Facebook is working to get significantly better at automatically translating updates from friends not written in your native language. The social network plans to roll out a new translation system later this year. It is based on artificial neural networks, an approach to machine learning that has recently caused Facebook and others to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (see "10 Breakthrough Technologies 2013: Deep Learning"). Alan Packer, director of engineering for Facebook's language technology team, said Monday that neural networks are able to produce more natural-sounding translations than statistical machine translation, the technology that underpins most translation software today. Packer said that neural networks may also be better at learning how to translate idioms and metaphors into their equivalents in other languages.

The latest version of Alpine Data's analytics platform seeks to combine data with machine learning for business users by shifting the focus from algorithms while adding human collaboration and governance capabilities to machine learning projects. San Francisco-based Alpine Data said Wednesday (May 25) its Chorus 6.0 analytics platform targets a wider swathe of the business analytics spectrum by accelerating "the delivery of data into action and to create a clear, repeatable process for continuous business improvement." Among the reasons that heavy enterprise investment in big data projects often does not pan out, the company argues, are the often-fruitless search for the "right" algorithm. Another pain point is enterprise struggles over data infrastructures and governance. Data governance refers to the overall management of data access rights and other security considerations.

As data scientists, we work in concert with other members of an organization with the goal of making better decisions. This often involves finding trends and anomalies in historical data to guide future action. But in some cases, the best aid to decision-making is less about finding "the answer" in the data and more about developing a deeper understanding of the underlying problem. In this post we will focus another tool that is often overlooked: interactive simulations through the means of agent based modeling. Agent based modeling involves the description of individual agents that interact with each other within an environment and seeing how their behaviours combine to produce macro-level system behaviours. Agents can be modeled at whatever level seems natural to our understanding of the system: individual humans, client cohorts, departments, competing firms, computer programs or similar entities can all be agents.

Artificial intelligence has made gigantic leaps in the past few years. Thanks to the advent of technologies like multicore processors, machine learning and neural networking, A.I. is able to mimic known human brain functions more closely than ever before. Facebook's A.I. can recognize a human face and decide who it belongs to. Google's A.I. can beat a world champion at an incredibly complex board game that's been around for centuries. Amazon's A.I. can figure out what products you may want for your home and help you manage your IoT devices.

Alphabet's Google Inc unveiled its answer to Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant along with new messaging and virtual reality products at its annual I/O developer conference on Wednesday, doubling down on artificial intelligence and machine learning as the keys to its future. Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai introduced Google Assistant, a virtual personal assistant, along with the tabletop speaker appliance Google Home. He also unveiled Allo, a new messaging service that will compete with Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger products and feature a chatbot powered by the Google Assistant. Allo, like WhatsApp, will also have end-to-end encryption when it is rolled out this summer. Amazon's Echo, a surprise hit that has other tech giants racing to match it, uses a virtual assistant called Alexa, a cloud-based system that controls the Echo speaker and responds to voice-controlled commands by users.

Researchers from MIT have designed a new ingestible "robot" that could one day be used to patch internal wounds, deliver medicine, or remove accidentally swallowed objects from the stomach. The design consists of a specially folded sheet of dried pig intestine (usually used in sausage casing) and a tiny magnet. Folded up, this capsule can be swallowed by a patient. It then hits the stomach and unfolds in the acidic juices, where it can be guided to complete certain tasks using external magnets. The design is very much a work-in-progress, but its creators think it offers a promising model for the future.

This morning I attended a fascinating lecture at the Club at the Ivy about Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and the impact it will have on the digital industries. Jonathan Seal, Director of Strategy at Mando told us that Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook are all heavily investing in AI and he thinks this will be the battle ground of the future. If you can use AI to work out the context of a person then you can give them something very relevant and lock out the competition and own that space. The rise of the robot concierge means that consumers will ask a robot to interact with a brand instead of going directly themselves which means that brands will need to start marketing to machines. Devika Thapar, Watson Solutions Leader at IBM talked about the 4th Industrial revolution with an AI-First World. Automation is not new but AI and the Internet of Things are new.

Dillon Seo, one of the co-founders of virtual reality pioneer Oculus, has launched a new business that blends artificial intelligence with the immersive aspect of virtual reality. Voler Creative has an end goal of creating'a virtual friend understands and empathises with you'. Seo, who left Oculus to start the project in March 2015, hopes it will be able to resolve the problem of human loneliness, and consequently alleviate consumers' self esteem. The boyfriend or girlfriend avatar will be designed exclusively for the user and will build a relationship with them through the help of countenance expression, machine learning and big data. However, Seo told The Drum that Voler has also been created to collect personal preference data that can be used for targeted advertising.

In his book The Singularity Is Near, American computer scientist Ray Kurzweil had predicted a decade ago that by 2045 non-biological intelligence will have exceeded biological intelligence on Earth due to exponential changes in infotech, biotech and nanotech. Basically, man and machine will become one. But Murray Shanahan, a London-based cognitive robotics professor, disagrees with Kurzweil's theory in his more recent book, Technological Singularity. "Kurzweil was very precise (about time)," Shanahan tells China Daily in an interview in Beijing. "Technological singularity has a very dramatic impact on humanity."

The recent media frenzy about artificial intelligence (AI) has been unavoidable. This vision has perhaps come a step closer with the arrival of IBM Watsoni and Richard Susskind's latest book, The Future of the Professionsii, which predicts an internet society with greater virtual interaction with professional services such as doctors, teachers, accountants, architects and lawyers. In reality, is AI many years away from making any real impact in the legal sector? And should law firms see this technical advancement as an opportunity or threat? Broadly speaking, AI is the theory and development of computer systems which will perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.