At the THINK 2018 conference, IBM announced Watson Assistant, a new addition to its cognitive computing platform. This service enables developers to build digital assistants that can interact through conversational user experience. Watson Assistant is not entirely new to developers familiar with IBM Cloud. It's an enhancement to an existing service called Conversation. In its improved version, the API supports newer conversational flow combined with natural language understanding.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is solving problems that seemed well beyond our reach just a few years back. Using deep learning, the fastest growing segment of AI, computers are now able to learn and recognize patterns from data that were considered too complex for expert written software. Today, deep learning is transforming every industry, including automotive, healthcare, retail and financial services. Enterprises, and their leaders, looking to get started should first get familiar with the fundamentals of deep learning, and as well as understand the current challenges and how to address them. This crash course provides a starting point, as well as practical guidance on next steps.

Instead of simply prompting "dial one to speak with a sales associate," a chatbot can direct potential customers and extract details in less time and with greater insight, all while allowing the user to communicate naturally, on their own terms. Working alongside human employees, conversational chatbots can serve as front-line engagement tools that help drive customer interactions and funnel prospects to the appropriate channel where a human resource can truly add value.

How many test miles is enough to build a better driver? Waymo has 5 million on-road autonomous test miles and 5 billion simulated miles, and the number keeps rising. Sometime this year Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s prized driverless car bet, starts a first of its kind revenue-generating robo-taxi service in Phoenix. Ahead of that the unit is maintaining a steady cadence of news underscoring how mature the former Google Self-Driving Car project is – including how big a lead it has over rivals in test miles. Waymo this week said its test fleet has logged 5 million miles driving in autonomous mode on public roads.

Air Force veteran (1968-1975) Angel Camareno is fitted with a MyoPro device. Angel suffered a brachial plexus injury 40 years ago which led to reduced motion in his arm. Myomo, a spinout from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a robotic arm brace for people with limb paralysis from neurological disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or stroke to help them regain movement with their hands and arms. The robotic arm brace, MyoPro, senses the patient's electromyography (EMG) signals through non-invasive sensors and restores function to their paralyzed arms. Patients who use the device are able to do things they were unable to do or found difficult to do before such as feeding themselves, doing laundry, carrying objects or even returning to work.

Technicians analyze data following the trial of an autonomous self-driving vehicle in a pedestrianised zone, during a media event in Milton Keynes, north of London, on October 11, 2016. Suburbs have largely been dismissed by environmentalists and urban planners as bad for the planet, a form that ne...

Don't be rude to your home devices or there will be retribution. Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Home Pod, Microsoft Cortana and any other voice operated smart device have something in common. It's not operating systems and it's certainly not the ecosystem in which each resides. What they...

Why didn't chatbots become as prolific as they were predicted to be in 2017? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Chatbots didn't live up to the hype for a couple of reasons. It would have been ...

"Siri, where's the best place to grab dinner nearby?" "What's the weather today, Siri?" "Hey, Siri. Who won the game last night?" It has become second nature for me to ask my iPhone questions and expect a chipper, informative response. From grabbing a bite to booking a flight, Siri has become an ...

Maybe you've read the statistics on how many drones are filling our skies: The FAA anticipates 7 million by 2020. Perhaps you've heard about how drones are revolutionizing commercial operations. It's possible you know someone who has a drone of their own, or seen a quadcopter hovering over your local park. The reality is there's no shortage of drones filling our homes, stores, skies, and seas. It should come as no surprise that the technology is steadily making its way into our media.