It may look like a video game, but the new computer simulation developed by a team of researchers in Barcelona could one day train autonomous cars to be better drivers. Called'Synthia,' the program creates a virtual city complete with pedestrians, traffic signs and other components of an urban environment, automatically annotated at the pixel-level. This allows for a more efficient method of training AI systems, and can be used to teach them to recognize and behave in response to the less predictable aspects of city driving, like a nearby cyclist or adverse weather. A new computer simulation could one day train autonomous cars to be better drivers. Called'Synthia,' the program creates a virtual city complete with pedestrians, traffic signs and other components of an urban environment, automatically annotated at the pixel-level Researchers hope programs like Synthia can be used to improve the abilities of AI to recognize different objects, to make autonomous driving more reliable.

The past decade or so has seen a strong focus on risk and compliance technologies that make use of analytics in financial services. These technologies, which might be called "defense" technologies--in contrast to "offense" technologies that involve marketing and revenue growth--include applications and infrastructure for risk management, fraud prevention, regulatory, and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. They bring the power of analytical insights--initially used for identifying marketing opportunities in many companies--to risk mitigation in banking. While these distinctions are somewhat blurred by integrating risk-based insights into "offense" activities, they are a useful shorthand. The Great Recession of the late 2000s drove both a greater focus on risk management and substantial new regulation for financial firms.

Billions of workers around the world are paid to perform easy-to-automate or repetitive tasks. Whether it's administrative work, scheduling, decision making, inventory or most, a robot could usually do it better... and faster. Artificial intelligence develops more and more each given year, promising to redefine the way we live, move and work. The AI analytics research industry funding has rising from an $8.2 billion investment in 2013 to a predicted $70 billion by 2020, according to a Bank of America report citing IDC research. A recent Harvard Business Review study found that managers currently spend about 54% of their time handling administrative coordination and control when they could be making higher judgement calls.

Customers should approach online reviews of health products with caution, say University of Aberdeen researchers. An analysis of clinical trial data and user-generated online reviews has shown that customers are prone to exaggerating the effects of weight loss and cholesterol treatments, especially when they have positive results. The researchers examined more than 1,600 Amazon.com 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 Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric ...

A new exhibition at Science Gallery Dublin is exploring what an automated world might look like. There's a lot of discussion around the future of work, particularly when it comes to AI and robotics becoming more integrated into the workplace. Many experts are confident that advances in AI will, contrary to popular belief, actually create more jobs than it will get rid of. Those experts have also quelled our fears about certain elements of human behaviour being usurped by intelligent, human-like bots. Sure, they can analyse data at the drop of a hat and a lot of monotonous administration can be automated, but robots don't have the level of creativity or emotional intelligence that humans have, right?

There has been trepidation among marketers when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). The main concern seems to be, "is it coming for my job?" The reality is AI, and particularly the subset of machine learning, are tools that can help marketers do their jobs more effectively -- not replace them altogether. A good starting place for understanding how this works is defining what exactly AI and machine learning mean. Misuse of these terms to date has led to plenty of confusion on what AI entails and what it's capable of.

Arrival Amy Adams stars in this elegant, involving science-fiction drama that is simultaneously old and new, revisiting many alien-invasion conventions but with unexpected intelligence, visual style and heart. The Eagle Huntress A portrait of a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia who defies eons of tradition by learning to hunt with fierce golden eagles is a documentary so satisfying it makes you feel good about feeling good. Elle Paul Verhoeven's brilliantly booby-trapped thriller starring Isabelle Huppert is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners. The Founder Michael Keaton gives a performance of ratty, reptilian brilliance as Ray Kroc, the American salesman who turned a California burger stand into the global fast-food behemoth that is McDonald's, in John Lee Hancock's shrewd and satisfyingly fat-free biopic. I Am Not Your Negro As directed by the gifted Raoul Peck, this documentary on James Baldwin uses the entire spectrum of movie effects, not only spoken language but also sound, music, editing and all manner of visuals, to create a cinematic essay that is powerful and painfully relevant.

The good: Better complications, Includes Google Assistant, Can run standalone apps, Improved fitness tracking, Refined interface that's easier to use, Works on Android and iOS The bad: Mostly playing catch up to Apple and fitness trackers, Smart reply suggestions don't always work well Who should buy: Android phone owners interested in smartwatches will be pleased with the improvements coming in 2.0, but the software won't do much to convince smartwatch skeptics When Android Wear first debuted in 2014, smartwatches were still largely unfamiliar territory, and Google was just figuring out how to adapt Android to wearable devices. More than two years later, Google's refined take on those efforts are set to debut. LG's Watch Style and Watch Sport, out Feb. 10, will be the first smartwatches to ship with Android Wear 2.0, the massive software update Google unveiled last spring. The refresh gives Google-powered smartphones more ammunition to compete with rival devices, especially the market-leading Apple Watch. Among Android Wear 2.0's biggest improvements is how much easier it is to navigate. It's simpler to launch apps, manage notifications, and customize watch faces.

I found myself trying to explain my job to my mom last night. My amazing mom is a baby boomer, and she has never understood what I do. Marketing is a foreign concept to her, let alone artificial intelligence (AI) or how it applies to digital marketing. She is an active Facebook user, but she doesn't understand why certain friends never show up in her news feed. She is great at engaging with friends on Facebook, but most of "her" updates are actually published by my dad (who refuses to create his own "facepalm" profile).

With the rise of machine learning, concerns are being voiced about the future involvement of humans in jobs that computers can handle. But at the same time, alternative views are being offered on ways in which the human element will influence the direction of data science, with passion playing a large role in that survival. "I think data science is one area in which a woman … will have a huge opportunity to move the needle," said Stephanie Gottlib-Zeh (pictured), president of Agyleo Sport. In her view, insularity is something more likely to damage an enterprise than to sustain it, and drawing in a diversity of viewpoints is a big step toward protecting against that sort of stagnancy. Gottlib-Zeh (pictured), president of Agyleo Sport, shared her thoughts on the ways in which data is changing business and how tech workers should aim for jobs that excite them.