Artificial intelligence, or AI, and machines threatening humanity's status quo have, for decades, been the staple of dystopian science fiction. Now the bot has bolted. AI is walking and talking among us, and early business adopters are most likely to prevent a doom-laden conclusion. Thanks to the advent of enabling technologies – machine-learning, inexpensive high-speed internet, secure cloud storage, mobility solutions and low-cost devices – the fantastical possibilities of the past have become reality. Voice-recognition systems are ubiquitous, driverless cars are queueing up to be unleashed on our roads and chatbots are so advanced it that can be impossible to determine whether the online customer-service operative you are communicating with has a pulse.

While Europe ranks second in the global artificial intelligence start-up landscape, no single European country achieves critical mass on its own. Europe needs to consolidate its efforts in order to compete against China and the US.

As artificial intelligence (AI) develops and its uses continue to grow, there's still the discussion to be had around how to use AI in a trustworthy and ethical way. Businesses need to lead the process, creating an honest, global conversation about the benefits of AI not only for the industry but also governments and society enlarge, finds a Sage Group report on building a competitive yet ethical AI economy. "The next challenge will be to move the global conversation away from AI as a threat, or replacement for humans, and towards encouraging businesses to approach AI as a complement to human ingenuity," states the report. According to the study that Sage conducted with a group of international business executives and United Kingdom government officials, the key is for industry leaders, businesses and C-suite executives to define ethical principles that will guide AI development. This discussion comes at a time when the global AI market is hitting its stride, the International Data Corporation (IDC) reports industries are aggressively investing in AI and cognitive systems and that worldwide spending on these systems will increase by 54 per cent from 2017, reaching $19.1 billion this year.

The same is told about learning. The more knowledge and agility of mind a person has -- the faster one can operate in rapidly changing environments under pressure. Intelligence is the natural way to employ your mind to solve problems and make decisions. Before all of this, a person acquires knowledge, data or information -- different shades of the same thing. Human intelligence goes for both competently.

As "great power competition" ramps up, signs of arms races in America's strategic relationships with both Russia and China are everywhere apparent. In this respect, Russian President Vladimir Putin's March 1 speech made a big splash in the press, but readers may not be aware of the late tests in May when the Russian Navy simultaneously test launched four new Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). These missiles were designed no doubt for nuclear strikes on the American heartland. Likewise, China recently announced the tenth test of its new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), called the DF-41. Furthermore, this test was to be of a missile-defense evading hypersonic warhead with the same general purpose in mind.

In March 2018, my collaborator Neus Lorenzo and I had the privilege of hosting a symposium and a workshop at the annual Mobile Learning Week, an event co-sponsored by UNESCO and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). UNESCO is the educational, scientific, and cultural organization of the United Nations. The ITU, also a UN agency, coordinates telecommunications, spectrum allocations, and policy positions on information and communication services which, it seems, the world no longer knows how to live without. The event made for an amazing week, during which we were able to interact with some of the smartest people from all over the world on subjects connected to all kinds of learning in so many different cultural contexts, but all associated with the major question of mobility. A subtheme that ran through many of the interventions, including our own, was Artificial Intelligence (AI).

As far as emerging technologies go, Chatbots are everywhere. They are the automated agent customers talk to when they dial a customer service hotline; the personal assistants embedded in smart phones and many smart devices; they exist in cars to make driving easier; they can even entertain people who want to chat for fun or even provide emotional support for when someone needs companionship. Many different kinds of chatbots have been built to bring conversional user experience to the masses, and in 2016 alone, more than 34,000 different chatbots were built. And this trend is only increasing. The 2018 Chatbots Market Report, which was just released on March 21st 2018, predicts the global chatbot market will grow with a Compounded Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of 27.5% between now and 2024.

Alphabet is broken out into its core Google business and a number of other subsidiaries, which it deems "Other Bets." The majority of Google's business comes from advertising revenues, which the company generates through its search engine as well as a number of other Google-affiliated and partnership websites. Outside of search and advertising, Google generates revenue from products including cloud and enterprise, consumer hardware, mapping, and YouTube. In addition to Google, Alphabet encompasses a host of other subsidiaries called "Other Bets." These companies are more experimental in nature, and as a result are not material to Alphabet's bottom line.

Artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotics are all powerful new technologies that are not only making changes in agriculture, but are also plowing up new legal issues for attorneys, state governments and producers, presenters said during a national ag tech and law conference. The first-of-its-kind conference, Ag Technology and the Law: Advancing American Agriculture, was held this week at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The conference, which drew representatives from 35 states, was sponsored by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, the National Agricultural Law Center and the National Association of Attorneys General. Rutledge welcomed participants on Wednesday by reinforcing the importance of agriculture. "Meeting with Arkansans face-to-face each year, including more than 400 farmers, I have heard first-hand about issues with feral hogs, dicamba drift, black-headed buzzards, Waters of the U.S. and many other issues," said Rutledge.

As the World Economic Forum publishes the most extensive and in-depth report yet on artificial intelligence's transformation of the financial services sector, Internet of Business editor Chris Middleton presents a 3,500-word breakdown of the document's key findings and highlights. The financial services sector is in the vanguard of deploying artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide. However, the technology has the potential to be either a transformative and beneficial force, or a destabilising, even existential threat to the global financial system, according to the World Economic Forum. This risks of economic contagion spreading via the technology are real, it says. The WEF has published an in-depth report, The New Physics of Financial Services: Understanding how artificial intelligence is transforming the financial ecosystem, produced in collaboration with C-level executives, analysts, and technology specialists from across every part of the industry. The 166-page sector analysis finds that the bonds that have historically held financial institutions together are weakening as a result of new technologies. This is creating new threats, new opportunities, and new centres of gravity where emerging and established capabilities are being combined in unexpected ways.