Osprey is a tool for hyperparameter optimization of machine learning algorithms in Python. Hyperparameter optimization can often be an onerous process for researchers, due to time-consuming experimental replicates, non-convex objective functions, and constant tension between exploration of global parameter space and local optimization (Jones, Schonlau, and Welch 1998). We've designed Osprey to provide scientists with a practical, easy-to-use way of finding optimal model parameters. As hyperparameter optimization is an embarrassingly parallel problem, Osprey can easily scale to hundreds of concurrent processes by executing a simple command-line program multiple times.

It could be a key part towards building a standalone VR headset, and more. Movidius has developed compact chips that already power DJI's Phantom 4 drones, enabling autonomous piloting. Intel's plans for a fully cordless VR headset with depth-sensing cameras, called Project Alloy, were unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum in August. In a press release from Movidius, CEO Remi El-Ouazzane says "our leading VPU (Vision Processing Unit) platform for on-device vision processing combined with Intel's industry leading depth sensing solution (Intel RealSense Technology) is a winning combination for autonomous machines that can see in 3D, understand their surroundings and navigate accordingly."

Immersive uses text analytics via machine learning to uncover new insights from unstructured data and has developed a'sentiment index' which allows companies to discern how happy or unhappy customers are based on the content of their emails. Immersive worked with the Victorian Department of Justice to secure text information and allow 10,000 workers in Victoria to find information quickly across multiple systems using text search and indexing technologies. Traditionally an IT department would start with the business requirements, find the data and build an application. "For the last 30 years it was all about converged systems, centralised systems, bringing data in and normalising data… That centralisation or converging of systems was enabling some cost savings and some good analytics," Gnau said.

Others are fed enough data and leverage machine learning, using natural language processing in a way that can pick up keywords and phrases to understand human language. We have some great technologies like the IBM Watson API, Facebook bot API, and Microsoft Bot Framework that can help developers create interactive bots based on different taxonomies. Soumith Chintala of Facebook AI noted in a recent article, "Deep learning -- neural networks that have several stacked layers of neurons, usually accelerated in computation using GPUs -- has seen huge success recently in many fields such as computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing, beating the previous state-of-the-art results on a variety of tasks and domains such as language modeling, translation, speech recognition, and object recognition in images." Google announced that its natural language processing system called Parsey MacParseface is now able to identify 94 percent of word dependencies within an English sentence.

Job-seekers who possess those skills typically could expect multiple job offers, says Matt Leighton, director of recruitment at Mondo, which specializes in digital marketing and technology staffing. But hiring companies are seeking the same talent: "They're people who create algorithms through code that allow computers to self-learn," Leighton says. Another area that's driving demand for skilled talent is virtual reality. Demand for machine learning experts and virtual reality pros is spiking as enterprise adoption of these technologies grows.

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Earlier this summer, humans submitted their selfies and computer scientists submitted their algorithms to be competitors and judges in the first beauty contest judged by artificial intelligence. The six AI judges were trained to evaluate wrinkles, face symmetry, skin color and several other parameters before choosing men and women winners in various age groups ranging from 18 to 69. A total of 60,000 people submitted their selfies, and the winners have been chosen. It actually stemmed from a project that involves using AI to evaluate health and hopefully slow aging in the future.

New Zealand fixed-line telecommunications provider Chorus has announced its full-year financial results for 2015-16, reporting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of NZ 594 million, down by NZ 8 million due to the regulator's copper pricing decision in December. In December, the New Zealand Commerce Commission released its final pricing determination for broadband services being delivered over Chorus' legacy copper network. A breakdown of revenue saw basic copper services contribute NZ 489 million, NZ 2 million less than last year; enhanced copper contribute NZ 242 million, down from NZ 268 million; and fibre contribute NZ 133 million, up by 35.7 percent year on year from NZ 98 million. Value Added Network Services, Field Services, and Infrastructure were all down by NZ 1 million to contribute NZ 35 million, NZ 83 million, and NZ 20 million, respectively.

Tech giants including Google, Twitter, Salesforce, Apple, Intel, Yahoo, IBM, and AOL bought nearly 30 AI startups in the last five years, according to CB Insights. Venture capital (VC) interest in AI boomed in recent years as well. The boom started two year ago as "2014 marked a banner year for VC investment in U.S.-based AI startups, with capital invested and deal count increasing year-on-year by 183 percent and 41 percent, respectively," stated a report by PitchBook, an M&A database. According to an analysis done by his firm, Magister Advisors, the median price paid to AI startups per employee is 2.4 million.

Now, the big brands are starting to leverage chatbots to promote their products. According to a recent survey carried out by Facebook IQ, 63 percent of consumers are using messaging apps (in this case, Facebook Messenger) to contact companies, find information, and buy products. According to the Facebook survey, 67 percent expect to message businesses more frequently over the next two years. Currently, businesses can build bots that carry out simple tasks, answer simple questions, and help with the steps laid out above.