When police responded to a home in Bentonville, Ark., one Sunday morning last November, they discovered Victor Collins's dead body in the backyard, floating face up in a hot tub. Police records describe a grim scene: Collins's left eye and lips were dark and swollen, and blood and pink foam appeared to be coming out of his nose. The water inside the spa had turned a dark reddish hue, seemingly discolored by blood, feces and vomit. The resident who had called 911, James A. Bates, told police that he and a few work buddies, including Collins, had stayed up the night before watching football and drinking. Bates agreed to let two of them crash at his house, he told police, then went to bed.

US police investigating a murder have tussled with Amazon over access to data gathered by one of its Echo speakers. The voice-controlled device was found near to a hot tub where the victim was found dead amid signs of a struggle. According to court filings, Amazon was issued with two search warrants but refused to share information sent by the smart device to its servers. However, the police said a detective found a way to extract data from the device itself. The accused killer has yet to be put on trial and it is not clear whether the information ultimately proved useful to the investigation.

AI has been hot in 2016, and it's not cooling off anytime soon. The investments, acquisitions, trials, reorganizations and breakthroughs of the past year have set the AI industry up to have tremendous impact over the next twelve months. We'll stop talking about far-fetched, man-versus-machine Skynet predictions and instead figure out how to harness AI to turn the slag pile of big data into the orderly summit of our dreams. The hype curve will calm down as people realize what AI can do and is doing, and thus form more realistic pictures of what it will do. We'll embrace AI as critical for our economic productivity.

Will technology at last help us to feel richer in 2017? The prevailing concern for several years now has been that despite rising GDP most people are not feeling any richer, and some people attribute the success of populist politicians to this sense of resentment. But we will hear a lot more about the clutch of technologies that potentially can transform our living standards, and accordingly give a practical response to populism by showing that things can and will get better. The core set of these technologies goes under the umbrella term Artificial Intelligence. The New York Times Magazine has just run a piece by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, under the title "The Great A.I. Awakening", which sums up what is happening.

The technical potential for automation differs dramatically across sectors and activities. As automation technologies such as machine learning and robotics play an increasingly great role in everyday life, their potential effect on the workplace has, unsurprisingly, become a major focus of research and public concern. The discussion tends toward a Manichean guessing game: which jobs will or won't be replaced by machines? In fact, as our research has begun to show, the story is more nuanced. While automation will eliminate very few occupations entirely in the next decade, it will affect portions of almost all jobs to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the type of work they entail. Automation, now going beyond routine manufacturing activities, has the potential, as least with regard to its technical feasibility, to transform sectors such as healthcare and finance, which involve a substantial share of knowledge work. McKinsey's Michael Chui explains how automation is transforming work. These conclusions rest on our detailed analysis of 2,000-plus work activities for more than 800 occupations.

And upon that sand a new God will walk." It may not quite be that bad. But a wall won't keep them out, a new work permit scheme won't stop their freedom of movement. The rise of the robots could be next year's big story. Ever since the Luddites smashed their first loom, mechanisation has been putting people out of work. But the process is speeding up, accelerating all the time and the next wave could be crashing down, near you, soon.

Companies are investing more money in emerging technologies that can help anticipate and detect a variety of threats, including phishing scams and advanced persistent threats, both of which are weighing heavily on the minds' of corporate board members. For 2017 CIOs are eyeing tools that use anomaly-detecting analytics and machine learning algorithms to protect their companies' data. "Our level of investments is increasing because of the increasing capabilities of the threat actors," says Bob Worrall, CIO of Juniper Networks, who spent 12 percent more on cybersecurity tools in 2016 that he spent in 2015. His budget will increase more in 2017 as he purchases tools to shield Juniper's corporate data and intellectual property. "As the bad guys get smarter we have to as well."

When you engage in international travel, you may one day find yourself face-to-face with border security that is polite, bilingual and responsive--and robotic. The Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real Time (AVATAR) is currently being tested in conjunction with the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) to help border security agents determine whether travelers coming into Canada may have undisclosed motives for entering the country. "AVATAR is a kiosk, much like an airport check-in or grocery store self-checkout kiosk," said San Diego State University management information systems professor Aaron Elkins. "However, this kiosk has a face on the screen that asks questions of travelers and can detect changes in physiology and behavior during the interview. The system can detect changes in the eyes, voice, gestures and posture to determine potential risk. It can even tell when you're curling your toes."

Google and Barclays give vote of confidence in Brexit Britain as they commit to staying here because of the UK's expertise in technology and financial services President of Google Europe Matt Brittin says search engine giant is creating 3,000 jobs in London because UK is world leader in e-commerce Barclays chair John McFarlane says City of London's'competitive advantage' over EU rivals give banks reason to stay in Britain after Brexit Business survey found just 25 per cent of firms are pessimistic about their future Barclays chair John McFarlane says City of London's'competitive advantage' over EU rivals give banks reason to stay in Britain after Brexit Far-right French mayor names road in his town Brexit Street... Theresa May could face ANOTHER legal challenge from... Far-right French mayor names road in his town Brexit Street... Theresa May could face ANOTHER legal challenge from... Matt Brittin, pictured, president of Google Europe, said the UK's world-leading e-commerce industry ...

This year, we kicked things off by telling you how deadly and difficult space is to explore. It can kill you with radiation, giant flying space rocks, and regular old time. And those are just a few of its weapons. But while space is a pretty dangerous place, it's also incredibly inspirational. If you take science fiction as your model--which we often do--people are at their best when faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge.