A formal branch of artificial intelligence, machine-learning builds systems that learn directly from the data they are fed and effectively program themselves to analyse that data and make accurate predictions. Having already helped multiple business sectors create new models and drive competitive advantage, now it's the turn of the insurance industry. So just how is machine-learning changing the way insurers do business? "It gives insurers three distinct advantages," explains Max Richter, managing director in Accenture's UK insurance analytics group. "The first is to mine greater volumes of data, the second to scale analytics across the organisation by working smarter and faster, and lastly by answering more complex questions from'will this customer leave me at renewal?' to'what can I do about it?'" As such it is quickly becoming an essential tool for the insurance sector, specifically enabling companies to yield higher predictive accuracy as it can fit more flexible and complex models.

More and more, chatbots are entering the B2C world without consumers even realizing it's happening. But are we waiting for some big, wow-worthy, famous, life-changing chatbot in order for the concept to become mainstream? Chatbots are clearly not yet dinner table discussion topics. "There is no doubt that chatbots will become a critical onramp for brands to connect with customers," said Jake Bennett, CTO at POP. "Chatbots [are] giving brands a direct communication channel and storefront inside the apps that users already use every day. A recent study by Ovum reported that 53 percent of American and German respondents prefer chatting with businesses through chat apps, like Facebook Messenger, rather than speaking by phone with the business.

When someone important to us dies, we feel their loss keenly, and it can be difficult to let go of the pain we feel. People find different ways to cope – religion, focusing on happy memories, sometimes talking aloud to the departed person – even though they will never again receive a reply. But what if you could receive a reply? Eugenia Kuyda, the co-founder and CEO of a Russian artificial intelligence startup called Luka Inc (formerly IO), has developed a chatbot that lets anyone talk to her dearly departed best friend Roman Mazurenko, a fellow tech entrepreneur who died in a car accident in November 2015. Anyone who downloads the iOS mobile app Luka can instantly talk to the bot in either English or Russian by adding @Roman. You can select from the bot's options to learn about Mazurenko's career, or ask him questions to see how the bot responds.

"Artificial intelligence has some way to go before we see systems and robots as portrayed in the creative arts such as Star Wars. At present, 'AI machines' have narrow and specific roles, such as in voice-recognition or playing the board game'Go'. But science fiction is slowly becoming science fact, and robotics and AI look destined to play an increasing role in our lives over the coming decades. It is too soon to set down sector-wide regulations for this nascent field but it is vital that careful scrutiny of the ethical, legal and societal ramifications of artificially intelligent systems begins now." AI systems are starting to have transformational impacts on everyday life: from driverless cars and supercomputers that can assist doctors with medical diagnoses, to intelligent tutoring systems that can tailor lessons to meet a student's individual cognitive needs.

Artificial Intelligence, always a very polarizing subject, is back on top of the news. Unless you have been on a deep space mission for the past year, you have been exposed to opinions ranging from "this will change everything for the better" to "this will spell our doom". But what are the facts? Why is it seeing a resurgence now? How can I benefit from it?

If you're a video game fan of a certain age, you may remember Edge magazine's controversial review of the bloody sci-fi shooting game, Doom. Perhaps you enjoyed a good laugh, as many first-person shooter fans have, at the writer's much-mocked assertion: "if only you could talk to these creatures, then perhaps you could try and make friends with them, form alliances ... Now that would be interesting." Of course, we all know what happened. There would be no room in the Doom series, nor any subsequent first-person blast-'em-up, for such socio-psychological niceties. Instead, we enjoyed 20 years of shooting, bludgeoning and stabbing, the ludicrous idea of diplomacy cast roughly aside. But during this era, something else was happening in game design, and in academic thinking around video games and artificial intelligence. Buoyed by advances in AI research and aided by increasingly powerful computer processors, developers were beginning to think about the possibilities of non-player characters (NPCs) who could think and act in a more complex and human way – who could provide the emotional feedback that the Edge reviewer was thinking about.

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?