The perennially favorite End of the World storytelling device has exploded spectacularly over the past few years: Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hunger Games, Age of Ultron, World War Z, The Maze Runner, The Walking Dead, Last Man on Earth, The 100 ... too many movies and TV shows of mass destruction to name. But these stories were created when dystopia felt less like a looming reality -- and more like sweet, sweet permission to discard the digital devices that weight our pockets with the woes of the world. SEE ALSO: What would aliens think of present day Earth? Think about it: Through the vast diversity of modern post-apocalyptic narratives, the obliteration of mobile communications technology was a common thread. After the outbreak, or the war, or alien invasion, our heroes are forced to become present, survival-driven, with millennia-old instincts reawakened and put to the uses for which they evolved.

Machine learning isn't confined to science fiction movie plots anymore. It has fueled the proliferation of technologies that touch our everyday lives, including voice recognition with Siri or Alexa, Facebook auto-tagging photos, and recommendations from Amazon and Spotify. And many enterprises are eager to leverage machine learning algorithms to increase the efficiency of their network. In fact, some are already using it to enhance their threat detection and optimize wide area networks. As with any technology, machine learning could wreak havoc on a network if improperly implemented.

The day before the election, as millions of Americans were feeling confident that the vast majority of the country shared their opinions, a pair of researchers at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute published a paper that looked closely at something many of us ignored: the provenance of political tweets. Where do they come from? How many are, in reality, made by humans? And if not, who is designing these crude straw-bots? Analyzing Twitter during three televised debates, they discovered that 20% of all political tweets were made by bots.

Amazon has brought its on-demand music service to the UK, with the company hoping its machine learning-powered Alexa service will give it an edge over its more established rivals like Apple Music and Spotify. Amazon Music Unlimited is Amazon's attempt to break into the music subscription market. The company claims a catalogue of "over 40 million songs" plus thousands of hand-curated playlists. The service is priced at £7.99 a month or £79 a year for Amazon Prime customers, and £9.99 for non-members. Amazon's Alexa line of products will soon get new home automation skills thanks to the release of an API by the company. Amazon's Echo device launched in the UK in September, and is likely to be key to the success of the music service.

As if filtering emails, recommending search queries, providing alerts for upcoming travel and updates from sports, and other such things was not enough, Google is now bringing its machine learning to another aspect of your life -- the music you listen to. In a blog update Monday, the internet behemoth said: "Building on our commitment to help you find the right music for any moment, today we're introducing the new Google Play Music -- a fresh take on our music streaming service that is smarter, easier to use, and much more assistive. To deliver that, Google Play Music uses machine learning to figure out what music you like and then mixes in signals like location, activity, and the weather along with hand-picked playlists to personalize music for wherever you are and whenever you want tunes." The new experience will be rolled out via an update to the Play Music app, which will start being available in 62 countries across Android, iOS and web platforms this week. Users will have to opt in to the new service which will personalize music based on your location and what you are up to.

Google has updated the app for users in 62 countries around the world The app now uses machine learning to suggest songs and playlists Subscribers will be able to listen to music offline, and the app will automatically create an offline playlist based on what you've listened to Subscribers will be able to listen to music offline, and the app will automatically create an offline playlist based on what you've listened to The latest feature to receive the'smart' treatment, is Google Play Music, which has been updated to be more assistive. Sex with robots will be'mind blowing': Expert says androids... Instagram wants to make'Stories' more sociable: App adds... You can finally send GIFs on WhatsApp for iOS: App... Were YOU killed off by Facebook? Sex with robots will be'mind blowing': Expert says androids... Instagram wants to make'Stories' more sociable: App adds... You can finally send GIFs on WhatsApp for iOS: App... Were YOU killed off by Facebook?

Recently, I needed to book a lunch meeting. To help coordinate, I asked Amy to assist and cc'd her on the email. "Amy," I wrote, "please help us find a time to meet. Let's plan for sushi at Tokyo Express on Spear Street." Amy looked at my calendar, found an open time suitable for everyone invited, and booked the meeting.

To get your morning started right, take a look at the latest stories published since yestereday. Scholars may be in a run for their money with new developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) search engines. Tagged In Microsoft Germany Artificial Intelligence University Of California, San Diego Neuroscience Natural Language Processing Oren Etzioni Computer Science Scientific American Outline Of Health Sciences Scopus Max Planck Society EBSCO Information Services Pub Med Microsoft Academic Search The partnership between Continental and the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford will focus on the possible uses and development of artificial intelligence algorithms. Tagged In Artificial Intelligence Continental AG University Of Oxford If you don't mind Google knowing everything about your life, then there are some benefits to handing over your data to the big G. Tagged In Android (operating System) IOS Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Rapid Transit Spotify Apple Music Google Play Music Just over five years ago, IBM's Watson supercomputer crushed opponents in the televised quiz show Jeopardy.

Google Play Music, Google's music streaming service, is getting smarter. On Monday, an update to the Google Play Music app will kick in a new feature that can predict what you want to hear next. In fact, Google is so confident in the app's accuracy, that it completely revamped the welcome screen on Play Music so you can just tap to start listening to a playlist suited for you based on the time, your location, and a variety of other factors. Google says it's able to accomplish this through machine learning, the technology that's starting to power a lot of intelligent services Google makes like Google Photos and the new Google Assistant. It also plays into Google's broader mission to use machine learning and artificial intelligence in all of its products.

Google's streaming music service can now predict what you want to listen to next Why Google Bets Voice-Powered Devices Are The Future Of Computing? Stay up-to-date on the topics you care about. We'll send you an email alert whenever a news article matches your alert term. It's free, and you can add new alerts at any time.