The candidate interviewing for the role was not fit. I explained why he was not suitable for the role and told him to apply for a Data Analyst position instead. But he insisted I tell him how to…

There is a worrying shortfall in skills required for a career in AI. Although technical capabilities are vital for a career in the sector, problem solving is considered the most critical soft skill needed for tech roles among all survey participants (up to 37%). However, around a quarter of tech recruiters (23%) have difficulty finding applicants with this aptitude along with shortfalls in critical and strategic thinking, according to IMB's report'Addressing the AI Skills Gap in Europe'. Also, nearly seven in 10 tech job seekers and tech employees believe that potential recruits lack the skills necessary for a career in AI. As AI moves into the mainstream, specialist tech staff are working more closely than ever with business managers.

A study carried out by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM has found that training in the UK is falling behind in terms of software engineering to support artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. According to IBM, as AI moves into the mainstream, specialist tech staff are working more closely than ever with business managers. To secure the best possible outcomes, the soft skills of interpersonal communication, strategic problem solving and critical thinking are required across all disciplines. Along with soft skills, the survey, conducted among a sample of 500 tech job seekers, 300 tech employees and 200 tech recruiters in the UK, Spain and Germany reported that 40% of tech job seekers and employees say that software engineering and knowledge of programming languages are the most important technical capabilities for the AI/tech workforce to have. Demonstrating these skills can greatly improve employability and career developments in AI.

Created by the French company'Aldebaran Robotics' in 2008, and acquired by'Softbank Robotics Japan' in 2015, NAO is an autonomous and programmable humanoid robot that has been successfully applied to research and development applications for children and adults. More than 13,000 NAO robots are used in more than 70 countries around the world. Pretty much every lab working in human-robot interaction research owns a NAO making it the social robot that has been the most used in the history of the field. In our paper '10 Years of Human-NAO Interaction Research: A Scoping Review' published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, we present an overview of the evolution of NAO's technical capabilities. We also present the main results from a scoping review of the human-robot interaction research literature in which NAO was used. Appearance-wise, NAO hasn't aged a bit.

When we speak of ethical issues of AI, there tends to be an implicit assumption that we are speaking of morally bad things. And, of course, most of the AI debate revolves around such morally problematic outcomes that need to be addressed. However, it is worth highlighting that AI promises numerous benefits. As noted earlier, many AI policy documents focus on the economic benefits of AI that are expected to arise from higher levels of efficiency and productivity. These are ethical values insofar as they promise higher levels of wealth and wellbeing that will allow people to live better lives and can thus be conducive to or even necessary for human flourishing.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced substantial funding for a project it hopes will help to develop AI technologies capable of automatically analyzing how authoritarian regimes prevent the free flow of information online. Control over the internet has been a primary method for the restriction of information for many years now. It is exploited in diverse territories around the world to help spread propaganda and to prevent the dissemination of dissenting political opinions. This allows totalitarian regimes to maintain a stranglehold over the populace – particularly in and around election times. Now, the principal US agency charged with developing technologies for the military is asking for detailed submissions for research concepts funded by its Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) branch.

SCA has become an early-stage investor in Melbourne-based Sonnant Pty Ltd, a transformational artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) company that provides content discovery for the spoken word. According to the GfK Australian Share of Audio 2019, consumption of digital audio is growing in Australia and is expected to reach 80% of the population by 2024 and SCA's recent launch of LiSTNR is designed to be a best in class consumer digital audio experience. SCA's in-house technical capability will be enhanced by Sonnant's AI intelligence, providing an in-depth of understanding of SCA content that allows for rich meta data and exciting new user experiences. Sonnant allows SCA to enhance the key product pillars of LiSTNR delivering a personalised experience to each user based on the topics they most enjoy listening to. SCA Head of Digital and Innovation, Chris Johnson, says "SCA is a proud supporter of the Australian entrepreneurial ecosystem, so when we found a company of Sonnant's calibre in Melbourne, we knew that an investment partnership would provide significant long term value to both parties. "We were delighted when Sonnant's tech outperformed several'off the shelf' products we pitted it against in testing.

With artificial intelligence and related tech making serious inroads in today's workplace, it may come as little surprise that upskilling and reskilling will be key to evolving employee competencies that complement technological innovation, according a new survey. Unfortunately, the same survey, the 2020 Talent Trends Report released by Randstad Sourceright, found that, while 91% of human capital leaders believe it's their company's responsibility to provide reskilling to meet business needs, only 22% are currently doing so to address talent scarcity. Nearly one-third of respondents who said they intend to offer reskilling aren't sure how to get it done. The good news is most employers (66%) plan to provide training and reskilling in the area of artificial intelligence, while 60% plan to develop workers' soft skills. The findings mirrored those in the company's 2019 research on employees, wherein their most desired skills included both technical capabilities (43%) and soft skills, such as communication (41%).

"Our acquisition of Dynamic Yield has brought us a lot of excitement," says McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook. "Very simply put, in the online world when we're shopping and we pick an item and put it into our shopping basket, any website will automatically suggest two or three things to go along with it. We're the first business that we're aware of that can bring that into the physical world. Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald's, discusses how the company is using technology to elevate the customer experience and accelerate growth in an interview on CNBC: As we've executed the growth plan we've spent the first two years, three or four years ago, turning the business around. Now we've had a couple of years of growth.

Next week, I'll be at Think 2018 in Las Vegas. As I share this, several of my clients are deciding if they should make larger investments in data science and machine learning over the next 6-18 months. I believe data science and machine learning are the dynamic duo that are going to transform how we do business and how we lead our lives. I'll talk about machine learning after I attend the IBM Think 2018 conference. As an external technology advisor, I'm paid to help my clients better understand where they should invest, sometimes how much, and, in several cases, who should lead their pilot programs.