While artificial intelligence, machine learning and other futuristic-seeming technologies have been resigned to the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, traditional companies are also getting in the game, including Equifax and SAS. According to a report, Equifax is using deep-learning tools to enhance its credit scoring system, and SAS is using deep learning to improve its data mining tools and provide deep learning APIs. In an interview, Peter Maynard, senior vice president of global analytics at Equifax, said the company realized a few years ago that it wasn't getting enough "statistical lift" from its traditional credit scoring methods and thus started to embrace advanced deep-learning technology. The report noted that modern machine-learning technologies, such as deep neural networks, which boast much more accurate results, were perceived to not be interpretable, posing a challenge for any company wanting to use them. The complexity also added another layer of challenge for Equifax.

On most days, we do not wake up anticipating that we may be suddenly thrust into the sky while popcorn shrimp rains down like confetti, as some guy roars from above: "Hey, there, I'm Jack. And you are in a computer simulation." Instead, we wake up thinking that an atom is an atom, that our physics is inherent to this universe and not prone to arbitrary change by coders, and that our reality is, well, real. Yet there may be another possibility. Game developers have opened up massive, explorable universes and populated them with computer-generated characters based on advanced A.I.

One of the challenges that data scientists face when running machine learning workloads is processing information before it's ready for use. Google unveiled a new cloud service Thursday aimed at easing that pain. Google Cloud Dataprep will automatically detect data schemas, joins, and anomalies such as missing or duplicate values, without requiring coding. After that, it will help users build a set of rules for processing the information. Those rules are then built in Apache Streams format and can be imported into products like Google's Cloud Dataflow for processing information as it's imported into services like the BigQuery data warehouse service.

The world of AI, robotics and cognitive computing are changing business even faster than we thought. JPMorgan Chase & Co now uses software to perform the mind-numbing job of interpreting commercial loans, reducing 360,000 hours of lawyer time each year. AI software can now identify leukemia in photos and X-rays, learning faster than technicians. And the stories go on and on. Is this real and widespread around the world?

People can find a hundred ways to say the same thing, which poses a challenge to robots that are expected to keep up their end of conversations. A Disney Research team's solution is to devise an automated method of crowdsourcing multiple lines of dialogue. After all, "hello" is a perfectly fine greeting, but not every time you see someone. The team developed a persistent interactive personality, or PIP, that can translate high-level goals and variables into simple narratives, effectively summarizing situations it will find itself in. PIP then autonomously presents the descriptions to crowd workers to elicit appropriate speech for the context.

AI Toronto is Canada's National AI Conference run by the Digital Finance Institute a prestigious Think Tank for Tech and AI, known for hosting some of the most prominent events in the finance and technology industries world-wide. AI Toronto will discuss Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Machine Learning, Self-Driving Cars, Innovation, Financial Intelligence, AI Law, Chatbots, the Future of Banking with AI, Robotics, Smart Contracts, Security, Ethics of AI and more. Join us on March 29th 2017, at The National Club in Toronto for an engaging day of learning about the most cutting-edge innovations being made in the AI industry today. There is a Networking event on March 28th from 5:30-7:30 at The National Club for our registered attendees.

Every year, SSON invites global innovators to the stage to share their views on trends that are disrupting the way we do business. The idea is to inspire you to think outside the box – and maybe get to your own next "big idea". Right now, one of the most significant trends is the rise of robotics across all elements of the enterprise, transforming the way business is done. The implications will impact enterprises beyond what many of us can comprehend today. Martin Ford is a futurist and New York Times best-selling author perhaps best known for his book "Rise of the Robots".

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has permeated many industries from finance to healthcare, and sales is no exception. Within sales tech, there are a number of startups using AI and machine learning capabilities to help facilitate and streamline the sales process, particularly in the area of voice call and speech analytics. We used the CB Insights platform to surface 10 notable, early- to mid-stage (Series C or earlier) sales tech startups developing software platforms that specifically incorporate AI and machine learning. We selected these companies based on several factors including the recency and size of the companies' disclosed funding, as well as Mosaic scores, CB Insights' algorithm that uses financial and non-financial signals to predict private company health. After evaluating the companies on the list, we determined that the 10 companies below are some of the top companies to pay attention to.

Machines that learn through real world observation could make predictions about the future. That's according to Facebook's head of AI, Yann LeCun, who says that the social network is working on technology to work out possible outcomes of future events. And Facebook is building the technology using computer neural networks that learn like a human brain. The super intelligent AI systems could be used to predict human reactions on the small scale or even the world stage. Facebook's head of AI says that the social network is working on making machines that could predict the future.

Airbus and Italdesign have unveiled Pop.Up, a modular autonomous flying car concept that can operate on the ground and in the air. It comprises a capsule that can be attached to and detached from a wheeled base or drone-like rotors, both of which are electric, depending on the passenger's needs. Airbus believes it could also be used with hyperloop systems in the future, for super-fast transport. Pop.Up is just a concept, but Airbus envisages that the vehicles would form part of a wider ride-hailing system, much like Uber. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.