She's a proud mother of three, and her household is supported in part by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps for short), the Philippines national social welfare program, which gives financial assistance to households who are deemed the'poorest of the poor'. Cess is meant to receive payments for each of her children who are in school, at a maximum of 3 children. Since her three kids are in school, this should entitle her to 1,800 PHP ( 25 USD at the time of writing) per month. The problem is that Cess isn't receiving payments for her youngest child, who started elementary school 6 months ago. So what can Cess do about her situation? Can she complain to authorities?

Algorithms trained on mountains of Chinese data may soon be making decisions that deeply affect the lives of people in the US. Take Yitu Technology, a Shanghai-based artificial intelligence start-up that won top honours in two AI competitions in the US last year for its facial recognition technology. The system was built for Chinese law enforcement using data collected by the authorities. Or as the company boasts, it was honed on the "world's largest portrait system, covering more than 1.5bn people." Yitu is now looking for customers in the US to put its software to work.

It's been almost three years since we first came across the Lumos smart cycling helmet, which got our attention with its cunning automatic brake lights and wirelessly-controlled turn signal indicators. The helmet has since been shipping as of late 2016, but the Hong Kong startup didn't stop there. Today -- which happens to be the first day of Bike Month -- Lumos is releasing an update that adds gesture control for the helmet's blinkers via Apple Watch, along with Apple HealthKit integration for automatic cycling tracking. To enable gesture control, the user simply has to install the iOS and watchOS apps, pair the iPhone with the helmet over Bluetooth, calibrate the watch with your left- and right-turn gestures using your watch-wielding hand, then you're good to go. The turn indicators will continue to blink until you shake your hand.

Before any technology is widely adopted and becomes ubiquitous in our daily lives, there is a protracted period of unfamiliarity, confusion, and even great fear in the layperson. Many of us watched family members of the Greatest Generation greet the answering machine, CD player, and home computer with varying amounts of trepidation and even antipathy. Many Boomers treated the dawn of the internet age and smartphones in kind. And while many Flower Children are tech savvy and not running in horror from the inevitable future to come, they are nonetheless reluctant to embrace the arrival of the latest and ever evolving classifications of technologies that innovate, disrupt, and bring radical and revolutionary change to the status quo of our daily lives. Of course this latest cluster of technologies is arriving a bit too late for the Boomers to broadly adopt them as it pertains to their retirements and financial futures, though we should encourage them to do so. Cryptocurrencies, AI, and Machine Learning, however, make their auspicious arrival just as GenX and their younger Millennial and GenZ counterparts are faced with an uncertain and changing economic landscape of massive personal and national debt, economic globalization, and displacement due to automation.

"Siri, where is the nearest Starbucks?" "Suki, let's get Mr. Jones a two-week run of clarithromycin and schedule him back here for a follow-up in two weeks." Doesn't sound that crazy, does it? For years, voice assistants have been changing the way people shop, get around, and manage their home entertainment systems. Now they're starting to show up someplace even a little more personal: the doctor's office.

INDIA: The automotive and technology industries are at the forefront in applying artificial intelligence, found a recent study done by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). One company in five has already integrated AI in their business in those sectors. At the other end of the scale are the pharmaceutical, medical technology, machine construction and process industry sectors. There, only about one in seven companies uses intelligent manufacturing systems. Transportation and Logistics(21%), Automotive(20%), Energy(19%) are the top three sectors in terms of AI implementation, followed by Consumer Goods(18%), Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technology(16%), Machinery(15%), Process Industry(13%).

On the surface, the production lines at Hangzhou Zhongheng Electric look like any other. But there's one big difference – the workers wear caps to monitor their brainwaves, data that management then uses to adjust the pace of production and redesign workflows, according to the company. The company said it could increase the overall efficiency of the workers by manipulating the frequency and length of break times to reduce mental stress. Hangzhou Zhongheng Electric is just one example of the large-scale application of brain surveillance devices to monitor people's emotions and other mental activities in the workplace, according to scientists and companies involved in the government-backed projects. Concealed in regular safety helmets or uniform hats, these lightweight, wireless sensors constantly monitor the wearer's brainwaves and stream the data to computers that use artificial intelligence algorithms to detect emotional spikes such as depression, anxiety or rage.

BEIJING – Volkswagen AG, the world's biggest automaker, is in talks to form a joint venture with China's Didi Chuxing to manage part of the ride-hailing company's fleet of cars and help develop "purpose-built" vehicles for Didi's services. As part of the deal between Volkswagen and China's biggest ride-hailing service, expected to be signed early next month, the German automaker will initially manage a fleet of about 100,000 new vehicles for Didi, of which two-thirds will be Volkswagen Group cars, according to a senior executive at the carmaker. Volkswagen will also jointly buy some new cars with Didi to allow the Chinese company to expand its fleet. The two eventually plan to collaborate to design and develop dedicated vehicles, the executive said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the details are still private. The executive did not give financial details of the deal but said Volkswagen will get a slice of the revenue once the venture develops.

The European Commission (EC) has put forward new measures to boost funding for AI and open up more data for re-use to make data-sharing easier within the digital single market. Publically available data, like data from public utilities, environmental data as well as research and health data will be made available for reuse under the EC's plans, in a bid to help startups and larger businesses across the EU use the data to develop innovative services. Using data in the public domain is essential to developing services based on new technologies, the EC believes, such as artificial intelligence (AI), which China, the US and other countries are investing heavily in - just today the UK announced a £1 billion public-private sector partnership investment in the technology. The Commission's vice-president for the digital single market, Andrus Ansip, highlighted the need for data to make the most of technological advances. "The digital single market is rapidly taking shape; but without data, we will not make the most of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and other technological advances," he said.

It comes as the island state embarks on a'smart nation' initiative to utilize technology to improve lives, create economic opportunity and build community ties. However the proposed use of cameras mounted on lampposts that are linked to facial recognition software has raised privacy concerns.