Artificial intelligence can be a force for good, but society needs to be careful to make sure its negative aspects do not outweigh its positives, Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday. "AI has tremendous opportunity, but technology is never good or bad, it's what we do with the technology that matters," the billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist said on "Mad Money." Benioff, co-CEO and chairman of Salesforce, said there could be "dramatic consequences" as AI use in the military accelerates, for example. The Pentagon released its first AI strategy in February. "But we can use AI for good as well," said Benioff, who is promoting "Trailblazer," the new book he co-authored with Salesforce executive Monica Langley.

While all of this was happening, technically savvy and internationally educated entrepreneurs with compelling tech had easily attracted venture capital to set up a bunch of startups that brought niche artificial intelligence apps to a broader market. These startups are collectively referred to as China's "4 CV Dragons". CV, in this context, means "computer vision", and apart from the more common AI tech like facial recognition, for example, these CV companies have also used AI technologies to transform a variety of other industries. Tencent, the highest value company out among the dragons, has roots in gaming and online services and was strictly consumer-facing, but in 2018 it made dramatic changes in response to this new trend. For the first time in six years they announced a major restructuring to move from a consumer business towards one that caters to industries as well.

A writer for The New Yorker muses on the impact of writing generated by artificial intelligence -- and how surprisingly powerful it can be. Specifically, he takes a look at Google Smart Compose and similar predictive text tools driven by AI. His experience with Smart Compose -- which auto-completes sentences you write when using Google email -- was particularly eye-opening. "Perhaps because writing is my vocation, I am inclined to consider my sentences, even in a humble email, in some way a personal expression of my original thought," author John Seabrook observes about his experience with Smart Compose. "It was therefore disconcerting how frequently the AI was able to accurately predict my intentions, often when I was in mid-sentence, or even earlier. "Sometimes, the machine seemed to have a better idea than I did." Bottom line: This article in The New Yorker is an extremely in-depth, high quality read. Karlsson is CEO of United Robots, an AI-generated writing solutions provider that has been outfitting publishers with AI during the past four years. The "process often acts as a catalyst for a healthy newsroom discussion around how and why its journalism is created," Karlsson observes. "The positive outcome is not just the automatically generated content, but also a deeper understanding among journalists of how the work is done and why," Karlsson adds. "The process creates a new level of ownership -- of the language, the values, the dos and don'ts." Essentially, these tools ensure the AI editing and writing tools you're using are also optimizing your content for the search engines. SEO-optimized copy ensures your Web site or other digital property can rank as high as possible in search engine returns. The tools profiled in this article are Ink, Grammarly, SEO Writing Assistant, Pro Writing Aid, WordAi and AI Writer. "Some of the main issues, I think, relate to uncertainty around the accuracy of evidence produced by AI systems, as well as the labeling of automation to ensure that end–users are aware of its use," says Nick Diakopoulos. Diakopoulos is an assistant professor in communication studies and computer science at Northwestern University. "Another issue is the quality of data that is fed into AI systems," Diakopoulos adds. "It's well understood that if biased data is fed into a machine learning system, the system will learn those biases.

Google unveiled a new Pixel smartphone and other hardware devices Tuesday, all aimed at getting people even more reliant on its artificial-intelligence services. NEW YORK – It's not the computers you can see that are going to matter most, it's the one you can't. At least, that's the argument Google made at their Made by Google hardware launch event here, as they unveiled a number of new products that provide intelligence or interactions in ways that blend in with the environment around us. The tech industry has been talking about this notion of "ambient computing" for some time, but it's taken advances in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud-based services and wireless connectivity to start to make it real. To be clear, the kinds of things Google debuted at their event – from the widely expected Pixel 4 smartphone, to Pixel Bud earbuds, and updated versions of their Nest mini smart speaker (previously Google Home Mini) and Next WiFi (formerly Google WiFi) mesh routing system – have not reached cloak of invisibility-level powers. However, the refinements the company added to these products, in conjunction with the software advancements in Android and the Google Assistant, are making it easier to get access to the kinds of information we expect from our computing devices in more natural ways.

Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, in the book Superintelligence said, "Machine learning is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make." From electronic trading platforms to medical diagnosis, robot control, entertainment, education, health, and commerce, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital disruption have touched every field in the 21st century. AI has made its presence felt in all walks of life due to its ability to help the user innovate. It has also enabled users to make faster and more informed decisions with an increased amount of efficiency. Of late, the banking sector is becoming an active adapter of artificial intelligence--exploring and implementing this technology in new ways.

Just as every handwritten signature is unique, so is every cancerous tumor. Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have now used artificial intelligence and big datato decode the unique signatures of certain cancer cells. The resulting technology – dubbed a "computerized pathologist" –could significantly boost development of personalized cancer treatments. The researchers worked with digital images from breast-cancer biopsy samples. The new technology, described earlier this summer in the medical journal JAMA, extracts molecular information from the cell shape (morphology) and its environment.

Artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI has achieved a new milestone in its quest to build general purpose, self-learning robots. The group's robotics division says that Dactyl, its humanoid robotic hand first developed last year, has learned to solve a Rubik's cube one-handed. In a demonstration video showcasing Dactyl's new talent, we can see the robotic hand fumble its way toward a complete cube solve with clumsy yet accurate maneuvers. It takes many minutes, but Dactyl is eventually able to solve the puzzle. It's somewhat unsettling to see in action, if only because the movements look noticeably less fluid than human ones and especially disjointed when compared to the blinding speed and raw dexterity on display when a human speedcuber solves the cube in a matter of seconds.

Hurricane Dorian wreaked havoc in the Bahamas. Massive fires raged through the Amazon forest. A 7.1-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks rocked Southern California this summer. Kerala, India, suffered the biggest flood in nearly a century. It is painfully obvious that natural disasters all over the world are inflicting increasing amounts of damage--and it is likely that even more destructive events will occur in the future. But how can we defend and protect ourselves against the inevitable disasters to come?

By 2020, 50% of organizations will lack sufficient AI and data literacy skills to achieve business value. Data literacy is the ability to read, work with, analyze, and argue with data. Data literacy is the ability to derive meaningful information from data, just as literacy in general is the ability to derive information from the written word. As data and analytics become core to the enterprise, and data becomes an organizational asset, employees must have at least a basic ability to communicate and understand conversations about data. Just as it is a given that employees are now competent in word processing and spreadsheets, the ability to "speak data" will become an integral aspect of most day-to-day jobs. Gone will be the days when data scientists, analysts, and statisticians are the only ones "speaking data."

The Age of Intelligent Machines is upon us, and we are at a reflection point. The proliferation of fast-moving technologies, including forms of artificial intelligence, will cause us to confront profound questions about ourselves. The era of human intellectual superiority is ending, and, as a species, we need to plan for this monumental shift. A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are examines the immense impact intelligent technology will have on humanity. These machines, while challenging our personal beliefs and our socio-economic world order, also have the potential to transform our health and well-being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness.