Using artificial intelligence (AI) in your business may not be something that is on your agenda, but the chances are you may have already begun to use AI without even knowing it. The Airbnb application for instances uses Aerosolve to deliver its dynamic pricing feature. Amazon's Machine Learning – part of its AWS cloud services – allows businesses to analyse massive datasets to reveal patterns and also train its algorithm. And Google's Translate API uses machine learning to deliver much more accurate translations, as it assesses how words relate to each other. In a report into the possible impact of machine learning, Simon Raik-Allen, MYOB's Chief Technology Officer, said: "As machines get smarter, there will be a time when someone creates a machine that can learn. We are not there yet, but a lot of progress is being made."

IBM has updated its artificial intelligence (AI) product, IBM Watson, giving it the ability to recognise images. Watson, which relies on cognitive learning to help it process the world in a human-like manner, can now'guess' what's happening in images fed to it via URLs. IBM has created a'Visual Recognition Demo' to showcase Watson's latest trick, which allows users to feed Watson an image before it tells you what it believes it sees. For example, supplying Watson with the image of a tiger throws up the result 77 per cent tiger, 26 per cent wild cat and 63 per cent cat. As well as identifying objects, people or animals in photos, Watson is also fairly adept at guessing what's going on in the background of images such as sunsets and other outdoor scenes.

Will a robot steal your job or help make you a better one? The evidence points to the increased role of automation in the workplace: as many as 70 per cent of executives plan to significantly increase their investments in AI-related technologies, according to consultant Accenture. What's the best way to take advantage of robotics, automation, and AI? And how can CIOs help the business to evaluate these opportunities and create a boost in productivity and performance? How can executives best understand the role of the robots?

The technology industry has a problem with diversity. True to form, it thinks the solution is technological. Founders of the Future is a new venture that hopes to uncover the Mark Zuckerbergs of the future, using algorithms. "An AI doesn't know anything about your background - which school or university you went to," Tom Bowles told me. Mr Bowles, a machine learning expert, developed the software, which models the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs like Niklas Zennstrom, who set up Skype, and Natalie Massenet, who started Net-a-Porter.

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After being away from the research on AI over the last few years, I took a deep dive over the last week into the current state of affairs. I downloaded and worked through Tutorials on Theano, Tensorflow and Torch. I read a number of scientific papers from arXiv and a book on a roadmap for machine learning, which you've probably come across. I tweeted a bunch of notes and thoughts while I was training my own Deep Learning model with new data (aka my human brain). And so what was I looking for as a result of all this research about learning?

Despite predictions of a tech slowdown, big-name businesses like Facebook, Apple, and IBM are pouring resources into artificial intelligence (AI), changing the field and gaining the interest of venture capitalists everywhere. As investors actively seek innovative players in the AI space, more entrepreneurs are gravitating toward the technology as they build and grow their own companies. Businesses such as Sentient, Context Relevant, and Scaled Inference all continue to work on their own multifunction AI platforms for computation and analysis, but this is only a small segment of the AI market. Multiple businesses now invest time and effort into purpose-built AI products. Here are a few of the businesses that are capturing attention in their respective industries for their AI work. With total capital of 58 million, AI specialist Kensho is already showing just how serious investors are about the technology.

In this post I consider three learning approaches and argue that it could be a bad idea to avoid the mathematics and theory when starting out with machine learning. There are three approaches to starting out in machine learning that I have seen practiced. One is a bottom-up approach, in which the student starts with the mathematics and theory and then puts it into practice in either a high-level programming language -- such as Matlab, Python, R or Octave -- or by coding from scratch in a 3GL like Java, C# or C . The second is the top-down approach, in which machine learning tools and/or libraries are used to shelter the student from the coding, mathematics and theory. S/he is instructed to worry about how it all works later and to instead practice working with datasets.

In Japan, humanoid robots are seen as an important part of the solution to the looming double problem of a shortage of labor and an aging society. The first challenge is for robots to be seen as a normal part of society by helping out with everyday tasks, which is why Aldebaran Robotics' diminutive NAO robot recently undertook a two week internship at the main Mitsubishi UFJ bank in central Tokyo. Gizmag called in to see how NAO was doing. NAO was created in 2006 and most recently came to our attention when helping kids learn to write in Switzerland. During the two week internship in Tokyo, NAO helped customers with questions or queries they had, in Chinese and English as well as Japanese.

Most of our readers are likely very familiar with the concept of startup competitions. It almost seems impossible to keep up with the awards and prizes handed out at such events being held week in and week out. However, we are very proud to share that we were able to pull of a truly unique startup competition yesterday at PAPIs Connect in Valencia, one where human judges stepped aside and let Artificial Intelligence figure out the winner. The brains behind this program was designed by PreSeries, BigML's joint venture with Telefónica Open Future_. As such, this organization marked the first public demo of PreSeries, which also began collecting beta user applications on its web site simultaneously.