The CIA had a special programme allowing it to trick people into thinking they had been hacked by other countries, according to WikiLeaks. The agency was cataloguing the hacking methods of outside cyber attackers, including those from Russia, according to files published by the organisation. Once it had them catalogued, it could use them to break into other countries or people's computers or phones – making it look like a different country had done so. WikiLeaks made specific reference to the Russian Federation. Tensions between the US and Russia have escalated in recent months, in particular since American intelligence agencies blamed the hack of Democratic emails – credited with swaying the election of Donald Trump – on the country.

Last week, I compiled a list of the 5 jobs robots will take first. Today, let's have a go at the 5 jobs robots will take last. For this article only, let's define "robots" as technologies, such as machine learning algorithms running on purpose-built computer platforms, that have been trained to perform tasks that currently require humans to perform. For example, an assembly line worker performs mostly manual repetitive tasks which, depending on complexity and a cost/benefit analysis, can be automated. A CEO of a major multinational conglomerate performs mostly cognitive nonrepetitive tasks that are much harder to automate.

Back in January, Coupa acquired Spend360, a leader in artificial intelligence for spend management founded by Paddy Lawton, the author of today's blog post. What happens when a mathematician falls down a rabbit hole into the world of sourcing and procurement? Artificial intelligence (AI) comes to spend management, that's what. It's a tale that illustrates how AI has been evolving over the past several years, to the point where it's finally starting to deliver real value. I'll tell you all about how that happened and what it means, but first I want to give some background so you understand exactly what it is we're talking about, and why it's happening now. It seems that every third business article you read these days makes some mention of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and how they're going to transform the world.

Gory video games are often thought to make people more aggressive and less empathetic because they normalise brutal violence. But a new study has found that regular players of violent video games are not affected in the long-term. Researchers measured the brain signals of 15 avid gamers and found that their empathetic neural responses were untouched by long hours of violent games. GTA is one of the most successful and controversial game franchises of all time due to its graphic depictions of sex and violence. A new study suggests that violent video video games do not affect players' empathy Earlier this month, a pair of British psychologists claimed that violent video games can have a positive social impact.

Funding for research into robotics and a next-generation 5G mobile network, has been announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond as part of his Budget. He also promised more money to support the development of driverless cars and electric vehicle batteries. The funds for the hi-tech research come from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF), which was announced by the chancellor last year. However, one expert said the money was unlikely to be enough. The promises were welcomed by one robotics lecturer.

This year, 2017, has been dubbed the year artificial intelligence (AI). With developers already beginning to innovate and improve the technologies that already exist, the potential growth in the field is undeniable. The question of strong artificial intelligence is not one of "if" but one of "when" and it is only a matter of time before artificial intelligence is fully integrated into our lives. There are two main types of artificial intelligence to keep an eye out for: strong and weak. With no signs of slowing down, AI integration is very much a real part of the world today.

Obsessively playing violent video games such as Call of Duty for hours every day for several years does not necessarily reduce the amount of empathy people feel towards others in the long term, according to a new study. Researchers in Germany showed "emotionally provocative images" to 15 avid gamers while their brains were being monitored by an MRI machine. They found there was no difference between the response patterns of the gamers' minds compared to a control group. To avoid short-term effects, the gamers had not played games for at least three hours before the test. This may have been a challenge for some of them as, on average, they had played video games for four hours a day every day for four years.

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As mentioned in the first part of these two pieces, we talk a lot about fintech. We talk about it as though it is one thing, when in fact it is many. There are nuances to this market, which is over a decade old, that need to be fleshed out in more detail because, as with technology in general, some of this fintech is in the hype cycle, some is in the chasm, and some is coming into the mainstream as accepted. I call this the Chris Skinner Fintech Wave (loosely based on Gartner's Hype Cycle), which I didn't share in the first entry, but now that you know where I'm going, here it is: As you can see, some technologies are rising, some falling and some are now widely adopted, such as lending marketplaces. In this second part, I thought it worth discussing the remaining areas that are primarily generic technologies with a financial flavour, such as AI, machine learning, IoT and biometrics.

This post highlights some of the possible economic implications of the so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution" -- whereby the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) threatens to transform entire industries and sectors. Some economists have argued that, like past technical change, this will not create large-scale unemployment, as labour gets reallocated. However, many technologists are less optimistic about the employment implications of AI. In this blog post we argue that the potential for simultaneous and rapid disruption, coupled with the breadth of human functions that AI might replicate, may have profound implications for labour markets. We conclude that economists should seriously consider the possibility that millions of people may be at risk of unemployment, should these technologies be widely adopted.