There were whoops and cheers from developers as Google announced the incremental ways it is strengthening its grip on many aspects of people's lives at its annual developer conference, Google I/O. There were no jaw-dropping major product launches nor executives proclaiming their utopian vision of the future (ahem, Mark Zuckerberg). Instead there was a showcase of features, powered by artificial intelligence, designed to make people more connected – and more reliant on Google. "We are focused on our core mission of organising the world's information for everyone and approach this by applying deep computer science and technical insights to solve problems at scale," said CEO Sundar Pichai. By combining the personal data harvested from its users with industry leading (and human Go player beating) artificial intelligence, Google is squeezing itself into spaces in our everyday interactions it hasn't been before, filling in the gaps and oozing into new territory like a sticky glue that is becoming harder and harder to escape.

Google has launched new and improved default Android emoji, which are rolling out with the company's new mobile operating system. The platform's current emoji style has long attracted ridicule, with users likening them to "thumb people", mutant peanuts and misshapen, melted blobs. Android O replaces the unusual, irregular emoji that arrived in KitKat, with much more orthodox-looking, circular versions. 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. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

The Jevons Paradox suggests that when technological advances increase efficiency of a resource, it results in an overall increase in consumption. Writing on the increased use of coal as a result of technological improvements, 19th-century economist William Stanley Jevons found that these improvements led to the development of new ways to utilize coal. In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Mark Thiele, Chief Strategy Officer for Apcera, compared the Jevons Paradox to modern-day enterprise IT, examining how the Internet and the cloud has allowed for the democratization of IT, resulting in an increased demand for the cloud and the drive to develop new ways to utilize it. Speaker Bio Mark Thiele's successful career in IT spans 25 years and has focused on both operating roles and on driving cloud adoption across enterprises of all sizes. He has deep industry experience and extensive knowledge of the requirements of policy-driven cloud computing and drives cross-functional strategic initiatives as Chief Strategy Officer for Apcera.

Information technology (IT) advances are transforming the way we innovate in business, thereby disrupting the old guard and their predictable status-quo. Industries are converging, and new opportunities and threats are emerging, like never before. So, how are savvy chief information officers (CIOs) leading this transition? Back in 2015, the IBM Institute for Business Value conducted a market study that included the findings from over 1,800 CIO interviews from around the globe. The resulting insights are worthy of revisiting today, as we consider the digital business transformation outlook in 2017.

Machine learning, AI, cognitive computing, natural language understanding, image recognition, pattern matching, autonomous devices - these are just a few of 2017's loosely defined catchall phrases. But in practice, they each refer to a significant field of study that is guaranteed to have an impact on the way people live and how business is done. Your Various Units Are Working on Data-Driven Systems in a Vacuum If you do not have strict, well-enforced data governance policies, your various units are busy making a data mess that you will eventually have to clean up. Each unit has any number of projects in the works. Their competitors are making apps and creating systems designed to reduce friction and reduce costs wherever possible.

While presenting own advanced Robo-Advisory Platform, Michał Różański, Managing Partner at EARP and CEO at Empirica, will illustrate the most important issues of building tailored FinTech software in his session at 20th Cloud Expo. He will share experiences we have gained for over 6 years of developing solutions for financial institutions and FinTech companies, including robo-advisors. We welcome all FinTech innovators interested in how properly implemented technology can move their businesses forward. Speaker Bio Michał Różański is Managing Partner at EARP and CEO at Empirica, the first european FinTech Software House, which delivers highly specialized software development services for financial industry. He is also the architect behind Empirica's flagship products like Empirica-Advisor, the robo-advisory software for wealth managers and Algorithmic Trading Platform, the cutting edge algorithmic tools for professional investors.

More and more people are using the phrase "Ok Google" to start a conversation to find information or perform actions using the Google Assistant. Launched last fall, the new assistant is already available on over 100 million devices and is rapidly evolving. Today at Google I/O, its creator took the stage to discuss how Google Assistant is expanding its capabilities and reach on smartphones and Google Home. Google Home, a standalone voice activated smart-appliance and speaker, is getting the most attention, with a number of significant improvements on the way. In a few months, Google Home will be able to make hands-free VOIP calls to any phone in the U.S. or Canada for free.

During a non-stop, two-hour keynote address at its annual I/O developers conference, Google unveiled a barrage of new products and updates. Here's a rundown of the most important things discussed: Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off the keynote by unveiling a new computer-vision system coming soon to Google Assistant. Apparently, as Pichai explained, you'll be able to point your phone's camera at something, and the phone will understand what it's seeing. Pichai gave examples of the system recognizing a flower, a series of restaurants on a street in New York (and automatically pulling in their ratings and information from Google), and the network name and password for a wifi router from the back of the router itself--the phone then automatically connecting to the network. Theoretically, in the future, you'll be searching the world not through text or your voice, but by pointing your camera at things.

Deep learning has been very successful in social sciences and specially areas where there is a lot of data. Trading is another field that can be viewed as social science with a lot of data. With the advent of Deep Learning and Big Data technologies for efficient computation, we are finally able to use the same methods in investment management as we would in face recognition or in making chat-bots. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Gaurav Chakravorty, co-founder and Head of Strategy Development at qplum, will discuss the transformational impact of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning in making trading a scientific process. This focus on learning a hierarchical set of concepts is truly making investing a scientific process, a utility.

Humanoid robots and advances in information technology are increasingly being used by nursing homes in a bid to give elderly people a better quality of life. In one example, a nursing home in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, has enlisted the help of the Telenoid robot via which people can communicate remotely with an elderly person using a microphone and camera. "Grandma, what color flowers do you like?" the Telenoid robot asked a resident in her 80s at the Urayasu elderly nursing home last month. "Pink cherry blossoms," the woman responded with a smile. Telenoid, which weighs 2.7 kg and is 50 cm tall, was developed by Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro and his associates.