Facebook releases AI educational videos, PHP hits 7.1.0, and Software AG acquires Zementis—SD Times news digest: Dec. 2, 2016

Credits: Sdtimes

Credits: Sdtimes

 

Society often has a misconception on what AI really is and what it can do thanks to movies like “The Terminator” and “Wall-E.” Facebook wants to change that perception with a series of educational videos designed to make artificial intelligence easier to understand.

“AI is going to bring major shifts in society through developments in self-driving cars, medical image analysis, better medical diagnosis, and personalized medicine,” wrote Facebook AI researchers Yann LeCun and Joaquin Quiñonero Candela in a blog post. “And it will also be the backbone of many of the most innovative apps and services of tomorrow. But for many it remains mysterious.”

According to the company, AI falls into three types of learning: reinforcement learning, supervised learning, and predictive learning.

PHP releases 7.1.0
PHP has released the first point version of the 7.x series.

New features include nullable types, which is common in programming languages that allow a variable to be of some type or null. Other features include void return type, iterable pseudo-type, class constant visibility modifiers, and other changes that can be reviewed here.

Besides this point release, PHP also announced its 2017 conference is now open for PHP developers.

Software AG acquires Zementis
Software AG has acquired deep learning and artificial intelligence company Zementis so it can move forward with the next generation of Internet of Things applications, like self-driving cars and digital assistants.

Software AG already embedded Zementis’ ADAPA technology into its Digital Business Platform, and together, the combination of technologies will deliver business and technical insights that will help customers determine behavior, security risks, and sensor information from IoT devices, according to an announcement from Software AG.

“The impact of the Internet of Things on industry, business and society will dwarf anything we have experienced through technology so far,” said Software AG CEO Karl-Heinz Streibich. “This is now widely acknowledged by industry, as is the unique business insights that can be provided by combining predictive analytics, machine learning and streaming analytics.”