Currently, IP Australia's online virtual assistant powered by Nuance's Nina technology delivers a dynamic and engaging customer experience that lets customers easily understand trademark, patent, designs and plant breeder's rights processes. The human elements of dialogue and personalised interaction connect customers to the right information and tools, which translates into immediate, easy and effective self-servicing and increased customer satisfaction. At present, Alex is capable of answering IP rights questions in layman's terms, minimising customer confusion and maximising successful first-time transactions.

With the proliferation of AI (Artificial Intelligence) scientific, engineering and technical innovation and its impact on other cutting edge technology fields such as IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics, it may be time for your organization to formulate a job description and start recruiting for a CAIO (Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer). Failure to immediately start this staffing process can harm your business! The Commerce Department reported Friday that U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ended the 4th quarter of 2016 on a lackluster, inflation and seasonally adjusted annual rate, of only 1.9%. Because GDP is the broadest measure of the goods and services produced by America, this is yet another indication of America's slowest economic expansion since World War II. As a result, this latest data underscores the obstacles facing President Trump as he pushes for economic growth after he has repeatedly stating a goal of 4% expansion in his one year!

When we asked dozens of venture capitalists where they see the most potential for applied artificial intelligence, they unanimously agreed on health care. Technology has already been used to incrementally improve patient medical records, care delivery, diagnostic accuracy, and drug development, but with AI we could achieve exponential breakthroughs. Deep learning first caught the media's attention when a team from the lab of Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto won a Merck drug discovery competition despite having no experience with molecular biology and pharmaceutical development. Recently, a multidisciplinary research team at Stanford's School of Medicine comprised of pathologists, biomedical engineers, geneticists, and computer scientists developed deep learning algorithms that diagnose lung cancer more accurately than human pathologists. The ultimate dream in health care is to eradicate disease entirely.

Congress just stepped into the robocar game. In the past two days, a pair of senators started drafting legislation to advance autonomous vehicles, and the House Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection held a two-hour hearing exploring how on the tech might be deployed. For your elected officials, it's a considerable, if tentative, step into the future of transportation. Small numbers of robocars already roam the San Francisco Bay Area and other cities, and you'll probably start riding in them within a few years as Uber and others commercialize the technology. Everything is racing ahead of a regulatory structure ill-equipped to usher in this change.

Much has been made of the so-called'robot revolution' with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies forecast to transform many industries beyond all recognition. Once the stuff of science fiction movies, these emerging trends are fast becoming serious discussion points for organisations seeking to save time and money through automated processes and data crunching. For the UK public sector, tasked with protecting critical services on limited budgets whilst delivering value for money to taxpayers, such initiatives appear to be an obvious benefit. This week for the first time we have heard a prediction around what a truly digital public sector might look like. A new research paper from the Reform think tank has predicted that around 250,000 public sector jobs could be taken by robots in the next 15 years.

The rise of automation is destined to replace some worker employment, and it could increasingly cause friction with efforts to create new jobs, a hallmark of the Donald Trump administration. Many studies have forecast a day when repetitive and labor-intensive jobs will be recast by automation, though the jury is still out about whether the humans now holding those jobs will be elevated to more meaningful positions that utilize automation or will be replaced outright. One particular technology, self-driving cars, is on pace to emerge en masse in 2021, right around the next election, as most car manufacturers will offer these features in their fleets. Furthermore, Lyft has partnered with GM to roll out self-driving on-demand fleets, and Uber and Mercedes have forged a partnership with a similar offering. Uber also purchased Otto, which automates large trucks -- a move that will have profound effects on safety, speed, and the shortage of truck drivers.

Artificial intelligence is becoming mainstream not only in the private sector but also in the public sector. In late 2016, the White House released a report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which cements AI's future in government.

General Motors President Dan Ammann urged more local and state governments to allow testing of autonomous vehicles on public streets, saying doing so is the only way to ensure they will be ready for public use. "To make autonomous vehicles the best they can be and the safest they can be, we really need to be testing on public streets," Ammann said during an address to the Economic Club of Chicago at the Chicago Auto Show. "It can be limited to a geo-fenced area, but it needs to be public streets in a real world environment." Ammann said the development of autonomous vehicles is in the public interest, citing the numerous safety and quality of life benefits they can produce. GM has invested heavily in the development of self-driving vehicles, most notably buying the autonomous tech startup Cruise Automation last year, reportedly for $1 billion.

While bomb disposal robots have become a a common sight on land, the US Navy is now hoping to use them underwater as well. It hopes the robo-hands will be able to search harbours, piers and even ships for IEDs. Once found, the hands are so dexterous they will be able to safety diffuse the device and remove it, the researchers hope. The'underwater dual manipulator system' has two robot arms, and will be put onto an underwater drone to look for, and defuse IEDs. The robot arms will be attached to a US Navy underwater drone.

So. You're single, it's the weekend, and you don't want a rerun of last Saturday night's chocolate chip pancakes a la mode and Gilmore Girls bingefest. Is it too early to fire up Tinder? In the age of the app, you never have to be alone if you don't want to be. And to make sure you don't get more than you bargained for from your hook-up, a number of companies are now offering a way to share STD test results through your phone. In the last few years, services like myLAB Box, Mately, and GetTested have cropped up to meet millennials where they like to meet sexual partners--online.