Machine learning is revolutionizing healthcare. Here are some highlights of interesting applications of how research in artificial intelligence is helping people. Habits are best changed in a group-support type setting. What these researchers accomplished was to create an AI based messaging platform that sends supportive messages to help people quit smoking. The way we move is a valuable insight to health and illness. People suffering from a stroke or parkinson for example have a certain pattern of moving.

Eno is the first natural language SMS chatbot from a U.S. bank. And we launched Eno at SXSW on March 10, open as a pilot to Capital One customers. When it came to giving this new SMS chatbot a name, we looked for a gender-neutral name with human-like qualities consistent with Capital One's mission of bringing humanity to banking. We chose the name Eno because it's "one" (as in Capital One) spelled backwards. And we also liked that when we asked Google for the definition of Eno, the first result returned said "Awesome, cool." After deciding to create a gender-neutral character, we worked to define Eno's character traits and develop its backstory.

One of the theoretical advantages of software, artificial intelligence, algorithms, and robots is that they don't suffer many human foibles. They don't get sick or tired. They are polite -- or rude -- to everyone in equal measure. The reality, of course, is different. Technology is designed by humans in all their frailty. As a result, it is eminently capable of perfect human behavior.

Last year, FORBES MIDDLE EAST launched its first ever list of promising U.A.E. We have expanded it from 25 to 50, with an additional 50 to watch. Despite a tougher economic environment, venture capitalists are not holding back.

Artificial intelligence has become as meaningless a description of technology as "all natural" is when it refers to fresh eggs. At least, that's the conclusion reached by Devin Coldewey, a Tech Crunch contributor. AI has become a popular buzzword, he said, precisely because it's so poorly defined. Marketers use it to create an impression of competence and to more easily promote "intelligent" capabilities as trends change. The popularity of the AI buzzword, however, "has to do at least partly with the conflation of neural networks with artificial intelligence," he said.

Amazon's Alexa already boasts more than 10,000 skills, but has now added medical advice to its repertoire. WebMD announced today that it's launched its own skill for all Alexa-enabled devices (including the Echo, Echo Dot, and Fire TV), which can answer basic health-related queries. Topics include treatments for common ailments ("Alexa, ask WebMD how to treat a sore throat"), definitions of basic diseases ("Alexa, ask WebMD what diabetes is"), and the side effects of certain drugs ("Alexa, ask WebMD to tell me about amoxicillin"). WebMD stresses that, like its website, the new Alexa skill is only meant to offer supplementary information, and adds that the software is a work-in-progress. "We want to be in the place where we believe computing is going," WebMD's vice president of mobile products, Ben Greenberg, tells The Verge.

Editor's note: We're proud to bring NextDraft--the most righteous, most essential newsletter on the web--to WIRED.com. Every Friday you'll get a roundup of the week's most popular must-read stories from around the internet, courtesy of mastermind Dave Pell. Millions of homes now have guests who never leave. With names like Cortana, Siri, and Alexa, these always-listening, all-knowing, just about always female-voiced assistants have become like members of the family. They're selling like crazy, they're interacting with your children (maybe more than you are), and a new suite of artificially intelligent assistant bots are being built into baby monitors so they can have an influence on your kids right from the start. WaPo's Michael S. Rosenwald wonders if anyone is focused on how millions of kids are being shaped by know-it-all voice assistants.

Flippy the robot is starting its culinary career with one simple task, but just like any rookie, it is learning on the job. With some practice and training, Flippy will be able to do everything from chopping vegetables to plating meals like a pro. Miso Robotics created the robot, which debuted in a kitchen at the restaurant chain CaliBurger in Pasadena this week. "Flippy will initially only focus on flipping burgers and placing them on buns," David Zito, CEO of Miso Robotics tells ZDNet. He adds, "But since Flippy is powered by our own cooking AI software, it will continuously learn from its experiences to improve and adapt over time. This means Flippy will learn to take on additional tasks including grilling chicken, bacon, onions, and buns in addition to frying, prepping, and finishing plates. Eventually, Flippy will support CaliBurger's entire menu."

A recent study led by a Tallahassee-based Florida State University psychology researcher investigated whether artificial intelligence can assist in suicide prevention. The researchers, led by Jessica Ribeiro, PhD, identified the EHRs of 2 million Tennessee patients, more than 3,200 of whom had attempted suicide. The researchers used machine learning on these patients' medical histories to determine which combination of risk factors most accurately predicted future suicide attempts. The machine learning algorithm could predict suicide attempts with between 80 percent and 90 percent accuracy as far as two years into the future. The algorithm's accuracy increased based on closeness to the time of the suicide attempt; accuracy was as high as 92 percent when identifying general hospital patients at risk for a suicide attempt within one week.

Each year in the United States, more than 40,000 people die by suicide, and from 1999 to 2014, the suicide rate increased 24 percent. You might think that after generations of theories and data, we would be close to understanding how to prevent self-harm, or at least predict it. But a new study concludes that the science of suicide prediction is dismal, and the established warning signs about as accurate as tea leaves. There is, however, some hope. New research shows that machine-learning algorithms can dramatically improve our predictive abilities on suicides.