Intel wants to take on Google's Tensor Processing Unit and Nvidia's GPUs in machine learning computing with improvements to its Xeon Phi mega-chips. The company will add new features to Xeon Phi to tune it for machine learning, said Nidhi Chappell, director of machine learning at Intel. Machine learning, a trendy technology, allows software to be trained to do tasks like image recognition or data analysis more efficiently. Intel didn't disclose when the new features will be added, but the next version of Xeon Phi will come by 2018. Intel's already behind chip rivals in machine learning, so it may have to speed up the next Xeon Phi release.

Scientists are closer to creating a computer with emotions. Researchers in Russia are expected to reveal an emotional computer within a year and a half, which will be able to think like a person and build up trust, its creators say. The system, called'Virtual Actor', is being created by the National Research Nuclear University in Moscow. Computers are machines used for practical reasons, without any emotion involved. The AI, called'Virtual Actor', is expected to be online within the next year and a half.

Late last year, I wrote about an interesting project from the US Defense Department to create a robotic jazz player. They developed a machine that is capable of performing a trumpet solo after picking up cues from fellow (human) musicians. "The goal of our research is to build a computer system and then hook it up to robots that can play instruments, and can play with human musicians in ways that we recognize as improvisational and adaptive," the researchers said. At the heart of this kind of project is a big data fueled pattern match, whereby machines learn what to do next by studying huge numbers of previous examples from human musicians. A similar project has been undertaken by researchers at Google.

We researched the necessary/must-have and desirable/nice-to-have skills Fortune 500 companies look for when hiring engineers to work on solutions requiring expertise in Machine Learning, Data Science, Big Data etc. Our motive is to keep this list updated so it's relevant.

New research from Adobe and Goldsmiths University of London has looked at the future of customer experience, with some surprising findings on machine-learning, IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR). 'The Future of Experience' report was published yesterday, with its findings revealed at Adobe's Cross-Channel Marketing Forum in London. IoB attended the event to learn more about the report. The report reveals new rules of engagement when it comes to brands creating great experiences using a range of emerging technologies, such as VR, AR, AI, wearables and the IoT. Goldsmiths University of London worked with Adobe on qualitative online research with over 2,000 adults in the UK, as well as workshops with technology experts, and the resulting report identifies five new dimensions for brands to think about when creating experiences for the future.

Speaking very prospectively about IT, in 10-15 years, being firm at a computer like device and being able to speak a computer language (know how to code) will be more or less basic education. In foreseeable future IT will have such an extraordinary importance and impact, that this fact will be mirrored in the organizational framework of every company. An increasing number of comprehensive set of different Director and C-Roles all with regard to IT will appear. Even the small and middle-sized businesses will need a CIO/CTO as well as a Chief Security Officer. Furthermore, business success will largely depend on the goodness of the IT backbone of a company.

Ever imagined that one day a social networking website like Facebook will automatically start describing the content of photos especially to the blind and visually impaired users? Also, wondered how Google predicts what you are looking for the moment you type'Goa' and starts showing results in the form of air tickets and destinations in Goa to visit? Or how Apple can analyse your facial expressions and read your emotions besides recognising your speech? These phenomena are nothing but virtually advanced solutions that global tech giants are investing in using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning techniques to make our lives better. These major driving forces of the new generation of the web have the potential to disrupt a lot beyond the offerings by these corporate giants.

A high British entrepreneur thinks he is solved the issue of our over-stretched NHS – a private robotic physician you'll be able to entry with the press of a button. Babylon is being hailed because the world's first synthetic intelligence triage nurse and may be accessed on a smartphone at any time. On the app's launch in London yesterday, Ali stated his machine outperforms the well being service and is a "phenomenal step" in the way forward for each the NHS and world healthcare. "Within the final three weeks, 20,000 folks used our symptom checker and in the identical time interval 600,000 folks used the 111 helpline – that is three% of individuals already," he mentioned at Babylon's HQ in West London. In response to Babylon's calculations, in 102 medical eventualities the well being app outperforms medical doctors by 21.5% and nurses by 23.5%.

She paints and writes poetry. She's also an artificial intelligence from the movie Her, which imagines how a juiced-up Siri will change our lives. Now, tech companies large and small are racing to make this a reality. You've heard the jargon: AI, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing. AI, simply put, is an attempt to make computers as smart, or even smarter than human beings.

In March, Microsoft revealed that it was using the open-world game Minecraft to train AI agents to learn how to do things like climbing a hill. The company also promised to make it available to the public so they could work on their own artificial intelligence projects and research, and it's finally available today. Project Malmo (formerly known as Project AIX) is a Minecraft mod that works on Windows, Mac and Linux, and supports just about any programming language you might want to use. So yes, that means you will need to know how to code – but Microsoft says that even novice programmers can get in on the action. You can learn more about Project Malmo here and grab the mod from this GitHub repository to try it for yourself.