Cortana is one of MicrosoftMicrosoft Cloud Tool Moves Enterprise Analytics Data Easily. Read more ... »'s key focuses this year, and the personal assistantMicrosoft Launches New Emotion API Tool That Can Recognize Several Emotions In Photos. Read more ... » is set to receive more features with the upcoming Anniversary Update for Windows 10. "We think this can have as profound an impact as the previous platform shifts have had", Nadella said in his keynote speechMicrosoft Launches New Emotion API Tool That Can Recognize Several Emotions In Photos. In gaming-related news, Microsoft has also incorporated Xbox into Windows. For now, the preview bots are already available on Skype for the latest versions on the Windows Desktop, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

At long last, I'm thrilled to announce that Reactive Machine Learning Systems is now available in early access form. I've been working on this book since the original post on reactive machine learning, last year. It's great to be able to finally share the first phase of this work with the world. The book is much like the data engineering collection here on Medium. I've tried to catalogue all of the real world details of building a full machine learning system that you don't hear about in other algorithm-focused books.

Machine learning is the hot new thing in Silicon Valley. In an interview with the Times, Google cloud executive Urs Hölzle predicted that the business of renting out machine learning capabilities will one day overtake the company's advertising revenue. To put that in perspective, search ads made Google an eye-popping 16.4 billion in profits in 2015. Machine learning is a branch of computer science where algorithms can train themselves in pattern recognition. Crucially, it doesn't require a programmer to orient the algorithm to what works or doesn't work in a given domain -- it can learn on its own.

A pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Adam Cheyer has spent most of his life living by what he calls "Verbally Stated Goals" -- that is, continuously striving to do and achieve more each year. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a magician and, in many ways, he did just that: in 2008, as inventor, computer scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur, he co-created the world's first intelligent personal assistant, Siri, with Dag Kittlaus and Tom Gruber. Siri, Inc. was a technology company borne out of SRI International, a nonprofit research unit, to create a highly clever and personable virtual assistant for smartphone consumers. By 2010, the company had been acquired by Apple Inc., and the Siri app was incorporated into Apple's iPhone 4S handsets. Cheyer became Director of Engineering for the iPhone/iOS team at Apple, where he remained for two years before leaving to spend more time with his family and to pursue personal endeavours. Cheyer is also a founding member of Change.org, a social network for positive social change, and is co-founder of Genetic Finance, which applies advanced artificial intelligence to solve problems within a wide range of industries, including financial trading, insurance, computer networking, and electronics design. Newnham: Take me back to your childhood. What first excited you about technology? Adam Cheyer: As a child, I was allowed to watch an hour of TV a week, and in that time, I got my fill of commercials selling me on the latest toys.

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A bit of a delayed posting due to pre-spring break crunch time, but my inimitable collaborator and ex-colleague Kamalika Chaudhuri passed along the following announcement. I write with the exciting news that UCSD has up to four postdoctoral fellowship openings in data science and machine learning. The fellowships will prepare outstanding researchers for academic careers. The fellows will be affiliated with the CSE or ECE Departments, will enjoy broad freedom to work with any of or faculty, they will be allocated a research budget, and will teach one class per year. If you know anyone who might be interested, please encourage them to apply!

China's research on artificial intelligence is moving full steam ahead, as the country's leading Internet company is now assembling a team of experts whose main goal is to turn imagination into reality. Funded by Chinese Internet giant Baidu, the research project dubbed The Verne Plan, named after the French novelist Jules Verne, will be comprised of the world's best science fiction writers and scientists, reported the China Daily. According to the Beijing-based Baidu, it has already invited six people to be part of the team's first group of advisers. The team is composed of Andrew Ng, Baidu's chief scientist, and five science fiction writers, which include Liu Cixin, the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel for his book "The Three-Body Problem." Another well-known member of the China-supported study on artificial intelligence is David Brin, an award-winning American author.

Ricky Man, a 42-year-old graphic designer in Hong Kong, spent more than 50,000, and a year-and-a-half designing and constructing an unbelievably lifelike robot...modeled after Oscar-nominated actress, Scarlett Johansson. The robot, who Ricky calls'Mark 1,' has confirmed to be inspired by a "Hollywood star," but Ricky apparently wants to keep the specific name under wraps. Ricky's projection is a culmination of a "childhood dream," and the prototype has, covered in silicone skin, contains a "3D-printed skeleton," which wraps its "mechanical and electronic parts." Despite the isolation in this DIY endeavor, Ricky says he has no regrets, and is hopeful that with the increasing potential of artificial intelligence, he'll be able to sell Mark 1 to a high bidder. Although, something tells me ol' Ricky is going to have a hard time giving up his new friend...

DARPA's 130-foot unmanned ship is almost ready to take on rogue submarines. Its christening isn't slated to take place until April 7th, but it's now in the water near its construction site in Portland, Oregon -- the agency has even begun conducting speed tests. The drone called ACTUV or Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel has successfully reached the top speed its creators were expecting (31mph) during the preliminary tests. It was, however, designed to do much more than traverse the oceans at 31mph. ACTUV has the capability to use long/short-range sonar to detect foreign submarines, even stealthy diesel electric ones that don't make noise.

Okay, that headline was meant to get your attention. But lately, I've been thinking about this crazy circus we call data science and how everyone seems to think data scientists are invaluable, treasured, and potentially "un-fireable" in this age of data scientist negative unemployment. There are far too many comments on data science blogs talking about the best Kagglers and the latest approaches in "deep learning" and other technical parts of the discipline. And there are precious few posts about the reality of being a data scientist who needs to function with real human beings in an organization on a daily basis. So, I decided to step back and think of 5 pitfalls a data scientist could encounter which could lead to unemployment (yes, even really smart people get fired).