This year's news about what artificial intelligence can do in the arts has been both exciting and scary. Neural networks have learned to paint like masters and compose sophisticated music. Those of us in creative endeavors might be as endangered by technological advances as blue-collar workers are often said to be -- though we are protected by certain limitations that technology is never likely to overcome. Last summer, a team of Russian developers released Prisma, a mobile app based on the work of some German artificial intelligence researchers. The neural network behind it could redraw an image using techniques it had learned from studying the oeuvre of a number of painters, including Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch.

As we look to a New Year, it is hard to say what 2017 has in store thanks to the level of uncertainty that 2016 leaves in its wake. One thing for certain, however, is that 2017 is set to be an eventful and thrilling ride for FinTech with many factors and potential obstacles on the horizon which still challenge the sector. In today's society people are effectively running their whole lives from their mobiles: reading the news, online banking, heating their home and maintaining relationships. Payments are a part of that so it is expected that the numbers to climb further next year. Smartphone sales are reaching saturation point in developed markets, and the growth of technology adoption today are now firmly fixated on emerging and developing nations.

December 14, 2016 – New York & London – DataArt, a leading global technology consultancy, predicts that 2017 will be a year of integration, disruption and transformation due in large part to the digitalization of key industry sectors. Cyber security and data protection will become major board-level concerns as financial institutions realize that failing to protect customer information will be their biggest source of regulatory non-compliance and reputational risk. Organizations will invest heavily in correcting technology vulnerabilities, lax cultures and poor processes. As a result, data management in all its forms will dominate 2017. Rapid digitalization of customer-facing services will be a matter of organizational life and death as e-commerce and fintech elevate expectations for the optimal user experience (UX).

Episode Summary: Accenture is a leading global professional services company in the tech space, providing services to many of the Fortune 500 and their global equivalents. The company recently conducted a study, combined with expertise from economists and AI researchers, about the longer-term economic impact of artificial intelligence around the world. In this episode, I spoke with Chief Technology Officer Paul Daugherty, who has been with Accenture since 1986, and who was joined by Global Technology R&D Lead Marc Carrel-Billiard. We met up at a coffee shop after an AI Summit in San Francisco, and I asked Paul and Marc about what they had learned from this newly-published study and what they consider to be the significant impacts of *AI and automation on the future job market. Brief Recognition: Paul Daugherty is Accenture's CTO and leads the company's Technology Innovation & Ecosystem group.

As artificial intelligence advances, the possibility that machines could independently select and fire on targets is fast approaching. Fully autonomous weapons, also known as'killer robots,' are quickly moving from the realm of science fiction( like the plot of Terminator) toward reality WILL ROBOTS GET AWAY WITH WAR CRIMES? The robo-security guard that hunts intruders using LASERS:... Are robots coming for YOUR job? Droid workers are showing up... Rise of the robots: Mechanical monks, sci-fi bots and... Robots are coming for you and your job: Experts discuss the... The robo-security guard that hunts intruders using LASERS:... Are robots coming for YOUR job?

Alexander Hitzinger is latest auto specialist to be recruited by technology giant He helped engineer the car company's return to the Le Mans endurance race He helped engineer the car company's return to the Le Mans endurance race Apple poached the technical director of Porsche's race car programme earlier this year, a company source said on Friday. Hitzinger helped Porsche, owned by Volkswagen, return to endurance racing and to develop the 919 hybrid sports car from scratch, much in the same way Apple is now looking into building its own vehicle. Apple's latest patent describes technology for a collision avoidance system that is designed for robots, or self-driving cars. And it uses what it has learned from previous encounters for new ones. Facebook copies Snapchat AGAIN with new'photo frame'... Meet Fyodor: Russia's spacebot put through its paces on... Will Apple's next iPhone FOLD?

The 132ft-long (40-metre) unarmed prototype, dubbed Sea Hunter, is the naval equivalent of Google's self-driving car, designed to cruise on the ocean's surface without a crew. The ship's projected $20 million (£14.2 million) price tag and its $20,000 (£14,300) daily operating cost make it relatively inexpensive for the navy Hyperloop-inspired TRAIN could be ready next year:... Look up tonight! A stunning meteor shower will light up... World's oldest example of human cancer found in 1.7... Astronauts are FIVE times more likely to die from heart... Hyperloop-inspired TRAIN could be ready next year:... Look up tonight! A stunning meteor shower will light up... World's oldest example of human cancer found in 1.7... Astronauts are FIVE times more likely to die from heart... The vessel was unveiled by Deputy US Defense Secretary Robert Work and has been developed by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

Born of research in the Amazon forest, the Plantix mobile app is helping farmers on three continents quickly identify plant diseases using artificial intelligence. For several years in the Brazilian rain forest, a team of young German researchers studied the emission and mitigation of greenhouse gases due to changing land use. The team's analysis was yielding new knowledge, but the farmers they worked with weren't interested in those findings. They wanted to know how to treat crops being ravaged by pathogens. "They couldn't understand why we can estimate the carbon stock of their soil, but we couldn't give them an idea of how to treat damaged plants in an appropriate way," said Robert Strey, one of the researchers.

The year of AI: Major developments in 2016 could pave the way for a future where'intelligent machines are omnipresent in our daily lives' Artificial intelligence or AI is getting a foothold in people's homes, starting with the Amazon devices like its Echo speaker (pictured) which links to a personal assistant'Alexa' to answer questions and control connected devices such as appliances or light bulbs Donald Trump claims torture ¿works¿ ¿ but what does the... South Korea comes a step closer to LIMITLESS energy:... Facebook Messenger launches an in-app camera and... The shoes that will tell you if you're too tired to run:... Donald Trump claims torture ¿works¿ ¿ but what does the... South Korea comes a step closer to LIMITLESS energy:... Facebook Messenger launches an in-app camera and... The shoes that will tell you if you're too tired to run:... Analyst Carolina Milanesi of the research firm Creative Strategies said that '2016 was the year about raising awareness, and exposing consumers to the idea of AI in a more mass market way.' Google Home (pictured) is the small speaker will be able to play music and access Google Assistant, a new AI system the search giant unveiled at I/O in May. It's believed Apple has been working on their smart-home device for at least 2 years The first virtual family portrait: Mark Zuckerberg showed off the firm's software for the Oculus Rift headset at the Oculus Connect conference in San Francisco. Tragic video shows a man filming himself smoking Ice Amir Khan's wife Faryal was called'Michael Jackson' by family Epic fight!

Beer has a rich history in London. Even before the British Empire, Shakespeare or Buckingham Palace, people were crowding into pubs to gulp down local ales. Versions of pale ales, IPAs and porters were created in the U.K. long before they were trendy favorites on California and New York's microbrew scenes. Now a small startup is attempting to add its own twist to London's beer-making tradition. The company, IntelligentX, has invented a beer-recipe algorithm that determines the amount of hops, water, yeast and grain that should go into each beer.