What do Russian trolls, Facebook, and US elections have to do with machine learning? Recommendation engines are at the heart of the central feedback loop of social networks and the user-generated content (UGC) they create. Users join the network and are recommended users and content with which to engage. Recommendation engines can be gamed because they amplify the effects of thought bubbles. The 2016 US presidential election showed how important it is to understand how recommendation engines work and the limitations and strengths they offer.

To describe the future of work, Richard Baldwin is developing a new lexicon. The professor of international economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva warns that we are unprepared for the ways in which new technology is changing the nature of globalization. Baldwin's new book, The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work, is a natural follow-up to his 2016 book, The Great Convergence. Three years ago, he explained how a third wave of globalization--a collapse in the cost of the movement of people thanks to technology--would be the most disruptive, because it hits workers in the service sector. Baldwin's new book, published earlier this year, breaks down what this disruption will entail.

Volvo and Nvidia have formed a partnership that will see the pair collaborate on AI technology for self-driving vehicles. Speaking to investors and media at Volvo's annual event for the capital-markets community, Volvo Group CEO Martin Lundstedt said: "Partnership is the new leadership. If we are to succeed in the future with speed, quality, and safety – and to gain benefits of autonomous driving – we need to partner up with the best guys. In this world of unknowns, you need a partnership built on trust." Volvo is the world's second-largest truckmaker after Daimler.

IRISH BUSINESSES ARE lagging behind when it comes to investment in artificial intelligence, according to a new report by one of the Big Four professional services firms. A survey by PwC highlights a lack of clarity among businesses on how to plan for an AI future and the challenges with accessing and re-training talent. Conducted with the Analytics Institute, PwC surveyed 100 executives and high-ranking employees at companies of mixed sizes, including firms with revenues of less than €10 million and those with revenues of more than €5 billion. This relatively small sample size covered various industries but more than 93% were outside of IT with the replies benchmarked against US data. PwC has put together six priorities that need to be addressed by industry and government in Ireland: clarity, strategy, data, skills, trust and convergence, or how AI integrates with other technologies.

RADIUS guest contributor Gary Grossman currently leads the Edelman AI Center of Excellence. As part of that, he led development of the 2019 Edelman Artificial Intelligence Survey that can be viewed here. Just how important is artificial intelligence (AI)? Microsoft's Chief Envisioning Officer, Dave Coplin, said recently that AI is "the most important technology that anybody on the planet is working on today." A PwC report estimates that global GDP will be 14 percent higher in 2030 as a result of AI--the equivalent of $15.7 trillion, which is more than the current output of China and India combined.

Volvo Group and NVIDIA are delivering autonomy to the world's transportation industries, using AI to revolutionize how people and products move all over the world. At its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo Group announced Tuesday that it's using the NVIDIA DRIVE end-to-end autonomous driving platform to train, test and deploy self-driving AI vehicles, targeting public transport, freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, construction, mining, forestry and more. By injecting AI into these industries, Volvo Group and NVIDIA can create amazing new vehicles and deliver more productive services. The two companies are co-locating engineering teams in Gothenburg and Silicon Valley. Together, they will build on the DRIVE AGX Pegasus platform for in-vehicle AI computing and utilize the full DRIVE AV software stack for 360-degree sensor processing, perception, map localization and path planning.

Ed. note: Does pedophilia allow those involved with building A.I. technology to experiment with the very extremes in human emotions through pedophilia? While we are mesmerized by all this rapidly accelerating technology, what else is going on that might be of concern? Contributor I cover what entrepreneurs are looking to learn. Virtual gaming is about to warp through a black hole, thanks to a band of scientists in Hong Kong and a hedge funder with a zealous science background, called Jeffrey Epstein. Indeed, game programming is moving away from algorithmic robots to a twilight realm of emotional thinkers, taking online, video and toy entrepreneurs, one step closer to Star Trek's'Holodeck'. For years, in virtual gaming, the only intelligent player was the person playing the game, responding to non-reactive obstacles. At most, opponents could blow up or morph into something else.

They have reached the point where they learn by themselves and make their own decisions. The consequences can be downright freaky. There are machines that dream, read words in people's brains, and evolve themselves into art masters. The darker skills are enough to make anyone wear an anti-AI device, which is being developed. Some AI systems show signs of mental illness and prejudice, while others are too dangerous for release to the public. In 2019, a video was released on YouTube.

Cisco Systems is making its intent-based networking portfolio simpler, smarter and more secure, the tech giant said. That means bringing in more artificial intelligence and machine learning and stitching together disparate parts of the network. At Cisco Live 2019, the San Jose, Calif.-based company revealed the next step in its networking evolution. The original premise behind intent-based networking involved focusing the network on what the business wants to achieve. Cisco has been achieving this through network automation and boosting security across the entire network.

Over the last few decades, the telecom industry has rapidly shifted from basic phone and internet services to a far more evolved space featuring mobile, wearables and automation, making it one of the biggest businesses in the world currently and always upgrading to the cutting edge technology. According to IDC, 63.5% of telecommunications organizations are making new technology investments for AI systems. While having to be on the bleeding edge of technology is a good thing for customers and the competition. The industry itself is a great candidate for adopting AI driven solutions which offer the hope of reduced costs and increased efficiencies through automation. Needless to say, frontrunners have already started playing with AI solutions and deploying them across various business areas including customer-facing and internal processes.