In this month's ITIJ, we have a full round-up of the recent International Travel & Health Insurance Conference in Bristol, UK, where medical screening, travel security and big data were top of the agenda; we analyse the growing awareness of the value of travel insurance as a risk management tool and how this is leading to a boost in demand from corporate clients for policies that are truly fit for purpose; and we ask whether attempts by the British insurance industry to'signpost' customers to suitable cover is actually working. We also hear from Dr Mitesh Patel at Aetna International about the impact of absenteeism and how to tackle it; Tony Ridley of Intelligent Travel explores how travel risk analysis can often be lacking; and Iain Brown from SAS UK & Ireland asks how ready your insurance organisation is for the advent of artificial intelligence. To read ITIJ's June issue, click here.

Tessa, a cuddly little social robot that supports people with dementia made headlines in March. We know technology can revolutionize care, but Tessa claimed her place as one of the first examples that made it past the pilot stage. The tinybot is not the only piece of technology that improves the lives of people with dementia. More than 270,000 people suffer from this disease in The Netherlands and, with no cure in sight, the need for solutions that increase patients' quality of life is high. ProXcellence, SAP, and the Dutch Alzheimer Association joined forces to develop an application prototype that helps patients and their loved ones engage in real and meaningful conversation.

Global semiconductor revenue is expected to rise by 7% (year over year) in 2018, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (or WSTS). And, while the semiconductor industry has enjoyed consistent growth over the decades, the underlying ICs that power modern technology have evolved. Infiniti Research recently released a blog summarizing the four major contributors to the growth in the semiconductor industry: artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution, Level 3 autonomous vehicles, and high-throughput technologies such as 5G and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). These developments are driving increased demand across the semiconductor segments, particularly for processors, sensors and analog ICs. The mass fabrication of AI chips is rising on a global scale, from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's plan to mass-produce neural-network processing chips by 2020 to IBM Watson Group's $200 million investment for a facility in Munich.

Despite unpredictable economic and political headwinds, the European real estate sector continues to flourish, albeit in some regions more than others. Competition for deals is fierce and speed is often of the essence: so much so that, according to research1 recently conducted by Drooms, over 50 per cent of real estate professionals in Europe are compromising on the quality of their due diligence in their rush to complete deals quickly. However, modern technology has a solution for those seeking to complete real estate transactions more efficiently. Our research also revealed that where time pressures on due diligence have led to a potential decrease in quality of the process, parties to a transaction have found a solution in technology enabled with artificial intelligence (AI), such as virtual data rooms. According to a Real Capital Analytics (RCA) report published in February 2018, Europe's commercial property investment market returned to growth in 2017, when it registered the third strongest annual expansion on record.2

The 18th-century Irish philosopher Bishop George Berkeley concluded that, since all we know of the universe is what our senses convey to us, things in the world exist only to the extent that we perceive them. They have no material reality, but are phenomena in and of our minds, or the mind of God. Samuel Johnson famously countered this philosophy by kicking a large stone and saying, "I refute it thus!" Two hundred years later, while American campuses roiled with protests against the Vietnam War, the philosopher, historian, and physicist Thomas Kuhn met with a grad student at Princeton's legendary Institute for Advanced Study to discuss the student's paper. The professor and student disagreed on some fundamental ideas, and the conversation grew heated.

Mastercard is looking at ways to integrate its payments system into voice assistants made by Google and Amazon to let people pay by talking to a device, a top executive from the company told CNBC on Monday. The U.S. payments giant has a product called Masterpass that allows a user to upload credit card details and acts as an easy way to pay for things online. Recently, the company launched a facility for people to pay with Masterpass for products within Facebook Messenger. When they buy a product, Masterpass can be used to pay. It's a trend Mastercard is calling "conversational commerce" and it extends to voice too.

A man interacts with his'smart' sex doll as he lays in a bed in his home in Guangzhou, Guandong Province, China. The smart sex industry is growing, and medical experts warn there's no evidence to show their health benefits or risks. Some sex robot creators have been working on the machines for decades, but a new report shows the medical community can't endorse them as a healthy companion. In fact, there's no evidence showing the dolls have any impact on health at all, according to Susan Bewley, an obstetrician at King's College London and Chantal Cox-George, a doctor at St. George's University Hospitals, also in the British capital. The two analyzed medical journals and general online searches for any primary data relating to health aspects of sex robots and came up short.

Apple is going to revive the MacBook Air, its mostly forgotten small computer. That's according to a new report that suggests that the laptop will get new features and a new lower price tag this year. The new report claims that Apple will release at least three new big products this year: an even bigger, 6.1-inch version of the iPhone X, updated versions of the AirPods, and a MacBook Air. The first two have been long rumoured – but the new MacBook Air is a surprise. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 03: A gamer plays the video game'Fortnite: Battle Royale' developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games. Fortnite is an online video game of survival and construction available on consoles, PC and, recently, on iPhone. Released in July 2017, it has been growing in popularity in recent months. Fortnite, which brings together more than 40 million players each month around the world, brings a fortune to its creators. Not much is known about the specifics of the claims because neither party were willing to comment on the case.

Exports to China, which drives the world market, soared by around 60 percent, propelled by big investment in its electronics industry and automation. Demand was also dynamic in the United States, while growth in Europe remained moderate, the VDMA said.