I time my dodges carefully, angling just right to catch the boss as he lunges where I'm no longer standing. Then I jump back, down an estus flask and restore my health, staying a whisker out of reach. But this time I've miscalculated. The game forces me to watch as my outmatched, under-levelled character meets the business end of an axe in a frustratingly long cinematic sequence. I start again, this time favouring the monster's unarmed side.

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CTO Corner is BITS's monthly publication covering emerging trends and technologies in the financial services industry. Artificial Intelligence (AI), defined as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages, has been around for over 60 years.1 In his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Alan Turing opens with: "I propose to consider the question'can machines think?'"2 He proposed a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior, equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human being, which is now known as the Turing Test.3 AI as an academic discipline began at the famous 1955 Dartmouth conference organized by John McCarthy from Stanford University and Marvin Minsky from MIT.4 This CTO Corner explores both the potential for AI to transform the financial services industry and challenges it presents.

MindMeld, a pioneer in conversational AI technology, is today releasing the MindMeld for TV platform, which the company bills as the first solution designed for television and over-the-top content providers -- like Netflix and Hulu -- to deliver best in class discovery through a conversational interface. That company boasts investors and customers like Google, Samsung, Intel, Telefonica, IDG, Spotify, and other major global brands. Since MindMeld provides data services and the underlying tech-for-voice interface, the company couldn't explain exactly which products in market are 100 percent powered by their technology. But the company's voice platform is fast, alarmingly accurate, and likely baked into tons of products we interact with in some form or another. MindMeld was founded in 2011 and is backed by over 15 million in funding.

In other words, then, the company wants to be the platform that helps you throughout the entire cooking process -- starting from the food you have in your fridge, helping you to prepare it and then finally cooking it in a way that delivers perfect results every time. That's a tall order, especially considering all the variables involved, including the size and shape of different foods and the fact that not everyone knows how to cook. But thanks to some machine learning smarts and a variety of high-tech sensors, Innit believes its system is up to the task. It all starts with food storage. Using cameras and sensors, Innit is able to show you exactly what you have in your fridge, with the help of a companion app.

If there's one thing that I've learned in the few short years that I've been a fully-fledged scientist, it's that time is one of the most valuable commodities that you can give a researcher. In all its myriad forms, time is invaluable to the scientific process – time to develop ideas, time to write grants. The time that you need to run an experiment. Critically, the time that participants are willing to give you in the pursuit of knowledge. It's a precious thing, for everyone involved.

Queen Elizabeth II donned an ermine-trimmed robe and diamond-studded crown Wednesday to announce government promises to put Britain at the cutting edge of technology and social progress in the 21st century. Plans for prison reform, a sugar tax and commercial spaceports were among 21 bills announced in the Queen's Speech, an annual tradition that mixes lavish pomp and modern politics. Prime Minister David Cameron called it a "progressive, one-nation" program, but some measures are sure to meet resistance -- and next month's referendum on European Union membership is casting a shadow over the government's plans. The annual State Opening of Parliament is steeped in centuries-old symbolism of the power struggle between Parliament and the British monarchy. In a display of regal wealth and finery, the queen traveled from Buckingham Palace in the horse-drawn Diamond Jubilee State Coach, and delivered the speech -- written for her by the government -- wearing the Imperial State Crown, studded with 3,000 diamonds.

I grew up surrounded by technology because my dad was a long-time computer programmer and made sure to bring his daughter into a world of science. With O'Reilly books scattered about the house in colorful arrays, each featuring an animal on the cover, it was not hard for my interest to be piqued in computer science and technology from a young age. It wasn't long before I was opening hard drives - even beloved video game consoles - and fiddling with circuit boards and metal scraps with my dad to understand more about how they worked. During college vacations, I'm still working with my dad on building portable consoles and controllers out of recycled, "dead" generations of video games.

For all the buzz over conversational bots these days, they're still pretty crude, as some users of Facebook Messenger's new chatbots recently discovered. It's not necessarily that they're dumb, but they do need to be trained to respond intelligently in the specific situations in which they're employed. Today MindMeld Inc., one of the pioneers behind conversational artificial intelligence technology, will roll out a version of its bot platform specifically for retailers and e-commerce companies. MindMeld for Commerce is intended to help customers find products, do messaging-based transactions, check on order status and get support without requiring another human to get involved. Tuttle contends that MindMeld's bots can converse, either in text or by voice, better not only than other bots but also virtual assistants such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana.

Non-rapid eye movement sleep, or NREM, is, collectively, sleep stages 1–3, previously known as stages 1–4. Rapid eye movement sleep (REM) is not included. There are distinct electroencephalographic and other characteristics seen in each stage. Unlike REM sleep, there is usually little or no eye movement during these stages. Dreaming is rare during NREM sleep, and muscles are not paralyzed as in REM sleep.