Apple's own vision for the future of home audio, the HomePod smart speaker, will begin shipping on February 9th. Pre-orders for the device open this Friday, January 26th, and are open to users in the US, UK and Australia, while those in France and Germany will be waiting until the "spring." It will, as expected, be priced at $349 / £319, and is available in either White or Space Grey. HomePod is Apple's own weapon in the fight against Amazon and Google in the war of smart speakers with voice assistants. Like its rivals, the device can listen to commands, via Siri, allowing you to control your smart home and music playback.

Robots must be taught morals so they can be trusted to make potentially life and death decisions, Theresa May will say. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to drive cars, diagnose patients and decide on prison sentences around the world. The Prime Minster will warn that as machines swoop in to carry out more jobs they must also be taught how to make ethical decisions. The PM - who was mockingly dubbed the Maybot during the election campaign - will make the warning in a major speech on AI this Thursday in Davos, a summit of political and business leaders. Theresa May (pictured in No10 last night) will warn that as machines swoop in to carry out more jobs they must also be taught how to make ethical decisions.

Google on Monday announced it will open a research center in Paris devoted to artificial intelligence, following a meeting between the tech giant's boss and French President Emmanuel Macron.

One of the great issues of the next 30 years will be the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the way in which we live. We stand on the threshold of a new industrial revolution, which has the potential to enrich mankind just as past upheavals have done. Governments must decide to what extent they encourage this or stand in its way. Above all, we need to know that they are taking this phenomenon seriously and planning for its ramifications. In Davos, the world's political and business leaders will fret over whether the loss of millions of jobs could undermine social cohesion.

Chris Boos has a mission: empowering human potential, freeing up time for creativity and innovative thinking through artificial intelligence (AI). Chris founded Arago in Germany in 1995, pushing existing boundaries in AI technology to build a general AI. As a strategic corporate and political advisor, as well as angel investor, Chris's multifaceted engagement for AI makes him a respected public speaker and thought-leader on issues of global importance, such as the man-machine-relationship, the way societies deal with information and the future of labour.

Autonomous and electric cars, connectivity, and ridesharing are changing the way auto industry players think about value chains, data analytics, and manufacturing. Behind all the talk of robo-cars, electric vehicles, and increased car connectivity is a focus by major car companies on serving customers' more intricate technological needs. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, senior partners Asutosh Padhi and Andreas Tschiesner speak with McKinsey's Simon London about how four trends--autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification, and ridesharing--are paving the way for entirely new forms of mobility. Simon London: Welcome to the McKinsey Podcast. Let's start with a question. Is it your phone, your laptop, maybe you're wearing a smartwatch? Well, if you drive a car that's less than a few years old, it's probably smarter than any of these. And your next car will be even smarter: more sensors, more connectivity, more processing power. Perhaps even the ability to drive autonomously.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a blog post about Google's investments in France. There are three different pieces of news in this announcement. First, Google is going to expand its office in Paris. If you already know Google's current office in Paris, that building is going to stick around. The company is going to acquire or rent other buildings around Google's current office and connect them.

Their Head of EMEA Phil Cox gives us his top predictions for the year ahead.

What is the impact artificial intelligence (AI) technology implementations in the enterprise are having on return-on-investment (ROI), the workforce and organisational leadership? A research report from Infosys this morning coming out of the World Economic Forum in Davos attempts to answer this. The research findings point to a fundamental shift in how enterprises operate as AI takes hold. Enterprises are moving beyond the experimentation phase with AI, deploying AI technologies more broadly and realising benefits across their business. According to the survey, 73% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their AI deployments have already transformed the way they do business, and 90% of c-level executives reported measurable benefits from AI within their organisation.

What do the International Space Station (ISS) and the Belgian police force have in common? If you said integrated approaches to machine learning, you'd be correct! Artificial intelligence (AI) systems that were developed to prepare astronauts for space are now being employed to solve crimes. European law enforcement agents believe the technology has the potential to help them more efficiently sift through data, recreate crime scenes, and identify leads. The earliest version of this system was developed by Space Applications Services almost 15 years ago.