Artificial intelligence (AI) has gradually become an integral part of modern life, from Siri and Spotify's personalized features on our phones to automatic fraud alerts from our banks whenever a transaction appears suspicious. Defined simply, a computer with AI is able to respond to its environment by learning on its own--without humans providing specific instructions. A new report from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, outlines how AI could become more integrated into people's lives by 2030, and recommends how best to regulate it and make sure its benefits are shared equally. Here are five examples--some from this report--of AI technology that could become a part of our lives by 2030. Smart traffic lights using artificial intelligence technology to learn and adapt to traffic patterns in real time could make intersections safer and more efficient.

The new industrial revolution is a cyber-physical systems revolution. The Internet of Things (IoT) forms a foundation for this cyber-physical systems revolution. It is driving the biggest shift in business and technology since World War II. "Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are physical and engineered systems whose operations are monitored, coordinated, controlled and integrated by a computing and communication core. Just as the internet transformed how humans interact with one another, cyber-physical systems will transform how we interact with the physical world around us."1

Stockspot founder and CEO Chris Bryci says since the launch of the robo-advice service he founded in 2014, response from the public has been positive. "Professional financial advice is expensive and many Australians are locked out of the market for personalised investment advice due to the high costs involved," Bryci says. While younger people aged between 18-35 are typically the first to embrace online businesses and technology, Bryci has seen an increase in the number of older Australians giving the service a go. Robo-advisers such as Stockspot are opening the doors to a wider range of investors by using algorithms to plan and manage investment portfolios. This results in an automated process, which reduces the cost of seeking financial advice.

The new way of thinking about AI is to see it doing time-consuming tasks, freeing up space for accountants to do the serious thinking and to exercise professional judgement on more complex matters. Despite some people's fears, AI's advocates say it can be a job-creator, not a job-killer. For years, there have been fears that Artificial Intelligence (AI) – smart machines that work and react like humans while having self-learning capabilities – will redefine the role of accountants. Now innovative firms are investing in AI so they can be at the forefront of cognitive technologies. What does the evolution from automation and data-analytics software to AI mean for accountants?

Self-driving cars are raising hopes that we'll get a lot done when we don't have to drive anymore. According to a University of Michigan study, that's about as likely as a parent finishing two memos and a big presentation while taking a teen-age learner out to drive. The average U.S. driver spends an hour a day in their car, but the study concluded that for 62 percent of Americans, freeing up that driving time won't make them any more productive. And the findings suggest riding in a self-driving car may be a white-knuckle nightmare of nerves, car sickness, unsafe seats and flying gadgets. Maybe ordinary people have sensed this already.

Gartner tracks emerging technologies in its annual Hype Cycle reports that enable organisations to increase this interconnection, allowing for the real-time exchange of vast quantities of data, and for increased intelligence, complex analysis and decision making in real time. To help IT leaders understand significant technology trends, Gartner analysts looked across all 109 Hype Cycles and noted four high-level megatrends trends that track the evolution of digital business technologies, services and business models. "New digital business models require ecosystems of people, businesses and technologies that must scale beyond the enterprise," said Betsy Burton, vice president and distinguished analyst. Since 2008, cloud, data, mobile and social (the Nexus of Forces) have dramatically affected people's lives, business interactions, social change and global economies. These massive collections of technologies and the resulting changes in business models and human behaviour have accelerated the interconnection of technology, business and humans, and given rise to digital business.

As one of the leading research hubs for Natural Language Understanding (NLU) worldwide, Macquarie University and US-based VoiceBox Technologies has announced an international research and development partnership. VoiceBox Technologies, is an award-winning pioneer of Contextual Natural Language Understanding (CNLU) and the leading innovator of next gen Voice Artificial Intelligence (Voice AI). VoiceBox is taking voice interaction NLU based systems to the next generation by employing AI techniques in advanced Semantic Language Understanding, large-scale data mining, Deep Neural Networks and advanced machine learning. Macquarie professor Dr. Mark Johnson has been named the Chief Scientific Officer of VoiceBox Australia and will lead the VoiceBox office as a Center of Excellence for Voice AI. Dr. Johnson is overseeing the advanced labs located on the university's campus in the heart of the Macquarie Park Innovation District (MPID).

Timothy Amukele, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, and systems engineer Jeff Street are trying to figure out how to use drones to deliver blood samples. Timothy Amukele, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, and systems engineer Jeff Street are trying to figure out how to use drones to deliver blood samples. Three years ago, Geoff Baird bought a drone. A Seattle dad and hobby plane enthusiast, Baird used the 2.5-pound quadcopter to photograph the Hawaiian coastline and film his son's soccer and baseball games. But his big hope is that drones will soon fly tubes of blood and other specimens to Harborview Medical Center, where he works as a clinical pathologist running the hospital's chemistry and toxicology labs.

A woman is suing a sex toy firm after discovering that the company was keeping tabs on its customer's intimate data. The sex toy and its corresponding smartphone app enables users to customise setting to suit their preference. The class action civil suit was filed against the maker of the We-Vibe smart dildo, Standard Innovation. There were concerns about the We-Vibe 4 Plus, a vibrator that connects to a smartphone app that, its makers say, 'allows couples to keep their flame ignited - together or apart' The We-Vibe user, who filed the suit in Illinois, later realised that the app was relaying data back to the company, according to a report in Vocativ. These included when she used the toy and which vibration settings she used, along with her email address.

A few years ago, robotics, a branch of artificial intelligence (AI), was seen as an upcoming trend that figured all too often in predictions made by business leaders and was presented as a revolutionary technology that would invade all aspects of our society. By 2016, not only have these predictions come true for many aspects of our personal lives, but robotics and automation have also entered the business world. Banks, in particular, are starting to use robotics and automation tools to address new challenges created by their move into the digital age. Customer service management will be one of the most impacted areas of banking due to the evolution of robotics. Roy Morgan revealed recently that the average customer satisfaction ratings for the Big Four banks have dipped to the lowest level since mid-2013, after peaking in mid-2015.