The news media is full of stories today concerning China's announcement of their $2.1 billion investment in a technology park dedicated to AI research. China is investing such a large amount in order to obtain their goal of being the global leader in AI by 2030. I also read in a separate article post today that China's president Xi Jinping, easily one of the most powerful leaders in the world, has two books on his reading list specific to AI. One is Augmented by the best selling author and my friend Brett King. I have to admit, that is ridiculously cool.

China is one country leading the charge when it comes to embracing robotics and artificial intelligence. Last year, the country saw the first robot dentist successfully operate on a patient, and there are plans to build an unmanned, AI-powered police station in a capital city. Both developments show signs of China's progress to becoming a global leader in AI by 2030. To be a leader in AI, however, also means using such technology in the workforce as a replacement for human workers. Recently, China has done so in using automation to increase its supply of bombs and artillery shells.

In 2017, the luxury business was marked by technology-driven disruption, a recovering global economy, and the narratives of the consumer "experience" and "transformation" economies. What can we expect in 2018? Automation has impacted numerous areas of the economy and society such as finance and transportation. The luxury business is no exception. With automated commerce, more advanced algorithms in retail business and smarter devices will mean outsourcing some of the fashion experience for the affluent consumer for whom time is the ultimate luxury, or the forward-thinking shopper who wants to be the trendsetter.

Alphabet Inc's Google has led a $120 million investment in Chinese live-stream mobile game platform Chushou, the two companies said on Friday, as the U.S. firm eyes new inroads to China where its search engine is blocked. Founded in 2015, Chushou is an online e-sports platform where users can live stream their mobile phone games. The service has roughly 8 million streamers and 250,000 live streams a day, said the companies in a statement. Google will help the Chinese firm expand its services to target more overseas viewers, it said. Live stream gaming platforms are a popular form of e-sports in China, part of a growing industry that involves competitive game play viewed by spectators.

Law students in the United States usually get a healthy dose of legal technology infused into their educations to prepare them for the future of law practice. Since most legal technology education, research, and innovation tends to happen here, students studying law in foreign countries may be at a disadvantage. One elite law school is trying to make sure its students don't get left behind. China's Peking University Law School has partnered with Gridsum, a cloud-based analytics platform, to create a research center that will focus on how artificial intelligence could be used in China's legal system. Gridsum will provide the technical and research backbone to the center as part of the partnership, drawing in part from AI technology developed for the company's "Faxin Wei Su" tool, a litigation service operating on Chinese communication platform WeChat's micro application platform.

A robot revolution has begun. Intelligent machines now routinely patrol malls, hospitals, and highways, and the machines are becoming increasingly proficient at everything from picking fruit to performing surgery. Automation is set to transform our lives. A robot unveiled recently is capable of a few jaw-dropping parkour moves, including this effortless-looking backflip. The acrobatic bot was developed by Boston Dynamics, and its agility suggests the company is making rapid progress toward training humanoid machines to navigate complex and challenging environments.

India does not face a threat of losing its edge over other countries with the rise of new emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Tiger Tyagarajan, CEO and president of Genpact told ET in an interview. He said the opportunity size for India has only increased given the huge technology talent pool available. "We never thought about the cost advantage as the only advantage that never stays for long but we have a huge tech base. That population doesn't learn AI and ML, but it's not that the technology population the world over is learning AI and ML," said Tyagarajan. He said Indian companies traditionally have been good at teaching people new skills.

Any economic inflection point comes with the loss of jobs. But we tend to ignore that such inflection creates more jobs than we lose. So you have heard that #Robots are taking away jobs. You assumed that the jobs being taken away will be your neighbors and you would be miraculously saved. Should we call you naïve? Or should we blame the common narrative of Unemployment vs. Different employment?

LG is showcasing a lot of new products and inventions at CES 2018 next week. In a new update, the South Korea tech company has revealed that it is going to expand its robot lineup this year by launching three new work robots at the big Las Vegas event. On Thursday, LG announced via its online newsroom that it is pushing the envelope this year by unveiling three more work robots at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The new concept robots are specifically designed to cater to consumers' needs when they are at hotels, airports and supermarkets. The three new robots that LG is showing off next week are part of its CLOi (pronounced KLOH-ee) robot brand, which the company introduced a year ago.

Artificial intelligence (AI) frequently made tech headlines in 2017, often for innovative new products and growth in the workplace. Multiple reports examined the technology's future and implications. An October Gartner report predicted that AI will create 2.3 million jobs by 2020. And China is now racing to AI world dominance, which may mean a global power shift. Experts predicted AI's growth and potential moral issues for business users and consumers.