A new kind of computer, devised by researchers at Google DeepMind in the U.K., could broaden the abilities of today's best AI systems by giving them an important new feature--a kind of working memory. The researchers show that the computer, which consists of a large neural network connected to a unique form of memory, can perform relatively complex tasks by figuring out for itself what information to hold in its memory. The tasks include figuring out the best way to get from one station to another on London's spaghetti-like Underground transit network, after exploring diagrams of other types of networks and learning about the most salient features. The Google DeepMind researchers call their system a differentiable neural computer. It is differentiable in the sense that its behavior--including what to store in memory--can be learned using the mathematical process, called backpropagation, that underlies the working of neural networks.

"I wish I could touch you," Theodore says, laying in bed. Until she speaks up, tentatively. "How would you touch me?" It's a famously poignant scene from the movie Her, as the character Theodore is about to make vocal love to an artificial intelligence living in his ear. But according to half a dozen experts I interviewed, ranging from industrial designer Gadi Amit to the usability guru Don Norman, in-ear assistants aren't science fiction. In fact, a notable pile of discreet, wireless earbuds enabling just this idea are coming to market now. Sony recently released its first in-ear assistant, the Xperia Ear. Intel showed off a similar proof-of-concept last year.

Shootings are an epidemic in the US, but federal funding for research into gun violence has been in a deep freeze since 1996, thanks in part to the NRA-backed Dickey Amendment, which prevents the Center for Disease Control from pursuing research "to advocate or promote gun control." Basically, humans can't get money to research the problem of gun violence in the US. To get around this, some scientists want machines to do the job. On September 25, University of Pennsylvania computer scientists Ellie Pavlick and Chris Callison-Burch unveiled a new, human-annotated database of gun violence incidents in the US at the Bloomberg Data for Good Exchange Conference in New York. The database was created by workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform, and carefully highlights information from thousands of news articles over the course of several years, Pavlick told me in an interview.

IMAGE: Brown researchers have trained a computer algorithm to spot in laboratory samples a cellular transition associated with more aggressive cancers. Brown University researchers have developed a new image analysis technique to distinguish two key cancer cell types associated with tumor progression. The approach could help in pre-clinical screening of cancer drugs and shed light on a cellular metamorphosis that is associated with more malignant and drug-resistant cancers. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT, is a process by which more docile epithelial cells transform into more aggressive mesenchymal cells. Tumors with higher numbers of mesenchymal cells are often more malignant and more resistant to drug therapies.

Brown University researchers have developed a new image analysis technique to distinguish two key cancer cell types associated with tumor progression. The approach could help in pre-clinical screening of cancer drugs and shed light on a cellular metamorphosis that is associated with more malignant and drug-resistant cancers. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT, is a process by which more docile epithelial cells transform into more aggressive mesenchymal cells. Tumors with higher numbers of mesenchymal cells are often more malignant and more resistant to drug therapies. The new technique combines microscopic imaging with a machine learning algorithm to better identify and distinguish between the two cell types in laboratory samples.

Some soft robots can wriggle into tight spots and swim like a real octopus. These ones developed by a team from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), however, are also capable of doing something more: they can help with the physical rehabilitation of people recovering from injuries and illnesses. The EPFL team have created a number of flexible, reconfigurable machines that can mimic human muscles' movement. They're made of silicon and rubber -- though the team also made a variant using a thick paper shell -- and they can be controlled by manipulating how much air they have inside. One of the medical devices they created with their soft robots is a belt that keeps patients upright and controls their movements during rehabilitation exercises.

As banking organisations, financial services providers and brands predict and plan for the way consumers will manage their money in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is high on the business development strategy for 2016 and beyond. Gideon Hyde, co-founder of Market Gravity, proposition design consultancy, shares his thoughts on this emerging technology and explains how businesses can embrace AI to enhance their offerings, meet consumer demand for speed, personalisation and convenience, and launch new products and services to stand out in the competitive marketplace. Gideon Hyde is co-founder and CEO of Market Gravity, which has offices in London, Edinburgh and New York. It works with big businesses, including Boots, Barclaycard, HSBC, Aegon, Standard Life, RWE npower and The AA, to help them realise their innovation capabilities and release the start up within. AI is already around us and used everyday within payments, money management and for robo-advice, particularly in the area of intelligent digital assistants that handle regular customer service enquiries and tasks.

More and more, chatbots are entering the B2C world without consumers even realizing it's happening. But are we waiting for some big, wow-worthy, famous, life-changing chatbot in order for the concept to become mainstream? Chatbots are clearly not yet dinner table discussion topics. "There is no doubt that chatbots will become a critical onramp for brands to connect with customers," said Jake Bennett, CTO at POP. "Chatbots [are] giving brands a direct communication channel and storefront inside the apps that users already use every day. A recent study by Ovum reported that 53 percent of American and German respondents prefer chatting with businesses through chat apps, like Facebook Messenger, rather than speaking by phone with the business.

Conversational UIs (CUI) have been gaining rapid prominence this year. If web applications enabled new user conveniences (like self-service travel booking and e-commerce) in the 1990s, Mobile apps opened up different set of conveniences since 2007 (like GPS navigation, ride hailing, and messengers). Over the past two years, CUIs like Amazon Alexa have begun to enable another interaction mode that has the potential to unlock new set user conveniences and use cases like never before. Conversational UIs include both text based and voice based UIs. The focus of this blog post is on voice based UI.

Amazon plans to open actual convenience stores for its Amazon Fresh customers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The stores will sell perishable foods like milk, meat and produce and serve as a platform to order same-day delivery of longer-lasting goods, the Journal reported. An Amazon spokesperson told Mashable that the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. SEE ALSO: Amazon's new shopping'wand' isn't as magical as it sounds Amazon Fresh allows customers to sign up for same-day grocery delivery at set times. The service for Prime members, available in select markets, requires a 15 monthly fee on top of a 99 annual Prime membership.