I am really Catalan Jones on today's tech tent amid all the current hype around artificial intelligence you could be forgiven for thinking computers a close to taking over from humans we hear from an insider why he thinks that's unlikely any time soon there has been an expansion in the computational capacity of the systems on which the ai technologies are run but in terms of groundbreaking new developments there hasn't been anything really transformational or transcendental that's computer scientist and businessmen. Stay listening for more of him Plus we're talking to voice activated devices threaten the richness of spoken English we visit a museum in the north of England that is considering that question and we learn why a mysterious Russian satellite launch last year has caused alarm in the us I'll be joined by b.b.c. Tech reporter Jane Wakefield and my special guest today is critics Sharma who's in charge of artificial intelligence at the business services for Sage will be back right after the knees Hello I'm Gerri Smith with the b.b.c. News the state for you know is beginning shortly in Italy for 18 of the people killed in Tuesday's motorway bridge collapse in Genoa Italian media reporting that the number of those died who died in the disaster has now risen to at least 41 Danny Eberhard of our Europe desk has more details overnight emergency workers discovered a car crushed by a huge block of concrete in it according to Italian media where the bodies of a couple and their 9 year old daughter this is yet to be confirmed officially Meanwhile in a hole in Genoa rows of coffins of the victims have been laid out for the state funeral which is being attended by Italy's president and prime minister not all families wanted to be part of it some prefer to hold private ceremonies away from the public glare. Austria's from ministers facing criticism for inviting President Putin to her wedding today with critics saying it undermines a u. From policy the Russian leader is due to attend the ceremony for the minister Curran can I So he was picked by the far right Freedom Party opposition politicians said the invitation painted a shameful image of Austria and undermined the e.u. In its talks with Russia over Ukraine from Vienna both me bro reports it's not clear how well Mr Putin missed Meisel know each other the Austrian foreign ministry said the 2 1st met at a summit in 2001 Mr Putin is flying in to attend the ceremony which is believed to be taking place in a vineyard in southern Austria the visitors being described just pop personal Critics have complained about the high security costs others are concerned that the government is moving too close to Russia the Indian Red Cross has described the situation in the flood affected southern state of Carola has really grown unusually heavy monsoon rains have triggered floods and landslides killing nearly 200 people in the past 10 days of inducing is a spokesman for the Indian Red Cross the situation really is Graham and not just to put it in context here or is it just 580 kilometers up rhymes with witch house rivers and all the rivers overflowing so you have about one river approximately everything to vomit or 'd so there's flooding yours and that's why there was once made so we I doubt you thousands of troops are engaged in an operation to rescue people stranded in flood waters the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi flew over parts of the flooded area the med senior officials to help coordinates the relief effort. The United Nations secretary general and Tanya good terrorists has said Palestinian civilians could be better protected by what he called a more robust un president's own presence on the ground in the Israeli occupied territories Mr Good terrorist suggested the deployment of an armed force under a u.n. Mandate or additional u.n. Rights moment is well news from the b.b.c. a Judge in the United States has approved a plan to reunite hundreds more families who were separated by border officials when they entered the u.s. From Mexico the district judge said at the hearing in San Diego the court approved wholeheartedly a plan negotiated between Washington and immigrant rights groups $565.00 children remain separated from their parents Pakistan's cricket star turned politician and run can has been sworn in as the new prime minister a day after being elected by members of the National Assembly the ceremony was held in the presidential house in the capitalism a bad psychotic a money is there at a ceremony in the presidential house run cancer oath pledging to serve the country Mr Khan will now take charge of the ruling coalition and is expected to form a cabinet in the coming days he was elected on an anti corruption platform promising to improve health care and education but he inherits a financial crisis that could make spending increases difficult opposition parties have accused Mr Card of being too close to the country's powerful military and have claimed the election results were rigged Mr Khan has denied that but said he's willing for the allegations to be investigated reports from Syria say that Islamic state fighters have launched an unsuccessful raid targeting an area where u.s. And French forces are stationed Syrian activists say that the Kurdish led s.d.f. With backing from the u.s. Led coalition the bank the attack by us fighters the area in eastern Syria Israel one of the largest oil fields in the country is located. A hospital in Arizona is getting ready for a baby boom among its own nurses 16 says that banner desert Medical Center are pregnant they all work in the hospital's intensive care unit and they're all due to give birth between October and January 1 of the nurses said that when she realized how many of them are pregnant she added There must be something in the water b.b.c. News. Hello and welcome to Tech 10 chill weekly guy to everything that's hot and happening in the technology World I'm Mary Catherine Jones and this week we look at the growing tension in space between the u.s. And Russia over a mystery satellite we meet the eye on her birthday think ai is over heights and we ask whether the way we're talking to robots could eradicate regional accents joining me this week is b.b.c. Technology reporter Jane Wakefield Hi Jane hello good to see you again and my special guest is Christie Sharma who oversees artificial intelligence development for the British software firm sage welcome critique I hurry good to have you in that sector is a taste of what's coming up I think there's a considerable degree of hyperbole at work here in the space particularly in the last few years and the noise is annoying isn't least Nori Norrington or even which I'm got into in the tool not you gallantly is would have a translation of that later but 1st this week is an arms race developing in space both Russia and the United States which on Vale plans for a new space force last week appear to be gearing up for just such a contest and at the disarmament conference in Switzerland earlier this week a u.s. State Department official raised concerns about a Russian satellite launched last October whose business behavior it says has been very abnormal our reporter Chris Brown York has been looking into this story this development comes amid growing concerns of art spirit becoming a potential theater of military conflict in June the president directed the u.s. To mount a defense to begin the process of establishing a Space Force as a 6th branch of the us armed forces and just last week Vice President Mike Pence said that America is a 1st Rees had already transformed spit into a war fighting to me him and he warned that the us would not shrink from this challenge not the State Department official Dr popular at who is assistant secretary. At the Bureau of arms control verification and compliance She didn't specify which something like this ricin concerns but experienced this watchers believe it to be a craft known as Cosmos 2523 It's known as a something like inspector and its job is to examine other satellites in orbit Philip Clark is a u.k. Based analyst of the Russian and Chinese space programs his data analysis has shown that 25 to 3 separated from one Russian satellite not 2 year not satellite hadn't turned previously separated from yet another client described this as a Russian doll system he told me why the u.s. Might be suspicious about the most recently attempted craft it maneuver to win over a 100 kilometers why the other 2 such a lot to offer right. It's done nothing since that So that mystery is the thing to identify this being a fucking lie in fact but the free stuff a lot of the militia. It's the only one but however they do we're doing extensive flight so that's. The Chris all of it pretty straightforward explanations for this I mean for example the satellite is just malfunctioning Yes that's certainly possible but the clock also to me that it may be looking at other vehicles from further away than is usual doctor problem didn't actually clean this specific craft as a weapon but she did say that Russia's intentions with it were unclear and that it's maneuvers represented a very troubling development citing recent comments made by the commander of Russia's space forces who said adopting new prototypes of weapons was a key objective for the force there's another interpretation current To me the u.s. Is worried about its technological supremacy being eroded the reach that the Americans are getting what it is the Russians catching up with what the Americans did 30 years ago. A long. Walk inspect at the end of $99.00 test the Russians are also up a Chinese in the last 10 years as have reacted to the testing of satellite inspect the satellites cost much to $5.00 to $3.00 x. They have that just look up the stuff to lie. See what senses they can detect on the other soccer life so. I mean is that is there a sense that maybe that's what they're we're told they are but they could maybe be something more hostile something equipped to actually do more damage than the far off want to force. This technology I always say technology that they Americans Russians and Chinese already have demonstrated so that you could have something that has the capability to maneuver close to 0 potentially hostile to light that destroy it but we often that they press for that Clark again so Chris has there been any response from Russia to dock to publish its remarks yes on Xander day Necco senior Russian diplomat told the Reuters news agency that her comments were the c.m. Unfunded slanderous accusations based on suspicions on suppositions and so on I called on the u.s. To contribute to a Russian Chinese treaty that seeks to prevent Andrius in space Chris Brown you're talking to me earlier I asked Mitchell guess Kriti Sharma head of Ai for the software firm Sage I know that satellites are important in every field of. Development these days are you worried about space becoming a potential fear through conflict. I believe very it's a great tool to improve connectivity unproductivity for businesses I do hope that we create a world where we can embrace the technology that that it provides to society and use it in a productive fruitful they're getting very crowded up in space let's hope let's hope it stays peaceful now let's have a look at some of the exam the top tech stories with Jane Wakefield Jane 10 days ago you know Musk tweeted this I'm considering taking Tesla private eye for $20.00 funding secured well ever since there's been crying fall out from the fact that he announced such as shattering sensitive market moving news in that way and what was the latest So there's quite a lot to unpick here as is often the case with the larger than life Mr mask firstly and probably most entertainingly there's been a huge amount of speculation over whether he was taking cannabis at the time of writing the tweet and this largely comes down to the use of the term $420.00 which as well as just being a figure that he picked is also a common way of referring to taking the drug really if you learn something everyday us yeah the speculation became so intense that Mr mask has now publicly said in an interview with New York Times that he was not on weed at the time and then the most serious side of this is that he faces wider questions about these privatization plans with the u.s. Securities and Exchange Commission ramping up its investigation Tesla's board of directors saying it has not received a formal proposal from Mr mask and also some shareholders some people who are betting on the market saying that they're out of pocket and threatening to see him in a typically u.s. Companies who make announcements like this one station agent which they can do but they also make a similar Taney as regulator refiling Yeah I missed the conventional way to do Mr Musk is not mentioning something of a maverick and he may well be regretting this tweet he doesn't play by the rule books and actually in the interview you times he also admitted he's been under huge pressure this year working a 120 hour weeks describing is the. It's difficult year of his career and he also said the worst is yet to come say expect more random tweets I guess yeah. And very interesting to see what the regulators do on that case another story Google knows where I am even if I turn off like Asian services can this be true so this is a fascinating investigation from the Associated Press which found that continues to track people using search maps on Android or i Phones even if they've turned off location history and in some detail saying so one research area that was involved in the study he turned off location his genius or his movements around New York on a on a particular day were tracked in great detail it seems actually if you want to turn off location history not only do you turn off location history but you also have to disable something called web and activity which on the face of it doesn't have anything to do with location and it's worth noting that once you've turned off this feature it can sometimes affect the functionality of people's digital assistant so some would say not much of a choice pretty Shama What's your reaction to the a you freaked out by the amount we're being tracked by the likes of Google. I think we need to establish very Creole clear principles top down on how consumer data is being used by businesses and we need to make sure that there's accountability right at the top so these surprising news discoveries don't come as a shock to us and we are preparing in designing systems in the right way from the beginning yeah because it certainly was a shock to lots of people who read that headline and finally Jane an experiment shows children trust robots a little too much yes he's too worried about children with friends by peer pressure but in the future it may be robots that are more likely to sway them that at least the conclusion of a piece of research from Plymouth University in the u.k. The test they did was a simple one children have to match lines on a screen with a selection of other ones they had to match the sizes of them when the children did on their own they performed very well but when robots were introduced to offer their view the children's changed their minds even if the robot was saying something that was clearly wrong so this begs the question if robots are able to convince children false information is true what does that mean for firms that are currently working on those commercial robots that will see in the future rolling out in homes and schools the research as have called for an ethical framework for such bots to protect children we're all coming to terms with how we engage with robots just a quick update on that story Jamie just talking about Tesla I noticed their shares of opened down down 6 percent today and I asked our continuing worries about that that that tweet from Iran must sign he might not be going home. Tonight and I may be working out you're listening to take on the b.b.c. World Service we very often joins in a moment we'll regional accents melt away as we learn to talk to robots. Now division intelligence is the groundbreaking technology of our time and we're now seeing smart machines preparing to take over all sorts of functions once restricted to humans that at least is the conventional view but prepared to hear a skeptical tag. On Ai that it's massively overhyped and no real advances have happened in the field for a decade or more the man's a saying that he's 50 and he's the founder of a multi-billion dollar business affinity which uses a I all rather machine learning to improve its client's customer service operations but he told me how wary he was about the claims being made about the disruptive power of Ai I think there's a considerable degree of hyperbole at work here in the space particularly in the last few years and a lot of corporates are I think feeling compelled to rework their worldview to take into consideration some of these currents but really there's nothing here that's tremendously groundbreaking the same principles that were at work even 40 years ago are still mostly current today there's been an expansion in the computational capacity of the systems on which the ai technologies are run but in terms of groundbreaking new developments there hasn't been anything really transformational or transcendental that will surprise people have heard for instance about Google's deep mind unit beating the World Champion go private and seen that as a huge step forward I think it definitely makes for great marketing there's a similar precedent where i b m with their Watson unit one jeopardy took quite some fanfare a few years ago but it's very hard to see how these technologies are materially different from what was state of the art in a field even a decade back if not more just they've applied in a very constructive way in a narrow domain and been able to achieve significant success in that domain with there's inherently nothing new or revolutionary about them it's a great demonstration it shows primarily the tremendous rise in computational capacity that exists as a result of Moore's Law over time but it doesn't really highlight anything tremendously novel in the way of Ai techniques themselves so all we making much progress towards intelligent machines I mean there's a big panic on about just how many areas. Human activity could very soon be taken over by machines and the implications for jobs again I think we have to detach some of the hysteria from reality so the very popular image is you have sentient robots that look sort of like us and eventually take over the world and we become a subservient race if not altogether extinct there is nobody seriously within the field that views the evolution of machine learning and artificial intelligence on that trajectory certainly there are no worthy outliers I'm sure you'll hear about Ray Kurzweil and singularity worldviews or other similarly terrifying tweets from Ilan Musk and maybe the good folks at Microsoft but in reality there's not one person in the field that has any view that were any anywhere closer to generalized intelligence than where we were 2 decades ago the fundamental underpinnings of g.i. Are around some of the most human experiences possible quality of the perception of the world around us. Semantic processing understanding meaning and context consciousness and there's nobody seriously in the field that would take a position that we had made any advances on those fronts at c.h. 50 of affinity with an incredibly skeptical view of Ai Let's get the view that special guest critique in challenge of artificial intelligence developments at the software firm sage critique he's saying it's all massively overhyped firms like yours you're probably on the wrong track I feel incredibly positive about it I think I'm getting too stuck up and hung up about th