Lolita Taub is a force of nature - or perhaps more accurately, a force in technology. Growing up, she was told "tech is not for girls," and in recent years, "VC is not for women." However, these comments only further drove Taub to demonstrate that women, in fact, belong everywhere. Taub recently joined the Catalyte team as Chief of Staff. Catalyte uses artificial intelligence to identify individuals, regardless of background, who have the innate potential and cognitive ability to be great software developers - which is perfectly aligned with Taub's vision of a world "where tech is pioneered by the diversity of our population." I spoke with Taub about her work in AI, commitment to diversity in technology and how AI is already impacting the way we work.

August 26, 2019 -- Conversica, Inc., the leader in Intelligent Virtual Assistants for business, announced today that is has been named to the Constellation ShortList for Sales Productivity Solutions in Q3 2019. This is the second consecutive time Conversica has appeared on the Constellation ShortList in this category. This award recognizes software and applications that allow sales professionals to maximize their performance and productivity. Constellation Research, a respected technology research and advisory firm based in Silicon Valley, determines its list by inquiries and interviews with the nominees' clients and partners; while also factoring in market share and internal research. "We are honored to be named to Constellation's ShortList for Sales Productivity Solutions for the second time in a row," said Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica.

AI is trying to decide if you get a job, AI is deciding if you get access to medical treatment -- and if we get that wrong, you have real world consequences. Those were funny cases you mentioned. I just hope that I never have to go through it. By the way, how far do you think we are from something Hollywood-ish in terms of AI? The tech is far from advanced, at least in the US and in Europe where 24/7 public surveillance isn't (yet) a thing.

I interviewed the Nr. 2 intelligence official, Kari Bingen at the Pentagon recently. Bingen and I have known each other for more than a decade while she was one of the top space and intelligence staffers on Capitol Hill. She ended her career there as the HASC policy director for the GOP. This is the first interview Bingen has granted since being confirmed two years ago. BD: This is Colin Clark, editor of Breaking Defense.

A new show on Netflix called Black Mirror highlights the negative impacts of technology on the future. Although this show is fascinating and entertaining to watch, I feel that technology will make more of a positive impact on our way of life in the future. Of course, sometimes technology has a double side effect on things for example excessively using social media and smartphones. So, technology needs to be used in the right way sometimes in moderation. Recently, many recruiting blogs have been using AI technology to scare recruiters into reading their posts. Will sourcing and recruiting jobs become automated in the future?

I first started working in the world of virtual agents in 2000 and, even though the technology was very much in its infancy at the time, saw huge potential for innovation and growth in the industry. Having now led my own company in this space for over 15 years, I have a unique perspective on the advancements of conversational AI technology and the ways it can be used. I was pleased to share some of my insights with the AI Time Journal recently in an interview for their Conversational AI Initiative. Whether you use chatbots, virtual agents, conversational AI or one of the other numerous terms in the market today to describe this technology, one of the biggest challenges the industry faces (besides the inconsistent terminology!) is the lack of understanding within organisations about deploying these solutions. Just a few years ago this was due to them not really knowing much about virtual agents or how these tools can be used to improve the customer and employee experience.

For tens of thousands of years, humans have reigned as our planet's only intelligent, self-aware species. But the rise of intelligent machines means that could change soon, perhaps in our own lifetimes. Not long after that, Homo sapiens could vanish from Earth entirely. "Our supremacy as the prime understanders of the cosmos is rapidly coming to end," he says in the book, "Novacene." "The understanders of the future will not be humans but what I choose to call'cyborgs' that will have designed and built themselves."

Priya Lakhani is an entrepreneurial adrenaline junkie. She has founded two successful companies, won numerous business awards, and acted as an advisor to the Department of Business, Innovation, and Skills. Her life's aim is to change the world for the better, and to that end she has funded meals in India, vaccinations in Africa, and her current project improves education for thousands of UK children. Remarkably, she has achieved all this despite a constant barrage of people telling her to "quit and go home". In this podcast Priya takes us through her astonishing career, from unloading boxes of sauce outside Victoria Street Station, to writing a book for preschoolers.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) founder Bill Gates was speaking to a group of college students in 2004. According to The New York Times, Gates was a bit concerned about the decline in the number of computer science majors, as well as the notion that the field had matured and there weren't many breakthroughs left to achieve in the area. One student expressed doubt that there would ever be another tech company as successful as Microsoft. ''If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn, that is worth 10 Microsofts.'' Fast-forward to today, and of course someone has figured it out.

Google launched a new video series that answers a single question. The first episode was about links but in my opinion it did not adequately answer the question. "Does linking to other websites help or hurt SEO?" The SEO community has thought of outbound links as ranking signals since at least 2002. I hope to show you how and why outbound links for SEO was invented.