It's that time of year, when like you, we all look to the future and ponder what the next one, two, five or even 10 years will be like? Specifically this blog addresses the following topics and themes: RegTech; Artificial Intelligence (AI); Blockchain (wider distributed ledgers); Crypto-currencies inc. Bitcoin; Machine Learning; Big Data; Smart Data; AML, KYC, MiFIDII, GDPR in addition to some specific companies you may want to keep an eye on and more... We must not forget to mention the former Panama, Bahamas and more recent Paradise paper leaks (see my other LinkedIn pulse to explore that topic in more detail). In this LinkedIn pulse I aim to walk you through the many topics, themes, patterns that are taking place and what I think the future holds in particular for the #RegTech sector & regulatory risk (in addition to others).

This PhD studentship is funded for three years by the Big C Charity. Funding comprises Home/EU fees, an annual stipend (£14,553 for 2017 entry – this increases each year in line with the GDP deflator) and £1000 per annum to support research training. Analysis of the genetic phylogeny of multifocal prostate cancer identifies multiple independent clonal expansions in neoplastic and morphologically normal prostate tissue.

"This is our second event focused on the current and future implementation of AI in the auto industry," said John Sousanis, managing director of Wards Intelligence. "We believe the evolution in Artificial Intelligence will be one of the most impactful trends in automotive - affecting everything from the way vehicles are designed, tested and built, to the way they interface with passengers, the road and other vehicles. Our first conference was the beginning of an ongoing discussion of this rapidly changing technology. For our second event, we've expanded to a full-day to take a deeper dive into AI, and present perspectives and insight from our analysts and subject matter experts inside and outside the industry." Registration for the event is limited to 120 people, and limited seating remains available.

Controversial plans to force people to prove their age before watching pornography online have been delayed by the Government. The decision comes amid continuing controversy and confusion over how the blocks will actually be implemented. The Government has long been hoping to introduce age checks to ensure that only over-18s can watch adult content. Those plans were due to go into force this April, and would see people who didn't properly check who was viewing their sites charged up to £250,000. 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.

So when the three co-founders of Dubai-based Derq, a traffic-safety startup, need to get to the carmaking capital of the U.S., they take a connecting flight on Air France through Paris or on Emirates through Boston. That typically means a four-leg, 32-hour round-trip for at least one of them once a month. It would be unthinkable for the startup, which uses artificial intelligence to predict and prevent car accidents, not to have a presence in the Motor City. So after securing a $1.5 million round of funding in October, the company opened a satellite office in Detroit. But although two of Derq's three co-founders were educated in the U.S., they aren't interested in basing their whole operation there.

The HDCA programme will create genomic reference maps of all the cells that are important for human development, which will revolutionise our understanding of health and disease, from miscarriages and children's developmental disorders, through to cancer and ageing. The HDCA is one part of the ambitious Human Cell Atlas (HCA), a global consortium that aims to transform biological research and medicine by mapping every cell in the human body. Progress on the HDCA and other aspects of the Human Cell Atlas were discussed at the international HCA meeting at the Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, this week. Many diseases have their origin in early human development, and a detailed understanding of development is key to explaining human health and disease. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Newcastle University have collected genomic data from over 250 thousand cells from a range of donated developing human tissues including liver, skin, kidney and placenta.

You may perhaps have become aware of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, via business briefings and media advertising, is increasingly highlighting this new European Union regulation, which comes into effect on May 25th. The GDPR preamble asserts: "The protection of natural persons in relation to the processing of personal data is a fundamental right." The key theme is that each of us owns our own data. Any company must therefore explicitly request permission to use any of our personal data, explaining why it would like to do so, and for how long.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Utilities can increase their efficiency by using more artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as software to predict demand swings in the power grid or to control home appliances, consultancy Roland Berger said. European utilities could achieve efficiency gains of up to a fifth over the next five years using such technology, it said, adding that less than a quarter of firms had a strategy to do this. Power firms across Europe, which previously depended on coal or gas-fired power plants, are having to adapt to the expanding use of renewable power sources and facing a profit squeeze as wholesale electricity prices have fallen. "Companies need to respond to this change and come up with new business models," Torsten Henzelmann, partner at Roland Berger, said. "To do that they need new technologies such as artificial intelligence."

MPs from the House of Commons inquiry into fake news were warned last week of a new AI technology that is about to change the world, and not for the better. "We're rapidly moving into an era where the Russians, or any other adversary, can create our public figures saying or doing things that are disgraceful or highly corrosive to public trust," Edward Lucas, the senior vice president of the Centre for European Policy Analysis told MPs. "And we're not remotely ready for this." Lucas was talking about so-called deepfakes, which he described as "audio and video that look and sound like the real person, saying something that that person never has". Less than three months ago, producing such videos was a laborious process requiring a video editor, vast amounts of reference footage and years of experience. But in the first few months of this year, the technology has exploded into public availability.

IoT (Internet of Things), the convergence of IT and OT, rapid application development, digital twin simulation models, cyber-physical systems, advanced robots and cobots, additive manufacturing, autonomous production, consistent engineering across the entire value chain, thorough data collection and provisioning, horizontal and vertical integration, the cloud, big data analytics, virtual/augmented reality and edge computing amidst a shift of intelligence towards the edge (artificial intelligence indeed): these are some of the essential technological components of the fourth industrial revolution. Those are quite a lot of terms and components indeed. Yet, Industry 4.0 is a rather vast vision and, increasingly, vast reality that also stretches beyond merely these technological aspects. It is an end-to-end industrial transformation. What makes it all the more fascinating (and at first sight complex) is that convergence of two worlds which have been disconnected thus far: Information ...