It's a weird feeling, cruising around Silicon Valley in a car driven by no one. I am in the back seat of one of Google's self-driving cars – a converted Lexus SUV with lasers, radar and low-res cameras strapped to the roof and fenders – as it maneuvers the streets of Mountain View, California, not far from Google's headquarters. I grew up about five miles from here and remember riding around on these same streets on a Schwinn Sting-Ray. Now, I am riding an algorithm, you might say – a mathematical equation, which, written as computer code, controls the Lexus. The car does not feel dangerous, nor does it feel like it is being driven by a human. It rolls to a full stop at stop signs (something no Californian ever does), veers too far away from a delivery van, taps the brakes for no apparent reason as we pass a line of parked cars. I wonder if the flaw is in me, not the car: Is it reacting to something I can't see? The car is capable of detecting the motion of a cat, or a car crossing the street hundreds of yards away in any direction, day or night (snow and fog can be another matter). "It sees much better than a human being," Dmitri Dolgov, the lead software engineer for Google's self-driving-car project, says proudly. He is sitting behind the wheel, his hands on his lap. As we stop at the intersection, waiting for a left turn, I glance over at a laptop in the passenger seat that provides a real-time look at how the car interprets its surroundings. On it, I see a gridlike world of colorful objects – cars, trucks, bicyclists, pedestrians – drifting by in a video-game-like tableau. Each sensor offers a different view – the lasers provide three-dimensional depth, the cameras identify road signs, turn signals, colors and lights. The computer in the back processes all this information in real time, gauging the speed of oncoming traffic, making a judgment about when it is OK to make a left turn.

In March 2001, futurist Ray Kurzweil published an essay arguing that humans found it hard to comprehend their own future. It was clear from history, he argued, that technological change is exponential -- even though most of us are unable to see it -- and that in a few decades, the world would be unrecognizably different. "We won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate)," he wrote, in'The Law of Accelerating Returns'. Fifteen years on, Kurzweil is a director of engineering at Google and his essay has acquired a cult following among futurists. Some of its predictions are outlandish or over-hyped -- but technology experts say that its basic tenets often hold.

Economist Andrew McAfee concludes in his TedTalk "What will future jobs look like?" (already 3yrs old) that "The new'algorithm enabling' technology is here today, and banks could use it to fundamentally change the value proposition for their customers." "The future belongs to those that can recognize opportunities before they become obvious". Artificial intelligence, which encompasses these days all sorts of'algorithm enabling' technology, is creeping into our lives. Asset management and wealth management is no exception. Mentors at Fintech accelerators are advising entrepreneurs to drop the idea of creating the next Bloomberg and are suggesting a focus on AI finance.

Microsoft has created a strange robot that can converse with people on Twitter. The robot, apparently named Tay, is artificially intelligent and speaks with people who send messages to it. It appears to be based on Microsoft's machine learning work and claims that it will get better as it is used. The account, found at @TayandYou, responds automatically to all tweets. But it remains a complete mystery why Microsoft created the account – which has been verified by Twitter – and what it plans to do with it. Boston Dynamics describes itself as'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'.

On one otherwise unremarkable day in May 2013, August de los Reyes fell out of bed and hurt his back. Forty-two years old at the time, he was just six months into his dream job at Microsoft: running design for Xbox and righting a franchise that was drifting due to mission creep. At first, de los Reyes was worried that the fall was serious; he went to the ER and was assured that he was fine. Yet several hospital trips later, he found himself undergoing emergency surgery. His spine had been fractured all along. His spinal cord had been damaged. With breathtaking quickness, he was unable to walk ever again. De los Reyes has the reassuring smile and steady calm of a high-school guidance counselor, and an almost-spiritual attachment to video games. He likes to tell people that the universe is play, and that we all have a moral imperative to play.

Intelligence TV is a world?class team of dedicated machine learning entrepreneurs, luminaries and scholars -- a cogent growing force of true connoisseurs, innovative organizations and ultra-affluent leaders -- offering state of the art techniques from artificial intelligence to build the best deep learning algorithms: The experienced team at Billionaire Business Enterprises Inc. acts as a seasoned and trustworthy resource. Intelligence TV, in compliance with Executive Order EO: III EX[1-I], has a Jewel status in Billionaire Business Enterprises Inc.'s portfolio. Update: October 2015 -- We are preparing a worldwide PR campaing with major talk show appearances, a feature film and a television documentary. A tribute to Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bringing contributions by scholars recognized as the foremost authorities in AI, Big Data and Deep Learning, exalting ground?breaking Terms of Reference are developed in consultation with the Intelligence TV Stakeholders, the Program Overview Committee and the Service Line Advisory Group.

Are we looking for an algorithm that "If we all die, it would keep trading"? Should we be worried that electronic trading is mushrooming like airplane traffic, while we are not paying that much attention? Today, I'll look for AI pigments of incremental changes in algorithmic trading, first on Wall Street and then outside, in the Fintech startup world. I am not including the HFT space because it is a particular space driven by speed and merits a separate post because of its politically sensitive angle (Michael Lewis's babe). Renaissance Tech and Two Sigma, are probably the most recognizable names in old fashioned quant trading space.

Cherubic Ventures, an early-stage VC firm with a focus on the U.S. and Asia, has announced a new fund targeted at 120 million. Fundraising is still ongoing, and founder-managing partner Matt Cheng told TechCrunch that the firm currently has 80 million in confirmed commitments from LPs. Cheng started Cherubic back in 2010 after spending time with Chinese social portal Tian Ge Interactive and C Squared Venture Capital. Today, its portfolio includes close to 90 companies worldwide, such as Hyperloop, Luxe and Wish in the U.S., Cloud Union and Liulishuo in China, and Pinkoi and Chadal in the wider Asian continent. The firm has offices in Beijing, Taipei and San Francisco but, alongside the announcement of the fund, Cheng said it had opened a new headquarters in Shanghai. That will house around half of the firm's team, which Cheng expects will increase to 12 this year.

Today is a big day for whatGoogle just bought a startup that takes the pain out of editing videos. Read more ... » very well could be the next big business at GoogleGoogle Acquires Fly Labs To Bring Photo Editing To Google Photos. In San Francisco, the company is holding its first cloud userMicrosoft Dynamics AX Upgrade Integrates Power BI, Machine Learning. Read more ... » conference, a perch to show off its product and win more paying customers. Keynotes will come from new enterprise boss Diane Greene and Urs Hölzle, its veteran infrastructureGoogle Just Open Sourced TensorFlow, Its Artificial Intelligence Engine. Also on the slate is Nicholas Harteau, the engineeringMicrosoft Invests 1 Billion In'Holistic' Security Strategy.

All around us people are slowly (or sometimes quickly) transitioning into the future of work. The full-time job (9 to 5, traditional career, etc.) is about to become a rarity; only available to a select group of people who represent the core of an organization, or who possess a very specific skill set. Because we live in a society increasingly shaped by tech. Automation will take over many of the tasks previously assigned to people. And the youth of today (and tomorrow) will have no problem transitioning into that situation.