As artificial intelligence (AI) challenges us to reimagine new ways of doing and being, Dr Marcel O'Gorman, professor of English Language and Literature, embraces emerging technologies and applies them to his pedagogy in the classroom. O'Gorman has published widely about the impacts of technology, and his most recent research focuses on how critical and inclusive design methods might help tackle some of the moral and ethical issues faced by contemporary technoculture. O'Gorman recently wrapped up teaching a fourth-year undergraduate course on techno-critical writing and design that focused on key issues around responsible innovation, such as algorithmic bias, conflict minerals and the colonial practices of big tech on the global stage. Students applied what they learned by writing and designing projects throughout the course. "They wrote stories in ChatGPT that tested the AI for gender bias. They generated images in DALL-E 2 that traced a racist history in the AI's training data," O'Gorman says.

Video games are playing a big part in helping people cope during the coronavirus pandemic. Since earlier this spring with the onset of stay-at-home orders meant to stem the spread of COVID-19, more Americans have pressed play on video games. For some, games are an entertaining way to pass the time not spent on other pursuits. Others use them to stay connected with friends they used to see in person – and to bond with family members. Jennifer Fidler, 47, and her husband of Portland, Oregon, have been playing "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" with her two middle school-aged daughters since the pandemic led to school closings.

Kearns is a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has years of experience at Steve Cohen's former hedge fund and other Wall Street firms. He will lead Morgan Stanley's AI research and offer advice on deploying the technology for projects across the company, the New York-based firm said in a memo to employees Tuesday. Chief Executive Officer James Gorman has made new technologies a top priority at Morgan Stanley, an early mover in electronic stock trading. The bank is spending about $4 billion in an initiative that spans trading -- particularly in fixed income -- wealth management and other units. "Michael uniquely combines a distinguished career in academia and research with professional experience in the application of AI to complex business problems in financial services," the company said in the memo.

European software major SAP and startup accelerator Techstars will invest in at least 10 artificial intelligence (AI) startups every year through its SAP.iO Foundry in Berlin. SAP.iO is an initiative of the tech giant to create an ecosystem of products and software by working with entrepreneurs. In 2017, five Indian startups were among 10 companies selected by SAP.iO's AI accelerator's first batch. "We are looking at enterprise applications from startups that are founded around a year ago," Alexa Gorman, global vice-president of SAP.iO Fund, told VCCircle over a telephone call from Berlin. "By restricting our focus, we can add value in terms of marketing assistance and mentorship for these startups."

European software major SAP and startup accelerator Techstars will invest in at least 10 artificial intelligence (AI) startups every year through its SAP.iO Foundry in Berlin. SAP.iO is an initiative of the tech giant to create an ecosystem of products and software by working with entrepreneurs. In 2017, five Indian startups were among 10 companies selected by SAP.iO's AI accelerator's first batch. "We are looking at enterprise applications from startups that are founded around a year ago," Alexa Gorman, global vice-president of SAP.iO Fund, told VCCircle over a telephone call from Berlin. "By restricting our focus, we can add value in terms of marketing assistance and mentorship for these startups."

European software major SAP will invest in at least 10 artificial intelligence (AI) startups every year through its SAP.iO Fund. SAP.iO is an initiative of the tech giant to create an ecosystem of products and software by working with entrepreneurs. In 2016, five Indian startups were among 10 companies selected by SAP.iO's AI accelerator's first batch. "We are looking at enterprise applications from startups that are founded around a year ago," Alexa Gorman, global vice-president of SAP.iO Fund, told VCCircle over a telephone call from Berlin. "By restricting our focus, we can add value in terms of marketing assistance and mentorship for these startups."

Students of artificial intelligence are getting recruited like star athletes, but could a rush to get new technology on the field cause ethical lapses? You walk into a gigantic auditorium. Folding chairs are lined up in evenly spaced rows, with a cold black awning behind the stage and uniform white or yellow lights pouring down on the sea of seats below. A couple of huge screens are to either side of the stage with a third in the center in the middle of the room for those who can't see the presentation. What's about to happen is one of the most important annual gatherings in tech.

A toddler meanders unsteadily through the living room, pausing by a sleek black cylinder in the corner. "Alexa," he says in a high-pitched voice. The cylinder acknowledges the request, despite the muffled pronunciation, and the music starts. Alexa, a cloud-based speech recognition software from Amazon and the brain of its black cylindrical loudspeaker Echo, has been a big hit around the world – except for the younger ones, who take it for granted. Children will grow up alongside it, just as Alexa will evolve, as the AI powering it learns to answer more and more questions, and – perhaps – one day even converses freely with people.

On October 4, 1986, the University of Alabama hosted Notre Dame in a game of football. Notre Dame had won the previous four contests, but this time Alabama was favored. It had a stifling defense and a swift senior linebacker named Cornelius Bennett. Ray Perkins, Alabama's head coach, said of him, "I don't think there's a better player in America." Early in the game, with the score tied, Bennett blitzed Notre Dame's quarterback, Steve Beuerlein. "I was like a speeding train, and Beuerlein just happened to be standing on the railroad track," Bennett told me recently. Football is essentially a spectacle of car crashes. In 2004, researchers at the University of North Carolina, examining data gathered from helmet-mounted sensors, discovered that many football collisions compare in intensity to a vehicle smashing into a wall at twenty-five miles per hour. Bennett, who weighed two hundred and thirty-five pounds, drove his shoulder into Beuerlein's chest and heard what sounded like a balloon being punctured--"basically, the air going out of him." Beuerlein landed on his back. He stood up, wobbly and dazed. "I saw mouths moving, but I heard no voices," he later said. After Bennett's "vicious, high-speed direct slam," as the Times put it, Alabama seized the momentum and won, 28–10. Following college, Bennett was drafted into the National Football League. Between 1987 and 1995, he played for the Buffalo Bills, and appeared in four Super Bowls. During his pro career, he made more than a thousand tackles, playing through sprains, muscle tears, broken bones, and concussions. I asked him how many concussions he'd had. "In my medical file, there are probably six." "I couldn't even begin to tell you." "I played a long time," he said. "Every week after a game, I got some sort of headache." In 1996, he signed a thirteen-million-dollar contract with the Atlanta Falcons. He received weekly injections of Toradol, an anti-inflammatory drug. "It was magic--it made me feel like I was twenty-four again," Bennett said. He helped carry Atlanta to the Super Bowl--his fifth. In 2000, at the age of thirty-five, Bennett retired and moved to Florida. He lived in a hotel in Miami's Bal Harbour area, worked on his golf handicap, and vacationed with his wife and friends in Europe and in the Napa Valley. Several of Bennett's football peers were having a far tougher time. Darryl Talley, a former Bills teammate, suffered from severe depression. Mike Webster, a Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, had become a homeless alcoholic; he died, of a heart attack, in 2002. Three years later, Terry Long, another former Steeler, committed suicide by drinking antifreeze. Andre Waters, a former Philadelphia Eagles safety, killed himself with a gunshot to the head. A neuropathologist named Bennet Omalu autopsied Webster, Long, and Waters, and detected a pattern: each had a high concentration of an abnormal form of a protein, called tau, on his brain.

Uber may be gaining riders. It may be on the cutting edge of developing self-driving car technology. That's according to details given by Gautam Gupta, Uber Technologies Inc.'s finance head, who in a recent conference call with Uber investors said the ride-hailing giant lost at least 1.27 billion during the first half of this year. In a report Thursday, Bloomberg cited "people familiar with the matter" as saying Gupta gave the money-losing score last week as part of an update that the privately held San Francisco company gives to its investors and shareholders every three months. According to those sources, Uber lost about 520 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization during the first quarter of the year, and its second-quarter losses ballooned to more than 750 million.