Of all the recent buzzwords peppering discussions of insurance technology, artificial intelligence--or AI--is probably the most common and the most classic in terms of the latitude used. Like cloud, anything closely resembling or touching artificial intelligence gets the term. However, the technology is real and consequential, and insurers are alert and ready to use it. The challenges will be sorting out what are the most useful types of AI and what are likely to be the most successful business use cases. Those challenges are addressed in "AI Technologies in P&C: Insurer Progress, Plans, And Potential," a new survey-based research report by SMA (Boston).

As I had always been in love with technology, I have a habit of exploring new technologies. I like to read about what's happening in the tech world and how these new technologies can disrupt the current industries. In the recent past, as I was exploring and reading extensively on what impact can recent technologies have over our lives, I quickly noticed that there were a few terms that were thrown around almost all over the place: AI, Data Science, Machine Learning, Deep Learning. Although, technically wrong, let's refer to these technologies as AI (Artificial Intelligence) in general. I was kinda hooked and I started to casually read about them as these technologies naturally appeared to have the potential to disrupt any industry imaginable.

With the popularization of Artificial Intelligence and its gradual emergence as the core technology that is impelling momentous developments in a large number of fields, there has been a spurt in the use of machine learning and deep learning as well. As per multiple surveys and studies, AI and Machine Learning would be among the highest-paid and most lucrative career streams in the years to come. AI and Machine Learning would revolutionize our existing technological frameworks and usher in a new industrial age by reorienting and transforming everything from the simplest of appliances to automobiles. The applications of Machine Learning are not only limited to the terrestrial zone but have reached for the sky too, both literally as well as figuratively. Just like all other domains that are constantly reimagining themselves and girding for the future, the domain of remote sensing is also undergoing profound changes and witnessing increasing use of specified algorithms when Big Data and Cloud have become almost ubiquitous.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has tremendous potential to benefit the American people, and has already demonstrated immense value in enhancing our national security and growing our economy. AI is quickly transforming American life and American business. It improves how we diagnose and treat illnesses, grow our food, manufacture and deliver new products, manage our finances, power our homes, and traverse our roads. Today, the White House hosted the "Artificial Intelligence for American Industry" summit, an opportunity to discuss the promise of AI and the policies we will need to realize that promise for the American people and maintain U.S. leadership in the age of artificial intelligence. "Artificial intelligence holds tremendous potential as a tool to empower the American worker, drive growth in American industry, and improve the lives of the American people," said Deputy Assistant to the President for Technology Policy Michael Kratsios.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has tremendous potential to benefit the American people, and has already demonstrated immense value in enhancing our national security and growing our economy. AI is quickly transforming American life and American business. It improves how we diagnose and treat illnesses, grow our food, manufacture and deliver new products, manage our finances, power our homes, and traverse our roads. Today, the White House hosted the "Artificial Intelligence for American Industry" summit, an opportunity to discuss the promise of AI and the policies we will need to realize that promise for the American people and maintain U.S. leadership in the age of artificial intelligence. "Artificial intelligence holds tremendous potential as a tool to empower the American worker, drive growth in American industry, and improve the lives of the American people," said Deputy Assistant to the President for Technology Policy Michael Kratsios.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Thursday that signals to Google, Uber and carmakers that they are welcome to test self-driving cars on the state's roads and highways without a driver behind the wheel. There was nothing in existing law that banned autonomous vehicles from Texas roads. After all, Google has been testing them since 2015 in Austin, and Arlington is rolling them out. And several Texas sites were chosen by the U.S. Department of Transportation to test the technology in closed-course settings. Yet because state statutes didn't address the emerging technology at all, some manufacturers have told state officials they were wary about testing vehicles alongside street and highway traffic in Texas.

There is tremendous potential for facial recognition technology, such as informing visually impaired persons if someone they know is approaching them. I find it difficult to believe just how fast things are moving with regard to using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and deep learning techniques (for example, see Deep learning machine vision system aids blind and visually impaired, Deep learning hits a sweet note, Machine learning platform speeds optimization of vision systems, Unlocking the power of AI for all developers, and Push-button generation of deep neural networks). Of course, one really interesting application is to perform object detection and identification, including the really tricky task of recognizing and identifying faces in images and videos. This sort of task benefits from the extreme parallelism offered by FPGAs. Of particular interest are Intel's current generation of FPGAs, whose hard-core DSP slices offer both fixed-point and floating-point capabilities, making them suitable for a wide range of artificial intelligence (AI) and embedded vision applications.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG (OTCPK:DDAIF) (OTCPK:DDAIY) announced a partnership for AI powered Mercedes cars. These cars, which are expected to be available within the next year, will feature self-driving capability as well as an active driver assistance function called "Co-Pilot." Co-Pilot may well be the most intelligent human-machine interface ever devised. The announcement at CES of the Nvidia/Daimler partnership came only a day after Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang gave his keynote at CES. Since the announcement of the Nvidia/Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) partnership last year, the automobile industry has been waking up to the fact that the race to build the first commercially available self-driving car is all but won.

There has been some grumbling amongst industry folk who traveled to CinemaCon this year that studios aren't really showing anything new. In an age where fans clamor for teasers and trailers to debut earlier and earlier online, Hollywood has started giving sneak peeks of their films many months -- and sometimes years -- in advance of a movie's release. That wasn't the case with Universal Pictures, whose chairman Donna Langley told the crowd of movie theater owners gathered here on Wednesday that all material the studio would be sharing was "created specifically for CinemaCon." A majority of that material involved the studio's animated slate -- more on that here. But Universal also gave conference-goers a first glimpse at some of its most anticipated live-action releases.