Artificial intelligence should be used to provide children with one-to-one tutoring to improve their learning and monitor their well-being, academics have argued. One-to-one tutoring has long been thought the most-effective approach to teaching but would be too expensive to provide for all students. However, in a paper, academics from University College London's Knowledge Lab argue that AI systems could simulate human one-to-one tutoring by delivering learning activities tailored to a student's needs and providing targeted and timely feedback, all without an individual teacher present. Instead of being examined in traditional ways, children could be assessed in a more complete manner by collecting data about their performance over a long period, providing employers and educational institutions with a richer picture of their abilities. The report argues that AI could radically transform our education system for the better – but it is being held back by funding.

The STEM robot wars are heating up. Cubetto is the latest reason why you wish you were still a kid. One kind of robot has endured for the last half-century. Articulated arms aren't sexy, but man oh man have they gotten the job done. The first articulated arm, Unimate, went into service for GM in 1961, and ever since that's been the image of the standard industrial robot--a stationary arm endlessly picking things up, screwing things together, and adjusting things just so.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Terms were not disclosed, but it has all the markings of an "acqhire" sort of deal. Founder and CTO Richard Socher announced the deal in a post on the MetaMind website. Socher says on his personal website that his new title is Chief Scientist at Salesforce. MetaMind's area of expertise is deep learning, the subset of artificial intelligence focused on data processing that is en vogue with Google, Facebook and other tech companies. The startup's specialty is natural language processing -- allowing computers to analyze relationships between words.

Mark Zuckerberg has some pretty big plans for artificial intelligence this year. Until he figures out how to literally become Iron Man and build an AI to run his home based on his voice commands, though, he's going to have to it for more practical purposes. Such as giving blind people a chance to experience images on their phones. Facebook has released a new feature for its iOS app, called automatic alternative text, which will use artificial intelligence to allow blind people to experience photos through the use pf object recognition technology. The technology will give them a description of what is in each photo, including a list of items that appear when they are swiping through on the app.

Ask a member of Facebook's growth team what feature played the biggest role in getting the company to a billion daily users, and they'll likely tell you it was photos.

Facebook is using AI to help describe images posted by users. Facebook's iOS app is using object recognition technology to give blind people an audio breakdown of what's going on in photos posted on the social network. The new accessibility feature, rolling out today, could be a major improvement on existing screen readers, which largely focus on text. Until now, when blind users were checking their Facebook newsfeed and came across an image, they would only hear the word "photo" and the name of the person who shared it, which left the user still dependent on friends and family to interpret an image. To improve the experience for blind people, Facebook has used its vast trove of user images to train a deep neural network that drives a computer vision system built to recognise objects in images.

Google's Cloud Speech API will allow developers to convert audio to text within their own apps. The offering from Google will bring its neural network smarts to apps large and small, and opens up a wide range of interesting new possibilities. It also brings the fight to Nuance Communications' front door. Google is providing access to the limited preview of the Cloud Speech API through its developer website. Developers can take advantage of the API for free, for now, though presumably Google will start charging for access at some point.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has purchased a new brain-inspired supercomputing platform developed by International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM). Based on a breakthrough neurosynaptic computer chip called IBM TrueNorth, the scalable platform will process the equivalent of 16 million neurons and 4 billion synapses while consuming only the energy equivalent of a tablet computer. The brain-like, neural network design of the IBM neuromorphic system is able to run complex cognitive tasks such as pattern recognition and integrated sensory processing far more efficiently than conventional chips. LLNL will receive a 16-chip TrueNorth system representing a total of 16 million neurons and 4 billion synapses. The new system will be used to explore new computing capabilities important to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) missions in cybersecurity, stewardship of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile and nonproliferation.

Many of us may bemoan the constant photos of babies, food or sunsets on Facebook, but blind users don't have that luxury. Until now, visually impaired people on the site could only use audio descriptions to explain they were'looking' at a photo, without any other details. Now, Facebook has started using artificial intelligence and image recognition to reveal what is shown in these photos. Until now, visually impaired people on Facebook could only use audio descriptions to explain they were'looking' at a photo, without any other details. Now, Facebook has started using artificial intelligence and image recognition to reveal what is shown in these photos (examples pictured).