Until this point, there's the awareness that AI can automate many tasks, increase productivity and make our lives easier while also enabling us to solve problems that are simply too complicated for humans to solve alone. However, AI is not without its challenges. As we see AI becoming increasingly pervasive in our society and affecting every aspect of our lives, it also creates a host of new ethical and moral questions that have never been faced before. This means there's no real way for consumers to protect themselves from having their data misused by companies or being discriminated against due to the biases programmed into machine learning systems. It also means that companies have little incentive to use their customers' data responsibly.

The enterprise attack surface is massive, and continuing to grow and evolve rapidly. Depending on the size of your enterprise, there are up to several hundred billion time-varying signals that need to be analyzed to accurately calculate risk. Analyzing and improving cybersecurity posture is not a human-scale problem anymore. In response to this unprecedented challenge, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tools for cybersecurity have emerged to help information security teams reduce breach risk and improve their security posture efficiently and effectively. AI and machine learning (ML) have become critical technologies in information security, as they are able to quickly analyze millions of events and identify many different types of threats – from malware exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to identifying risky behavior that might lead to a phishing attack or download of malicious code.

Digital transformation is bringing the world closer and is immensely responsible for driving all activities not only in enterprises but also in the healthcare industry, government sectors and much more. With the rise in competitive pressure, companies are being forced to reduce their overall costs while implementing diverse innovative technologies to be more responsive to customers and competitors. Hence, companies are increasingly taking advantage of technologies like cloud technology, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to generate better customer value through connected applications, data, and services that optimize for agility and economics. With the cloud as a platform and APIs as building blocks for intelligent enterprise applications, AI is available for more people and organizations than ever before. This opens up more possibilities for AI technologies that can give companies a contentious advantage.

The purpose of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, according to its bylaws, is twofold. The first is to promote research in the area of AI, and the second is to promote the responsible use of these types of technology. The result was a 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-21) schedule that broadens the possibilities of AI and is heavily reflective of a pivotal time in AI research when experts are asking bigger questions about how best to responsibly develop, deploy, and integrate the technology. Microsoft and its researchers have been pursuing and helping to foster responsible AI for years--developing innovative AI ethics checklists and fairness assessment tools like Fairlearn, establishing the Aether Committee to make principle-based recommendations, and laying out guidelines for human-AI interaction, to name only a few of the milestones in this area. As a natural extension, researchers from Microsoft are presenting papers at this year's AAAI that show the wide net they're casting when it comes to developing responsible AI and using it for applications that do good.

It has been rewarding and energizing to see all of the enthusiastic support about the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society (Partnership on AI) following our announcement in September. In the months since then, we've been working with colleagues and partners from a range of disciplines to build out a robust multi-stakeholder organization and to formulate directions for forthcoming research programs and activities. Today we have some important updates to share. Apple has joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member. The company has been involved and collaborating with the Partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft.

Have you seen sci-fi movies like A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a 2001 US science fiction drama directed by Steven Spielberg that portrays a childlike android programmed to love, or Bicentennial Man, which starred the late Robin Williams and was based on a 1976 novel by Isaac Asimov? Have you seen the movie Surrogates which starred Bruce Willis and portrayed a futuristic world where people live within the safety of their homes while their robotic surrogates carry on their daily chores? If yes, you are also likely to believe that machines endowed with artificial intelligence (AI) can emulate, or even surpass, human intelligence. However, nothing can be further from the truth, say researchers. "The frightening, futurist portrayals of artificial intelligence that dominate films and novels, and shape the popular imagination, are fictional… Unlike in the movies, there is no race of superhuman robots on the horizon or probably even possible," insists a Stanford University-hosted report.

Labeled the "Microsoft AI and Research Group" and to be led by 20-year Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) veteran, Harry Shum. Over 5K computer scientists and engineers will be involved under the new structure. Shum's existing team along with Information Platform, Cortana and Bing, and Ambient Computing and Robotics teams to also integrate. CEO Satya Nadella: "We live in a time when digital technology is transforming our lives, businesses and the world, but also generating an exponential growth in data and information. At Microsoft, we are focused on empowering both people and organizations, by democratizing access to intelligence to help solve our most pressing challenges. To do this, we are infusing AI into everything we deliver across our computing platforms and experiences."

Artificial intelligence is quickly shaping up to be one of the key defining technology areas of our time. A day after announcing a new artificial intelligence partnership with IBM, Google, Facebook and Amazon, Microsoft is upping the ante within its own walls. The tech giant announced that it is creating a new AI business unit, the Microsoft AI and Research Group, which will be led by Microsoft Research EVP Harry Shum. Shum will oversee 5,000 computer scientists, engineers and others who will all be "focused on the company's AI product efforts," the company said in an announcement. The unit will be working on all aspects of AI and how it will be applied at the company, covering agents, apps, services and infrastructure.

REDMOND, Washington -- Sept. 29, 2016 -- Microsoft Corp. announced on Thursday it has formed the Microsoft AI and Research Group, bringing together Microsoft's world-class research organization with more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers focused on the company's AI product efforts. The new group will be led by computer vision luminary Harry Shum, a 20-year Microsoft veteran whose career has spanned leadership roles across Microsoft Research and Bing engineering. Microsoft is dedicated to democratizing AI for every person and organization, making it more accessible and valuable to everyone and ultimately enabling new ways to solve some of society's toughest challenges. Today's announcement builds on the company's deep focus on AI and will accelerate the delivery of new capabilities to customers across agents, apps, services and infrastructure. In addition to Shum's existing leadership team, several of the company's engineering leaders and teams will join the newly formed group including Information Platform, Cortana and Bing, and Ambient Computing and Robotics teams led by David Ku, Derrick Connell and Vijay Mital, respectively.

A specialized division of the business software powerhouse SAP (System Application Products) is building tools to harness machine learning and artificial intelligence for antiterrorist intelligence missions and cybersecurity--though details of how exactly the software has been used are shrouded in secrecy. SAP National Security Services, which describes itself as an independent subsidiary of the German-based software giant that's operated by U.S. citizens on American soil, works with homeland government agencies to find ways to track potential terrorists across social media. "One [use] is the identification of bad actors: People that may be threats to us--people and organizations," says Mark Testoni, president and CEO of SAP NS2, as the company is known. "Secondarily, once we've identified those kinds of players and actors, we can then track their behaviors and organizations." SAP NS2 is also working with cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect to use some of the same underlying technology to track intruders and menaces in computer networks in real time, the companies announced this week.