The UK government does not have a clear strategy on how to maximise AI and robotics for economic benefit, according to the Commons Select Committee for Science and Technology. This conclusion was published today in a report by the committee, which earlier this year launched an inquiry into Blighty's take up of artificial intelligence. After calling on the expertise of industry and research leaders – including bods at Google DeepMind in London – the committee highlighted the government's inadequacy to deal with the emerging technology of robotics and automated systems (RAS). The UK government promised to establish a RAS Leadership council to kickstart the development of skills and investment needed for AI and robotics to grow in March 2015. Since that pledge was made, however, there has been "no sign" of the government delivering on its promise, causing the UK to fall behind other countries in using robotics and AI for increased productivity.

Analysis There was a distinct whiff of the retro about Google's launch of its Pixel smartphone. Exclusives with selected large mobile operators; yet another attempt to create a unified Android experience; even the clear focus on Apple as the primary competition – all these should be issues of the past. "Premium is a very important category," Hiroshi Lockheimer, head of Android, said in an interview. "It's where Apple is also very strong. Is there room for another player there? This is the wrong target in a world where the new web experiences are being driven by Facebook rather than Apple. Of course, Apple has huge smartphone power, but that is starting to wane, and the way to weaken it further is not to copy tactics which go right back to the original iPhone, but to shift the terms of debate. Google's heavy focus on its virtual assistant software, the heart and soul of Pixel and other devices, may do that – at least it shows the search giant playing to its strengths and seeking to ...

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. police departments used location data and other user information from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to track protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, and Twitter shut off the data access of Geofeedia, the Chicago-based data vendor that provided data to police, in response to the ACLU findings. The report comes amid growing concerns among consumers and regulators about how online data is being used and how closely tech companies are cooperating with the government on surveillance. "These special data deals were allowing the police to sneak in through a side door and use these powerful platforms to track protesters," said Nicole Ozer, the ACLU's technology and civil liberties policy director. The ACLU report found that as recently as July, Geofeedia touted its social media monitoring product as a tool to monitor protests.

Vertica release improves performance, adds Hadoop and Spark support. Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced August 30 at its HPE Big Data Conference in Boston that it's making its library of machine learning services easier for developers to build into smart, "cognitive" applications through Haven OnDemand Combinations. In a second announcement at the event, HPE unveiled Vertica 8.0, the next release of the company's high-scale analytical database. Haven OnDemand is in the white-hot category of machine learning services. It's a domain that has seen dozens of acquisitions in recent years, led by leading tech companies including Amazon, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Salesforce. How will HPE differentiate Haven OnDemand as the big public cloud companies deepen their portfolios?

The ancient Chinese game of Go is one of the last games where the best human players can still beat the best artificial intelligence players.

Predictive analytics / machine learning / artificial intelligence is a hot topic – what it's about? Using algorithms to help make better decisions has been the "next big thing in analytics" for over 25 years. It has been used in key areas such as fraud the entire time. But it's now become a full-throated mainstream business meme that features in every enterprise software keynote -- although the industry is battling with what to call it. It appears that terms like Data Mining, Predictive Analytics, and Advanced Analytics are considered too geeky or old for industry marketers and headline writers.

Did you noticed anything interesting the last time you uploaded a picture to Facebook? Perhaps you picked up on the fact that, sometimes, Facebook tries to tag your friends and family for you. Welcome to DeepFace, Facebook's facial recognition system. If you're wondering why it's called DeepFace, it's because at its core, the system is based on a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) called Deep Learning. AI is here, and it's changing the way that we interact with technology on a daily basis.

There is little doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping the future of the retail market. Recently, Macy's announced it was testing an AI-powered in-store app that enables shoppers to get answers based on the store they are physically shopping in, rather than having to find a sales associate. Sephora also jumped on the AI bandwagon when it launched a chatbot on messaging app Kik earlier this year, aimed at providing customers with personalised makeup tips and reviews. Whether it's AI chatbots becoming in-store and online customer sales assistants, or AI powering the future of retail personalisation, it's clear that AI is having a dramatic impact on the way we do business. However, as with any new technology, the embrace of AI comes with concerns, especially when it comes to consumer data privacy.

The Chinese tech giant Baidu has recently been investing in pretty much every branch of the tech industry, from smartwatch operating systems to self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. Regarding the latter, the company has just announced the immediate launch of Melody, an AI conversational bot app designed to help doctors collect information from patients regarding their various medical conditions. More specifically, Melody's main purpose is to chat with patients who are experiencing health issues then relaying that information to doctors in a way that's that's more convenient to use for the purposes of diagnosing specific conditions. It's convenient to use, it saves time, and it's free, so Chinese industry experts are predicting that this app will have a bright future ahead of it. In addition to all of the features mentioned above, it's worth noting that Melody isn't just an AI chatbot, it's an AI chatbot connected to neural networks which means that it's capable of deep learning and gradually becoming better at providing useful medical information to doctors.

As the skills gap widens for software developers, machine-learning specialists are stepping in with collaboration platforms designed to streamline time-consuming tasks such as tracking down technical solutions when working with new technologies. Collokia, a New York-based startup, announced the beta launch of a machine-learning platform last month that uses artificial intelligence to promote greater collaboration in software development. The other goal is reducing the "technical debt" of development teams by using AI to track down relevant information about a technology project, including information that already resides in company systems. The platform edits and updates search results as a way to disseminate information more widely among development teams. Automation tools that leverage AI promise to address the growing shortfall of qualified software engineers.