Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk recently slugged it out online over the possible threat artificial intelligence might one day pose to the human race, although you could be forgiven if you don't see why this seems like a pressing question. Thanks to AI, computers are learning to do a variety of tasks that have long eluded them -- everything from driving cars to detecting cancerous skin lesions to writing news stories Read More ...

Effortless customer engagement is top of mind for Quinn Banks, senior product marketing manager at Farmers Insurance -- and he's spearheading the implementation of machine learning to get the company there. "We are working with machine learning to make our app more efficient when customers come in, or even to anticipate what a customer will need when they come into the application, based on their habits, their environmental changes, even Read More ... Tags: Corporate Enterprises Computer systems Customers Artificial intelligence Machine intelligence Machine learning Google crams machine learning into smartwatches in A.I. push Google is bringing artificial intelligence to a whole new set of devices, including Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches and the Raspberry Pi board, later this year. These devices don't require a set of powerful CPUs and GPUs to carry out machine-learning tasks. Google researchers are instead trying to lighten the hardware load to carry out basic A.I. tasks, as exhibited by last week's release of the Android Wear 2.0 operating system Read More ... Tags: Smart Devices Computer systems Smart Watches Artificial intelligence Machine intelligence Machine learning Wearable devices In this video from the 2017 HPC Advisory Council Stanford Conference, DK Panda presents: Best Practices: Designing HPC & Deep Learning Middleware for Exascale Systems. "This talk will focus on challenges in designing runtime environments for exascale systems with millions of processors and accelerators to support various programming models.

HONG KONG: McDonald's Corp has agreed to sell the bulk of its China and Hong Kong business to state-backed conglomerate CITIC Ltd and Carlyle Group LP for up to $2.1 billion (Dh7.71 billion), seeking to expand rapidly without using much of its own capital. Zurich The Swiss National Bank expects a 2016 full-year profit of 24 billion francs (Dh86.68 billion; $23.6 billion), enabling it to shell out money to the federal government and municipalities. Foreign-currency holdings contributed more than 19 billion francs, and valuation gains on its gold holdings added 3.9 billion francs, the central bank said on Monday, citing an initial estimate. Last year's result is set to be the second-best in the Read More ... Tags: Corporate Enterprises Finance Sectors Banks Profits Financial institutions German automaker Volkswagen saw sales jump 16 percent in December for its namesake brand, propelled by a big increase in China, Volkswagen's biggest market. Global sales reported Monday rose to 567,900 from 487,700 despite the damage to the company's reputation from its scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

The partnership between car brands and their timepiece counterparts extends longer than you and I can even imagine. We've seen these partnerships manifest themselves in one form or another, with some even taking the form of obscenely expensive, limited edition watches. If there ever was a new frontier for the partnership between these two industries, Swiss watchmaker Swatch may have opened that door. A report from watch-dedicated website TwentyTwoTen revealed Read More ... Places: Americas North America United States The two models posed near their flashy cars as they reunited for the sexy photo op. Both Chyna and Amber posted the three photos to their Instagram accounts as they showed off their curves and cars.

Researchers and engineers from BMW are working at IBM's Munich headquarters for its Watson Internet of Things (IoT) technology. They'll help develop IBM's Watson cognitive system for integration into automotive products, which will be able to learn from the physical world and pass intelligence back to it. BMW is Read More ... Tags: Computer systems Vehicle Manufacturers BMW AG Cars Artificial intelligence IBM and BMW Are Using the Watson A.I. to Give Smart Cars More Personality BM and BMW announced Thursday that they have teamed up to figure out how Watson, the A.I. most famous for winning Jeopardy! in 2011, could be used to make driving better. Could this finally make KITT from Knight Rider a reality? The companies said they want to explore the potential of Watson "personalizing the driving experience and creating more intuitive driver support systems for cars of the future." That sounds Read More ... Tags: Vehicle Manufacturers BMW AG Cars Driverless Cars Car Types As if the BMW X6 wasn't already one of the sportiest and most aggressive-looking SUVs (SACs) in the world, this particular one on display at the automaker's Abu Dhabi showroom is taking things even further.

Now Silicon Valley has found its next shiny new thing. And it does not have a "Like" button. In the pixelated cube world of "Minecraft," players can create almost anything their hearts desire. Now, Microsoft is using the popular world-building game to build and test artificial intelligence in the fictional environment. Microsoft has made a platform for (AI) research using a modified version of "Minecraft" that will become available to the public following a limited release to select researchers.