International trade has dominated the global headlines recently. Much of the discussions have been focused on the threat of a trade war, the tit-for-tat tariffs, and the health of the global trade order. While extremely important, these conversations are missing a brighter side of international trade – how innovative technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution are transforming trade by making the processes more inclusive and efficient. The steam power revolution connected the world like never before. The invention of shipping containers laid the foundation for globalization.

Artificial intelligence, robots, and automation are rising in importance in many areas. As noted in the recent book, "The Future of Work: Robots, AI, and Automation," there are exciting advances in finance, transportation, national defense, smart cities, and health care, among other areas. Businesses are developing solutions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations and using these tools to improve the way their firms function. Yet there also are concerns about the impact of these developments on jobs and personal privacy. A Pew Research Center national survey revealed considerable unease about emerging trends.

Kriti Sharma, vice president of AI and Ethics at Sage, shares what she wishes she knew as a teenager growing up in India and how tech can help underserved communities. You just built your first computer from scratch after reading a few books about them. But first, you need to endure a few more years of high school in India. I know you don't like school. But, I'm asking you to embrace your love for learning.

Personal computers have not elicited many thrills of late. They've gotten cheaper, sure, and a little faster. But despite some wild promises the gap between the actual and the possible has remained expansive. This week, it narrowed significantly. Devices that run all day, but for real this time. The first GPU shrunk down to a 7nm process.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd is the first joint-stock insurance enterprise in China. It has developed into an integrated services conglomerate that blends its financial services such as finance and insurance, banking, and investment management to create an integrated, compact, and diversified business profile. In 2017, Ping An ranked first among the world's 100 most valuable insurance brands. Ping An Technology was founded in 2008 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ping An Group. It is mainly responsible for developing and operating critical platforms and services that support the efficient development of insurance, banking, investment and internet businesses of the Group.

"I would argue that AI is overkill for the majority of use cases," Drew Perez, chief executive officer at Adatos, said during a panel discussion and added that the benefits of AI are not instantaneous in many cases. His start-up uses AI to study satellite and drone images of agricultural lands to assess things such as tree counts, soil conditions and plant health. "At the end of the day, if you think about it, it has to have a return on investment." Perez told an audience that, most AI programs today are in the "lab phase or innovation phase." He explained that even if there are the right conditions -- including having the right amount of computing power, sufficient data, the right mix of talent and a culture that readily embraces AI -- profitability is not guaranteed.

In a new 8,000-word set of ethical principles and guidelines, Google outlined how it plans to manage--and in some cases limit--the application of artificial intelligence, a powerful and emerging set of technologies that Google views as key to its growth. Google, the primary business unit of Alphabet Inc., GOOGL -1.09% has recently come under criticism from its own employees for supplying image-recognition technology to the U.S. Department of Defense, in a partnership called Project Maven. Google told employees earlier this month it wouldn't seek to renew its contract for Project Maven, a person familiar with the matter said at the time, and that decision in turn was blasted by some who said the company shouldn't be conflicted about supporting national security. Google's artificial intelligence also recently generated public alarm after the company demonstrated a robotic voice that can trick humans into thinking it is real. Google is having to expand its definition of ethics as its technology seeps more and more into the institutions of public life, from scientific research to military intelligence.

The Robot Business Division of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings, the No. 1 robot company in Korea, has signed an MOU on the robot business with Naver Labs, a research and development corporation of Naver, the largest internet company in Korea. The two companies announced on May 28 that they held an MOU ceremony, with the participation of Yoon Jung-keun, head of the Robot Business Division and Song Chang-hyun, CEO of Naver Labs, at Hyundai Building in Gyeongdong in Seoul. Through this MOU, the two companies will join forces in the development and production of service robots. Hyundai Heavy Industries will take charge of production, sales, quality control, and development of service robots based on its capability to commercialize robots. Naver Labs will be in charge of technology research and development and the development of system and application software for robot production.

Google's decision not to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for aiding war weapons or surveillance technology, may well be the start of a series of moves that could curb its possible misuse. The American tech giant had entered into a partnership with the Pentagon to use AI to review drone footage, in a move that was later seen as controversial. Google employees themselves had signed a petition, asking company CEO Sundar Pichai not to extend the contract. This led to Google spelling out its policy on the matter. The company said those technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm will not be encouraged.

More and more organizations are finding ways to use artificial intelligence to power their digital transformation efforts. This ebook looks at the potential benefits and risks of AI technologies, as well as their impact on business, culture, the economy, and the employment landscape. From the ebook: The actual impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the world's economy and jobs will likely be somewhere between the utopian and dystopian futures that it is often discussed in terms of, according to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report, commissioned by Google, examined how AI will impact certain industries in the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, and Asia as a whole. The findings are based on econometric modelling, desk research, and interviews with academic and industry experts.