search on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016, pulling another lever on its influential search engine in an effort to boost voter turnout in November's U.S. presidential election.

SLOUGH, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global business outsourcing provider Arvato has entered a strategic partnership with Blue Prism to offer Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to help councils deliver back-office transformation. The partnership will see Arvato use the cutting-edge automation software to provide local authorities with an end-to-end solution of identifying, designing, building and monitoring automated processes, providing RPA-as-a-service and consultancy and training. Arvato will use the innovative technology to help current and future clients in local government automate transactional back office functions, such as revenues and benefits, HR, payroll and finance, increasing process speed and efficiency while freeing up employees to deliver front-line services. RPA uses software to create an agile, virtual workforce which mimics human processing of repetitive labour-intensive tasks. It follows rule-based business processes and interacts with systems in the same way that people do.

An anonymous reader writes: MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) says that while many'analyst-driven solutions' rely on rules created by human experts and therefore may miss attacks which do not match established patterns, a new artificial intelligence platform changes the rules of the game. The platform, dubbed AI Squared (AI2), is able to detect 85 percent of attacks -- roughly three times better than current benchmarks -- and also reduces the number of false positives by a factor of five, according to MIT. The latter is important as when anomaly detection triggers false positives, this can lead to lessened trust in protective systems and also wastes the time of IT experts which need to investigate the matter. AI2 was tested using 3.6 billion log lines generated by over 20 million users in a period of three months. The AI trawled through this information and used machine learning to cluster data together to find suspicious activity.

The field of artificial intelligence is so huge, and the potential applications so numerous, that it would be folly to try to explain it all in one -- no, wait, IBM just did. In June, the White House published a formal request for information, or RFI, about the possibilities and risks of AI. "The views of the American people, including stakeholders such as consumers, academic and industry researchers, private companies, and charitable foundations, are important to inform an understanding of current and future needs for AI in diverse fields," the summary read. IBM took the suggestion and ran with it. Each topic is given a solid enough explanation that after reading through the whole thing, you'll more than likely be the best-informed person in the room on it. We believe that many of the ambiguities and inefficiencies of the critical systems that facilitate life on this planet can be eliminated.

The concept of artificial intelligence, or AI, has existed for centuries, even if the phrase itself wasn't coined until 1956. The idea that humans could create something capable of thought processes similar to, or even superior to, their own, existed with the ancient Greeks and has extended through the millennia. The concept ramped up significantly in the 1950s, though computer memory and construction limitations prevented significant breakthroughs from occurring. Science fiction novels and films began foreseeing an ominous future, and recently, AI applications have started infiltrating our world. More recent years have seen some interest spikes: Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997, and IBM's Watson destroyed its human competition in Jeopardy! in 2011.

Before elaborating on the proposals the agency will accept, you need to know that the mission has two stages. First is the robotic stage slated for launch in 2021 that will send an unmanned vehicle to drag an asteroid to cislunar space. For the second phase scheduled for 2028, NASA plans to send a crew aboard an Orion spacecraft to the captured asteroid to retrieve samples. Starting in September, the agency will accept proposals for partner-provided payloads, such as scientific instruments, aboard the robotic flight. It will also accept membership applications for an investigation team who will lend their technical expertise to the project for the next three to five years. Finally, NASA will look at proposals from companies seeking to take part in the crewed phase of the mission and from those seeking access to the asteroid after its astronauts are done examining it.

Based on the disturbing number of successful data breaches over the past few years, it's pretty evident that organizations are being overwhelmed by the growing number of threats.

Booz Allen Hamilton and Conversable are teaming up to tackle what could be government's next big move to improve customer service -- chatbots. Booz Allen announced Monday that the two companies have a "joint strategic focus to advance, test and deliver world-class automated interactive messaging, tools, services and experiences that fundamentally enhance and transform customer care in all channels." "The federal government is uniquely positioned and motivated to seize the opportunity and deliver on the promise for self-service," Michael Isman, vice president in Booz Allen's Strategic Innovation Group, told FedScoop. The companies plan to leverage advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to advance the capabilities of chatbots -- automated software programs developed to converse with people, usually via messaging. "The idea is -- we believe that the gains [in artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated next-gen analytics, crowdsourcing] can be most readily realized through the deployment of chatbots," Isman said, "to improve client, customer and stakeholder access, listening, responsiveness, [and] service delivery."

Imagine the difference between a buffalo stampede and a cheeseburger. Both are tasty sources of protein. The difference lies in their requisite culinary tools. Predictive Analytics (PA) is the buffalo stampede of quantitative research: data is big, fast, and shaggy. Interactive Analytics (IA) is a cheeseburger: structured, convenient, and easy to grill.

Nick Triantos spent the past year trying to commercialize the technology being developed at SRI International, the Stanford research offshoot that helped invent the Internet and Siri, among other things. Now he has joined Ignition Partners at its new office in Los Altos, where he says he will be able to help create companies from a broader range of innovation. Triantos said his focus will be on business-focused startups, particularly ones working in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and augmented and virtual reality. But he doesn't expect that will include startups in the currently hot space of chatbots, despite his background with voice recognition and machine learning at SRI. The following Q&A about these and other topics has been edited for length and clarity. What was your role at SRI and why are you leaving there? Unfortunately, not many people know about SRI.