DIY home security systems aren't a new thing, but developers are slowly working the kinks out of what can often be a complicated system with lots of moving parts that, should a single component fail, could result in catastrophic consequences. That's good news for homeowners concerned about their safety, but who might be shy about paying thousands of dollars for a traditional system. Abode hit the scene three years ago, and it now offers a wide array of home security products that's deep enough to outfit just about any home or business. At the core lies Abode's Secure Bundle starter kit ($429 after the currently offered 40-percent discount), which includes the gateway, two door/window sensors, an indoor motion sensor with still camera, and a remote control key fob. The feature list is impressive, and Abode seems to have covered all the basics when it comes to contingency planning.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. Another 360 million people globally have moderate to profound hearing loss. Globally, more than 1 billion people need one or more assistive products. The global elderly and disabled assistive devices market was valued at $14 billion in 2015 and is expected to surpass $26 billion by 2024, according to Coherent Market Insights. It is a sizable market with an incredibly diverse set of needs.

Among techniques for data analysis and automation, machine learning has received strong attention the last few years. This is mainly due to the recent breakthroughs within deep learning, but has quite rightfully renewed interest also in more simple and approachable techniques. In this webinar we introduce you to what machine learning is, focus on some of the fundamental concepts and see examples of how it works in SAS.

The first myth regards the timeline: how long will it take until machines greatly supersede human-level intelligence? A common misconception is that we know the answer with great certainly. One popular myth is that we know we'll get superhuman AI this century. In fact, history is full of technological over-hyping. Where are those fusion power plants and flying cars we were promised we'd have by now?

The following article and talk are by Jessica Taylor and they were originally posted on MIRI. At the EA Global 2016 conference, I gave a talk on "Using Machine Learning to Address AI Risk": It is plausible that future artificial general intelligence systems will share many qualities in common with present-day machine learning systems. If so, how could we ensure that these systems robustly act as intended? We discuss the technical agenda for a new project at MIRI focused on this question. The talk serves as a quick survey (for a general audience) of the kinds of technical problems we're working on under the "Alignment for Advanced ML Systems" research agenda. Included below is a version of the talk in blog post form.1 This talk is about a new research agenda aimed at using machine learning to make AI systems safe even at very high capability levels.

Importance Principle: Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. In the history of human progress, a few events have stood out as especially revolutionary: the intentional use of fire, the invention of agriculture, the industrial revolution, possibly the invention of computers and the Internet. But many anticipate that the creation of advanced artificial intelligence will tower over these achievements. In a popular post, Tim Urban with Wait But Why wrote that artificial intelligence is "by far THE most important topic for our future." Or, as AI professor Roman Yampolskiy told me, "Design of human-level AI will be the most impactful event in the history of humankind. It is impossible to over-prepare for it."

E-mail them to Alain Thériault Your question may become the question of the month!

Aldi customers have been warned to stay away from hoax vouchers circulating on email and social media which trick shoppers into thinking that they can save money. The German retailer said the £65 vouchers, that circulated on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, are worthless and will not be accepted as legal tender at their stores. Aldi said it was investigating the scam and urged customers not to share their personal details, which could help scammers to commit identity fraud. "We advise customers to ignore these adverts and not to share any personal information," the supermarket said in a statement sent to the Independent. On Twitter, the supermarket said: "We are aware that there is a hoax £65 Aldi voucher being circulated. This voucher is fraudulent and cannot be redeemed in store."

Deep learning is becoming an increasingly important part of the artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit, yet it is often misunderstood. Although it supports a developing market and is often touted as an important direction for corporate innovation, it needs to be viewed in context. This is a developing area of technology that is rapidly creating its own domain, becoming richer and increasingly varied. We will soon see new opportunities based specifically on deep learning. The market for deep learning solutions continues to expand.

The stunning advancement of artificial intelligence and machine learning has brought advances in society. These technologies have improved medicine and how quickly doctors can diagnose disease, for example. IBM's AI platform Watson helps reduce water waste in drought stricken areas. AI even entertains us--the more you use Netflix, the more it learns what your viewing preferences are and makes suggestions based on what you like to watch. However, there is a very dark side to AI, and it's worrying many social scientists and some in the tech industry.