When bigwigs like Google and Amazon begin to use the services of a seemingly inconspicuous Indian startup, it may be time to sit up and take notice. Launched around eight years ago, it offers cloud-based communications solutions to businesses in emerging markets. "Our platform uses AI to provide advanced telephony services to businesses," says CEO and founder of Knowlarity, Ambarish Gupta. "It enables them to deliver highly personalised messages to their customers while cutting down overall costs," he added. Headquartered in Singapore, Knowlarity claims that over 15,000 businesses across India, South-east Asia and the Middle East are currently using its services.

Just a year ago, proposing a concept like universal basic income could practically get me laughed off the stage at a tech industry conference. The idea that everyone should be guaranteed a minimum subsidy from the government seemed to go against every fundamental tenet of creative destruction: Don't reward the obsolete! If workers lose their jobs to automation, retrain them for new ones! From the perspective of Silicon Valley's executives, only a hippie or communist would suggest that people be given a livable wage simply for being alive. But to me, having just published a book about the lopsided returns of the digital economy, universal basic income seemed an obvious solution to a problem first posed in the 1950s by the inventor of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener: What would happen when robots could till the fields, rendering human labor obsolete?

The comedian Dara Ó Briain has a funny routine about video games. He talks about how no other form of entertainment purposefully withholds content until it considers that you deserve to see it. There are no books that test you at the end of the chapter to ensure you have appreciated all the themes correctly; films don't end if you fail to spot a visual gag. But this is how most games work. Which makes reviewing a game a very different experience to reviewing a movie or a book.

In this July 17, 2017, photo, the Afghanistan team, left, walks past two of the team members from Burundi, at right in black shirts, during the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge in Washington. Police tweeted missing person fliers Wednesday asking for help finding the teens, who had last been seen at the FIRST Global Challenge around the time of Tuesday's final matches. The missing team members include two 17-year-old girls and four males ranging in age from 16 to 18. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Police have received reports that two of the Burundi teenagers listed as missing after an international robotics competition have been seen crossing the border into Canada. The whereabouts of their fellow team members remains unknown and the search for all the teens remains ongoing, but Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Aquita Brown stressed that police have no indication of foul play in their disappearance. The teens seen crossing into Canada were 16-year-old Don Ingabire and 17-year-old Audrey Mwamikazi, Brown said. Police tweeted missing person fliers Wednesday asking for help finding the teens, who had last been seen at the FIRST Global Challenge around the time of Tuesday's final matches. The missing team members include two 17-year-old girls and four males ranging in age from 16 to 18.

A few years ago, I wrote about a fascinating Italian project to use mobile phone data to predict the onset of bipolar disorder. The notion was that the sensors built into the average smartphone are ideal for picking up on the mood changes users undergo as they occur. For instance, the manic stage of the condition is typified by hyperactivity, which can manifest itself in rapid speech, high levels of movement, and excessive phone usage. People in depressive states, by contrast, tend to show similar behaviors, albeit at the other end of the spectrum. It isn't the only work utilizing AI to help those with bipolar disorder, as a recent paper from the University of Cincinnati outlined an approach to accurately predict treatment outcomes by using AI.

Don Ingabire (L), 16 and Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, members of a teenage robotics team from the African nation of Burundi, who were reported missing after taking part in an international competition and later spotted crossing into Canada, are seen in pictures released by the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. Photo by Metropolitan Police Department via Reuters Two of the six members of the Burundi robotics team, who participated in an international competition this week in Washington, D.C., were seen crossing into Canada and have been reported safe, police confirmed Thursday. D.C. police said they believe the two teens, identified as Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, and Don Ingabire, 16, left for Canada on their own accord, adding that there was no evidence of foul play. Authorities have not released any further details, the Washington Post reported. The other four members, including two 17-year-old girls and two boys aged 17 and 18, are also believed to be safe, authorities said. Police declined to provide further information, the Post reported.

The first international robotics competition for high schoolers made headlines before it even started -- and after the event was over as well. First there was the story of the all-girl Afghanistan team, which was denied visas to attend for unknown reasons. Then there was the post-competition story: All six teens on the Burundi team were reported missing on Wednesday, the day after the competition ended, with reports that two of them were headed to Canada. At the last minute, the Afghan team did get visas. They waved their country's flag during the parade of nations at the event's opening ceremonies.

Police confirmed at least two of the missing teenagers from the Burundi robotics team were in Canada, according to the Washington Post. The remaining four were not in danger. Six teens from Burundi, Africa went missing following a robotics competition in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. The team's mentor noticed they were gone and notified the event's organizers and police, who promptly mounted a search for the teens. Six teenage members of a robotics team from Burundi, Africa, vanished this week after a competition in Washington, D.C.

Two members of an African robotics team who were reported missing from an international robotics competition in Washington, D.C. were reportedly spotted crossing into Canada on Thursday morning, authorities said. The D.C. Police Department said that Don Ingabira, 16, and Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, were seen crossing the northern border into Canada, Fox 5 DC reported. No additional information was available. The two teenagers were part of a six-member team from the small east African country of Burundi who were in the nation's capital for the inaugural even of the FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition. They were reported missing late Tuesday night.