ALPHAGO, the artificial intelligence system built by the Google subsidiary DeepMind, has just defeated the human champion, Lee Se-dol, four games to one in the tournament of the strategy game of Go. Why does this matter? After all, computers surpassed humans in chess in 1997,...
Google's self-driving car knows how to run yellow lights. But unlike regular humans, it doesn't have to guess whether it'll beat the countdown. Instead, it turns what for many of us is a split-second decision based on experience and guts into a heavily calculated dance of...
Rupandeep Kaur, 20 weeks pregnant, arrived at a medical clinic looking fatigued and ready to collapse. After being asked her name and address, she was taken to see a physician who reviewed her medical history, asked several questions, and ordered a series of tests including...
Many of the world’s largest technology companies have spent the last five years searching in vain for the holy grail, a machine to succeed the smartphone as the next must-have gadget. They have made digital watches and fitness trackers, all manner of computerized glasses and goggles,...
Will this new take on Second Life bring about a renewed interest in the concept of virtual worlds? Since 2003, members of Linden Lab’s virtual world Second Life have been able to participate in an immersive reality filled with nightclubs, art exhibits, shopping malls, in-world corporate...
Let’s say computers come for most of our jobs. This may not seem likely at the moment; computer scientists and economists offer wildly varying ideas for how deeply automation will affect future employment. But for the sake of argument, imagine that within two or three decades...
Researchers will introduce Wanda at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in April. Dartmouth College researchers claim to have developed a "magic wand" they say will prevent hackers from stealing personal data. They've named the digital tool Wanda. The focus of the work is to secure...
Microsoft’s Office suite already has a popular note-taking app with OneNote, but today the company is turning its attention to how note-taking should work on tablets that support stylus and touch-based input. The company has now released Plumbago, a digital notebook application for Windows 8.1...
The Absolute report also showed that 65 percent of IT decision makers believe they would lose their job in the event of a breach. A high percentage of IT workers admit to not following the same security protocols they are expected to enforce, according to a...
A new, multiyear competition to build the world's coolest artificial intelligence could win you $5 million. The prize for the challenge comes from IBM, TED and the X Prize Foundation, who want to stimulate research on AI "to tackle some of the world's grand challenges."...