Over the next decade, innovative technologies such as edge computing, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality and Internet of things will combine to create deeply connected relationships between people and computers, resulting in fully augmented human beings. This is according to the Future of Connected Living report commissioned by Dell Technologies and conducted by Vanson Bourne. The research firm surveyed 4 600 director- to C-suite-level business leaders across four countries, including SA, to uncover their views on the impact of emerging technologies. The research found the gap between human and machines is shrinking, presenting a new era of human-machine alliances on the horizon. Over the next decade, it says, everything around us will become more intelligent, communicative and connected, with new kinds of networks, devices, interfaces and AI expected to help people augment, enhance and optimise their personal lives and working environment.

Hapag-Lloyd, the fifth-largest container shipping line in the world by market share, has agreed a partnership with PortChain, specialists in AI solutions for the maritime industry, to improve its fleet planning operations. According to a statement, the two partners will work closely in order to simplify and optimize workflows within voyage control and execution. PortChain's predictive algorithms will assist Hapag-Lloyd's Marine Operations teams to identify potential issues in schedules earlier, leading to greater reliability and a reduction in costs. It will combine large amounts of data with their propriety machine learning algorithms to provide live insights on issues affecting the schedules of Hapag-Lloyd's vessels. As well as that, it will allow for a more proactive and collaborative way of working which both parties believe will being benefits for Hapag-Lloyd's partners and customers.

Just over two years ago, China announced an audacious plan to overtake the US and lead the "world in AI [artificial intelligence] technology and applications by 2030". It is already widely regarded to have overtaken the EU in many aspects. But now its plans may be knocked off course by the US restricting certain Chinese companies from buying technologies developed or manufactured in the States. Washington's justification is that the organisations involved have made products used to commit human rights abuses against China's Muslim ethnic minorities. But it is notable that those on its blacklist include many of China's official "national AI champions", among them: Like the telecoms firm Huawei before them, they now face major disruption as a consequence of the Trump administration's intervention.

Robotics is a combination of engineering and technology, which includes mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, computer science, and other engineering domains. Robotics is one of the emerging fields now in the industry. Now in approximately every sector robots are using for making simple the situations. For a robotic process, the system requires a combination of software and physical components such as power supply, actuators, sensors, locomotive parts, storage devices, and control software. Robotics is now widely used in military, security, construction, and field of medical, agriculture, household operation, and education.

The Trump administration is adding a group of Chinese tech companies that develop facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technology to a U.S. blacklist over concerns that the tech is being used to repress China's Muslim minority groups. The move comes ahead of trade talks between the U.S. and China later this week, which one analyst said sets a "negative tone" for the negotiations. The 28 companies added to the blacklist include Hikvision and Dahua, both of which are global providers of video surveillance technology, as well as prominent Chinese AI firms such as Sense Time, Megvii and iFlytek. The Commerce Department on Monday placed the companies on a so-called Entity List for acting contrary to American foreign policy interests. The blacklist effectively bars U.S. firms from selling technology to the Chinese companies without government approval.

The US Commerce Department has said it is adding 28 Chinese government organizations and private businesses, including eight tech giants, to its so-called Entity List for acting against American foreign policy interests. The move effectively bars any US companies from selling technology to the blacklisted firms and organizations without US government approval. The US says they have been involved in human rights violations against Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region. The list notably includes several companies that serve on China's national AI team, which the government formed as part of its strategy to become a global leader in the technology. These are video surveillance company Hikvision, voice recognition giant iFlytek, image recognition companies Megvii and SenseTime, and machine vision and voice recognition company Yitu.

Washington State University researchers have developed a novel way to identify previously unrecognized antibiotic-resistance genes in bacteria. By employing machine learning and game theory, the researchers were able to determine with 93 to 99 percent accuracy the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes in three different types of bacteria. The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a growing problem around the world. Every year, millions of people in the U.S. are infected with drug-resistant pathogens, and thousands of people die from pneumonia or bloodstream infections that become impossible to treat. In recent years, researchers have been working to make use of genome sequencing to identify antibiotic-resistant genes, looking for similar sequences of genes in public databases.

As AI and machine learning transform industries by automating much of the work currently done by humans, women's careers will be disproportionately affected. That's according to a McKinsey Global Institute report published earlier this year ("The future of women at work: Transitions in the age of automation"), which found that women predominate in occupations that'll be adversely impacted. About 40% of jobs where men make up the majority in the 10 economies (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., the U.S., China, India, Mexico, and South America) contributing over 60% of GDP collectively could be displaced by automation in our 2030, compared with the 52% of women-dominated jobs with high automation potential. Mekala Krishnan, a senior fellow at McKinsey's Boston-based business and economics research arm and a member of the board of the Global Fund for Women, spoke about the research (which she coauthored) at MIT Technology Review's EmTech MIT conference at the MIT Media Lab. Krishnan pointed out that monotonous or repetitive tasks are ripe for automation.

L'olivier - assurance auto, an auto insurer and French subsidiary of the English group Admiral, a European leader in automobile insurance, is joining InsurTech Shift Technology to fight against car insurance fraud. According to insurance magazine l'Argus de l'Assurance, in 2014 fraud represented 2.5 billion Euros in damages, only €219M of which have been recovered by insurers. Faced with such high figures, which are also on the increase, the aim of L'olivier is to rely on artificial intelligence and data science to automate and optimize the detection of suspicious claim files. For L'olivier, a direct insurer created in 2011, it was important to reinforce its plan to fight against fraud by establishing a dedicated unit: "Shift will help us in building out our capabilities. Their solution improves our ability to detect fraud by reducing the number of irrelevant cases, at the same time as it enhances our ability to prove fraud by providing administrators with avenues of investigation, enabling us to avoid payment of fraudulent claims," explains Janny Druon, head of the Claims Analytics team at L'olivier.

When I was a young boy, I was very ill. My immune system was not working as it should. I felt sick after meeting other children, so I had to live in isolation. I was coughing so severely that on a few occasions, I almost fainted. My loving parents tried everything to help me, consulted every health practitioner. I was prescribed strong medications that left me numb and without energy.