Computing science researcher Siamak Ravanbakhsh (middle), with his co-supervisors Russell Greiner (left) and David Wishart. Ravanbakhsh has developed a computer system called Bayesil that could dramatically improve diagnosis and treatment of a wide spectrum of diseases. Siamak Ravanbakhsh, who recently completed his PhD in computing science at the University of Alberta and whose research was recently published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, said Bayesil, the computer application resulting from this breakthrough, is pretty easy to explain in basic terms. "There is this technology called NMR spectrometry, which uses some of the same physical principles as MRI. This technology is very cool, because it can determine the concentration of certain compounds in your body," he said.

Over the last few blog posts, I've discussed some of the basics of what machine learning is and why it's important: Throughout those posts, I've been using the following definition of machine learning: creating computational systems that learn from data in order to make predictions and inferences. However, machine learning isn't the only subject in which we use data for prediction and inference. Anyone who's taken an introductory statistics class has heard a similar definition about statistics itself. And if you talk to someone who works in data-mining, you'll hear the same thing: data mining is about using data to make predictions and draw conclusions from data. This raises the question: what is the difference between machine learning, statistics, and data mining? The long answer has a bit of nuance (which we'll discuss soon), but the short answer answer is very simple: machine learning, statistical learning, and data mining are almost exactly the same.

OpenAI and Shocking AI Salaries This week, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, head of the famed incubator Y Combinator, announced the launch of the OpenAI project, which is a company that's building AI products and services and giving away their tech for free. Just after the announcement, OpenAI's team of researchers were reportedly mobbed with huge employment offers from some of the tech world's biggest firms. Microsoft's Vice President of Research said that the cost of a top artificial intelligence researcher has eclipsed the cost of a top quarterback prospect in the National Football League. CLICK TO TWEET THIS: The cost of a top artificial intelligence researcher has eclipsed the cost of a top quarterback prospect in the National Football League. Bill Gates' 2b Clean Energy Fund Recently, the MIT Technology Review sat down for a Q&A session with Bill Gates and they discussed the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.

On June 19-21, the Financial Data Science Association will hold its regular conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The AI for Good Foundation has teamed up with FDSA to explore themes of transparency, regulation, and the positive impacts of increased data-driven decision making and intelligent systems in Finance. We encourage participation from a broad community to come and learn, debate, and contribute to the future vision of Sustainable and Transparent Financial Markets! FDSA aims to bring together thought leaders and actors from across the globe, industry, and academia, to present, debate, and construct a common vision for the integration of judicious data science into the investment and risk management process. We want to see how data is transforming finance today, and what it could do tomorrow as companies compete to innovate, and make use of their data resources to maximum advantage.

More and more, 67-year-old Washington resident Lon Coleman feels like he's wandering through a fog. He walks into the living room and forgets why, or makes a phone call only to blank on whose number he dialed. An author of three books who once wrote up to five poems a day, now the lines that spring to his mind often slip away as soon as he puts pencil to paper. Sometimes the fog clears, and when his memory comes back, "it's amazing," he says. "Sometimes it doesn't, I have to admit."

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

Overview of the Centre for Innovation A living, breathing innovation hub as an accelerator to help Accenture and its clients unlock value by design. Our design-led, multidiscipline Centre for Innovation will research, incubate and pilot new and emerging digital technologies. Opportunities will focus on building the future in real time, partnering with clients across multiple industries and bringing together distinct skillsets to create true acceleration at scale. Operating across all stages of the innovation spectrum, the working environment will be open and interactive. An experimentation culture combined with a disruptive brief will ensure that together we make major societal impacts.

A team led by an Indian-origin computer engineer from University of Washington has built a five-fingered robotic hand that can not only perform dexterous in-hand manipulation but also learn from its own experience without depending on humans to direct it. Hand manipulation is one of the hardest problems that roboticists have to solve. "Several robots today have pretty capable arms but the hand is as simple as a suction cup or maybe a claw or a gripper," said lead author Vikash Kumar, doctoral student in computer science and engineering. The team spent years custom building one of the most highly capable five-fingered robot hands in the world. Then they developed an accurate simulation model that enables a computer to analyse movements in real time. In their latest demonstration, they apply the model to the hardware and real-world tasks like rotating an elongated object.

PAPIs is the premier forum for the presentation of new machine learning APIs, techniques, architectures and tools to build predictive applications. It is a community conference that brings together practitioners from industry, government and academia to present new developments, identify new needs and trends, and discuss the challenges of building real-world predictive applications. PAPIs '16 is the 3rd International Conference on Predictive APIs and Apps, featuring 3 tracks (Technical, Business, Research) and the 1st AI Startup Battle where the jury is an AI. The audience is a mix of developers, software engineers, all-round data scientists, machine learning specialists, researchers, decision makers, managers, strategists and innovators. Previous editions took place in Sydney (PAPIs '15), Barcelona (PAPIs '14), Paris and Valencia (PAPIs Connect).

About a meter tall, the robot is a very strange sight - it is essentially a pair of almost entirely straight legs which pivot from the top. An ankle mechanism is used to ensure that the robot lands with a flat foot. It was accompanied on stage by Yuto Nakanishi who gave a commentary on a video that shows the robot climbing stairs, walking on snow and across a rocky beach, and staying upright when a rod is used in a deliberate attempt to trip it.