Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Personal Assistant Systems


This artificial Christmas tree company has Silicon Valley written all over it

Los Angeles Times

Downtown Redwood City is home to cloud-storage company Box, virtual reality start-up AltspaceVR, music identification app Shazam and artificial Christmas tree-maker Balsam Hill. "It's definitely weird for us to be here," said Thomas Harman, the 40-year-old founder and chief executive of the holiday decoration company. But rather than feel like his company doesn't belong in a neighborhood known for its software businesses and venture capital firms, Harman has embraced his 11-year-old company's tech hub home. He describes his business as having one foot planted in the slow-moving seasonal decorations world (where products are planned 18 months in advance) and another in Silicon Valley (where thinking-outside-the-box is often thought to be the only way to think). "If you compare us to people doing artificial intelligence and machine learning, or Google and Facebook, we're obviously not doing anything earth-shattering like that," Harman said. "But we like to think we're pushing the envelope when it comes to holiday decorations."


Machine learning versus AI: what's the difference?

#artificialintelligence

Thanks to the likes of Google, Amazon, and Facebook, the terms artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have become much more widespread than ever before. They are often used interchangeably and promise all sorts from smarter home appliances to robots taking our jobs. But while AI and machine learning are very much related, they are not quite the same thing. AI is a branch of computer science attempting to build machines capable of intelligent behaviour, while Stanford University defines machine learning as "the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed". You need AI researchers to build the smart machines, but you need machine learning experts to make them truly intelligent.


Zuckerberg seeks more use cases for virtual assistant Jarvis from Facebook followers

#artificialintelligence

After introducing virtual butler Jarvis in a Morgan Freeman voice, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now seeking suggestions from his Facebook followers to make Jarvis more useful and make it do much more. In a video post, which shows Mark, Priscilla, his child Max and dog Beast, at home in different situations, the co-founder showcases some use cases of Jarvis and wants to do more. Named after the artificial intelligence system designed by Marvel comics' superhero Iron Man or Tony Stark, Jarvis can respond to text and voice commands and it could run music, air conditioning, doors, and other systems. It could recognize visitors, start a toaster and even shoot t-shirts from a cannon in his closet. The video also shows that Jarvis can make decisions like who to tickle next, in this case, it was Max.


Mark Zuckerberg Introduces His Virtual Butler 'Jarvis'

#artificialintelligence

Mark Zuckerberg on Monday introduced the world to "Jarvis," an artificial intelligence system the Facebook chief created in his spare time, which can choose and play music, turn on lights, and recognize visitors, deciding whether to open the front door. Jarvis, named after the virtual assistant in the Iron Man movies, could be a step toward a new product, Zuckerberg wrote, although he cautioned that the system he had created in 100 hours over the last year was customized for his house. Zuckerberg announced results of the project, a personal challenge he set for himself this year, as digital home assistants by Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc compete for holiday sales and are expected to outsell popular emerging gadgets such as virtual reality headsets and drones. Creating Jarvis proved humanity is "both closer and farther off" from an AI breakthrough than we imagine, Zuckerberg wrote. Computers are getting very good at pick out patterns, such as face recognition, but it is difficult to teach them new things, he wrote.



Zuckerberg Builds Artificial Intelligence Assistant To Run House, Entertain Toddler

#artificialintelligence

Mark Zuckerberg has a new housemate: Jarvis, an artificial intelligence assistant he created this year that can control appliances, play music, recognize faces and, perhaps most impressively, entertain his toddler. The Facebook founder spent 100 hours putting together the virtual assistant - named after the artificial intelligence system in "Iron Man" -- which understands spoken commands as well as text messages, he wrote in a 3,000-word Facebook post Monday. The virtual assistant texts Zuckerberg images of visitors who stop by during the day, and opens the front door for those it recognizes. It can also tell when Zuckerberg's 1-year-old daughter, Max, wakes up "so it can start playing music or a Mandarin lesson," he wrote. In a tongue-in-cheek video he posted on Facebook Tuesday, Zuckerberg offers an example of Jarvis at work: "Max woke up a few minutes ago. I'm entertaining her," the virtual assistant (voiced by Morgan Freeman) tells Zuckerberg, before turning his attention to the toddler.


5-Point Checklist for Investing in Artificial Intelligence

#artificialintelligence

There are plenty of headlines about how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming everything from smartphones to our cars, but understanding how exactly to benefit from AI as an investor can be a little harder. AI encompasses a lot of different technologies, like natural language processing (when Google Assistant understands what you're saying), machine vision (semi-autonomous cars knowing the difference between a lamppost and a pedestrian), and even suggesting the next show you should watch (although if an AI suggests HBO's Westworld, you should be suspicious). All of these examples are more than just algorithms that make decisions. They're computing systems that actually learn while they're working. To help you get started in your AI investments, here are five things you should know before jumping into the space.



Advance Analytics with R, Azure Machine Learning, Power BI and Microsoft R Server

#artificialintelligence

You will learn the main data structure in R, Managing Data with R, Exploring and Understanding Data in R (exploring numeric variable, categorical variable and relationship between variables). Moreover, audience learn how to use some of the main packages in R. You will learn different types of machine learning algorithms and how they work and how they can solve different type of real life problems. At the end of this module you will able to choose right algorithm for right problem.