Meaning may arise from an element's role or interactions within a larger system. For example, hitting nails is more central to people's concept of a hammer than its particular material composition or other intrinsic features. Likewise, the importance of a web page may result from its links with other pages rather than solely from its content. One example of meaning arising from extrinsic relationships are approaches that extract the meaning of word concepts from co-occurrence patterns in large, text corpora. The success of these methods suggest that human activity patterns may reveal conceptual organization. However, texts do not directly reflect human activity, but instead serve a communicative function and are usually highly curated or edited to suit an audience. Here, we apply methods devised for text to a data source that directly reflects thousands of individuals' activity patterns, namely supermarket purchases. Using product co-occurrence data from nearly 1.3m shopping baskets, we trained a topic model to learn 25 high-level concepts (or "topics"). These topics were found to be comprehensible and coherent by both retail experts and consumers. Topics ranged from specific (e.g., ingredients for a stir-fry) to general (e.g., cooking from scratch). Topics tended to be goal-directed and situational, consistent with the notion that human conceptual knowledge is tailored to support action. Individual differences in the topics sampled predicted basic demographic characteristics. These results suggest that human activity patterns reveal conceptual organization and may give rise to it.

Amazon has said the UK will be "taking a leading role in global innovation" as it announced plans to hire 1,000 more technology, research and other skilled workers by next year. The US online retailer is to open its first office in Manchester, with room for 600 new jobs in the Hanover Building in the city's Northern Quarter – once the headquarters of the Co-operative Group. Doug Gurr, the UK manager for Amazon, said the UK was "taking a leading role in our global innovation". "These are Silicon Valley jobs in Britain, and further cement our long-term commitment to the UK," he said. Amazon said the new Manchester team would work on research and development, including software development and machine learning.

Employees at Amazon and Microsoft have raised concerns about ethical decisions being made at the highest level of their companies. Both tech firms have drawn criticism over their involvement in controversial military and police projects, prompting anonymous workers to write public letters denouncing them. The protests come after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that part of his job is to make unpopular decisions, such as choosing to work with the US military or providing tools that enable police surveillance. In response, an Amazon employee wrote in a post published to Medium: "Companies like ours should not be in the business of facilitating authoritarian surveillance. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

The first book sold on Amazon was'Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought' by Douglas Hofstadter. Bezos chose the name Amazon in reference to the Amazon River, the biggest river in the world, as he hoped Amazon would be the biggest bookstore in the world. The first book sold on Amazon was titled'Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought' by Douglas Hofstadter. The firm opens up sales of music, movies, consumer electronics, video games, toys and more. The logo is meant to suggest that Amazon sells every kind of product from A to Z.

One of the best, lesser known perks that come with owning an Amazon Kindle is the ability to share many of the ebooks in your digital library with your friends and family. Better still, your friends and family can also share the books from their collection,with you. We'll show you how to quickly and easily loan Amazon Kindle ebooks to your friends, share your digital library with members of your family and, in some circumstances, shuttle the DRM-free books you own from your computer onto any Kindle you connect to it. Amazon doesn't advertise the fact that you can loan ebooks to friends, but the option is there and it's fabulous. To loan out a Kindle ebook that you purchased from the Amazon Kindle store, sign into Amazon.com

Over 450 Amazon employees have urged CEO Jeff Bezos to quit selling the tech giant's controversial facial recognition technology to cops. That's according to a new account, written by an anonymous Amazon employee, who joined other staffers in delivering a letter to Bezos laying out their demands. The facial recognition technology, called'Rekognition,' has been attracting scrutiny since May when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed Amazon had been selling it to several police departments around the country. Over 450 Amazon employees have urged CEO Jeff Bezos to quit selling the tech giant's controversial facial recognition technology, called Rekognition, to cops It comes a day after Bezos appeared at the Wired25 summit and defended his firm's involvement in government contracts. 'We know Bezos is aware of these concerns and the industry-wide conversation happening right now,' the employee wrote in a letter published to Medium.

Tesco and Asda could install a facial recognition system at their checkouts which would check a customer's age when they buy alcohol and other restricted items. The'Fastlane' software would take a picture of the customer and approve the purchase if they are clearly old enough, meaning a staff member would not need to come and intervene. Shoppers will not have to register in advance, although regular customers can sign up to an app by linking a selfie to a passport or ID document, manufacturers said. Asda, Morrisons and Tesco are the most likely to trial the software although Sainsbury's has said it will not, the Daily Telegraph reported. If the photo does not prove a customer was old enough then supermarket staff would have to check their ID in person.

This piece accompanies a dedicated series from Ben around intelligence, A.I, and data-driven design and development in retail – all of which you can find in our 7th Edition. Similarly, you will find references to other'features', which denote to the other editorial pieces in our 7th Edition Report.] Just as WhichPLM did for both of our previous special editorial examinations (covering 3D in 2015, and the Internet of Things in 2016) the last exclusive feature in our 7th Edition acts as the final piece of the puzzle, collecting guidance, food for thought, and practical recommendations for retailers and brands who may be looking to lay the long-term groundwork for their own A.I. initiatives, or to embark on a particular, more pressing project. The clearest question for prospective customers of A.I. solutions: are these viable products, with clear return on investment potential? Broadly speaking, the answer is yes. While general intelligence – a single machine to run everything, with mental capacities far in excess of our own, across essentially all of human endeavour – remains a pipe dream, more focused applications of narrow, specialised A.I. are limited only by customers' ability to find the right technology partner and to gain access to their own information and broader market data in sufficient volume to deliver results. But even if A.I. was more limited – its capabilities confined to being a better analytics platform or Business Intelligence tool, for instance – I believe it would still rank as an essential investment for many retailers and brands.

The old saying "retail is detail" has never been more true. From what's in stock to the size of the customer service desk, data science rules the decision-making process. While machine learning has been the darling of large chains for years, increasing accessibility, ROI and AI hype are encouraging uptake among mid-sized chains looking to maximize operational efficiency alongside delivering superior customer service. Here are some of the ways AI can be used to drive growth, efficiency and profit. Location is king in retail, and the difference between an okay and a prime location can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

Amazon.com's machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women. The team had been building computer programs since 2014 to review job applicants' resumes with the aim of mechanizing the search for top talent, five people familiar with the effort told Reuters. Automation has been key to Amazon's e-commerce dominance, be it inside warehouses or driving pricing decisions. The company's experimental hiring tool used artificial intelligence to give job candidates scores ranging from one to five stars -- much like shoppers rate products on Amazon, some of the people said. "Everyone wanted this holy grail," one of the people said.