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Watch DeepMind’s program AlphaGo take on the legendary Lee Sedol (9-dan pro), the top Go player of the past decade, in a $1M 5-game challenge match in Seoul. This is the livestream for Match 1 to be played on: 9th March 13:00 KST (local), 04:00 GMT; note for US viewers this is the day before on: 8th March 20:00 PT, 23:00 ET.

In October 2015, AlphaGo became the first computer program ever to beat a professional Go player by winning 5–0 against the reigning 3-times European Champion Fan Hui (2-dan pro). That work was featured in a front cover article in the science journal Nature in January 2016.

Match commentary by Michael Redmond (9-dan pro) and Chris Garlock.

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Q-Dots windows to power homes and other buildings.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Lab may have found a way to take quantum dots and put them in your ordinary windows to turn them into solar collectors.

Photovoltaic cells may be cheaper and more efficient than ever, but you still need to find a place to put them.

Looking to solve these space constraints, Los Alamos partnered with the University of Milano in Italy to see if they could turn windows into electric generators.

As nanocrystals roughly one-billionth of a meter across, — that is as small as 10 atoms wide — quantum dots can absorb light at one wavelength, convert it and re-emit it at another wavelength.

So the dots would absorb sunlight and convert it to a wavelength best suited for the photovoltaic cells, then be guided to the solar cells installed at its edges to electricity.

The University of Milan is responsible for the new industrial method that embeds the dots in a transparent material.

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US Government’s cool $100 mil in brain research. As we have been highlighting over the past couple of months that the US Government’s IARPA and DARPA program’s have and intends to step up their own efforts in BMIs and robotics for the military; I am certain that this research will help their own efforts and progress.

Intelligence project aims to reverse-engineer the brain to find algorithms that allow computers to think more like humans.

By Jordana Cepelewicz on March 8, 2016.

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Interesting set of survey results on travel and robotics. However, like many things in life; things in moderation have more stayong poor v. going overboard. And, robots are not exception to this. It is inate for humans to have and need human interaction especially in personable service space.

LONDON, March 9, 2016 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ — A survey of more than 6,000 travellers in Asia, Europe, North America and South America reveals nearly 80% of respondents expect robots to play a big part in their lives by 2020, with three quarters believing they will make their lives significantly better. Almost two thirds of respondents would be comfortable with robots being used in the travel industry. (Logo: http://photos.NEWS.GNOM.ES.com/prnh/20160303/340128LOGO )

Travelzoo (NASDAQ: TZOO), a global media commerce company, conducted the research as part of its Future of Travel project exploring consumer acceptance of robots in the travel and tourism industry. Richard Singer, Travelzoo’s European President, will make a keynote speech on the findings at this year’s ITB Berlin – Europe’s largest travel trade show. On March 11, Mr. Singer will share the stage with Toshiba’s Chihira Kanae – one of the world’s most human-looking robots, who will make her European debut at the event.

According to the survey, international travellers are largely comfortable with robots playing a role in their holiday, though some nations appear more cautious than others. German and French respondents were the most averse, while Chinese and Brazilians were the most positive about how robotics and artificial intelligence could enhance a holiday or travel in general – 92% of Chinese were comfortable with the idea.

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