A few weeks ago I posted a map of the Artificial Intelligence landscape in Ireland. The map is a visual representation of resident Irish companies in the A.I. space. I decided to go a step further and put together an overview of the Irish Artificial Intelligence industry. I used the companies on the map to form the basis of the findings covered in this blog. I use the phrase'Artificial Intelligence' as an umbrella term to categorise the industry.

This month the US President's National Science and Technology Council [NSTC] issued an important report on'Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence'. It is not its final word on the matter - another Report is due on the effect of AI-driven automation on jobs and the economy but the general tone is, as you would expect in a technologically-driven culture, cautiously positive about AI's contribution to economic growth (at least in the US). The undertone though is one of concern about social cohesion and fairness and, above all, about appropriate regulatory regimes. The Report is a good corrective to some of the speculative fantasies about AI. Although nothing is entirely certain in this field, it pushes back AI that matches or exceeds human intelligence beyond the next five Presidential terms.

Following are the White House's strategy recommendations for dealing with artificial intelligence: Strategy 1: Make long-term investments in AI research. Prioritize investments in the next generation of AI that will drive discovery and insight and enable the United States to remain a world leader in AI. less Following are the White House's strategy recommendations for dealing with artificial intelligence: Strategy 1: Make long-term investments in AI research. Strategy 2: Develop effective methods for human-AI collaboration. Rather than replace humans, most AI systems will collaborate with humans to achieve optimal performance. Research is needed to create effective interactions between humans and AI systems.

ALIAS can fly a military helicopter and then move into another aircraft and fly that too-- and ALIAS is not human. Driverless cars may have been making headlines of late, but DARPA's ALIAS program has also been making great strides in the development of "digital pilot" technology. The brainchild of the legendary institution DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), ALIAS easily drops into an aircraft and becomes an invisible, automated co-pilot for a human pilot. And ALIAS is so good that it has the potential to eventually fly all sorts of military aircraft on its own-- and it could even fly commercial jets like the ones Americans take to visit family or go on vacation. Two teams are currently joining forces with DARPA to make ALIAS a reality: Aurora Flight Sciences and Lockheed Martin Sikorsky.

If you thought chat bots might quietly disappear, think again. In August, the White House's chief digital officer announced a new way to catch President Obama's ear: a Messenger bot, allowing citizens to "speak" directly to the administration through their Facebook accounts. The U.S. government hasn't historically been an early adopter of new technology, so if it's embracing bots, you know they're having a moment. Earlier this year, I predicted that 2016 would be the year of "conversational commerce," my name for businesses introducing themselves into what had previously been personal messaging channels. Brands and companies have joined social media in droves, using the platforms as easy ways to broadcast content to their followers.

It used to be that the future was so bright you had to wear shades. This was the case for maybe a couple of decades (the final two, as it happens, of the 20th century), but then, unfortunately, the sun went in and it shows no sign of returning. The earlier, pre-shades future was very different from the current, post-shades one, but they're both apocalyptic in nature. Back in the Cold War era, it was the possible destruction of all known life on earth resulting from the use of nuclear weapons. Today, it is the possible elimination of all significant human agency from the bio- and techno-spheres resulting from the exponential proliferation of artificial intelligence.

Renee Scholato says her dog, Tank, is just friendly, though she acknowledges the animal sometimes escapes from her home and did jump on the carrier. But she says the dog wasn't attacking or biting. The Postal Service has told residents that mail won't be delivered to Scholato's block in Washington, Pennsylvania, until the dog is properly restrained. Until then, those residents can pick up their mail at the post office, where it will be held for 30 days. Neighbor Brenda Dogle says she's upset about being punished for someone else's dog, saying neighbors "have to suffer because of one house."

The Postal Service has told residents that mail won't be delivered to Scholato's block in Washington, Pennsylvania, until the dog is properly restrained. Until then, those residents can pick up their mail at the post office, where it will be held for 30 days.

In less than a decade, Uber has redefined the idea of flexible labor and gutted the American taxi industry. The company launched a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Within a decade, according to a 99-page white paper released today, Uber will have a network--to be called "Elevate"--of on-demand, fully electric aircraft that take off and land vertically. Instead of slogging down the 101, you and a few other flyers will get from San Francisco to Silicon Valley in about 15 minutes--for the price of private ride on the ground with UberX. These aren't flying cars in the sense that they both drive on the ground and soar through the air.

In Munich, Germany, the technology conglomerate Siemens AG is betting $1.1 billion on digital technologies, such as the proposition that blockchain data can be leveraged by machine learning to improve the secure transmission of data used in energy trading. Siemens is welcoming its employees and independent firms to bid for the money if they are willing to research how Siemens can develop businesses that use artificial intelligence. Siemens is just one of a number of companies embracing machine learning--the combination of artificial intelligence and deep analytics that enables enterprises to make predictions on large amounts of data and allows developers to experiment by incorporating features like speech and pattern recognition, as well as statistical techniques, into their analysis. And HPE's recent announcement of "machine learning as a service" (MLaaS) is aimed at helping the process really take off. Speaking at HPE Discover Las Vegas 2016, HPE Executive Vice President Robert Youngjohns called machine learning and deep analytics the most fundamental change we're ever going to see.