First came banks, then came Fintech, now we've got a complicated relationship on our hands. Here's what influencers said last year when we talked about the love-hate relationship between banks and Fintech: Getting back to technology, the nature of the FinTech narrative over the past few years has been evolving. As well, the pace of technology change continues to accelerate. Rapidly evolving advances in artificial intelligence across chatbots, robo-advisors, claims, underwriting, IoT and soon blockchain, add another layer of potential to further shake-up the traditional business model. The rise of startups is a logical step and part of the progress tech has made.

It's that time of year, when like you, we all look to the future and ponder what the next one, two, five or even 10 years will be like? Specifically this blog addresses the following topics and themes: RegTech; Artificial Intelligence (AI); Blockchain (wider distributed ledgers); Crypto-currencies inc. Bitcoin; Machine Learning; Big Data; Smart Data; AML, KYC, MiFIDII, GDPR in addition to some specific companies you may want to keep an eye on and more... We must not forget to mention the former Panama, Bahamas and more recent Paradise paper leaks (see my other LinkedIn pulse to explore that topic in more detail). In this LinkedIn pulse I aim to walk you through the many topics, themes, patterns that are taking place and what I think the future holds in particular for the #RegTech sector & regulatory risk (in addition to others).

Those with digital home assistants know this phenomenon all too well. You ask Siri, Google or Alexa to hook it up with the facts, they provide an answer, but then you have a follow-up question. In order to ask that follow-up question, you have to say "Hey, Siri," "Hey, Google" or "Alexa" all over again. It's a true annoyance in this first-world we live in. The feature is available on all hands-free Alexa-enabled devices, like the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Spot.

What do you think of when you hear about AI? Do you picture your favorite sci-fi movie or a book that you read when you were younger? In that favorite book or movie, were the robots smart? In AI, we can find a subset of machine learning called "deep learning," which is defined as networks that can learn unsupervised from unstructured data. Now the bigger question is: Are you ready to take advantage of deep learning in your business? The vast ocean of data grows exponentially every day. If you and your company can't keep up, you'll be left behind.

CREATIVITY: IT'S AT THE HEART OF WHO WE HUMANS ARE… WE HUMANS ARE SPECIAL, RIGHT? Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece? OVER SOME 40,000 YEARS, HUMAN CREATIVITY HAS EXPLODED – FROM DRAWINGS ON CAVE WALLS THROUGH THE GREAT ART OF CENTURIES TO COME…. NOW, SCIENTISTS -- AND ARTISTS –ARE ASKING CAN A ROBOT TRULY IMAGINE AN ORIGINAL MASTERWORK? COMPUTATIONAL CREATIVITY IS LEADING US TO ASK NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN CREATIVITY. IS THIS ESSENTIAL HUMAN TRAIT TRULY UNIQUE? WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BE A COMPETITOR? OR CAN IT BE A COLLABORATOR, HELPING US TOWARD STILL UNIMAGINED CREATIONS? SCHAEFER: My first guest is a member of Google Brain's Magenta team. He is currently working on neural network models of sound and music and recently produced a synthesizer that designed its own sounds. SCHAEFER: Also with us, is an Assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He focuses on several surprising creative domains including the culinary arts and fashion and the theoretical foundations of creativity. SCHAEFER: Also with us is an Associate Professor of psychological and brain science at Dartmouth College. He's interested in the neural basis of imagination and in the evolution of human creativity. A former research fellow at MIT's Media lab and artist in residence at Google, please welcome Sougwen Chung.

As a PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) consultant, I can't help but notice that organizations who revamp their PLM landscape often face a brick wall when it comes to user acceptance. All of the promised benefits, all the glowing forecasts of improved KPIs--none of it can materialize unless a business transformation happens along with the IT transformation. PLM users have to adapt to the new system and processes, or there will be no improvements. A chatbot is a computer program that conducts a conversation with a user through speech or text. According to Wikipedia, such programs can be designed to convincingly simulate how a human would behave as a conversational partner, such as the recently launched Google Assistant.

Today is International Women's Day, and we're celebrating by highlighting some of the leading ladies in AI, machine learning and deep learning who have spoken at RE•WORK Summits and dinners over the past 12 months. Whilst the technology industry is seeing more and more women in top roles, the gender imbalance is still clear. At RE•WORK, we're passionate about encouraging women and girls into STEM and are proud to host our series of dinners and our Podcast celebrating women in AI. Earlier this year we hosted the AI Assistants Summit in San Francisco, where 50% of our speakers were women. This was a fantastic showcase of diversity, and we are striving to have more and more female experts presenting at our Summits.

Rael wanted to combine his years of knowledge in the finance world with advertising. He quit his job soon afterwards and after contacting Dr. Jun Wang who had papers on the very same subject, they both decided to co-found MediaGamma. Rael Cline shares with me how MediaGamma is helping companies harness the power of their customer data to drive better customer-centric products. Hi Rael, thanks for agreeing to share your story on YHP. Can you give us some background information about yourself?

It might not be too long before your average mobile PC will feature -- on its motherboard -- not just CPUs and GPUs but also an embedded AI inference chip, like the Intel/Movidius Vision Processor Unit (VPU). The first clue for this scenario unfolded in Microsoft Corp.'s launch announcement today, at its Windows Developer Day, of Windows ML, an open-standard framework for machine-learning tasks in the Windows OS. Microsoft said that it is extending Windows OS native support for the Intel/Movidius VPU. Implied in the message is that Intel/Movidius has taken a step closer to finding a home not just in embedded applications, such as drones and surveillance cameras, but also in Windows-based laptops and tablets. In a telephone interview with EE Times, Gary Brown, director of marketing at Movidius/Intel, confirmed, "Although today's announcement isn't about that [VPU integration on a mobile PC], yes, you will see VPU migrating into a PC motherboard."

The detection of gravitational waves, an accomplishment that earned the Nobel Prize in physics last fall, has revolutionized astronomy. Despite all the excitement about the phenomenon, however, American gravitational wave detectors have spotted them just six times to date. Scientists would very much like to have more data to work with, and they're turning to artificial intelligence to try to identify more gravitational wave signals faster, Wired reported. That's because gravitational wave detectors are most valuable when they work together with other types of instruments to shed light on what's happening in the universe. In order for that to happen, it's not just about the detectors picking up a signal--scientists also have to realize it's there soon enough to enlist colleagues in the investigation.