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It's that time of the year again: The time when pundits and analysts assess the present and forecast the future. Some of the predictions weren't terribly favorable for the United States, as it is not expected to be among the top ten fastest growing economies in the world. If technology and innovation pique your interest, then 2017 may be just what the doctor ordered. "Artificial intelligence" (AI) is a term that may bring to mind the 1982 hit, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. However, nearly 35 years later, the impact of AI on technological advancements in everything from retail marketing to healthcare is remarkable.

President-elect Donald Trump says the Chinese government should be told "we don't want the drone they stole back" and "let them keep it!" Trump's tweet Saturday evening came after U.S. officials confirmed that they "secured an understanding" for the return of the U.S. Navy unmanned underwater glider, which China seized in the South China Sea. The comments may extend one of the most serious incidents between the American and the Chinese militaries in years. The Chinese navy seized the drone on Thursday; the Pentagon said it was being operated by civilian contractors to conduct oceanic research. The U.S. lodged a formal diplomatic complaint and demanded the drone back.

A flight over farmlands could be part of a future Uber ride. Recently there's been a lot of ink and pixels declaring 2016 the year of humanity's discontent. That's tough to deny in the realm of geopolitics, between awful conflicts in places like Syria, acts of terror worldwide and contentious elections in the UK and US. But the world went on, and so did important work in science and innovation. If you sweep the ugly parts of 2016 under the rug and then check the place out, it's not too shabby.

Hamas claims it has both surveillance and attack drones. During the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, Hamas released aerial footage of parts of Israel.

The doctor's consultation room is one place where people really appreciate the human touch. Patients who are suffering can be comforted by the one-to-one attention of a doctor. But in recent years the demands on doctors have increased as the population gets older and budgets get tighter, and there is a growing acceptance among patients that doctors can use technology to manage the demands on their time more efficiently. Entrusting your healthcare to an intelligent machine might seem like science fiction, but for those growing up in the digital age, automated healthcare is set to become as normal as speaking to their doctor. Indeed, for millennials it might seem slightly unnerving if a consultation does not involve their doctor calling on some kind of technological support.

At an event in China, Huawei's sub-brand Honor unveiled its latest phone, the Honor Magic. The phone is set to go on sale in China later this week, and while it isn't slated to make its way to other markets, it comes with an all-new Honor Magic Live OS that sees the introduction of an AI service. Before we get to the AI features, let's take a look at the hardware on offer: the Honor Magic is curved on all sides, and offers a dual-curved display up front with a 5.09-inch QHD panel. The phone is powered by Huawei's 16nm octa-core Kirin 950 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, 12MP dual cameras (same as the Honor 8), 8MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, LTE, and a 2900mAh battery. Honor is introducing a new Huawei Magic Power fast charging technology that allows the phone to be charged up to 70% in just 40 minutes, or up to 40% in 10 minutes.

The whole technology landscape is changing and is ushering in new ways to put it to use. The way things have been run in the past 20 years no longer holds water and we need to change to adapt and be relevant. At the Bengaluru ITE.BIZ 2016, Bhaskar Ghosh, Group Chief Executive, Accenture Technology Services, shed light on what the next wave in the IT sector would be. "We went through several waves - IT services, e-commerce, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing. New tech is maturing faster and the time to learn and execute in the market is short. We need to learn to master the speed. Every business is a software business. Even manufacturing is driven by software," he explained.

DEEPMIND'S office is tucked away in a nondescript building next to London's Kings Cross train station. From the outside, it doesn't look like something that two of the world's most powerful technology companies, Facebook and Google, would have fought to acquire. Google won, buying DeepMind for £400m ($660m) in January 2014. But why did it want to own a British artificial-intelligence (AI) company in the first place? Google was already on the cutting edge of machine learning and AI, its newly trendy cousin.

It speaks volumes about the plight of rabble-rousers in China today that Ai Weiwei, the country's most famous dissident artist, has decided that working there is too dangerous -- so he wants to go to Syria. Ai, who received his passport back from Chinese authorities last year, is turning his attention to Syrian refugees. For the artist, who spent 81 days in Chinese detention in 2011 and then was blocked from traveling for four years, it is a way of remaining relevant without landing in jail. Ai reflected on his situation during a trip to New York last month. He said he does not want his 7-year-old son to experience the same difficulties as he did as a child when his father, the acclaimed Chinese poet Ai Qing, was purged after he fell out with former leader Mao Tse-tung and was exiled.