One of the biggest impacts may be on jobs, not only on the nature of work itself, but on the availability of work. Some crystal ball gazers are predicting that AI (working in concert with its older sibling, automation) will trigger massive job losses; others see AI producing a net gain in employment . Both views can be supported both logically and empirically; but they both can't be right. As Andy Kessler put it in a June 17 Wall Street Journal column, "The future happens, just not the way most people think." Kessler then walked readers through a shopping list of past predictions that turned out to be way off the mark: "megamistakes," he called them.

In 2016, AI became part of China's national technology development program to boost AI research and development and enter formally the race to become a leading AI nation. That China has made tremendous progress highlights a report published by Tsinghua University. According to the report, "China leads the world in AI papers, has become the largest owner of AI patents, has the world's second largest AI talent pool, and the highest venture investment in AI." China is running a neck-and-neck race with the United States, followed by countries like Japan and South Korea. Since 2018, however, a debate has also been underway in China about ethical and regulatory questions concerning the use of AI.

In this video, Kevin Wade, Senior Director, Portfolio Marketing and Corrado Longoni, Senior Consultant, Solutions Engineering, from Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, introduce and demonstrate'Proactive Network Operation (PNO)' an AI-based, closed loop automation solution. PNO utilizes AI and machine learning to predict and prevent network outages - one of the most important issues for operators to eliminate these days.

Amazon is developing a higher quality version of the Echo speaker and ramping up work on its home robot. The company plans to release the new Echo by next year, according to people familiar with the product. Prototypes of the cylindrical speaker are wider than the current Echo to squeeze in additional components including at least four tweeters, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter. The robot, previously reported by Bloomberg, has wheels and can be controlled by Alexa voice commands, the people said. Both devices are being developed by Amazon Lab126, a research and development arm based in Sunnyvale, California.

With Prime Day just around the corner, here are 5 products on Amazon that truly deserve their 5-star ratings AND a spot in your shopping cart. Has Amazon Prime Day become the new Black Friday? For the fifth July in a row, the country's biggest e-commerce marketplace – it now accounts for about 50% of all U.S. retail sales, according to eMarketer – offers aggressive discounts on several products, in a variety of categories. This year's Prime Day – it actually runs 48 hours starting Monday at 12 a.m. PT and through Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. PT – looks to be no different, especially if you're into video games.

Augmented intelligence (AI) and related branches--such as machine learning and natural language processing--offer lots of promise for health care, but how can physicians and other health professionals distinguish between clinically safe and useful innovations and hot air? That question is at the heart of a recent JAMA Pediatrics editorial on machine learning, a branch of AI, that outlines some rules of thumb to help doctors tell the difference between hype and reliable research on machine learning in medicine. New health care AI policy adopted at the 2019 AMA Annual Meeting provides that AI should advance the quadruple aim--meaning that it "should enhance the patient experience of care and outcomes, improve population health, reduce overall costs for the health care system while increasing value, and support the professional satisfaction of physicians and the health care team." The AMA House of Delegates also adopted policy on the use of AI in medical education and physician training. This built on the foundation of the AMA's initial AI policies adopted last year that emphasized that the perspective of physicians needed to be heard as the technology continues to develop.

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." This was Sun Tzu back in the 5th century BC. This quote is true to this day though, and our efforts to subdue the enemy are now based on fear. We have developed technologies and weapons to such an extent that they actually can destroy whole cities in the blink of an eye, often using hypersonic weapons. This also means that we've developed technologies and weapons to prevent such things from happening in the first place.

Earlier this year, at MWC, Microsoft announced the return of its Kinect sensor in the form of an AI developer kit. The $399 Azure Kinect DK camera system includes a 1MP depth camera, 360-degree microphone, 12MP RGB camera and an orientation sensor, all in a relatively small package. The kit has been available for pre-order for a few months now, but as the company announced today, it's now generally available and shipping to pre-order customers in the U.S. and China. Unlike the original Kinect, which launched as an Xbox gaming accessory that never quite caught on, the Azure Kinect is all business. It's meant to give developers a platform to experiment with AI tools and plug into Azure's ecosystem of machine learning services (though using Azure is not mandatory).

The government is investing £12m in the development of new technologies including robots that can perform household tasks and products to protect dolphins from noise protection. The money is being invested by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in four partnerships between universities and the private sector. Government funding is being supplemented by a further £17.5m in cash from commercial partners. The first project being funded involves work to develop materials that do not make noise underwater. This, the government said, will not only improve the life expectancy of dolphins, fish, and other marine creatures, but will also have a positive impact on human health.

Gartner Inc. this week published its first Magic Quadrant for the robotic process automation software market, shining a light on the leading players and key trends in the rapidly growing technology segment. RPA relates to the use of software with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform. These tasks can include queries, calculations and maintenance of records and transactions. RPA software relies on robots that can mimic a human worker by logging into an application, entering data or calculating and completing tasks and then logging out once the task is done. The technology is believed to save companies huge amounts of time and money, so it's not much of a surprise to see Gartner estimating the market for this type of software will reach $2.4 billion a year by 2024, from just $850 million today.