"Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the Information Revolution," he said. "I am thrilled to welcome them to the SoftBank family and look forward to supporting them as they continue to advance the field of robotics and explore applications that can help make life easier, safer and more fulfilling," Son said of Boston Dynamics.

The combination will generate immediate results for both Caruma and RoadBotics' customers in the fast-growing and emerging connected vehicle market. Caruma's artificial intelligence-based connected-vehicle platform will incorporate RoadBotics' algorithms, data collection engine, and the processing to deliver advanced information on road surfaces, features, object detection and analysis. "Our growing ecosystem of vision-based connected-vehicle integrations leverages the power of Caruma's open platform to drive innovation, and RoadBotics is a great example of that," said Chris Carson, Chief Executive Officer at Caruma Technologies, Inc. "We're excited to work with this outstanding team and truly believe that their inclusion into our ecosystem will be a significant step towards improving infrastructure management, traffic management, and roadway maintenance." RoadBotics, a computer vision company spun out of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute last year, utilizes an advanced cascade approach with multiple, specialized algorithms chained together to achieve a complex understanding of the world. The technology identifies, characterizes and assesses various real-world roadway conditions that gives roadway managers, vehicles, and others a variety of roadway and signage maintenance recommendations.

When Lois Seed wakes up in the morning, one of the first things she says is "Alexa, what is the weather?" Seed, who is 89 and has low vision because of macular degeneration, finds it convenient to get weather information by speaking to the Alexa voice-activated assistant on her Amazon Echo. She also asks her Echo to tell her the time and to play classical music from her former hometown radio station. "Life is more enjoyable [with Alexa]," she says, proving that the recent Saturday Night Live spoof about Alexa and seniors couldn't be further from the truth. Seed and about 50 other residents at the Carlsbad by the Sea retirement community near San Diego have been testing the personal-assistant technology inside their homes since late February.

Artificial intelligence can now judge your photos or at least give them a probability of whether or not it's an awesome photo. Just how good is that photo you just snapped? Everypixel Aesthetics thinks it may have the answer. The new neural network algorithm is designed to both auto tag and generate a probability that the photo is a good one. The tool comes from Everypixel, a startup that is looking to change the stock photography market by creating a search tool that browses multiple platforms at once, giving the little guy just as much exposure as the stock photo giants.

Hi, so I am coming from a background in linear algebra and traditional numerical gradient-based optimization, but excited by the advancements that have been made in deep learning. To get my feet wet a bit, I made a pretty simple NN model to do some non-linear regressions for me. I uploaded my jupyter notebookit as a gist here (renders properly on github), which is pretty short and to the point. It just fits the 1D function y (x - 5)2 / 25. I know that Theano and Tensorflow are, at their core, graph based derivative (gradient) passing frameworks.

Alexa is about to be even more useful when it comes to your entertainment needs. Simple voice commands already let you navigate apps like Netflix, but tools to incorporate those types of commands are now available to any TV company, streaming service and other content providers. Amazon just introduced its Video Skill API, which will allow developers to expand how Alexa lets users find content in their apps. With this tool, entertainment apps could let their customers find specific shows or movies, search genres or even change the channel with voice commands. As long as you have an Amazon Echo or other Alexa device, video apps taking advantage of the new function will be navigable by voice.

OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes is a new show from Cartoon Network. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from the USA Today newsroom and any business incentives. Cartoon Network has evolved into one of the most progressive and forward-thinking cartoon studios on the air today. With hit shows like "Adventure Time" and "Steven Universe" already pushing the envelope, it's no surprise that the studio is continuing to do everything it can to bring innovation to a decades-old industry.

'Trust me, I'm a robot': Officials, UN agencies, NGO's, industry leaders, and AI experts have met in Geneva to discuss ethical, societal and policy issues related to AI. Picture: AFP / Fabrice COFFRINI Sophia smiles mischievously, bats her eyelids and tells a joke. Without the mess of cables that make up the back of her head, you could almost mistake her for a human. The humanoid robot, created by Hanson robotics, is the main attraction at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva this week on how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit humanity. The event comes as concerns grow that rapid advances in such technologies could spin out of human control and become detrimental to society. "Sophia" is an artificially intelligent (AI) human-like robot developed by Hong Kong-based humanoid robotics company Hanson Robotics.

Despite being one of the biggest entertainment mediums on the planet, it's rare to see video games getting the mainstream recognition that they deserve. Now, it looks like that's beginning to change, as, for the first time in history, a video game trailer has been nominated for an Academy Award. The promotional video in question is for this year's intriguing philosophical world simulator, Everything. With its thought-provoking trailer running at almost 11 minutes long, the promo video highlights the interconnected nature of, well, everything. Overdubbed with a speech from renowned British philosopher, Alan Watts, the trailer uses in-game footage to show life in all its strange and wonderful forms.