Given that the reality of AI may be fast approaching, it's of the utmost importance that we work out what might a future with artificial intelligence might look like. Last year, an open letter with signatories including Stephen Hawking and Nick Bostrom called for AI to be of demonstrable benefit to humanity, or risk something that exceeds our ability to control it. AI, as conceived of in popular culture, does not yet exist, even if autonomous and expert systems do. Smartphones might not be supercomputers, but they are called "smartphones" for good reason, in terms of how their operating systems function. Equally, we are happy to talk about a computer game's "AI", but gamers quickly learn to take advantage of its limitations and inability to "think" creatively.

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Those new glasses make you look completely different – especially to face recognition software. A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University has fooled face recognition algorithms using the oldest trick in the book: a pair of fake glasses. By printing bespoke patterns onto the front of the frames, they enabled wearers not only to obscure their identity but to impersonate people who look completely different, at least in the eyes of the algorithms. A white male researcher wearing the glasses was able to pass for American actress Milla Jovovich while a South-Asian female colleague was digitally disguised as a Middle-Eastern male. The system wasn't perfect, however: a Middle-Eastern male trying to use the glasses to pass as white British actor Clive Owen only succeeded 16 per cent of the time.

This long article with a lot of source code was posted by Suraj V Vidyadaran. Suraj is pursuing a Master in Computer Science at Temple university primarily focused in Data Science specialization. His areas of interests are in sentiment analysis, data visualization, big data and machine learning. I was surprised to see the overlap with our recent article on top 10 machine learning algorithms. You can read the full article (with voluminous source code in R) here.

Behavioral biometrics that uses machine learning is behind new features being added to IBM's Trusteer Pinpoint Detect platform, which financial institutions use to head off crooks who may have stolen the username and password of legitimate account holders. The new feature looks for anomalies between legitimate users' normal mouse gestures and those of the current user, and over time refines the accuracy of its analysis, says Brooke Satti Charles, Financial Crime Prevention Strategist for IBM Security. That analysis creates a risk score that banks can use to decide whether an ongoing transaction is fraudulent and trigger an alert. The institutions have to decide what to do about the alerts, but they could cut off the transaction or require further ID before the customer is allowed to continue, she says. The platform already checks the geolocation and IP address of customers as they login in order to detect fraudulent use, and behavior biometrics is an enhancement.

Why was I programmed to feel pain?" The question is played for laughs, but like so many memorable scenes from this most beloved of shows, it also taps into some of the deeper, overarching themes that define our modern civilization. Pain is a fundamental fact of life for many organisms on our planet; a crucial mechanism for identifying what kinds of actions pose serious threats to our physical and mental health. As robots become more sophisticated and interactive, should they also be programmed to experience pain to prevent injuries to themselves or others, and if so, to what extent? "Pain in the Machine," a 12-minute documentary released by the University of Cambridge on Monday, tackles this multifaceted and controversial issue. The film offers insights from artificial intelligence thought leaders, practicing physicians, and other interdisciplinary experts, and contrasts them with iconic popular culture moments that point to the larger philosophical questions inherent to artificially programming pain responses--including a nod to burning robot bit in The Simpsons. Like so many AI research fields, evaluating the utility and benefits of pain in robots inevitably flips the mirror back on our understanding of how those experiences function and protect us in our own lives. "Pain has fascinated philosophers for centuries," Ben Seymour, a Cambridge-based expert on the computational and systems neuroscience of pain, comments in the documentary. "Indeed, some people consider pain to be the pinnacle of consciousness.

Since winning Jeopardy! in 2011, IBM's Watson has apparently found employment as a dress designer, a chef, and a movie director. The latest news is that IBM is doing deals with GM, Slack, and Pearson that will see Watson helping, respectively, with roadside assistance, business messaging, and education. Even if you follow developments in AI closely, though, it can be hard to keep track of all the things Watson can do. It raises a question: what is it, exactly? TV ads that portray Watson as some sort of super-smart Siri don't exactly help.

To most computers, that word printed on an otherwise blank screen is simply a string of characters. You see a word associated with a big cat, a large mammal. Given the context of valet parking, it might also bring to mind a luxury brand that is similar to Mercedes and BMW. Put another way, you have a collection of ideas, or concepts, of what "Jaguar" means and the mental agility to use context to infer which concept the writer of the word intended to convey. On Tuesday, a team of scientists from Microsoft Research Asia, Microsoft's research lab in Beijing, China, announced the public release of technology designed to help computers conceptualize in a humanlike fashion.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are no longer distant concepts but are fast becoming a reality. These new technologies will present a range of benefits for a number of industries, including those beyond the manufacturing sector where these are already being used. Forward thinking companies are embracing the new technological revolution – Industry 4.0 – by adopting AI and robotics. Take the example of chatbots. Businesses are increasingly using AI to allow computers to understand and respond to queries from customers.