Upskilling is hard and even though this is the case, the last few years have seen a big increase in the number of people teaching themselves to code, or brushing up on their data science skills, in order to better position themselves and their companies for the future. Managers and employees in almost every industry, and even the Prime Minister, has recognised that to keep pace with a rapidly evolving world, they need to develop new skills tailored to emerging technologies. So what are the skills really needed in the next few years? Artificial Intelligence (AI) can give meaning to data patterns in minutes; humans can take days. Already big in corporate firms, the harnessing of AI to cut down on tasks is growing in popularity and is already a part of daily life for many people.

Baidu Ventures exists on the front-lines of the Chinese search giant's push to brand itself as an artificial intelligence company. In an effort to bridge the AI ecosystems of China and the United States, Baidu Ventures is partnering with Comet Labs, a San Francisco-based fund specializing in machine intelligence. Unlike other venture capital firms looking to diversify into AI, Comet Labs lives exclusively in the space -- providing capital, technical resources and mentorship to its startups. Wei Liu, now head of Baidu's $700 million venture arm, was part of the founding team at Comet Labs before he was poached into the world of corporate venture. "Baidu founded Baidu Ventures to build an ecosystem around AI technology and do investment to help AI startups with money, technology and connections to industrial players," asserted Liu.

Researchers are looking at the vast opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI) to the Philippines to improve different local industries amid fears that the technology may soon replace the human workforce. UP Computer Science Department Chairman Dr. Pros Naval said AI as a "transformative technology" can create more jobs for Filipinos. "AI is not going to completely replace human beings. AI is a transformative technology. Sometimes it could be disruptive but the way I see it is that it could transform the lives of people, not only the lives but also the workplace," Naval said.

Komatsu is adopting artificial intelligence technologies for a service that can help construction supervisors and workers do their jobs more efficiently and rapidly. The Japanese maker of construction machinery plans to add the AI-based service to the menu of its Smart Construction service sometime later this year. Launched in February 2015, the advisory service uses drones and other equipment to conduct surveys and generate 3D data for uploading to construction machinery for semi-automatic operation. With the incorporation of AI technologies, Komatsu will be able to offer a wider range of services that bring a degree of automation, not just to machinery but also to the scheme of execution. The Japanese construction sector faces an aging and diminishing pool of skilled workers, and Komatsu sees AI as a way to replicate their knowledge and improve productivity at the building site.

Japanese-based messaging app Line is wildly popular in other parts of the world and the company has even expanded from a simple chat app to a full-service mobile carrier. According to a new report from the Financial Times, Line is branching out again and developing its own digital assistant called Clova to compete with the likes of Alexa and Google Assistant, complete with its own line of smart speakers. Clova isn't scheduled for release until sometime in "early summer" of this year, but Line views the platform, which is being developed with help from Sony and LG, as the next logical step for its messaging service. The platform will include the sort of features you might expect from a digital assistance in 2017 -- like easy access to news, weather, calendars and online purchases -- but Line is also promising Clova will be able to handle "complicated questions" and include a facial recognition aspect similar to Apple's rumored iPhone features. Outside of phones, Clova is designed to work in third-party apps and hardware, but the first devices to support it will be a standalone Clova app, a smart speaker called Wave and a "smart display" called Face.

Players suffer complete meltdowns as they hurl insults. Postmatch beers can undo some of the damage, but the shame and resentment linger for days. More civilized times may lie ahead. French inventor Grégoire Gentil has designed a $200 GoPro-size device that can be fastened to any net post and detect whether balls are in or out with surprising accuracy. It's called, reasonably enough, the In/Out.

Tristan Fletcher, co-founder of London artificial intelligence startup Informed Actions, describes how evolving quantitative approaches are going well beyond finance to advance humanitarian goals in health care. The approaches are being used to improve ambulance services in South Africa and tackle pollution in China. Fletcher was speaking at Newsweek's Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Capital Markets conference, in London, March 2.

As millions of American families buy robotic voice assistants to turn off lights, order pizzas and fetch movie times, children are eagerly co-opting the gadgets to settle dinner table disputes, answer homework questions and entertain friends at sleepover parties. Many parents have been startled and intrigued by the way these disembodied, know-it-all voices -- Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, Microsoft's Cortana -- are impacting their kids' behavior, making them more curious but also, at times, far less polite. In just two years, the promise of the technology has already exceeded the marketing come-ons. The disabled are using voice assistants to control their homes, order groceries and listen to books. Caregivers to the elderly say the devices help with dementia, reminding users what day it is or when to take medicine.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the current big thing in the ever-evolving world of technology and it now seems the popular messaging app Line wants a piece of the action as well. Following in the footsteps of Apple with Siri, Amazon with Alexa, and Google with the Google Assistant – which on a side note is now in the process of being rolled out to more devices. According to the information coming through, the Japanese messaging company's AI will be called'Clova' and is likely designed to be included in devices from LG Electronics and Sony. The new AI will have all the features one might expect with a virtual assistant, including the ability to pull weather and news, stream music, or update agendas. Likewise, this AI will reportedly make use of a now-typical use of speech recognition and an ability to understand natural language. Although, it is suggested that the team behind Clova also wants to include face recognition, as well as the ability to understand difficult questions.

The Terminator, Ava and bicentennial man Andrew Martin have one thing in common -- all are robots with human tissue that makes them look like real humans. While they may pass for humans in their own cinematic universe, they are now viewed differently by real-life scientists. Apparently, scientists are now seeing the most practical use of humanoid robots in the field of medicine. For two University of Oxford biomedical researchers Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy and Andrew Carr, building robots with human tissue is very possible and should be the next breakthrough in regenerative medicine. They say that robots are actually what the human race needs if people want tissue transplants that actually work and do not require human donors.