Cloud Machine Learning relies on the open source TensorFlow machine learning library, according to Google. The tool will take machine learning mainstream, offering data scientists and developers a way to build a new class of intelligent applications, the company said. It provides access to the same technologies that power Google Now, Google Photos and voice recognition in Google Search as application program interfaces. In a blog post about Cloud Machine Learning, Google said the tool makes it easy for developers to build large-scale machine learning models in less time. Cloud Machine Learning is portable, fully managed and scalable, and works with data in several formats.

If you have ever tried your hand at lip-reading in a noisy environment, you'll know it isn't easy. Now, researchers have invented a machine that can tell the difference between sounds that look the same on the lips to give anyone the ability to decipher what's being said. It is hoped the new technology could help people with hearing and speech impairments communicate more easily and even help solve crimes. Researchers have invented a machine that can tell the difference between sounds that look the same on the lips to give anyone the ability to decipher what's being said. The visual speech recognition technology, can be applied'any place where the audio isn't good enough to determine what people are saying,' according to Helen Bear, who created the machine alongside Richard Harvey at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

UPDATE: March 24, 2016, 3:32 p.m. EDT: Microsoft has "taken Tay offline" and is "making adjustments" to her. The company gave TechCrunch the following statement on Tay's status: "The AI chatbot Tay is a machine learning project, designed for human engagement. It is as much a social and cultural experiment, as it is technical. Unfortunately, within the first 24 hours of coming online, we became aware of a coordinated effort by some users to abuse Tay's commenting skills to have Tay respond in inappropriate ways. As a result, we have taken Tay offline and are making adjustments."

To paraphrase William Gibson, "The future is already here and, thanks to intelligent assistants (IA), it is more evenly distributed than ever before." Based on our spoken input, mobile personal assistants (like Siri and Google Now) answer questions, navigate routes, and organize meetings. Close cousin Alexa, running on the Echo, understands our utterances when we order pizza, hail an Uber, or complete an order from Amazon. Meanwhile, a large set of distant cousins – call them text'bots – understand "plain English" requests and can recommend restaurants, movies, or even bridal fashions. We humans are learning to take over our digital lives using our own words and our choice of digital device.

Earlier this month, Google's DeepMind team made history when its AlphaGo software managed to defeat professional Go player Lee Sedol in a five-game match. The contest was billed as a battle between man and machine -- and it saw the human player largely outclassed by his AI opponent. Artificial intelligence is only going to grow more sophisticated in coming years, becoming more of a factor in everyday life as the development of this technology continues to progress. With artificial minds growing ever more powerful, humans may have to change the game to maintain superiority. To get a true impression of how much progress has been made in the field of artificial intelligence in recent years, it's useful to compare the AlphaGo AI facing Lee with IBM's Deep Blue computer, which faced Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in the 1990s.

Let me put it plainly. Despite what you may hear, Microsoft's racist, Hitler-loving A.I. is not how the robot uprising begins. You might have seen some reports by now about Tay, a bot designed to sound like a teenager on the Internet and to learn from her interactions with other people. She knew how to use slang, deploy emoji and crack jokes. The goal was for Tay to become smarter, more conversant and a better interlocutor over time.

For interaction designers, it's becoming common to encounter privacy concerns as part of the design process. Rich online experiences often require the personalization of services, involving the use of people's information. Because gathering information to personalize a customer experience can interfere with the overall experience -- with negative consequences for the business -- how do we navigate this increasingly difficult territory? What are the guidelines to follow when using data to personalize digital experiences, and how can organizations help people feel comfortable with personalization services that research clearly shows people want? Exchanging personal information for things we want, whether physical or virtual, is nothing new. Long before the Internet, we freely published our home phone numbers and addresses in public directories.

Is your government ready for the Internet of Things (IoT)? The news media has been full of stories of self-driving cars being tested around the world and drones being used in diverse places. But a quiet global technology revolution is now occurring that is transforming the way we live and work in almost every area of life. And while robots at Amazon and smart home devices seem to be getting regular media attention, much more is happening in cyberspace. We live in exciting times with vast technological possibilities merging our online and offline lives.

An unmanned spacecraft carrying 6,300 pounds of supplies and science experiments caught up Saturday morning with the International Space Station as it flew 252 miles above the Indian Ocean. The Cygnus spacecraft, made by Dulles-based Orbital ATK, had launched late Tuesday from Cape Canaveral on its journey to the orbiting laboratory. Flying at more than 15,000 mph, the spacecraft was captured by the station's robotic arm at 6:51 a.m. Eastern in what a NASA official called a "textbook rendezvous." The spacecraft was launched atop an Atlas V rocket that Oribtal ATK hired from the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

She loved E.D.M., in particular the work of Calvin Harris. She used words like "swagulated" and almost never didn't call it "the internets." She was obsessed with abbrevs and the prayer-hands emoji. She politely withdrew from conversations about Zionism, Black Lives Matter, Gamergate, and 9/11, and she gave out the number of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline to friends who sounded depressed. She never spoke of sexting, only of "consensual dirty texting."