Microsoft is showcasing its latest innovations and e-government solutions at the fourth Qatar ICT Conference and Exhibition (Qitcom), which opened yesterday at the Qatar National Convention Centre. The three-day event, patronised by HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, is organised by Qatar's Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC). Microsoft is demonstrating a range of solutions, covering artificial intelligence, mixed reality, the Internet of Things, machine learning, cyber-security, the cloud and big data, aimed at empowering Qatari organisations – regardless of size or industry – to achieve more through digital transformation. "Microsoft has a strong relationship with MoTC and we stand firmly behind the ministry and the government of Qatar as they work towards the Qatar National Vision 2030, launched by HH the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani," said Lana Khalaf, public sector director and acting country manager, Microsoft Qatar. The company, in conjunction with its strategic partners, crafted nine pilot solutions customised for Qatar and the challenges the nation faces as it builds a smart society.

Machine learning is one of the fastest growing areas of computer science, with far-reaching applications. The aim of this textbook is to introduce machine learning, and the algorithmic paradigms it offers, in a principled way. The book provides an extensive theoretical account of the fundamental ideas underlying machine learning and the mathematical derivations that transform these principles into practical algorithms. Following a presentation of the basics of the field, the book covers a wide array of central topics that have not been addressed by previous textbooks. These include a discussion of the computational complexity of learning and the concepts of convexity and stability; important algorithmic paradigms including stochastic gradient descent, neural networks, and structured output learning; and emerging theoretical concepts such as the PAC-Bayes approach and compression-based bounds.

Machine learning is all the rage, and major improvements in infrastructure, data storage, and cloud adoption have led to growing interest in the space. Many consumer-facing advancements reside within Google and Facebook, but other companies are investing in the field as well. However, given all the excitement around machine learning, it's important to understand some of the nuances and mechanics of what machine learning is and how it works. As an investor at Redpoint Ventures, I have the privilege of learning from people and companies on the cutting edge of this technology. So, what is machine learning and artificial intelligence?

Katherine Bailey is principal data scientist at Acquia. Recent issues around machine learning biases and ethics make it clear that math and data can only take us so far. The recent fake news debacle and the efforts of some top researchers in natural language processing to address it show that sometimes even just defining the problem you're trying to solve is the hardest part. We need human intelligence to decide how and when to use machine intelligence, and the more sophisticated the uses we make of machine intelligence, the more critically we need human intelligence to ensure it's deployed sensibly and safely. It's time we started exalting critical thinking skills the way we do math skills.

Adelyn Zhou is the chief marketing officer at Topbots, a research and education firm focused on connecting AI and bot technologies with Fortune 500 companies. A marketing and technology leader who has worked with Amazon, Nextdoor, Eventbrite, Oscar Health and others, she has been recognized as one of the top 50 people in growth as well as one of the top 30 people to follow in AI by IBM Watson. Adelyn is active participant in the largest bot group on Facebook (24,000 members) and writes for VentureBeat and Forbes. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, and received her MBA from Harvard Business School. I started my career in marketing at multiple fast growing technology companies.

Under the direction of CEO Marc Benioff, Salesforce's annual Dreamforce conference is increasingly becoming San Francisco's dominant tech industry confab. Customer relationship management company Salesforce announced Monday an artificial intelligence partnership with IBM aimed at boosting the range of predictive analytics it can provide clients. Salesforce Einstein, an AI platform that debuted last year that mines data to help salespeople close leads, will combine with IBM Watson to provide data-based insights for businesses. For example, an insurance company running Salesforce could use real-time weather updates from Watson to warn customers about impending bad weather. Or Watson's retail industry data could combine with Einstein's customer-habit information to create targeted campaigns for shoppers.

International Business Machines Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. agreed to mingle their artificial-intelligence technologies in a bid to boost sales of the powerful data-analytics offerings. The companies Monday announced plans to offer integrated AI services that weave the broad humanlike conversation and learning capabilities of IBM's Watson with Salesforce's more sales-oriented Einstein technology. The new offerings, available in the second half of the year, are aimed at helping a wide variety of companies better target products and services at customers. Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, said that she believes that believes artificial intelligence will help to create jobs and that clients will have a "symbiotic relationship" with AI. IBM IBM, 0.23% and Salesforce CRM, 0.34% believe the partnership will work because their AI technologies have different capabilities.

"Artificial intelligence appears at last to be coming of age," wrote Richard Windsor, analyst at Edison Investment Research, in a recent 51-page report on the subject. Amazon took a big step in bringing artificial intelligence into the masses two years ago with the introduction of Echo. The multifunctional, voice-activated speaker system is voiced by Alexa. Ask Alexa a question and she'll try to find you an answer, with the support of AI technology. The device can also be used to manage and monitor home utilities.

Governments and politicians have failed to respond to the current refugee crisis, and that's being made painfully prominent by the fact that 65 million people had been forced from their homes last year. However, where governments fail, private citizens and ingenuity can help. Joshua Browder's DoNotPay has proved this with a robot lawyer who gives refugees free legal advice. According to the Guardian, the chatbot aids refugees through Facebook Messenger by asking them a series of question to determine which forms they have to hand in and whether they are eligible for asylum protection. The robot lawyer also uses the information to automatically fill out forms and send them in on behalf of his'clients'.

Facebook is using a combination of pattern recognition, live chat support from crisis support organizations and other tools to prevent suicide, with a focus on its Live service. There is one death by suicide every 40 seconds and over 800,000 people kill themselves every year, according to the World Health Organization. "Facebook is in a unique position--through friendships on the site--to help connect a person in distress with people who can support them," the company said Wednesday. The move by Facebook appears to aim to prevent the live-streaming of suicides on the Live platform, which was launched in April last year, and allows people, public figures and pages to share live videos with friends and followers. The company said that its suicide prevention tools for Facebook posts will now be integrated into Live, giving people watching a live video the option to reach out to the person directly and to report the video to the company.