An array of ethnic filters on the photo-editing app, FaceApp, has stirred backlash as users decry the options for facial manipulation as racist. The selfie-editing app, FaceApp, was updated earlier this month with four new filters: Asian, Black, Caucasian and Indian. The filters immediately drew criticism on Twitter by users who made comparisons to blackface and yellowface racial stereotypes. In addition to these blatantly racial face filters – which change everything from hair color to skin tone to eye color – other FaceApp users noted earlier this year that the "hot" filter consistently lightens people's skin color. "#FaceApp has a new feature where you can see yourself #CaucasianLiving.

The advent of social media presents a promising new opportunity for early detection and intervention in psychiatric disorders. Predictive screening methods have successfully analyzed online media to detect a number of harmful health conditions [1–11]. All of these studies relied on text analysis, however, and none have yet harnessed the wealth of psychological data encoded in visual social media, such as photographs posted to Instagram. In this report, we introduce a methodology for analyzing photographic data from Instagram to predictively screen for depression. There is good reason to prioritize research into Instagram analysis for health screening.

The airline industry could save an estimated $35 Billion with pilotless planes, but the public does not like the idea. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. The airline industry could save an estimated $35 Billion with pilotless planes, but the public does not like the idea.

IBM's Watson unit is receiving heat today in the form of a scathing equity research report from Jefferies' James Kisner. The group believes that IBM's investment into Watson will struggle to return value to shareholders. In recent years, IBM has increasingly leaned on Watson as one of its core growth units -- a unit that sits as a proxy for projecting IBM's future value. In the early days, IBM's competitive advantage was its longstanding relationships with Fortune 500 companies. IBM Watson effectively operates as a consultancy where the company engages in high-value contracts with corporates to implement Watson technology for specific business cases.

Visabot, a Facebook-owned artificial intelligence tech company, has launched a $150 service to help the Facebook Messenger users navigate through the complicated process of applying for a Green Card. "We created our own immigration AI so our success rate grows as the bot learns. What you need to do is answer are you a U.S. citizen other thing you should know and the bot will use this info to generate the whole package for you all you have to do is file it with us immigration services," Visabot COO Andrey Zinoviev announced Tuesday. Read: Immigration Reform 2016: Were Green Cards Sent To Wrong People? The service will let you know -- immediately upon entering your data -- whether you qualify for a Green Card.

Numerai is a hedge fund that's using technology to create an unprecedented network effect, and transform the way money is managed. Crowdsourced investment strategies are many and varied, but Numerai crowdsources machine intelligence in a totally unique way by supplying its network of data scientists with encrypted data on which to test their machine learning models, thus removing any bias attached to the application of the algorithms. These models are entered into a monthly tournament and the best ones receive a pay-out. This was previously done using Bitcoin (because it was efficient and more anonymous than PayPal), but more recently Numerai launched its own token, Numeraire (NMR), on Ethereum, the public blockchain which has spawned a multitude of trustless, decentralized applications. The aim of the token was to create more value for Numerai's growing network of scientists, and further align them with the collaborative goals of the project.

COVER A conceptual illustration of an artificial neuron evokes a technology that is transforming many fields of science: artificial intelligence (AI). One common form of AI is a neural network, which "learns" as connections between simulated neurons change in response to inputs. Such systems can find meaningful patterns in vast data sets, ranging from genomics to astronomy, and are even beginning to design experiments.

Samsung's technological reach is formidable, shipping more phones than any other manufacturer. The company boasts nearly 23% of the global smartphone market, and its Gear VR headset, available since late 2015, is already among the most popular virtual reality devices going. But when it comes to voice-activated speakers, a medium that some believe is on the cusp of becoming the next major computing platform, there's reason to question whether Samsung has the wherewithal to keep up. The South Korean technology giant may be developing a new Amazon Echo-like smart speaker powered by its Bixby virtual assistant, reports the Wall Street Journal. But it's arrival would likely come long after category pioneers like Amazon, Google and Apple have either released or announced plans to launch voice-activated gadgets of their own.

With billions of users and hundreds of billions of tweets and posts every year, social media has brought big data to social science. It has also opened an unprecedented opportunity to use artificial intelligence (AI) to glean meaning from the mass of human communications. The University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center, for example, uses machine learning and natural language processing to sift through gobs of data to gauge the public's emotional and physical health, including levels of depression and trust, and several personality traits. That's traditionally done with surveys. But social media data is cheap and abundant.

Every day, financial markets and global economies produce a flood of data. As a result, stock traders now have more information about more industries and sectors than ever before. That deluge, combined with the rise of cloud technology, has inspired hedge funds to develop new quantitative strategies that they hope can generate greater returns than the experience and judgement of their own staff. At the Future of Fintech conference hosted by research company CB Insights in New York City, three hedge fund insiders discussed the latest developments in quantitative trading. A session on Tuesday featured Christina Qi, the co-founder of a high-frequency trading firm called Domeyard LP; Jonathan Larkin, an executive from Quantopian, a hedge fund taking a data-driven systematic approach; and Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in an autonomous hedge fund.