Artificial intelligence (AI) has been changing our lives for decades, but today its presence is bigger than ever before. Sometimes, we don't even realize it when a new AI-powered system, tool, or product appears and outperforms us, humans. The benefits of AI and automation for HR and the workforce don't come instantly, however. It's a journey and one can see the short-term benefits of this journey in automation, the medium-term benefits in augmentation and finally the long-term benefits in the amplification of human activities or tasks. Let's take a look at the various effects of AI and automation on HR and the workforce in more detail.

Google is reportedly going to launch a censored version of its search engine in China. The tech giant has been secretly planning to launch the product since last year, as part of a project referred to inside the company as'Dragonfly,' according to The Intercept, which was given internal documents from a whistleblower. It comes as Google has tried and failed to make inroads in the Chinese market over the past several years. Google has been planning to launch the product since last year, as part of a project referred to inside the company as'Dragonfly.' While China is home to the world's largest number of internet users, a 2015 report by US think tank Freedom House found that the country had the most restrictive online use policies of 65 nations it studied, ranking below Iran and Syria.

In 2013, an algorithm determined Eric Loomis' six-year prison sentence in Wisconsin for attempting to flee a traffic officer and operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent. No one knew how the software, Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, or COMPAS, worked--not even the judge who delivered the sentence. Analyses conducted by ProPublica later found the predictive artificial intelligence used in this case, which attempts to gauge the likelihood of an offender committing another crime, to be racially biased: A two-year study involving 10,000 defendants found that the A.I. routinely overestimated the likelihood of recidivism among black defendants and underestimated it among whites. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Eric Loomis' case, so the sentence stands. Increasingly, A.I. has the power to alter the course of people's lives.

One of the most exciting promises that the Justice Srikrishna Committee held out was that the data protection framework it suggested would protect individual privacy while ensuring that the digital economy flourished. It claimed that in doing so it would chart a path distinct from the US, the European Union and China, one that was finely tuned to the new digital economy. If it was going to deliver on this, its biggest challenge was going to be designing its privacy framework to address both the promises and challenges of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. As I read through the report, I was glad to note that the committee had devoted considerable space to the subject. While discussing the principles of collection and purpose limitation, the committee observed that the purposes for which Big Data applications use data only become evident at a later point and that it is, therefore, impossible to stipulate a purpose in advance. As a result, the committee had noted that "limiting collection is antithetical to large-scale processing; equally, meaningful purpose specification is impossible with the purposes themselves constantly evolving".

With increasing institutional use of Al and machine learning methods, more and more industry regulators are making use of such software to provide financial stability through services and systemic risk surveillance. Central to the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) agenda is their intent to develop "both their technology side – cloud analytics – as well as building out our human side – our data science capability" to allow an "osmotic" expansion across the wider organisation, "effectively enabling us to leverage machine learning," says head of regtech and advanced analytics at FCA, Nick Cook. Investigations of suspicious transactions are highly time-consuming, and often, due to overly-defensive mechanisms, fall victim of unsuccessful outcomes. Through the identification of intricate patterns, machine learning would flag up serious, rather than harmless transactions, and, consequently require the attention of supervisors. For instance, with the aid of Al and machine learning, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) examines suspicious transactions that require further analysis and attention, which, in turn, enables supervisors to spend their time and resources on higher risk transactions.

If you manage operations or IT in manufacturing, transportation, energy, mining, or other industrial sectors, you've undoubtedly heard a lot about AI, how quickly the technology is evolving, and how it's going to transform how business gets done. Indeed, with the exponential growth of data generated by IoT sensors and applications, there are unprecedented opportunities for AI to leverage this data to generate critical insights, drive automation, and increase efficiency. PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts AI will boost global GDP by 14 percent by 2030, with increased labor productivity accounting for more than half of these gains. But what does AI really mean for leaders, managers, and engineers out in the field? Have you started to implement AI projects, or is AI on your company's roadmap?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google may launch a censored version of its search engine in China in a move that would largely reverse its 2010 decision to withdraw from the country, The Intercept reported. The news outlet says Google has been working on a project called Dragonfly since last year and has demonstrated a version of the censored search engine to Chinese officials. The Android app could launch in six to nine months as part of a joint venture with an unnamed partner company, likely in China. It would automatically block websites blacklisted by Beijing as well as search terms on human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept said. "We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com. But we don't comment on speculation about future plans," Google said in a statement.

Why are so many AI researchers so worried about lethal autonomous weapons? What makes autonomous weapons so much worse than any other weapons we have today? And why is it so hard for countries to come to a consensus about autonomous weapons? Not surprisingly, the short answer is: it's complicated. In this month's podcast, Ariel spoke with experts from a variety of perspectives on the current status of LAWS, where we are headed, and the feasibility of banning these weapons. Guests include ex-Pentagon advisor Paul Scharre (3:40), artificial intelligence professor Toby Walsh (40:51), Article 36 founder Richard Moyes (53:30), Campaign to Stop Killer Robots founders Mary Wareham and Bonnie Docherty (1:03:38), and ethicist and co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, Peter Asaro (1:32:39). You can listen to the podcast above, and read the full transcript below. You can check out previous podcasts on SoundCloud, iTunes, GooglePlay, and Stitcher. If you work with ...

The latest: Several nonprofits are among the latest members in the Partnership on AI, a group established to address the ethical and other challenges presented by artificial intelligence. The effort began with big companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, but now includes a growing roster of academic institutions and nonprofit groups alongside some of the biggest names in tech. LGBT rights organization GLAAD is among the new members, as is the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which was set up in 1970 as a think tank serving black elected officials. Joint Center president Spencer Overton said his organization is especially concerned with how AI could disproportionately impact employment in communities of color. Overton said that 27% of black workers are concentrated in just 30 jobs at high risk to automation.

AI powered customer service has picked up its fastest pace. It is a new revolution, which every industry is working on, to transform conventional customer service into AI-powered digital solutions and improve every aspect of customer journey including brand awareness, product knowledge, customer acquisition, after sales support and loyalty programs. According to marketing gurus by 2020 more than 80% of customer service will be conducted without engaging humans, it will be taken over by AI-powered Chatbots. With advanced systems powered by automated solutions, users can now book a restaurant reservation, order a pizza, book a movie ticket, hotel room and even make a clinic appointment. Customer service industry is gaining much momentum especially due to disruption of Artificial Intelligence – a technological breakthrough that has taken almost every business industry by storm. Good customer services have more chances of converting a lead to a sale and further develop that into a loyal customer.