Computer scientists have been captivated by the potential of artificial intelligence to create human like experiences with computers for decades. Although we are not at the point of true human intelligence, we have seen great advances in vision, speech, language understanding and knowledge recall that will produce better human computer experiences. This started with investments in speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) for a variety of uses. Microsoft demonstrated this technology 15 years ago at CES and since then has continued to drive these innovations into products. Having computers mimic human behavior at scale has augmented our lives in useful ways.

China will speed up the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) sector and create a market worth more than 100 billion yuan (USD 15.26 billion) over the next three years, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement. By 2018, China shall build platforms for fundamental AI resources and innovation and make breakthroughs on basic core technology, the three-year implementation programme for "Internet Plus" artificial intelligence said. Under the plan, China will cultivate and develop emerging artificial intelligence industries, promote innovation in intelligent products and enhance the intelligence level of terminal products. The programme will involve key projects such as intelligent home appliances, smart automobiles, intelligent unmanned systems, intelligent wearable devices and robots. China will also offer some guarantee measures involving financial support, intellectual property protection, talents and international cooperation, state-run China Daily reported.

An article explores how Nvidia Corp. microchips, the kind that are used in video games and by social media networks for photo tagging, are being applied to medicine. They are being used to add machine learning to medical imaging. The idea is to use the technology to spot conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease earlier and faster. But one potential consequence of advancements in this area is reduced dependence on radiologists. Luminex has raised its offer for Nanosphere to obtain its molecular diagnostics technology from 83 million to more than 100 million.

I gave a talk on Design Thinking for Data Scientists at the O'Reilly Strata Conference in February 2015. The talk was pretty much orthogonal to every other talk at the conference. But it was well received, so I thought I'd share the transcript with you (or your can watch the video). I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts and experiences around this topic of increasing the business impact of Data Scientists working in industry. This talk is primarily directed towards Data Scientists, especially early career Data Scientists, but its also highly relevant to those who manage Data Scientists. I'm using the term Data Scientist in a very broad sense, to mean anyone who is using data plus statistics plus programming to do something new, something that's never been done before in their organization. I'm going to talk about how and why Intuit is transforming it's Data Scientists into Design Thinking leaders.

As the third industrial revolution - led by software - continues to gather steam, world leaders are predicting our entrance into the fourth industrial revolution. Can you guess what is leading it? We all dreamed of the day when robots would effortlessly takeover our mundane chores like doing the dishes, but the truth is that AI can already do more than that. AI is already driving cars, making art, beating humans at Go...and will soon take over your job! Forget science fiction, AI is already here and it is so close to getting so much bigger that governments are starting to prepare for this Tsunami. The White House recently released a report that highlighted staggering numbers for the job market due to AI.

I asked Siri whether she believes in God. "I believe in the separation of spirit and silicon," she demurred. I asked the chatbot ELIZA the same question -- her thing is she's a therapist, so she'd rather focus on what I believe. I asked her if she was religious; she asked if I'd prefer if she weren't. "We aren't really talking about me, are we," she replied.

This IR Magazine interview explores how artificial intelligence, including machine learning and natural language processing, is affecting investor relations. Darrell Heaps, founder and CEO of Q4, a market intelligence and investor engagement firm based in Toronto, is joined by Adam Frederick, Q4's senior vice president, intelligence. Frederick also covered the topic in a recent webinar with Matt Danziger, director of IR at LinkedIn: http://www.irmagazine.com/events/ir-m... Look for part two of the video interview, in which Heaps and Frederick discuss the consumerization of IR teamwork.

"Diversified application areas are expected to drive the artificial intelligence market" The artificial intelligence market is estimated to grow from USD 419.7 million in 2014 to USD 5.05 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 53.65% from 2015 to 2020. This growth can be attributed to the factors such as diversified application areas, improved productivity, and increased customer satisfaction. "Machine learning technology to gain maximum traction during the forecast period" The machine learning technology is expected to account for the largest share of the overall AI market duing the forecast period. In addition, due to the increase in demand for AI from the media & advertising and finance sectors, the artificial intelligence market is expected to gain traction in the next five years. The machine learning technology market for the retail, healthcare, law, and oil & gas sectors is also expected to witness growth during the forecast period.

Over the weekend, a senior researcher at Google spoke about how he and his team are trying to build a computer that can be creative. Douglas Eck, part of Google Brain, a deep-learning research project explained at Moogfest, a four-day music and technology festival in the US that he and his team are using TensorFlow, an open-source library for machine intelligence to investigate whether AI systems can be taught to create original pieces of music, art or even video. Our biggest ever edition of TNW Conference is fast approaching! The inspiration behind the project, Eck explained, was to create a computer system that could create entirely new pieces of music on a regular basis. While an impressive engineering feat, it completely misses the point of what creativity is, and its importance in helping us interpret, challenge and add meaning to our existence.

Several months ago, a few of us at Foursquare started working on a new way to discover the best places around you, a project we now call Marsbot. Our goal: create a product that tells you where to eat or drink before you think to ask for it. It would deliver contextually-aware, proactive recommendations for awesome food and nightlife spots via the simplest communications channel possible: text. Today, I am excited to unveil Marsbot! This year in tech has been all about chatbots, but Marsbot is not a chatbot.