Predicting the future is hardly a precise science, but it's possible to identify macro trends by paying close attention to what's happening in an industry. Here's what a handful of entrepreneurs, founders and executives see coming in 2018. "It's been three years since Alexa first showed up in our living rooms. When Amazon launched the first Echo, it seemed like a curious product to many. But the sales growth of Amazon's Alexa-powered product family has been meteoric in the past year. Not to mention that Google Home joined the party, and soon to be followed by the Apple HomePod. Amazon is now licensing Alexa and new devices--including thermostats, home lighting systems, remote controls, automobiles and more--which now have the super smart assistant built in. As consumers, we're becoming increasingly more comfortable and reliant upon using voice to talk with our phones, cars and smart home accessories. While I'm not about to say that the graphical user interface of the touchscreen is dying, there's little question that in 2018 voice will become a primary interface to the digital world. And with it, professionals and firms will develop specialized expertise for voice interface design and voice app development, as the VUI coexists with the GUI." "Major retailers have long ignored the importance of their supply chain and consumers are no longer willing to accept an inefficient buying process. Fewer locations to service is the only the first step for retailers needing to gain a competitive edge. The second is better control over the supply chain and less outsourcing. Large retailers will recognize this deficiency in 2018 and bring logistics in-house as a key differentiator."

If there's one thing we can learn from the Terminator franchise, it's that too much technological advancement is not something we should be a hundred percent on board with. What's worse is that with the advancement we're getting with the AI technology, the creation of Skynet can actually be not that far ahead into the future. We're slowly getting there, and that should terrify you. Not sold on the idea yet? In order to start the ball rolling, here are some terrifying facts about Artificial Intelligence right now.

Recently, David Bader visited India to give a keynote talk at IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Science at Bennett University, Greater Noida. David A. Bader is Professor and Chair of the School of Computational Science and Engineering, College of Computing, at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a fellow of the IEEE and AAAS and served on the White House's National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) panel. He was in conversation with Prof. Deepak Garg, Chair, of Computer Science Engineering at Bennett University. Question: Big data and data analytics have made a huge impact on businesses in 2017, with trends like artificial intelligence and cloud services being used for their advantage.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of ecommerce giant Amazon, plans to make inroads into the over-the-top (OTT) content providers market in India with their data analytics and artificial intelligence platform. Speaking to ET, Bikram Bedi, the head of India region, Amazon Web Services said that globally, and here, media & entertainment has been a huge focus for the company. They work with OTT platforms or linear TV platforms like Hotstar, Voot (from Viacom18), Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sony, Zee TV, NDTV.com, The company's service called Midas from Elemental allows customers to monetise video offerings. Amazon Web Services will help OTT, media and entertainment players in the entire media life-chain right from downloading content to delivering it to customers. "So around analytics on video, we've launched a platform called Rekognition, which allows you to take video streams, store them in S3, and then analyse.

Indian manufacturers are already using AI, AR, VR and robotics for better process optimization and customer care. Use of industrial internet-of-things (IoT) and digital twin technology for improving operational efficiency, predictive analytics for preventive maintenance and supply-chain innovation, and chatbots for customer care are some examples of usage. These technologies are expected to mature further in 2018 with cloud-based tech permeating into more areas.

President Donald Trump has signed into law a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul package. Trump touted the size of the tax cut, declaring to reporters in the Oval Office before he signed it Friday that'the numbers will speak.'

Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) together have transformed many industries using a combination of big data, analytics, connectivity and machine learning techniques. Increased processing power from GPUs has left a mark on manufacturing, government, and healthcare sectors most of all. Nvidia Corporation, an American technology company has announced a partnership with Komatsu Ltd., a Japanese firm and one of the leading makers of construction and mining equipment on 14th December 2017. Nearly 3000 deaths and 15000 injuries were reported at construction sites just in this year, according to Japan Construction Occupational Safety and Health Association. To increase safety standards, Nvidia's GPUs will now be embedded in heavy machinery which will also simultaneously increase productivity.

Local newspaper China Daily notes that this is all part of the country's push for more AI integration in a number of industries, including healthcare and consumer electronics. China is already a leading contender on the global AI stage, surpassing the United States in AI research, in an ultimate effort to become a frontrunner in AI development by 2030. The country's determination, driven by the realization that AI is the new battleground for international development, could put the U.S. behind China in this worldwide AI race.

About Frederique Mittelstaedt Founder Automorph, pioneer of Artificial General Intelligence Joining Asia Tech Podcast AI today is Frederique Mittelstaedt, the founder of Automorph - a platform that aims to bring the problem solving skills of Artificial General Intelligence to the wider public. Automorph is a program that can write programs (sound a little meta?) Well, this could be the future of any app development or SaaS startup. Fred has already pioneered his own AGI programming language along with well thought out ideas about what constitutes intelligence as well as what makes many of those "fuzzy" skills that we love about being human (like creativity, art and music) something that we could ultimately teach machines.

My Maths tutor used to tell me as a child, "If you have spent two hours on 20 problems and you've solved all correctly, that's two hours wasted." We are intelligent species who should not be wasting our time doing redundant work for we are meant for better. This helps in explaining the doubtful existence of the fastest booming and most insecure topic of the 21st century -- artificial intelligence -- for the human mind seeks to create greater things to make life easier (or lazier). Technology has made a journey at the speed of light years. Coding smarter technologies is easier than waiting out the uncertainty of a cow's genetic evolution.