Million-dollar babies

THAT a computer program can repeatedly beat the world champion at Go, a complex board game, is a coup for the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence (AI). Another high-stakes game, however, is taking place behind the scenes, as firms compete to hire the smartest AI experts. Technology giants, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Baidu, are racing to expand their AI activities. Last year they spent some $8.5 billion on deals, says Quid, a data firm. That was four times more than in 2010

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Interactive computers

Computers will become more perceptual with a combination of gesture, voice and visual recognition technologies being installed in PCs. Starting next year, 2D cameras in PCs will be replaced by Intel's RealSense 3D cameras, which will be able to recognize objects and even measure distances between items. The camera's Kinect-like gesture recognition capabilities will also make PC gaming hands free and interactive. Intel has lofty goals, aiming to combine visual, voice and sound input to recognize human moods and reading habits. While those won't happen in the coming year, the 3D camera will certainly make Skype chats more fun.

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Biometric sensors

Soon, your body could log you into an e-mail account. By the end of this year, Intel will be providing software so users can log in to websites via biometric authentication. It serves two purposes: biometric authentication is relatively reliable and secure, and users won't have to remember dozens of passwords for different sites. Apple already uses biometric authentication to authorize credit card payments through its Apple Pay service, and Intel wants to bring a similar concept to PCs. Expect the fingerprint reader to become more useful starting next year.

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