For the first time, artificial intelligence can not only analyze human brain waves, but also make them audible again. Researchers read out words and numbers to participants and measured the activity with a brain implant in the hearing centre. This data was then sent to an AI, which compared it with the original spoken words. In this way it learns to evaluate the brain waves and reconstruct the words itself - it can actually read thoughts. Park was initially sceptical: "In the past, there were often systems that analyzed brain waves and functioned according to the principle: Remember to lift your left arm, and the brainwaves registered this way can then remotely control a wheelchair, for example. And this was then sold as mind reading. But what happened here goes one step further. You can actually reconstruct spoken language from brain waves."

Choose "Yes, I have!" or "Never heard of it.". AI is progressing exponentially year after year and the media often likes to exaggerate what this technology can do. But the truth is that, although this technology is actually making great strides forward, the use of an AI-only workforce is still in doubt. There are those that have spoken out about the potential for future AI applications in industry. Kai-Fu Lee, the author of bestselling book AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, told Dailymail.com

Here's our list of the top 15 most important AI companies that have the power and resources to shape our connected futures. These are the big players in AI right now. Retail goliath, Amazon, has invested in both the consumer-orientated side of AI, as well as applications for its own business and processes. Alexa, the company's AI voice assistant built into its Echo speaker range, is well known but AWS, a set of set of machine learning and pre-trained AI services for business is not quite as famous. AWS currently has more than 10,000 customers including Siemens, Netflix, Tinder, the NFL and NASA.

Choose "Yes, I have!" or "Never heard of it.". Chatbots aren't exactly new but, although businesses have employed them for some years now, engaging with a chatbot as a customer was usually a pointless exercise in frustration as the bot spewed out the same rote (wrong) answers over and over again. But in 2019, AI-powered customer service will become more sophisticated. Not only will chatbots of the future get better at chatting, but they'll also do it with a human face, or human voice. Autodesk's virtual customer assistant Ava, for example, leverages Deep Learning to help customers with something approaching a recognizable face and personality.

This technology is anything but new, but it's never gotten as much attention as it does today. In recent years, AI has not only shown real technological progress but also shows how it can be used for political purposes. While the current AI race cannot really be compared to the nuclear race of yesteryear, we can nevertheless see that the major powers are seeking to control it in order to have an economic, social and military advantage over other countries. The USA and China are at the forefront of this race, of course, and the EU is well aware of this. It has therefore decided to react to better equip itself.

Choose "I don't think so." or "Yes, I think so.". Our world of technophiles is sometimes pushed to the extreme: many fans will defend the brands they adore to a point that even worries some sociologists. This is the power of marketing in its raw state, and it's neither new (as this 1994 article attests) nor truly surprising since current generations were born in it and are bathing in it without even realizing it. This is a worrying subject and techno-skeptics tend to rush into the same arguments: "technology companies are interested in nothing but themselves", "they don't want to help users as they claim, they just alienate them to keep them in their midst", etc. These points, which are generally well founded, still need to be qualified.

When Huawei presented the first smartphone processor with an AI unit at the IFA with the Kirin 970 from its subsidiary Hisilicon, the Chinese company captured the public's attention. The Neural Processing Unit (NPU) on the SoC is specifically responsible for the functions that can be performed faster and better with AI than with a traditional processor. At present, this mainly includes functions related to photography, image recognition and processing. First of all, artificial intelligence is the wrong term: considering today's so-called AI applications, at the core they're really using machine learning. A convolutional neural network (CNN) learns to recognize patterns on the basis of a large amount of raw data--completely independently.

AI is used in all sorts of fields from medicine to robotics and is expanding to many others. You can learn how to identify potential areas for AI with this course bundle. You could be a consultant for big companies looking to expand into this new area. Imagine having this course bundle on your resume or LinkedIn profile. You'll really stand out for whatever position you apply for – even something less technical.

In the past year, we were also keeping a close eye on the tech innovations in consumer electronics that would interest our readers. Google dropped the Nexus, instead bringing us the Pixel phones with a new type of artificial intelligence, while the OnePlus brand launched the OnePlus 3T, an inexpensive phone able to hold its own against high-end flagships. Phones are getting faster and more powerful, smartwatches more intelligent and VR headsets more widely used. No matter what happened, we were there to cover the news, plus keep you informed with our plethora of hardware reviews, comparisons, tips and tricks, and everything and anything under the sun to do with Android (that we, of course, perceived to be of interest to our readers). What do we hope for in 2017?

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