How many times a day do we ourselves, or hear someone else, utter the phrase "Google it"? It's hard to imagine that a phrase so ubiquitous and universally understood has been around for less than two decades. The word "Google" has become synonymous with online search, and when we think about why this, it's because Google yields the most relevant, comprehensive results, quickly. Essentially, it has changed the way we find and interact with content and information. We've seen the cultural effect Google has had on search and discovery on a broad level, but consider the implications for online media and publishing organizations interested in honing these same powerful search and discovery capabilities, a process referred to as dynamic semantic publishing.

Nearly a decade after the iPhone broke the mold for mobile phones, the question being asked is whether the evolution of the smartphone has finally come to an end, as even Apple now treats older, smaller 4-inch screens as something new. Industry experts believe innovation in smartphones is giving way to phone functions popping up as software or services in all manner of new devices, from cars to fridges to watches and jewelry rather than remaining with handheld devices. And analysts and product designers said fresh breakthroughs are running up against the practical limits of what's possible in current smartphone hardware in terms of screen size, battery life and network capacity. "Everything in the phone industry now is incremental: slightly faster, slightly bigger, slightly more storage or better resolution," said Christian Lindholm, inventor of the easy text messaging keyboards in old Nokia phones that made them the best-selling mobile devices of all time. The financial stakes are high, as the futures of Apple, Google and Microsoft, the world's three biggest listed companies at the end of last year, may now turn on who gets the jump on making handsets redundant.

This summer a Minnesota startup began deploying an autonomous robot that rolls between corn plants spraying crop fertilizer. The robot applies fertilizer while the plant is rapidly growing and needs it most. This eliminates the need for using tractors, which can damage the high stalks, and reduces the amount of fertilizer needed earlier in the season, says Kent Cavender-Bares, CEO of the company, Rowbot. Further, by reducing the fertilizer, the robot reduces the amount of nitrogen that can end up polluting waterways after rainstorms. As the machine travels between rows, it can spray two rows of corn on either side of the machine.

Lee Sedol, a South Korean professional Go player, smiles as he reviews his defeat with other players after finishing the final match against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, last week in Seoul.

The recent event of Microsoft's hijacked chatbot Tay highlights that not all human creations are ingenious, some can be harmful and distasteful. The work of creating a machine learning program to learn more about how artificial intelligence programs engages with Web users in casual conversation turned out to be an unpleasant experience. The bot Tay started tweeting abuse. In the light of these events Tay was pulled off from Twitter since, what was designed to interact with web users in a good way, quickly learned to parrot a hateful speeches. Some hackers, it is believed took advantage of a vulnerability present in the AI chatbot.

Where to begin with this week? At least we've got hoops (and long odds). On Wednesday, the software giant released a chatbot called Tay. It was a research project meant to talk like a teen girl and learn from its interactions with real people on the Internet. You'll never guess what happened next.

YOU ARE MY SEDUCTIVE SYMPATHY. This was one of a number of enigmatic notes pinned to the computing department noticeboard at the University of Manchester, UK, back in August 1953. There was no great mystery about "MUC", however: that could only be "Manchester University Computer", the world's first commercial programmable electronic computer. Designed to work on atomic bombs, X-ray crystallography and other serious science, what business had this Ferranti Mark 1 writing love letters? The answer, of course, was a gifted, under-occupied programmer.

With technological advancement taking over human jobs every single year, it's only a matter of time before they take over larger sectors of jobs that humans are used to occupying. Just look at the assembly lines in car factories. They're full of robotic arms assembling all the pieces that we used to put together. Now there are people observing the machines so they don't break down. By 2020, just a few short years away, artificial intelligence and robots could replace 5 million jobs. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned that humanity is moving into what they call the "fourth industrial revolution."

Microsoft shocked us all earlier this week when it released its Tay chatbot into the world of social media. However, it didn't take long for nefarious Twitter users to poison the well by exploiting Tay's penchant for repeating statements fed to it. This "parrot" mentality is the reason why Tay went off message, calling President Barack Obama a monkey, embracing neo-Nazi rhetoric, and coming on to users with the promise of cyber sex. Microsoft of course was both mortified and embarrassed by Tay's turn to the dark side and shut down the AI program after less than 24 hours. But by that time, the damage had already been done, and the company has since apologized in a blog post entitled "Learning from Tay's introduction."

Microsoft's future depends in part on its development of fringe technology like augmented reality and artificial intelligence, according to Vice President Stephen Boyle. "HoloLens is not right for everybody, but HoloLens is going to change industries in a way that most of us, and certainly I'm one of them, can't yet fully imagine," Boyle said of the augmented reality system. HoloLens developer kits are available now and have already begun to ship in North America. "We're going to see manufacturing, education, retail experiences change as a result of augmented reality," Boyle said. When it comes down to it, Boyle explained, a technology like HoloLens is just a platform that needs solutions that solve customers' problems.