Insurance companies are sitting on a trove of the one thing AI requires to be successful — data. And AI technologies like machine learning have the ability to make that data actionable. Machine learning can look at data in a number of different ways. It can rank information, putting what it thinks you are looking for at the top of a list; classify information like images; make recommendations; and associate something with a numerical value. It can also group similar things together and detect anomalies.

To improve their customer experience, many are investing in chatbots powered by natural language processing. Chatbots are fast and efficient, and customers can interact with them in the way they are most comfortable communicating — via whatever mobile device they have in their pocket. And, unlike humans, chatbots can help more than one customer at a time and are available around the clock. But they are not strictly a utility play. When they are designed to have personalities that align with the brand powering them, they move from being simply transactional to transforming the customer experience.


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The idea is to use the data to improve the performance of both students and professors. The software uses students’ webcams to analyze eye movements and facial expressions and determine whether students are paying attention to a video lecture. It then formulates quizzes based on the content covered during moments of inattentiveness. Professors would also be able to identify moments when students’ attention waned, which could help to improve their teaching, Marcel Saucet, founder of LCA Learning, says.

The the software, called Nestor, was created by LCA Learning and will be used in two online classes at the ESG business school beginning in September.

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A computer beat China’s top player of go, one of the last games machines have yet to master, for a second time Thursday, a sign that the field of artificial intelligence is advancing faster than expected.

An IBM supercomputer known as Deep Blue defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997. But many go players expected it to be at least 10 more years before computers mastered go, which is considered far more complicated for machines to master.

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Lyft and Waymo are getting together in the pursuit of the tools each needs to bring autonomous vehicles to consumers, and in turn generate profits from them. For Lyft, Waymo offers perhaps the most advanced tech in this budding industry. And for Waymo, Lyft offers data that could prove crucial in getting that technology in front of paying customers.
These partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and even legal battles are going to become more frequent as the auto industry reinvents itself, and new and old characters battle for dominance.

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 A MUDANÇA DIGITAL COMEÇOU HOJE!
Um conjunto de entidades de diversos setores e o Estado português, uniram esforços com o objetivo de desenvolver diversas iniciativas que permitam, ao maior número de portugueses, beneficiar de uma cidadania digital plena.
Lisboa, 15 de Maio 2017 – O Movimento pela Utilização Digital Ativa - MUDA, é uma iniciativa nacional promovida por várias empresas, universidades, associações e pelo Estado Português, que assumem o compromisso de incentivar os portugueses a uma maior participação no espaço digital contribuindo, desta forma para a redução do número de pessoas que nunca acederam à internet e para o aumento do número de utilizadores com competências mais avançadas.
Este Movimento irá expressar-se através da realização de inúmeras iniciativas, assentes em nove pilares, identificados como àreas estratégicas de atuação - Acesso Digital, Comércio Digital, Comunicação Digital, Literacia Digital, Etiqueta Digital, Legislação Digital, Liberdade Digital, Saúde Digital e Segurança Digital.
Através do site oficial www.muda.pt, o Movimento disponibilizará uma vasta oferta de conteúdos didáticos e de suporte aos utilizadores, com particular destaque para o Quizz MUDA que ajudará o utilizador a medir os seus conhecimentos digitais mas também a orientá-lo com sugestões de melhoria.
Com o objetivo de aumentar o conhecimento dos cidadãos portugueses quanto às vantagens da utilização digital no seu dia-a-dia, será realizada uma campanha de publicidade que contemplará a presença do MUDA em diferentes meios tais como TV, Rádio, Imprensa e Outdoors mas também em Sites e Redes sociais. Em paralelo, irá decorrer um roadshow nacional que visa estar mais próximo do cidadão através de experiências digitais pensadas tanto para pessoas mais experientes como não utilizadores de internet.
A cerimónia oficial do lançamento MUDA, realizou-se hoje pelas 15h00 e, contou com a presença do Dr. Luís Ferreira Lopes, Assessor da Presidência da República para a área das Empresas e Inovação.
Este momento foi seguido pela intervenção de Dr. Alexandre Nilo Fonseca, Diretor Executivo do MUDA, sob o tema “Cidadania Digital Ativa em Portugal”, que partilhou a visão estratégica e plano de atividades deste Movimento, bem como, alguns dados relevantes sobre a adoção digital no mundo e em Portugal e o seu impacto na sociedade e na economia.
Por último, ocorreu o momento que oficializa a constituição deste Movimento com a presença dos presidentes de todas as entidades parceiras:

• Dr. Fernando Ulrich, Presidente do BPI
• Eng.o Licínio Pina, Presidente do Conselho de Administração Executivo do Crédito
  Agrícola
• Dra. Luísa Gueifão, Presidente do Conselho Diretivo da DNS.PT
• Dr. António Mexia, Presidente do Conselho de Administração Executivo da EDP
• Dr. Jorge Magalhães Correia, Presidente do Conselho de Administração e CEO da
  Fidelidade
• Dr. Bernardo Correia, Country Manager da Google Portugal
• Eng.o Paulo Neves, Chairman e CEO da MEO
• Eng.o Paula Panarra, Diretora-Geral da Microsoft Portugal
• Dr. Nuno Amado, CEO do Millennium BCP
• Eng.o Miguel Almeida, Presidente Executivo da NOS
• Dr. António Vieira Monteiro, Presidente da Comissão Executiva do Santander Totta
• Dr. Mário Vaz, CEO da Vodafone Portugal
  O MUDA é um projeto gerido e implementado pela A2D Consulting, uma empresa especializada em serviços de consultadoria em transformação digital. 
  

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​Entre estas e outras novidades, HOJE TUDO MUDA! 

In the early 1980’s, Brian Arthur began speculating that in an increasingly tech-enabled world, the  law of diminishing marginal returns failed to capture something. He speculated that some industries actually demonstrated increasing returns. The more of something you distributed, the more valuable each incremental piece became. Arthur’s thinking ultimately led to our understanding of network effects and feedback loops. In the world of technology: the more of something you make, the more valuable it can become. Facebook becomes more valuable as more people in your network join. Messaging apps become more valuable as more people sign up. Marketplaces like eBay or Etsy become more valuable to each new member every time a new seller signs up and lists their wares.

When Patrick Collison, CEO of electronic payments company Stripe, helped kick off our second-year strategy course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business this year, he observed that this has created one of the most profound differences in decision criteria between leaders in industrial-era and internet-era companies. When your product can become more valuable to your customers over time, the way you prioritize building features and harvesting profits within a business needs to change.
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The German publisher’s Journalisten Club is a suite of wood-panelled rooms filled with antique books, leather armchairs and classical paintings. “It is a symbol,” says Mattias Döpfner, the publisher’s chief executive.

Whether it still makes sense as a symbol is unclear, for Axel Springer’s business has shifted rapidly away from print media (though it still owns Bild and Die Welt, two leading German dailies) towards an array of digital businesses. In 2000 it had almost no digital revenue; by the end of last year over 72% of its operating profit came from digital activities. Profits have increased by 37% over the past decade, from €434m ($473m) in 2006 to €596m last year.
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Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steve Banks wanted a tool that would not only enable workers to coordinate their efforts, but also give the city government a true overview of the homelessness problem that would enable officials to design interventions based on real data, not rough estimates. The city’s tech team worked with non-profit organizations such as Project Hospitality in Staten Island as well as BronxWorks to find out what the outreach workers on the front lines of this citywide disaster need.

To that end, the city is rolling out a new tool, StreetSmart, aims to give city agencies and non-profit groups a comprehensive view of all of the data being collected on New York’s homeless on a daily basis. Think of StreetSmart as a customer relationship management system for the homeless. Every day in New York, some 400 outreach workers walk the streets checking in on homeless people and collecting information about their health, income, demographics, and history in the shelter system, among other data points. The workers get to know this vulnerable population and build trust in the hope of one day placing them in some type of housing.

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Proponents of 3-D printing have long talked about the possibility of using the technology to customize consumer products. One of the most oft-cited possibilities is printing sneakers with soles tailored to individual runner’s biometrics or to the quirks of each couch potato’s arches.

Bay Area 3-D-printing company Carbon announced that it has made that happen. Carbon has been working with the apparel company Adidas to develop materials and designs for athletic-shoe midsoles, the squishy, shock-absorbing part of the sneaker. 

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