An African adage that says "if you don't know where you are coming from, you will not know where you are going to" got me studying the history of technology, so I can interpret the technology crystal ball. The advancements in technology is very rapid and it is important to peek into the future, because it belongs to those that shape it today. Throughout my quest to understand how technologies we use today have metamorphosed into what they are, the prophecies about'Singularity' keeps resounding in my head because of its imminence in our society. Singularity literally means the quality or condition of being singular. However, the term can be defined from different perspectives; mathematicians define it as a point at which a function takes an infinite value, while physicists describe it as a time when matter is intensely dense.

The traditional definition of artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to execute tasks and solve problems in ways normally attributed to humans. Some tasks that we consider simple--recognizing an object in a photo, driving a car--are incredibly complex for AI. Machines can surpass us when it comes to things like playing chess, but those machines are limited by the manual nature of their programming; a 30 gadget can beat us at a board game, but it can't do--or learn to do--anything else. This is where machine learning comes in. Show millions of cat photos to a machine, and it will hone its algorithms to improve at recognizing pictures of cats.

In the future, will artificial intelligence be so sophisticated that it will be able to tell when someone is trying to deceive it? A Carnegie Mellon University professor and his team is working on technology that could move this idea from the realm of science fiction to reality. Their work -- rooted in game theory and machine learning -- is part of a larger push for more advanced AI. As AI becomes more commonplace in the technology we use every day, detractors and supporters are becoming more vocal about its potential risks and benefits. For some, smarter AI sets up a dangerous precedent for a future too reliant on machines to make decisions about everything from medical diagnoses to the operation of self-driving cars.

Artificial intelligence has gained serious traction within the technology community as a solution for complex problems, though in January 2015, Bill Gates observed robotics and artificial intelligence are entering a period of rapid advances. For example, Google, Apple, and Microsoft are competing to transform vehicle transport with self-driving vehicles. In manufacturing, autonomous production enables companies to adapt products to diverse consumer markets and many more. Unmanned drones provide sustained surveillance and swift attacks on targets, and small robots are used to disarm improvised explosive devices. The military is currently funding research to produce more autonomous and self-aware robots to diminish the need for human soldiers to risk their lives.

Diagnosing cancer is about to get more accurate, with the help of artificial intelligence. Pathologists have diagnosed diseases in more or less the same way for the past 100 years, by laboring over a microscope reviewing biopsy samples on little glass slides. Working almost robotically, they sift through millions of normal cells to identify just a few diseased ones. The task is tedious and prone to human error. But now, scientists and engineers have created a technique that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and can differentiate cancer cells from normal cells almost as well as a top-notch pathologist.

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Europe's growing army of robot workers could be classed as "electronic persons" and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution. Robots are being deployed in ever-greater numbers in factories and also taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, raising fears over unemployment, wealth inequality and alienation. Their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability, a draft European Parliament motion, dated May 31, suggests. Some robots are even taking on a human form. Visitors to the world's biggest travel show in March were greeted by a lifelike robot developed by Japan's Toshiba and were helped by another made by France's Aldebaran Robotics.

Our inability to predict how people will interact with each other has led to many doomed relationships and awkward moments. But now MIT researchers have taught an algorithm to understand body language patterns in order to guess the next move between two individuals. Trained with YouTube videos and TV shows, it looks for outstretched arms, raised hands or prolonged stares to make predictions, which could help us avoid high-five fails and missed kisses. MIT researchers have taught an algorithm to understand body language patterns in order to guess the next move between two individuals. Researchers at MIT fed their predictive AI 600 hours' worth of videos so it could learn the next move of two characters – whether it would be a hug, kiss, handshake or high-five.

The intelligence exhibited by machine also known as Artificial Intelligence is an area that very many large technology companies are investing into these days. Apple made its mark in artificial intelligence by introducing its digital assistant Siri, google and Microsoft also followed. Social media giants; Facebook and amazon have shown indications of investing in Artificial Intelligence. The interest of these companies in this field of computer science is an indicator that Artificial Intelligence is an area that offers a lot of promise. The country has tried to use AI in some areas for example KCCA introduced the smart traffic lights at Wandegeya.

It's going to be a pivotal year for artificial intelligence (AI). And 2016 began with British AI firms asserting dominance over the sector. In February, Southwark-based predictive keyboard company SwiftKey was purchased by Microsoft for 250 million ( 173m) – one of the highest exits ever for a UK company. Around a month later, another UK-made smart machine, DeepMind's AlphaGo, trounced professional player Lee Sedol in a five-game match of Go – an ancient and complicated board game – in a historic first. Within a few months, AI has stopped being fodder for futurists' conversations and charged headlong into the here and now. Advances in neural networks and machine learning, and the availability of vast data sets, are bringing about an AI surge that has just started gaining momentum.

Japanese Internet company Softbank Corp. is selling its stake in Finnish game developer Supercell to Chinese technology firm Tencent in a deal announced Tuesday that values the company at about 10.2 billion. Separately, Nikesh Arora, Softbank's president and chief operating officer, announced his resignation, although he will remain an adviser. He had joined the company from Google in 2014 and was instrumental in the Supercell sale, as well as other Softbank investments, mainly in India and other parts of Asia. Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said Arora had been picked to succeed him, but Son decided he wanted to do "a few more crazy ideas" and stay at his job for another decade, and that would be too long of a wait for Arora. "Helping Masa begin the transformation of Softbank and sowing the early seeds has been a great experience. I have enjoyed working with Masa and the Softbank team and I look forward to my next challenge," Arora said in a statement.