"Roman" and I haven't exchanged words for about 10 seconds, but you wouldn't know it from the look on his face. This artificially intelligent avatar, a product of New Zealand-based Soul Machines, is supposed to offer human-like interaction by simulating the way our brains handle conversation. Roman can interpret facial expressions, generate expressions of his own, and converse on a variety of topics--making him what Soul Machines calls a "digital hero." Right now, though, Roman is glitching, stuck in a routine of blinking, furrowing his eyebrows, and twisting his mouth into a polite half-smile. Moments ago, he'd asked me what music I would beam into deep space if I were in charge of NASA, but my answer--the seminal modern jazz fusion tune "Lingus" by Snarky Puppy, of course--seems to have caught him off guard.

What one technological development has the greatest immediate potential for business leaders? I'll give you a hint. Powerful though all those can be, I've found the actual answer to be something much more fundamental; effectively recording, holding and reporting valuable information. I have been a data practitioner for five years and the more I engage with clients, the more I've learnt that it is very common for business leaders to not have effective management information (MI). They could have access to huge amounts of data, but struggle to turn it into meaningful and actionable insight.

Telecoms have evolved quite well with the times and are likely to continue to do so. The coming years will present the biggest technology trends, and telecoms will have to navigate their benefits and challenges in 2020 and beyond. Whichever side of the tracks a telecommunications business emerges as a result of upcoming technology trends, good or bad, you can be certain that a telco revolution is at hand. From 5G to AI and beyond, telcos will be met with a new world that creates more industries to service. This new world will open doors to markets that once had no need for telecoms, creating many new opportunities.

Paul Scharre is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. He is the award-winning author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, which won the 2019 Colby Award and was named one of Bill Gates' top five books of 2018. Aswin Pranam: To start, what classifies as an autonomous weapon? Paul Scharre: An autonomous weapon, quite simply, makes its own decisions of whom to engage in the battlefield. The core challenge is in figuring out which of those decisions matter.

Few times in history has mankind ever united to solve a single goal. Even the ultimate moonshot in history--putting a man on the moon--was driven by international competition rather than unification. So it's perhaps fitting that mankind is now uniting to understand the organ that fundamentally makes us human: our brain. First envisioned in 2016 through a series of discussions on the "grand challenges" in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, the International Brain Initiative (IBI) "came out" this week in a forward-looking paper in Neuron. Rather than each country formulating their own brain projects independently, the project argues, it's high time for the world to come together and share their findings, resources, and expertise across borders.

It's a fascinating time to be in the data and analytics space. Companies are more aware than ever of the impact data can have on their business. In this article, leading global independent analytics platform Sisense's head of AI, Inna Tokarev-Sela, shares her predictions on key AI trends that will happen in 2020, as well as what the landscape will look like in 2030. As AI becomes more well-known and effective in operational analytics, we will begin to see companies, even data teams, combining different AI components at different times in the analytics lifecycle to come up with better suggestions and insights. If you look at the AI trends today (graphs, Explainable AI, Continuous AI,) you can see that each one facilitates a specific aspect of analysis, or is used for a specific purpose.

Google's chief executive officer has left no doubt about how important he thinks artificial intelligence will be to humanity. "AI is one of the most profound things we're working on as humanity. It's more profound than fire or electricity," Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. Alphabet, which owns Google, has had to grapple with its role in the development of AI, including managing employee revolts against its work on the technology for the U.S. government. In 2018, a group of influential software engineers successfully delayed the development of a security feature that would've helped the company win military contracts.

Helsinki, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris Region, Stavanger and Tallinn will challenge companies to develop energy and mobility solutions using artificial intelligence (AI) as well as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and other related technologies. The initiative is part of AI4Cities, a three-year EU-funded project bringing together European cities looking for AI solutions to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and meet climate commitments. The cities and regions will go through a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) process, which allows them to steer the development of new solutions directly towards their needs. Once they have defined their requirements, the cities will challenge start-ups, SMEs and larger companies to design solutions applying the use of AI and other technologies. Total funding of €4.6 million will be divided among the selected suppliers throughout the whole PCP process.

There is a "real risk" that the growth of automation and increased use of artificial intelligence will see communities across Scotland left behind, Nicola Sturgeon has warned. Speaking at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance conference, the first minister said the growth of new technology will bring new opportunities for Scotland, but that their introduction must be carefully managed to ensure that the benefits are shared. The Scottish Government has worked with the Scottish Trades Union Congress to examine the effects of new technologies on the economy and workforce, with a joint 2018 report finding "there is a plausible case that the technological change in the 21st century could pose new and serious challenges in sustaining a labour market that supports broadly based prosperity". Appearing in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said her government aimed to create an economy where "collective wellbeing" was as fundamental as GDP, but warned that the movement to a low-carbon economy and the growth of new technologies would also pose challenges for communities and workers. The SNP leader said: "As we moved to increased use of technology, such as artificial intelligence, there is again a big potential for real economic benefit, particularly for country like Scotland, and for a city like Edinburgh, where there is already a very strong, vibrant and growing tech sector. But there are also a range of ethical questions to confront. There is also a real risk that as we make that transition, individuals and communities are left behind, so we must work now to make sure that does not happen."

Computers have guided us to the moon and back but can't help us with us with the biggest decisions we face today. Should Donald Trump be impeached? Should Britain leave the EU? Should Australia stop exporting fossil fuels? Questions like these do not have yes or no answers, however tempting it is to think otherwise.