This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through April 17)

The massive document, produced by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, is packed full of data and graphs, and we've plucked out 15 that provide a snapshot of the current state of AI." Geoffrey Hinton Has a Hunch About What's Next for Artificial Intelligence Siobhan Roberts MIT Technology Review "Back in November, the computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Hinton had a hunch. After a half-century's worth of attempts--some wildly successful--he'd arrived at another promising insight into how the brain works and how to replicate its circuitry in a computer." Robotic Exoskeletons Could One Day Walk by Themselves Charles Q. Choi IEEE Spectrum "Ultimately, the ExoNet researchers want to explore how AI software can transmit commands to exoskeletons so they can perform tasks such as climbing stairs or avoiding obstacles based on a system's analysis of a user's current movements and the upcoming terrain. With autonomous cars as inspiration, they are seeking to develop autonomous exoskeletons that can handle the walking task without human input, Laschowski says." Microsoft Buys AI Speech Tech Company Nuance for $19.7 Billion James Vincent The Verge "The $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance is Microsoft's second-largest behind its purchase of LinkedIn in 2016 for $26 billion.