Internet companies are readying for a showdown with telecoms and a Republican-controlled government over a policy near and dear to their hearts: net neutrality. Net neutrality basically prevents broadband providers from playing favourites or steering users toward (or away from) particular internet sites. Under rules enacted during the Obama administration, the likes of Comcast and Verizon -- which offer their own video services they'd very much like subscribers to use -- can't slow down Netflix, can't block YouTube, and can't charge Spotify extra to stream faster than Pandora. Broadband companies hate the net neutrality rules, and they have an ally in new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai, who has repeatedly called the regulations a mistake. Pai could launch the process of unwinding the rules as early as Wednesday, according to reports.

It turns out that in addition to making spooky trailers and writing quirky scripts, artificial intelligence is also pretty damn good at making awesome movie recommendations. Available for free, Movix is a web-based recommendation service that uses deep learning algorithms to adapt to your capricious film preferences and hit you with the most suitable movie suggestions in real-time. Gary Vaynerchuk was so impressed with TNW Conference 2016 he paused mid-talk to applaud us. What is particularly nifty about the AI-powered tool is that it requires no registration, allowing you to get started in a matter of seconds. All you need to do is feed the algorithm with your favorite titles and it will immediately begin spitballing tons of movie suggestions it deems you're likely to appreciate.

The European Union is launching talks with unions and employers to ensure that people's work and living conditions are protected as they turn to alternative jobs like self-driving taxis or fast food deliveries.

A new voice-transcription technology can tell you not only what's being said, but who is saying it. The software, named Trint, can listen to an audio recording or a video of two or more speakers engaged in a natural conversation, then provide a written transcript of what each person said. While news organizations have invested heavily in video content, the ability to optimize those clips for search engines remains elusive. Trint's technology is still nascent, but it could eventually give new life to vast swaths of non-text-based media on the internet, like videos and podcasts, by making them readable to both humans and search engines. People could read podcasts they lack the time or ability to listen to.

If a recent interaction between a human journalist and his Chinese robot counterpart is anything to go by, it'll be a while before a journalist job will be lost to (a robot in) China. On Monday (April 24), Jia Jia, a Chinese-manufactured robot under development for about three years (link in Chinese), had a conversation with AI expert Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of technology magazine Wired. State-run Xinhua news agency broadcast the chat live, billing Jia Jia as a special reporter. Jia Jia looks like a young woman in her early twenties, blinks and smiles in a fairly human way, moves her lips when she speaks, and has micro-expressions. But she had a hard time responding naturally to many of the questions posed by Kelly, sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to answer.

If a recent interaction between a human journalist and his Chinese robot counterpart is anything to go by, it'll be a while before a journalist job will be lost to (a robot in) China. On Monday (April 24), Jia Jia, a Chinese-manufactured robot under development for about three years (link in Chinese), had a conversation with AI expert Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of technology magazine Wired. State-run Xinhua news agency broadcast the chat live, billing Jia Jia as a special reporter. Jia Jia looks like a young woman in her early twenties, blinks and smiles in a fairly human way, moves her lips when she speaks, and has micro-expressions. But she had a hard time responding naturally to many of the questions posed by Kelly, sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to answer.

The phrase'hype cycle' could have been invented for the mobile marketing industry. Typically, a new tech's day in the sun lasts anything from six – 12 months, before the next big thing comes along. Think about Native, Wearables, Programmatic, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. All came, all are still very much around, but each has been superseded by the next. And if VR was last year's big thing, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is this year's, infiltrating an increasing number of aspects of our daily lives.

In the late 19th century, the Industrial Revolution introduced complicated farm machinery that changed the way farmers planted, cultivated and harvested their crops. These machines meant fewer farm hands were needed, but it created jobs for people to build and repair farm equipment. The improved benefits of utilizing farm machinery impacted the quality of life, it produced food faster, and it created jobs and a new life for farmers. Machine learning is today's Industrial Revolution. TV shows and movies currently portray machine learning as this creepy, self-aware, futuristic technology that takes over humans' jobs, but these examples do not properly show the real advancements of these cognitive systems.

The "Queen of Clean" comedy Chonda Pierce was under fire earlier this year when she agreed to perform at President Donald Trump's inauguration. The comedian is sticking to her decision adding she has found it difficult lately to trust the media's reporting on his presidency. She also spoke to Fox News about her upcoming film "Enough," where she tackles topics like delving into the world of online dating after losing her husband in 2014. Fox News: You received a lot of backlash over performing at President Trump's inauguration. Looking back, would you do it again?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is making changes to its search algorithm to promote more authoritative content and demote "low quality" content such as Holocaust denials. The Internet giant is responding to growing pressure to make sure the top answers it provides to people's search queries are accurate and do not contribute to the spread of misinformation, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and offensive content on the Web. People searching Google will be able to more easily flag search results that are "unexpected, inaccurate or offensive," says Ben Gomes, vice president of engineering for Google Search. And search quality raters have received new guidance on how to spot and report this content, too. Features designed to get people answers more quickly and on more platforms such as smart speaker Google Home are contributing to the problem.