The company's main product is an algorithm that provides a forecast for three thousand different investment instruments, including shares, commodities, interest rates, foreign currency, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and global indices. "We have institutional customers who receive broader access to information, including personalization of the algorithm according to the portfolio they manage, and also private customers looking for more advanced tools for spotting opportunities in the market. In today's world, there is a lot of information that has accumulated in various companies; the main challenge is to be able to spot future trends using the information - to identify the significant information, and to filter out irrelevant information. In principle, the algorithm performs initial filtering for all three thousand investment instruments, and selects the ones that can be predicted.

Most fintech companies offer better interfaces for handling money (bank accounts, loans, payments, etc.), but quite a few startups are also offering a solution for a much older need than how to make money. Israel company I Know First, managed by CEO Yaron Golgher, is one of these. The company's main product is an algorithm that provides a forecast for three thousand different investment instruments, including shares, commodities, interest rates, foreign currency, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and global indices. "The algorithm rates all the investment instruments, and singles out investment opportunities in the capital market on a daily basis, according to the pricing anomaly it finds," Golgher says in a "Globes" interview. Golgher: "The algorithm is self-learning. It is based on purely quantitative values, not reading news or any kind of analysis. There is no human factor here. The algorithm uses artificial intelligence, an area in which huge companies like Apple Computers, Google, and Facebook have recently been making massive investments. The algorithm was developed by our development team, headed by cofounder and CTO Dr. Lipa Roitman. Roitman is a scientist from the Weizmann Institute of Science with over 20 years of experience in the specific field of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and algorithms. The forecast is given for a period of time. What is interesting is that for every forecast, the algorithm also assigns a probability that the forecast will be fulfilled. Every customer can receive a forecast according to his investment preferences. For example, a person investing in technology shares can receive the best opportunities in this segment, a customer investing in commodities will receive the best opportunities in the commodities market, etc." "We have expanded this year to 12 new countries, including the US and Europe, with an emphasis on Italy and France, and Russia, too. We work with Latin America, especially Brazil. The business model is based on access to the algorithm to a varying extent, according to the customer's size."

Government officials say autonomous vehicles will make transportation safer, more accessible, more efficient and cleaner and last week, the Department of Transportation released guidelines for the testing and deployment of automated vehicles, which detail how the vehicles should perform, and include a model for state policies. Self-driving vehicles are just the tip of the autonomous revolution. In 2016, autonomous robot doctors perform surgery; algorithms invest your money; robocops patrol shopping malls; and if you end up in hospital, a computer system can determine how quickly you get treated. Many decisions made by autonomous machines have moral implications -- yet little is determined about what ethics machines follow, or who decides what those ethical assumptions should be. In Florida in May, Joshua Brown died when an autopilot system did not recognize a tractor-trailer turning in front of his Tesla Model S and his car plowed into it -- the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle.

Government agencies are tasked with the challenge of providing citizens with more efficient, effective, and transparent services with strict and often decreasing budgets. Government agencies can use machine learning to increase operational efficiencies by analyzing datasets, finding patterns and anomalies, and making predictions about future events. Skytree's state-of-the art machine learning software can analyze both structured and unstructured data sets in real-time to produce fast, accurate and scalable results that are up to 10,000 times faster than previous approaches. Skytree comes with a breadth of advanced machine learning methods that utilize the research available to you to make predictions with the highest accuracy available, far surpassing what's possible with basic analytics. Detect and prevent fraudulent transactions, accounts and vendors.

Google's self-driving cars don't have a flawless safety record, but it's clearer than ever that careless human drivers remain the greater threat. A commercial van running a red light struck one of Google's autonomous Lexus SUVs as it crossed a Mountain View intersection, seriously damaging the side of the vehicle. Neither the Google observers nor the van driver were hurt, thankfully. However, this is likely the worst incident to date for Google's driverless cars -- previous crashes have typically involved humans rear-ending the robotic cars at low speed. Google will likely shed full detail on the collision in its self-driving car report due at the end of the month.

Demand for non-equity trading algorithms serving institutional asset managers and retail investors is expanding the prevalence of artificial intelligence in the world's financial markets. A recent report by Thomson Reuters estimates that algorithmic trading systems now handle 75 per cent of the volume of global trades worldwide and this figure is predicted, by those in the industry, to grow steadily. Firstly, while the institutional market has enjoyed a large variety of "algos" serving the equity markets to date, other areas such as futures are still witnessing huge product demand and innovation as a result. Secondly, regulations affecting the institutional investment market, such as the European Union Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II or MiFID II, are pushing for greater automation of trades in some asset classes which traditionally were not executed electronically. The fixed income market is a prime example and negotiations between industry groups are ongoing as to how practical a fully automated fixed income could really be, given the magnitude of the required shift from telephone to electronic trading.

I recently consulted with the US Navy on all things "transhuman." In those conversations about how science and technology can help the human race evolve beyond its natural limits, it was clear that military is keen on replacing human soldiers with both fighting and peacekeeping machines so American military lives never have to come under fire or be in harm's way. However, it's the peacekeeping technology that is particularly interesting for many civilians. While you wouldn't want an armed Terminator in your home, you might like a robot that travels with you and offers personal protection, like a bodyguard. In a survey by Travelzoo of 6,000 participants, nearly 80 percent of people said they expect robots to be a significant part of their lives by 2020 -- and that those robots might even join them on holidays.

A suspected U.S. drone strike killed four members of al Qaeda's Yemen branch, including a local commander, two unidentified officials in Yemen said Saturday. A vehicle traveling east of the capital Sanaa was reportedly hit by the drone. Officials told Reuters the attack was carried out in Marib province, which is controlled by forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, late Friday. Abu Khaled al-Sanaani, the local commander of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was among the four dead, officials said. The latest attack was the second drone strike in two days to target a local commander of the militant group, which is regarded by U.S. officials as one of the most dangerous branches of al Qaeda.

The problem echoes that of previous driverless car accidents, where sensors were blind to an unusual circumstance. In February, a Google driverless car was ruled at fault in a crash, as it changed into a lane prematurely and collided with a bus that did not see it signaling. When a Tesla car on autopilot crashed and killed its owner in the United States, it sparked a Federal investigation. The Tesla crash, where the car collided with a trailer crossing the road, was likely because the car's sensors couldn't tell the white side of a trailer apart from the blank space of the sky, and failed to stop in time.

This NASA-Developed A.I. Could Help Save Firefighters' Lives, Smithsonian Magazine Disorienting scenes where a single move can be deadly is a common experience for both space rovers and firefighters. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built an artificial intelligence system for navigating unfamiliar landscapes, is sharing its technology with fire departments -- warning first responders about hazards they might not notice in the smoke and flames. Man v. Rat: Could the Long War Soon Be Over? The Guardian A New York City subway rat carries a host of dangerous contagions, and its reproductive capacity -- up to 15,000 offspring in a year -- spread disease through city sewers and alleyways. A biotech startup in Flagstaff, Ariz., has developed a humane way to deal with Gotham's infestation where rat poison has failed: birth control.