Two years ago, Sanjaya Wijeratne--a computer science PhD student at Wright State University--noticed something odd in his research. He was studying the communication of gang members on Twitter. Among the grandstanding about drugs and money, he found gang members repeatedly dropping the emoji in their tweets. Wijeratne had been working on separate research relating to word-sense disambiguation, a field of computational linguistics that looks at how words take on multiple meanings. The use of jumped out as a brand new problem.

In the latest installment of the simmering trade war, the Trump administration reportedly plans to impose restrictions on Chinese investments in US technology companies and American technology exports to China. If implemented as rumored, any company with more than 25 percent Chinese ownership would be barred from investing in US companies that produce "industrially significant technology." Exports of US-made technology deemed important to national security, ranging from chips to robotics to cryptography, would face restrictions as well. Zachary Karabell is a WIRED Contributor. Karabell is the head of Global Strategies Envestnet and the president of River Twice Research.

Unlike the previous wireless networks – 3G, 4G, and LTE – that have all successfully launched and done their part in creating faster, more reliable cellular connections, 5G networks that wireless companies are trying their hardest to roll out to customers are having a bit more trouble. The radio access networks that 5G connections work off of rely on two emerging technologies that haven't worked out all the kinks yet. One of these technologies, referred to as millimeter waves, which are spectrums that broadcast at frequencies between 30 and 300 gigahertz, compared to the bands below 6 GHz that were used for mobile devices in the past. Their name comes from their size, which is much smaller (about 1-10 mm) than the current radio waves that cater to smartphones that measure tens of centimeters in length. The other new tech that 5G networks need to work to their potential is known as massive MIMO.

Chinese phone maker Vivo has announced its own 3D sensing technology that could rival Apple's Face ID facial recognition feature. Vivo claims that its technology will have 10 times more sensor points than Apple's solution. "Vivo's TOF 3D Sensing Technology features industry-leading performance in depth of information captured with its 300,000 sensor points, which is 10 times the number of existing Structured Light Technology. This raises the bar by enabling 3D mapping at up to three meters from the phone while having a smaller baseline than Structured Light," Vivo said in a press release. "TOF 3D Sensing Technology is also simpler and smaller in structure and allows for more flexibility when embedded in a smartphone. This will enable much broader application of this technology than was previously possible."

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies are quickly becoming "the new normal." Despite alarmist sci-fi predictions about AI from Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawking, these innovations are set to transform the way wholesale distributors do business. Machines with the ability to take on more intricate work tasks enable a new level of automation across all areas of business. These innovations are particularly valuable for wholesale distributors. How? AI and ML are enabling wholesalers of all sizes, to harness computers to compete with and even surpass human abilities, like improving customer service, reducing costs, and improving up time through predictive maintenance.

Building so-called Smarter Cities has long been touted as a major goal for municipalities around the globe. But building systems capable of responding to events in real time is a major challenge for any government operating on a limited IT budget. The hope is that processes will become integrated enough to create a massive pool of data that will then be employed to drive any number of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The problem is that while city governments typically have access to massive amounts of data, most of it resides in isolated systems run by departments that are often at odds with one another. In fact, Daniel Newman, principal analyst with Futurum, says smart cities are mostly a figment of vendor marketing imagination. "The trouble with smart cities is they don't exist yet," says Newman.

As our dependence on technology builds and the privacy-destroying, brain-hacking consequences of that start to come to light, we are seeing the return of a science-fiction trope: the rise of the robots. A new wave of television shows, films and video games is grappling with the question of what will happen if we develop the technology to create machines in our own image. Westworld posits that if we could develop realistic androids, we would want to rape and murder them for fun. In Blade Runner 2049, they have replaced humans as sex workers and manual labourers. In the recently released video game Detroit: Become Human, androids are nannies, carers and even pop stars, omnipresent in the home and in city life.

Suzhou City-based AI and speech technology company AISpeech announced today it had raised CN¥500 million (US$76 million) in Series D Funding led by Oriza Holdings and China Minsheng Investment Group. Chinese media reports the company is also planning an IPO on a local stock exchange. AISpeech was founded in 2007 by University of Cambridge graduates CEO Shixing Gao and Chief scientist Kai Yu. The company develops human-machine interaction technologies with a specific research interest in natural language, speech recognition and synthesis, and voiceprints. While Google and Amazon market their own smart speakers, AISpeech plays its role in the underlying technologies.

While a decade ago China was known to be the "world's factory," manufacturing everyday household goods for companies across the globe, in recent years tech and internet companies have redefined the face of Chinese industry. Both Tencent and Alibaba are now among the world's top 10 most valuable companies. Indeed, Chinese companies are now leading the way in the most disruptive global tech trends, including autonomous vehicles, machine learning and blockchain. According to Deloitte, global CFOs' optimism about the Chinese market has never been higher. But all this innovation has come with a side effect: Chinese consumers' expectations of brands and businesses have risen to match the market's optimism.

IN China, a rapidly aging population is putting a lot of stress on the country's health care system. By the United Nation's estimate, China's population over 65 will reach 330 million by 2050. To keep up with the demand on the healthcare system, China is turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The benefits of using AI is especially prominent in China. Medical services are scarce in rural areas; while urban areas are feeling the strain because of the growing population.