Despite the recent hype, predictive analytics has been around for over 80 years. At least the mathematical models underpinning this branch of data science have. It has only been in the last few years that thanks to increasing computing power and nifty software interfaces, analytics has become accessible for the average person -- and the marketer. Let's start with the word predictive. As marketers, we can "predict" a lot of things.

The dominant tech trend in places like Southeast Asia will not be artificial intelligence as a whole, but rather it will be the more specific AI field of machine learning, according to a researcher from Deloitte. "Machine learning is the big one, not AI. AI's a very broad field, we are talking about the very narrow field of machine learning," Duncan Stewart, the director of technology, media, and telecommunications research at Deloitte Canada, told CNBC. Deloitte predicts that the next 12 months will see significant progress in augmented reality, mobile device usage, and increasingly sophisticated chips. But the most dominant trend will be machine learning -- when programs predict or explain using large amounts of data without being explicitly programmed -- according to Stewart.

LG Electronics Inc said on Sunday that it will start global sales of the 2018 editions of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs, which are equipped with its Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform DeepThinQ this week. The South Korean tech giant said the new OLED TVs would hit the US market on Monday and gradually expand to countries in Europe, South America and Asia down the road, Yonhap news agency reported. LG Electronics said it would display the OLED TVs at some 500 branches of US retailer Best Buy, showcasing the company's latest Alpha 9 processor that delivers improved resolutions by optimising colour through AI technology. The company said the global market for OLED TVs is expected to reach 2.5 million units this year, rising sharply from 1.6 million units in 2017. In response to the rising demand, LG said it plans to expand the portion of OLED TVs in its portfolio to 20 per cent in 2018, up from last year's 15 per cent.

After washing, the 70-year-old executive dons a helmet and heads for its noisy forging plant instead of his corporate office suite. There, he passes on his knowledge of craftsmanship to the younger factory workers, a daily routine that has remained the same since he was promoted to one of the automaker's vice presidents in April 2017, the first graduate of Toyota Motor Corp.'s own vocational school to do so. For Kawai, sitting in a cushy executive office chair holds no appeal. "It's suffocating to go somewhere where factory sounds and smells don't exist," Kawai said in an interview with The Japan Times. "The factory is where I grew up for over 50 years."

As France's youngest president at 40 years old, Emmanuel Macron is known for his strong handshake, boyish good looks, and his controversial method of selecting a mate. Recently, he set his sights on artificial intelligence, announcing a government program to invest $1.8 billion into AI over the next four years. The cornerstone of all this spending will be in the healthcare sector, where the aim is to make predictive and personalized care a reality using AI and big data. This prompted us to take a look at the ten most funded French AI startups according to Crunchbase. Founded in 2014, Shift Technology has raised $40 million to develop an AI-based insurance fraud detection service.

As Mick Jagger famously sang, "What a drag it is getting old". Though with a net worth of about $360 million and holding court in the pantheon of rock-n-roll gods, Mick Jagger is probably greying about as well as anyone could at age 74. He certainly will have nothing to worry about when the day comes that he can no longer do the rooster strut; Jagger can afford the best elder care money can buy. Most of us probably won't have the financial means to hire a team of 20-something-year-old nurses in short, black latex skirts to take care of us when we become dirty old men. The best most of us can hope for is not to be locked in a closet and left to stew in our own feces.

A coastal area in Fukushima Prefecture's Minamisoma, which seven years ago was overtaken by tsunami debris, is set to be resurrected as a major robotics research site. The Fukushima Robot Test Field, a 50-hectare site being built by the Fukushima Prefectural Government, is meant to be used by both domestic and foreign companies to develop robotics technologies. The site will be the central facility for the Innovation Coast project, the aim of which is to create new industries in tsunami-hit areas. But some of the participants are still waiting for the project to show signs of life. At the site, large fields for drone tests and a telecommunications tower are scheduled to be completed by June.

A drone that took off from Syria and penetrated Israeli airspace in February was armed and on an Iranian mission to carry out an attack in Israeli territory, the Israeli military said Friday. The drone was shattered by helicopter gunships, preventing the attack, according to the military, which did not disclose the supposed target. The February episode set off a day of intense battle, escalating the conflict between Israel and Iran, one of several overlapping conflicts in the Syrian war. Israel's announcement on Friday, hours before the American-led strikes against Syria, added another element of volatility into an already tense region. The strikes launched by the United States, Britain and France against three chemical weapons storage and research facilities did little to assuage Israel's concerns about the Iranian buildup across its northern frontier, according to experts, and the announcement could be intended to bolster Israel's case for taking its own military action against Iran's presence in Syria.

Chinese police have used facial recognition technology to locate and arrest a man who was among a crowd of 60,000 concert goers. The suspect, who has been identified only as Mr Ao, was attending a concert by pop star Jacky Cheung in Nanchang city last weekend when he was caught. Police said the 31-year-old, who was wanted for "economic crimes", was "shocked" when he was caught. China has a huge surveillance network of over 170 million CCTV cameras. Mr Ao was identified by cameras at the concert's ticket entrance, and apprehended by police after he had sat down with other concert goers.

Films like The Fifth Element and Total Recall introduced the concept of autonomous vehicles to our collective subconscious and, in a way, inspired tech firms and car manufacturers to develop driverless technology. The idea of AI-powered vehicles (such as self-driving cars, unmanned public transportation buses, and pilot-less areal vehicles) however, has now been around for some time. Are we any closer, though, to realizing the potential of AI in automobiles of the future than we were a decade back? Nissan and Delphi, for instance, have released official press statements claiming the same. Small-scale autonomous public transportation experiment has already been carried out in China.