For decades, technology has relentlessly made phones, laptops, apps and entire industries cheaper and better--while health care has stubbornly loitered in an alternate universe where tech makes everything more expensive and more complex. Now startups are applying artificial intelligence (AI), floods of data and automation in ways that promise to dramatically drive down the costs of health care while increasing effectiveness. If this profound trend plays out, within five to 10 years, Congress won't have to fight about the exploding costs of Medicaid and insurance. Instead, it might battle over what to do with a massive windfall. Today's debate over the repeal of Obamacare would come to seem as backward as a discussion about the merits of leeching. One proof point is in the maelstrom of activity around diabetes, the most expensive disease in the world.

As banking organisations, financial services providers and brands predict and plan for the way consumers will manage their money in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is high on the business development strategy for 2017 and beyond. AI is already around us and used everyday within payments, money management and for robo-advice, particularly in the area of intelligent digital assistants that handle regular customer service enquiries and tasks. It can process'big data' far more efficiently than humans and can recognise speech, images, text, patterns of online behaviour, for example to detect fraud as well as appropriate advertisements for upselling. Smart machines and technology can turn data into customer insights and enhance service provisions, bringing the digital experience closer to the human interaction for consumers. Santander announced it is to provide secure transactions using voice recognition via its banking app, while Royal Bank of Scotland has trialled'Luvo' AI customer service assistance to interact with staff and potentially serve customers in the future.

Dubai Police have revealed their first robot officer, giving it the task of patrolling the city's malls and tourist attractions. People will be able to use it to report crimes, pay fines and get information by tapping a touchscreen on its chest. Data collected by the robot will also be shared with the transport and traffic authorities. The government said the aim was for 25% of the force to be robotic by 2030 but they would not replace humans. "We are not going to replace our police officers with this tool," said Brig Khalid Al Razooqi, director general of smart services at Dubai Police.

Kodi has urged users to download a new update after security researchers discovered a vulnerability that could allow hackers to take over people's devices. The issue is an unusual one, which allows criminals to attack Kodi users through subtitles. Millions of people are believed to be at risk, and they don't need to have done anything wrong in order to be targeted. Check Point, which discovered the issue, has described it as "one of the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance" vulnerabilities reported in recent years. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

SoftBank, the giant telecom company, is venturing out into the world of robotics and transportation services. DealStreet Asia said that SoftBank is trying to transform itself into the'Berkshire Hathaway of the tech industry' with the recent launch of a $100 billion technology fund. First SoftBank bought Aldebaran, the maker of the Nao and Romeo robots, and redirected them to produce the Pepper robot which has been sold in the thousands to businesses as a guide, information source and order taker, then bigger partnerships with Foxconn and Alibaba to manufacture and market Pepper and other consumer products, and most recently to establishing the $100 billion technology fund. Recognizing that the telecom services market has matured, SoftBank is putting their money where they can to participate in the new worlds of robotics and transportation as a service. Didi, which already serves more than 400 million users across China, provides services including taxi hailing, private car-hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Test Drive, DiDi Car Rental and DiDi Enterprise Solutions to users in China via a smartphone application.

Maoist Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned on Wednesday, leaving a leadership vacuum weeks before the second round of local elections. Dahal took office only nine months ago. The municipal and village assembly vote is the first in the past two decades. The prime minister's exit from government was somewhat expected under a power-sharing deal with the Nepali Congress Party. It came earlier than predicted though after the Communist UML opposition party threatened to block Dahal's speech in parliament, saying the government had created local and municipal bodies without due legal process.

Artificial intelligence can write copy and manage programmatic media buying at warp speed. It can drive a car and even diagnose cancer. AI is increasingly acting like humans, so companies are putting big resources and marketing money into branding AI with human-like qualities, down to naming their technology after people. Amazon reportedly picked Alexa for its smart assistant because of its ties to Star Trek and use of soft vowels combined with an'x', making it a unique word that doesn't easily roll off the tongue (unless you have the misfortune of being named Alexa). Meanwhile, IBM considered a slew of names before landing on Watson, a nod to the company's first CEO Thomas J. Watson.

The Middle East and North Africa's youthful, fast-urbanizing population are perfectly placed to embrace technology and reap the rewards of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Much has been written already about the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the opportunity that the convergence of its new technologies offers in terms of building value into production systems and economies around the world. In one sense, the playing field could be levelled out. Localized production is being made more feasible for many small producers, setting developing communities on a path towards self-sufficiency, while falling costs could enable factories of all sizes to boost their productivity levels. However, on the opposite side of the equation, news headlines have been dominated by predictions that human workers will be substituted by robots, leading to widespread job losses and heightened societal challenges. Additionally, doubt has been shed on the ability of regions that are less industrialized, or those with fractured economies and infrastructure, to be able to respond to these disruptions and compete effectively in the future.

By the end of this week, it's a good bet that the world's best player of the ancient Chinese board game Go will no longer be a human being. The Chinese Go champion, 19-year-old Ke Jie - ranked number one in the world - was just narrowly beaten by Google DeepMind's AlphaGo in the first of a three-match series, and if the algorithm's winning form keeps up, it'll be a watershed moment in the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). The latest win, played in the Chinese city of Wuzhen on Tuesday, cements AlphaGo's steady rise to the peak of the professional Go-playing circuit, after celebrated victories over European Go champion Fan Hui in 2015 and South Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol last year. After those decisive tournaments, won by AlphaGo 5-0 and 4-1 respectively, it's possible Ke had even less a chance of beating the system than his human predecessors. DeepMind's developers say the tweaked and revamped AI is now more efficient than ever, using 10 times less computational power than the algorithm that trounced Sedol in 2016.

The desire for users to complete everyday tasks and functions using AI is high. But current AI solutions often fall short of expectations due to limitations in capability and functionality. "Effective learning is critical to creating a compelling experience in this way," commented Christopher Dodge, Associate Director and report author. "Many AI solutions require too much upfront action from the user; manually inputting data or linking profiles from different apps to ensure inclusion in one service is time-consuming and clumsy." Correctly identifying an individual within one ecosystem also impacts basic tasks, especially if the solution cannot identify the individual requesting the action.