DEC 3 marked the opening of the annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. The global techfest was attended by the CEOs of some of the world's largest companies, including Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai, alongside Alibaba Group Holding's Jack Ma, Tencent Holdings' Pony Ma and Baidu's Robin Li, as well as the top names in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, digital payments and cybersecurity. The opening session on the first day was aptly titled "Artificial Intelligence: Smarter World, Better Life". That a small Chinese town 90 minutes' drive from Shanghai would host the world's biggest annual internet event, or that CEOs of global tech giants and the world's top robotics experts would flock there, should not surprise anyone. China is where the action is across an array of powerful internet-enabled technologies such as AI, robotics, fintech and e-commerce as well as virtual and augmented reality.

The Trump White House has devoted much of its first year to putting America first, cracking down on who can come into this country--from promising a wall along the US-Mexico border and the deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants, to numerous attempts at a travel ban blocking entrance for people from several Muslim-majority countries. But under the America First banner, the administration has been quietly but vastly increasing hurdles in another area: for foreign nationals looking to live and work legally in the US. Since the spring, the Trump administration has introduced a number of administrative changes aimed specifically at increasing scrutiny on work visa applications. Issued through policy memoranda from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency tasked with handling and adjudicating work and citizenship applications, the revisions have largely flown under the radar, as many of them have been incremental or seem innocuous on the surface. What's more, because a large number of the changes are adjustments to existing department policies or guidance, many have been able to go into effect immediately, without needing to undergo a formal rule proposal process or public comment period.

Artificial intelligence, upskilling, and an older workforce are a few of the workplace trends we're likely to see in 2018. With unemployment at a 42-year low of 4.3pc, the jobs market remains competitive: the Office for National Statistics recently revealed that UK businesses are struggling to find workers as the pool of potential staff dries up. As a result, employers are having to evolve and develop new strategies to attract top talent. Set against this, the broader outlook is relatively uncertain, with sluggish wages, rising inflation and concerns about Britain leaving the EU dominating the debate. Soaring life expectancy is forcing many workers to delay their retirement and stay in employment longer.

From political campaigning to social good, AI is proliferating the political process faster than we imagine. Sam is a politician from New Zealand who is running for Prime Minister in 2020. He can answer all questions on policy, education, and immigration. He interacts with everyone and is active on Messenger, responding to messages promptly. However, there is one thing that makes him stand apart from politicians across the world -- he is artificially intelligent.

Open any business publication or digital journal today, and you will read about the promise of AI, known as artificial or augmented intelligence, and how it will transform your business. The fact is: AI will not only transform your entire business -- whether you are in healthcare, finance, retail, or manufacturing -- but it will also transform technology itself. The essential task of information technology (IT) -- and how we measure its value -- has reached an inflection point. Instead, insight is the new currency. The speed with which we can scale that insight and the knowledge it brings is the basis for value creation and the key to competitive advantage.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The ability to argue, to express our reasoning to others, is one of the defining features of what it is to be human. Processes of argumentation run our governments, structure scientific endeavor and frame religious belief. So should we worry that new advances in artificial intelligence are taking steps towards equipping computers with these skills? As technology reshapes our lives, we are all getting used to new ways of working and new ways of interacting.

Republicans argue that the lower taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals promised in the tax bill currently before Congress will result in new investment in businesses and more jobs. But in the age of artificial intelligence and automation, trickle-down economics won't create employment. What corporations and the US economy at large need most in this emerging era is not more free cash, but a new approach to machine-assisted human productivity and purpose. Olaf J. Groth (@olafgrothsf) is a professor of global strategy, innovation, and digital futures at Hult International Business School, as well as CEO of Cambrian.ai. With Mark Nitzberg he is the co-author of Solomon's Code: Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines, due in 2018.

Compared with the planet's other large tracts of tropical forests, the forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have remained relatively intact -- although that soon may be changing. Driven by factors such as shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn agriculture), fuelwood demand, logging, mining, infrastructure development, population growth and migration, rates of forest loss in the African country have doubled over the past 15 years. Based on an application of machine learning, the study focuses on a specific set of the DRC's most intact forested areas identified as containing critical biodiversity habitat; it predicts that without intervention, at least 820,884 acres of these critical forests could be lost by 2025. The collective size of this predicted forest loss -- an area the size of Luxembourg within a country the size of Western Europe -- may be small, yet millions of people rely on these forests for food, shelter and medicine. This underscores an urgent need to use this study to inform smart land-use decisions in the DRC. Within the DRC, our research focuses on the landscapes prioritized by the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded program implemented by WRI and other partners.

Last Friday, the Northern District Court of California finally posted a long-awaited document, a letter written by the lawyer of an ex-Uber security employee. It was a doozy, a 37-page compendium of alleged criminal and unsavory activity witnessed by that employee, Ric Jacobs, while he worked at the company in 2016 and 2017. The letter came to light last week (after much legal tussling) as part of an ongoing lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car spinoff. Waymo alleges Anthony Levandowski, a former employee, made off with trade secrets when when he left to found his own company, then brought those secrets to Uber when it acquired the startup. It's bad news for Uber in this legal fight, but the damage may not stop there.

If you don't know yet, we can answer that for you, as well as provide some impressions of Google's latest smart speaker and a new hybrid from Honda. Does the company provide rides or just information?EU decides to treat Uber like a taxi company Europe's highest court has ruled that Uber is a transportation company and not some kind of middleman between passengers and drivers, like it has often claimed. The much-anticipated decision opens the door for member nations to impose stricter regulations on the company, especially where it operates the UberPOP service with non-professional drivers. No other smart speaker sounds this good.Google Home Max review: an assistant for music lovers The Google Home Max is expensive, but you get a lot for your money. If you want great audio and don't want to mess around with more complicated speaker setups, the Home Max is a solid option -- with all those Google Assistant smarts.