WIRE)--Jul 30, 2018--MapR Technologies, Inc., provider of the industry's leading data platform for AI and Analytics, today announced a new, free introductory course from MapR Academy on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). This on-demand course provides insights into how businesses can leverage AI and ML to improve operations through real-world use cases. This course is ideal for developers just starting out in ML, as well as higher-level business decision makers. "Machine learning, a trending topic in big data, is not fully understood. This course provides a foundation for anyone curious about ML/AI and how it works in practical applications," said Suzanne Ferry, vice president, global training and enablement, MapR.

Josh Sullivan, the senior vice president at government consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, told The Washington Post that the AI systems would do basic surveillance, object identification and other mundane activities while allowing soldiers and officers to perform higher-level tasks. "Part of this is (about) making sure our government has the access to the best technology and using it responsibly in service of our citizens and warfighters," Sullivan said as quoted by the media outlet. READ MORE: US Congress Sees Russia as'Competitor', Aims to Prolong Ban on Military Ties Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important technology in warfare and national security across the world. In particular, China is reportedly developing unmanned AI submarines expected to be put into service in strategic waters in the early 2020s, while Russia is actively funding research of drones and robotics technologies.

Companies are using AI in all kinds of innovative ways to advance their businesses. If you've ever searched Netflix to watch a movie, AI (a recommendation algorithm) was no doubt used in your decision about what to watch. If you've shopped on Amazon, your decision about what to buy was also influenced by AI (via an association algorithm). If you've ever ordered an Uber, AI (a location algorithm) was used to have a car in your vicinity quickly. If you ever had a thought about a product or a vacation, and it seemed to suddenly pop up on your search page or in your email inbox, I can assure you it was based on AI (a classification algorithm) monitoring your online activity.

Accurate on-device keyword spotting (KWS) with low false accept and false reject rate is crucial to customer experience for far-field voice control of conversational agents. It is particularly challenging to maintain low false reject rate in real world conditions where there is (a) ambient noise from external sources such as TV, household appliances, or other speech that is not directed at the device (b) imperfect cancellation of the audio playback from the device, resulting in residual echo, after being processed by the Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) system. In this paper, we propose a data augmentation strategy to improve keyword spotting performance under these challenging conditions. The training set audio is artificially corrupted by mixing in music and TV/movie audio, at different signal to interference ratios. Our results show that we get around 30-45% relative reduction in false reject rates, at a range of false alarm rates, under audio playback from such devices.

How is artificial intelligence changing the business intelligence landscape?

From the moment you step into the offices of Babylon Health in London's swanky South Kensington, you feel like you're in the future. Only it's a future that smells remarkably like the past. I'm reminded of the first open plan space I ever saw at a London newspaper -- only Babylon's is lined with plastic plants that crawl from the desks to the ceiling -- and I kind of preferred that grey honesty of old. There's a huge heart on the front glass door, but very little heart in the waiting area, where they have done away with receptionists and you're asked instead to sign in via a tablet. Around you, adults in suits perch and slouch on colorful cubes that would fit quite well in the kids' play area at your local general practitioner's.

There is an unprecedented wave of speculation and investment in Artificial intelligence (AI) sweeping the industry with ideas like machine learning (ML) appearing as a magic wand of business innovation. Beneath the seemingly boundless hype of AI, however, there is something quite simple at play -- the idea of finding ways to perform well-understood, common tasks more efficiently, according to leading data and analytics company GlobalData. An analysis of GlobalData's Disruptor Tech Database reveals that enterprise AI practitioners are primarily seeing very pointed benefits within problems that directly impact the bottom line. For instance, one of the compelling areas where businesses have been using AI is generating leads. Harley-Davidson in New York chose AI to automatically craft the most appropriate digital marketing and advertising campaign on a customer-by-customer basis.

An intelligent computer has tried its hand at writing Taylor Swift's next chart-topper – and it sounds like it could have come from the global superstar herself. The AI was taught to churn out lyrics in the style of the'Bad Blood' singer to test the software's capacity to learn patterns in data. Researchers stitched the machine's best lines into a full song, but concluded that they should'leave the songwriting to Taylor Swift herself'. Can you guess which of the lyrics below was written by an AI? An intelligent machine has had a go at writing Taylor Swift's next chart-topper.

It has not been a good week for MoviePass. And it's been a similarly tough one for its customers. The cinema ticket subscription service – which allows film fans to see a movie each day for a low subscription fee – has been hit by a whole raft of problems. Some have worried that MoviePass might soon not be around at all. And whatever happens to the company, the issues have started to hit. Users have had to struggle through the service going offline, and recent reports suggest that many films may soon be excluded from MoviePass in the future.