Futurewei Technologies Inc. (DBA Huawei R&D) is a U.S. Based branch of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., the leading global information and communications technology solutions provider. Established in 1988, Huawei Technologies is a private high-tech enterprise specializing in research and development, the production and marketing of communications equipment, and providing customized network solutions for telecom carriers in fixed, mobile, and data communications networks. Through our dedication to customer-centric innovation and strong partnerships, we have established end-to-end advantages in telecom networks, devices and cloud computing. We are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers by providing competitive solutions and services. Our products and solutions have been deployed in over 170 countries, serving more than one third of the world's population.

Today, the biggest technology players are in a mad dash to develop the smartest conversational interface. These personal assistants are helpful, entertaining and already a powerful connector between people and their digital lives. While they function a little differently, they all source every bit of data they can find to engage in unique, valuable conversations with their owners. The astounding pace of technology guarantees that there will always be a new connector, a new privileged broker that draws humans and the digital realm ever closer together. But this shouldn't be a threat to marketers.

Imagine this fairly typical scene of modern life. You are half-heartedly watching a recommended show on Netflix while casually checking sports recaps on your phone when you receive a potential fraud alert from your bank because, while making your routine Amazon purchases, you were tempted to treat yourself to a lavish suggested item. This is hardly the kind of scene that makes for a gripping sci-fi movie. However, in this moment, every aspect of your life is positively bathed in artificial intelligence. Thanks to Hollywood, the phrase "artificial intelligence" conjures visions of a full-blown Skynet takeover, or at least a wisecracking robot sidekick.

The best part of "Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler" is the view it provides into Butler's archive itself. Butler, who died in 2006, was a bestselling Pasadena novelist and the only science fiction writer to win a MacArthur fellowship. She was also African American, and her novels reworked the sci-fi genre with far-reaching insights on race, sex and gender. The exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena features works by eight artists who were granted access to Butler's archives at the Huntington Library in San Marino. Their responses take a variety of forms, including sound and video as well as photography, drawing and installation.

GPU (Graphics Processing unit) is an electronic chip which is mounted on a video card (Graphics card). Occasionally called visual processing unit (VPU) is a specialized processor that offloads 3D graphics rendering from the microprocessor. The modern GPU is not only a powerful graphics engine but also a highly parallel programmable processor featuring peak arithmetic and memory bandwidth that substantially outpaces its CPU counterpart. The input to the GPU is a list of geometric primitives, typically triangles, in a 3-D world coordinate system. Through many steps, those primitives are shaded and mapped onto the screen, where they are assembled to create a final picture.

Researchers in the Robot Learning Lab at Cornell University developed a robot that can prepare a cup of latte without ever having seen the machine before – the robot does this by visually observing the machine and by reading online instruction manuals, similar to how humans learn. The team used CUDA and TITAN X GPUs to train their deep learning models and then also uses the GPU during testing where the robot is trying to infer which human manipulation motion is best suited for the object it has never seen before. "We use a deep learning neural network that can tell the robot which action in a database is the closest to the one it has to perform," said researcher Jaeyong Sung. The researchers turned to the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing service to collect a large library of actions -- they invited hundreds of visitors to guide a robot through the motions to perform various tasks described in a set of printed instructions. To make crowdsourcing possible, the researchers created a web interface that lets the user guide an imaginary robot arm, almost like playing a video game.

At the annual Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Florida this week, over 8000 technology leaders gathered to get analyst predictions on where we are heading. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and smart things were key analytics themes for a savvy digital future. The overall top three themes this year were intelligent, digital, and mesh. For a fantastic free overview, check out the following openly published article, "Gartner's Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017" and linked resources. Last week I shared an article and webinar regarding the Fourth Industrial Revolution aka Digital Transformation.

In May, Google research scientist Douglas Eck left his Silicon Valley office to spend a few days at Moogfest, a gathering for music, art, and technology enthusiasts deep in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains. Eck told the festival's music-savvy attendees about his team's new ideas about how to teach computers to help musicians write music--generate harmonies, create transitions in a song, and elaborate on a recurring theme. Someday, the machine could learn to write a song all on its own. Eck hadn't come to the festival--which was inspired by the legendary creator of the Moog synthesizer and peopled with musicians and electronic music nerds--simply to introduce his team's challenging project. To "learn" how to create art and music, he and his colleagues need users to feed the machines tons of data, using MIDI, a format more often associated with dinky video game sounds than with complex machine learning.

"It's the straw that stirs the drink," says Roger Barnette, president at IgnitionOne. "We started as a search company, so it seems natural to morph into more of a data business when you think about how the data impacts search." As Google and Bing build out their services, IgnitionOne will continue to focus on that data that supports ad-copy creation and ad targeting. It's also about modifiers based on a transaction and how search on a mobile phone in a specific geolocation supports clients like Bridgestone, Fiat, General Motors, LaQuinta, and Land Rover, which are listed as clients on the company's Web site. Perhaps the reason for the realignment shows up in the quarterly digital marketing report IgnitionOne publishes each quarter.

Once customers choose a product or service, the continuing success of their relationship with that company depends on customer support. Get it right and win loyal customers for life. Miss the mark and you lose customers, who may then broadcast their dissatisfaction and do more damage to your brand. Customers are using multiple channels to give feedback. They may air concerns via surveys, online chats, calls to a support center, or in person.