Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said that it is "at least twelve months ahead" of the competition when it comes to its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for banking customers called Luvo, and will release it to the public in twelve months, according to managing director of digitisation Chris Popple. RBS announced that it was working on an AI assistant back in March and speaking at the inaugural AI Summit in London today Popple talked about how the pilots have been going and where Luvo will eventually live (the answer is everywhere). Luvo is a natural language processing AI bot which will answer RBS, Natwest and Ulster bank customer's questions and perform simple banking tasks like money transfers. If Luvo is unable to find the answer it will pass a customer over to a member of staff. Luvo "talks to you through WhatsApp-type interaction" and what sets it apart from digital assistants like Siri and IKEA's Ask Anna is its ability to understand context and perform tasks.

When tackling with cutting edge science, it's not always easy to know what it is that we, as humans, lack understanding of. It's what Donald Rumsfeld would call the'unknown unknowns'. To try and overcome this, a team from the University of Vienna have developed an algorithm that can propose new quantum physics experiments itself, with the hope being that it suggests ideas that humans would never have thought of themselves. The researchers, after struggling to generate so called Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states themselves, began formulating an algorithm that might do a better job. They developed an application, called MELVIN, that takes the common building blocks of quantum experiments and then arranges these to propose unique configurations.

This summer, a spate of new features are headed to Windows 10 by way of the Anniversary Update, Microsoft's next major revision to the OS. Chief among the additions is Windows Ink, an experience specifically designed for digital pen users. The full Ink experience is still months away--longer, if you wait on the fruits of Microsoft's partnership with Wacom, which will reportedly yield a special Ink pen by the holidays. But thanks to the recent, massive Windows 10 Build 14322 that Microsoft released to its Insider beta testers, we've had a chance to try out several aspects of Windows Ink, including Ink Workspace, Sketchpad, Sticky Notes, and more. Click the new pen icon to launch the Windows Ink Workspace apps. If you haven't actually worked with digital ink before, relax: Windows Ink is an optional way to interact with Windows, in much the same way you can use either voice or keyboard to query Cortana.

In this talk we will introduce artificial neural networks and their similarities to how the brain works. We will provide some history and theoretical foundations to introduce feed-forward multi-layer neural networks, describing their predictive and learning ability, and some of their applications in the real world. This is part one of an introductory pair of talks on deep learning concepts and theory. Valentino Zocca has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Maryland with a thesis in theoretical geometry, though he has since worked on technical applications and first-on-the block VR geo-navigation data tools and data analysis. Currently he lives in Italy and the United States where he works on emerging deep learning protocols and neural network architectures.

SK C&C has continued Korea's efforts to increase the usage and adoption of cloud computing within the region, announcing a new strategic alliance with IBM focused on the Watson cognitive computing platform. As part of the agreement, IBM will train Watson to understand and comprehend Korean, and South Korea-based developers will create a number of localized API's and services to increase adoption rates of such advanced cloud computing technologies in the region. Korean will be Watson's eighth language, lining up with English, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Arabic. "Watson remains at the forefront of cognitive computing: advanced systems that learn at scale, understand with meaning, reason with purpose and interact with humans in natural ways," said David Kenny, GM for IBM Watson. "The South Korean marketplace is moving quickly to embrace the disruptive opportunities from next generation technology.

The latest report on artificial intelligence evolution suggests the possibility that the line separating physical and digital realities might dissolve soon. Did you know that the future of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could invisibly entwine human and machine intelligence? Well, the latest report on AI evolution suggests the possibility that the line separating physical and digital realities might dissolve soon. Due to the depiction of artificial intelligence in science fiction films and novels, humans have the tendency to see AI where it does not exist, The Guardian notes. But media discovery startup Random cofounder Jarno M. Koponen believes AI is beginning to turn invisible from the outside in and vice versa.

Despite their huge potential, artificial intelligence and biometrics still very much need human input for accurate identification, according to the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Speaking at an Atlantic Council event, Arati Prabhakar said that while the best facial recognition systems out there are statistically better than most humans at image identification, that when they're wrong, "they are wrong in ways that no human would ever be wrong". "I think this is a critically important caution about where and how we will use this generation of artificial intelligence," she said, reported FedScoop. "You want to embrace the power of these new technologies but be completely clear-eyed about what their limitations are so that they don't mislead us," Prabhakar said. That's a stance humans must take with technology writ large, she said, explaining her hesitance to take for granted what many of her friends in Silicon Valley often assume -- that more data is always a good thing.

Amazon has hired Ashwin Ram, an ex-Xerox PARC employee and a researcher in cognitive science, in an effort to step up its AI R&D department. Although Amazon have not officially released a statement, Ram announced on Twitter that he was "excited to join Amazon." A spokesperson from Amazon has confirmed his appointment but refused to provide further comment. Ram is described as Alexa AI senior manager on his LinkedIn profile. Ram had served as the Chief Innovation Officer at Xerox PARC, a venerate Silicon Valley R&D powerhouse whose noted luminaries include the creators of Ethernet, the world's first WYSIWYG editor, the GUI, the mouse, and laser printing.

The White House will host a series of public meetings to help figure out the benefits and risks of recent and anticipated breakthroughs in artificial intelligence -- and will study how it could help government services. Four workshops will be held across the country in the next two months, co-hosted by local universities and non-profits, examining the various ways AI is already intruding into public life, according to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. The announcement comes in the wake of comments from the government's top blue-sky researcher on the limits of AI -- and of recent public commentary about the apocalyptic threat of learning machines. "Like any transformative technology, artificial intelligence carries some risk and presents complex policy challenges along several dimensions, from jobs and the economy to safety and regulatory questions," writes U.S. Deputy CTO Ed Felten in a blog post. "There are tremendous opportunities and an array of considerations across the Federal Government in privacy, security, regulation, law, and research and development to be taken into account when effectively integrating this technology into both government and private-sector activities."

We are working on giving machines the power of thinking. Computer Scientists often refer to an intelligent entity as an Agent. Our multi agent, multi model, multi modal system can understand deep contexts and is ever learning to build deeper knowledge of the world we live in. We will be sharing our progress with the world as we make it.