Day 2 at NVIDIA's GTC 2016, and we see one of the first Deep Learning Robotics application demo with the IBM Watson robot. Finally, a deep learning robotics application that many can relate! Of all the deep learning examples we've come across, this IBM Watson Robot demo is one of the most appreciated and understandable for the masses. This is but a glimpse of cognitive computing. But what does that term mean?

Machine-reengineering is a way to automate business processes using machine learning. Although machine-reengineering is new, companies are already seeing striking results with it, particularly in boosts to speed and efficiency. Studying 168 early adopters, we've seen speed improvements of two times or more for most business processes -- and some organizations are reporting speed improvements of 10 times or more. How do companies do it? Our study found that organizations are using machine-reengineering to establish new forms of human-machine collaboration that break through the bottlenecks of complex digital processes.

In the last few years, an increasing amount of public-private initiatives have adopted IoT solutions, ranging from smart grids to energy efficiency applications. The unprecedented growth of the urban population, meanwhile, highlights the importance of increased public-private cooperation in smart cities and the circular economy to deliver more scalable low-carbon development models. For example, IBM's China Research Lab is working with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) and other municipal authorities in China to scale-up its air quality forecasting system, as part of IBM's Green Horizons Initiative. The system uses pollution data from a network of sensors spread throughout Beijing. Through complex modeling and machine learning techniques, it returns increasingly precise forecasts of air pollution levels in different neighborhoods.

This column is a little cheerful, slightly analytical, both confident and tentative and just a tiny bit angry. At least that's what IBM's Watson thinks. Last week, IBM revealed that its Jeopardy-winning supercomputer has a new capability. It's called Watson Tone Analyzer. You can use it like spell check, except instead of checking your spelling, it checks the "tone" of your writing.

The rise of the chatbot and the fall of the app-based economy have recently taken centre stage, thanks in large part to Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook was opening up Messenger to third-party bots. The potential for brands to interact with users at the same level they do with their peers is immense. As Kik's Ivar Chan says, "In a world where messenger apps have surpassed social networks, companies need to expand their digital presence to these greenfield pastures." OK, he's a partner at a leading chatbot specialist, so he does have a dog in the fight… but he's also right. This isn't about bots and artificial intelligence, this is about ubiquity of messaging as platform.

There's no way of knowing when the machines will take over, but scientists have a prediction about the breakthrough that would have to occur in order for that to happen: the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) system that rivals our own brains. There's an interesting reason why such a system would almost certainly overtake human intelligence and precipitate the rise of machines than are smarter than us -- not just equally smart. As director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), Seth Shostak ends up thinking a lot about AI. He predicts we'll find AI in the universe before we will be able to find the biological beings that might have created it, since computers and various devices can travel great distances much more easily than living beings (just think of the rovers we've sent to Mars). Here on Earth, as well as on other planets, Shostak thinks the exponential rise of computers will eventually allow them to outsmart us.

Two EteRNA players check out a molecule designed using the online game. The display above shows output from a laser microscope that tests the new designs. Two EteRNA players check out a molecule designed using the online game. The display above shows output from a laser microscope that tests the new designs. Though it's the world's top infectious killer, tuberculosis is surprisingly tricky to diagnose.

Baidu, China's largest search engine, is under investigation after college student with a rare form of cancer said it promoted a fraudulent treatment center. Baidu, China's largest search engine, is under investigation after college student with a rare form of cancer said it promoted a fraudulent treatment center. Chinese health and Internet authorities have launched an investigation into Baidu, the country's largest search engine, following the death of a college student who accused Baidu of misleading him to a fraudulent cancer treatment. Experts believe the scandal will damage the credibility of Baidu's search results, and its long-term economic prospects. On Monday, news of the government investigation caused Baidu's stock to tumble by nearly 8% on the NASDAQ.

People gather in the Nvidia booth at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile phone trade show, in Barcelona on Feb. 27. (Photo: Manu Fernandez, AP) Tesla, the electric car maker, (TSLA) saw it shares dip 4.1% to 243.45, down 10.43, on a day that the overall market was rising. Ask them where those technologies will have an impact, on the other hand, and the responses will likely be all over the map. Smartphones, smart cities and intelligent assistants are just a few of the many options you might hear. Ironically, the one answer you probably won't hear is the category that all of these technologies are either already in or quickly coming to: cars. Today's automobiles have some of the most advanced tech available, and over the next several model years, the amount and capabilities of that technology is going to increase dramatically. Many of these advancements are being driven by the interest in what's called ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), the technology that will eventually lead to self-driving cars.

The system leverages a high-def video of the incoming trash line, touchscreen software and robotic arms to eliminate the need for humans to touch trash directly. A human worker watches the video feed to identify various items -- newspapers, glass bottles, tin cans, old batteries, that sort of thing. Once the human spots a recyclable, he swipes the item into a segregated onscreen bin. Then, and this is really cool, a robotic arm down on the trash line interprets that action, reaches into the mess to grab the item and toss it into a separate pile. According to Jodone's lab tests, this system can enables users to pick up to eight times the amount of trash -- roughly 2,500 pieces an hour -- than they could alone, with 95 percent accuracy. "We know that robots are great at manual labor--at doing the same thing a million times in a row.