Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), our world is more automated and connected than ever before. Just about everything, from cars to refrigerators, to coffee machines, has the ability to connect to the Internet, allowing us to micromanage each individual device. This type of automation is an exciting direction for the world to be moving in and the benefits it brings to businesses are huge. Optimizing Processes A great example of a traditionally non-networked company using IoT to make smarter decisions is Rolls-Royce. By integrating networked sensors into their aircraft engines, Rolls-Royce can send engine data back to monitoring stations on the ground and stay ahead of the curve on everything from performance to malfunctions.

Toyota's empathetic car of the future is there for you. You've had a frustrating day at work; it plays soft music and lowers the temperature. You're lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood; it offers to take over the driving. You start to nod off at the wheel; it taps you on the shoulder and starts up a conversation. This unconventional interplay between the driver and automobile is central to concept cars that Honda and Toyota unveiled at the annual CES technology conference in Las Vegas this week.

Today, I'm excited to share another significant commitment by Microsoft to democratize AI: a new Microsoft Ventures fund for investment in AI companies focused on inclusive growth and positive impact on society. I also have an update about the growth of our overall portfolio of companies. AI holds great promise to augment human capabilities and improve society by tackling some of the world's biggest problems. Our recently announced partnership with OpenAI is a key example of us working to use AI to address important issues such as climate change, inequality, health and education. Building on that, our participation in the Partnership on AI, and other efforts, we'll make investments in startups that are responsibly harnessing the promise of AI to empower people and businesses.

Chinese social media is currently alight with the news that some of the country's top Go players have been beaten multiple times, not by a human, but by a robot, which has now been revealed to be a software program called AlphaGo run on Google's deep learning neural network DeepMind. In March 2016, DeepMind made international news when the AlphaGo program succeeded in beating the Go world champion player Lee Sedo, 33, from South Korea by 4-1. DeepMind is a neural network – essentially a large web of artificially intelligent classical computers that are trained using computer algorithms to solve complex problems in a similar way to the human central nervous system. The computers are separated into different groups known as'layers' to examine different parts of the problem, and each layer's answer is then combined to produce a final answer. Go is an ancient Chinese abstract strategy game that originated over 2,500 years ago and is considered to be more complex than chess.

India: American technology major Nvidia has launched the Nvidia Inception programme in India, in recognition of the country's budding innovation ecosystem in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Inception is a virtual incubator programme to support startups with revolutionary ideas in AI. Members will receive a custom set of benefits, from hardware grants and marketing support to training with deep learning experts. The Inception Programme was launched in India at the inaugural Nvidia Emerging Companies Summit India, part of the GPU Technology Conference (GTCx), a platform for the brightest minds and greatest ideas in GPU computing. The momentum around AI among Indian innovators is so significant that, at launch, the Inception Programme already has close to 100 Indian startups as members.

First and foremost, business leaders need to lead from the front in facing up to disruption. "It's a leadership issue," says Anders Ibsen, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Copenhagen-based artificial intelligence for SEM (search engine marketing) company Cobiro. "A lot of it starts at the leadership level," agrees Uschi Schreiber, EY Global Vice Chair - Markets. "For businesses to reinvent themselves there needs to be an understanding at the leadership level of what disruption means for their organisation." Leaders need to set the pace and be visibly directing their teams to stay a step ahead of changes.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. I've previously written about the Golden Age of Gadgets and how China has propelled it. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the annual international show for consumer electronics held in Las Vegas, this only affirmed my position on China.

Machaao's ChatBot was recognized for its impressive growth and will receive access to free tools and services from Facebook partners, a global startup community, and support from Facebook's team. FbStart helps startup's turn their great app into an even better business. But Machaao's not an App! It's a ChatBot, so what brought this change? Bot Script: This is what differentiates an App from a Bot. And the Team at Machaao has worked hard on creating a definitive bot script by trying to predict or mimic user interactions.

Everyone is on social media. According to Pew Research, in 2015 an astounding 65 percent of all Americans were using social media. That's more than 200 million people in the USA alone, and is approximately the same amount as the number of people in America who own pets. Worldwide, the total on social media already exceeds 2 billion people. That's twice as many people worldwide as the number who own a car.

Japanese researchers have developed a real-time drone-locating system that uses an onboard laser sensing device and artificial intelligence that enable it to operate even where GPS fails. The technology developed by Kyoto University researchers led by Masatoshi Hamanaka allows a drone in flight to determine its position and altitude based on geographical features beneath it, detected by a laser-based sensing device and analyzed by AI technology. Under the system, data on the geographical features from the onboard sensor is compared with existing data in a geographical database to determine the drone's position. The technology has a margin of error of a few dozen meters, but this is a practical level for drones that fly at 30-40kph, the researchers said. They aim to raise the accuracy of the system and make it viable for practical use within three years.