Australian industrial scenario changing as businesses mull over AI adoption

Businesses in Australia are not prepared for the imminent uptake of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, according to the latest survey from Ajilon. The majority of the almost 1,500 IT professionals polled (91%) believe that upskilling is important to remain relevant in their jobs, while one in four are worried that their organisation does not see AI and automation as a threat despite their beliefs. Moreover, 17% also indicated that their company fast enough to keep pace with rapid...

15 August 2017 | Enterprise

OpenAI beats puny human players on Dota 2

openai dota 2 ai

Not content with AIs beating human players on games like Go, Elon Musk-backed OpenAI is now beating the best Dota 2 players. The AI faced three of the best Dota 2 players in the world at the championships in the US and beat them all. It even learned the game from scratch using the old adage of “try, try, and try again.” Some players of the eSports hit put in grueling hours of training for a chance to receive the increasingly large winnings on offer at some events. That means little to...

14 August 2017 | Bots

SimplifAI keeps traffic flowing during busy periods

SimplifAI traffic management ai

SimplifAI is an AI-based traffic lights system designed to alleviate congestion and keep cities moving during particularly busy periods. Designed by Professor Lee McCluskey of Huddersfield University, the project has been awarded more than £850,000 by Innovate UK. Under the name of ‘SimplifAI’ it optimises timings at traffic lights to ensure the least possible disruption to journeys. Being stuck at traffic lights isn’t just frustrating; it also decreases productivity and has an...

11 August 2017 | Smart Cities

AI guru Andrew Ng launches an online deep learning course

andrew ng deep learning ai coursera course

Andrew Ng is something of a legend in the AI community, and so his launch of an online deep learning course is noteworthy. The course on Coursera is simply called ‘Deep Learning Specialization’ and promises to teach students vital skills for the future. Some of the advanced topics covered include neural networks, backpropagation, convolutional networks, recurrent networks, computer vision, natural language processing, and more. “Just as electricity transformed every major industry...

9 August 2017 | Deep Learning

IBM breaks records with deep learning advancement

ibm deep learning research

Software giant IBM has set new records with the company’s latest deep learning advancement. IBM has already cemented its place as a leader in AI with Watson and its deep learning capabilities. Deep learning is a subset of AI which mimics the human brain and is therefore a focus of researchers. Companies including Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Google have made advancements in deep learning, but IBM’s could be the most groundbreaking. Today’s deep learning systems can take days to...

8 August 2017 | Deep Learning

AI uses radio waves to diagnose sleep disorders

AI MIT research healthcare

Researchers have developed an AI-based algorithm to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of sleep disorders using radio waves. Good sleep is vital for our mental and physical wellbeing. Diagnosing problems today, however, can be difficult as it requires patients to be fitted with electrodes and various sensors. The researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital used an AI algorithm to analyse radio signals around a subject. These readings are translated into the stages of sleep:...

7 August 2017 | Healthcare

Opinion: Microsoft now considers AI a top priority – and it’s about time

Microsoft should be a pioneer alongside Google when it comes to artificial intelligence, but the company only now appears to consider it a priority. In the company's annual report for the 2017 fiscal year, AI is now mentioned on six occasions. Compared to not a single mention in the previous report, it’s clear Microsoft is now putting more of its focus on artificial intelligence. Microsoft also indicates this in their corporate vision statement: "Our strategic vision is to compete and...

4 August 2017 | Developers

LogMeIn acquires AI and chatbot provider Nanorep to improve customer engagement offering

LogMeIn, a conferencing software as a service (SaaS) provider, has announced the acquisition of Nanorep, an Israel-based organisation which aims to improve customer service and experience through patented natural language processing technologies. The acquisition aims to complement LogMeIn’s recent release Bold360, as the company points out, an intelligent customer engagement platform created to enable companies to deliver more human, personalized and intelligent engagement. Both these...

3 August 2017 | Virtual Assistants

YouTube fights terrorism via machine learning technology

YouTube has announced it is taking greater steps to restrict the number of videos from terrorist-affiliated groups on its platform through ‘better detection and faster removal driven by machine learning’. To tackle the situation, the Alphabet-owned video portal is using machine learning to step up its efforts to detect and remove terrorist content while also implementing “tougher standards” for determining when other videos are too controversial, or even if they are not violating...

3 August 2017 | Machine Learning

Experts believe AI will be weaponised in the next 12 months – attacks unslowed by dark web shutdowns

The majority of cybersecurity experts believe AI will be weaponised for use in cyberattacks within the next 12 months, and the shutting down of dark web markets will not decrease malware activity. Cylance posted the results of their survey of Black Hat USA 2017 attendees yesterday, and 62 percent of the infosec experts believe cyberattacks will become far more advanced over the course of the next year due to artificial intelligence. Interestingly, 32 percent said there wasn’t a chance...

2 August 2017 | Enterprise