File photo - An employee holds an iPhone Apple XR during the press visit of the new Apple Store Champs-Elysees on Nov. 15, 2018 in Paris, France. There aren't many ways 2018 could have gone worse for the tech industry. It felt like every week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and friends were apologizing for some major privacy blunder or platform manipulation. Self-driving cars proved they weren't ready to hit the road and Elon Musk nearly self-destructed on Twitter. Electric scooters swarmed cities only to be vandalized in droves.

In the past few years, artificial intelligence has advanced so quickly that it now seems hardly a month goes by without a newsworthy AI breakthrough. In areas as wide-ranging as speech translation, medical diagnosis, and gameplay, we have seen computers outperform humans in startling ways. This has sparked a discussion about how AI will impact employment. Some fear that as AI improves, it will supplant workers, creating an ever-growing pool of unemployable humans who cannot compete economically with machines. This concern, while understandable, is unfounded.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the power to transform how we live and work, providing businesses with powerful new tools to make their operations more efficient. However, academics and technologists have multiple concerns about the ethics of AI. Q - How are organisations currently using AI? KL: AI is being used to automate an increasing number of numerical, formulaic and repetitive processes. One of the most talked about applications for AI to-date is for self-driving or autonomous vehicles. Codelco, for example, is a Chilean copper mining company that has been a global pioneer in the use of autonomous trucks.

The coming year brings the cleanup and a return to the optimism that technology is really good for the world. By that of course we mean finally playing the much hyped, much delayed Harry Potter augmented-reality game. Also eagerly awaited: 5G arriving in cities, Apple's iOS getting a facelift and Disney launching its own streaming service. We're predicting a year of fulfilled promises--including a possibly forced change in companies' data-collection practices. Here's our annual roundup of the tech that will affect us in the year ahead.

The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I'm not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast--it is growing at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five-year timeframe. The way things are going, there is no room for doubt that there will be plenty of political upheavals and surprises in 2019. No one has a clue as to where Brexit is headed or, for that matter, where the entire Western world is going, let alone the prevailing uncertainty in the United States and the onward march of China.

Third, making more extensive use of data and machines in sensitive decision-making also creates additional security risks such as data leaks, cyber-attacks or computational errors, the dangerous implications of which for global stability may outweigh the benefits of replacing hot-headed and ill-tempered humans. While human interaction can produce disastrous outcomes, it might also be more capable of quickly resolving disputes when needed, as evidenced by historical examples ranging from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the recent Trump-Kim Summit.

Tech giants, universities, consultancy firms and a retailer are among Australia's top hirers for artificial intelligence related roles, according to analysis by job-site Indeed. The government's scientific research organisation CSIRO emerged as the top seeker of candidates for AI roles, measured by number of jobs requiring related skills posted to the website this year. In second place was IBM, followed by Zendesk, Culture Amp, Macquarie University, Google, Atlassian and BCG Digital Ventures. The rapid rise of the specialised field is leading to a'skills mismatch' said Indeed's APAC economist Callam Pickering. "That is, the skills in demand from employers are not necessarily the skills possessed by job seekers. This often happens because the skills in demand are rapidly changing, reflecting the needs to adapt to new technologies," he told CIO Australia.

By Sanjeev Sharma India, the second most populous country in the world, runs a host of socially beneficial programs. Most of such programs aim to reach the millions of people who live in remote areas of our extensive nation. From providing mid-day meals for under-privileged school children to making modern healthcare accessible to residents of far-flung rural areas, our nation spends significant resources to ensure its policies reach the right people at the right time. Making sure government services reach all 1.3 billion citizens, including those residing in remote regions, is a daunting task. AI-powered systems can become leapfrog technologies for our nation, transforming the reach and effectiveness of public welfare programs. A study by consultancy firm Accenture showed AI could boost India's annual growth rate by 1.3 percentage points by 2035.

Kelsey Dallas: OMG: Is profanity losing its punch? Kathryn Moody: Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D: How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet Katie Nielsen: As a mother, I'm all I need to be Nellie S. Huang: The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D.: Try these'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran: Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Mark A. Kellner: OMG: Is profanity losing its punch? James K. Glassman: Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Marsha McCulloch, M.S., R.D.: Think twice before giving up grains It's been another year of relentless artificial-intelligence hype and incremental AI achievement.

If we learned anything in 2018 it's that algorithms and social platforms are under regulated, can easily be weaponized and that cybersecurity is an accelerating threat. We learned that Huawei, a state sponsored technology company in China is considered a national security risk by the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany and maybe Canada and the United Kingdom. We also learned that Google and Microsoft sell their services to the U.S. government, many times against the wishes of their own employees and best ethical judgement. The trend of putting profits over ethics and integrity is very dangerous for humanity. Instead of thinking about the hype of AI, we need to be more skeptical about where AI could be heading us as a civilization.