LONDON--China's use of facial recognition technology for widespread state surveillance has been feverishly reported by many media in recent months. The latest is the UK's Financial Times, which reminds us of a 2015 official paper that articulated a vision to have a national video surveillance network by 2020 that is omnipresent, always working and fully controllable. The technology upon which it is based is reflected in the figures for investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and related tech companies, including semiconductor companies. Take for example Beijing-based SenseTime, which in the second quarter raised more than $1.2 billion. Among other things, it provides AI-powered surveillance for the Chinese police.

China is facing a number of growing pains, but one in particular has proved more taxing than most: How can China feed its rapidly growing population as the land suitable for cultivation disappears? The country's agriculture industry has long been rife with inefficiency, but now the government is doing something about it, ploughing billions into agricultural technology, or AgTech, as a means of maximising resources –and a raft of private-sector companies are following this lead…And if China, the world's biggest agricultural producer, can manage to produce more with less, they can help teach the rest of the planet how to feed itself long into the future. One of the most recent developments in the AgTech field came earlier this month, when China's answer to Amazon, Alibaba, launched the'ET Agricultural Brain' –a digital tool that…lets farmers digitally record information about their yields in order to better leverage the entire production cycle, raising efficiency and capacity. This month, Beijing launched a seven-year autonomous agriculture pilot programme in Jiangsu Province to test…unmanned combine harvesters or robotic tractors…[T]he initiative aims to turn tasks that were once done by hand or with heavy machinery – such as pesticide application or irrigation – into a seamless, automated process. Like AI-driven farming technology, automated agriculture could help…improve efficiency, raise yields, and…it will also help make these operations more sustainable.

The move follows rival General Motors Co.'s GM -7.15% disclosure last month that Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. 9984 -0.29% would invest $2.2 billion in GM Cruise, the auto giant's driverless-car business. That deal--which gave SoftBank a 19.6% stake in GM Cruise, valuing the company at $11.5 billion--allows GM to pursue a driverless-car strategy without siphoning as much capital away from its core vehicle-manufacturing business. For years, the Detroit auto makers have struggled to lift their stock prices, despite record or near-record profits and driverless-car programs that some analysts view as rivaling those of tech giants, like Waymo, Google parent Alphabet Inc.'s autonomous-vehicle unit. Meanwhile, such Silicon Valley companies as electric-car maker Tesla Inc. and ride-sharing provider Uber Technologies Inc. have matched or exceeded the car companies' valuations despite losing money. Ford's new company could be a "precursor to outside investment and unlocking value" from the car maker's autonomous efforts, RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a research note.

Computer-aided review of X-rays can help diagnose people with lung illnesses such as tuberculosis and pneumonia. Such review, augmented by deep learning, can help lead to earlier detection and treatment of these conditions, especially in remote areas where specialists are typically in short supply, according to new research. About one third of people in the world may be infected with tuberculosis. In 2016, there were more than 10 million cases of active tuberculosis, resulting in 1.3 million deaths. It's the No. 1 cause of death for an infectious disease, and more than 95 percent of these deaths occurred in developing countries.

Tencent is a Chinese tech company founded in 1998 and based in Shenzhen that hosts 55% of China's mobile internet usage on its platforms. Its mission is to "become the most respected internet enterprise." The company is China's biggest social network company with 1 billion users on its app WeChat and 632 million monthly user accounts on social networking platform Qzone, is worth more than Facebook and has extended beyond instant messaging (its product is QQ) and social networking to gaming, digital assistants, mobile payments, cloud storage, education, live streaming, sports, movies and artificial intelligence. The company's dedication to artificial intelligence is evident in one of its slogans, "AI in all." In 2016, Tencent opened an AI lab in Shenzhen with a vision to "Make AI Everywhere."

Along a quiet residential street on the outer edges of Beijing, a yellow and black cube about the size of a small washing machine trundles leisurely to its destination. This "little yellow horse" is an autonomous delivery robot, ferrying daily essentials like drinks, fruit and snacks from the local store to the residents of the "Kafka" compound in the Chinese capital. Equipped with a GPS system, cameras and radar, the robots are seen by their creator as the future of logistics in China, whe re he says one billion packages will eventually be delivered every day. Travelling at a less than overwhelming three kilometres per hour -- a slow human walk -- the robot has room for improvement, said one customer as she removed a packet of nuts from its bowels. "The weak point is that it cannot deliver directly to the door like a human," said the customer, who does not live on the ground floor.

All types of artificial intelligence (AI) technology – from machine learning to natural language processing to cognitive computing – are being leveraged by enterprises to drive better customer experiences and process efficiency. Based on our market research, more than one-third of enterprises have prioritized adoption of AI-powered customer experience management (CXM) solutions in the next two to three years. Despite these challenges, AI can be a key contributor to upping organizations' competitive capabilities in the contact center space. But, to derive real, tangible, sustainable benefits from AI, we recommend enterprises carefully address the following considerations when attempting to operationalize their AI deployments. There's no question that AI is a key enabler in driving personalized, targeted customer service. But how enterprises embrace it will mean the difference between also-ran and game-changer status.

Japan has an impending millennium bug problem. In the lead up to the turn of the millennium, few computers were able to properly represent the year 2000, leaving people worried about what would happen when midnight on New Year's eve struck. Now the same issues could arise in Japan when the current emperor steps down in April next year. The Japanese calendar is based on era names that coincide with the rule of its emperors.

Millions of Chrome users are being warned that sites are "not secure" in an unnerving new change. The tweak has been made in the latest version of Google's browser. It is intended as a way of encouraging sites to introduce the latest web technology – but means that large numbers of people are being told their browsing might be unsafe. The warning applies to a whole variety of sites, including Mail Online, one of the biggest news sites in the world. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

People are being sent horrifying messages threatening to post video of their most intimate moments on the internet. What's more, the messages are shockingly believable: they appear to include secret information about the recipient that suggests the threats are real. But in fact the messages are a scam. And they seem to be relying on the vast number of stolen passwords that are available across the internet. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.