We have discussed some AI topics in the previous posts, and it should seem now obvious the extraordinary disruptive impact AI had over the past few years. However, what everyone is now thinking of is where AI will be in five years time. I find it useful then to describe a few emerging trends we start seeing today, as well as make few predictions around machine learning future developments. The following proposed list does not want to be either exhaustive or truth-in-stone, but it comes from a series of personal considerations that might be useful when thinking about the impact of AI on our world. Companies like Vicarious or Geometric Intelligence are working toward reducing the data burden needed to train neural networks.

Chatbots are programs that mimic conversation with people using artificial intelligence. With recent advances in AI these have become much more accurate, especially when focused on a specific domain. Combine these advances with the consumer trend towards messaging -- people are now spending more time in messaging apps than in social media -- and it seems we might be about to enter the age of the chatbot. We decided to take a closer look at the top emerging chatbot start-ups in text chat, across a range of industries, and pick out the most promising. You can find out more about the 25 companies below, or discover more chatbot startups on our search engine.

Pitango is a specialist in financing very successful FX industry ventures. Now the VC firm has launched a $175 million fund for machine learning and artificial intelligence. The cost of operating a retail FX brokerage has been a major concern for many executives over recent years, and during the course of 2016, many methods of automating specific practices and operational aspects are now under development and consideration. This month, the ability to be able to assign R&D budget to such automation gains further ground as Israeli venture capital firm Pitango has launched an early-stage fund with $175 million under management, that will be used to invest in companies at seed level and upwards. Aside from various'trendy' sectors such as life sciences, the new fund will specialize in interesting technological innovation such as Internet of Things, enterprise infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

That's what the likes of Amazon hope. Drones have the potential to carry small items quickly from one place to another without having to worry about traffic, personnel costs or labour strikes. But it's a bit more complicated than that: drones as we know them today are either giant, expensive killing machines or small, hovering things that can carry little more than a camera. Most can already ferry a small box of items weighing a couple of kilograms, but Amazon and others are looking to build drones capable of carrying up to 25kg for around 10 miles, likely meaning packages weighing under 3kg each. Good enough for onions and a pint of milk – but forget getting your next washer-drier flown into your back yard.

Further automation of the retail sector raises issues far beyond the needless luxuries of choice, convenience and speed of delivery (Amazon to test drone deliveries in British skies, 27 July). I wonder if the "demand" for stuff to be delivered by robot to our door within 30 minutes of ordering really exists – is modern satisfaction really that shallow? But in an increasingly automated society, where are the wages to buy these goods going to come from? While Brexit showed that politicians were detached from the anger of the dispossessed of this country, where are they on the automation of yet more of the jobs that so many people depend on? It seems they are keen to race headlong into a very misty future.

Samuel Gibbs' piece about the internet of things (How I turned my home into a sci-fi dream, theguardian.com, The Bluetooth/Wi-Fi version of scratching each other's eyes out is not pretty, but only Siri has that blood-curdling scream. It is 2016 and I think your readers can deal with an accurate description rather than this 1950s euphemism for sexual activity. Homeless people do it for nothing. The Monster Raving Loony Party, many years ago, posed the question: "How come there's only one Monopolies Commission?"

Amazon has filed for a patent on a flying warehouse equipped with drones to deliver goods. The warehouse would be carried by an airship and would visit places where Amazon expects there to be high levels of demand. The patent also covers support vehicles designed to restock the structure, which would hover 45,000ft (14,000m) in the air. Documents show Amazon believes the combination of the flying warehouse and drones would deliver goods considerably faster than ground-based warehouses, the BBC reported. There are suggestions the warehouses would be located above festivals or sporting events and smaller airships could act as shuttles taking drones, people and supplies to the warehouse.

Uber has acquired Geometric Intelligence, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup that vows to surpass the deep learning systems under development at internet giants like Google and Facebook. But as this tiny AI lab slips into Uber's increasingly vast and ambitious operation, the startup is still tight-lipped on what its technology actually looks like. Founded by New York University psychologist Gary Marcus and University of Cambridge professor of information engineering Zoubin Ghahramani, Geometric Intelligence spans thirteen other researchers culled from across the academic world. Fourteen of the startup's fifteen employees will move to San Francisco, where Uber is based, serving as the central AI lab for the ride-hailing company. Ghahramani, the mathematician most responsible for the startup's core technology, will remain at Cambridge while spending half his time working for Uber.

A new report claims that from this point on, intelligent machines could become more vital to business than people. It estimates that up to 15 million UK jobs are at'high or medium risk' of being replaced by automation in the next two decades. And British people could face a reality that is somewhere'between Star Trek and the Matrix.' A new report claims that 60 per cent of British retail roles, around 2 million people, could be taken over by technology by 2030. Britain has reached'peak human', with intelligent AI more powerful than the human brain set to takeover everyday jobs and tasks The report, by Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) we are close to the point where humans are more important to labour than machines.

Amazon has filed a patent for flying warehouses that could use a fleet of drones to make deliveries to customers. A patent document filed in 2014 in the US describes giant airships as "airborne fulfilment centres" (AFCs) that could be stationed above metropolitan areas and used to store and quickly deliver items at times of high demand, using drones dispatched directly from the airship. The technology and e-commerce giant is already testing drone deliveries in the UK, and made its first commercial delivery under the trial in Cambridgeshire this month. The patent filing also suggests smaller aircraft and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could ferry workers to and from the ship as well as replenish stock. "The AFC may be an airship that remains at a high altitude (eg 45,000ft) and UAVs with ordered items may be deployed from the AFC to deliver ordered items to user-designated delivery locations," the filing reads.