Korean technology giant Samsung has announced the opening of a huge new AI research in Cambridge, UK to capitalise on local talent. Cambridge has gained international recognition as a hub of AI talent. Google's acquisition of DeepMind, whose headquarters is based in the city, only helped to further boost this reputation. "Today's announcement by Samsung will create high-paying, high-skilled jobs and our modern Industrial Strategy will encourage further investment like this all around the country," says Prime Minister Theresa May. "It is a vote of confidence in the UK as a world leader in artificial intelligence, and the new AI research centre will benefit from the world-renowned talent and academic prowess of Cambridge."

Microsoft has acquired an artificial intelligence startup, Semantic Machines, to bolster its efforts in "conversational AI" and potentially make its Cortana virtual assistant better at understanding natural language enquiries. Microsoft didn't disclose how much it paid for Semantic Machines, but said it would open a new AI research centre in Semantic Machines' hometown of Berkeley. Semantic Machines is made up of a number if AI veterans, and gives Microsoft access to some formidable talent. Larry Gillick is Semantic's chief technology officer and a former chief speech scientist for Apple's Siri. Several Semantic staffers also worked at Nuance, the voice recognition company once powered Siri.

Deep-pocketed Korean conglomerate Samsung today announced it will open a massive AI research center, based in leafy (and deeply tech-centric) Cambridge. The Samsung AI Center, Cambridge (SAIC-Cambridge) will be lead by Professor Andrew Blake, who is one of Britain's leading academics in the AI space. Are you doing business in Amsterdam in May? Blake previously headed up Microsoft Research's Cambridge laboratory, and is a former director of the Alan Turing Institute. The new facility is the fifth owned by Samsung outside of Korea and the US, and is a major coup for the British tech scene, particularly as it tries to position itself as a world leader in artificial intelligence. The UK already has a solid pedigree in AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to have a game changing effect on Consumer Products, Business Services, Advertising, Finance & Investment, Media & Entertainment and Defense Applications around the world. According to a research report by Markets and Markets, the global artificial intelligence landscape could reach a value north of $190 billion within the next seven years. AI is asserting itself as a transformative technology that can heavily influence the global economy with trillions in contributions in various subsets of the economy. The most significant factor influencing the explosive growth of this market is the investment by businesses, as leaders across numerous industries are spending billions to develop advanced AI platforms. Active companies in the markets this week include Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTC: GOPH), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: ON), Aptiv PLC (NYSE: APTV).

We're going to talk to our technology, and everyone else's too. Google proved that earlier this month with a demonstration of artificial intelligence that can hop on the phone to book a restaurant reservation or appointment at the hair salon. Now it's just a matter of who can build that technology fastest. To reach that goal, Microsoft has acquired conversational AI startup Semantic Machines for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2014, the startup's goal was to build AI that can converse with humans through speech or text, with the ability to be trained to converse on any language or subject.

Court records say 20-year-old Jordan Kellogg was sentenced Monday in Douglas County District Court. He'd pleaded no contest to four counts of robbery. Prosecutors dropped three more counts and one of attempted robbery in exchange for Kellogg's pleas.

When a robot rings your phone, you can usually tell right away. Its voice is melodic, it rarely stumbles, and it's unnaturally efficient. The voice betrays its origin before it even has the chance to tell you that you qualify for a free loan, your mortgage payment is overdue, or that your input would really be valuable for a customer survey. Knowing it's a robot also makes it easy to hang up. The minds behind Google Duplex are in the process of changing that paradigm, for better or worse.

On May 17th, I attended the 4th Rise of AI conference in Berlin. The conference grew from 17 participants in 2015 to 70 in 2016, 300 in 2017, and this year 700. Although many more interested people wanted to participate, the event organisators, Veronika and Fabian Westerheide, announced that the conference next year will be capped at around the same amount of people to not loose the personal touch – in my opinion, a very good decision. I had the chance to give a presentation on my own. I talked about my team's learnings with regards to the data science process, the obstacles we faced and still facing, and the concepts & solutions we have been developing to get around those issues and to make the data science process smoother.

Microsoft has acquired an artificial-intelligence startup, Semantic Machines, to bolster its efforts in "conversational AI" and potentially make its Cortana virtual assistant better at understanding natural language enquiries. Microsoft didn't disclose how much it paid for Semantic Machines but said it would open a new AI research center in Semantic Machines' hometown of Berkeley, California. Semantic Machines contains numerous AI veterans, and the acquisition gives Microsoft access to some formidable talent. Semantic's chief technology officer, Larry Gillick, is a former chief speech scientist for Apple's Siri. Microsoft also name checked the University of California at Berkeley professor Dan Klein and the Stanford University professor Percy Liang.

From personalized healthcare to digital personal assistants, Artificial Intelligence has been changing the world around us and how! Read all about it here: bit.ly/2IWKiEq #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Siri #DataScience pic.twitter.com/724S9n9Lay