In less than five years, artificial intelligence -- AI, as it's commonly known -- has gone from the stuff of science fiction to the forefront of the news, from scientific journals to the strategic plans of the world's biggest companies. It's a coming sea change, one that will disrupt entire parts of our lives by competing with what, until now, was seen as a fundamentally human characteristic: Our intelligence. At the same time, he acknowledges that AI -- at least for now -- is "still utterly unintelligent". Recognising a cat in a picture, a sentence dictated to a smartphone or even a tumour in MRI images is an impressive feat. But this prowess is still limited to very specific uses, Alexandre argues.

Global consulting firm Accenture notes that stand-alone, AI-powered digital voice assistant devices are being used "for a range of consumer services such as playing music, turning the heat and lights on and off, and providing news, weather and sports scores." That's to be expected, of course - that's what they're for - but in an online survey of 21,000 consumers in 19 countries, Accenture discovered that digital virtual assistants are becoming "the central hub for home activities in Australia." Again, that's the whole point of digital assistants - they're meant to be the hub of your digital home, not just answering questions but helping you control your other connected devices, but naturally, it's always good to see this being confirmed by actual users. In addition, "three quarters (75%) of these owners said they use their smartphones less for entertainment, more than two thirds use them less for online purchasing and more than half for general information searches (71% and 55%, respectively)." David Sovie, global MD of Accenture's High Tech business said: "Digital voice assistant devices are challenging smartphones as the central hub for all activities in the home. "These low-cost devices deliver valuable and practical benefits and are relatively easy to use, and their rapidly growing popularity is one of the most striking trends in the high-tech industry." Accenture tells us its survey shows that "ownership levels of digital voice assistant devices in Australia are projected to increase more than five times this year, reaching 23% by the end of 2018 from 4% in 2017.

This interview is part of our series of . We interviewed the founders and CEOs of 20 of the fastest growing startups in Europe. We asked them about their companies, their companies' culture, and their lives, trying to understand how these three factors played a role in the achievement of such impressive growth. If you want to know where to launch your next business venture, keep reading -- Spanish startup can help you out. Founded in 2015, the company is already leading the field of location intelligence.

– This article is only meant for discussion and healthy arguments, its not a conclusion by any means this is just an assumption and current picture focused on African & few other markets. Today payment industry can be compared with either payment war, payment jungle or even just payment storm. On the other hand how Mobile Financial Services have brought FinClusion (financial inclusion) to millions of people that have no access to traditional methods of banking. In many parts of Africa, there simply exists no bank infrastructure for people to be able to bank in the traditional way. Even where they do exist, people do not dare to enter into the big bank halls due to killing charges, KYC requirement equivalent to climbing the mount everest and time to travel miles to go or even time to stand in long queues or have the patience to go through the bank's processes.

Layla Moran has been an MP for about six months so naturally she thinks it's "ridiculous" that she is already being talked about as the next Lib Dem leader. But 10 years as a maths teacher is enough for her to at least partly understand what lies behind the speculation. "Well, there are only 12 of us [in Parliament] aren't there," she says, laughing. "Not that many to pick from. But I've only been here five minutes. That it is Layla Moran's name and no one else's doing the rounds is because she is articulate, extremely intelligent, easy company, and she absolutely screams Lib Dem. She is young (she's 35), she's a teacher, she's got a constituency full of academics in Oxford West and Abingdon, she has a Palestinian mother and a father who was a diplomat for the EU (she spent Christmas in Brussels, obviously). But what political people know that perhaps the population at large does not is that Lib Dems do not pull their punches, and she doesn't either. She thinks, "Michael Gove was one of the worst things to ever happen to the education system in this country," she says. She thinks, "David Cameron is the worst Prime Minister this country has ever had." Pleasingly, Moran is not a fully combat-trained politician yet. So when I ask her whether she has her eye on the top job, she replies, "You say that like it's a foregone conclusion that anyone would want to be Lib Dem leader." In the recent leadership "election" only one candidate stood, Sir Vince Cable, and he has almost stopped bothering to disguise the fact he wants to retire. Even so, this is still not a view that a political party's rising star is meant to say out loud. Someone should want to do it, but I decided to be an MP for a very specific reason. But there are concrete reasons that large parts of the party faithful are quietly gathering behind the Moran banner. No small cause is her election victory itself. Oxford West and Abingdon used to be solid Lib Dem, before turning marginal more recently. Moran surprised everyone, not least herself, by turning over a 9,500 majority against a well liked Conservative candidate, Nicola Blackwood. "Oh I was very surprised," she explains. We weren't aware of where the wind was blowing. It really wasn't until 4am that we were sure. At that point I was giving interviews about how great it was to come so close."

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government aims to broaden its powers to block foreign takeovers of French companies deemed as strategic, to also include firms involved in data protection and artificial intelligence ('AI'), the finance minister said on Friday. Bruno Le Maire said he wanted the two sectors to be added to a 2014 decree requiring foreign companies to get permission from the French state before taking control of firms in the energy, telecoms, transport, water and the health industries. "I think that when you look at current economic trends, there's a certain number of sectors that could be added to this decree," Le Maire said on BFM TV. Do we really want investors to market our data? I'm thinking about artificial intelligence, a very sensitive sector that we want more investment in," he added.

Imagine lying on a hospital bed. One leans down to tell you that you are terribly sick and says they recommend a risky procedure as your best hope. You ask them to explain what's going on. Your trust in the doctors ebbs away. Replace the doctors with a computer program and you more or less have the state of artificial intelligence (AI) today.

Chess is an antique, about 1,500 years old, according to most historians. As a result, its evolution seems essentially complete, a hoary game now largely trudging along. That's not to say that there haven't been milestones. In medieval Europe, for example, they made the squares on the board alternate black and white. In the 15th century, the queen got her modern powers.1

Ocado is to test a humanoid maintenance assistant in its warehouses, in the online grocery specialist's latest move to reduce reliance on human workers. Artificial Intelligence has various definitions, but in general it means a program that uses data to build a model of some aspect of the world. This model is then used to make informed decisions and predictions about future events. The technology is used widely, to provide speech and face recognition, language translation, and personal recommendations on music, film and shopping sites. In the future, it could deliver driverless cars, smart personal assistants, and intelligent energy grids.

The 2018 Retail Banking Trends and Predictions report provides an excellent analysis of what the industry believes will occur in 2018. But, what do banks and credit unions need to do immediately to benefit from upcoming digital technology trends? Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!When we surveyed over 100 leaders in the global financial industry, we asked for their thoughts on the trends and predictions affecting retail banks and credit unions in the coming year. Ten major industry trends rose to the top, with three trends being paramount in the eyes of the research participants. But getting a perspective on the future is only valuable if organizations know what action they need to take.