The study was a success: the first two AIs learnt how to communicate securely from scratch. P input plaintext, K shared key, C encrypted text, and PEve and PBob are the computed plaintext outputs.The Google Brain team (which is based out in Mountain View and is separate from in London) started with three fairly vanilla neural networks called Alice, Bob, and Eve. Each neural network was given a very specific goal: Alice had to send a secure message to Bob; Bob had to try and decrypt the message; and Eve had to try and eavesdrop on the message and try to decrypt it. Alice and Bob have one advantage over Eve: they start with a shared secret key (i.e. this is symmetric encryption). Importantly, the AIs were not told how to encrypt stuff, or what crypto techniques to use: they were just given a loss function (a failure condition), and then they got on with it.

Can computer software be designed to be more emotional? Imagine the idea of conversing with your computer, perhaps checking the weather. The weather appears to be cold and rainy for the early part of the day. This naturally brings a certain feeling of negativity, perhaps even dread, to most people. Typical computer programs of today will simply report the weather and prompt for the next query, without giving the user's disposition a single thought.

It's not something to be sniffed at. Computers have cracked a problem that has stumped chemists for centuries: predicting a molecule's odour from its structure. The feat may allow perfumers and flavour specialists to create new products with much less trial and error. Unlike vision and hearing, the result of which can be predicted by analysing wavelengths of light or sound, our sense of smell has long remained inscrutable. Olfactory chemists have never been able to predict how a given molecule will smell, except in a few special cases, because so many aspects of a molecule's structure could be important in determining its odour.

In yesterday's article we talked about the 3rd gene editing company getting ready to IPO, CRISPR Therapeutics. While gene editing is an incredibly complex technology, the whole idea behind it is actually quite simple. You can use gene editing technology (read about the three main types here) to edit a gene and then start changing the way life forms actually work. When you start to play around with modifying life forms in this way, then this is an area of research we refer to as "synthetic biology". The whole gene editing/synthetic biology space is incredibly exciting because the possibilities are really infinite.

Not surprisingly, interest in this opportunity went through the roof. With only 500 seats initially available, and applications already covering that number multiple times, the competition to reserve a spot in the workforce of the future, especially given the fact that graduates will be given preference by Nanodegree including Didi Chuxing and IBM Watson, is guaranteed to be fierce. For graduates of the 2011 AI class, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, the fact that the instructor line up reunites Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig is another incentive to enrol.

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High-speed body scanners powered by advanced artificial intelligence are to be trialled across US airports and subway stations. According to The Guardian, documents filed by Evolv Technology with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) show plans to test the new systems at Denver International airport, Los Angeles' Union Station metro and Union Station in Washington DC. Evolv's scanners use millimetre-wave radio frequencies to scan a person's body. This setup is currently used by the full-body scanners found in airports, but whereas those devices slow down the screening process, the new scanners can finish their work in a fraction of a second. This means individuals can simply walk through the gate without having to stop.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recently announced a $3 billion effort to cure all disease during the lifetime of their daughter, Max. Earlier this year, Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker donated $250 million to increase collaboration amongst researchers to develop immune therapies for cancer. Google is developing contact lenses for diabetic glucose monitoring; gathering genetic data to create a picture of what a healthy human should be; and working to increase human longevity. The technology industry has entered the field of medicine and aims to eliminate disease itself. It may well succeed because of a convergence of exponentially advancing technologies such as computing, artificial intelligence, sensors, and genomic sequencing.

He spells out a series of threats that all boil down to poorly constructed cost functions that result in unintended consequences.

Before we dive into the data behind Alphabet's forward-looking strategy, we must quickly assess its most mature and most profitable (by far) business line: Google search and advertising. As a reminder, Google now consists of search, mapping, cloud & enterprise, Google-branded consumer hardware and operating systems (Chrome, Android, etc.), and YouTube. All other units, from investment vehicles (GV, Google Capital) to the X arm, are now subsidiaries reporting directly to Alphabet management. We will use the Google moniker when discussing either the company proper or historical pre-Alphabet activities under its banner. The company outperformed analyst expectations in Q2'16 with surging top- and bottom-line growth.