It's a problem we can all relate to: sitting in traffic and waiting for a green light. While waiting, you may have even pondered how you would try to improve traffic efficiency--surely there's got to be some way for everyone to get to work on time. But ponder no longer, because a team of engineers from Tsinghua University in China has handed the problem over to machines. The team's recent study makes use of deep reinforcement learning algorithms to optimize traffic signaling, and its promising results suggest there may be a way to arrive on time after all. Let's be clear: traffic is a complex problem to solve, and traffic control engineers have long worked on improving efficiency.

This month Stanford launched a 100-year study of AI (AI100) with a report: Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030. The 16 member study panel issuing the report sees increasingly useful applications of AI, with potentially profound positive impacts on our society and economy over the next decade. The study identifies eight domains where AI is already having or is projected to have the greatest impact: transportation, healthcare, education, low-resource communities, public safety and security, employment and workplace, home/service robots and entertainment. Let's start with public safety and a few emerging AI applications. Google's AI artificial company DeepMind announced an app that generates human-like speech.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most important technology we're developing this decade. Broadly, AI is the ability of a computer to understand your question, to search its vast memory banks, and to give you the best, most accurate, answer. AI is the ability of a computer to process a vast amount of information for you, make decisions, and take (and/or advise you to take) appropriate action. You may know early versions of AI as Siri on your iPhone, or IBM's Watson supercomputer. Watson made headlines back in 2011 by winning Jeopardy, and now it's helping doctors treat cancer patients by processing massive amounts of clinical data and cross-referencing thousands of individual cases and medical outcomes.

Nvidia Corp. debuted two new graphics processors for systems and computers that use artificial intelligence putting them directly in competition with chips giant Intel. Nvidia hopes that its two new graphic processors would be utilized by tech companies in their products that run artificial intelligence software like smartphones, driverless cars and smart homes, according to a report by Bloomberg. The chipmaker, which is the leading company in video gaming graphics, released a new set of graphics chips for running software that "makes split-second decisions needed when everything from phones to cars to internet search engines respond to inputs such as speech, images and moving objects," according to Bloomberg. Nvidia calls the new chip "Tesla P4 chip" and is designed for servers used in massive data centers that process big data like Facebook, "The Division" and "World of Warcraft." Based on Nvidia's Pascal design, the P4 is more than three times as efficient at processing images than its predecessor and 40 times more efficient than Intel server chips, as stated in Nvidia's report.

"We can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment," a McLaren spokesman said. "As you would expect, the nature of our brand means we regularly have confidential conversations with a wide range of parties, but we keep them confidential." The Financial Times newspaper, citing three sources it said had been briefed on negotiations, had reported that Apple had made an approach for a strategic investment or a potential buyout. It reported that the automotive group could be valued at between 1 billion pounds ( 1.3 billion) and 1.5 billion pounds. Reports have suggested that Apple, which had no immediate response to the Financial Times story, is working on a self-driving car.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile carrier, said Wednesday it has launched a research project on artificial intelligence to better develop its virtual home assistant service. Earlier this month, SK Telecom introduced an advanced voice recognition service that allows users to control home appliances and listen to music using voice commands. The new service is called "NUGU," which means "who" in Korean. SK Telecom said the new service can increase its accuracy of voice recognition, using deep-learning technology. In a statement, SK Telecom said, "Through the application of a cloud-based deep-learning framework, NUGU is designed to evolve by itself. NUGU will be able to strengthen its own performance -- including speech recognition accuracy -- with the growing number of customers who use the service."

Not too many years from now, your day will look very different. You will have self-driving cars to rid you of your nightmare commute and AI assistants to take care of everyday drudgery: from grocery shopping to setting up appointments. Smart drugs and nanobots loaded in your blood will keep your body and mind performing at their peak. Wearable sensors and smart clothing will ensure that your doctor knows if anything goes wrong. It'll be a life that even the Jetsons will be jealous of, and it'll be yours if you just let Silicon Valley do its thing--right?

The internet has evolved a great deal since it was first launched back in the 80s. Back then, there was no such thing as a high-speed internet connection, hence the need for simplistic, text-based website with no variations in font, typography, layout or visual content. A website back then consisted of nothing but pages and pages of standard text placed in front of a white background, with no pictures and no font variations except those in size. One could argue that reading a book was probably a more enriched experience back then. Fast forward a decade, and we got our standard wired connections.

Until recently, there was no question about who's responsible for an automobile's operation: the driver. Going forward, as driverless cars hit the roads en masse, that distinction will fade. When the robot cars get here, you'll be able to eat, text and sleep, but you won't drive, because there won't be a steering wheel or brake pedal. Your only role: Order the car where to go. Yet there's a lot of ground between the old-school cars that people are used to and the driverless experience promised in the next few years.