Serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban believes artificial intelligence will prove more impactful than PCs, the internet, and wireless communication. So, in 2019 he founded the Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamps program in Dallas, with a focus on teaching underserved high school students the concepts and skills associated with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Today, the program is helmed by Director Yvette Medina and delivers that curriculum nationwide. Medina says the program aims to do the "heavy lifting" to recruit students and train employees. Last year, free bootcamps for 9th- to 12th-graders were hosted in more than 20 U.S. cities.

Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates. PARIS, April 2 -- Several world champion bridge players had to accept defeat at the hands of an artificial intelligence system. A feat never previously achieved. The victories mark an important step in the development of AI, because of its use of'white box' AI, which acquires skills in a more human way, necessary to win at bridge compared to other strategy games such as chess. Until now, to demonstrate the potential of artificial intelligence, humans were pitted against machines.

Today's AI models, according to Google's AI lead and co-founder of the Google Brain project, Jeff Dean, are at the one-trick pony phase – they are "typically trained to do only one thing". But a new approach called Pathways could provide something akin to a trainable dog that can do multiple tricks. Dean describes Pathways as a "next-generation AI architecture" that "will enable us to train a single model to do thousands or millions of things." Pathways can remove the limits of an AI model's capacity to respond to information from just one sense and allow it to respond to multiple senses, such as text, images and speech. "Pathways could enable multimodal models that encompass vision, auditory, and language understanding simultaneously," Dean explains.

A team of Army and industry researchers have developed a metric for neural networks--computing systems modeled loosely after the human brain--that could assess the reliability and confidence of the next generation of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Deep neural network, or DNNs, are a form of machine learning that use training data to learn. Once trained, they can make predictions when given new information or inputs; however, they can be easily deceived if the new information is too far outside its training. Researchers said given the diversity of information in training data and potential new inputs, coming up with a solution is challenging. "This opens a new research opportunity to create the next generation of algorithms that are robust and resilient," said Dr. Brian Jalaian, a scientist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory.

Chinese internet giant Baidu is now the world's leader in a critical AI segment for understanding human language, dethroning Microsoft and Google. Baidu, China's biggest search engine, got the "highest ever score" in a test aimed at measuring AI language processing, MIT Technology Review reported, underscoring accelerating competition for the most efficient and human-like AI. The test is called General Language Understanding Evaluation (Glue). While an average person score around 87 points on the test, Baidu was the first to go beyond 90 with its AI system called Ernie, Review reported. Ernie was influenced by Google's Bert and both are inspired by Sesame Street characters.

The Pentagon's research wing is trying to reduce the amount of computing power and hardware needed to run advanced artificial intelligence tools, and it's turning to insects for inspiration. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Friday began soliciting ideas on how to build computing systems as small and efficient as the brains of "very small flying insects." The Microscale Biomimetic Robust Artificial Intelligence Networks program, or MicroBRAIN, could ultimately result in artificial intelligence systems that can be trained on less data and operated with less energy, according to the agency. Analyzing insects' brains, which allow them to navigate the world with minimal information, could also help researchers understand how to build AI systems capable of basic common sense reasoning. "Nature has forced on these small insects drastic miniaturization and energy efficiency, some having only a few hundred neurons in a compact form-factor, while maintaining basic functionality," officials wrote in the solicitation.

You've probably already heard of blockchain technology -- it appears all over the news for its role in the success of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin. As the popular cryptocurrency recently topped a value of $10,000 for the first time in its history, it's garnering a lot of attention. Many are wondering how the blockchain can apply to other processes like big data analytics and artificial intelligence. Blockchain technology is versatile enough to store any kind of digital data.

Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus unvleils Viv, a new artificial intelligence personal assistant platform that enables developers to distribute their products through a speedy conversational interface. TechCrunch Disrupt is the world's leading authority in debuting revolutionary startups, introducing game-changing technologies, and discussing what's top of mind for the tech industry's key innovators. Disrupt gathers the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans for on-stage interviews, the Startup Battlefield competition, a 24-hour Hackathon, Startup Alley, Hardware Alley, and After Parties.