When an app claims to be powered by "artificial intelligence" it feels like you're in the future. What does that really mean, though? We're taking a look at what buzzwords like AI, machine learning, and neural networks really mean and whether they actually help improve your apps. Just recently, Google and Microsoft both added neural network learning to their translation apps. Google said it's using machine learning to suggest playlists. Todoist says it's using AI to suggest when you should finish a task.

Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich, announced that Intel Capital will invest $250m in the next two years in the autonomous vehicle (AV) ecosystem, focused on problems in connectivity, communication, context awareness, deep learning, security and safety. When viewed in the context of the fund's short-lived intention to sell $1bn worth of portfolio holdings in March this year (it was cancelled in May), I think this shows Intel is serious on going long with AI. Indeed, the company purchased recently Nervana Systems and Movidius, which could help it's larger AV program and the race against NVIDIA. Nauto, the startup offering a direct to consumer network of cloud-connected dashboard cameras applied to car insurance, inked a data sharing agreement and investment from Toyota Research Institute, BMW iVentures and Allianz Ventures (thanks Moritz for sharing!). One of the reasons for the immense progress in AI is data crowdsourcing.

Having a smart speaker like Amazon Echo or Google Home in the house can feel like you've stepped into the future. It can also feel creepy. All these impressions coursed through me over the last several days as I tested Echo and Home. I'm still not sure I'd want one in my house, but I can certainly understand their appeal. Home debuted last month as Google's answer to Echo, which Amazon first released two years ago.

A team of researchers at Oxford University have coaxed an artificial intelligence program into an impressive leap forward and towards our own obsolescence. The program, known as LipNet, is showing particularly promising ability to read lips in video clips, thanks to machine learning and a novel way of approaching the data. The key difference is that rather than try to teach the AI the mouth shapes of single words and phonemes, the LipNet is asked to interpret whole sentences. Using GRID, a huge bank of 3 second videos featuring brightly lit forward facing speakers, LipNet has learned to translate speech to text with a 93.4% accuracy rate. Compare that to humans' 52.3%.

The use of Machine Learning is growing widespread. Organizations are embracing it in various ways to improve their businesses. The rise of Machine Learning is coupled with the advance of open source big data processing frameworks which makes it possible to analyze tons of data in a cost-effective and efficient way. Apache Spark is one of those frameworks which have grown as a blue eyed technology in this Big Data processing world. Apache Spark provides two libraries- MLlib and ML Pipeline for implementing machine learning.

AMD is finally making its first moves into deep learning. Google will start equipping its sprawling data center infrastructure with AMD's graphics processing units (or GPUs) to accelerate deep learning applications, AMD announced on Tuesday at a supercomputing conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. GPUs, typically used for generating the latest in gaming graphics, have been booming in deep learning, which is a flavor of artificial intelligence where the computer teaches itself how to do certain tasks. GPUs have caught on because of their capabilities in "parallel computing," a technique that involves multiple calculations happening simultaneously. That makes GPUs much faster at running deep learning neural nets than more generalized processors.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not only the next big wave in computing – it's the next major turning point in human history. Similar to how machine tools, factory systems and steam power ushered in the Industrial Revolution, changing every aspect of daily life in some way, the Intelligence Revolution will be driven by data, neural networks and computing power. AI will extend our human senses and capabilities to teach us new things, enrich how we interact with the world around us, and improve our decision-making. AI is changing our world for the better, and Intel is uniquely capable of enabling and accelerating AI technology. We will see unprecedented developments in medicine, scientific discovery, education and how work gets done.

One of the most popular acronyms of the decade - IoT actually stands for Internet of Things but due to the rising cyber crime cases in the past few years, many are decoding it as Internet of Threats. Cybersecurity Ventures, a pioneer organisation in the field of internet security, claims that cyber crime is going to increase the world expenses up to 6 trillion USD annually by 2021. Today, hackers are not only targeting the corporate data, but they are also threats to the security of various countries. Recently, they managed to steal the details of a deal between the Indian Navy and French submarine maker'DCNS' even before the deployment of Scorpène submarines. How Pandemic is IoT Threats From financial institutions to defence research agencies all are under the radar of malicious hackers and spies.

Many day-to-day business processes could benefit from a better understanding of company contracts, which even for mid-sized companies often number in the thousands. The processes, procedures, and technologies that make up e-discovery are well-suited to delivering those benefits. The process starts with a foundation provided by e-discovery and its document review specialists, processes, and technologies, augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) that allows attorneys to teach analytics software to recognize and interpret contract provisions. An AI-powered contract review application applies this training to contracts it hasn't seen before, resulting in the extraction of key contract provisions. Technology-aided contract review is a natural companion to e-discovery and conventional contract management tools.

Wildlife advocates began testing an advanced system this spring to better identify and apprehend poachers. They say the technology has led to dozens of arrests that wouldn't have happened otherwise. Brian Heath, chief executive of the Mara Conservancy in Kenya, believes expanding the use of the technology throughout Africa could significantly improve anti-poaching efforts. "Our rangers now feel completely disadvantaged and blind without it," Heath said. "They get a huge amount of reassurance by having it and the ability to [better] see and identify people and animals." Heath, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, relies on a thermal imaging camera that uses artificial intelligence to identify animals and poachers up to a kilometer away.