It's been just over a year since we published an article titled "Investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks is BS" and already it's becoming dated. We're starting to see more and more companies bringing AI front and center to their overall strategies. AI is the new oil, and soon everyone will use it simply to compete with everyone else who is also using it. With over 3,000 AI startups out there, it's likely that the biggest winners in the next decade will be startups that may not have exit events in time for retail investors to participate in their growth. That's why our last bullet point is so important.

India and China have launched their first joint projects in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data. An AI-focused IT corridor was on Saturday launched by both countries in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, while on Sunday, a big data-focused IT cooperation platform was opened in the southwestern city of Guiyang. The two projects, backed by the Chinese government and India's National Association for Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), are aimed at boosting cooperation between Indian software companies and Chinese firms in high-tech manufacturing in big data and Internet of Things projects. India has sought greater market access for IT companies in China, and the hope is that the two new initiatives will further open the door. The idea is to "help in bringing together the IT requirements of Chinese companies, particularly in Guiyang, with Indian companies which have solutions to offer," Indian envoy to China Gautam Bambawale said on Sunday.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, NASA and other space agencies are nowhere near building a "Terminator" in space. So, you can rest easy -- Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't about to hunt you down because you're leading a rebellion against the machines. Artificial intelligence is in its infancy, but scientists have used it to find alien planets, classify galaxies and create spacecraft capable of dodging debris. But some critics, like SpaceX founder Elon Musk and the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking (recently deceased), have warned that artificial intelligence could be dangerous if left unchecked. While AI is a popular theme in space exploration, its use (and misuse) has been discussed by several people in other applications as well.

It was barely three decades ago when the whole world was living in the fear of a full-blown nuclear war that could destroy anything and everything. The worst was just waiting to happen as the tensions between the superpowers - Soviet Union and the United States - had reached its peak during what we call the Cold War. One of the key reasons that the Cold War passed without the world descending into the havoc of a nuclear-powered third world war because of nuclear deterrence in the backdrop of a situation termed as MAD or'mutually assured destruction'. In any scenario of a potential first strike, either from the Soviets or the Americans, either side was aware of the fact that the other could and would retaliate, thus preventing an attack in the first place. However, things will not be the same if the military decides to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their strategic decision making.

The hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. There seems to be no shortage of sensationalist news about how AI could cure diseases, accelerate human innovation and improve human creativity. Just looking at the media headlines, you might think that we are already living in a future where AI has infiltrated every aspect of society. While it is undeniable that AI has opened up a wealth of promising opportunities, it has also led to the emergence of a mindset that can be best described as "AI solutionism". This is the philosophy that, given enough data, machine learning algorithms can solve all of humanity's problems.

Munich, Germany – 25 May 2018 – The more electronics steer, accelerate and brake cars, the more important it is to protect them against cyber attacks. That is why 15 partners from industry and academia will work together over the next three years on new approaches to IT security in self-driving cars. The joint project goes by the name Security For Connected, Autonomous Cars (SecForCARs) and has funding of €7.2 million from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Infineon is leading the project. Vehicles already offer diverse communication interfaces and more and more automated functions, such as distance and lane-keeping assist systems.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released on Thursday that the Uber SUV being tested in Tempe detected the woman and eventually concluding "an emergency braking manoeuvrer was needed to mitigate a collision". But the system couldn't activate the brakes, the NTSB said. It could be decades before fully autonomous vehicles are on the roads (cars where drivers never have to touch the wheel), but the intervening period - in which human driver intervention is required as a backup - could prove more dangerous. "We need a healthy level of scepticism for the ability of humans and machines to function together", said Mr Crist. Drivers are at risk of becoming complacent, and the few extra seconds it could take for a human to intervene and recover a situation could be deadly. The report also warns that connected autonomous vehicles - which use the internet to monitor and communicate with surrounding cars - are at risk of being hacked.

The game industry has lost one of its most influential early figures. Ted Dabney, who co-founded Atari along with Nolan Bushnell, has died after deciding against treatment for esophageal cancer. He and Bushnell created Atari's predecessor Syzygy in 1971 and produced Computer Space, the first commercially available arcade game. They then used that experience as the launching pad for Atari and, along with developer Al Alcorn, released the iconic game Pong in 1972. Dabney was destined to work in tech early on.

I was recently asked to conduct a 2-hour workshop for the State of California Senior Legislators on the topic of "Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Privacy." Honored by the privilege of offering my perspective on these critical topics, I shared with my home-state legislators how significant opportunities await the state. I reviewed the once-in-a-generation opportunities awaiting the great State of California ("the State"), where decision makers could vastly improve their constituents' quality of life, while creating new sources of value and economic growth. We have historical experiences and references to revisit in discerning what the government can do to nurture our "Analytics Revolution." Notably, the Industrial Revolution, holds many lessons regarding the consequences of late and/or confusing government involvement and guidance (see Figure 1).

In promoting his 10-year tax plan, Malcolm Turnbull suggested people want governments to undertake "long term planning". However, a new research paper out this week from the IMF highlights how economies could be set for a major shake-up in the future and how sticking with the belief that better wages for workers comes from reducing company tax in order to spur capital investment is a rather wishful proposition. Economics research papers generally are not known for their optimism, but the IMF paper titled "Should We Fear the Robot Revolution? This research goes very much to the heart of primary political debate in this country about jobs, equality and the role of government. When Malcolm Turnbull took over the prime ministership he loved to talk about how it was the most exciting time to be alive – innovation was on the rise, agility was all the go! But for many workers it is a rather worrying time. In the past decade since the global financial crisis real wages have stalled, underemployment has risen, wage growth has plummeted, businesses have sought to move away from enterprise bargaining, and the growth areas have been mostly in lower-paid services sectors such as social care. And underneath all that is the feeling – perhaps overstated – that we are soon in danger of being replaced by robots. The IMF paper on the topic notes that there are essentially two camps on this issue – the first is optimistic and believes that, as in the past, greater automation will see some jobs lost, but the demand for many jobs – especially those "that place a premium on creativity, flexibility, and abstract reasoning" – will grow and overall the economy is better off. The other side of the coin are those who note these are not your grandparents' robots we're talking about. These are robots that make use of AI in order to do work previously believed to be non-automatable precisely because it was seen as creative, flexible, or needing abstract reasoning. The paper considered a range of scenarios – from the more traditional one where robots replace only low skilled work to where robots are able to replicate a range of work and then a final one where robots "can do anything". And the results are not good for workers. Essentially the shift sees national income move from labour to capital – as the returns from investing in robots to do work previously done by people increase. They note that "the most common arguments for technology optimism do not stand up to scrutiny". Even in scenarios that fit with the more optimistic view of automation, the paper concludes that "automation is very good for growth and very bad for equality". The authors suggest that "in scenarios where the traditional technology disappears and robots take over the automatable sector, the economy either ascends to a virtuous circle of ongoing endogenous growth or descends into a death spiral of perpetual contraction.