Mobile broadband operators are ramping up spend for big data and machine learning as they transform into digital service providers. With a long history of handling huge datasets, and with their path now blazed by the IT ecosystem, mobile operators will devote more than 50 billion to big data and machine learning analytics through 2021, forecasts ABI Research. Machine learning technologies will lead operators to profoundly change how they manage the telecom business. "Machine learning-based predictive analytics are applicable to all aspects of the telecom business," says Joe Hoffman, Managing Director and Vice President at ABI Research. "It is important that operators master and internalize these technologies and not rely solely on their vendors' expertise. Executives that overlook big data and machine learning risk irrelevance."

Artificial intelligence continues to have its moment in the spotlight, with a surge of interest in startups and efforts from huge tech companies to push the boundaries of how we might best use machine learning, computer vision and other areas of AI in the future. The latest development on that front comes from China's Huawei, which today announced that it would form a research partnership with UC Berkeley focused on AI, and fund it to the initial tune of 1 million. The alliance, between Huawei's Noah's Ark Laboratory and Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR), is being billed as a "strategic partnership into basic research", and it will cover areas like deep learning, reinforcement learning, machine learning, natural language processing and computer vision. "The two parties believe that this strategic partnership will fuel the advancement of AI technology and create completely new experiences for people, thus contributing greatly to society at large," Huawei notes. Some of these areas of AI you will have heard a lot about already.

Lili Cheng is a general manager for Microsoft Research focusing on conversational experiences, bots, and intelligence systems. Lili's team is responsible for the Microsoft Bot Framework (part of Cortana Intelligence) as well as bringing together the community of bot creators, channels, tools, and AI experts in events such as Botness, Microsoft Research's Design Expo, and the Social Computing Symposium. Previously, Lili was director of user experience for Microsoft Windows and also worked in Apple Computer's Advanced Technology group on the User Interface research team, where she focused on Quicktime conferencing and Quicktime VR. Lili is a registered architect; she worked in Tokyo and Los Angeles for Nihon Sekkei and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill on commercial urban design and large-scale building projects. She has taught in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications program as well as at Harvard University.

Original or replacement, power down your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone. Samsung plans to make its range of smartphones smarter with its acquisition of Viv, an AI virtual assistant platform started by the man who created Siri. LOS ANGELES -- Just how bad is the situation with Samsung and its Galaxy Note 7 woes? Samsung has halted production and sales of its water-resistant, high-end smartphone as the company and U.S. regulators investigate reports of overheating replacement Note 7s. These are the devices that Note 7 buyers swapped for the first run of the large, high-powered phones after a massive consumer recall, also linked to overheating batteries. Some 2.5 million worldwide of the Note 7, Samsung's "phablet," with a 5.7 inch LCD, as of early September when Samsung said it would exchange the 850 phones.

In this special guest feature, Padraig Stapleton, VP of Engineering at Argyle Data discusses how the use of machine learning can help mobile operators like Verizon, BT, and others use big data and machine learning technologies to help detect and stop, cyber gangs in real-time, from stealing billions via global mobile fraud. Padraig Stapleton brings years of industry-leading management and technical expertise across a number of areas including mobile telecommunications and big data. Most recently he was VP of Engineering and Operations for the Big Data group in AT&T responsible for development of their big data platform. Previously to that he was involved in a number of successful startups as VP of Engineering building development teams and delivering innovative products to the market place. Padraig has held senior leadership roles in various companies including Telephia, which was acquired by Nielsen, and InterWave Communications.

People buy data plans for their smartphones so they can send email, check Facebook, and more, but what about a data plan for your drone? Wireless carrier Verizon will start selling such plans, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The plans reportedly will begin at 1 GB of data for 25 a month. Also on Thursday Verizon announced that it has been working since 2014 on the technology behind flying drones over its wireless network. This year Verizon successfully flew a 17-foot unmanned aircraft over its 4G LTE network, the company said, a technology that could be used to do things like inspect pipelines or electrical transmission lines.

Rumors about the upcoming Galaxy S8 have been swirling for months, but the latest teaser comes from Samsung themselves. The South Korean electronics company just announced the acquisition of Viv, an artificial intelligence platform from the creators of Siri. Google recently debuted its new Pixel phone with Google Assistant. Artificial intelligence that can help users with daily tasks and more. The new iPhone 7 has a smarter more advanced Siri too. Samsung is lacking in this area, but is poised to make a big entrance potentially starting with the Galaxy S8.

When the engineers had at last finished their work, Eugenia Kuyda opened a console on her laptop and began to type. "This is your digital monument." It had been three months since Roman Mazurenko, Kuyda's closest friend, had died. Kuyda had spent that time gathering up his old text messages, setting aside the ones that felt too personal, and feeding the rest into a neural network built by developers at her artificial intelligence startup. She had struggled with whether she was doing the right thing by bringing him back this way. At times it had even given her nightmares. But ever since Mazurenko's death, Kuyda had wanted one more chance to speak with him. A message blinked onto the screen. "You have one of the most interesting puzzles in the world in your hands," it said. Born in Belarus in 1981, Roman Mazurenko was the only child of Sergei, an engineer, and Victoria, a landscape architect. They remember him as an unusually serious child; when he was 8 he wrote a letter to his descendents declaring his most cherished values: wisdom and justice. In family photos, Mazurenko roller-skates, sails a boat, and climbs trees. Average in height, with a mop of chestnut hair, he is almost always smiling.

Russia will shoot down internet drones that pose a threat to the country's security, reports said Tuesday, citing Russian officials. Several tech companies, including Google and Facebook, are planning to provide internet using drones to remote places that do not have access to the cyberspace. State-run telecom company Rostelecom cautioned the Russian telecommunications industry that internet-sharing drones, such as those from Britain's OneWeb and South Korea's Samsung, are likely to pose a security threat, Russian language Life news reported. "Ground operators might encounter problems. If foreign players win here, it could be an issue for [Russia's] sovereignty. Whoever controls the information controls the world," a representative for Rostelecom reportedly said.

If you want 5G, there's a good chance you'll need a small cell nearby to deliver it. Putting up that cell may be hard because of a host of problems, but Nokia Bell Labs thinks it can solve some of them with drones and tiny solar panels. Nokia's F-Cell is an experimental LTE small cell that doesn't need any wires. It gets power from solar panels on its surface and communicates with the carrier's core network over a high-speed wireless connection. No one even needs to climb up on a roof to install it: The company recently delivered an F-Cell to the roof of one of its buildings in Sunnyvale, California, using a drone.