Machine learning has come of age in public health reporting according to researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. They have found that existing algorithms and open source machine learning tools were as good as, or better than, human reviewers in detecting cancer cases using data from free-text pathology reports. The computerized approach was also faster and less resource intensive in comparison to human counterparts. Every state in the United States requires cancer cases to be reported to statewide cancer registries for disease tracking, identification of at-risk populations, and recognition of unusual trends or clusters. Typically, however, busy health care providers submit cancer reports to equally busy public health departments months into the course of a patient's treatment rather than at the time of initial diagnosis.

SIOS Technology Corp., the industry's leading provider of software products that help IT ensure the performance, efficiency, and high availability protection of business critical applications, today announced it will co-host a live one-hour webinar featuring ActualTech Media Partner and VMware vExpert Scott D. Lowe who will show how using new machine learning based analytics tools can resolve application performance issues in virtualized environments.

There are many who say we can put controls in place that keep A.I. from becoming dangerous, but they've missed the fact that these technologies are already dangerous. Humans have already faced a strategic opponent that understands us better than we understand it, AlphaGo, which shocked the A.I. community by beating a human Go Master in 4 out of 5 games. The only thing we're now waiting to happen is for programmers to apply these technologies to disciplines that are more significant to our lives than board games. This will occur, and the raw power of these technologies will steadily advance, putting us at a greater and greater disadvantage. It seems we're destined to be out-matched, and not just on the Go board, but in countless strategic situations.

According to Sean Kilcarr (writing in Fleet Owner), many of the trends in logistics boil down to technological advancements. I agree with that view. And the good thing about it is that these technical changes allow evolutionary as well as disruptive innovation, and over time will move the entire field to greater efficiency and more effective performance for each customer, perhaps much faster than we think. Many of the changes are straightforward application of technology using industrial engineering techniques. They will, however, require a highly educated and technologically literate work force.

Eventually, the team devised a handwriting recognition tool that worked beautifully on modern Hebrew, and they decided to put it to the test on ancient inscriptions. All in all, their analysis revealed at least six different authors behind the 16 ostraca. Examining the contents of the text itself, the researchers concluded that these authors spanned the entire military chain of command. "The commander down to the lowest water master could all communicate in writing," Shaus said. "This was an extremely surprising result."

Big Data constantly hits that wall. Despite all the investment in infrastructure and people, Big Data just can't generate further value. This is happening because we're treating Big Data and the stuff it contains like algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) just like we treat traditional information technology. From a high level, here is the wall. Brick 1 - Business knows business but doesn't understand AI.

In order to make self-driving cars viable, the automotive industry has recruited some of the best software developers, hardware engineers, and mobility analysts humanity has to offer. There's a new community working to push autonomous technology forward, but these researchers aren't human at all. Buried deep within the halls of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) lies a small suburb called Duckietown, a mock-up municipality used to test and develop driverless technology. Populated entirely by rubber ducks riding on autonomous robo-taxis, Duckietown is the culmination of a graduate-level class that could prove invaluable to automakers in the future. "We believe a tool like this will help create a common platform and language for researchers to build on," said CSAIL postdoctoral associate Liam Paull, who co-leads the Duckietown course.

A new article in ScienceDaily reports, "A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and rhinoceros that play unique and crucial roles in the ecosystems where they live. Human patrols serve as the most direct form of protection of endangered animals, especially in large national parks. However, protection agencies have limited resources for patrols. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Army Research Office, researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) and game theory to solve poaching, illegal logging and other problems worldwide, in collaboration with researchers and conservationists in the U.S., Singapore, Netherlands and Malaysia."

The next chapter of early childhood education may be coming courtesy of Sesame Workshop and the letters I-B-M. Sesame Workshop, which has made the beloved children's education show "Sesame Street" for decades, and IBM's Watson -- of "Jeopardy!" The firms will work together for three years to develop products for the classroom and the home, which combine the artificial intelligence prowess of Watson with Sesame Workshop's deep knowledge of how to teach to the preschool set. The hope is that Watson, which can learn and adapt based on its user, will be able to adjust its teaching based on a child's skill level and learning style. Sesame Workshop has worked for years to provide a mix of learning styles in its flagship show, but is looking to do more.

The good news: The Loch Ness Monster has been captured on sonar by an underwater robot operated by the British division of Norway's Kongsberg Maritime. The bad news: "Nessie" is a prop from a Sherlock Holmes film that sank in the loch in 1969. The monstrous model was long thought lost until it was discovered this week by the Munin Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) as part of an underwater survey of the loch for The Loch Ness Project and VisitScotland. There have been sporadic sightings of what is purported to be the Loch Ness Monster since the first recorded encounter by St Columba in 565 AD. After a supposed photograph was taken in 1933, public interest in some sort of large, dinosaur-like creature making its home in the Highlands skyrocketed, and in the decades since the loch has been subjected to sonar scans, submersible hunts, hydrophone surveys, and enough photographs taken above and below the surface to wallpaper the Grand Canyon.