Intel CEO Brian Krzanich promised $7 billion today to resume construction of a chip factory near Phoenix that could one day employ 3,000 people. But he didn't make the announcement at the job site or on stage during a Silicon Valley keynote. Instead, Krzanich stood in the Oval Office holding a sheet of microchips next to President Trump. The photo-op played into Trump's #AmericaFirst promise of more US manufacturing jobs, and the president didn't waste time exploiting the PR moment. But everything was not as it looked.

A non-profit group in the US is keeping tabs on unsolved murders across the country – and their software can spot unnoticed trends to reveal a possible serial killer. Known as the Murder Accountability Project, the open-source website uses data from federal, state, and local governments. They've so far compiled details on more than 600,000 homicides, and as it's available for free online, anyone can access the data to look for connections in unsolved cases. A non-profit group in the US is keeping tabs on unsolved murders across the country – and their software can spot unnoticed trends to reveal a possible serial killer. Known as the Murder Accountability Project, it uses data from federal, state, and local governments.

When President Donald Trump was on the campaign trail, one of his biggest promises was to create American jobs, vowing to stop companies from making jobs abroad. But it may not be Trump who generates the greatest number of manufacturing jobs during his first months as president -- instead, it may be Japan. The country may create 700,000 jobs in the U.S., build a $7 billion factory and strengthen the American economy. The jobs could come from a Japanese investment plan Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to present Friday to Trump in Washington, D.C. "The investment will be by a Japanese consortium that will also include manufacturing equipment makers," an unidentified source told Reuters last week. Japan was expected to invest in both private and public funds and focus on developing U.S. infrastructure by way of high-speed railways in Texas, California and the northeastern U.S. The plan would also create closer ties between Japan and the U.S. by including global infrastructure investment, artificial intelligence research, and collaboration on topics like space exploration and cybersecurity, according to Reuters.

Emerging technologies are making inroads in agencies, and late last year, an event hosted by General Services Administration's DigitalGov University looked at the multitude of application areas for artificial intelligence and virtual reality in government. But where could technologies like blockchain and AI have the biggest impact? Nextgov's Camille Tuutti sat down with Bill Eggers, executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, to explore that question. This Q&A has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Nextgov: Where do you see blockchain really being implemented first?

Last August, NASA opened the first round of the Space Robotics Challenge. A follow-on to the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the SRC is focused on what it's going to take to get humans back to the moon or on to Mars, embracing the idea that sending humanoid robots there first would make everything a heck of a lot easier. Just like the DRC, the SRC starts in simulation, with an initial round to select 20 finalists from 93 competing teams. NASA has just announced the results. In order to make it into one of the 20 finalist slots, teams had to perform some simple tasks in simulation (using Gazebo) as quickly as possible.

Today on In Case You Missed It: DARPA unveiled a UAV recovery systems that can catch a 1,000-pound drone but still fit comfortably in a standard 20-foot shipping container. The SideArm, as it's called, uses the same arresting-wire system that full-sized military jets use aboard aircraft carriers -- just, you know, upside down. We also take a look what happens when modders manage to stuff a full Pokémon game (in this case, "Cobalt and Amethyst") into the Minecraft universe. Modder Phoenix SC reportedly spent 31 months creating the add-on. It contains a brand-new storyline, 136 new Pokémon and about 70 hours of gameplay.

In 2015, UN Member States unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, in doing so, pledged that "no one will be left behind." The more than 40 million men, women, and children displaced within their countries of residence as a result of conflict, disasters, development projects and other causes are among those most likely to be excluded from social and economic opportunities for development. Many face increased vulnerability to further cycles of displacement when durable solutions that reduce the risks they face are not found. Displacement is commonly addressed as a humanitarian problem, but it is also a sustainable development challenge. It is closely associated with poverty, inequality, insecurity, environmental degradation, exposure to hazards and the vulnerability of populations whose governments are unable or unwilling to protect them.

Yemen has halted the United States from conducting Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country. Senior officials told the New York Times, that the Yemeni ban does not include military drone attacks and also does not affect the American military advisers that are aiding Yemenis and forces from the United Arab Emirates. Besides the loss of a helicopter worth $75 million and the death of several civilians including children, the loss from the "botched" raid, which the White House has repeatedly characterized as a success, also included a member of the Navy's SEAL Team 6, Chief Petty Officer William Owens. Among those killed in the raid conducted on Jan. 29, also includes the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American al-Qaida leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Despite the warnings of several top ex-senior officials including a former CIA and NSA director, who had said that Trump's travel ban could endanger troops and hurt national security, it is still unknown at the time if the Yemeni ban is a form of retribution towards the Trump executive order that disallowed refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries including–Yemen (before being temporarily revoked).

This is an era of disruption. Technology innovation, the intensifying march of digitization, and the cumulative effect of the "big exponentials" - the laws of accelerating growth governing processing power, storage, and bandwidth - are shattering, reshaping, and redefining economics in and across industries. Companies in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sectors are in the vanguard, bringing these new opportunities to market - even as their legacy businesses are threatened by them. TMT companies have begun to engage in end-to-end digital transformation by digitizing the value chain in their core businesses and enter new disruptive businesses. Still, they are subject to massive dislocation and attack.

While 2016 saw plenty of shiny new tech on the shelves, it wasn't much of a year for significant breakthroughs. Even the latest iPhone 7 drew groans of boredom. Will things get any better in 2017? Expect the big buzzwords of 2016 – the Internet of Things, voice search, blockchain, artificial intelligence, chatbots, virtual reality and augmented reality – to be less about theory and more about real world products embedding themselves in society. However, with post-Brexit, post-Trump isolationism a possibility and threats to free markets, free movement and data privacy on the horizon, 2017 could see tech battle with the prospect of an un-connected world.