A small drone taught itself to judge distances using only one eye during trials aboard the International Space Station, ESA-backed researchers have reported. Although humans can effortlessly estimate distances with a single eye, robots still lack this capability. "It is a mathematical impossibility to extract distances to objects from one single image, if the object has not been encountered before," explains Guido de Croon from Delft University of Technology, one of the investigators. "But if we recognise something to be a car, then we know its physical characteristics, and we can use that information to estimate its distance from us. A similar logic is what we wanted the drone to learn during our experiment."

McCann FitzGerald has successfully trialled state-of-the-art Kira software in M&A, corporate finance and capital markets transactions in a move to improve efficiency and lower costs for clients. It is the first law firm in Ireland to deploy this technology, building on the launch of the Data Investigations Group earlier in the year. Kira software uses the power of artificial intelligence, searches and text analysis within documents to deliver improved levels of speed, efficiency and quality to processes. Commenting on the project, managing partner Barry Devereux said: 'Our investment in Kira Systems' innovative software is the latest milestone in our digital strategy. Our in-house expertise combined with the latest cutting-edge technology enables us to process complex data and deliver exceptional value to clients.' Earlier this year, McCann FitzGerald launched its Data Investigations Group, a model for the management of high-volume document review and reporting.

Artificial intelligence is a large and varied field with many sub-fields and lots of confusing terminology. But as artificial intelligence becomes more mainstream and begins to have more of a role in our day-to-day lives, it's going to become more important to have a general understanding of it. Here are some AI terminology basics you need to know. Artificial intelligence is actually a sub-field of computer science tasked with creating computers that can perform tasks usually relegated to humans. Computers can do many things that humans can't but there are many things that humans can do that computers can't, and AI is about changing that.

NEW YORK Texas-based Factom, Inc., a blockchain technology company that secures data, said on Wednesday it has raised 4.2 million in financing from a slew of global investors led by billionaire investor Tim Draper.

The digital assistant technology race is heating up, with Samsung announcing plans to acquire the open artificial intelligence platform Viv on Wednesday. It's an intriguing move, not least because it means the team who created Apple's voice-powered assistant Siri is forming closer ties with the South Korean electronics giant. SEE ALSO: Someone turned Samsung's Note7 into a lethal weapon with a'GTA 5' mod As an intelligent interface that can interact with a range of devices, Viv is "an ideal candidate" to integrate with Samsung home appliances and wearables, Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. Samsung makes a whole range of home appliances, so the acquisition suggests the company is keen to have them interacting with customers in the future. Viv will remain an independent subsidiary of Samsung.

Google has announced a research group in Switzerland that will be dedicated to the field of machine learning. As its name suggests, machine learning involves systems that can learn things and come up with predictions from sets of data, without being specifically programmed to do so. It's essential to what we currently think of as "artificial intelligence." Google uses machine learning to power its translation engine, its image-recognition systems, and its Inbox "smart reply" feature. Machine learning improves spam recognition in Gmail and helps Google's driverless cars figure out what's going on around them.

Adoption of machine learning is moving up a gear. From diagnosing diseases, to driving cars, to stopping crime, the ability of machines to learn from data and apply those learnings to solve real problems is being leveraged all around us at an accelerating pace. As data volumes continue to grow, along with advances in computational science, machine learning is poised to become the next great technological revolution. Digital marketing represents one of the most exciting arenas where machine learning is being applied. Across websites, mobile apps, and other digital media, there are hundreds of billions of opportunities for advertisers to deliver ads to consumers every single day. Typically, those opportunities each come with a wealth of data attached and are made available in a real-time auction where potential buyers (i.e., advertisers or the agencies working on their behalf) have mere milliseconds to analyse the opportunity and respond with a bid to serve their ad to a particular consumer on a particular device at the perfect time.

Keynote - Bring ML to every corner of your Organization, Danny Lange, Head of Machine Learning, Uber at Applied AI Conference 2016 by BootstrapLabs Danny Lange recaps the history of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, as well as explains the roles it currently plays in companies everywhere. Dr. Lange demonstrates the application of Machine Learning models in Uber and how it affects service. Despite the perception of the app, Uber has loads of AI under the hood.

Users are looking for more than the humble SMS text message to communicate with friends and family. Our communication requirements now demand group messaging capabilities with the ability to seamlessly share an image or video on the move. Apple's iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook's Messenger are leading the way, but the recent release of Google Allo suggests that messaging has become the new tech battleground. Our love affair with mobile apps is changing because we have so many, often over 50, yet on average we only actually use five of them on a regular basis. Searching for an app that is hidden in a folder of apps on page 3 of our phones is no longer deemed productive in an age of instant gratification.