This week in IoT, Qualcomm reveals efforts to have its chips in every single device, with two new models specifically designed for connected devices. There was cause for celebration among internet of things (IoT) device manufacturers this week with news that a'semi-infinite' supply of rare Earth minerals was located off the coast of Japan. The deposit – located entirely within Japan's maritime boundaries – is believed to contain 16m tonnes of minerals necessary to build IoT devices, mobile phones and even electric vehicles. With China holding much of the world's supply right now, the discovery of another major source of rare Earth minerals could help manufacturers to avoid the knock-on effects of a trade war. Not content with cornering the Android smartphone market, Qualcomm revealed this week that it is launching two new systems-on-a-chip for IoT.

Billions and trillions of data is collected on customer behavior from the huge platform called internet. To these are added valuable information gathered by every organization from different sectors. In this mine of information, Machine learning, pursues an ultimate goal: to better understand customers in order to offer them the best experience possible by offering them the product or service most likely to their need. It's analytical power and the advance in artificial intelligence allows companies to take advantage of the wealth of data they collect. At this point we all know that #bigdata is worth nothing, nada, without proper decryption.

Someone might think his father was right after all when it came to choice of career if one looks at this year's Randstad Insights Salary Trends Report. Even when there is a growing noise about emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning and blockchain, it is the good-old profession of medicine that can get you the highest salary. Specialist doctors get the highest salaries, according to the report. They top the chart with an average annual CTC (cost to company) at Rs 18.4 lakh, followed by solution architects at a CTC of Rs 15.1 lakh, product engineering specialists at Rs 14.8 lakh and blockchain technology experts at a CTC of Rs 14.6 lakhs, according to the report by Randstad, one of the country's leading HR service providers. While blockchain specialists rank fourth, artificial Intelligence/machine learning specialists rank sixth in the list of highest-paid professionals.

The 19th edition Seamless Middle East 2018, the Middle East's most dynamic summit and large-scale exhibition bringing together the converging worlds of commerce, fintech, retail and payments, officially opened today at Dubai International Convention Centre. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, on Sunday inaugurated the show, where over 350 regional and international exhibitors from across the globe pave the way for seamless transactions and experiences across the entire e-commerce value chain. During the official tour, Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan witnessed live demonstrations and received a briefing from key exhibitors about projects, as well as their efforts and initiatives aimed at using the latest smart technologies set to revolutionize the entire payments, ecommerce and retail ecosystem. Speaking during the opening ceremony, Nassir Ghrous, SVP Banking and Payments, CISMEA region, Gemalto said: "The arrival of a new generation of solutions built around machine learning or Artificial Intelligence is finally addressing security and convenience questions. As much as convenience matters to consumers, so does security. For banks, addressing both convenience and security is a must as 44% of customers would leave their bank in the event of a security breach. Users expect their banks to be at the forefront of technological innovation to ensure a seamless digital banking experience. Seamless Middle East brings the right players to share latest technologies in this arena."

A Japanese engineer has created a gigantic robot, one that looks like a real-world transformer and works just as well as any other humanoid on the block. The two-legged robot, dubbed Mononofu, weighs around seven tons and stands a whopping 28 feet tall. However, that should not raise any alarms as the whole thing is controlled by a human rather than artificial intelligence. An operator has to get into the robot's cockpit in order to work the levers designed to control its functions. We have seen many manually-controlled robots in the past, but this one draws particular attention due to its striking resemblance to the machines featured in the Transformers movie series.

With Artificial Intelligence this fantasy could possibly come true. Google has introduced'Talk to books' which allows a reader to communicate with a book using a machine learning-trained algorithm that gives answers to questions with relevant passages from human written text. Developed with machine learning, it uses'natural language understanding' of words and phrases. "With Talk to Books, we provide an entirely new way to explore books. You make a statement or ask a question, and the tool finds sentences in books that respond, with no dependence on keyword matching. In a sense you are talking to the books, getting responses which can help you determine if you're interested in reading them or not," said Ray Kurzweil, Director of Engineering at Google Research in a statement Once you type a question into Talk to Books, the tool searches all the sentences in over 100,000 books to find the ones that respond to your input.

Similarly, engineers working for companies like Zipline and Fusemachines in Nepal and Rwanda are able to build and adapt autonomous drones to deliver medicine in remote villages in countries with poor road infrastructure. This would not only save lives but also remarkably change the livelihood of villagers who would otherwise have to trek for days to get to the nearest pharmacy. This is one example of the numerous ways artificial intelligence can be used to improve health care, fight poverty and raise the standards of living in developing countries. For that, it's important that we invest in educating and enabling talented young engineers in such countries.

Similarly, engineers working for companies like Zipline and Fusemachines in Nepal and Rwanda are able to build and adapt autonomous drones to deliver medicine in remote villages in countries with poor road infrastructure. This would not only save lives but also remarkably change the livelihood of villagers who would otherwise have to trek for days to get to the nearest pharmacy. This is one example of the numerous ways artificial intelligence can be used to improve health care, fight poverty and raise the standards of living in developing countries. For that, it's important that we invest in educating and enabling talented young engineers in such countries.

But what does "data monetization" really mean, how do you do it, and more importantly, who in the organization owns the job of "data monetization"? The role of Chief Data Officer (CDO) would seem to be a godsend to answer the data monetization challenge. They should be the catalyst in helping organizations to become more effective at leveraging data and analytics to power the digital transformation. However, all is not well in the world of the CDO. Many organizations appoint a CDO with an Information Technology (IT) background – the same background and experience as the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

She sits patiently in millions of homes, an unremarkable cylinder commonly referred to as Alexa. But Amazon's new'virtual assistant' has been touted as nothing short of technological revolution. In response to spoken commands, she answers questions which previously required an internet search, can perform mundane domestic tasks such as turning on lights, and makes online purchases – through Amazon, obviously. Can it all be as innocent as it seems, particularly in an age rife with internet snooping? Some users have even reported'bone-chilling' cackles emanating from their speakers at random moments.