The topic of machine learning–enabled artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining increasing visibility in the world of investment management. Of particular interest is the application of AI to the development of smarter robo-advisers that some hope, while others fear, will yield "intelligent" and cost-effective investment management advice. This topic was raised by investment professionals during recent CFA Institute traveling conference that went to Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. AI has also been the subject of a recent European Commission (EC) consultation document, to which CFA Institute submitted a response. For the uninitiated reader, some quick defining of terms could be helpful.

U.S. officials have reportedly decided to allow a group of Afghan girls, who has previously been denied entry, into the U.S. to attend a robot competition. The decision followed backlash when it was reported the six teens would not be allowed to participate in the competition. Politico reported the decision came at the urging of President Donald Trump. The group, which consists of six Afghan teenage girls, applied – and was denied – twice for visas by the U.S. At the time, the State Department declined to comment on why the visa were denied, saying "all visa applications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis in accordance with U.S. law." Afghanistan is not part of the Trump administration's executive order temporarily banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries.

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials will allow a group of Afghan girls into the country to participate in an international robotics competition after President Donald Trump intervened, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Wednesday, ending a saga that had sparked international backlash. Homeland Security Department spokesman David Lapan said the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved a State Department request for six girls from the war-torn country to be allowed in, along with their chaperone, so they can participate in the competition. The girls' applications for U.S. visas had been denied twice. The non-profit organizing the competition celebrated the reversal in a jubilant statement Wednesday. "I truly believe our greatest power is the power to convene nations, to bring people together in the pursuit of a common goal and prove that our similarities greatly outweigh our differences," said Joe Sestak, the president of First Global.

US officials have decided to allow a group of Afghan girls - whose visa applications had been twice rejected - to travel to the country and participate in an international robotics competition, ending a saga that had sparked international backlash. Homeland Security Department spokesman David Lapan said the US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved a State Department request for six girls from the war-torn country to be allowed in, along with their chaperone, so they can participate in the competition. The non-profit organising the competition celebrated the reversal in a statement on Wednesday. "I truly believe our greatest power is the power to convene nations, to bring people together in the pursuit of a common goal and prove that our similarities greatly outweigh our differences," said Joe Sestak, the president of First Global. He credited "the professional leadership of the US State Department" for ensuring that all 163 teams from 157 countries, including a team of Syrian refugees, would be able to participate.

Visabot, a Facebook-owned artificial intelligence tech company, has launched a $150 service to help the Facebook Messenger users navigate through the complicated process of applying for a Green Card. "We created our own immigration AI so our success rate grows as the bot learns. What you need to do is answer are you a U.S. citizen other thing you should know and the bot will use this info to generate the whole package for you all you have to do is file it with us immigration services," Visabot COO Andrey Zinoviev announced Tuesday. Read: Immigration Reform 2016: Were Green Cards Sent To Wrong People? The service will let you know -- immediately upon entering your data -- whether you qualify for a Green Card.

Sure, Alexa looks up things and answers questions for you. But as of Tuesday, you can ask the virtual personal assistant inside Amazon's Echo to make hotel reservations for you too. It's a Kayak-driven application that could rock the travel-booking world as more consumers shift to using their voice instead of their fingers when using cellphones and tablets. Kayak developed the interface that right now applies only to hotel bookings through its website. To use voice-command reservations, you first have to tell Alexa, which comes with Amazon's Echo voice-enabled speaker, who you are and link up your Kayak account.

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is updating its image with a number of new achievement badges aimed at encouraging young women into science and technology. My memories of the Girl Guides involve marshmallow toasting, tying knots and being assessed on my table-laying skills for a badge no doubt long-consigned to the archives. Fast forward some 25 years and it's clear much as changed. In an international organisation that liaises with Google and Microsoft among others, today's young guides are just as likely to be gathered round an engineering bench as a campfire. Sixteen-year-old Catherine Young is on a mission to boost girls' interest in engineering and has found the Girl Guides a valuable platform for her campaign.

Telecom operators have started using artificial intelligence (AI) technology capabilities that process and analyze real-time customer data to recommend and automatically trigger the next best action. Ooredoo, a top telecom operator in the Middle East, is investing in artificial intelligence technology to ensure next-generation customer experience to its mobile phone users in Qatar – as part of its digital strategy. Vodafone India faced 4.8 percent churn in fiscal 2017 as compared with 4.3 percent n fiscal 2016 due to competition. Churn of post-paid customers was 1.9 percent against 1.8 percent. Churn of pre-paid users was 5 percent against 4.5 percent.

One thing that makes ISIS so hard to fight is that the terrorist network is diffuse and scattered, with small cells of operatives all over the world. Not only does this make it hard for law enforcement to predict where the group might strike next; it makes it incredibly complicated to track activity on the network--activity like banking transactions. Small sums of money flow from foreign fighter to foreign fighter, yet banks struggle to identify it within their systems. Banks have long used anti-money laundering systems to flag suspicious activity, and in the aftermath of September 11th, they have turned to those same legacy tools to catch terror-related transactions, too. But these legacy tools are not up to the job.

Around midnight one Saturday in January, Sarah Jeong was on her couch, browsing Twitter, when she spontane ously wrote what she now bitterly refers to as "the tweet that launched a thousand ships." The 28-year-old journalist and author of The Internet of Garbage, a book on spam and online harassment, had been watching Bernie Sanders boosters attacking feminists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. In what was meant to be a hyper bolic joke, she tweeted out a list of political carica tures, one of which called the typical Sanders fan a "vitriolic crypto racist who spends 20 hours a day on the Internet yelling at women." The ill-advised late-night tweet was, Jeong admits, provocative and absurd--she even supported Sanders. But what happened next was the kind of backlash that's all too familiar to women, minorities, and anyone who has a strong opinion online. By the time Jeong went to sleep, a swarm of Sanders supporters were calling her a neoliberal shill. By sunrise, a broader, darker wave of abuse had begun. She received nude photos and links to disturbing videos. One troll promised to "rip each one of [her] hairs out" and "twist her tits clear off." The attacks continued for weeks. "I was in crisis mode," she recalls. So she did what many victims of mass harassment do: She gave up and let her abusers have the last word.