Can computers understand an individual human's personality (and then, presumably, use that understanding to better target marketing messages)? It turns out that's no longer even a question: if you haven't yet played with CrystalKnows, be prepared for some weirdly accurate insights into yourself and those you know well, based on public Internet information. And, yes, Crystal advises you how to interact with others based on those insights, going so far as to suggest changes to your emails to better fit the style of the recipient. If there's a gap between this and letting a computer just manage the whole relationship without any human involvement, it's almost too small to worry about. So the real challenge isn't having the computer analyze your data; it's having enough data for the computer to analyze.

Sean Gallup / GettyDon't worry, the machines are your friend. It used to be the case that you had to program a computer so that it knew how to do things. Now computers can learn from experience. The breakthrough is called "machine learning." It's unimaginably important for understanding where technology is going, and where society is going with it.

Elliptic, a blockchain intelligence firm that uses machine learning to root out fraudulent blockchain transactions, has raised 5 million from private equity investors. The funding round was led by Paladin Capital Group and included participation from Santander InnoVentures and others. The company uses graph analysis and machine learning to identify illicit activity in blockchain transactions, and provides a variety of compliance and securities services related to distributed ledger technology. Interactive gaming company Pivit used distributed ledger technology provided by Digital Asset Holdings to issue a portion of its latest 5 million funding round. Elliptic's technology was used to ensure that the digitally issued securities always remain under the control of Pivit and its investors.

THAT a computer program can repeatedly beat the world champion at Go, a complex board game, is a coup for the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence (AI). Another high-stakes game, however, is taking place behind the scenes, as firms compete to hire the smartest AI experts. Technology giants, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Baidu, are racing to expand their AI activities. Last year they spent some 8.5 billion on deals, says Quid, a data firm. That was four times more than in 2010.

Called CNTK for short, the toolkit has already proved far more efficient than others created to build deep-learning models for machine-enabled communication, according to Microsoft. Microsoft has moved its Computational Network Toolkit (CNTK) deep-learning software from CodePlex to GitHub, providing access to the same resources it uses to other developers. The company has also dropped the Microsoft Research License in favor of the more flexible MIT license. The company is also relying on powerful computers with Graphics processing units (GPU) to run CNTK, as they are the best tools for processing the complicated algorithms that can improve artificial intelligence and speech and image recognition. According to Tech Crunch, Xuedong Huang, Microsoft Corporation's chief speech scientist said that CNTK is highly optimized for speed.

GTC will showcase the vital role GPU technology plays in some of the industry's biggest trends, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality and self-driving cars. About NVIDIA NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a computer technology company that has pioneered GPU-accelerated computing. Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the impact of GPU technology in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and self-driving cars are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners' products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended October 25, 2015.

GTC will showcase the vital role GPU technology plays in some of the industry's biggest trends, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality and self-driving cars. About NVIDIA NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a computer technology company that has pioneered GPU-accelerated computing. Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the impact of GPU technology in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and self-driving cars are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners' products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended October 25, 2015.

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2016) - NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced that the three keynote addresses at its upcoming GPU Technology Conference (GTC) will be webcast live on the NVIDIA blog. GTC will showcase the vital role GPU technology plays in some of the industry's biggest trends, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality and self-driving cars. This year's event will feature more than 500 sessions with speakers from Alibaba, Audi, Baidu, Boeing, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Pixar, Raytheon, Samsung, Siemens, SpaceX and Twitter, among many others. GTC also includes a daylong event, the Emerging Companies Summit, on April 6, focused on GPU-based startups. Nearly 100 startups will participate this year, including an onstage competition among a dozen companies vying for 100,000.

It doesn't look like a place to make groundbreaking discoveries that change the trajectory of society. But in these simulated, claustrophobic corridors, Demis Hassabis thinks he can lay the foundations for software that's smart enough to solve humanity's biggest problems. "Our goal's very big," says Hassabis, whose level-headed manner can mask the audacity of his ideas. He leads a team of roughly 200 computer scientists and neuroscientists at Google's DeepMind, the London-based group behind the AlphaGo software that defeated the world champion at Go in a five-game series earlier this month, setting a milestone in computing.

Are you too lazy to open the door or switch on a light? Let Windows 10 and its Cortana voice-activated digital assistant do the job for you. Microsoft's vision is to make home automation a breeze in Windows 10, and the company featured several related Internet-of-things announcements at its ongoing Build conference. Windows 10 will work with a wider range of devices and appliances by integrating new Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) protocols, scheduled to be released in 2017. Additionally, Cortana will allow users to easily automate tasks using a Windows PC, mobile device, Xbox console or Raspberry Pi 3. Users will be able to program "actions" so Cortana can be used to switch on lights, air conditioning or even unlock cars.