Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the upcoming report Data Science for Modern Manufacturing: Global Trends: Big Data Analytics for the Industrial Internet of Things, by Li Ping Chu. Sign up to be notified when the report becomes available. The field of artificial intelligence has been around for decades, and the world has seen massive advances in what is considered deep learning (e.g. IBM's Deep Blue and Google's AlphaGo), but it's only within the past decade that we've seen practical applications of machine learning in an enterprise setting. In the past few years, there has been an explosion in the number of products available that integrate machine learning within a business intelligence platform.

Facebook has two of them: WhatsApp and Messenger. They're all messaging apps--smartphone apps that let you chat with friends and family. But they're rapidly morphing into something else, a new kind of super communication tool that does so much more than just shuttle texts between people. So, it should come as no surprise that Google is building a new one of its own. The big difference is that, well, it comes from Google.

Forget about superintelligent AIs being created by a company, university, or a rogue programmer with Einstein-like IQ. Hollywood and its AI-themed movies like Transcendence and Her have misled the public. The launch of the first truly autonomous, self-aware artificial intelligence--one that has the potential to become far smarter than human beings--is a matter of the highest national and global security. Its creation could change the landscape of international politics in a matter of weeks--maybe even days, depending on how fast the intelligence learns to upgrade itself, hack and rewrite the world's best codes, and utilize weaponry. In the last year, a chorus of leading technology exp erts, like Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates, have chimed in on the dangers regarding the creation of AI.

Artificial intelligence has been around since 1956 and has made some giant leaps in that time: beating the best human at chess, the best human at US gameshow Jeopardy and recently beating the best human at complex strategy game Go. Brands have only recently started adopting artificial intelligence for core consumer services. Google's voice recognition technology now claims 98% accuracy and Facebook's DeepFace is said to recognise faces with a 97% success rate. IBM's Watson, which uses artificial intelligence to perform its question-answering function, is 2,400% "smarter" today than when it achieved the Jeopardy victory five years ago. There is no doubt that the relationship between men and machines is changing, and brands are on the cusp of making artificial intelligence an everyday element of their customer offerings.

Unlike the Greek sorceress it resembles in name, Midea Group doesn't have to be a prophet to realize it can no longer rest on cheap Chinese labor and low-end technology. That's why this top Chinese appliance manufacturer is willing to splash out for a German robotics giant. Shenzhen-listed Midea wants to lift its stake in Kuka to at least 30% from the current 13.5%, for a price that would value the German high-end robotics maker's shares at 5.2 billion. That investment may trigger an open offer for all of Kuka's shares....

The United States military killed a senior Al Qaeda leader Tuesday in an airstrike in Afghanistan's southern Zabul Province, the local website Tolo News reported, citing a statement from Afghan special forces. The Al Qaeda commander killed in the airstrike was identified by Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense as Mullah Mohammad Ali. The U.S. military confirmed a strike took place in the same location yesterday, but would not say whether a senior Al Qaeda leader was killed. "We can confirm that U.S. Forces conducted a counter-terrorism strike in the Shah Joyi district, Zabul province, May 17. For operational security reasons, we do not discuss the details of counter-terrorism operations," said the statement from Operation Resolute Support, the name for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan.

Automation has been responsible for improvements in manufacturing productivity for decades. Advanced robotics will accelerate this trend. Machines, after all, can perform many manufacturing tasks more efficiently, effectively and consistently than humans, leading to increased output, better quality and less waste. And machines don't require health insurance, coffee breaks, maternity leave or sleep. The industrial world realizes this and robot sales have been surging, increasing 29 percent in 2014 alone, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

A joint venture between a U.S. producer and a Chinese entertainment investor, announced Tuesday, is hoping to make a live-action film based on the classic video game, Tetris. To be exact, Threshold Global Studios, a partnership between California studio Threshold Entertainment Group -- owned by producer Larry Kasanoff -- and China's Seven Star Works -- owned by investor Bruno Wu -- plans to make a science fiction trilogy based on the popular 1980s game. A statement released by the joint venture said the film adaptation of Tetris will be the company's first project and will be produced at a budget of about 80 million. The film will be shot in China and feature an ensemble cast, including Chinese actors. The financing for the film, as well as a story, are already in place, according to the statement.

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Today SogetiLabs launches its first report on a new wave of automation: Machine Intelligence. As part of a series of four, SogetiLabs Research Institute VINT, explores this Next Big Thing in IT. The idea that an artificial brain could compete with that of humans lives for many years. In 2016, it's exactly sixty years ago computer scientist John McCarthy suggested to work on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with ten men for two summer months on the campus of Dartmouth College. And now there's this excitement in the market: after decades of working on concepts, the tools finally are ready to realize that vision.