Readers of 20 regional newspapers in the UK have been unwittingly involved in what was called a first for journalism. At the end of 2017, a bunch of stories published in these dailies and weeklies were written by algorithms, rather than humans. The stories reported on trends in birth registrations across the UK drawn from data from the Office of National Statistics, such as how many children were registered by married, cohabiting or single parents. But each individual story gave the figures a local twist. The trial was part of a project by Press Association, the UK's equivalent of The Canadian Press news service.

Experts have predicted that automation will take over a large number of jobs in the future, and now, a United Kingdom-based think-tank has analyzed the potential impact of automation in the U.K. Their newly released report confirms this vision of the future, while also highlighting the areas of the nation likely to be hardest hit. The Centre for Cities' "Cities Outlook 2018" report maps out how likely various urban centers in the U.K. are to experience job displacement due to intelligent automation. They determined that 20.2 percent of all workers in the nation's 63 largest urban areas could be replaced by 2030. That's a total of roughly 3.6 million jobs, and according to the report, the cities in the nation's northern, least wealthy areas are likely to be most affected. Automation tends to affect administrative jobs, retail sales, customer services, and warehouse work.

Driverless vehicles will face a'testing' 200-mile (320km) journey across the UK next year. The autonomous cars will have to contend with challenges such as winding country lanes, motorways and roundabouts, in an effort to test their systems. The nationwide test, dubbed HumanDrive initiative, is designed to put the computer-controlled cars through their paces in'live traffic and natural conditions'. The HumanDrive initiative hopes to put the computer controlled cars through their paces in'live traffic and natural conditions' on a 200-mile (320 km) road test of the driverless cars The UK wants to get driverless cars on the road by 2021. However, British roads present a number of unique challenges that autonomous driving systems are unlikely to be prepared for after testing in the United States.

The World Economic forum took place in Davos, Switzerland recently where various world leaders held talks discussing several issues. Whilst there, Prime Minister Theresa May said the UK would join the Davos forum's own council for artificial intelligence. Other countries have stated their claim on the AI world already, for example, France is the country of choice for Google's new research centre dedicated to exploring the uses of artificial intelligence in the health and environment sectors. In addition to this, another global corporation in Facebook have an AI lab based in the nation. A recent report by the Eurasia Group consultancy also concluded that the USA and China are in a'two-way race for AI dominance'.

The UK's tech firms have attracted more venture capital funding than any other European country in 2017 putting it at the top of the list for global tech investors. France has now made steps in creating new tech businesses and encouraging entrepreneurs, with Paris's newly built Station F, a former railway station hosting multiple startups. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Matt Hancock has met with his French counterpart, Fracoise Nyssen, at the UK France Summit. He said the digital conference will take place this year and foster cross-channel collaboration between academics, industry and government. The summit's aim is to help both countries seize the economic and social benefits of fast-developing tech such as AI.

The Voynich Manuscript has baffled cryptographers ever since the early 15th-century document was rediscovered by a Polish book dealer in 1912. The handwritten, 240-page screed, now housed in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, is written from left to right in an unknown language. On top of that, the text itself is likely to have been scrambled by an unknown code. Despite numerous attempts to crack the code by some of the world's best cryptographers, including Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park team, the contents of the enigmatic book have long remained a mystery. But that hasn't stopped people from trying.

CARY – Oliver Schabenberger, to use a military term embraced by industry, is "dual hatted." And as chief operating officer as well as chief technology officer at SAS, he serves as No. 2 to CEO and co-founder Jim Goodnight. So no one other than Goodnight has a better hands-on, inside view of the 2018 landscape and beyond for the global software firm that is one of the world's biggest big data juggernauts with an industry-leading emphasis on analytics. And a big part of that future is the Internet of Things as SAS moves to create a division focusing on IoT, which is transforming tech around the world and is forecast as a multi-trillion dollar opportunity by Cisco as well as other firms. In a Q&A with WRAL Tech Wire, Schabenberger, who was promoted to the COO in 2017 after being selected as CTO the previous year, talks about the future and several key issues facing the company.

As the UK attempts to position itself at the forefront of autonomous driving, the government -- with help from startups and universities -- has embarked on a number of trials in order to rack up the necessary miles on the road. This normally involves putting a self-driving through the small patches of the best and worst British highways have to have offer, providing car makers with the data they need to manufacture a safe autonomous vehicle and pave the way for updated laws and regulations in order to govern them. The new Human Drive initiative, announced today, is another of those driverless trials, but this one wants to be a little more thorough than those that have come before it. A self-driving car will embark on the "most complex autonomously controlled journey" ever attempted in the UK, taking in country roads, A-roads, motorways, high-speed roundabouts and various driving scenarios that are mostly unique to British roads. Overall, the vehicle will travel over 200 miles performing its duties.

On Tuesday, January 23rd, the 48th World Economic Forum (WEF) got underway in Davos, Switzerland. This year, the world's top business and political leaders, economists and representatives from academia are gathering under the theme of "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World." In this context, the participants will focus on inclusive growth, sustainable development and the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The main objective of the meeting is to engage chief executives, political leaders, academia members and technology pioneers to advance multiple agendas, such as the Global, Geopolitical, Economic, Regional, Industry and Business, and the Future Agenda. In a press conference ahead of the meeting, key representatives gave an update on the World Economic Outlook.

You know that slightly niggly, slightly crazy feeling you get when you feel something or someone is watching you? I have that feeling that today as I sit writing about a tech subject that's very topical and very exciting. The eyes have it, full of soulfulness and a sense of spiky intellect. The hair is ruby-red with snowy white bands and the ears are bobbed... the likeness is fairly uncanny as I look at Sophie, a beautifully rendered 3D sculpture of my almost decade-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Her sandstone replica sits serenely, almost regally, on the corner bookshelf while the real dog lies on a cosy rug snoring soundly, oblivious to the clear advances in tech over the past few years that have made the exactness of her "clone" possible.