The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S., August 7, 2017. BEIJING (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc's Google said on Wednesday it is opening an artificial intelligence (AI) research center in China to target the country's local talent, even as the …

Google's search engine is blocked in China, but the company still has hundreds of staff in China which work on its international services. In reference to that workforce, Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt has said the company "never left" China, and it makes sense that Google wouldn't want to ignore …

When I'm walking down the street and something poetic happens--sunlight piercing rainclouds, golden leaves dancing in an autumn wind--I just go "ehh." But human emotion is quantifiable, meaning it can be taught to computers. A collaboration between MIT's Lab for Social Machines and McKinsey's Consumer Tech and Media team want to use film to quantify and "teach" emotions to computers in order to create AI that can tell emotional stories. How do you teach emotions to AI? Make them watch movies. MIT's machine learning model reviewed "thousands" of movies and eventually became able to track and label emotional arcs--not story beats exactly, but the shifts from happy to sad a viewer might feel as they watch the movie.

A Chinese tech firm has developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that can connect to millions of surveillance cameras in the country and instantly identify the people on screen. Yitu Technology's Dragonfly Eye has a collection of 1.8 billion photos on file through the communist government's central database, which it can access. It may also have access to photos of anyone with a Hong Kong identity card, as well as images of foreign visitors who are photographed at ports and airports. The program is meant to quickly identify and track down "criminals," which has become a little more loosely defined since Xi Jinping came to power. However, Yitu officials claim the AI has been highly successful in identifying people.

A new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is capable of manufacturing simulated video imagery that is indiscernible from reality, say researchers at Nvidia, a California-based tech company. AI developers at the company have released details of a new project that allows its AI to generate fake videos using only minimal raw input data. The technology can render a flawlessly realistic sequence showing what a sunny street looks like when it's raining, for example, as well as what a cat or dog looks like as a different breed or even a person's face with a different facial expression. And this is video -- not photo. For their work, researchers tweaked a familiar algorithm, known as a generative adversarial network (GAN), to allow their AI to create fresh visual data.

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"They own the FBI" is the message Mr. Robot leaves Elliot on the mirror which kickstarts Elliot's journey in this episode. After last week's guilt tripped journey with Trenton's brother culminating in Elliot finding meaning again in his life, Elliot finds some information read by Mr. Robot the night before: Trenton's e-mail and Tyrell's surprising release from the FBI. Meeting at the old F-Society arcade, Elliot and Darlene discuss the details of Trenton's e-mail, which was sent to Elliot after she and Mobley were murdered by the Dark Army. It details a way of undoing 5/9, discovering that Leslie Romero, the older hacker from seasons 1-2 that was killed by a'stray bullet', had exported the encryption keys used in the 5/9 hack as a safety precaution. But all his files were now stored in the FBI Sentinel network system after his death.

A remarkable new type of prosthetic inspired by Luke Skywalker's bionic hand has allowed an amputee musician to play piano once again. Jason Barnes, who lost part of his right arm in a work accident five years ago, has been fitted with a prosthetic arm designed by Georgia Tech researchers to give the wearer individual control of each finger. Distinguishing it from other prosthetics on the market, the new device is powered by ultrasound signals to detect what movements a person wants to carry out. Most high-tech prosthetics – including Barnes' everyday prosthesis – are controlled by electromyogram (EMG) sensors, the researchers explain. While these allow for certain movements, they have some limitations.

Tech, software development and Data Science is currently thriving in Dublin. To meet the demands of that crowd, PyConIE, Ireland's largest indigenous software development conference, was run late October from the Radisson Blue hotel, Dublin. With speakers and attendees flying in from all over the world, the PyConIE conference got to see some big names and share that knowledge. PyConIE has been running in Dublin for eight years now, and 2017 was the biggest year yet, with over 40 speakers, nearly 400 attendees, two tracks and two workshops covering everything from Data Science to developing in Python, to tools and even to tech culture. Speakers were represented from around the world, and from Ireland's tech scene – where there were speakers from the Dublin tech scene, and even winners from the DatSci awards.

Whether it is lead generation, lead nurturing, social media listening or even any other business process, AI and machine learning can revolutionize them to bring about never before advantages.