Imagine that, in 20 or 30 years, a company creates the first artificially intelligent humanoid robot. She looks like a person, talks like a person, interacts like a person. If you were to meet Ava, you could relate to her even though you know she's a robot. Ava is a fully conscious, fully self-aware being: She communicates; she wants things; she improves herself. She is also, importantly, far more intelligent than her human creators.

Customer Engagement approaches, and the technology used to enable them, have evolved immensely over the last 25 years. Two distinct eras define this period, as well as a major technological shift to real-time systems with AI feedback loops. The BI Guesswork Era During the advent of the Business Intelligence (BI), Marketing Technology and Campaign Management era (circa 1990), marketers had limited predictive powers. In many cases, when it came to what individuals really needed, they resorted to guesswork. They channeled their energy to perfect efficiencies in targeting and automation.

In addition, the money will be used for "cutting-edge" AI and robotics that can "operate in extreme and hazardous environments," including nuclear energy, space and deep mining environments. Today's Budget also unpacked the government's plans -- again, hinted at in last year's Autumn Statement -- to support fibre broadband and 5G connectivity in the UK. Starting this year, the treasury has promised to spend £200 million on a suite of local projects that will "test ways to accelerate market delivery of new full-fibre broadband networks." These include connection vouchers for businesses, new connections for schools, hospitals and other public sector buildings, and a push to bundle local public sector users "to create enough broadband demand to reduce the financial risk of building new full-fibre networks," Google Fiber style. We heard a lot about 5G at Mobile World Congress, however the super-fast network technology is still a way off.

The CIA had a special programme allowing it to trick people into thinking they had been hacked by other countries, according to WikiLeaks. The agency was cataloguing the hacking methods of outside cyber attackers, including those from Russia, according to files published by the organisation. Once it had them catalogued, it could use them to break into other countries or people's computers or phones – making it look like a different country had done so. WikiLeaks made specific reference to the Russian Federation. Tensions between the US and Russia have escalated in recent months, in particular since American intelligence agencies blamed the hack of Democratic emails – credited with swaying the election of Donald Trump – on the country.

Funding for research into robotics and a next-generation 5G mobile network, has been announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond as part of his Budget. He also promised more money to support the development of driverless cars and electric vehicle batteries. The funds for the hi-tech research come from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF), which was announced by the chancellor last year. However, one expert said the money was unlikely to be enough. The promises were welcomed by one robotics lecturer.

Doing more, better, with a smaller workforce, is the main outcome we should expect from the systemic and systematic application of advanced technology in the financial services industry. As of December 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the US financial services industry employing 8.4m people. This figure includes credit and non credit intermediation, securities and insurance activities. For good measure, we may want to add payroll, collection agencies and credit bureau activities, which increases the tally by an additional 400k for a grand total of 8.8m. For the past 6 years, the financial services industry has undergone a transformation, attempting to shed its industrial age structures, rebuilding itself alongside new digital paradigms.

The struggle between economies based on government planning and the unhindered free market was supposed to have been settled years ago when the Soviet Union crumbled. Now it appears the battle between planning and the invisible hand may be back on and it's still not absolutely clear which side will win. This week China announced a new set of government plans to boost its economy. By contrast, the U.S. moved toward a new round of deregulation with the same intent. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the triumph of free market, laissez-faire capitalism seemed complete. Although the Soviet Communist system had demonstrated transformational successes, like catching up to the West in heavy industry, nuclear science and space technology, the top-down command economy proved unsustainable.

When it was founded 31 years ago, South by Southwest was easier to define: It was an annual musical showcase linking up-and-coming recording artists with industry executives in Austin, Texas, a city known for its vibrant music scene, cultural eccentricity and barbecue. But over the years, the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals has grown into a massive annual series of citywide events touching on music, film, media and technology. SXSW, as it's known, now includes a trade show, a job fair, an education-themed conference and throughout innovators will have opportunities to pitch their ideas to potential financial backers. The annual 10-day event, which begins Friday with a keynote address from Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has ballooned into an gathering so large that in recent years city officials have curbed the number of special musical events. And some music journalists have criticized the annual event for becoming too big and commercialized to be a place for musical discovery.

He started his career at Exalead, an innovative search engine technology company. There, he led a R&D team of 50 brilliant data geeks, until it was bought by Dassault Systemes in 2010. He served as Chief Technology Officer at IsCool, a european leader in social gaming, where he managed game analytics and one of the biggest european cloud setup. He also served as freelance Lead Data Scientist in various companies, such as Criteo, the European Advertising leader.

Stanford University has invited leading thinkers from several institutions to begin a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play. This effort, called the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is the brainchild of computer scientist and Stanford alumnus Eric Horvitz who, among other credits, is a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. In that capacity Horvitz convened a conference in 2009 at which top researchers considered advances in artificial intelligence and its influences on people and society, a discussion that illuminated the need for continuing study of AI's long-term implications. Now, together with Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering and computer science at Stanford, Horvitz has formed a committee that will select a panel to begin a series of periodic studies on how AI will affect automation, national security, psychology, ethics, law, privacy, democracy and other issues. "Artificial intelligence is one of the most profound undertakings in science, and one that will affect every aspect of human life," said Stanford President John Hennessy, who helped initiate the project.