Japan and Germany may be sitting on a ticking demographic time bomb where aging populations begin to drag down economic growth.

General Atomics' new predator drone has broken a company endurance record for non-stop hours in flight. The MQ-9B'SkyGuardian' drone flew for 48.2 hours in a row, with reserve fuel left. The company's previous record was held by the Predator XP drone, which flew 46.1 hours in 2015. The MQ-9B's test flight took off on May 16th, 2017 from Laguna Airfield at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, with 6,065 pounds (2,750 kilograms) of fuel. It flew between 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) and 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) high and landed on May 18th, with 280 pounds (127 kilograms) of reserve fuel left.

Inspite of all the current hype, AI is not a new field of study, but it has its ground in the fifties. If we exclude the pure philosophical reasoning path that goes from the Ancient Greek to Hobbes, Leibniz, and Pascal, AI as we know it has been officially started in 1956 at Dartmouth College, where the most eminent experts gathered to brainstorm on intelligence simulation. This happened only a few years after Asimov set his own three laws of robotics, but more relevantly after the famous paper published by Turing (1950), where he proposes for the first time the idea of a thinking machine and the more popular Turing test to assess whether such machine shows, in fact, any intelligence. As soon as the research group at Dartmouth publicly released the contents and ideas arisen from that summer meeting, a flow of government funding was reserved for the study of creating a nonbiological intelligence. Atthat time, AI seemed to be easily reachable, but it turned out that was not the case.

Just in case artificial intelligence turns on humankind, researchers have engineered a warning sign. Australian technology agency DT created a device that cautions its wearer when artificial intelligence is impersonating a human – just by sending a chill down the person's back. "The post-truth era is just getting started," DT wrote in a blog post introducing the technology. "Near the end of 2017 we'll be consuming content synthesized to mimic real people. Leaving us in a sea of disinformation powered by AI and machine learning. The media, giant tech corporations and citizens already struggle to discern fact from fiction. And as this technology is democratized it will be even more prevalent."

When Russia's Yandex revealed that it, too, was working on self-driving cars, it was hard not to be a bit skeptical. Wouldn't it be well behind American counterparts with a years-long head start, like Waymo? Clearly, it's making up for lost time: Yandex (or specifically, its on-demand service Yandex.Taxi) has unveiled a prototype self-driving car. The heavily modified Toyota Prius V touts loads of sensors, AI and "proprietary computing algorithms" that can help it navigate around traffic and tricky obstacles. The demo video below doesn't show any mind-blowing concepts, but that's really the point -- Yandex is showing that it already has a functional machine.

While many people assume that artificial intelligence is something we'll be seeing well into the future, the truth is, many businesses are already using AI, and are successfully implementing business transformation strategies, connecting with their customers, and scaling faster than ever before. Most of these businesses are located overseas. A recent survey by Vanson Vourne, (commissioned by Infosys) polled business leaders across Australia, the United States, France, Germany, China, the UK, and India with at least US$500m in annual revenue and more than 1,000 staff. Of the 1,600 business leaders surveyed, Australian businesses only invested an average of $7.9m in artificial intelligence last year, and placed last in plans for AI integration and the skills required to implement AI. Andrew Growth, Infosys regional head, says that the results of the survey show that Australia is risking becoming uncompetitive.

It's no secret artificial intelligence is the hottest technology in insurance. Insurtechs and incumbent carriers alike are excited for the technology's potential in underwriting, customer service and claims. However, the relatively new technology does have some shortcomings, experts say. A lack of historical data, insurers' legacy systems and AI's inability to decipher natural language beyond basic speech has stymied the technology's growth. And for all of AI's industry-wide adoption, carriers appear to only trust machine learning to carry out the same tasks as web portals or mobile apps.

Artificial intelligence is a technology that is already impacting how users interact with, and are affected by the Internet. In the near future, its impact is likely to only continue to grow. AI has the potential to vastly change the way that humans interact, not only with the digital world, but also with each other, through their work and through other socioeconomic institutions – for better or for worse. If we are to ensure that the impact of artificial intelligence will be positive, it will be essential that all stakeholders participate in the debates surrounding AI. In this paper, we seek to provide an introduction to AI to policymakers and other stakeholders in the wider Internet ecosystem. The paper explains the basics of the technology behind AI, identifies the key considerations and challenges surrounding the technology, and provides several high-level principles and recommendations to follow when dealing with the technology.

When on the subject of successful leaders, it is evident that the how and why of success help derive inspiration. Forbes has come up with its second list of game changers--those who are not happy with the status quo and are transforming their industries by making a difference to the lives of their consumers. The youngest game changers are two contenders--Evan Spiegel, 26-year-old CEO of Snap, and Stripe cofounders John (26) and Patrick Collison (28). The oldest is 75–year-old Christo Wiese, chairman of South Africa-based retail company Steinhoff. These are the innovative trailblazers who are redefining and reimagining the lives of people, and taking the requisite action to bring that vision to life. Forbes embarked on this initiative to acknowledge not just typical corporate achievements such as profits and growth, which are largely limited to employees and shareholders, but also the flair for making a true difference to the larger society.

Apple recently updated online availability of 15-inch MacBook Pro on its website to June 6-8 to coincide with the Worldwide Developers Conference next week, MacRumors first spotted. The move comes after a Bloomberg report said Apple plans to announce its new laptop lineup at WWDC. Apple will reportedly announce new versions of the 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro at the event. The company is also said to be considering updating the MacBook Air, which hasn't been upgraded in years. In-store pickup of the 15-inch MacBook Pro is available for June 8.