Toyota will be highlighting an array of experimental technologies aimed at improving safety and anticipating drivers' desires at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. Toyota Motor Corp. manager Makoto Okabe told reporters Monday that the use of artificial intelligence means cars may get to know drivers as human beings by analyzing their facial expressions, driving habits and social media use. Such a vehicle might adjust drivers' seats to calm them when they're feeling anxious, or jiggle them to make them more alert when they seem sleepy. It might also suggest a stop at a noodle joint along the way. Despite concerns over potential intrusions into privacy, many automakers will be displaying prototypes of such technologies at the auto show which opens to the public Oct. 28.

It makes a lot of sense to think about the potential economic effects of AI. Governments badly need to be considering the impact of AI and automation on jobs, including the safety risks, and thinking hard about how to realize the technology's potential to boost economic productivity. The recommendations of the U.K. report bring to mind the massive commitment China is making in AI (for an in-depth discussion of this, check out our feature "China's AI Awakening"). Other countries--including the U.S.--would be wise to ramp up their own investments if they don't want to get left behind by the boom.

South Korean internet giant Naver on Tuesday unveiled a new artificial intelligence voice assistant speaker designed in the shape of two main characters from its mobile messenger Line. Dubbed "Friends," the smart speaker comes in two versions, each resembling Line messenger's Brown, a brown bear, and Sally, a yellow chick. Naver's Friends smart speaker (Naver) The speaker runs on Clova, the AI-powered voice assistant platform co-developed by Naver and Line. Friends is designed to be portable unlike other standard AI speakers. It weighs only 378 grams and is able to operate for five consecutive hours on a full charge.

If my email inbox is anything to go by, a technology revolution is under way that is going to transform all of our lives very soon and it is called artificial intelligence. A Welsh company is using AI to detect North Korean bio-weapons. I could pop over to California to hear about "AI wearable solutions for aging population". And Lloyd's of London has unveiled its first artificial intelligence deal. It promises that "in a decade a significant part of the insurance industry will be powered by AI."

PARACHINAR/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone strike killed five people on the mountainous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, government and militant sources said on Tuesday, days after a Canadian-American couple held hostage by the Taliban were freed from the same area.

Artificial intelligence and Big Data are merely technical assistants to investment advisors, and will not completely replace advisors, David Leung, managing director of Standard Chartered Plc's [LSE:STAN] wealth department in China, told Yicai Global in an interview. The two technologies do help save time in facilitating our investment decisions and choosing where to put money, and they do make our work more accurate, Leung said. However, AI will never replace investment advisors. For example, in August last year, Standard Chartered released the first mobile trading platform among foreign-backed banks in China. The app offers direct advice to investors along with detailed explanations, but 90 percent of clients still choose to communicate directly with their own customer managers or advisors. Leung believes that when developing intelligent advisors, many institutions may just introduce their overseas products to China.

Wall Street is looking towards Silicon Valley for a more automated environment and a tech-driven approach. A July 2016 report by CB Insights showed that 41 startups may be introducing AI to Fin-tech. Of the many big names, Goldman Sachs remained dominant in backing as many as four companies that use AI in financial technology. As many as 658 AI deals were closed and $5021 billion was spent on funding the AI startups in 2016. With total AI investment gaining momentum across different industries, an increasing number of companies are branching out to offer a variety of services that range from credit scoring to regulatory compliance and fraud detection.

Marvelstone Group, the private investment firm behind Singapore-based fintech hub LATTICE80, has revealed plans to launch its first artificial intelligence (AI) hub in Singapore's central business district in 2018. This is in a bid to position Singapore as a global leader in AI technologies, which is anticipated to be a main growth engine of the future economy. Marvelstone's AI hub is also aligned with the government's Smart Nation vision. According to the press statement, in Singapore, many ideas in the area of AI are still research focused. Hence, there is a need for an incubator such as Marvelstone to bridge the gap to commercialise them for future use by companies and the government.

Retail and banking are driving demand for cognitive and artificial intelligence according to new figures from IDC, which also show Asia Pacific is expected to be the second largest spender on the technologies by 2021. IDC says many industries are'aggressively' investing in cognitive and AI solutions, with the technologies proliferating across all industries, resulting in significant growth opportunities. The analyst firm's Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive Artifical Intelligence Systems Spending Guide shows worldwide spending is forecast to hit US$12.0 billion this year – up 59.1% on 2016 spend. Come 2021, IDC is forecasting spend to reach US$57.6 billion. Retail and banking will account for $1.74 billion and $1.72 billion of 2017's spend, with discrete manufacturing, healthcare and process manufacturing also expected to crack the $1 billion spend this year.

KAMPALA – As the toll rises above 300 from one of the world's deadliest attacks in years, the al-Shabab extremist group has sent a powerful signal that the international focus on extremism can't afford to overlook the African continent. Saturday's truck bombing on a crowded Mogadishu street showed that al-Shabab, targeted for years by U.S. airstrikes and tens of thousands of African Union forces, has once again made a deadly comeback. Pushed from Somalia's capital in recent years, al-Shabab has retreated mostly to rural areas of the country's south, where the fragile central government can't assert its authority and local fiefdoms are in charge. From there, Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group has continued to plan guerrilla-style attacks like Saturday's truck bombing in the capital, Mogadishu. While demonstrating al-Shabab's resilience in the face of new military offensives by the U.S. and Somalia in recent months, the attack also highlights the shortcomings of U.S. drone strikes in a politically fraught country with a weak military and even weaker police, analysts told The Associated Press.