Between the University of Washington, a thriving tech community, and strong research institutions, like the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), many of the rapid developments in AI are playing out in Seattle. Perhaps that's why the White House has selected the Emerald City for its first public workshop on artificial intelligence. The Office of Science and Technology Policy will co-host the first of four events on artificial intelligence at the University of Washington May 24. The workshop, put on by the UW's Tech Policy Lab and School of Law, will explore issues such as policy, logistical applications, and safety, as they relate to AI. Speakers include AI2 CEO and UW Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Oren Etzioni, White House Deputy U.S. CTO Edward Felten, Microsoft Principal Researcher Kate Crawford, and other industry experts. The workshops are intended "to spur public dialogue on artificial intelligence and machine learning and identify challenges and opportunities related to this emerging technology," writes Felton in a White House blog post.

January 28, 2016 Abstract: GT Watson is a set of cognitive systems designed, developed and deployed at Georgia Tech on top of IBM's Watson cognitive system. It includes cognitive systems for question answering in support of biologically inspired design, ecological modeling, and education and training in artificial intelligence. GT Watson adds layers of semantic processing to Watson and explores the use of external data sources. For example, in the project on ecological modeling, it exploits Smithsonian Institution's Encyclopedia of Life, the world's largest database of biological species. In this team talk, we will present several instances of GT Watson .

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Paul Herzlich works in Google's legal department and helped develop a special sensor for "pressure sores" by those who use wheelchairs. Paul Herzlich works in Google's legal department and helped develop a special sensor for "pressure sores" by those who use wheelchairs. For most of us, eye tracking technology sounds interesting. Eye tracking allows users to move a cursor around a computer or mobile device simply by moving your eyes and head. Oded Ben Dov initially used eye tracking technology to develop a video game that he showed off on Israeli TV.

Lately, there's been a rumble pretty much everywhere about artificial intelligence, digital personal assistants, the Internet of Things, wearables and apps for everything. I've even written about what the rise of digital assistants means to search. There are some who claim that these new technologies will render search obsolete, passed over for the convenience and joy of an always-available digital world. I think they are wrong. Instead of looking at a search engine as an ad platform, we need to remember what it actually does for people.

Salesforce spent roughly 75 million on the three startups it acquired last quarter, according to a regulatory filing submitted Friday. Salesforce spent 32.8 million on MetaMind, the natural language processing and image recognition startup it bought in April. It spent an additional 41.6 million on two other companies it didn't name, but they are PredictionIO and a German company called YOUR SL, both acquired in February. This is the first time Salesforce publicly disclosed the financial details of these deals. One interesting nugget from the MetaMind acquisition is that Salesforce recorded 31.2 million in goodwill, which represents the amount paid for the company beyond what's valued on the balance sheet.

Salesforce spent roughly 75 million on the three startups it acquired last quarter, according to a regulatory filing submitted Friday. Salesforce spent 32.8 million on MetaMind, the natural language processing and image recognition startup it bought in April. It spent an additional 41.6 million on two other companies it didn't name, but they are PredictionIO and a German company called YOUR SL, both acquired in February. This is the first time Salesforce publicly disclosed the financial details of these deals. One interesting nugget from the MetaMind acquisition is that Salesforce recorded 31.2 million in goodwill, which represents the amount paid for the company beyond what's valued on the balance sheet.

Google has grand ambitions for artificial intelligence (AI). A large chunk of the web giant's future business will rely on machine learning to power its range of upcoming services and products like self-driving cars, AI chatbots, and virtual reality devices. But AI requires powerful computing. While no stranger to building its own hardware, Google has traditionally bought components such chips from already established players like Intel. This relationship took a twist this week when the company revealed that it has indeed been making its very own long-rumoured chips, designed specifically for machine learning.

Chase McMichael, NAB VIDEO Intro – Top Video Platforms and Video Machine Learning made a big splash at NAB 2016. The event was all about digital video, video production, VR, drones and every other technology you could imagine. Think of NAB as the as the CEO of digital and video broadcasting. Everywhere you looked there was drone technology, robotics and even a full area dedicated to VR. The future of video publishing is bright for sure as new technology simplifies quality capture and distribution.

The 2016 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest, organized by the IADF TC, was opened on January 3, 2016. The submission deadline was April 29, 2016. Participants submitted open topic manuscripts using the VHR and video-from-space data released for the competition. Evaluation and ranking were conducted by the Award Committee. The winners are reported below along with the abstracts of the submitted papers.