Not a day goes by when I don't hear another artificial intelligence horror case. If evoking more of a modern and less of a killer machine image is desired, the protagonist in Ex Machina (although no less scary) is selected. The audience is really interested now. Even more critical -- the end of the human race is beckoning! Going back to work is less motivating when you know you'll be replaced by your Roomba in a few years' time.

A few weeks ago I was emailing Tom Blomfield, the CEO of startup bank Monzo, to arrange lunch. He passed me over to his assistant, Amy Ingrams, by CCing her into an email. Amy and I exchanged eight emails fixing up a date and then another five when Blomfield had to rearrange. Only then did I spot something odd in Amy's email signature: "Artificial intelligence for scheduling meetings." It turns out that I had been talking to an algorithm the whole time.

Women in Data Science Internship: Meetup connects people throughout the world to do more of the things they love to do. What develops from these communities is the serendipitous discovery of new places and things through the use of our technology! This Summer 2017, the Meetup Engineering team is offering a unique opportunity to students who are in strong technology programs who love to solve problems, collaborate, design and be an engineer -- learn more, do more, grow more, and develop with us through the Meetup Women in Tech Internship. Selected students will be offered a paid internship along with the potential opportunity to join a smart, dedicated engineering team full-time at the conclusion of the summer. As an intern on the Data Team at Meetup, you could be working on: Applying your research to Meetup's millions of active users Making our recommendation algorithms better Improving our tracking and reporting infrastructure Processing tons of Data in one of our cloud computing environments Building smart products using insights and data from our platform We build data pipelines *and* figure out how to turn the data into products that make Meetup better.

As a smart technology entrepreneur with a machine intelligence research background and passionate about advancing the state-of-the-art in machine or artificial intelligence (AI) to help solve real-world problems, it is very encouraging and exciting to see the AI buzz in the tech industry right now, the progress made in the field to create an even stronger intelligence toolbox, and the ever increasing practical applications in all industries and enterprise functions. Machine intelligence is not only changing the way we use our computers and smartphones but the way we interact with the real world. It is also one of the key exponential technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Given how all the major technology companies are embracing machine intelligence as a core part of their business and the multitude of startups building their business on this technology, AI is clearly not a passing fad, but being pushed across the rest of the tech world too. In this post I'm not only addressing some key topics about the current and future state of machine intelligence, but also practical steps we are taking here in Africa to not only use smart technology to solve problems, but also make a contribution towards advancing the-state-of-the-art in machine intelligence.

We cover many emerging markets in the startup ecosystem. Previously, we published posts that summarized Financial Technology, Internet of Things, Bitcoin, and MarTech in six visuals. This week, we do the same with Artificial Intelligence (AI). At this time, we are tracking 855 AI companies across 13 categories, with a combined funding amount of $8.75billion. To see all of our AI related posts, check out our blog!

Did you forget to turn off the window A.C.? How about that curling iron? Want the living room lamp to turn on when the sun goes down--automatically? The Wemo Switch gives you control of your lamps and small appliances whenever you want, wherever you choose, with tons of options for scheduling and automation. Paired with Amazon Alexa, you can control your lamps and appliances with just the power of your voice. When Wemo works with Nest Thermostat, you can set your lights to turn off automatically when you leave the house, and on when you get home again.

Thanks to recent gains in machine learning, computers are getting skilled at picking out patterns and features in text and images. That's how e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay build sophisticated recommendation systems and how social networks like Facebook and Twitter are tweaking feeds to keep users hooked. Pinterest is no exception, with 30% of engagement tied to personalized real-time suggestions. Here's how Pinterest engineers are leveraging artificial intelligence to keep the website's 150 million–plus users pinning and sharing. Machine learning can not only determine the subject of an image, it can also identify visual patterns and match them to other photos.

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While Amazon has been furiously releasing updates to keep Alexa abreast of current events (and holiday shopping deals), Apple has been content to keep most of their Siri updates limited to major OS releases. That'll change with the iTunes release of The Secret Life of Pets, which marks the first time Apple's virtual assistant has been used to promote a movie release or partnered with a major movie studio. As 9to5Mac notes, the promotional stunt for The Secret Life of Pets gives Siri 15 somewhat humorous canned responses to the question "What do my pets do when I'm not at home?" When Engadget tried the gimmick, Siri responded with: "I don't know, but the dog just asked me for a walking route to the nearest park." And: "I don't know, but the cat just asked me about the five day forecast for the living room sunny spot." Those answers might be cute, but they're also not quite as smart as say: having Siri pull up your Nest cam highlights or launching your treat cam app.

Amazon's Alexa set for an upgrade with'SuperEcho' speaker complete with built in 7inch touchscreen Alexa voice assistant can respond to voice commands from user Next version rumour to have much improved sound and a touchscreen Will compete against Google's Home and rumoured Apple Siri speaker Will compete against Google's Home and rumoured Apple Siri speaker The Amazon Echo and smaller Echo Dot speakers will be available in black or white. The Echo will cost £149.99 Why the left is ALWAYS a man's best side: Researchers find... You can now play Pac-Man in Messenger: Facebook adds... Are YOU smart enough to answer Google's tricky interview... Does this look like a lizard on Mars? Why the left is ALWAYS a man's best side: Researchers find...