Online abuse remains the big hairy monster in the room for platforms powered by user-generated content. Twitter especially has had some very sizable and public problems with problem users, taking flak in recent years for being the go-to social media conduit for orchestrated misogynistic campaigns, such as the #Gamergate example. Or more recently for being the training platform where trolls were able to teach Microsoft's ingenue AI chatbot Tay how to be racist and sexist double quick. Twitter knows it has a problem with users appropriating its platform to spread hate speech and/or harass others. Former CEO Dick Costolo conceded back in February 2015 that'we suck at dealing with abuse'.

Google has taken a big leap forward with the speed of its machine learning systems by creating its own custom chip that it's been using for over a year. The company was rumored to have been designing its own chip, based partly on job ads it posted in recent years. But until today it had kept the effort largely under wraps. It calls the chip a Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU, named after the TensorFlow software it uses for its machine learning programs. In a blog post, Google engineer Norm Jouppi refers to it as an accelerator chip, which means it speeds up a specific task.

If you're an experienced programmer interested in crunching data, this book will get you started with machine learning--a toolkit of algorithms that enables computers to train themselves to automate useful tasks. Authors Drew Conway and John Myles White help you understand machine learning and statistics tools through a series of hands-on case studies, instead of a traditional math-heavy presentation. Each chapter focuses on a specific problem in machine learning, such as classification, prediction, optimization, and recommendation. Using the R programming language, you'll learn how to analyze sample datasets and write simple machine learning algorithms. Machine Learning for Hackers is ideal for programmers from any background, including business, government, and academic research.

Robots are moving out of the factory and into the office. The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed all this. Automated systems can now be used to carry out tasks that previously required human intelligence, such as providing advice and analysing documents. IBM's Watson computer is already being used for complex data analysis outside the legal sector, such as the medical profession. For example, US-based health insurer WellPoint uses Watson to support decisions on some patient procedures.

It was as far back as 1991 – when Nirvana's Nevermind was riding high in the album charts, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the must-see film in cinemas; and escalating tensions led to the first Gulf War – that we had a sneak preview of how networked connectivity would eventually impact our lives. That year, researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Labs invented the world's first webcam to solve their coffee problem. Frustrated by pointless trips down the hall to the coffee machine only to find the pot empty, they set up a video camera near the machine and networked it to a computer. Now they could see whether the coffee pot was full or empty in real time. Today billions of devices across the world are networked, sharing what they see, hear and otherwise sense with the internet.

Will learner-centred AI be banned from classrooms like smartphones? I was struck by a statement in this promotional video for IBM's Watson AI technology that said, In the 30 or so years of working with digital platforms across the education and creative sectors I've noticed that these sort of claims appear every time a new bit of tech arrives. Watson, of course, is very smart technology. It hasn't passed the Turing test but it did beat the human champions on the TV trivia game show Jeopardy! It achieves this with some impressive computing power. Designed to answer questions within 3 seconds Watson's main innovation is its ability to quickly execute more than 100 different language analysis techniques to analyse the question, find and generate candidate answers, and ultimately score and rank them.

People are one of the largest, if not THE largest, investment an organisation makes. In today's VUCA world, business innovation and growth, lies in an organisation's ability to attract and retain the right people to help realise the future. Getting the right people to innovate and grow the business is more important in achieving overall goals than any other part of a business plan. I've been both in the Business and HR side of the game and one thing that hurts a lot is losing talent and it's even more painful and pointless to lose them before they join or within few months of their tenure. Fact: Research data shows that Candidates drop the offer (no-show – 37%) if they feel overlooked or unwelcome and almost 22% of the newly hired employees quit within three months.

Amazon.com Inc. is testing a new service that will make it easier for businesses to run artificial intelligence software on computers rented from the company, people familiar with the situation said, stepping up competition with Alphabet Inc. unit Google, Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud business, rolled out a limited offering in this area last year. The new service will let businesses run a wider range of AI software on Amazon's computers, leading to more powerful applications capable of tasks like pattern recognition and speech transcription. Some customers are testing it, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the offering hasn't been announced yet. This is a rare example of Amazon chasing rather than leading in public cloud computing, the business of renting out computer power, storage and related services over the internet. In March, Google released a wide range of cloud services centered around a type of AI known as machine learning, which the internet giant has used internally for years.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

In a promotional video for Amazon's Echo virtual assistant device, a young girl no older than 12 asks excitedly: "Is it for me?". The voice-controlled speaker can search the web for information, answer questions and even tell kids' jokes. An investigation by the Guardian has found that despite Amazon marketing the Echo to families with young children, the device is likely to contravene the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), set up to regulate the collection and use of personal information from anyone younger than 13. Along with Google, Apple and others promoting voice-activated artificial intelligence systems to young children, the company could now face multimillion-dollar fines. "This is part of the initial wave of marketing to children using the internet of things," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group that helped write the law.