Many people today can't resist snapping beautifully artistic photos of their meals, from the simple morning smoothie to that deliciously sinful sticky toffee pudding. But what if you could instantly find out how many calories you're about to consume as well? Boston-based startup AVA has launched an "intelligent eating" service that allows you to take a photo of your meal, send it to AVA via text and instantly receive nutritional and caloric information about your grub with the help of artificial intelligence and nutritionists. "We wanted to provide an easier way for people to track what they're eating and provide them with really personalised recommendations from a health coach based on what their specific needs are," co-founder and CMO of AVA, Jeanne Connon told IBTimes UK. "AVA uses artificial intelligence to assist nutritionists in estimating calories as well as making recommendations, factoring in historical eating habits, diet patterns, location and behavioural analysis against a database of roughly 50,000 meals." The team has not disclosed exactly how the AI-powered technology works since the service is still in private beta mode.

The artificial intelligence (AI) system is "based on deep learning, a machine-learning algorithm used for a range of applications including speech recognition and image recognition," explains Andrew Beck, an associate professor in pathology at Harvard Medical School, who heads the team developing the new system at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), in Boston, MA. Prof. Beck and colleagues demonstrated the new AI system in a competition held at the annual meeting of the International Symposium of Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2016) in Prague in April. He and his colleagues are developing AI methods that train computers to interpret pathology images to improve the accuracy of diagnoses. The approach they are using teaches computers to interpret the complex patterns seen in such images by "building multi-layer artificial neural networks," says Prof. Beck. The process is thought to be similar to the way learning takes place in the layers of neurons in the neocortex of the brain, the region where thinking occurs.

Remember the Jetsons' robot maid, Rosie? Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers think her future real-life incarnations can learn a thing or two from Steve Carell and other sitcom stars. MIT says a computer that binge-watched YouTube videos and TV shows such as The Office, Big Bang Theory and Desperate Housewives learned how to predict whether the actors were about to hug, kiss, shake hands or slap high fives -- advances that eventually could help the next generation of artificial intelligence function less clumsily. "It could help a robot move more fluidly through your living space," lead researcher Carl Vondrick told The Associated Press in an interview. "The robot won't want to start pouring milk if it thinks you're about to pull the glass away."

From within the dark confines of the skull, the brain builds its own version of reality. By weaving together expectations and information gleaned from the senses, the brain creates a story about the outside world. For most of us, the brain is a skilled storyteller, but to spin a sensible yarn, it has to fill in some details itself. "The brain is a guessing machine, trying at each moment of time to guess what is out there," says computational neuroscientist Peggy Seriès. Guesses just slightly off -- like mistaking a smile for a smirk -- rarely cause harm.

We made it, space travelers. Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice proved challenging in many ways--mentally, emotionally, grammatically. Find our concluding thoughts below (spoiler alert, needless to say), and follow up with responses of your own and questions for Leckie in the comments. We'll be talking to her next week. So, Did Breq Go Crazy Over the Death of Lieutenant Awn? Jay Dayrit, Editorial Operations Manager: I wouldn't say crazy, per se, maybe just an identity crisis.

Stress is actually a bit of a buzzword. The initial definition was "the reaction to changes", which is why you get stressed also when good things happen, hence the distinction between good stress, eustress, and bad stress, distress. Since the 90's, stress has become a synonym of the everyday hustling, describing a life style. We focus on the original definition, evaluating the user autonomic balance that can be estimated from heart rate variability (HRV). The autonomic nervous system (the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems) has a direct influence over most of our internal organs.

Artificial intelligence is expected to revolutionise the financial services industry with an unprecedented depth and breadth of insight and the ability to act on information and learn from its actions. However, many executives acknowledge a degree of risk surrounding the use of AI, according to a research from global law firm Baker & McKenzie. Trading, financial analysis and IT are expected to be changed the most over the next three years according to respondents, but the impact is expected to be wide ranging with machine learning to affect risk assessment, credit assessment and portfolio management. Survey respondents were clear that machine learning will have a positive impact on competitiveness in financial markets yet believe the most negative effects of AI will be in the makeup of the work force and market stability. Like with all technology, the introduction of AI in financial services will largely depend on how it is employed that will ultimately determine the risk and reward. It also raises important questions and concerns about the liability of a functioning AI platform.

Outcomes Based Healthcare and Big Data Partnership have won an Innovate UK grant for a 1m project to change healthcare's approach to diabetes. In partnership, these two organisations will be creating "a dashboard and software product for doctors to predict and pre-treat for complications of diabetes." The press release explains that this will utilise health and non-health data in conjunction with advanced Machine Learning and analytics techniques to develop a system that can identify the progression of the disease. This will come from a local London population. The reason this Big Data and Machine Learning approach is interesting though, is it offers a top-line independent perspective on a difficult disease.

While Gupta might have been relieved that he was not taken to task by his stern coach at Prepathon, an online test prep startup founded in September 2015, what he didn't know was that the person he was chatting with on the Prepathon app was not his coach but a bot! Millennials - those born between 1980 and 2000 - are texting more and talking less. And millennials matter because they will account for 40% of all consumers in the US by 2020, as projected by Goldman Sachs. While Jaiswal might be content with one chatbot, others want multiple bots. Aarti Gill is one of them. The cofounder of FitCircle, a chat-based health and fitness platform, boasts 32,000 bot users.

Hisashi Taniguchi took a sabbatical from developing software for driverless taxis and drones to pilgrimage to a Buddhist temple in western Japan. He shaved his head, donned black robes and studied to become the shrine's leader. He passed the test, yet within a week was back at the Tokyo offices of ZMP Inc., overseeing his robotics company in a more-typical wardrobe of jeans and red Converse sneakers. As ZMP's founder and chief executive officer, he tries to sync millennia-old teachings with efforts to make artificial intelligence part of everyday life. "The temple teaches you that if you shine, you'll shed light on those around you," Taniguchi, 52, said.