Consider one of the more common applications of A.I. today, identifying faces in pictures. The task it is replacing is a painstaking, laborious one: go through photos, and see if a face matches an already-known face. When done by A.I., there is a front-end process of training the algorithm by having it learn millions of faces. Then, once trained, the algorithm can, with rapid speed, look at a new picture and see if the faces in it match any in its already existing deep knowledge of faces. The skill needed to do this the old-fashioned way is mostly patience and a good memory.

Federal agencies should be individually exploring how artificial intelligence could improve their operations, a White House report suggests. Agencies should consider building "DARPA-like organizations" for "high-risk, high-reward AI research and its application" in government, said the report, which outlined opportunities and challenges for the technology. The report was released Wednesday, months after the White House hosted a series of public workshops, including one focused on AI applications for social good. That document incorporated discussions from the workshops, and recommended the Executive Office of the President publish a second report by the yearend to delve deeper into the effects of AI on the U.S. job market and outline recommended policy responses. The White House recommended federal agencies prioritize open training data and open data standards for artificial intelligence so those systems could be trained to analyze government data sets.

The Obama administration may be headed for the exits, but it continues to focus on the impact of artificial intelligence on the economy and the nation at large. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for a group of technologies--including machine learning--that enable computers to learn new skills and capabilities based on the data they are exposed to, among other factors. The just-released report, titled "Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence," does not downplay potential job loss due to the advent of ever-smarter computers, but still posits that the technology will open up new career opportunities for those versed in it or who have higher-level skills. It also holds that public policy, especially re-training programs, can mitigate the negative impact of increasing automation by preparing displaced workers for other jobs. Prepared for the White House by the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, the report reiterates the conventional wisdom that AI-fueled automation will take over more jobs that could not be automated in the past.

A UK parliamentary committee has urged the government to act proactively -- and to act now -- to tackle "a host of social, ethical and legal questions" arising from growing usage of autonomous technologies such as artificial intelligence. "While it is too soon to set down sector-wide regulations for this nascent field, it is vital that careful scrutiny of the ethical, legal and societal dimensions of artificially intelligent systems begins now," says the committee. "Not only would this help to ensure that the UK remains focused on developing'socially beneficial' AI systems, it would also represent an important step towards fostering public dialogue about, and trust in, such systems over time." The committee kicked off an enquiry into AI and robotics this March, going on to take 67 written submissions and hear from 12 witnesses in person, in addition to visiting Google DeepMind's London office. Publishing its report into robotics and AI today, the Science and Technology committee flags up several issues that it says need "serious, ongoing consideration" -- including: "[W]itnesses were clear that the ethical and legal matters raised by AI deserved attention now and that suitable governance frameworks were needed," it notes in the report.

IMAGE: Brown researchers have trained a computer algorithm to spot in laboratory samples a cellular transition associated with more aggressive cancers. Brown University researchers have developed a new image analysis technique to distinguish two key cancer cell types associated with tumor progression. The approach could help in pre-clinical screening of cancer drugs and shed light on a cellular metamorphosis that is associated with more malignant and drug-resistant cancers. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT, is a process by which more docile epithelial cells transform into more aggressive mesenchymal cells. Tumors with higher numbers of mesenchymal cells are often more malignant and more resistant to drug therapies.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Using Twitter as a mode of business to consumer (B2C) communication could result in up to 20% more consumer spend in the future, according to a recent joint study from Twitter and Applied Marketing. The survey examined interactions between more than 3,100 Twitter users with a variety of industries like pizza delivery chains and airlines. The glowing results from the study could be an attempt by Twitter to remind businesses of its capability as a customer service channel, which is likely being threatened by the uptick in interest regarding chatbots, according to Marketing Dive.

At Dreamforce this week, Salesforce finally provided details about Einstein, its artificial intelligence technology that it touts as "AI for everyone." For the last couple of weeks, Mark Benioff has been teasing us about Einstein, and yesterday we saw the fruits of that labor. A series of speakers extolled the benefits of Einstein – from being able to predict the sports gear that a consumer might like, to medical uses such as being able quickly diagnose bleeding in the brain. The real impact of Einstein, however, is that it validates the larger trend of Artificial Intelligence or "AI" being applied across a wide variety of both enterprise and consumer tasks. One of my favorite comments from the keynote was that AI is like electricity, and that when it was first incorporated into appliances they were referred to by names such as "the electric toaster."

This creates the false impression that the algorithms already exist for malware detection too. That is not the case. We at Kaspersky Lab have spent more than 10 years developing and patenting a number of technologies. And we continue to carry out research and come up with new ideas because … well, that's where the next myth comes in. There is a conceptual difference between malware detection and facial recognition.

Despite robotics and artificial intelligence being labelled as threats to the profession, the head of digital legal services for a global firm has downplayed concerns. Speaking ahead of the Lawtech Summit, Tae Royle, head of digital legal services for Ashurst, said reports about the robot lawyer takeover have escalated unnecessarily. "The doom and gloom scenarios are a bit overcooked; the majority of the workforce will adapt rapidly and are getting on the front foot," he said. Mr Royle added that these fears are unsubstantiated at present, as the application of AI remains "very narrow". However, Mr Royle also said that opportunities for AI are "progressively widening, and in five years' time the use cases will be broader and the impacts will be very deep", though he noted there is no need for firms to panic over this, and instead they should properly prepare.

From chatbots to smart apps, developments in artificial intelligence are changing the way that banks interact with their customers. Like many people who were young in 1997, I had a Tamagotchi and it meant the world to me. Whenever it was hungry, I hurried to feed my digital pet. If it beeped about being lonely, I'd go give it attention. My parents thought it was a little silly to be that devoted to a toy, but in this day and age it's almost impossible to imagine life without interaction between man and machine.