Through a mix of presentations and discussion we will explore the evidence about if and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support teaching and learning. For those who would like to know more about AI and Education please see the report published earlier this month.

Earlier this year, consulting firm Frost & Sullivan predicted that artificial intelligence in healthcare will see a "dramatic market expansion" in the next couple of years, with the potential to reduce the cost of medical treatments by half across the board. "By 2025, AI systems could be involved in everything from population health management, to digital avatars capable of answering specific patient queries," said Harpreet Singh Buttar, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan. With this in mind, we identified 32 companies that are already applying machine learning techniques and predictive analytics to reduce drug discovery times, provide virtual assistance to patients, and diagnose ailments by processing medical images, among other things. The 32 startups on the list have raised more than 530M in aggregate funding. This year, New York-based AiCure raised 12.3M in Series A funding and National Science Foundation-grantee Cloud Pharmaceuticals raised a 350K round from undisclosed investors.

Phil and Stephen Gordon discuss rapid progress in artificial intelligence and how AI is fundamentally reshaping our world.

Beware this article may contain spoilers! Here is a list of AI movies you should definitely watch. I guess I first realised what AI meant when I was watching A.I. Artificial Intelligence: a small boy could technically be replaced by a robot, expressing his feelings, thinking and learning things like a real human. What struck me in the movie, was that no matter what the robot did to be like a real boy, it seemed to stop him from being accepted as a son. It seemed inevitable: Humans & AI could not coexist in the same Universe.

I have been getting into Natural Language Processing more lately, and have been reading about tools and products that are available right now. I came across the name Narrative Science again. It's an Artificial Intelligence technology company based in Chicago. I first heard about them a few years ago when I read an article about one of their products writing pretty decent sports reports for local newspapers. I looked around their website to see if I can learn a bit more about their technology, but unsurprisingly they are very cagey about revealing anything actionable about their work.

One prediction I have made about the future of service delivery automation (SDA) is that increasingly enterprise software will have the technology embedded. This is particularly true of intelligent and cognitive type of tools. I expect these to become a common feature of enterprise software in the next 5-7 years. We saw this kind of trend in the earlier days of business intelligence and reporting. The popularity of third-party tools saw the functionality built into enterprise software.

Artificial Intelligence is by now a relatively old field, having originated in the early days of the digital computer revolution. However, it has had a very rocky and turbulent history, going through several cycles of overblown expectations followed by almost equally dramatic swings towards disillusionment and skepticism. In recent years, though, it has matured into a very solid and practical discipline that exercises an ever growing importance across a wide breadth of technologies and professions. We increasingly take speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and natural language search for granted. Basic familiarity with what Artificial Intelligence is, and what tools and techniques fall under its domain, are becoming ever important aspect of a variety of professions and occupations.

Say what you will about civilian drones and drone pilots, but when the going gets tough, these drone pilots will get going. According to published Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial drone exemption requests, a big chunk of drone pilots are willing to lend a hand for possible emergencies. A total of 19 percent mentioned emergency services--that's six times as many requests from the last quarter of 2015. With all these pilots willingly to help out in case of emergencies, this could mean that private pilots can easily aid officials during search and rescue missions and other equally critical emergency scenarios. Despite this magnanimous offer to lend a hand, it doesn't necessarily guarantee pilots flying time.

In recent years Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly gone from an obscure academic research field, to an ever more useful and ubiquitous applied discipline. We increasingly rely on AI for more and more of our everyday tasks, and whole lines of work are being thoroughly transformed by its advances. AI's increasing ubiquity is not making it any easier to understand. AI concepts and techniques are still domain of advanced undergraduate or graduate school level courses. There are a few popular AI books out there, but most of them don't get "under the hood" of how AI actually works.

A fast-food chain with restaurants in 28 states is getting ready to start serving burgers and fries in Champaign-Urbana. Bruce Kim, director of franchise development for Checkers and Rally's Restaurants, said the company is in the process of awarding a franchise for up to three new Checkers restaurants in the area. "We are a quick-service restaurant," he said. "We are known for our seasoned, seared and grilled burgers; fries; grilled, all-meat hot dogs; crazy good chicken wings; golden fish sandwiches; and ice cream. "Our seasoned fries were named the best fries for 2015 by Yahoo."