The sale of artificial intelligence-based platforms to business started off as a multi-million dollar pitch targeted toward the CEO, according to Nova Spivack, the founder and CEO of Bottlenose. The Los Angeles-based startup is looking to automate the application of AI to business intelligence, as well as much of the work of data scientists, currently in scarce supply. That should lower the price, a lot. In recent years, AI-driven applications have been targeted toward the CIO. In the future, Mr. Spivack says, they well may be sold directly to business leaders, and the price will drop to thousands or even hundreds of dollars per user, he told CIO Journal.

Baidu Inc. has established an early stage investment unit named Baidu Venture to back artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality projects. The fund will initially seek to raise US 200 million in capital for the effort. Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu, will lead the venture unit as chairman and participate in project evaluation and investment decisions, Chinese media reported. The new venture unit will be independently run from Baidu's existing investment teams, allowing it to make fast decisions without having to go through complicated internal approval process. Baidu established a deep learning research institute as early as 2013, making artificial intelligence a key strategic focuse to shape the company's future.

San Francisco, CA -- September 14, 2016 -- Absolutdata, a leading data analytics firm, today announced the release of its groundbreaking NAVIK SalesAI solution, an add-on tool designed to work seamlessly with popular CRM platforms. NAVIK SalesAI is proven to increase sales by providing predictive data on buyers, identifying the most promising prospects and aligning purchaser needs with products and communication channels. Data driven recommendations help sales professionals close more deals more quickly by providing a customized weekly game plan of prioritized leads and actions. "We tested NAVIK SalesAI in a pilot program with a Fortune 500 industrial products company, and the results were incredible," said Dr. Anil Kaul, CEO of Absolutdata. "Using an A/B approach, we found that a group comprising 50 salespeople in six territories that used NAVIK SalesAI experienced a 4% sales uptick within just seven weeks. NAVIK SalesAI identifies more intelligent pathways to the sale, adding science to the art of selling."

Georgia's voter-registration process violates the Voting Rights Act and has prevented tens of thousands of residents, mostly minorities, from registering to vote, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. Under a policy implemented in 2010, people aren't added to the voter rolls if identifying information on their applications doesn't exactly match information in databases maintained by the Georgia Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration, the lawsuit says. "What Georgia is doing is denying people the ability to make it onto the registration rolls at the outset, which is what's so problematic about this matching program," said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The organization said it filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Gainesville, in north Georgia, along with other legal organizations on behalf of a coalition of civil rights groups. It's no secret that partisan state legislators, once in power, frequently try to alter voting laws to give their party an advantage.

Two out of three organizations that have deployed Internet of Things (IoT) products are ill-equipped to deal with the risks associated with the new concept that has gained significant traction over the last one year, said a new report by Capgemini and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. IoT is usually defined as a network of devices that can connect, communicate and control or manage each other to perform a set of tasks with minimum human intervention. According to the World's Quality Report, which is based on the survey of 1,600 IT professionals across 32 countries, of the 85 per cent organisations worldwide claiming to have IoT products as a part of their business operations, 68 per cent do not currently have a test strategy for this specific aspect of IT, Enterprises around the world are embracing machine-based intelligence, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics to make sense of exponentially growing data, owing to the expanding network of devices. "The growing adoption of digital technologies is consuming large amounts of budget and businesses are finding it challenging to balance innovation with cost, with 48% failing to meet the contrasting demands of handling multiple test environments," the report said. "Organizations are finding it tough to strike a balance between quality and speed of development, particularly when it comes to deploying Internet of Things (IoT) technology."

LONDON – 14 September 2016 – New research commissioned by IP EXPO Europe, Europe's number one enterprise IT event, shows that although 37% of respondents think that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a main technology theme for enterprises in 2017, there are mixed signals in terms of business application, investment levels and impact on society from UK IT decision makers (ITDMs). The results reveal that a significant 32% of respondents claim they are concerned about AI replacing human jobs overall, with 19% admitting that they are more worried about their own job being overtaken by a robot than they were 12 months ago. In addition, there is a clear perceived risk factor, with almost a third worried about the unknown impacts of increased AI. 22% of respondents also voiced concerns about AI providing another route for cyber security attacks. Interestingly, 1 in 10 UK ITDMs thought that no form of artificial intelligence was of value to business. However, the results also indicate that any hesitancy in uptake perhaps comes from a lack of immediately recognised business/organisational applications and perceived cost.

Robotics and artificial intelligence not only give us means to take care of traditional physical routines, they also vastly expand our intellectual capacity and our capacity related to understanding. Artificial intelligence facilitates a new kind of working life and moulds the hierarchical structure that we are used to operating within. Robotics can be used to replace organisations' middle management, administrative supervisory functions. Artificial intelligence is more efficient than humans in taking care of rotas, performance assessments and routine employee guidance. Robotics and artificial intelligence not only give us means to take care of traditional physical routines, they also vastly expand our intellectual capacity and our capacity related to understanding.

Spending thousands of hours playing Grand Theft Auto might have questionable benefits for humans, but it could help make computers significantly more intelligent. Several research groups are now using the hugely popular game, which features fast cars and various nefarious activities, to train algorithms that might enable a self-driving car to navigate a real road. But the stunningly realistic scenery found in Grand Theft Auto and other virtual worlds could help a machine perceive elements of the real world correctly. A technique known as machine learning is enabling computers to do impressive new things, like identifying faces and recognizing speech as well as a person can. But the approach requires huge quantities of curated data, and it can be challenging and time-consuming to gather enough.

AI and machine learning are all the rage across a range of technology and industrial sectors. Now, the U.S. military is gauging the prospects for leveraging machine learning and other tools in autonomous weapons via emerging human-machine interfaces. In describing the latest version of the Pentagon's "offset strategy," senior U.S. defense officials have in recent months highlighted the military's desire to leverage AI to develop autonomous weapons. That, Robert Work, deputy U.S. defense secretary, noted in a recent address, "is going to lead to a new era of human-machine collaboration and combat teaming. Added Work: "Collaboration is using the tactical acuity of a computer to help a human make better decisions and human-machine combat teaming is using manned and unmanned platforms." DoD's "offset strategy" refers to a blueprint designed to maintain technological superiority.

Last week, Google announced that it has added real-time, AI-enhanced reporting capabilities, as well as easier sharing of data, to its popular Analytics site analysis software. The new functionality - dubbed "Automated Insights" - is available on late-generation Andriod/IOS devices now; a web version is also in the works. "Google is taking the initiative and wants to let people know that it is going to be like a brain." Between 30 and 50 million marketers use Google Analytics. But while GA's user base his huge, the actual range of tasks used by most users is quite narrow.