Taiwan's original design manufacturers (ODMs) grew up with Computex and put Taiwan on the map as a global PC hub. Companies that profited from the Taiwan ODMs' success were Intel and Microsoft, who played key roles in defining PC technology. This week, Nvidia is coming to Computex, in hopes of replicating what Intel and Microsoft achieved a few decades ago with the PC market. Nvidia's sole focus is domination in the new era of "accelerated computing." Nvidia defines accelerated computing as the increased use of a graphics processing unit together with a CPU to accelerate deep learning, analytics and engineering applications.

Google has a new tool to better personalize ads and analyze their success: Machine learning. This technology represents a growing trend for advertisers that will shape successful campaigns into the future, according to a Tuesday blog post by Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google's senior vice president of ads and commerce, published ahead of the Google Marketing Next event in San Francisco. "This technology is critical to helping marketers analyze countless signals in real time and reach consumers with more useful ads at the right moments," Ramaswamy wrote in the post. "Machine learning is also key to measuring the consumer journeys that now span multiple devices and channels across both the digital and physical worlds." Google Attribution is a new product that helps marketers determine if their campaigns are actually working, taking into account data from all devices and channels that a consumer may use.

Japan and Germany may be sitting on a ticking demographic time bomb where aging populations begin to drag down economic growth. Increased automation and more use of robotic technology in these manufacturing powerhouses could help cushion the impact, according to Moody's Investors Service. "To the extent that robots can undertake activity that require labor, they will compensate for the negative impact that a slower growth in labor force would have otherwise had on growth," Moody's analysts wrote in the report this month. Dependency ratios -- the share of those older than 65 years of the total population -- are projected to soar in both Germany and Japan. But these countries have two things going for them.

How blockchain-based tokens will transform the financing of technology -- Tokens are early today, but will transform technology tomorrow. It's a model and platform for true crowdfunding--open, distributed, and liquid all the way." Fred Wilson / AVC: Tokens -- Our friends Balaji and Naval penned a really nice primer on crypto-tokens. Jack Gavigan / @jackgavigan: 1/ I spent last week in NYC attending Consensus & hanging out with a lot of crypto/blockchain people. Here are a few reflections & thoughts. Balaji S. Srinivasan / @balajis: Tokens are early today, but will transform technology tomorrow. Albert Wenger / @albertwenger: Some Lessons I Learned from the Dotcom Bubble for the Coming Crypto Bubble - I spent a bunch of time at ... http://continuations.com/... Fred Wilson / @fredwilson: "token launches occur in any country.

Helsinki, Finland - An audience of international peace brokers have gathered inside a room in the historic House of Estates. They have come from South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Ukraine, Colombia and elsewhere to hear a scientist speak. That scientist is Timo Honkela, and his keynote speech on the second day of April's National Dialogues conference is titled Peace from a Different Perspective - a Dialogue of a Million People. But 54-year-old Honkela is working on a machine that he hopes will facilitate world peace. "World peace would be a good goal to work for in my remaining days," he says, smiling over a cup of coffee during a break in the conference.

Because all of the low-hanging scientific and technological fruit has supposedly been plucked. You can invent broad technologies like electrification, the light bulb, plumbing and sanitation, the telephone, refrigeration, the internal combustion engine, and the digital computer only once. Therefore most new technologies will consist of slight improvements on the old ones and that will not propel future economic growth. But have all broad technologies really been invented already? Below are three core technologies whose elaborations during the next decade will conjure into existence a world with far less transactional friction, amazing cures, and much smarter machines.

Facebooks' announcement last month that it's building a brain-computer interface (BMI) that will let users type with just their minds without invasive implants is exciting as it is concerning. The prospect of being able to type with just your mind at a speed of 100 words per minute – 5 times faster than the typing speed on a phone – which is Facebook's goal, is fascinating. You can get more done with lesser effort and in shorter time, right? But how effectively will users' privacy be protected when this happens and how transparent will Facebook be about it? Like in George Orwell's 1984, is this about governments or corporations wanting to read people's mind to detect thought crime?

A Canadian startup called Lyrebird has announced that it has developed a platform capable of mimicking human voice with a fraction of the audio samples required by other platforms such as Google DeepMind and Adobe Project VoCo. The Lyrebird synthesis software requires only 60 seconds of sample audio to produce it's synthetic sample. VoCo needs about 20 minutes to do the same. The quality of the voice reproductions that the software can make are mixed. Some are better than others.

We have seen in movies that how a Robot is taking care of security measures in everyday work environment. "I Robot" Will Smith's movie is one of the many fictional concepts from past decade. But now the fiction has become a reality as Dubai Police has introduced the first ever Robocop, which can communicate in six languages and offer a salute to people. The interesting fact about this Dubai Police's Robocop is that; It's ready to involve with people and provide guidance without any training. The Robocop was unveiled this week in 4th Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC) Dubai.

It is a scene we all dread – an enormous space rock colliding with Earth, causing widespread chaos and destruction. And experts have warned that the dreaded scenario could become a reality this year. A leading astronomer from Nasa has tweeted a list of five known asteroids expected to fly scarily close to Earth within the coming year. It is a scene we all dread – an enormous space rock colliding with Earth, causing widespread chaos and destruction. And experts have warned that the dreaded scenario could become a reality this year (artist's impression) He said: 'A list of known asteroid close approaches to Earth - less than five Lunar Distance - within the coming year', along with a table detailing the five asteroids.