Machine learning is one of the fastest growing trends in modern computing. It has applications in a wide range of fields, including economics, the natural sciences, web development, and business modeling. In order to harness the power of these systems, it is essential that the practitioner develops a solid understanding of the underlying design principles. There are many reasons why machine learning models may not give accurate results. By looking at these systems from a design perspective, we gain a deeper understanding of the underlying algorithms and the optimisational methods that are available.

Accenture has introduced an intelligent automation platform for application services that provides human technology workers with better productivity and insights to enhance business performance. The platform, Accenture myWizard, augments human technologists with virtual agents powered by artificial intelligence. It helps humans and machines reach their exponential potential in application services. The platform currently includes several intelligent virtual agents that use machine learning to collaborate with their human co-workers. The platform brings together various Accenture industry assets such as intelligent and analytics tools and methods, as well as tools from across the company's alliance partner ecosystem.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) works best on large volumes of data. One would think that with all its complexity and its mountainous volumes of data, the medical industry would be the perfect place for AI to be a disruptive force. The problem isn't that AI isn't acquiring enough data to be a disruptive force. The problem is that it's not acquiring the right data to solve some of the most egregious cost increases in the history of health care industry. In 2014, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported 77.4 billion in improper payments of Medicare and Medicaid collectively.

Even though they are a 38-year-old company, FLIR System's advanced, miniaturized thermal imaging sensors and cameras keep them hip in the world of computer vision where mobile startups are propelling the field. This morning they announced a new product--the Boson Thermal Camera. There are many more things these cameras can do…even the super-resolution similar to the much internet-maligned CSI "zoom in" is actually possible through software manipulation of these kinds of cameras according to Movidius's Jack Dashwood. One is the continued trend in miniaturization and its implications on interactive eyewear. The second is the fact that the Boson has a processor integrated directly into it.

It's day one at the Singularity University: the opening address has just been delivered by a hologram. Craig Venter, who was one of the first scientists to sequence the human genome and created the first synthetic life form, is up next. And later, we will see two people, paralysed from the waist down, use robotic exoskeletons to rise up and walk. But first, the co-founder of the Singularity University, Peter Diamandis, gives us our instructions for the day. Your task, he says, is to pick one of the "grand challenges of humanity" – the lack of clean drinking water, say. And then come up with an idea that "can positively impact the lives of a billion people". Some of us haven't even had coffee yet. There's about 50 of us present and the room has been divided up into tables, one for education, another for poverty, another for water, and I'm not sure where I should sit. Diane Murphy, the university's PR executive, hesitates for a moment and then directs me over to the table marked "food". "Tell you what," she says.

Reinforcement Learning, a key Google DeepMind algorithm, could overhaul news recommendation engines and greatly improve users stickiness. After beating a Go Grand Master, the algorithm could become the engine of choice for true personalization. My interest for DeepMind goes back to its acquisition by Google, in January 2014, for about half a billion dollars. Later in California, I had conversations with Artificial Intelligence and deep learning experts; they said Google had in fact captured about half of the world's best A.I. minds, snatching several years of Stanford A.I. classes, and paying top dollar for talent. Acquiring London startup Deep Mind was a key move in a strategy aimed at cornering the A.I. field.

Detecting anomalous behavior remains one of security's most impactful data science challenges. Most approaches rely on signature-based techniques, which are reactionary in nature and fail to predict new patterns of malicious behavior and modern adversarial techniques. Instead, as a key component of research in Intrusion Detection, I'll focus on command line anomaly detection using a machine-learning based approach. A model based on command line history can potentially detect a range of anomalous behavior, including intruders using stolen credentials and insider threats. Command lines contain a wealth of information and serve as a valid proxy for user intent.

Humans have a terrible track record of predicting financial crises in time to fend them off. Some computer scientists think that algorithms might help. Given the right information, some crises can be foreseen. In "The Big Short", Michael Lewis told the story of the scattered few who saw the imbalance growing in the mortgage market and profited as a result. Over decades, academic research has shown that many banking crises come with early warning signals, such as rapidly increasing debt and leverage.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast moving beyond the realms of science fiction and entering the workplace, and this will have implications for the corporate IT infrastructure of the future. Facebook's announcement that it will enable businesses to deliver automated customer support, online shopping guidance, content and interactive experiences to its users through ChatBots is just the beginning. Whilst some Bots, like the Microsoft's recent Tay experiment, aren't foolproof yet, Messenger Bots represent the new and acceptable face of Artificial Intelligence. ChatBots use deep learning and neural networks to allow them to learn from data sets in the same way a human brain does. Whilst still in development phase, they are fast becoming increasingly popular with developers and platforms.

Word has spread that artificial intelligence (AI) is the next big thing in business. But don't be fooled; in reality, it's so much more than that. Take a look at how it's set to overhaul your organisation.