In mining terms, banks sit on the Mother Lode of data, with multiple kinds of "ore" to be refined. For example, there are the huge amounts of raw data in the background of customer relationships with their banks--account balances and history and more. But there are also behavioral and transactional data that define customers. For example, when and where you use Uber, and how often, can tell multiple stories. The trick is sifting out the nuggets from the noise, according to Eran Livneh, vice-president, marketing, for Personetics.

Leading stock photo company Shutterstock unveiled a new deep learning-based tool that lets users search photos by their composition. "Built on our next generation visual similarity model, this tool helps you find the exact image you need by placing keywords on a canvas and moving them around where you want subject matter to appear in the image," mentioned Kevin Lester, VP of Engineering at Shutterstock in a related blog. "The patent-pending spatially aware technology will find strong matches based not only on your search terms, but also on the placement of your search terms." Using TITAN X GPUs and the cuDNN-accelerated Torch deep learning framework, the researchers trained their visual model on their own internal image dataset and the language model to match a textual query to the embedding of a corresponding image. Once trained, they leverage Tesla GPUs on the Amazon cloud to give users total control over the image composition on any project – such as being able to use search terms like "wine" and "cheese" and being able to drag it around so photos of "wine" are on the left and "cheese" on the right.

While much of the artificial intelligence focus has been on Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL),Tesla (TSLA), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (GOOG), there is another firm in the field making money hand over fist. That would be Netflix (NFLX), which just announced earnings up a mind blowing 64% YOY, sending the shares soaring. The company added a staggering 5.3 million paid subscribers in Q3, largely driven by international sales. Traders went gaga over the numbers. Indeed, the firm tracks every keystroke you make.

You can already use a Google Home speaker to control regular YouTube videos if you have a Chromecast device, but what about YouTube TV? You're set from now on. Google has enabled voice control over its cord-cutting television service from Home speakers, making it possible to change channels without touching your remote. You can ask Google Assistant to play a specific channel or show, and it's smart enough to recognize fuzzier requests. Tell it to "play the MLB game" and it'll switch to baseball without needing a specific channel or team, for instance. Of course, this is only useful if you live in one of the major US cities where YouTube TV is available.

Today I spoke at the WSJDLive global technology conference about cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, two nascent areas that I believe will be transformative to the industry and world. These systems also offer tremendous market opportunity and are on a trajectory to reach $46 billion in industry revenue by 20201. As part of this, today we announced that Intel will ship the industry's first silicon for neural network processing, the Intel Nervana Neural Network Processor (NNP), before the end of this year. We are thrilled to have Facebook in close collaboration sharing its technical insights as we bring this new generation of AI hardware to market. The Intel Nervana NNP promises to revolutionize AI computing across myriad industries.

The camera on the new Pixel 2 is packed full of great hardware, software and machine learning (ML), so all you need to do is point and shoot to take amazing photos and videos. One of the technologies that helps you take great photos is HDR, which makes it possible to get excellent photos of scenes with a large range of brightness levels, from dimly lit landscapes to a very sunny sky. HDR produces beautiful images, and we've evolved the algorithm that powers it over the past year to use the Pixel 2's application processor efficiently, and enable you to take multiple pictures in sequence by intelligently processing HDR in the background. In parallel, we've also been working on creating hardware capabilities that enable significantly greater computing power--beyond existing hardware--to bring HDR to third-party photography applications. To expand the reach of HDR, handle the most challenging imaging and ML applications, and deliver lower-latency and even more power-efficient HDR processing, we've created Pixel Visual Core.

Google's first Pixel smartphones weren't just smartphones; they were a proclamation that Google was more than just a software giant. They were proof that it could craft first-class devices that showed off what Android was really capable of. The new Pixel 2 and 2 XL continue that new tradition and offer some major changes to the Pixel formula. They're also among the first devices to highlight what's new and notable in Android 8.0 Oreo. While they don't get absolutely everything right, Google's new phones have still managed to further the Pixel's reputation for Android excellence. Rather than build two identical Pixels this year, Google decided to make its new small smartphone a little more conservative. Make no mistake: the Pixel 2 is still an incredibly fast phone, and a clean build of Android 8.0 Oreo combined with Google's intelligent features make the device incredibly capable. Still, if you're looking for a first-rate Android phone that won't make your hands cramp, you'd do well to start your search here. Long story short, the XL is thebigger, more attractive version of the Pixel 2. Just about everything I loved about Google's new small phone applies here too, but the XL has a few distinct advantages -- its battery life is much better, and Android Oreo shines on its bigger screen.

The Echo Show is not just Amazon's best smart speaker, it's the most capable mainstream smart home assistant on the market. An Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor and a 7-inch color touchscreen pumps its price tag up to $230, but the display is worth the added cost to have at least one in a smart home with other Echo speakers. And the Show's eight-element far-field mic array is stronger than the ones on Amazon's other Echos, which for me eliminated the need to have an Echo Dot in an adjoining room. Amazon takes full advantage of that display, providing not just useful visual feedback, but also an in-home intercom--with video, if two Echo Shows are used--and a VoIP-type videophone system. I'll elaborate on the intercom feature shortly.

You'll want the Google Pixel 2 XL if you're looking for the purest, most elegant Android experience possible in a 6-inch phone. You'll want the Pixel 2 XL if you're looking for a stunning display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, amazing portrait photography, and a ton of surprise-and-delight features made possible by Google Lens and the rest of Google's A.I. tool chest. When the Pixel 2 XL was announced on Oct. 4, Google reminded us that its machine learning engine is watching our every move to improve its A.I. algorithms. So, yes, the Pixel 2 XL's ever-Googley magic tricks may keep robophobes up at night. And you'll rightfully want one it if you're due for a phone upgrade. But if you already own the original Pixel, your decision is more difficult. The Pixel 2 XL kicks ass, but much of what makes it special--stock Android, the Google Photos experience, Google Assistant in the home button, and Google Lens--are available in the first-generation Pixel phones, too. To this extent, the Pixel 2 XL (and the smaller Pixel 2, which I'll review soon) are victims of Google's success at creating a cloud-first, machine-learning platform that spans #MadeByGoogle devices. The Pixel 2 XL feels great in the hand. Before we drill down into features, let's get straight to Pixel 2 XL specs.

Twenty years ago, WIRED made a bold prediction: Cable modems are on the way out. "Things are looking bad for the cable industry: Careful study has shown that nearly the entire cable network would need to be replaced to make it suitable for two-way data traffic, and satellite services have been stealing away cable's television customers at an intolerable rate." Fast-forward to 2017 and ... cable modems are everywhere. Hey, points for journalistic confidence. Listen, predicting the future is thankless and hard and often ill-advised.