Do you know that two thirds of Chinese outbound travelers prefer individual travel? Data from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) shows that Chinese outbound travelers reached 120 million in 2014, among whom 80 million chose self-guided tours. While we can appreciate the various options available in transportation, accommodation, and attractions, it can also become perplexing and even frustrating to dig through a sea of information just for a travel plan. "The abundance of choice allows everyone to personalize a journey, yet filtering out useless and repeated information can be time-consuming and not cost-effective," said Zhang Fan, founder and CEO of the itinerary planner Mioji. Moji means "brilliant idea" in Chinese.

Dumna tarmac scare: SpiceJet bus driver's alarm sent flyers scurrying Poker-playing AI'bot' carries long-range impact Research report explores the artificial intelligence machines industry development trends ...

Software is to run your business. BBX is to talk to your customers. BBX is where your customers are. From Messenger to web to mobile, customers are interacting with businesses on a growing range of platforms and devices. BBX is not just an off the shelf chatbot, it's an innovative product that was designed and built from the ground up to evolve with your business.

In our quarterly analysis of companies pursuing healthcare-focused applications of AI, we reported that deals leapt from less than 10 in 2011 to 60 in 2015. So far this year (as 0f 8/23/2016), companies in this space have raised around 55 equity funding rounds. Some of the recent deals include a 25M Series A round raised by London-based health services startup, Babylon Health, backed by investors including Kinnevik and Google-owned DeepMind Technologies (Babylon will reportedly roll out a Siri-like voice recognition interface this year), and a 154M Series A round raised by China-based iCarbonX. "By 2025, AI systems could be involved in everything from population health management, to digital avatars capable of answering specific patient queries." We identified over 80 companies that are applying machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics to reduce drug discovery times, provide virtual assistance to patients, and diagnose ailments by processing medical images, among other things.

New Zealand fixed-line telecommunications provider Chorus has announced its full-year financial results for 2015-16, reporting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of NZ 594 million, down by NZ 8 million due to the regulator's copper pricing decision in December. In December, the New Zealand Commerce Commission released its final pricing determination for broadband services being delivered over Chorus' legacy copper network. A breakdown of revenue saw basic copper services contribute NZ 489 million, NZ 2 million less than last year; enhanced copper contribute NZ 242 million, down from NZ 268 million; and fibre contribute NZ 133 million, up by 35.7 percent year on year from NZ 98 million. Value Added Network Services, Field Services, and Infrastructure were all down by NZ 1 million to contribute NZ 35 million, NZ 83 million, and NZ 20 million, respectively.

NAIROBI – Japanese and African leaders on Sunday pledged to fight terrorism and emphasized the importance of rules-based maritime order as they wrapped up a Japan-led international conference on the continent's development. In the Nairobi Declaration adopted at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), the leaders also agreed to promote investment in infrastructure that leads to job creation in the fast-growing region. "Japan's public and private sectors will offer cooperation for the development that is led by Africa itself," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference after wrap-up of the sixth TICAD, convened in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told the same news conference that Japan does not press its own views on the continent and continues to be a force for African development. The triennial conference was held outside Japan for the first time, as Tokyo seeks to strengthen its economic and political presence in the continent amid China's increasing influence.

Have you noticed that the best fitness functions that most creatures adopt for survival is to work in collectives? School of fishes, Hive of bees, the nest of ants, horde of wildebeests or flock of birds all have something in common. What is even more perplexing about nature is the ecological inter-dependence of different species, collectively surviving to see a better day. This fitness function is a sum of averages of sorts which enables a different form of collective strength. Its called Unity in Diversity.

Ariel lost 20 lbs of weight and documented his progress using a series of scripts. The VW project is co-sponsored by Microsoft and Yahoo Research. Ariel had logged his data as a simple CSV file using only weight, sleep, exercise and foods consumed as data points. He then wrote a perl script to convert his CSV over to the vowpal-wabbit traning-set. He learned which foods, exercise and sleep patterns showed a positive correlation with weight loss.

Deep-learning artificial intelligence has mostly relied upon the general-purpose GPU hardware used in many other computing tasks. But Intel's recent acquisition of the startup Nervana Systems will give the tech giant ownership of a specialized chip designed specifically for deep learning AI applications. That could give Intel a huge lead in the race to develop next-generation artificial intelligence capable of swiftly finding patterns in huge data sets and learning through imitation. Nervana has leaned heavily on GPU hardware to build its own portfolio of deep-learning AI services for both companies and independent developers. But the startup has also been developing its own specialized deep-learning hardware, called Nervana Engine, that includes only the components necessary for running deep-learning algorithms and eliminates the extra components used for general-purpose GPU tasks.

Machines and robots are increasingly shoving humans aside in the workplace. They build, cook and clean for us and increasingly work for us - so much so that Oxford University predicts almost half of US jobs will be done by machines and robots within the next 20 years. And then there is the next wave of technology: smarter artificial intelligence and augmented reality. It is a future that is leaving many people concerned and confused, while others see endless potential. What opportunities can artificial intelligence provide?