Remember chatbots, the Next Big Thing of 2016? According to Sam Lessin, "the 2016 bot paradigm shift is going to be far more disruptive and interesting than the last decade's move from Web to mobile apps." And Chris Messina predicted, "you and I will be talking to brands and companies over Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and elsewhere before year's end, and will find it normal." This was exciting -- enough so that I joined Facebook as design manager for the Messenger bot platform. It was a tough decision: I wasn't ready to move on from my previous role at Google.

"Policies for the future" and a promise to lead the next generation were among the electoral pledges the artificially intelligent candidate, who went by the name Michihito Matsuda, said it would implement. "Artificial intelligence will change Tama City," Matsuda's campaign slogan read and the claim clearly struck a chord with many residents as the robot garnered 4,000 votes in the race. However, Matsuda finished in third place in the election, which was comfortably won by the incumbent Hiroyuki Abe, NHK reports. Matsuda was the face of the campaign but the human brains behind the operation were high powered Japanese businessmen Tetsuzo Matsumoto, the vice president of Softbank, and Norio Murakami, former Google Japan representative, Otaquest reports. Despite these tech-savvy connections a robot identical to Matsuda's is still available for purchase online and the candidate's official website was pretty poorly designed and contained apparent coding errors.

For a field that was not well known outside of academia a decade ago, artificial intelligence has grown dizzyingly fast. Tech companies from Silicon Valley to Beijing are betting everything on it, venture capitalists are pouring billions into research and development, and start-ups are being created on what seems like a daily basis. If our era is the next Industrial Revolution, as many claim, A.I. is surely one of its driving forces. It is an especially exciting time for a researcher like me. When I was a graduate student in computer science in the early 2000s, computers were barely able to detect sharp edges in photographs, let alone recognize something as loosely defined as a human face. But thanks to the growth of big data, advances in algorithms like neural networks and an abundance of powerful computer hardware, something momentous has occurred: A.I. has gone from an academic niche to the leading differentiator in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, health care, transportation and retail.

Microsoft India's president, Anant Maheshwari shares his views on the impact of adoption of new technologies by medium and large sized companies. This is based on a survey by IDC Asia/Pacific survey in partnership with his company.

It is a set of preliminary recommendations, and not as detailed as perhaps the subject demanded or even some of the other task force committee reports on other subjects. It focuses specifically on three policy questions: 1) What are the areas the government should play a role? It could perhaps have tackled a couple of other exceedingly important questions. For example, what are the policies needed to turn India into an AI research powerhouse, and not merely an user of AI solutions? Or for that matter, how does one guard against the dark side of AI, a topic which is being debated by many of the world's technology titans as well as researchers.

A Brazil-based security firm has claimed that its futuristic artificial intelligence and camera technology could make Dubai the world's safest smart city. Speaking to Tahawul Tech on the sidelines of the Future Cities Show in Dubai this week, Polsec CEO Renato Werner explained how the technology has played a part in reducing the crime rate of Manaus – the capital of Amazonas state in Brazil, by 70 percent. Polsec's technology is now being tested across India in Mumbai, Delhi and Agra, and Werner has high hopes that it can soon be brought here to the Middle East. "I had a conversation with a colleague that was responsible for installing the security surveillance system at Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport, and he implemented over 5,000 cameras," said Werner. "For every 8 cameras, an individual employee is required to keep watch and analyse the footage, meaning you need a huge team – and they can only work for a maximum of 4 hours at a time. With our technology, we don't require humans to gain insight, as the artificial intelligence can make decisions instantaneously when certain situations arise."

Secret surveillance software created by a former Israeli intelligence officer is harvesting Facebook photos. The firm behind it is taking profile images from the social network, YouTube and other sites to build a huge facial recognition database. Its creators say the software could lead to the identification of terror suspects, captured in promotional and other material posted online. News of the controversial service is causing alarm among privacy activists as Facebook scrambles to deal with its ongoing data scandal. Secret surveillance software created by a former Israeli intelligence officer is harvesting Facebook photos. It was revealed last month the company shared the private data of up to 87 million users with the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. Face-Int is now owned by analytics firm Verint, who acquired it in 2017 from creators Terrogence, a surveillance company founded by onetime Israeli secret agent Shai Arbel. Both companies have reportedly supplied the US government and its security agencies, including the NSA, with cutting edge spy technologies. The facial recognition database is said to contain the facial profiles of thousands of terror suspects'harvested from such online sources as YouTube, Facebook and open and closed forums all over the globe', according to Terrogence's website. Experts are concerned that the company's efforts extend beyond this remit, however, and into the political realm. 'It raises the stakes of face recognition - it intensifies the potential negative consequences,' Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Forbes.

Liu also said that Western retailers were shielded somewhat from the sector's rapid pace of change by the loyalty of their customers, in contrast with China, where shoppers prefer to try something new and are more demanding in terms of delivery speed.

Google has started applying its artificial intelligence (AI) expertise to network operations and expects to make its tools available to companies building virtual networks on its global cloud platform. That could be a troubling sign for network technology vendors such as Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), which now see AI in the network environment as a potential differentiator and growth opportunity. The Internet giant has been using AI to improve its search engine and enhance other consumer-facing products and services. In 2014, it acquired a UK-based AI startup called DeepMind, which subsequently made headlines when it was taught to play Go, a Chinese boardgame of fiendish complexity, and managed to beat Lee Sedol, one of the world's best players. Drawing heavily on its capabilities in machine learning, a branch of AI, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is now developing more automated systems to cope with the growing scale of its global network, which comprises data centers and backbone infrastructure.

The day that machines will surpass the ability of humans in language translation could still be many years away, following the breakdown of Tencent Holdings' artificial intelligence-powered translation system during the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province last week. Tencent's simultaneous translation system, which was designed to provide both interpretation and transcripts, made an error-filled debut at the high-profile forum, sometimes known as Asia's Davos. It spouted gibberish that were displayed live on screen at the event and in a WeChat mini program. These included garbled characters, repeated words and even broken Chinese, screenshots of which were widely circulated on social media last week. Tencent took the high ground by conceding the errors and aiming for improvements in future.