A few months ago, Microsoft released a feature for PowerPoint 2016 that can help users make better-looking slides even if they aren't presentation experts. On Thursday, it got even better with a few upgrades. PowerPoint Designer kicks in when users add images to a slide, and it provides people with a bunch of options for how they can lay those images out alongside text. Previously, the feature was only capable of handling a single image, but it now allows users to add at least two images at once to a slide, with some themes capable of handling up to four pictures in a single slide. In a blog post published Thursday, Microsoft promised users will be able to insert more images across all themes inside PowerPoint, but it didn't give a specific date for users to expect that. In addition to the multiple image support, users who add images with people in them will now get the benefit of a new facial recognition capability in Designer.

Tay has evolved from a teenager to a nazi, to a feminist (or so I've heard). And it has blurted out some pretty much not politically correct things. It's not AI that is wrong here. Tay's learning progress says more about us than it does about artificial intelligence. If we taught it peace, love, rock'n'roll, it would have talked about The Rolling Stones, weed and colorful VW T1s.

It sounds like Microsoft's Tay chatbot is getting a time-out, as Microsoft instructs her on how to talk with strangers on the Internet. Because, as the company quickly learned, the citizens of the Internet can't be trusted with that task. In a statement released Thursday, Microsoft said that a "coordinated effort" by Internet users had turned the Tay chatbot into a tool of "abuse." It was a clear reference to a series of racist and otherwise abusive tweets that the Tay chatbot issued within a day of debuting on Twitter. Wednesday morning, Tay was a novel experiment in AI that would learn natural language through social engagement.

Images leaked online this week give the first good look at what is claimed to be a controller for the highly anticipated Nintendo NX. The device pictured in the post by Reddit user perkele37 supports rumours that the new controller will have an elliptical shape and a touchscreen covering its entire surface. Apart from the touchscreen, the rumoured controller has just two'nubs' and a headphone jack. Images leaked online this week give the first good look at what is claimed to be a controller for the highly anticipated Nintendo NX. The images were revealed on Wednesday, just days after a similar leak showed blurry photos of a device claimed to be the controller.

Not all Muslims speak Arabic." For example, Ismail said, the world's largest Muslim nation is Indonesia, which is not anywhere near the Middle East. "People just don't realize that." It's not just the portrayal of Muslims that is problematic. In several video games, images of the Arab and Muslim world are often inaccurate.

The Google Chrome extension is similar to a spell check function, except instead of flagging misspelled words, it identifies insults and hateful messages and then prompts the user to write something else. That's from the website for Reword, a new Google Chrome extension designed to combat cyberbullying. The tool identifies insulting words in online posts and messages, and then crosses them out with a red line. Developed in Australia by Headspace, which is Australia's National Youth Mental Health Foundation, and ad agency Leo Burnett Melbourne, Reword aims to address online abuse by preventing hateful messages before they're even posted. "Sadly, online bullying is endemic," Headspace CEO Chris Tanti said in a news release.

The Twitter profile for Tay.ai, Microsoft's short-lived chatbot. The Twitter profile for Tay.ai, Microsoft's short-lived chatbot. Editor's Note: This post contains language that some readers might find offensive. Her emoji usage is on point. She says "bae," "chill" and "perf."

SAN FRANCISCO -- The days of free spending appear to be waning as Alphabet gets serious about subsidiary companies becoming more disciplined and accountable. "The fiscal discipline era has now descended upon everything," Tony Fadell, the CEO of smart device subsidiary Nest, told The Information in an interview. Google bought Fadell's company for 3.2 billion in 2014. We're going to hold you to those numbers," Fadell said. Last week Bloomberg reported that Alphabet is trying to sell Boston Dynamics, the robotics start-up it bought in late 2013, because it's unlikely to release a marketable product in the next few years. "There is increasingly a new level of financial discipline being injected into how Alphabet allocates capital," said S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Scott Kessler. He and other analysts see the influence of chief financial officer Ruth Porat, who has shown a greater willingness to keep costs in check while still aggressively pursuing revenue growth. "From an investor's perspective, you want Alphabet and Google out there taking risks and making big bets.

Established companies are waking to the import of The Internet of Things and starting to extend their businesses to leverage it for new ways to reach consumers. At OMMA SXSW over the weekend, Coca-Cola's Derek Myers, group director of strategy and commercialization, described to attendees how the company's vending machines capture more than 100 data points a second. Until now, those data points have been returning daily inventory and payment info to headquarters. But in true IoT fashion, Coke is going to be able to deliver personal messages to a consumer via the screen on the front of the machine. Connected vending machines, also in the works from other brands and being deployed around the world, are but one example of the extent of coming connected objects.

This post is a summary of 3 different posts about outlier detection methods. One of the challenges in data analysis in general and predictive modeling in particular is dealing with outliers. There are many modeling techniques which are resistant to outliers or reduce the impact of them, but still detecting outliers and understanding them can lead to interesting findings. We generally define outliers as samples that are exceptionally far from the mainstream of data.There is no rigid mathematical definition of what constitutes an outlier; determining whether or not an observation is an outlier is ultimately a subjective exercise. There are several approaches for detecting Outliers.