Opining about the future of AI at the recent Brilliant Minds event at Symposium Stockholm, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt rejected warnings from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the dangers of AI, saying, In the case of Stephen Hawking, although a brilliant man, he s not a computer scientist. Elon is also a brilliant man, though he too is a physicist, not a computer scientist. This absurd dismissal of Musk and Hawking was in response to an absurd question about the possibility of an artificial superintelligence trying to destroy mankind in the near future. Schmidt went on to say, It s a movie. The state of the earth currently does not support any of these scenarios.

LONDON -- The government is putting cutting edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G wireless internet, "smart" energy technology, and robotics at the heart of its new post-Brexit industrial strategy. Theresa May is set to launch the government's "Modern Industrial Strategy" on Monday at a regional meeting of the cabinet in the North West. The Prime Minister announced in a release on Sunday evening that the strategy would be focused around ten key strategic pillars, the first of which is: "Investing in science, research, and innovation." The release says that the £4.7 billion increase in research & development (R&D) funding announced in last year's Autumn Statement is central to the new industrial strategy. This investment will go to areas such as AI and robotics, Number 10 says.

Guy Ryder is an old hand at Davos. The director general of the International Labour Organisation has seen it all: the years when the global business elite is brimful of confidence and the years, such as 2017, when the top 1% of the top 1% is fretful. Ryder detected parallels with 2009, when the global economy seemed to be heading for a second Great Depression. Eight years ago, the attendees were shaken by the banking collapse but showed little contrition. This year, they were alarmed by the populist anger that was evident in Brexit and Donald Trump's arrival in the White House but couldn't really understand why it was happening.

As the World Economic Forum unraveled last week in Davos, Switzerland, many leaders highlighted areas of future growth and how to shape the global economy – to promote an economy that will only serve to help improve our lives. Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, was also there discussing how IBM can contribute to this starting with artificial intelligence – or augmented intelligence/cognitive as we say at IBM. Why does IBM choose to use "augmented intelligence" or "cognitive" over "artificial intelligence"? What we've witnessed during each of these stages is some form of mechanics or machinery developed to augment our performance, thereby improving our outcome. The world has a lot of opportunity to gain and make our lives better with augmented intelligence – it'll make our lives far smoother and more enjoyable.

In 2014, Professor Hawking warned that: The development of (true) artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race, (Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent, BBC). In a follow up later this month, he is again reported as saying that artificial intelligence could be humanity's greatest disaster

Whether it was IBM boss Ginni Rometty, dashing onto the podium to anchor a panel on artificial intelligence, or a defiant Christine Lagarde, holding forth on the need to fight back against populism, high-powered women were everywhere at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. Women reached a record share of attendees who scored prestigious white badges at the event. What echoed through the halls of the main Congress Centre and after-hours events, though, was the sobering truth that the tenuous gains women have made in the world economy are at risk for those further down the ladder. Especially when it comes to the jobs of the future. The so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, is projected to be far more destructive globally to jobs currently favored by women than to jobs favored by men, according to the WEF.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) is an investment by a corporate (fund) into external startups in order to make a financial return or to gain a competitive advantage. CVC is a polarizing subject and opinions are divided. Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures believes that it's evil and corporates should not invest in startups but simply buy them. While Marc Andreessen from Andreessen Horowitz on the other hand is co-investing with corporations such as General Electric. Whatever the opinions are, fact is that CVC is on the rise, also in the old continent.

The number of people defrauded in the UK by online dating scams reached a record high in 2016, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned. According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, there were 3,889 victims of so-called romance fraud last year, who handed over a record £39m. Action Fraud, the UK's cyber-crime reporting centre, says it receives more than 350 reports of such scams a month. One woman who lost more than £300,000 says she felt emotionally "brutalised". Nancy - not her real name - is 47, and a single mother from North Yorkshire, who runs her own business.

Marketers are the store managers of the online retail world: it's up to them to ensure that visitors are having a good time and finding what they need. The challenge is insight: online store managers find it much harder to see what's really going on in the shop, compared to their real world counterparts. It's not immediately obvious why a particular product isn't selling online, or how customers are getting lost or sidetracked on their way to the checkout. That's why, over the past few years, companies in a variety of sectors have focused their attention on enhancing their user experience (UX). Often seen as a qualitative measure of how users'feel' while on websites, UX has historically been difficult to measure.

DAVOS, Switzerland In this Swiss Alps town where the global elite have gathered to debate the world's problems, there seems to be little room on the radar for Africa, a continent of over a billion people where a commodity-fueled growth boom has soured with a vengeance.