President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday showed no inclination toward sanctioning Russia, despite President Barack Obama's push for the country to take steps against Russia over its alleged interference in the election that saw Trump emerge victorious. "I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on," Trump told reporters at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. "We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I'm not sure we have the kind of security that we need," he added.

Asked whether the U.S. should sanction Russia over computer hacking on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump cast doubt on the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies and said, "We ought to get on with our lives." But it was his next lines that had an oddly familiar ring to them: "I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly," Trump told reporters in Florida, according to multiple media reports. "The whole age of [the] computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on." It isn't the first time a U.S. leader has appeared uncomfortable with technology. When George W. Bush discussed "the Internets" in a 2000 presidential debate against democratic opponent Al Gore, it quickly became a "Bushism" -- a neologism for folksy colloquialisms attributed to the then President. And Bush was still at it in 2006, as evidenced by this CNBC interview in which he famously talked about using "the Google" to view his ranch.

As seen in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it is hard not to feel excited about machine learning. First, it empowers machines to teach themselves the tasks that humans can perform but find difficult to "teach" a computer via conventional coding (e.g. Secondly, it enables computers to perform tasks that far exceed human abilities, like analysing terabytes of data at lightning speed to unearth hidden patterns and make sense of them. But it is also hard not to feel some unease about the prospect of self-improving computer systems with increasingly human-like and super-human aptitudes, whether it is the threat of mass unemployment, the erosion of privacy, or simply the inability to understand, validate and trust the technologies that will increasingly impact our lives. These problems that artificial intelligence (AI) is throwing back at us are complex and multifaceted, and to tackle them requires concerted endeavours by our technologists, entrepreneurs, lawmakers and thinkers from all fields and walks of life. It will be a test of humankind's collective wisdom to ensure that our social institutions keep up with our technological progress. The advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs) illustrates the wide-ranging economic, legal and ethical questions that new technologies raise. AVs are already roaming the streets and conveying passengers in parts of the world, and many more are expected to hit the roads over the next five years as tech companies like Google, Baidu and Lyft race against incumbent automakers to make reliable and affordable self-driving cars. This is likely to dramatically alter the economics of transportation, from ownership rate to utilisation rate. It is estimated that in the US and the UK our cars on average are being driven just 5% of the time and they spend the remaining 95% in a garage or a car park.[1] That ratio may well be reversed if the availability of door-to-door transport is no longer linked to the availability of human drivers.

The Machine Intelligence 3.0 landscape above was created by Shivon Zilis and James Cham. This is Part 5 of a 5-part series on 5 Disruptions to Marketing (you can start with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 if you haven't already): Because I'm allergic to hype, I expected to be itching incessantly while writing this. "Artificial intelligence" (AI) is one of those overly broad terms that has rocketed to buzzword mania in marketing circles this year. Whatever problem you need to solve or marketing fantasy you'd like to indulge, there's someone telling (selling) you that the answer is AI. It's bigger than big data was at this stage of its hype cycle (although, as we'll see, the two are closely related). But the truth is that AI is already having a significant impact on marketing.

Donald Trump's election as president has made many small-business owners more upbeat about 2017. Dean Bingham says he's cautiously optimistic because business picked up at his auto repair shop after the election -- people who had put off fixing their cars have decided it was time to get them serviced. "Over the last month, customers have been coming in with optimism that they didn't have the last few years," said Bingham, owner of a Mr. Transmission/Milex franchise in Greenville, S.C. The shop has been so busy, Bingham is looking to hire a seventh employee to help out in the front while he works on cars. Although many business owners are more confident because their revenue looks likely to increase in 2017 due to the overall improving economy, they're also optimistic because they expect Trump to deliver on promises to lower taxes and roll back regulations, including parts of the healthcare law.

Belize has long struggled to control illegal fishing both in its waters and by vessels flagged to its country. But efforts to turn the tide are starting to pay off, says Julio Maaz, who serves as a fisheries coordinator in the country with the nonprofit group Wildlife Conservation Society. In March 2014, the European Union suspended all seafood imports from Belize, saying the country had not acted forcefully enough to prevent illegal fishing, also known as pirate fishing. But the country responded by upping its enforcement activities (including by deploying the coast guard), and the European Union restored its trade relationship by the end of that year. Further progress has been made since then, but the country still has a ways to go, says Maaz. Belize's multimillion coastal fishing industry is made up of 2,700 registered fishermen, with 650 vessels.

In the retail insurance space, consumers are more connected than ever, via a multitude of devices and through multiple platforms. This has two consequences: first, consumers increasingly expect a much better, smarter service. "People are frustrated with a clunky process for buying insurance, and want an easier and quicker process through simple digital channels," says John Salmon, a technology partner at Hogan Lovells. Second, a larger proportion of consumers fall into Generation Y or the millennial generation: these individuals are less likely to own property or cars, are less attracted by life assurance and are looking for more tailored cover they can buy easily and quickly. They are attracted by the sharing economy.

The once stable world of banking faces serious competitive threats from technology companies large and small. This is happening as the very notion of what consumers expect from a bank is changing. In order to overcome these challenges, traditional banks need to undergo a period of radical change. They'll have to adapt to a complex environment in which financial service providers have different backgrounds, strengths and operating models. A number of technology giants already offer services that challenge traditional financial service providers.

The White House has issued a sequel to its October report on how the U.S. should approach artificial intelligence and its effects on various groups and institutions. Today's report focuses on the potential economic effects of AI, and while it's far from a dark outlook, it does warn that with improper handling, automation could drive further inequality in this already deeply divided country. "You look at the last couple decades, we have seen an increase in inequality," said Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on a press call discussing the paper. "In part that increase has been because of a technological fact: that technological innovation, more recently, has helped complement people with higher skills. So we now have a few decades of experience with technology helping to contribute to inequality."

On Tuesday, the US government continued a national conversation on the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce. The new White House report, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy, serves as a follow-up to its October report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which looked at the role of government in the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. It's an effort by the US government to address the huge impact automation is currently having on jobs--which promises to be felt more deeply as artificial intelligence advances. The report explores the history and impact of automation on the economy, and looks at jobs that could be lost or gained from artificial intelligence. It also outlines three policy strategies meant to help prevent automation from taking jobs away from humans.