If 2017 left you breathless, exhausted by unexpected headlines, then brace yourself. The coming year may bring even more turbulent change, according to the CEOs, academics, economists and other bold thinkers we consulted for our annual peek at the year ahead.

Facial recognition systems used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security make "frequent mistakes," a report from Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology released on Thursday said. The report "Not Ready For Takeoff," which comes before the holiday traveling rush, criticizes the DHS' biometric exit pilot program. The program uses facial recognition technology to verify travelers' identities as they leave the country. The biometric exit program is currently running in nine U.S. airports and has already scanned tens of thousands of travelers. Homeland Security plans on expanding the program next year to all of the country's biggest airports.

Scientists, researchers, and innovators come up with amazing breakthroughs every year, and that was no different in 2017 either. No matter whether we look at physics (proving the existence of gravitational waves), astronomy (discovering new planets) or biology (detecting a fluorescent frog in Brazil), we come across mind-blowing scientific findings everywhere. Healthcare was no exception, moreover, some say the field of medicine is one of the most innovative fields today. Looking back at our expectations in digital health for 2017 in terms of trends, innovations or breakthroughs, there were at least three developments and three trends, which proved to be foresightful. The beginning of a new era in diabetes care is upon us with the realities of the FDA-approved artificial pancreas or such small, but significant innovations as a glucose monitor built into phone cases.

Earlier this month at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, computers using special algorithms helped intelligence analysts identify objects in a video feed from a small ScanEagle drone over the battlefield. A few days into the trials, the computer identified objects -- people, cars, types of building -- correctly about 60 percent of the time. Just over a week on the job -- and a handful of on-the-fly software updates later -- the machine's accuracy improved to around 80 percent. Next month, when its creators send the technology back to war with more software and hardware updates, they believe it will become even more accurate. It's an early win for a small team of just 12 people who started working on the project in April. Over the next year, they plan to expand the project to help automate the analysis of video feeds coming from large drones -- and that's just the beginning.

A Department of Homeland Security program that would collect facial scans of every American citizen traveling overseas may skirt the law, come at enormous cost, exhibit technical flaws and invade the privacy of innocent people, a new report finds. Published Thursday by three researchers at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University's law school, the report examined a DHS pilot program currently underway at nine U.S. airports with overseas flights. In an effort to prevent visitors from overstaying their visas or using fraudulent travel documents, border agents scan the faces of travelers before they depart, and compare the biometric scan against a DHS database. Visitors and U.S. citizens alike who are traveling on certain international flights originating from cities including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New York, and Chicago will have their faces captured. According to the study, DHS plans to extend the face scanning program to every airport in the United States that sends passengers abroad.

NASA's New Frontiers program consists of a series of unmanned missions with the intent of exploring the solar system. The missions are designed to target specific goals as defined by the broader planetary community. Yesterday, NASA announced the two finalists for a robotic New Frontiers mission, with a planned launch in the mid-2020s. One is a sample return mission to a comet; the other is to explore Saturn's moon Titan. The first mission, called CAESAR, or Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return intends to send a spacecraft back to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This is the same comet that the ESA spacecraft Rosetta explored.

Nasa has announced two finalists for its billion-dollar robotic missions aimed at finding alien life and the origins of Earth. The winner of the two missions - one to explore a comet and another Saturn's moon Titan - will launch in 2020s. The missions were chosen under NASA's New Frontiers competition programme, from 12 proposals that had been submitted of last year. Nasa has announced two finalists for its billion-dollar robotic missions aimed at finding alien life. One is a mission to explore Saturn's moon Titan with an eight-bladed'dragonfly' drone (artist's impression pictured) 'These are tantalizing investigations that seek to answer some of the biggest questions in our solar system today,' said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The 2016-2017 Halcyon Dialogue has released a report that takes an in-depth look at the critical issues of robotics policy, regulation and the effect this technology will have on the workforce and human/robot interaction in the near future. The report – Shaping Robotics Policy for the 21st Century – along with its findings and recommendations stem from a year-long partnership between Halcyon, a non-profit focusing on galvanizing creative individuals aspiring to promote social good, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It brings together industry leaders, scientists, government officials and policymakers to address the broader social implications raised by integrating robots into our everyday lives. Transformative technological shifts in today's social landscape bring a multitude of social and political opportunities. Today, this world of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to undergo explosive growth, promising to fundamentally alter the way humans interact with everything from transportation to medicine to the police.

Security vendors are inundating CISOs with products purporting to use artificial intelligence to dramatically improve the accuracy and speed of both threat detection and response. However, much of this messaging is confusing, even misleading. How do you know fact from fiction from enthusiastic marketing? S&R pros should read this Forrester report to understand what is really possible with AI today to take cybersecurity efforts to the next level.

A crime-predicting algorithm in Florida falsely labeled black people re-offenders at nearly twice the rate of white people. Google Translate converted the gender-neutral Turkish terms for certain professions into "he is a doctor" and "she is a nurse" in English. A Nikon camera asked its Asian user if someone blinked in the photo -- no one did. From the ridiculous to the chilling, algorithmic bias -- social prejudices embedded in the AIs that play an increasingly large role in society -- has been exposed for years. But it seems in 2017 we reached a tipping point in public awareness.