In the beginning, there were mainframe computers and punch cards. Since then, we've seen three transformations. The latest, augmented reality plus artificial intelligence, will change more than the previous three combined. At least, that's what tech evangelist Robert Scoble and author Shel Israel say in their new book: The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything. First was text and MS-DOS.

Renewable power sources such as wind now provide about one-third of Germany's electricity. The rows of towering wind turbines and legions of glistening solar panels spread across Germany's landscape are striking emblems of the country's shift to non-nuclear, low-carbon power. But although Germany is the world's poster child for renewable energy, its grids cannot yet cope with the erratic nature of wind and solar power. In June, German meteorologists, engineers and utility firms began to test whether big data and machine learning can make these power sources more grid-friendly. "To operate the grid more efficiently and keep fossil reserves at a minimum, operators need to have a better idea of how much wind and solar power to expect at any given time," says Malte Siefert, a physicist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology in Kassel, Germany, and a leader on the project, called EWeLiNE.

Super human artificial intelligence is coming, says Sam Harris, a Stanford grad with his PhD in neuroscience from UCLA. He has five New York Times bestsellers under his belt. "It's very difficult to see how they won't destroy us or inspire us to destroy ourselves," he says. How should we be preparing? Sam says our current emotional response--that it's cool--is woefully lacking.

So are Apple, IBM, and Amazon. In fact, every major technology company is investing in machine intelligence to improve their existing products or to develop entirely new ones. This transformative technology is poised to affect just about every industry out there. VB Profiles partnered with Shivon Zilis to better understand its impact and to present the Machine Intelligence 2.0 landscape. Above: This chart is part of VB Profiles Machine Intelligence Series.

In the beginning, there were mainframe computers and punch cards. Since then, we've seen three transformations. The latest, augmented reality plus artificial intelligence, will change more than the previous three combined. At least, that's what tech evangelist Robert Scoble and author Shel Israel say in their new book: The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything. First was text and MS-DOS.

It's not only bud tenders and Uber drivers who are in danger of losing their jobs to automation these days. A small company in Ohio called AI Writer has created a neural net that can churn out the search engine optimization (SEO) filler currently being created by content mills in places like India and the Philippines. And they managed to do it straight out of college on a shoestring budget. AI Writer is a neural net (an AI architecture modeled after the human brain) that is not only capable of teaching itself how to write its own unique internet marketing articles, but those articles are polished enough to fool companies interested in buying that content into thinking it was generated by a human. AI Writer was co-founded by Paul DeMott, who had created a small internet marketing company as a summer job in college and Nick Shah, who had studied neurology for about a year and a half at medical school before dropping out to teach himself about artificial intelligence.

Convenience store chain Lawson and electronics maker Panasonic Corp. have started testing a staff-less register for which a machine settles the transactions and packs purchased items into a bag. The system, dubbed Reji Robo, short for register robots, debuted at an outlet of Lawson in Osaka Prefecture on Monday. Lawson plans to eventually introduce the machine at its stores nationwide to alleviate a staff shortage and for peak-time congestion. People-less cashiers have been introduced at some supermarkets in Japan, but shoppers have had to bag products by themselves after payment. The system introduced by Lawson is believed to be the first in which the packing is also automated.

WASHINGTON – A century-old U.S. trade group on Monday pledged to work with the incoming administration to improve access to overseas markets for American companies, but also to fight against protectionism. Rufus Yerxa, head of the 300-company National Foreign Trade Council, said his organization is prepared to work with President-elect Donald Trump to improve conditions for U.S. exporters. However, he declined to be drawn into discussing some of Tump's more inflammatory statements, like threats to impose huge punitive tariffs on China and renegotiate free trade deals, saying he would wait to see what the actual policies are. "The reason I want to be optimistic is because I've seen this before, prior incoming administrations where there's a lot of dire predictions about what's going to happen, and in the end very positive things have happened," said Yerxa, a former deputy director general of the World Trade Organization. "I don't want to rule out that possibility," he told reporters. "I think we can make progress once it becomes clear to people that protectionism isn't the answer."

The drive for creation and innovation has given way for new emerging technologies that could change the world as we know it. If you love tech news and want to learn more about the latest technology breakthroughs of 2016, then this post is for you! So read, enjoy and share! New technologies can help solve problems and create new opportunities. So what are the latest tech breakthroughs you must know?

Digital Catapult hosts a conference which looks at the wide-ranging, social and economic impact that machine learning and artificial intelligence is likely to have on traditionally conservative human-to-human industries. Click is joined by Jeremy Silver. On 8th December, 100 Women is joining up with Wikipedia to hold a 12 hour edit-a-thon, to intervene in that story of the place of women online. Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir is one of the key producers of the Star Wars battlefront game. Click talks to her about her focus on diversity in video games – not just in the people who make the games but in the content.