For more practical techniques for getting started with deep learning, check out the deep learning sessions at Strata Hadoop World San Jose, March 13-16, 2017. Yes, you can run TensorFlow on a $39 Raspberry Pi, and yes, you can run TensorFlow on a GPU powered EC2 node for about $1 per hour. And yes, those options probably make more practical sense than building your own computer. But if you're like me, you're dying to build your own fast deep learning machine. OK, a thousand bucks is way too much to spend on a DIY project, but once you have your machine set up, you can build hundreds of deep learning applications, from augmented robot brains to art projects (or at least, that's how I justify it to myself).

"It's a funny thing," said Jay McCarthy, VP of product marketing for Qubit. "We're ironically using tech to be more human again. The London-based product suite, which executes on big data for B2C brands like Uniqlo, Thomas Cook, and Time Inc, is using machine learning algorithms to translate customer signals into the right product offerings. Qubit clients have "maybe millions of customer records, in some cases," says McCarthy. "The signal-to-noise ratio is quite low." Qubit's aim is to "find the needles in the haystack, and scale interactions with customers." What that means in practice is aggregating data from online and POS transactions -- "There's an overlap of brick and mortar," McCarthy say -- loyalty programs, CRM, product returns, and logistics -- to develop "a more holistic view of the customer; where they live on and offline." But this is no idle inquiry, of course. "So much of what you hear [from vendors]," McCarthy explains, "stops at the notion of'We'll give you something insightful from that.'

When the BBC broadcast the recent documentary by Louis Theroux that looked back at the time he spent in the company of Jimmy Savile, there was disbelief across social media that no one had stepped in to stop Savile from committing his crimes. Some blamed the BBC, some blamed those in Savile's immediate circle, but others blamed a simple error of human judgment. "He literally couldn't look more like a paedophile," read one post – one of many to state a supposedly incontrovertible truth: that Savile's criminal tendencies could have been detected from the shape of his features, his eyes, his hair. Moreover, this has nothing to do with the benefit of hindsight and should have been picked up at the time. His looks, they suggested, were a moral indicator, with a wealth of compelling visual evidence to support the claim. We know that paedophiles, murderers and other violent criminals come in many shapes and sizes.

With all the talk surrounding AI it can be easy to forget that this is still a human driven endeavor. People are behind all of the progress that has been made and are still (for now) doing all of the leg work. So to get some idea of where it is going it is probably best to listen to those driving it forward. Here are some of the most influential figures in the field and their takes on where machine learning will go. For a long time Geoffrey Hinton toiled away in relative obscurity developing his machine learning algorithms.

Over the next four days, CES 2017 will be a gold mine for the hospitality industry, said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist of the Consumer Technology Association. "Hotels are one of the areas I think most ripe for innovation and for change," he said. "You have long-lived capital assets, hotels that last 50-60 years, but technology that's changing rapidly every single year." Wynn Las Vegas set the tone last month for the types of technology trends the industry might see going forward by announcing that all 4,748 guest rooms at Wynn Las Vegas and Encore will be equipped with Amazon Echo -- Amazon's artificial intelligence device -- by this summer. Speaking Wednesday on CES 2017 tech trends to a packed room of about 500 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, DuBravac said voice recognition and artificial intelligence will be a a recurring theme on the show floor.

Apple would be joining other technology companies in the group, including Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Although an announcement is expected as soon as this week, neither Apple nor the partnership has issued any official comment on the move. In some ways, joining the consortium would be a logical step for the company. Apple has become a major player in AI technology in recent years with the development of Siri, its natural language personal assistant. On the other hand, Apple is famous for the secrecy it maintains surrounding its major initiatives, including AI. Until recently, Apple researchers working on AI were even discouraged from publishing their findings.

Japanese scientists will use artificial intelligence to diagnose cancerous diseases and choose necessary treatment of cancer. Institute of Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research in cooperation with FRONTEO Healthcare Company develop a system of precise treatment of cancer. The technology is said to be based on the structure of artificial intelligence. The technology is expected to work on the basis of genetic analysis of each patient. Artificial intelligence will be used to analyze symptoms, peculiarities and characteristics to select appropriate scientific works.

There was a time when every neighbourhood bank in North America and Europe was acquired by or merged with a larger institution. By 2000, global mega-banks offered fewer choices to consumers looking for competitive interest rates and other services. But the too big to fail banks are now facing competition in the form of a resurgence of customer-friendly, local banks. There is an even bigger challenge: Technology companies have been applying for financial licences that would allow them to enter the digital payments space. As traditional banks grapple with the challenges posed by fintech, legacy constraints and traditional operational models, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as the saviour.

Sky and Discovery have reached a last-minute deal to keep the likes of Animal Planet and Eurosport on Sky TV. However, they unexpectedly reached an agreement shortly before the 31 January deadline passed, meaning Sky customers still have access to Animal Planet, Discovery HD, Discovery History, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Shed, Discovery Turbo, DMAX, Eurosport1, Eurosport2, Investigation Discovery, Quest and TLC. 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 ...