The stressful task of assembling flat-pack furniture looks set to become a thing of the past following the unveiling this week of a robot that can do it for you. Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, have created an android featuring a 3D camera and "industrial robot arms" with grippers that is capable of assembling furniture without human help, The Guardian reports. Tasked with constructing Ikea's £18 Stefan chair, two robots working together successfully assembled the chair in just nine minutes - faster than it would take most humans, the newspaper says. However, the scientists had previous spent around 11 minutes programming the robots to perform the assembly process. The team hope that, by integrating more artificial intelligence (AI) into the robots, they will one day be able to teach themselves how to build pieces of furniture by studying the instruction manual, looking at a picture of the finished item, or through verbal commands, the newspaper reports. Although robots have been used in car assembly lines for decades, more intricate tasks - such as building Ikea furniture - poses a far great challenge for droids, reports the Daily Mail.

Ms. Chan pointed to Amazon.com Inc.'s new "Go" convenience store in Seattle as an example. Shoppers at the store are tracked by an array of sensors, and the store uses computer vision and machine-learning algorithms to charge shoppers, follow them through the store and learn about their buying habits. Ms. Chan expects stores to more deeply integrate artificial intelligence into the shopping experience. For example, she said, stores in the future will allow shoppers to scan food for nutrition and other information, then suggest other items to round out a meal and guide shoppers through the store--all while gathering and storing information about shoppers' buying habits.

McKinsey Global Institute's latest research on artificial intelligence focuses on how AI will affect business, analyzing 400 use cases -- from airlines avoiding flight cancellations to online retailers recommending items -- across 19 industries. In aggregate, McKinsey projects that AI could eventually drive between $3.5 trillion and $5.8 trillion of annual economic value in those industries -- a wide range, and with no timeline on that forecast. In general, AI -- once it is further integrated into business -- has the potential to drive growth. In 69 percent of the use cases McKinsey studied, "deep neural networks can be used to improve performance beyond that provided by other analytic techniques," according to the report. In the 19 industries McKinsey focused on for the report, it estimated the impact of AI somewhere between 1 percent and 12 percent of annual revenue.

COMPUTERS have already proved better than people at playing chess and diagnosing diseases. But now a group of artificial-intelligence researchers in Singapore have managed to teach industrial robots to assemble an IKEA chair--for the first time uniting the worlds of Allen keys and Alan Turing. Now that machines have mastered one of the most baffling ways of spending a Saturday afternoon, can it be long before AIs rise up and enslave human beings in the silicon mines? The research also holds a serious message. It highlights a deep truth about the limitations of automation.

Retailers, struggling to connect with their customers, have been trialling new technologies to blend in-store and digital experiences. Interactive kiosks, mobile-friendly websites and transactional apps have become the norm. But shoppers are looking for deeper connections. If mobile is the glue connecting digital and physical retail, then location and voice technology are the bedrock of meaningful shopping experiences of the future. Historically, the first three rules of retail were always – "location, location, location".

At Ring, our mission is simple: To reduce crime in neighborhoods. Ring keeps your home secure and your family safe by protecting you against intruders, burglars, package thieves and any other unwanted guests. Ring makes sure you never miss a visitor. Ring Video Doorbell lets you answer the door from anywhere. Whether you're halfway across the world, or just too busy to walk to the door, Ring lets you see, hear and speak to visitors from the comfort of your smartphone, tablet or PC.

Robots in Singapore have completed a task many humans dread - assembling flat-packed IKEA furniture. Sifting through pages of instructions and a jumble of screws and bolts to build the low-cost Swedish furniture may soon be a thing of the past given advances in technology, say researchers at the city-state's Nanyang Technological University.

It is the task that tests many of the most skilled, patient humans. But the robots appear to be catching up. A new robot has been taught to successfully put together a piece of Ikea furniture. It could one day leave the tough job of finding the right screws and putting them in the right place to the past – leaving humans never to have to struggle to put together their new chair again. Doing so takes even longer than the time required to put together flat-pack furniture: the scientists spent three years programming the robot to make sure that its arms, grippers, sensors and 3D cameras could put together the chair.

"Data Scientist is the sexiest job of the 21st century" – Harvard Business Review "Expect a shortage of over 100,000 data scientists by 2020" – Gartner Unarguably, in today's hyper-competitive marketplace, Data Science plays an indispensable role for organizations to personalize experiences and create value out of their data. Analyzing large data sets without preset defined rules or scope for analysis to uncover insights, a sublime concept till a few years ago, will form the key basis of competition in the future to significantly unlock business value, unleashing new waves of productivity for businesses, enabling a culture of innovation, and reinvigorating internal processes, as long as the right ecosystem and enablers are put in place. Numerous articles today are buzzing with this glamourous new word in the Analytics world i.e. So what exactly is Data Science or this hype around Data Scientist? Frankly speaking, multiple definitions, roles, job descriptions exist making it harder for businesses to understand what truly is the role about and the ROI out of making any additional investments.

Donald Trump has hammered Amazon.com Inc.'s share price in recent weeks by trying to pick fights online with Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos. But the actual object of his Twitter onslaught is the domain of Jeff Wilke, Bezos' right-hand man for most of the past 18 years. Wilke runs Amazon's worldwide consumer division, meaning he's in charge of both selling people stuff and figuring out how to deliver the items as efficiently as possible. Often, the company uses the U.S. Postal Service.