Apparently capitalism is collapsing, North Korea will nuke us all, and a total environmental breakdown will turn the whole world into a bad Mad Max rerun. Oh yeah and superintelligent machines will rise up and kill us all. It all reminds me of Harold Camping, the doomsday guru who took out ads saying the world would end on May 21, 2011. It must be right around the corner. If we keep predicting Armageddon via sun spots, evil machines and the plague, eventually maybe we'll be right. Hey, even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in awhile. But the more I look at things, the more I think we're firmly in the grip of a mass hysteria of epic proportions, magnified by the megaphone of the Internet. HINT: Capitalism is fine, it's just evolving into something that works better for everyone, as it should (care of the mind blowing power of cryptocurrencies); North Korea is not nuking shit because they know they won't exist the very next day; and I'm betting on brilliant kids like Boyan Slat, renewable energy and plain old "necessity as the mother of invention" to stave off Mad Max. You have firm evidence that if we don't act fast it's all over for us!

A little bit of hype can build excitement about potential, while too much leads to false hopes and misguided planning assumptions. "Right now, the myths surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) are rampant," says Alexander Linden, research vice president at Gartner. "Wisely for now, most organizations' commitments are tentative and more oriented toward experimenting and learning, rather than trying to transform their enterprise or industry as fast as they can." Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must walk a fine line between embracing and overplaying AI technologies' role in delivering business value for digital business. "Leaders shouldn't trust any of the myths and hype around AI. Instead, they must become centers of expertise if they are going to educate senior business executives on the real benefits -- and shortcomings -- of AI," says Linden.

A computer is being developed that rates how much pain someone is in by detecting small changes to their facial expressions. Such a system could help doctors determine how to treat patients and may save the prescription of painkillers. Study author Dr Jeffrey Cohn from the University of Pittsburgh, said: 'These metrics might be useful in determining real pain from faked pain.' People experience and express pain differently, which makes it difficult for doctors to gauge the extent patients are suffering based on self-reported scores. The researchers hope the system could one day be available as an app that doctors have on their smartphones.

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Callaghan Innovation will establish the Digital Energy Hub, an initiative to encourage early adoption and commercialisation by the energy sector of the next wave of digital technologies – namely Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Blockchain, Cloud Analytics and Internet of Things. The scale and speed of the disruption from such technologies presents challenge and opportunity for many businesses in the energy sector – from start up to established – and for those in adjacent sectors such as Information Technology, transport and manufacturing. More to on this to follow. In an interview with Idealog, Stu Christie explains that he sees the biggest opportunities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies being in agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and transportation. Stu is investment manager at NZ Venture Investment Fund and now Chair of the recently launched AI Forum.

When Nicole Stark set about writing a new video game, she took inspiration from an unusual subject: her autistic teenage daughter who was battling bullies. "I was fed up with power fantasies for male teenagers," says Stark, one half of Noosa-based family studio Disparity Games. Sick of seeing female protagonists who behaved "exactly like the male character but with large boobs", Stark, with help from her daughter, created Gemma, a 16-year-old ninja pizza delivery girl who must navigate a dystopian world of sky-high slums, exploitative mega-corporations and the cruelest of adversaries: her own peers. "It was important to make Gemma look like a 16-year old," says Stark, recalling her career as an artist when she would routinely make the breasts smaller on female characters – only for male colleagues to routinely make them bigger. Launched in 2015, Ninja Pizza Girl received favourable reviews.

From virtual assistants to driverless cars, technology imitating human intelligence is on the rise. But at what ethical cost and how do boards future-proof their organisations in the face of rapid change? Earlier this year, a Japanese insurance company made headlines for doing something that company executives and directors around the world have been anticipating - and fearing - for years. Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance made 34 of its staff redundant and replaced them with artificial intelligence (AI) system IBM Watson. Japanese newspaper The Mainichi reported the company will be using Watson to determine payout amounts and check customer cases against their insurance contracts. Other Japanese insurance companies have announced they are looking at or are already using AI for similar purposes and The Japan Times reported in April that the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry was planning to trial AI to help government workers write draft answers for questions put to Cabinet ministers.

In recent years we have seen a surge in the way companies have leveraged technology to drive new revenue streams and create a unique competitive advantage in the marketplace. The companies that have been the most successful are the ones using Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is already being used by hundreds of companies all over the world. We have seen retailers being able to predict what their customers will order based on their previous order history, car manufactures using vehicle data to provide a better driving experience and even locally in Australia we have seen Domino's using AI to help grow their sales and store numbers. But what does this have to do with cybersecurity…….? Whether you are an organisation not yet using AI, or you are already experimenting with it, is important to protect the intellectual property that provides your organisation with the competitive edge.

The last few years have seen huge amounts of research and development invested in machine learning and AI. This will continue to be a focus for businesses of all sizes- from emerging startups to major IT companies. More and more of these early adopters will bring this technology into use for their consumer-facing services.

SINGAPORE – Passengers' baggage is collected by robots, they relax in a luxurious waiting area and then get a face scan and swiftly pass through security and immigration -- this could be the airport of the future. Planners hope this vision will become reality as new technology is rolled out, transforming the exhausting experience of lengthy lines in aging, overcrowded terminals into something far more pleasant. The Asia-Pacific region has been leading the way but faces fierce competition from the Middle East as major hubs compete to attract the growing number of long-haul travelers who can choose how to route their journey. The regions "are the two leading pockets of technology growth because they are really competing to be the global hubs for air transportation," said Seth Young, director of the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University. "If I'm going to fly from New York to Bangalore, do I transfer through Abu Dhabi or Dubai, or do I transfer through Hong Kong?