Recommended Robot and AI Reads This Week

Google Offers Free Software in Bid to Gain Edge in Machine Learning
By releasing the code it has developed for training machines to learn how to do all sorts of things by feeding in example data, Google hopes to establish its technology as the industry standard. The software goes up against other open-source projects enabling an advanced approach known as deep learning, and it has been well reviewed so far.

Microsoft Machine Learning Advances to Sensing Emotions
Rival Microsoft also offers a machine-learning service, although the source is not available for free. Recently, Microsoft added an interesting feature: the ability to recognize a handful of emotions from facial expressions.

Get Ready for Your Digital Mode
Pedro Domingos, an expert on AI at the University of Washington, argues that before long we will all be using machine-learning algorithms to manage various digital activities, from banking to buying a car.

Drone Wars Pit Nvidia Against Qualcomm
New embedded chips from two leading chipmakers will make it easier to design and build commercial drones. The chips carry various sensors and vision processing systems needed for automated flying.

Google’s Self-Driving Car Pulled Over
This isn’t especially surprising, given how cautiously Google’s prototype tends to drive. But if these cars are going to share the road with puny humans, they will need to be programmed to drive in a more human-like way.