Australian's University of Melbourne has teamed up with a slew of public and private sector organisations to create an artificial intelligence (AI) application that can predict traffic congestion up to three hours ahead, as well as optimise traffic and improve road safety. The AI application, to be hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), can also optimise traffic signals for on-road vehicles, freight and public transport such as buses and trams. Majid Sarvi, a transport engineering expert and director at the university's Australian Integrated Multimodal EcoSystem, an initiative to test integrated transport technology on the streets of Melbourne, said the AI application observes the nature of traffic and figures out complex traffic patterns across the network through machine learning. "If we can upscale the application to provide more accurate prediction with machine learning and real-time data, it will soon be possible to substantially reduce delays in hotspots across Melbourne and many locations across the globe," he added. PeakHour Urban Technologies, a Melbourne-based AI specialist with a focus on transportation, developed the application's AI core engine which uses AWS to power its predictive capabilities.

This July marks the 50th anniversary of an audacious technological achievement: Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. Since that moment, the United States has been the undisputed leader in all things high-tech. But America's dominance could be coming to an end. China aspires to be No. 1, and may very well get there. American leaders are taking notice.

Alibaba DAMO Academy, the global research program launched by Alibaba in 2017, has published its predictions for the Top 10 technology trends in 2019. From speech AI, super-large graph neural networks, heterogenous computing architecture, to autonomous driving, blockchain and data protection technologies, machine intelligence has been generating great impacts on our lives, and an accelerated pace of technology revolution is expected in the year ahead. Real-time urban simulation becomes possible More resources will be allocated to technologies powering an intelligent "city brain" and its applications, while a city simulation model reflecting the real-time impulses and movements of a physical city can be built to facilitate the optimisation of city governance. More cities in China are expected to have a "city brain" in 2019. Speech AI in certain areas to pass Turing Test As speech intelligence technology advances, realtime text-to-speech on mobile devices would be almost identical to human speech, even passing the Turing test in certain conversations, such as ones using a robotic voice to alert about delivery status.

AI technology, with traffic simulation algorithms can play a role in increasing traffic flow. Thailand has set itself an ambitious goal as part of Thailand 4.0 -- 100 smart cities within two decades to improve the quality of urban life. A National Smart City Committee has already been established to drive this initiative which is envisaged to transform cities like Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen into technology hubs. As Thailand leaps forward in becoming a digital and innovative economy, how can Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerate the country's shift to smart cities? Cities generate huge amounts of data every day, much of which is captured through sensors and camera systems. As the use of sensors, video cameras and advanced data analytics become more prevalent across cities, AI is key to turning this data into actionable insights to optimise services, enhance productivity and help citizens lead better lives.

AI technology, with traffic simulation algorithms can play a role in increasing traffic flow. Thailand has set itself an ambitious goal as part of Thailand 4.0 -- 100 smart cities within two decades to improve the quality of urban life. A National Smart City Committee has already been established to drive this initiative which is envisaged to transform cities like Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen into technology hubs. As Thailand leaps forward in becoming a digital and innovative economy, how can Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerate the country's shift to smart cities? Cities generate huge amounts of data every day, much of which is captured through sensors and camera systems. As the use of sensors, video cameras and advanced data analytics become more prevalent across cities, AI is key to turning this data into actionable insights to optimise services, enhance productivity and help citizens lead better lives.

The five-day event hosted around 4,500 exhibitors from more than 100 different countries. An estimated 100,000 visitors attended the annual event which focused on Artificial Intelligence as a key theme. Industry titans such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba and LinkedIn came together to discuss the latest trends. Google's Chief Decision Scientist Cassie Kozyrkov (left), LinkedIn's Chief Data Officer Igor Perisic (center) and Alibaba's Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist Wanli Min (right) debate on how AI is transforming decision making in major sectors On the hot topic of AI investment, the CDO of the networking and jobs portal Linkedin, Igor Perisic, spoke of the "blind spots" that companies integrating the technology into their businesses must be aware of. Alibaba's Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist, Wanli Min also explored how emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles and building smarter cities could meet the demands of swelling populations.

Big data, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence are some of the most talked about innovative technologies that are all set to reshape our future in more ways than one can dream of. AI or Artificial Intelligence refers to any type of intelligent activity, which is performed by mechanical devices rather than humans. We often come across such intelligent devices in our daily lives. Any machine that is capable of acting in response to human speech can be considered to exhibit Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is being leveraged to make machines perform actions based on the previous experience.

When you discover the ways Chinese company Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce marketplace with $248 billion in transactions (more than eBay and Amazon combined), invests in artificial intelligence and machine learning, you realize quickly that the list of what it doesn't impact is much shorter. Since 1999 when the company was launched in founder Jack Ma's apartment, Alibaba's core business remains to sell goods, but its influence and operations have expanded to make it one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. One of the reasons Alibaba and other Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and Baidu, collectively known as BAT, are making extraordinary gains in artificial intelligence is the support, investment and commitment of the Chinese government to become the dominant AI player in the world. With plans to build a $1 trillion AI industry by 2030, China is on a path to overtake the United States as the world's leader in technology. Along with an enormous population that generates critical data to inform AI algorithms and help make them better as well as a society who is keen on technological change and not as pushy on regulation, China is fertile ground to develop AI applications, and Alibaba is moving full throttle ahead. In fact, Alibaba invested in seven research labs that will focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, network security, natural language processing and more.

In the future, our cities could be controlled by artificial intelligence. At least, this is what Chinese retail giant Alibaba is hoping. Getting around is becoming easier, thanks to the hordes of data produced by each of us every day. When you share your location with Google Maps, for example, the application uses that data in real-time to monitor the traffic flow, which it then feeds back to its users about the best route to take. It may be difficult to imagine a future where every city is smart, where all of the infrastructure is linked to some kind of software, but it's happening.

Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) could automate away big, burly, bald policemen waving frantically at snarled-up traffic, sounding raucous and insistent whistles, because here come the AI traffic cops -- who are all set to take over Delhi's anarchic streets, from human policemen, following a central government nod for Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), Daily News and Analysis reported. ITMS will gradually automate away the traffic system's manual interface to a minimum, with the first phase likely to get over by April 2019. Explaining the tech, a police officer in the report said: "Ideally, a traffic official on the road would leave the carriageway open for equal minutes in order to ensure smooth flow of traffic. In such a scenario, not all carriageways will have heavy volume. With AI coming in place, the signals would work according to the volume of traffic on each road."