Bruce Ratner, The Significant StatisticianTM, is President and Founder of DM STAT-1 Consulting, the ensample for Statistical Modeling, Analysis and Data Mining, and Machine-learning Data Mining in the DM Space. DM STAT-1 specializes in all standard statistical techniques, and methods using machine-learning/statistics algorithms, such as its patented GenIQ Model, to achieve its clients' goals - across industries including Direct and Database Marketing, Banking, Insurance, Finance, Retail, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Publication & Circulation, Mass & Direct Advertising, Catalog Marketing, e-Commerce, Web-mining, B2B, Human Capital Management, Risk Management, and Nonprofit Fundraising. Bruce holds a doctorate in mathematics and statistics, with a concentration in multivariate statistics and response model simulation. His research interests include developing hybrid-modeling techniques, which combine traditional statistics and machine learning methods. He holds a patent for a unique application in solving the two-group classification problem with genetic programming.

Artificial intelligence (AI) development has seen an "amazing renaissance" and is beginning to solve problems that were once seen as science fiction, according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Machine learning, machine vision, and natural language processing are all strands of AI that are being developed by technology giants such as Amazon, Alphabet's Google and Facebook for various uses. For example, Amazon's voice assistant Alexa which is in its Echo speaker relies on natural language processing – the ability for computers to understand human speech. These AI developments were praised by the Amazon founder. "It is a renaissance, it is a golden age," Bezos told an audience at the Internet Association's annual gala last week. "We are now solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were … in the realm of science fiction for the last several decades.

Do we want our machines to act like machines, or do we want them to have a personality? Should they be male or female? Should AI reflect each individual's worldview? Should it live only on our phones or in our homes, or should it permeate the environment we live in? Should it be able to read and react to our emotions? These are the questions that AI designers and engineers are already asking about the machine learning-enabled technologies–and now Ikea wants to ask the rest of us, as well.

This book assumes that you know close to nothing about Machine Learning. Its goal is to give you the concepts, the intuitions, and the tools you need to actually implement programs capable of learning from data. We will cover a large number of techniques, from the simplest and most commonly used (such as linear regression) to some of the Deep Learning techniques that regularly win competitions. Scikit-Learn is very easy to use, yet it implements many Machine Learning algorithms efficiently, so it makes for a great entry point to learn Machine Learning. TensorFlow is a more complex library for distributed numerical computation using data flow graphs.

As artificial intelligence (AI) features such as machine learning and predictive analytics start to creep into all software, and every industry, how is it impacting the marketing function? With our visibility into retail, banking and telecom industries, we're seeing how AI is transforming all aspects of marketing, from smarter buying of online advertising, to predicting what each customer will want next to increasing share of wallet. For example, in Japan, Nestle is using robots at the retail store to ask people about their coffee preferences and answer product questions. The robots can even read people's facial expressions and voices to determine how they feel, and change their responses accordingly! Online media buying is another area where AI can make a big difference, automating what is now a labor intensive process rife with fraud. But where we see the most promise in AI-enabled marketing is in the customer experience.

Amazon.com Inc has installed more than 15,000 robots across 10 U.S. warehouses, a move that promises to cut operating costs by one-fifth and get packages out the door more quickly in the run-up to Christmas. The orange 320-pound (145 kg) robots, which scoot around the floor on wheels, show how Amazon has adopted technology developed by Kiva Systems, a robotics company it bought for $775 million USD in 2012. The robots are designed to help the leading U.S. online retailer speed the time it takes to deliver items to customers and better compete with brick-and-mortar stores, where the bulk of Americans still do their shopping. The robots also may help Amazon avoid the mishaps of last year's holiday season, when a surge of packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS and delayed the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe. Amazon offered shipping refunds and $20 gift cards to compensate customers.

Get ready for a bizarre future where your couch speaks to you anytime you land your ass on it – courtesy of none other than your favorite ready-to-assemble furniture retailer, IKEA. The company's Denmark-bound innovation lab Space10 is currently surveying people about what they'd like to see in a hypothetical virtual assistant, which means the Swedish manufacturer could be contemplating embedding its furniture with AI tech in the future. We've teamed up with Product Hunt to offer you the chance to win an all expense paid trip to TNW Conference 2017! Titled Do You Speak Human?, the survey seeks to establish what customers would like to see in a potential virtual assistant for smart furniture. For the most part, the questions circle around things like what preference you have for the assistant's gender (with male, female and gender-neutral as options) and whether you'd like your AI-powered helper to be more humanlike or robotic.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos appeared this week at the Internet Association's annual gala in Washington, D.C., taking part in a wide-ranging discussion about the online economy, media coverage of Amazon, the company's business principles, and even going off topic a bit to discuss his Blue Origin space venture. But Bezos seemed especially energized when Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman asked him about artificial intelligence and machine learning. "It is a renaissance, it is a golden age," Bezos said. "We are solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were in the realm of science fiction for the last several decades. Natural language understanding, machine vision problems, it really is an amazing renaissance." So how does Amazon see this playing out? "Machine learning and AI is a horizontal enabling layer.

For the most part, you are stuck with who you have consistently in your household. In recent years, we've been allowing other people into the household as well. These individuals are somewhat different than our flesh and blood relatives. For one thing, they aren't made of flesh or blood unless you have found a severely disturbing technology outlet. These people go by the name of Alexa, Siri, and Google.

Consumers' desire for personalized shopping experiences is by now well documented. In response to these expectations, merchants are increasingly using tools that present products and content, which reflect shoppers' preferences, and past picks. These investments are likely to pay off, as merchants report personalization improves results throughout the customer life cycle. Product recommendation and customer profiling tools increasingly integrate past brand interactions with "big data" insights that predict shoppers' likely needs and paths to purchase. Artificial intelligence, known as AI, is the logical next step in this progression, enabling machines to respond to shoppers' input with relevant content and products.