Scientists believe its only a matter of time before a devastating earthquake hits southern California. The'Big One', expected to be triggered by the San Andreas fault, could leave thousands dead or displaced. Now, scientists are preparing for the worst - and the latest defence is a steel frame building that experts believe could withstand a major tremor. Researchers at the University of California in San Diego rocked and rattled a six-story steel frame building on a giant shake table to see how the structure would withstand major earthquakes. The shaking simulated an earthquake of the 6.7 magnitude that occurred in 1994 in Los Angeles, causing significant damage.

Appealing to your manager's human nature to get a day off work could get a whole lot more difficult in the future - because they may not be human at all. A robot office manager, named Betty, is being tested by a business in Milton Keynes for two months to help patrol the corridors and monitor its staff. The robot, developed by engineers at the University of Birmingham, uses artificial intelligence to help it keep track of where people are in the office, who is at their desk and keep tabs on clutter. Betty the robot (pictured), developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham, is working as an office manager at the Transport Systems Catapult in Milton Keynes. While there are many who fear robots are on the verge of stealing our jobs, it seems they have a weak spot - flat packed furniture.

In a busy car park, it can be easy to forget whether you parked on floor two or three. But the annoyance of losing your car could soon be a problem of the past, with Apple's latest iOS 10 update. The update to Apple's Maps function will automatically remember where your car is by pinning its location. According to Apple Insider, with the new iOS 10 update, Maps will automatically remember your vehicle's location at the end of trip, if it is not your usual home address. An additional update to the Maps function includes the ability for third-party applications to add functionality via extensions.

Hollywood studios have struggled to contend with the increasingly fleeting attention spans of online consumers. But now Sony Pictures Entertainment thinks it may have found a way to better hold people's interest with online video – by letting them affect the outcome. Sony Pictures Entertainment is making a multimillion-dollar strategic investment in New York-based Interlude, a digital firm that helps production companies and advertisers make interactive videos to better target online audiences. As in video games, Interlude's videos allow viewers to control aspects of what they see on screen with the click of a button, bringing the choose-your-own adventure concept to traditional entertainment. In a promotional video for MTV's "Scream" series, for example, viewers choose what to do in a short home-invasion thriller by clicking on icons that appear in the corner of the screen.

You can almost hear the whooshing sound as the technology industry is sprinting to the marketplace with new solutions to help the enterprise garner useful and intelligent insights from their data. Analytics, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) delivered in a simplistic form is what companies are demanding. To meet this mandate, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE) has developed Haven OnDemand, which offers the latest technology in a simplified platform for developers. Jeff Veis, VP of Big Data Platform Solutions, HP Software, at HPE, spoke to John Furrier and Dave Vellante, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during HPE Discover 2016 Las Vegas to discuss Big Data and the needs of the enterprise. Furrier began the interview by asking Veis about the driving force behind the need for machine learning.

While it already feels that AlphaGo is ancient history in the fast moving AI world, I think it makes a powerful case for how human-machine collaboration could help us improve our own mastery of complex tasks. Google DeepMind also made the headlines for the data sharing agreement they signed with three hospitals that are part of UK's National Health Service. The data on 1.6 million patients includes live and historical medical records stretching back 5 years. Its stated use is for "real time clinical analytics, detection, diagnosis and decision support", with an initial focus on the Company's Streams app for measuring the risk of acute kidney injury. While many engaged in heated debate over data privacy (see this headline, courtesy of The Daily Mail), my view is that medicine should be moving towards real-time monitoring of health and prediction of future conditions.

Ryan Jones is a well-known SEO and Manager of Search Strategy & Analytics at SapientNitro. Ryan Jones is a veteran of SEJ Summit Chicago, having spoken there last year. This year, I'm so excited for Ryan's presentation on machine learning and how it affects search, which is a topic I'm sure most of you want to learn more about. Check out Ryan's insight below and feel free to ask questions in the comment section! I hate to spoil the presentation here, but the short answer is: if you've been doing SEO properly RankBrain doesn't change anything.

Pretty much every cinematic portrayal of artificial intelligence has been less than encouraging. HAL 9000 kills the crew members on the Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey, making us all a little bit afraid of handing the reins over to computers. Sonny kills his creator in I, Robot, increasing worldwide scepticism about the integration of humans and their smart robots. Even real life AI has given us pause. For example, when an IBM computer defeated Russian chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in the 1990s, it was definitely a cause for concern. For the most part, though, AI has been more accepted in everyday practice.

Analysts are saying that Apple's upcoming updates to its Siri voice assistant should help the company address criticisms that it can't compete on artificial intelligence. Apple is now opening Siri to apps made by other companies, and like Google and Microsoft, it's bringing the digital assistant to desktop and laptop computers. It's also making Siri smarter by using what Apple calls differential privacy. Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy explains it as Apple using non-personal information in aggregate to teach Siri new tricks, then having all the personalization take place on the individual device. It's in contrast to Google's approach of doing everything over the internet -- that is, in the "cloud."

Political elections – for better or worse – have become a game show. The more social media, the more clickbait headlines ... whatever generates a lot of buzz is one way to make our mark in an election,