As with so many new technologies, AI has struggled to contain the hype surrounding it in recent years, with stories of the upcoming job apocalypse abound. Understanding the true state of affairs has been muddied by the fact that seemingly venerable institutions such as the University of Oxford have been cheerleaders in chief in stoking up fears. A recent paper from PwC set out to examine not only how AI is being used today, but how both businesses and consumers feel about the technology. Whilst the rhetoric surrounding AI suggests it is the kind of violent change that is impossible to ignore, the authors suggest instead that it's likely to be a much subtler shift in technologies. The study revealed that most of the public is broadly supportive of the benefits AI can bring to their lives.

This one is on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Machine Learning is a key component of today's AI revolution. This focus of this podcast is to dive into a key area where startups have the edge- their products. The podcast features Jensen Harris, CTO and co-founder of the augmented writing platform Textio, and AJ Shankar, CEO and co-founder of the legal eDiscovery firm Everlaw. This overview covers a wide range of interrelated topics associated with machine learning and AI.

The ability to argue, to express our reasoning to others, is one of the defining features of what it is to be human. Processes of argumentation run our governments, structure scientific endeavour and frame religious belief. So should we worry that new advances in artificial intelligence are taking steps towards equipping computers with these skills? As technology reshapes our lives, we are all getting used to new ways of working and new ways of interacting. Millennials have known nothing else.

A humanoid robot that once said it wanted to destroy humans is now calling for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, the chief executive of the company behind it said Tuesday. The robot, called Sophia and developed by Hong Kong-based firm Hanson Robotics, was granted citizenship in the Middle Eastern nation last month. "Sophia is a big advocate for women's rights, for rights of all human beings," Hanson Robotics CEO David Hanson said. "She has been reaching out about women's rights in Saudi Arabia and about rights for all human beings and all living beings on this planet." Some people had criticized the Islamic kingdom for giving more rights to a machine than to women, who up until September were banned from driving a car.

Chatbots are the personal assistants of the future. Ask them a question, they'll tell you the answer. Need something ordering, they'll do it automatically. Want to take down a multinational corporation, they'll sue them for you. . . With products such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant now being welcomed into our homes, we're getting used to the convenience of robot helpers.

Background checks have become a staple of modern business, being performed, for example, before firms hire employees, before banks allow accounts to be opened, before investors give their money to businesspeople, and before people rent their resources to others through "sharing economy" type systems. For many years, the process of performing background checks has remained essentially the same, with humans performing analysis of data derived from multiple data sources, be they paper or electronic. Today, however, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the background check process - making it faster, more accurate, and more efficient. I recently asked Shlomo Mirvis, CEO of Intelligo, which specializes in background checks and professional due diligence utilizing AI and machine learning, how AI is transforming the background check industry. AI and machine learning enable performing background checks with much greater efficiency than was previously possible, and with much larger dataset coverage.

Despite being an important part of everyday dealings for most businesses and big-ticket purchases, negotiations and drafting of contracts can be tricky. Moreover, oversights can lead to unnecessary costs or loss of revenue in the long run, and can end up being a drain on company resources. Enter SpotDraft, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that uses advanced machine learning algorithms to automate drafting and negotiating of legal contracts. The Gurgaon-based startup, run by Draft Spotting Technologies Ltd, provides solutions to complex legal dealings, including drafting, managing and storing paperwork online, analysing contracts and automating invoices, besides sending reminders and offering expert advice on legal compliances. Launched by Harvard Law graduate Shashank Bijapur and former Google Classrooms tech lead Madhav Bhagat, SpotDraft not only makes life easy for users, but is also Goods and Services Tax-compliant.

It's been an incredible year for the'New Wave' of legal technology and Artificial Lawyer has hopefully been able to bring you some of the key moments in this evolutionary journey that is unfolding week by week all around the world. Now, as we head toward 2018, many of the leading players and commentators in the legal AI, legal bot and data analysis world have been asked to give their views on what has taken place and what will happen next. Plus, next year there will be predictions from the world of smart contracts and legal blockchain, (Hi, Clause, Integra Ledger and IBM's Cognitive Legal team, to name a few!) Artificial Lawyer asked an array of experts to name what was the biggest development for legal AI and the New Wave of legal technology this year, and what they expected to see happen in 2018. They were invited to respond with text or images to illustrate their views, and if they were up for it, a haiku or longer poem. Naturally, we couldn't fit everyone in – the legal tech world is just so massive now – but hopefully you'll find this collective wisdom both inspiring and thought-provoking – and fun – I know Artificial Lawyer did.

Juries and the processes they use to reach verdicts are parameterized, but a trial is nonetheless all about convincing those juries of something that is inexact and subjective at its core. In the US, this is "reasonable doubt." To find guilt, a judge and-or jury must determine beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty of an offense. In one courtroom, that reasonable doubt maybe be countered by overwhelming physical evidence, while, in another, it may be the testimony of an incentivized witness. What it comes down to in the end is 12 normal non-expert people--strangers--arguing in a room.

These curated articles will be a one stop solution for people who are getting started with Machine Learning or who already have. This article contains all the best articles of 2017 which gathered the interest of the Machine Learning community. Similar to the previous article on -"Best Deep Learning articles in 2017", I have added the used tool and the level of difficulty for each article to facilitate you with the choice. If you wish to include any other learning resource/article here, please mention them in the comments. A large amount of unstructured data present today is in the form of text, for example: Medical documents, legal agreements, tweets, blogs, newspapers, chat conversions etc.