The debate between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk on the misunderstandings of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought to the forefront concerns and dangers of a robot takeover. Often misrepresented and misunderstood, AI continues to serve as a source of significant intrigue. It has long been lauded as the future of work, but according to notable Hollywood movies, is also a harbinger of a robot takeover. Futuristic movies, like I, Robot, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, portray AI as the precursor to a robot revolution wherein a seemingly innocuous utilization of the tool devolves into dystopia. And in many cases, despite being an effective money making tool, it is a mischaracterization of AI. Still, it is believable because of the lack of public fluency on the issue.

In June, Google told stock photography website Shutterstock that its researchers had found a weakness that could destroy the site's entire business. Google's researchers had built an AI-powered tool that could easily remove the watermarks Shutterstock uses to protect all of its images across the site. If a company less "not evil" had done so, it could theoretically clone and steal Shutterstock's entire database of images. Google's exploit, which it later posted on its research blog, analyzed hundreds of pictures with consistent watermarks, like Shutterstock's. Once the algorithm learned to look at a photo and decide which pixel was a watermark and which wasn't, it could just remove all the watermark pixels.

HONG KONG: It's 2050 and the world revolves around you. From the contents of your fridge to room temperature - digital assistants ensure your home runs smoothly. Your screens know your taste and show channels you want to see as you enter the room. Your car is driverless and your favourite barman may just be an android. Predictions for an AI-dominated future are increasingly common, but Antoine Blondeau has experience in reading, and arguably manipulating, the runes - he helped develop technology that evolved into predictive texting and Apple's Siri.

If you're a folk rock fan like me, you might be surprised when a music-streaming service suggests songs for you in other genres, such as country or reggae--and you actually enjoy them. Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, and similar services are taking subtle cues from your listening habits, not only to recommend new artists but also to create personalized playlists for you with tracks you've likely never heard before. To understand the technology making that possible, The Institute spoke with IEEE Member Josh Perline, a software engineer at Pandora. Perline is responsible for content personalization, which involves using data analytics and machine learning to automate the creation of suggested playlists. As one of the first music-streaming services on the market, Pandora has some 17 years of data to work with.

Google will unveil a new Pixel Chromebook as well as a miniature version of Google Home at its upcoming hardware event, according to a source. If true, that would make the new laptop the fist Pixel-branded computer since 2015 and would mean the new Pixel 2 phone wouldn't be the only big release of the event. The firm is also reportedly getting ready to launch smart headphones with direct access to Google Assistant, although it is not clear if it will be revealed alongside the other new devices. It is believed Google is also getting ready to announce smart headphones that will give users direct access to Google Assistant, similar to the futuristic technology in the film Her. The Google product is codenamed Bistro.

Netflix Inc. wants subscribers to know it's looking out for them. For instance, the average Netflix subscriber might not guess that its dark superhero drama "Jessica Jones" might strike similar chords as the zany hijinks of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Netflix is happy to help you make the connection. Much of the attention showered on the streaming-video giant in recent years has focused on its appetite for original content and for creators to produce it. "We want to appeal to as many different people as possible, and appeal to the many moods that each person has," said Netflix's vice president of product innovation, Todd Yellin.

There have been many kinds of books, with many kinds of meanings. This one book was special because it was the first fictional story produced via artificial intelligence. It was the first book in the sense that its contents made sense. Before this book, all other attempts of letting an AI write a book had produced things that were pastiches of randomness. A couples of sentences here and there surrounded by text that made no sense.

Artificial intelligence is crossing new barriers every day -- while some tech companies are working on giving it imagination, others are working on making it capable of even more complex tasks -- for instance, judging short stories. A new study by Disney's research team and researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Boston has attempted to create artificial intelligence which will be able to understand and evaluate short stories. "Our neural networks had some success in predicting the popularity of stories. You can't yet use them to pick out winners for your local writing competition, but they can be used to guide future research," stated Boyang Li, a research scientist at Disney Research. The target of the research is to create an AI-based automated evaluation of content, although it does not have a reference point of large human evaluated story databases since not many exist.

Last week, when asking for a cup of yogurt, my three-year-old son called me Alexa. It's a funny, modern problem to have your child mistake you for a disembodied A.I. voice--in this case, the one powering Amazon's Echo family of devices. But it's also a good example of what it's like living in a home powered by a smart speaker. Too busy to lift a remote, we bark commands into the void expecting something to respond. Using a voice assistant to run your home feels beamed-in-from-Star Trek cool, making mundane actions magical.

Remember, in many cases, the application of your AI and deep learning will be to improve the customer's banking experience, provide proactive …