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Edward Snowden has warned people not to use Google’s new chat app, because it lets the company read everything that they say.

Google has finally released its new chat app after showing it off over the summer. It comes with a robot that watches everything people say and then stores it for later analysis, using that data to improve the app itself.

But that also means that chats are stored on Google’s servers indefinitely, and are able to be read by it. The company had initially indicated that the messages would only be stored temporarily, limiting the possible impact of any data breach and retaining some privacy for users.

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They are wise-cracking companions, able to communicate in more than six million languages. Others are bent on enslaving or destroying humanity, deeming themselves better, more rational caretakers of the Earth in light of our irrational behaviors.

Pilot or garbage man, soldier or slave, hero or villain—robots have played every role imaginable in popular science fiction for nearly a century.

In the 21st century, real-life robots inspired by their fictional counterparts are beginning to take starring roles in everyday life.

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Cancer is like a computer virus and can be ‘solved’ by cracking the code, according to Microsoft. The computer software company says its researchers are using artificial intelligence in a new healthcare initiative to target cancerous cells and eliminate the disease.

One of the projects within this new healthcare enterprise involves utilizing machine learning and natural language processing to help lead researchers sift through all the research data available and come up with a treatment plan for individual cancer patients.

IBM is working on something similar using a program called Watson Oncology, which analyzes patient health info against research data.

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Thou shalt not kill: Official guidelines to keep humans safe from robots are published by standards authority…


The science fiction author Isaac Asimov first proposed the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ in a short story published in 1942 as a way of ensuring the machines would not rise up to overthrow humanity.

But with robots now starting to appear in people’s homes and artificial intelligence developing, a group of experts have drawn up a new list of rules to protect humanity from their creations.

Dwave’s next quantum chip, due in 2017, will be able to handle 2,000 qubits which is double the usable number in the existing D-Wave 2X system chip. It will be capable of solving certain problems 1,000x faster than its predecessor.

The new processor will also support additional features that allow for more efficient calculations.

“From an internal tests, that looks like that’s a really good thing to do. We’ve got some problems we’ve already sped up by a factor of 1,000 by exploiting that capability,” said Williams at the CW TEC conference in Cambridge.

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The London Borough of Enfield has employed AI Amelia to handle some customer service aspects. The program will guide customers through the site while learning and even picking up on emotions.

The London borough of Enfield has enlisted artificial intelligence Amelia to take on customer service tasks for its residents starting late this year.

Developed by IPSoft, Amelia is a cognitive agent, capable of automating certain tasks as well as learn from its interactions. As to what makes Amelia a competent asset to the council, IPSoft says she is “[c]apable of analysing natural language, she understands context, applies logic, learns, resolves problems and even senses emotions.”

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Researchers have developed machine learning software that can accurately diagnose a patient’s breast cancer risk 30 times faster than doctors, based on mammogram results and personal medical history.

The system could help doctors give better diagnoses the first time around — which means fewer mammogram callbacks and false positives.

“This software intelligently reviews millions of records in a short amount of time, enabling us to determine breast cancer risk more efficiently using a patient’s mammogram,” said one of the researchers, Stephen Wong, from Houston Methodist Research Institute. “This has the potential to decrease unnecessary biopsies.”

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