China is developing large, smart and relatively low-cost unmanned submarines that can roam the world's oceans to perform a wide range of missions, from reconnaissance to mine placement to even suicide attacks against enemy vessels, according to scientists involved in these artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The autonomous robotic submarines are expected to be deployed in the early 2020s. While not intended to entirely replace human-operated submarines, they will challenge the advantageous position established by Western naval powers after the second world war. The robotic subs are aimed particularly at the United States forces in strategic waters like the South China Sea and western Pacific Ocean, the researchers said. The project is part of the government's ambitious plan to boost the country's naval power with AI technology.

For many companies, artificial intelligence has become a key tool in drug development. Now, two companies that specialize in AI-backed drug development are teaming up to take on the rare disease known as Duchene Muscular Dystrophy. Rockville, Maryland-based Insilico Medicine and A2A Pharmaceuticals, Inc. joined forces on a new venture called Consortium.AI. The new company will use artificial intelligence to advance discovery of small molecules for the treatment of DMD and other orphan diseases. The startup said, "computationally pre-optimized new drug candidates have already been designed for targets validated through Insilico's artificial intelligence system."

Imagine you're the president of a European country. You're slated to take in 50,000 refugees from the Middle East this year. Most of them are very religious, while most of your population is very secular. You want to integrate the newcomers seamlessly, minimizing the risk of economic malaise or violence, but you have limited resources. One of your advisers tells you to invest in the refugees' education; another says providing jobs is the key; yet another insists the most important thing is giving the youth opportunities to socialize with local kids.

On this week's episode of my podcast, I Have to Ask, I spoke to Annie Lowrey, a contributing editor at the Atlantic and the author of the new book Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World. It's about universal basic income--the idea that the government would give all its citizens checks every month. Versions of this proposal have caught on with people on the left as well as tech leaders in Silicon Valley and even some hardcore libertarians. Lowrey has written for many years now about economics, but Give People Money is both a reported work--she travels to Kenya, South Korea, and India to view their economic experiments--and a policy brief on what she believes can help alleviate some of the social and political discontent that has arisen from economic change and dislocation. Below is an edited excerpt from the show. In it, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of UBI, whether or not we should be skeptical that so many Silicon Valley titans have embraced the idea, and how to make the safety net less vulnerable to political attacks.

BANGALORE, INDIA – SoftBank Group Corp. plans to announce within days that it will start a mobile digital payments service in Japan by the end of 2018, as billionaire founder Masayoshi Son seeks to expand in the sector, people familiar with the matter said. The service, a collaboration with Indian startup Paytm, will make extensive use of artificial intelligence for mobile payments and other financial services, the people said, asking to not be identified as the plans are private. An announcement is imminent, they said. Dozens of Paytm employees are working in Tokyo on getting the service up and running, one of the people said. Son, who created the world's largest technology investment fund, is moving into a crowded field as local banks and technology companies rush to stake their claims.

When you discover the ways Chinese company Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce marketplace with $248 billion in transactions (more than eBay and Amazon combined), invests in artificial intelligence and machine learning, you realize quickly that the list of what it doesn't impact is much shorter. Since 1999 when the company was launched in founder Jack Ma's apartment, Alibaba's core business remains to sell goods, but its influence and operations have expanded to make it one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. One of the reasons Alibaba and other Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and Baidu, collectively known as BAT, are making extraordinary gains in artificial intelligence is the support, investment and commitment of the Chinese government to become the dominant AI player in the world. With plans to build a $1 trillion AI industry by 2030, China is on a path to overtake the United States as the world's leader in technology. Along with an enormous population that generates critical data to inform AI algorithms and help make them better as well as a society who is keen on technological change and not as pushy on regulation, China is fertile ground to develop AI applications, and Alibaba is moving full throttle ahead. In fact, Alibaba invested in seven research labs that will focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, network security, natural language processing and more.

At the kind invitation of Rob May and the Botchain team, I had the opportunity recently to keynote Brains and Chains, an interesting conference in New York exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain. This is both an exciting and challenging topic, and the goal of my talk was to provide a broad introduction to kick things off, and frame the discussion for the rest of the day: discuss why the topic matters in the first place, and highlight the work of some interesting companies in the space. Below is the presentation, with some added commentary when relevant. Scroll to the very bottom for a SlideShare widget, if you'd like to flip through the slides. My firm FirstMark has been active in both AI and crypto/blockchain. AI (machine learning) and blockchain are both experimental and much buzzed about.

The South China Post reported Sunday that Beijing expects to deploy artificially intelligent unmanned submarines in the early 2020s. The seacraft could be used to survey waters, place munitions or even be used in suicide attacks against enemies, scientists involved in the program told the outlet. Lin Yang, marine technology equipment director at the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed the program, and said it was a response to work in the US to develop similar watercraft. These subs, dubbed extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles, or XLUUVs, are much bigger than the current crop of underwater vehicles -- large enough to dock as conventional submarines and to carry significant weaponry and other equipment. Their artificial intelligence will help them operate undersea, not only to avoid natural phenomena, but to detect and identify friendly or hostile ships and make navigational decisions to avoid them.

Munish Sharda, CEO of Future Generali India Life Insurance, is clear. Though insurance continues to be a subject matter of solicitation, a little digital help is set to provide deep extra cover, and aid the company grow the product ecosystem to build customer loyalty. "We are giving power to consumers. Managing a policy will now lie in the consumer's hand. As consumers want to engage with us even more, sometimes even for standard stuff, we are looking to make the exercise more transparent with a digital initiative," Sharda told BusinessLine.

With the varying degrees of privacy norms of each country, there is a significant impact on the amount of big data collected and utilised by private and public entities with regard to AI innovations. In China, low safeguards on personal data has resulted in an increase in AI innovations. Whereas in Europe, with the enforcement of the GDPR, there are increased privacy and security guidelines resulting in a negative impact on the growth of the AI sector. While acknowledging the need to intensify AI actions, India requires tailored guidelines which is a blend of international principles along with existing local privacy standards to achieve to an effective and responsible AI ecosystem. The curated blend of AI strategies is mandatory as India is currently investing in AI for its defence, legal and financial sectors.