Artificial intelligence might sound like a futuristic concept, and it may be true that we're years or decades away from a generalized form of AI that can match or exceed the capabilities of the human brain across a wide range of topics. But the implications of machine learning, facial recognition and other early forms of the technology are already playing out for companies, governmental agencies and people around the world. This is raising questions about everything from privacy to jobs to law enforcement to the future of humanity. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we hear several different takes from people grappling right now with AI and its implications for business, technology and society, recorded across different sessions at the recent GeekWire Summit in Seattle. Listen to the episode above, or subscribe in your favorite podcast app, and continue reading for edited excerpts. Smith: I think it's fair to say that artificial intelligence will reshape the global economy over the next three decades probably more than any other single technological force, probably as much as the combustion engine reshaped the global economy in the first half of the 20th century. One of our chapters is about AI in the workforce, and we actually start it by talking about the role of horses, the last run of the fire of horses in Brooklyn in 1922. And we trace how the transition from the horse to the automobile changed every aspect of the economy. I think the same thing will be true of AI, so we should get that right.

Proteins may be small and unassuming, but these molecules are essential for a variety of biological functions in all living organisms, including digestion, immune response and even intracellular communication. Consisting of long chains of smaller organic compounds called amino acids, the different functions of various proteins are determined by the way they fold up in three-dimensional space. Not surprisingly, the folded structures of these protein chains can get immensely complex, and scientists have yet to fully figure out the mysteries behind how and why certain proteins fold the way they do, and how diseases like Alzheimer's might be caused when they misfold. While using modern technologies like cryo-electron microscopes, nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray crystallography can help us understand protein folding a little better, it's an unfortunately time-consuming and costly process. Accurately predicting the folded structures of proteins could be the key to unlocking many medical mysteries, and thanks to recent developments in integrating artificial intelligence in the field of computational biology, that slow process may very well be accelerated -- allowing us to discover or even design new and useful proteins.

With the launch of "Metatron," iPR Software's new application empowers Artificial Intelligence (AI) cloud capabilities as well as integrating the power of machine learning into DAM and customized software platforms to increase productivity and corporate asset sharing across multiple customer ecosystems. This latest software release further advances the company's vision for clients to publish their news and information to Traditional and Social media channels and better engage their B2B & B2C audiences while increasing traffic to their branded media and corporate assets. Leading organization's today are utilizing cloud applications to access the latest technology with encryption algorithms they can securely manage, publish, and share rich branded media content. Metatron introduces core, cloud-based software features that enable customers to securely publish and share key digital media and corporate assets, target practical enterprise use cases, increase workflow efficiencies, and automate mundane tasks to reduce data and storage errors. "iPR Software's AI capabilities places the power of machine learning into the hands of PR & Marcom professionals virtually anywhere at anytime," said JD Bowles, President and CEO of iPR Software.

Head CT is used worldwide to assess neurological emergencies and detect acute brain haemorrhages. Interpreting these head CT scans requires readers to identify tiny subtle abnormalities, with near-perfect sensitivity, within a 3D stack of greyscale images characterized by poor soft-tissue contrast, low signal-to-noise ratio and a high incidence of artefacts. As such, even highly trained experts may miss subtle life-threatening findings. To increase the efficiency, and potentially also the accuracy, of such image analysis, scientists at UC San Francisco (UCSF) and UC Berkeley have developed a fully convolutional neural network, called PatchFCN, that can identify abnormalities in head CT scans with comparable accuracy to highly trained radiologists. Importantly, the algorithm also localizes the abnormalities within the brain, enabling physicians to examine them more closely and determine the required therapy (PNAS 10.1073/pnas.1908021116).

Viewership for eSports grew by almost 20%from 2016 to 2017. By 2021, research by Newzoo predicts the industry will boast an audience of over 306 million people. Fans buy tickets to eSports tournaments, watch players online, and tune into viewing platforms like YouTube and Twitch to watch live coverage of their favourite eSports athletes. Twitch alone has seen a 12% increase in the number of people who view live streams on their channel with 3.8 million monthly viewers this year. The increase in viewers and the brand marketing potential has contributed to a rapid revenue growth in eSports, especially in a Southeast Asian market that has seen significant foreign investments for startups.

Doctors said the coma patients would never wake. Artificial intelligence system developed in Beijing'will never replace doctors' but it can trace brain activity invisible to the human eye

For seven years, AI researchers have been struggling with an unusual challenge: shooting cartoon birds at cartoon pigs. An annual competition tests their ability to craft an AI agent that can play the popular video game Angry Birds. This month two researchers posted a paper on arXiv.org It's an example of the kind of weird obstacles that all AI researchers face as they attempt to adapt cutting-edge technologies to some very human endeavors. Teams around the world are tackling much more sophisticated problems, persevering to overcome the obstacles on the path to our shiny technology-enhanced future.

NEW YORK – Artificial intelligence is approaching critical mass at the office, but humans are still likely to be necessary, according to a new study by executive development firm, Future Workplace, in partnership with Oracle. Future Workplace found an 18% jump over last year in the number of workers who use AI in some facet of their jobs, representing more than half of those surveyed. Reuters spoke with Dan Schawbel, the research director at Future Workplace and bestselling author of "Back to Human," about the study's key findings and the future of work. You found that 64% of people trust a robot more than their manager. What can robots do better than managers and what can managers do better than robots?

A few years ago, Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, published the results of something called the Great Elephant Census, which counted all the savanna elephants in Africa. What it found rocked the conservation world: In the seven years between 2007 and 2014, Africa's savanna elephant population decreased by about a third and was on track to disappear completely from some African countries in as few as 10 years. To reverse that trend, researchers landed on a technology that is rewriting the rules for everything from our household appliances to our cars: artificial intelligence. AI's ability to find patterns in enormous volumes of information is demystifying not just elephant behavior but human behavior -- specifically poacher behavior -- too. "AI can process huge amounts of information to tell us where the elephants are, how many there are," said Cornell University researcher Peter Wrege. "And ideally tell us what they are doing."

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