Elon Musk, hellbent on progressing the technological feats of humankind including artificial intelligence, would like you to know that artificial intelligence poses a greater threat to your fragile existence than threat-of-the-week North Korea. Elon Musk, a man who told a gathering of governors that "AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization" last month, is tweeting through the constant news of Donald Trump throwing Guam under the bus and egging on a nuclear power by comforting us with the threat of an evil artificial intelligence. Why do American political and business leaders seem to be practically begging North Korea to deep fry our asses on Twitter? Remember when Twitter was just bad joke punchlines and awkward "I meant to type that into the search bar, woops" scenarios? That was sort of fun.

A new report indicates that Australia must double its pace for artificial intelligence and robotics automation to achieve up to $2.2 trillion opportunity by 2030. While doing this, the country must urgently prepare to support over 3 million workers who may lose their jobs. Economics and strategy consulting firm AlphaBeta has released a report, which showed that automation can take away an average four hours of work every week from Aussie workers over the next 15 years if its rate is doubled. AlphaBeta director Andrew Charlton said the reality is that automation alters every job. He explained it is not so much about the jobs, but how the jobs will be done.

It's almost scary to think that the world as we know it may well be run by Artificial Intelligence (AI) one day. While the risk of an imminent AI disruption of the labour market may sound like a fantasy, those with the most advanced AI technologies at hand think that AI is an imminent threat. They say an Industry 4.0 or cyber physical systems (CPS) revolution is coming whether we like it or not. AI in the labour market means the use of intelligent software to optimise the delivery of services by humans. However, in a recent meeting with U.S. governors, business magnate Elon Musk warned: "AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilisation and I don't think people fully appreciate that … [AI] is the scariest problem."

Artificial intelligence is becoming commonplace, from your smartphone and your Amazon account to the driverless cars that will soon grace public roads in Australia. Often, the response to this reality is one of trepidation and concern, about mass unemployment and the dominance of Big Tech. "Art is one of the last domains in AI where there is an optimistic view on how humans and machines can work together," says Dave King, founder of Move 37, a creative AI company. He says creativity is not a God-given thing. It's a process, and it takes practice.

Tesla will partner with French renewable energy company Neoen to build the 100-megawatt battery farm in South Australia state. Tesla is poised to begin testing a self-driving semi-truck in an advancement that could help revolutionize shipping, according to multiple reports. The Silicon Valley automaker met with transportation department officials in Nevada in June about its plans to test a driverless truck crossing between the states, according to a document obtained by Reuters. The company also had plans to meet Wednesday with Department of Motor Vehicles officials in California to discuss the plans, according to Reuters and Bloomberg. Tesla has long planned to reveal an electric semi-truck at an event in late September with production launching within two years.

In the argument between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, it's hard to know which side to join. Both of them are right. Or, if you like, both of them are wrong. Musk is wrong to worry about artificial intelligence (AI) being a threat to humanity, so I agree with Zuckerberg. And Zuckerberg is wrong to dismiss all concerns about AI, so I agree with Musk.

When IBM's Watson triumphed on Jeopardy! in 2011, it was a major validation of the potential of artificial intelligence and a sign of things to come. But Watson didn't stop there, said IBM's Jay Di Silvestri, speaking at a CDW Summit on "Modernizing IT Infrastructure for Digital Transformation" in Las Vegas on Monday. In the six years since, IBM's AI experts have sought to answer the question, What else can Watson do? "That group immediately turned its sights to say, 'What can we do that is as impressive, but different?'" said Di Silvestri, IBM's Watson platform adoption leader. Watson's next challenge, IBM decided, would be unstructured text, and Di Silvestri said that applications are already on the market for organizations that want to leverage AI to improve customer service and operations. The next phase of Watson is a logical one, he said: deconstructing the technology behind Watson into services that help businesses.

Back in 1985, the best robotic surgeon we had was the PUMA 560, a manipulator arm just barely more advanced than Rocky Balboa's robo-butler. The PUMA was nevertheless revolutionary. It was the very first mechanical operator, progenitor to steady-handed robo-surgeons like of the DaVinci system. But in the near future, robots will no longer be cutting into us -- from the outside, at least. Even as the the current generation of robotic surgeons continues to shrink, with miniscule pincers and malleable toolsets capable of curling their way through our innards, the medical community is working to develop robotic surgical devices capable of operating autonomously, or at least remotely.

New data from research house AlphaBeta provides the answer. Search to find your job -- if you're game. A new analysis ranks how much of every occupation in Australia is at risk of automation, as artificial intelligence looks set to reshape our working lives. Economist Andrew Charlton, who led the AlphaBeta team that conducted the analysis, says that over the next 30 years, automation will affect every job in Australia -- but not always in the ways you might expect. "It's not so much about what jobs will we do, but how will we do our jobs," he explains.

An Irish veterinarian's application for an Australian visa has been rejected after she failed to pass an automated English proficiency test, despite completing it in her native language of... English. Louise Kennedy, who has two degrees (both obtained in English), wanted to apply for permanent residency in the country on the grounds of her job, which is classed as a shortage profession. Despite acing the reading and writing parts of the test she didn't score highly enough on oral fluency, as it seems the machines couldn't understand her accent. The Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic is an automated system that asks applicants a number of questions and records their vocal responses which are analyzed and scored. The Australian government demands a score of at least 79 points.