The Japan Times newsroom selected these economy and technology stories as the most important of 2017. But the struggling Japanese conglomerate later agreed on the ¥2 trillion sale of its chip unit to a Japan-U.S.-South Korea consortium. It also ended a months-long legal battle with its partner in the venture, Western Digital. Earlier this month, Japan agreed with the EU on a giant free trade deal, eliminating tariffs on 94 percent of imports from the EU. The bloc will eliminate tariffs on 99 percent of its imports from Japan.

If there are things you can trust to not change, that hackers will always be looking for new exploits in security systems is sure to be on that list. Thankfully, there are also those in the security company working toward keeping a step ahead of the would-be hackers. A new study by researchers from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University found hackers could use data collected by various sensors in the device to guess the smartphone's PIN. Instruments like the "accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensors represent a potential security vulnerability," according to an NTU statement Tuesday. To prove their point, the researchers took the data gathered by six sensors on Android smartphones and ran it through machine-learning and deep learning algorithms.

All across the globe, countries have been building up Artifical Intelligence capabilities due to the possibility that AI could completely transform the nature of work and create better outcomes for businesses and society. An Accenture report estimates that Artificial Intelligence has the potential to add $957 billion, or 15% of current gross value, to India's economy, by 2035. The report outlines how India can benefit from AI. Flipkart, India's top e-commerce player, is already tapping into AI, using the technology in operations ranging from conversational search, visual similarity, better last-mile delivery, fraud-detection, personalisation to warehousing. The technology is expected to help Flipkart serve its existing customers better, and attract new ones as well. The emphasis and importance given to AI is rather one-sided, reports the Financial Express.

'Africa has the largest potential for new cyber attacks' With Artificial Intelligence becoming all pervasive, IT security experts feel cyber criminals too will catch up with AI tools in 2018. Forecasting a raise in AI-based attacks, they feel cyber criminals will take to machine-learning solutions to spoof human behaviours. The only way to ward off these newer threats is to strengthen the arsenal by deploying AI tools to get better of the hackers. "Security analysts look at an ocean of events gathered from log files to identify threats, and determine which events warrant further investigation. A dearth of skilled analysts, combined with an overwhelming array of structured and unstructured data makes it difficult to put security events in context," said Kartik Shahani, Integrated Security Leader, IBM India and South Asia.

Worldwide spending on digital transformation (DX) technologies (hardware, software, and services) is expected to be nearly $1.3 trillion in 2018, an increase of 16.8% over the $1.1 trillion spent in 2017. A new update to the Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts DX spending to maintain a strong pace of growth over the 2016-2021 forecast period with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.9%. In 2021, DX spending will nearly double to more than $2.1 trillion. The majority of spending on digital transformation in 2018 ($662 billion) will go toward technologies that support new or expanded operating models as organizations seek to make their operations more effective and responsive by leveraging digitally-connected products/services, assets, people, and trading partners. The second largest DX investment area in 2018 ($326 billion) will be technologies supporting omni-experience innovations that transform how customers, partners, employees, and things communicate with each other and the products and services created to meet unique and individualized demand.

If nothing else, you can this much for artificial intelligence: They're rarely afraid to look stupid. If a learning A.I. encounters something outside its preprogrammed knowledge, it will not typically be shy in asking the person with whom it is speaking to clarify. This can, however, make for rather monotonous conversation for the human involved in talking to the chatbot, voice assistant, or generally conversant robot: "What's an apple?" "What's tiramisu?" "What's cured meat?" "What's do you know literally anything about food you stupid recipe chatbot?" You get the idea, and as researchers from Japan's Osaka University point out in a recent spotlight on their work, that last line is indicative of the real problem facing A.I.: Asking questions might be the best way for them to learn, but that doesn't count for much if the barrage of questions is so irritating or tedious that the human wanders off. It's not enough for the A.I. to know what it doesn't know.

QYResearchReports.com has recently announced the addition of a new research report covering the global market for artificial intelligence to its vast portfolio. The comprehensive 101-page report, titled "Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022," studies the definition, classification, and applications of artificial intelligence technologies, tools, and solutions and discusses the chain structure, regional overview, policy impact, and key developments surrounding the global industry. The report also provides a thorough account of the factors that are expected to drive the market, challenge its growth, the trends that define consumer expectations, and the growth opportunities that the market offers to old and new companies. The overview of how regulatory reforms across key regional markets are affecting the overall development of the global artificial intelligence market is also included in the report. Trends across developed, developing, and less-developed regional markets are presented in a comparative manner, providing the reader an overview of the overall scenario.

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Yet more of the advances on the tech side are troubling, such as how artificial intelligence is being used for facial surveillance in China, and how Chinese social credit rating systems are assessing the suitability of individuals as both credit risks and loyal citizens.

Artificial intelligence is no longer the stuff of science fiction flicks. It's a reality, and chances are you're interacting and being impacted by AI technology-powered applications every day. AI seems to be the phrase on everybody's lips these days, right from makers of autonomous trucks that can travel thousands of miles without requiring human intervention to truck drivers who fear they'll be out of a job if these AI-powered trucks make it to the roads. In 2016, Google's DeepMind AlphaGo program competed against Lee Se-dol, South Korean master of the board game Go, the program emerged victorious. Media coverage used terms such as AI, machine learning, and deep learning interchangeably as if they all meant the same thing.