A machine learning system turns poetry into song by composing a pop music score to suit the lyrics it's given. "I was studying singing while I was doing my PhD in computer science," says Margareta Ackerman at San Jose State University in California, who developed the system with David Loker at technology advisory firm Orbitwerks. "Over time, I started to think of computers as creative partners instead of tools, which could maybe help me write songs." The system, called ALYSIA, processes short lines of text and associates each syllable with a musical note. It chooses the pairing based on features including the syllable's position in the word and how it will fit with the previous five notes.

During SXSW 2015, many Tinder users matched with a woman they assumed was real. They had conversations her, which seemed to flow naturally. But she was a chatbot, promoting the Alex Garland film Ex Machina. Some who fell for it called it deceptive, but it also opened up what movie promotion could be, and how deeply bots could engage with fans. Chatbots have already infiltrated social media, shopping, small business, advertising, music festivals, and Werner Herzog.

Most media companies increasingly rely on data to inform their decision making processes on both strategic and tactical levels. Yet with the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence the amount of data companies can potentially harvest is set to rocket. So what data should they be focusing on, and how should they use it to make judgements about the content they produce? Steffen Konrath is the CEO of Liquid Newsroom, a company that uses technology to power its data-driven approach to content marketing, which it claims helps companies grow their B2B prospect and client list. Here Steffen, who will be speaking at DIS 2017 on'why listening is so important to creating content strategies,' offers insight into how data will shape the future of publishing. He explains why he thinks that the value of data is higher than the value of content, why technology will change the way publishers approach real time events and what role journalists will have in media offices powered by Artificial Intelligence. Digital Innovators' Summit 2017 takes place from 19-21 March (main Summit on 20 and 21 March) in Berlin, Germany.

John McCarthy once made a telling complaint that still applies to how people have perceived -- or, rather, failed to perceive -- the arrival of artificial intelligence in their lives: "As soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore." He was more than qualified to carp about the fact, having won the Turing Award and being one of the founding fathers of AI. He even gets credited with coining the very term artificial intelligence back in 1956. Here's how what John McCarthy said relates to what's going on today: Innovations like AI often sneak in on us, gradually merging into the workaday and commonplace. They do it without any of the abrupt upheavals or manic melodramatics we've been conditioned to expect of AI by TV, the movies and (bad) science fiction.

Apple's personal assistant Siri is more of a glorified voice recognition feature of your iPhone than a deep conversation partner. A personal assistant that could truly understand human conversations and written texts might actually represent an artificial intelligence capable of matching or exceeding human intelligence. The Canadian startup Maluuba hopes to help the tech industry achieve such a breakthrough by training AI to become better at understanding languages. The key, according Maluuba's leaders, is building a better way to train AIs. Like humans, AI can only get better at understanding languages by practicing.

Arrival Amy Adams stars in this elegant, involving science fiction drama that is simultaneously old and new, revisiting many alien invasion conventions but with unexpected intelligence, visual style and heart. Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened This superb documentary directed by Lonny Price covers a rich swath of emotional and creative ground as it tracks the unexpected failure of theater gods Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince's hugely anticipated 1981 Broadway collaboration "Merrily We Roll Along." The Eagle Huntress A portrait of a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia who defies eons of tradition by learning to hunt with fierce golden eagles is a documentary so satisfying it makes you feel good about feeling good. The Edge of Seventeen Hailee Steinfeld gives a superb performance as a high-school misfit in Kelly Fremon Craig's disarmingly smart teen dramedy, the rare coming-of-age picture that feels less like a retread than a renewal. Elle Paul Verhoeven's brilliantly booby-trapped new thriller starring Isabelle Huppert is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners.

Alberto Arvelo is used to hiring composers to set music to his films. The Venezuelan director's most recent feature, "Libertador," employed none other than Gustavo Dudamel -- in his debut film score -- for that task. The roles were reversed, however, on Arvelo's new assignment: setting film to Dudamel-led concerts of Joseph Haydn's epic oratorio, "The Creation." "It's exactly what should happen with a good music in film," Arvelo said. "Good music is something that you can feel, that can create something that's not there. Basically, if music is there, it's because we have to add something to that moment, to provoke this combustion in some way. This is more or less the same concept, but exactly in a reverse way."

What Is The Difference Between Deep Learning, Machine Learning and AI? Over the past few years, the term "deep learning" has firmly worked its way into business language when the conversation is about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data and analytics. And with good reason – it is an approach to AI which is showing great promise when it comes to developing the autonomous, self-teaching systems which are revolutionizing many industries. Deep Learning is used by Google in its voice and image recognition algorithms, by Netflix and Amazon to decide what you want to watch or buy next, and by researchers at MIT to predict the future. The ever-growing industry which has established itself to sell these tools is always keen to talk about how revolutionary this all is.

Did this man invent virtual reality glasses in 1963? 'Father of science fiction' Hugo Gernsback dreamt up 3D TV specs nearly 50 YEARS ago The inventor produced a mockup of the'teleyeglasses' back in 1968 The TV glasses included a screen for each eye and displayed tiny images Unfortunately the distinctive invention never actually went into production But it gives an early hint at how long ago VR headsets were beginning to evolve The inventor produced a mockup of the'teleyeglasses' back in 1968 As well as a publisher and entrepreneur, Hugo Gernsback was also an inventor and dreamt up the'teleyeglasses' in 1968. Sometimes referred to as'The Father of Science Fiction', he was also instrumental in the early history of sci-fi. The bizarre goggles feature a dial and buttons on the front, along with a TV-style v-shaped antenna on top. Humans may temporarily FORGET how to steer properly when... M*A*S*H, meet the future: Self-flying air ambulance that... T-Mobile'reinvents the phone number' with Digits service... Avatar breakthrough as AI that can create a perfect 3D face... Humans may temporarily FORGET how to steer properly when... M*A*S*H, meet the future: Self-flying air ambulance that... T-Mobile'reinvents the phone number' with Digits service... Avatar breakthrough as AI that can create a perfect 3D face...

The gorgeously handcrafted stop-motion film seems to embark on that familiar hero's journey, only to find its own way home. "As we structured the thing, we were definitely well aware of the ground we were treading on, the formulas, the templates, the classics of the genre," says "Kubo" director and Laika Entertainment chief Travis Knight. "But while'Kubo' is in that tradition, it takes a different path when it gets to the end." The film looks different as well, with its character models and environments inspired by Japanese folklore. It's not a sequel, it's not based on specific myths or books; it just feels like it is rooted deeply somewhere.