One of the most significant threats faced by computer networks is from "bots." A bot is simply a program that runs on a computer without the owner's knowledge and carries out any of a number of tasks over the network and the wider internet. It can run the same tasks, such as sending emails or accessing a specific page on the internet, at a much higher rate than would be possible if a person were to carry out the task. A collection of bots in a network, used for malicious purposes, is a botnet and while they are often organized and run by a so-called botmaster there are bots that are available for hire for malicious and criminal activity. Bots might be illicitly installed on computers in the home, schools, businesses, government buildings and other installations.

Sex doll manufacturer Realdoll is dipping its toe (and we don't want to know which other body parts) into the world of artificial intelligence and robotics with a forthcoming robot sex assistant that promises to form a "real bond" with its, erm, users. The new system is made up of several components, which will roll out over the course of this year and next. It will begin with the Harmony AI app, scheduled for release on April 15, followed by the company's "first robotic head systems," set to launch by the end of the year. A virtual reality platform will ship sometime in 2018. It's not going to be cheap, mind you: the head alone will set you back $10,000.

Do you want to participate in changing the world? Microsoft has done it twice and is about to do it again. Microsoft has maintained its leadership in the software world by being willing to change strategy and take on new challenges at several key points in the company's history. From a computer on every desk to being the internet leader, to cloud services, and now at the leading edge to empowering people, businesses, and organizations of the world to do more, know more, and be more in an always on world. In short; we are making strides towards being the productivity engine of the cloud & the key to this bold initiative is Office 365.

The article was published in Marketer 3(22) 2016 and it is available here: www.sklep.marketerplus.pl If you still believe that your daily activities are the result of your own choices, you are mistaken. Few of us understand that our purchasing decisions, and increasingly our life decisions, are heavily influenced by advanced algorithms. Algorithms divide potential customers into groups on the basis of their behavior, interests or decisions that they make. They don't just analyze data, they predict the path customers will take in the future and, for example, cleverly controlling product margins.

Giphy is a search engine for gifs, the short animated graphics that we see around the Internet. Giphy is also a creative platform where people create new gifs. Every search engine requires the construction of a search index, which is a data structure that responds to search queries efficiently. Since Giphy is a search engine for graphics, there is almost no text inherently associated with the each document. Giphy uses a pipeline of different labeling techniques in order to make a gif indexable by the search engine.

Intel has further detailed their Lake Crest chip that will be aiming at the deep neural network sector. The new chip will be based around the Nervana platform which would deliver an unprecedented amount of compute density in silicon that delivers more raw power than modern GPUs. With the rise of AI learning in the tech industry, GPU makers such as NVIDIA and AMD have made chips that are specifically designed for DNN (Deep Neural Network) workloads. Intel wants to enter this ground with the Lake Crest silicon which is said to deliver more raw power than the fastest DNN GPUs available today. The chip will feature technology developed by the deep-learning startup, Nervana.

A new report from market research firm Tractica forecasts that the annual global revenue for artificial intelligence products and services will grow from 643.7 million in 2016 to $36.8 billion by 2025, a 57-fold increase over that time period. As such, it represents the fastest growing segment of any size in the IT sector. According to the report, "AI has applications and use cases in almost every industry vertical and is considered the next big technological shift, similar to past shifts like the industrial revolution, the computer age, and the smartphone revolution." Even ignoring that bit of hyperbole, a good case can be made that artificial intelligence certainly has the potential to upend a lot of industries, government activities and consumer behavior. In its report, Tactica identifies 27 verticals that are employing AI technologies today or soon will be.

Whitehall could save £2.6 billion with automation. The report, which addresses the creation of a public services workforce organised around the needs of its users, advocates the reduction of staff in favour of automation and digital technology. Citing analysis by Oxford academics Frey and Osbourne, in which the academics said that admin roles have a 96% chance of being automated by current technology, the report applied their calculations to current public sector numbers. The report found that, over the next 10 to 15 years, central government departments could further reduce headcount by 131,962, saving £2.6 billion from the 2016-17 wage bill. The report sells automation as the'new approach' which is needed, saying: "Public services should deliver outcomes that matter to users, and meet expectations of interacting via technology. This approach would see services designed around users and render at least 248,860 administrative roles redundant. The accuracy of decision-making can be further improved by using artificial intelligence to make complex decisions and by understanding why mistakes that, for example, cause 10 per cent of hospital patients to suffer from medical error, are made."

Almost every day, there's news about a massive data leak -- a breach at Yahoo that reveals millions of user accounts, a compromise involving Gmail phishing scams. Security professionals are constantly moving the chess pieces around, but it can be a losing battle. Yet, there is one ally that has emerged in recent years. Artificial intelligence can stay vigilant at all times, looking for patterns in behavior and alerting you to a new threat. While AI is not anywhere close to being perfect, experts tell CSO that machine learning, adaptive intelligence, and massive data models that can spot hacking much faster than any human are here to help.

Last summer at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference, the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge pitted automated systems against one another, trying to find weaknesses in the others' code and exploit them. "This is a great example of how easily machines can find and exploit new vulnerabilities, something we'll likely see increase and become more sophisticated over time," said David Gibson, vice president of strategy and market development at Varonis Systems. His company hasn't seen any examples of hackers leveraging artificial intelligence technology or machine learning, but nobody adopts new technologies faster than the sin and hacking industries, he said. "So it's safe to assume that hackers are already using AI for their evil purposes," he said. "It has never been easier for white hats and black hats to obtain and learn the tools of the machine learning trade," said Don Maclean, chief cybersecurity technologist at DLT Solutions.