Machine Learning and AI are fast becoming ubiquitous in data driven businesses, that is to say, an awful lot of businesses. Here I choose a few areas where it's possible that big corporations haven't already eaten everybody's lunch. It's not uncharted territory -- if I could think of the next killer application, I'd be trying to do it! So-called after the California Gold Rush where the purveyors of picks and shovels made a killing (whereas the outcome for prospectors was mixed), the picks and shovels of machine intelligence are hardware, data feeds,and (arguably) the algorithms themselves. But these processors were designed for graphics.

On June 6, 2016, Riverside County District Attorney, Michael Hestrin, announced that seven people were indicted for insurance fraud and conspiracy for one of the largest workers' compensation (healthcare) fraud investigations in the County. In two separate but related grand jury indictments, a result of a joint investigation by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office and the California Department of Insurance, 98 million was fraudulently billed, resulting in 12.4 million being paid by 18 insurance companies allegedly defrauded in this scheme. But that was no easy feat until smartC was introduced as one of the tools to help the prosecution. Once the data was accessible, the software was able to quickly analyze the content and ultimately help the district attorney file charges against those individuals who filed false workers compensation claims. Working closely with Infinilytics, a team of claims professionals, data scientists, and law enforcement professionals with a background in insurance investigations and special investigation unit (SIU) protocols, the DA successfully won their case after evidence was presented to the grand jury over a six-week period.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky opens the company's Open Air tech conference by addressing the recent racist incidents that have plagued the site. SAN FRANCISCO - Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky opened the company's Open Air technical conference Wednesday by addressing recent racist incidents that have taken place on the 25-billion company's home sharing site. Beyond expressing outrage at the incidents that have impacted African-Americans and transgender guests, Chesky said the company plans to pursue technological innovations to guard against future discriminatory events. He did not get specific about what they would be. "There's been a lot of news about prejudice and bias on our platform, and this is a huge issue for us," said Chesky in a brief statement before handing the microphone to vice president of engineering Mike Curtis.

The newest weapon in the fight against wildlife poaching and illegal logging doesn't rely solely on boots or bullets, but on a computer software application driven by artificial intelligence. Called Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security, or PAWS, the app uses algorithms – similar to the mathematical models used to power computer games – to devise strategies for defeating those who seek to destroy nature. Thousands of animals are illegally slaughtered each year for their ivory, skin and bones for use in traditional medicines and feeding black market demand, while others meet their death at the hands of illicit trophy hunters, in what the World Wildlife Fund refers to as "a global poaching crisis." Last year alone, around 30,000 elephants and a record 1,338 rhinos were killed in Africa, while tens of thousands of other animals were poached and trafficked, "feeding an illegal wildlife trade that is increasingly being driven by international organized crime," the international conservation group said in a recent statement. Developed in 2013 and still in the test phase, the PAWS software analyzes data on terrain, topography, routes most frequently used by animals and paths traveled by poachers, said Milind Tambe, a computer scientist and professor of industrial systems engineering at USC who developed the technology with his doctoral students, including Fei Fang and Thanh Nguyen.

The Financial Times is reporting that Adidas is going to bring back production to its native Germany for the first time in 30 years. It's spent the last six months testing a robotic factory with automated production lines creating soles and uppers separately before stitching them together. Spurred on by the results, the company is working on a large facility near Ansbach which will begin making sneakers for sale at some point next year. Another facility will be built in the US, although both are expected to produce just a tiny fraction of the 301 million pairs the firm made last year. The paper explains that a robot production line takes about five hours to create each pair of sneakers from scratch. By comparison, it apparently takes "several weeks" to do the same job in an Asian factory with human workers.

Artificial intelligence might soon become a standard part of criminal justice proceedings. If used carefully, the technology might make fairer decisions about the length of prison sentences, determine which police officers to deploy and could also churn through body-worn camera footage, a senior White House adviser said Tuesday. Lynn Overmann, senior adviser within the Office of Science and Technology and co-leader of the White House Police Data Initiative, described the potential role of, and challenges associated with, artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system. She spoke at the second of four workshops co-hosted by the White House about the technology's ability to help the public and the government. The 2.2 million people incarcerated today overrepresent minorities, those with mental health issues and those with substance abuse problems, Overmann said. Data analytics and artificial intelligence could help reduce biases in the criminal justice system, but only if they account for biases in the data they incorporate.

You submitted your questions about artificial intelligence and robotics, and we put them – and some of our own – to The Conversation's experts. It is 100% plausible that we'll have human-like artificial intelligence. I say this even though the human brain is the most complex system in the universe that we know of. But there are also no physical laws we know of that would prevent us reproducing or exceeding its capabilities. Popular AI from Issac Asimov to Steven Spielberg is plausible. What the question doesn't address is: when will it be plausible? Most AI researchers (including me) see little or no evidence of it coming anytime soon. Progress on the major AI challenges is slow, if real.

There's no really delicate way to say this, so I'm just going to do it: The vast majority of people have no idea what they're talking about when they talk about drone law. I've noticed this in comment threads on Facebook, on Twitter, on comment threads on Reddit, in bar conversations, etc. If you've engaged in one of these misinformed debates, though, I forgive you: It's not your fault. If you're looking for a simple answer to the question posed in the headline, I'm sorry, I can't give you one. But what I can give you is an exhaustive guide to drone law in the United States. In order to have any idea what's legal to do with a drone and what's not legal to do with a drone, it's necessary to have paid close attention to the FAA's actions over the last three years or so. Some conversations with actual lawyers help, as well.

Apple AAPL 0.41 % introduced a piece of technology recently that will likely never be used by any consumer. Instead, it kind of cleans up after them: a robot that breaks down iPhones for recycling. The arrival of Liam--a 29-armed robot capable of taking apart 1.2 million iPhones a year--speaks to a big challenge facing tech manufacturers today. Even as they strive to entice consumers to ditch their existing devices for the next new thing, companies must figure out what to do with the growing numbers of devices that are destined for the scrapheap as a result. "We think as much now about the recycling and end of life of products as the design of products itself," says Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives.

And if you must also know, my firm is also contemplating hiring one of such robots too, just that we won't be naming it Ross,but Kunle. Anyway it's still a rumour .But for goodness sake, organisations don't get people employed because they want to reduce unemployment, they get people employed because they need to get some work done. That's their concern, and so it really doesn't matter to them whether it's a real or artificial person that gets the job done. All they want is for the job to be done. And if a robot can do the job more than a human, heck, they would be hiring the damn robot without batting an eye.