On Friday, June 22nd, IPI together with United Nations University – Centre for Policy Research are cohosting an all-day policy seminar on "Governing Artificial Intelligence." This event aims to foster an informed discussion on the global public policy implications of AI. What opportunities and challenges does AI hold for humanity? What public policy puzzles emerge from the development and deployment of AI globally and in different political, economic, and social contexts? What role, if any, does the United Nations have to play in helping governments, industry, and civil society worldwide solve these policy puzzles?

Dana Bowman, 56, expresses gratitude for fresh produce at least 10 times in the hour and a half we're having coffee on a frigid spring day in Lindsay, Ontario. Over the many years she scraped by on government disability payments, she tended to stick to frozen vegetables. She'd also save by visiting a food bank or buying marked-down items near or past their sell-by date. But since December, Bowman has felt secure enough to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. She's freer, she says, to "do what nanas do" for her grandchildren, like having all four of them over for turkey on Easter.

Fifteen percent of current jobs in Finland are likely to disappear during the next ten years as artificial intelligence gains ground, a Finnish working group revealed on Wednesday. The widely based working group commissioned by the ministry of economic development suggested measures for bracing the impact. Osmo Soininvaara, a former Green Party MP who chaired the task force, said the losses are smaller than those experienced in the 1960s when the introduction of mechanised agriculture killed a lot more rural labor opportunities. "The problem is that in the 1960s and 1970s people were offered industrial jobs instead and often tripled their salaries. Now the new opportunities may offer lower earnings to many," Soinivaara said. Mika Lintila, the minister for economic development, commented that the forthcoming change would be comparable to the arrival of electricity in the society and industries.

New York City will be among the first cities in the US to earnestly tackle black box algorithms, the automated decision-making systems that are rarely made public, but have greater and greater influence over lives. A bill passed by the city council this week orders the creation of a local task force to monitor and assess the effect of these algorithms on the public. Unless Mayor Bill de Blasio vetoes the bill, which he is not expected to, the task force will audit the city's algorithms for disproportionate impacts on different communities and come up with ways to inform the public on the role of automation. In a city of 8 million people, decisions have to be made. In New York City, algorithms factor into nearly every part of municipal life, from school placement for students to deciding which suspects are released or kept in jail until trial.

Ronald Shrewsbery II used to be the Robot Doctor. Now he's known by the more bureaucratic-sounding title "WCM (World Class Manufacturing) Electrical Technical Specialist," but he still doctors the robots. There are a thousand of these machines inside Ohio's Toledo Assembly Complex, a 312-acre manufacturing leviathan dedicated to producing Jeeps. The Toledo Assembly Complex is one of the most heavily automated car factories in the United States. It can extrude 500 cars in a shift, far more than the Cove, the old Jeep plant that was shut down in 2006. And the machines make the work easier. There used to be a lot more lifting, more pushing.

With each passing year, our sector continues to demonstrate its evolving approach to fighting cyber threats, as cyber crime itself continues to evolve. As both business and government move forward with digital transformation initiatives to improve processes and efficiency, the overall security attack surface continues to expand with more potential points of access for criminals to exploit. However, our industry is tackling these challenges head-on, with numerous innovative solutions continuing to come to market. So, what have been the key trends of 2018 thus far? From attending trade shows, to speaking to customers, partners, analysts and the media, several examples have come to the forefront.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. "If you look up the word stupid in the dictionary, there's a picture of you," went the sickest burn on the elementary school playground, back before the dictionary was dishing out sick burns of its own. Now Google basically is the dictionary, and real people's pictures come up when you perform a Google Image search for stupid. My recent results included a man with a condom over his head, a teenage boy in a hospital after attempting to complete the Duct Tape Challenge, and--I'm pleased to report--many pictures of Trump. It's a well-acknowledged problem that Google's algorithm determines what images are associated with your name--it's decided, for example, that a still of Rachel Withers, Commuter looking distraught the morning after Election Day 2016 is the second-most important image of me to share (though this is my own fault, for attaching it to an article about being distraught).

Nations such as China, Finland, France, the UK and India, plus the European Union, have all released artificial intelligence strategies of sorts over the past year, hoping to ready their economies and societies for a wave of upheaval and opportunity afforded by increasingly smart machines. Researchers and universities are seen as key: announcing France's strategy in March, president Emmanuel Macron earmarked €400 million (£349 million) for AI research. The strategies include a wealth of suggestions – and dilemmas – as policymakers grapple with how best to support research into AI, link it with other disciplines and feed the results through into the economy. Perhaps the most pressing problem for AI research, particularly in Europe, is that universities cannot match the lucrative salaries on offer at tech giants in Silicon Valley. The French approach, set out in a report called For a Meaningful Artificial Intelligence, suggests doubling the salaries of AI graduates who work in public research institutions, otherwise the flow into universities could "dry up completely". Marc Schoenauer, a former president of the French Association for Artificial Intelligence and part of the team that drew up the report, admitted that this was unrealistic.

Cylance, an Irvine-based cybersecurity firm, continues to secure big bucks from investors, this time raising $120 million to fund global expansion, sales and development efforts. Blackstone Tactical Opportunities led the funding round with other investors, according to Cylance's announcement Tuesday, June 19. Cylance uses artificial intelligence to predict cyberattacks on computer networks. Since its debut in 2012, the company has secured millions from investors who believe in the company's algorithmic technology. In 2017, the company reported $100 million in revenue, a first for the startup.

Lost productivity costs United States businesses nearly $11,000 per second--or about $335 billion per year. One root cause of that productivity drain is the time employees devote to performing routine, manual administrative processes, particularly in accounting and HR. But there's good news for business leaders: emerging automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies promise to relieve the burden--and the lost productivity--these admin duties create. And employees, freed from time-consuming admin responsibilities, will gain more opportunities to do their best work and become true experts in their roles. I had the honor of addressing these topics with global leaders on a 2018 HOPE Global Forum panel, moderated by Forbes editor Loren Feldman. Fellow panelists included Dr. Mark P. Becker, president of Georgia State University; Harry Wilson, chairman of MAEVA Group; and Dennis Lockhart, former president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve.