The explosive growth of structured and unstructured data, along with the availability of new technologies such as cloud computing and machine learning algorithms, have made the expanded use of artificial intelligence (AI) in banking possible. According to Goldman Sachs, AI will enable $34 billion to $43 billion in annual "cost savings and new revenue opportunities" within the financial services sector by 2025. With more data accessible than ever before, banks are actively working on opportunities to better integrate machine learning into their businesses. However, this does not have to mean a less personalized experience for customers. Rather, it is crucial for customer loyalty that, even with decreasing face-to-face interactions, customized interactions are the norm.

However you choose to define artificial intelligence, its use is becoming increasingly widespread in the financial services industry. Whether it's in the research and development of new trading strategies, analysis and management of risk, or assisting with regulatory and compliance functions, there are a growing number of use cases for AI and machine learning. The implications of this from an infrastructure perspective are significant, particularly for trading or investment firms that use AI to determine when, where, and how to trade. Harald Helnwein: I think that artificial intelligence can play – and will play – a major role in the financial services industry. We are very much focusing with our algos to move away from discretionary decision-making or "gut feel" or "shooting from the hip", towards algorithms that try to produce reproducible objective facts for trading decisions, and we've been using artificial intelligence for let's say over 10 years now, and basically machine learning for our filters.

Traditional art has an element of illusionism to it. This has long been commented on, and is responsible for the prevalent thought (at least among the general public) that the more realistic the artwork, the more a man-made creation looks like a nature-made one, the better it must be. The ancient praised the lifelike naturalism of painters, with Pliny relating the famous story of a duel between two artists, one of whom was able to fool a bird into swooping in to peck at his painted grapes, whereas the other was able to fool the first artist, tricking him into trying to pull aside a curtain that was, in fact, his painting of a curtain. Fooling a human trumps fooling an animal, and the ability to inspire awe, wonder, the "how-did-they-do-that" expression, has long been the goal of most traditional art. Think of a tale of Pygmalion, in which an ivory sculpture of a naked woman was so realistic, and its sculptor's love for it so strong, that it actually came to life.

In the future, we will be competing against medically-enhanced workers who can work longer and harder than us. Artificial intelligence will make it easier to monitor our every move in the office. This may sound like science fiction, but it's a likely reality, according to a new report by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report, which drew upon a team of science researchers and a survey of more than 10,000 workers based in China, Germany, India, the U.K., and the U.S., predicts that rapid advances in technology, resource scarcity, and population demographics are among the key forces that would radically shape the future of work by 2030. According to PwC, these forces will result in four potential futures: one where "humans come first," one where "innovation rules," one where "companies care," and one where "corporate is king."

Susie and her computer friend Sadie appeared in 1960s adverts to promote a now defunct UK computer company, accompanied by a young, attractive, nameless woman. Feminised adverts like these were a common ploy in Britain at the time, when male managers, uninitiated in the complexities of this new technology, viewed the machines as intimidating and opaque. "Computers were expensive and using women to advertise them gave the appearance to managers that jobs involving computers are easy and can be done with a cheap labour force," explains technology historian Marie Hicks. They might have been on a typist's salary, but women like the one who appears alongside Susie and Sadie were not typists – they were skilled computer programmers, minus the prestige or pay the modern equivalent might command. As Hicks' book Programmed Inequality illustrates, women were the largest trained technical workforce of the computing industry during the second world war and through to the mid-sixties.

Artificial intelligence robots are turbocharging the race to find new drugs for the crippling nerve disorder ALS, or motor neurone disease. The condition, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, attacks and kills nerve cells controlling muscles, leading to weakness, paralysis and, ultimately, respiratory failure. There are only two drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), one available since 1995 and the other approved just this year. About 140,000 new cases are diagnosed a year globally and there is no cure for the disease, famously suffered by cosmologist Stephen Hawking. "Many doctors call it the worst disease in medicine and the unmet need is huge," said Richard Mead of the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, who has found artificial intelligence (AI) is already speeding up his work. They analyze huge chemical, biological and medical databases, alongside reams of scientific papers, far quicker than humanly possible, throwing up new biological targets and potential drugs.

The Bios Urn mixes cremains with soil and seedlings. It automatically waters and cares for the memorial sapling, sending updates to a smartphone app. The Bios Urn mixes cremains with soil and seedlings. It automatically waters and cares for the memorial sapling, sending updates to a smartphone app. Earlier this summer, a modest little startup in Barcelona, Spain, unveiled its newest product -- a biodegradable, Internet-connected funeral urn that turns the ashes of departed loved ones into an indoor tree.

Artificial intelligence robots are turbocharging the race to find new drugs for the crippling nerve disorder ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease. The condition attacks and kills nerve cells controlling muscles, leading to weakness, paralysis and, ultimately, respiratory failure. There are only two drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), one available since 1995 and the other approved just this year. About 140,000 new cases are diagnosed a year globally, and there is no cure. "Many doctors call it the worst disease in medicine, and the unmet need is huge," said Richard Mead of the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, who has found artificial intelligence (AI) is already speeding up his work.

Twitter trolls run by the Kremlin's Internet Research Agency. Denial of service attacks and ransomware deployed across Ukraine. Spies hidden in the heart of Wall Street. And a century-old fabricated staple of anti-Semitic hate literature. At first glance these disparate phenomena might seem only vaguely connected. Sure, they can all be traced back to Russia. But is there any method to their badness? The definitive answer, according to Russia experts inside and outside the US government, is most certainly yes. In fact, they are part of an increasingly digital intelligence playbook known as "active measures," a wide-ranging set of techniques and strategies that Russian military and intelligence services deploy to influence the affairs of nations across the globe. As the investigation into Russia's influence on the 2016 election--and the Trump campaign's potential participation in that effort--has intensified this summer, the Putin regime's systematic effort to undermine and destabilize democracies has become the subject of urgent focus in the West. According to interviews with more than a dozen US and European intelligence officials and diplomats, Russian active measures represent perhaps the biggest challenge to the Western order since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The consensus: Vladimir Putin, playing a poor hand economically and demographically at home, is seeking to destabilize the multilateral institutions, partnerships, and Western democracies that have kept the peace during the past seven decades.

As a rule of thumb, the best ideas are the simplest. That's easy to forget in an age of rapid technological innovation, when the tendency is to be led by capability rather than need. For as Karen Dolva, co-founder of the Norwegian startup No Isolation, says: "There are a lot of engineers who don't want to make something useful – they want to make something cool." Dolva, a 26-year-old who studied computer science and interaction design at Oslo University, is not one of them. She and her two co-founders – Marius Aabel and Matias Doyle – are all about utility.