But such is not the case in the domain of cybersecurity. Although security solutions based on unsupervised machine learning do exist, relying entirely on artificial intelligence to spot cyberattacks isn't totally practical because such systems yield a large number of false positives. You eventually need the help of human experts to find evidence of security breaches and make critical decisions. This means cybersecurity professionals get to keep their jobs--at least for the time being. But that's not necessarily a good thing, especially since analyst-based security solutions are fraught with problems, too, and can't keep up with the huge volume of data that needs to be analyzed at every moment, eventually leading to high rates of undetected attacks and delayed responses.

Facebook says chatbots will change the way businesses communicate with their customers, but will businesses want to put their user communications in the hands of artificial intelligence? "They're a powerful tool but they're also a big risk," said Brian Blau, an analyst with Gartner. "A.I. can be a very powerful technology. Businesses are going to have to understand how to harness that power. There are reasons to be worried about it. Because we're giving chatbots the power to act on our behalf, they're taking on greater importance."

Artificial Intelligence (AI) "voices" listen, react and integrate with consumer devices. How can brands tap into this, and how can it benefit consumers? The absence of screens and the presence of a new voice is the reality of AI in the home. The Amazon Echo (fondly known as Alexa) listens and reacts to whomever is talking to it. Alexa will let you know how much food is in your fridge, check your work calendar, and answer almost any question.

One day in January, Eric Wilson dashed off a message to the teaching assistants for an online course at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "I really feel like I missed the mark in giving the correct amount of feedback," he wrote, pleading to revise an assignment. Thirteen minutes later, the TA responded. "Unfortunately, there is not a way to edit submitted feedback," wrote Jill Watson, one of nine assistants for the 300-plus students. Last week, Mr. Wilson found out he had been seeking guidance from a computer.

Something interesting is happening in the design world. Tools -- which used to be things we utilized to perform a specific function -- are increasingly becoming much more than just things. They're becoming more like colleagues or co-workers -- members of the team who can collaborate with us to solve problems. As the relationship between humans and machines evolves, it promises to turn design into a team sport where humans and machines are playing side-by-side, together. This new way of working will transform design in exciting ways, expanding the possibilities of what we can make and how we can shape the world around us.

"Interspecies love is in the air!" enthuses one movie fansite at the prospect of the forthcoming Warcraft movie. There's a lot to get up to speed with in Warcraft. The original video games were so wildly popular that their community of players exceeds the population of Norway, and the World of Warcraft wiki has over 100,000 pages. For novices, it's a fantasy world not far removed from Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons: a realm of elves, dwarves, mythical creatures and medieval weaponry. Warcraft the movie revolves around Azeroth, a kingdom apparently ruled by European humans.

Nvidia researchers have created a convolutional neural network which has learned the rules of the road by observing video from cars operated by human drivers. The achievement demonstrates one reason there's so much excitement about artificial intelligence in the tech industry at the moment: When AI systems can learn, they require less programming. Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's senior director of automotive, said in a blog post that the company wanted to create a robust system for driving on public roads without the need to write code to handle every specific condition a driver might encounter, a requirement he considers impractical. Nvidia's nine-month-old project, dubbed DAVE2, represents an effort to expand on DARPA Autonomous Vehicle (DAVE) research, which aimed to create a system that could navigate public roads. DAVE ran from September 2003 through June 2004.

Join us live with Marcus Lemonis at Thought Leaders Arizona on May 24. We've all heard it by now: Data scientists have the century's sexiest job and they're here to save your business with their big data expertise. Everyone wants to hire one. But what are the chances you'll stumble across an actual data scientist unicorn who just happens to be a perfect fit for your business? The thing about data science is that it draws from dozens of fields, including machine learning, data mining, analytics and artificial intelligence.

In its quest to maintain a United States military advantage, the Pentagon is aggressively turning to Silicon Valley's hottest technology -- artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter made his fourth trip to the tech industry's heartland since being named to his post last year. Before that, it had been 20 years since a defense secretary had visited the area, he noted in a speech at a Defense Department research facility near Google's headquarters. The Pentagon's intense interest in A.I. -- and by connection the Silicon Valley companies specializing in that technology -- has grown out of the "Third Offset" strategy articulated by Mr. Carter last fall. Concerned about the re-emergence of China and Russia as military competitors, he stated that computer-based, high-tech weapons would give the American military an edge in the future.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a walking robot that can handle difficult terrain.