As we move into 2017 there is probably a long list of items that you are looking forward to tackling next year. In the past few months, we have witnessed some fascinating shifts in our national and global priorities and we are beginning to plan - as individual professionals, teams, leaders, organizations, and communities – how we will navigate the changing economic, social and political landscapes. Beyond the widely discussed political changes, there is also a host of technology trends and drivers that are working to redefine nearly every aspect of our lives. As we approach 2017, I wanted to share a few thought-provoking resources that I consider to be must-reads. Although there are many subjects worth exploring over the next few months, I wanted to highlight one area that is becoming exceedingly important.

Clinical trials, the largest of which may enroll a few thousand patients with hematology or oncology diagnoses, represent the gold standard of clinical research. But what if clinical decisions could be made, or research questions answered, using data from tens of thousands or even a million patients? Initiatives are springing up across the country to examine the power and promise of big data – massive amounts of information that can be analyzed to provide an overview of trends or patterns – to revolutionize health care and transform how patients are diagnosed, treated, and even involved in their own care. For instance, in 2012, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative, an effort to promote research and development of tools and approaches that would accelerate the use of big data in biomedical research.1 This spring, IBM launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform, a new unit of the IBM Watson cognitive computing system that will analyze and extract large volumes of health data from structured and unstructured medical systems.2

Artificial intelligence may be the hot trend of 2016, but the term itself opens up a debate. Some praise AI, while others believe reliance on AI is fraught with danger. Others worry about the demise of humans at the hands of our AI masters. Yet whether it is the Internet of Things or health care, AI is only beginning to have an effect. The next big opportunity, in terms of both impact and technology, is cybersecurity.

For thousands of years humans believed that authority came from the gods. Then, during the modern era, humanism gradually shifted authority from deities to people. Jean-Jacques Rousseau summed up this revolution in Emile, his 1762 treatise on education. When looking for the rules of conduct in life, Rousseau found them "in the depths of my heart, traced by nature in characters which nothing can efface. I need only consult myself with regard to what I wish to do; what I feel to be good is good, what I feel to be bad is bad." Humanist thinkers such as Rousseau convinced us that our own feelings and desires were the ultimate source of meaning, and that our free will was, therefore, the highest authority of all.

Artificial intelligence is changing and improving the ways we manage our money. Research suggests Australians are ready to embrace fintech banking solutions, and the launch of three new London-based chatbot startups may be a sign the rest of the world is gearing up for a revolution too. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been rapidly progressing over the past two decades, with machines reaching and exceeding human performance on an increasing number of tasks. Just this week, the White House released a report entitled Preparing for the future of Artificial Intelligence, which describes the ways in which AI has and continues to yield new opportunities for progress in critical areas such as health, education, energy, and the environment. Another important area of business, ripe for disruption, is finance and banking.

Topic models (e.g., pLSA, LDA, sLDA) have been widely used for segmenting imagery. However, these models are confined to crisp segmentation, forcing a visual word (i.e., an image patch) to belong to one and only one topic. Yet, there are many images in which some regions cannot be assigned a crisp categorical label (e.g., transition regions between a foggy sky and the ground or between sand and water at a beach). In these cases, a visual word is best represented with partial memberships across multiple topics. To address this, we present a partial membership latent Dirichlet allocation (PM-LDA) model and an associated parameter estimation algorithm. This model can be useful for imagery where a visual word may be a mixture of multiple topics. Experimental results on visual and sonar imagery show that PM-LDA can produce both crisp and soft semantic image segmentations; a capability previous topic modeling methods do not have.

DARPA's prosthetic provides mechanical strength and dexterity unlike any other Now, the agency is ready to start producing the bionic arm for real people to use War veterans who lost an arm in battle will be the first to use the device It has 6 selectable grips and allows for simultaneous control of multiple joints DARPA's prosthetic provides mechanical strength and dexterity unlike any other After eight years of development, DARPA's revolutionary LUKE (pictured) bionic arm is ready for production. However, the Pentagon's research agency is giving amputee war veterans the first opportunity to use the prosthetic before it is released on the commercial market Why we break eye contact: Study finds searching for the next... Trees resistant to killer fungus could be grown in Britain... Editing genes to eliminate cancer or Schizophrenia could... Tesla and Panasonic join forces to begin solar panel... Why we break eye contact: Study finds searching for the next... Trees resistant to killer fungus could be grown in Britain... Editing genes to eliminate cancer or Schizophrenia could... Tesla and Panasonic join forces to begin solar panel... The arm incorporates advanced motors, materials and electronics and can be tweaked to fit users with varying degrees of amputation. The entire device features a hand that has six user-selectable grips and an arm that allows for simultaneous control of multiple joints using a variety of inputs, including wireless signals generated by innovative sensors worn on the user's feet It is controlled with muscle twitches from their upper arm and shoulder, or through an adapted foot sensor. Fox Valley Mall forced to close as huge brawl breaks out Chaos as people rush out of NJ mall after reports of gunshots Hero dog saves his injured'girlfriend' on deadly railway track Grizzly bear attacks TV woman who recklessly tries to stroke it CAT ATTACK: Pet pounces on man as he opens Christmas present Adorable puppy is constantly bumped on the head by playful kitten Just beautiful!

UCSF is laying off some of its IT staff and sending their jobs to a contractor headquartered in India. UCSF is laying off some of its IT staff and sending their jobs to a contractor headquartered in India. In San Francisco, companies will pay six-figure salaries to entry-level tech workers from all over the world. So this might come as a surprise: A public university there is laying off some of its own IT staff and sending their jobs to a contractor headquartered in India. Until recently Hank Nguyen's daughter wanted to follow in his footsteps and work in tech.

The outgoing White House technology office says that despite risks to human capital, investment in AI systems should be mandatory, asserting that the technology is critical to the future of the United States and its economic growth in the years to come. This according to an account in Computerworld of a report from the White House titled "Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy." The report recommended increasing the investment in AI despite the potential downsides of employment displacements, removed access to quality health insurance and more, as low- or unskilled workers increasingly find their positions replaced by computers, robots and machines. The report suggested that a large portion of the country's future productivity growth will be a result of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The article noted that the White House's biggest concern surrounding artificial intelligence, per Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, "is that we won't have enough of it -- and we won't have enough productivity growth."

The increase AI will leave millions of Americans unemployed in the next coming years, reveals a new report from the White House. Dubai police launch AI that can spot crimes BEFORE they... What humans will look like in 100 years: Expert reveals the... How an'emotional hangover' shapes your memory: Effects of... Tesla and Panasonic join forces to begin solar panel... Dubai police launch AI that can spot crimes BEFORE they... What humans will look like in 100 years: Expert reveals the... How an'emotional hangover' shapes your memory: Effects of... Tesla and Panasonic join forces to begin solar panel... The White House report cites a 2013 study from Oxford University that says a whopping 47 percent of jobs are at risk.Softbank's humanoid robot Pepper (pictured) introduces Nestle's coffee machines at an electric shop in Tokyo However, the report suggests AI could improve the country's productivity growth, which would result in higher wages and fewer work hours. YOU'RE AT MORE RISK IF YOU MAKE LESS THAN $20 AN HOUR Hero dog saves his injured'girlfriend' on deadly railway track Fox Valley Mall forced to close as huge brawl breaks out Chaos as people rush out of NJ mall after reports of gunshots Adorable puppy is constantly bumped on the head by playful kitten CAT ATTACK: Pet pounces on man as he opens Christmas present Just beautiful! Kaylee Rodgers stuns internet singing Hallelujah Grizzly bear attacks TV woman who recklessly tries to stroke it President-elect Donald Trump cheered as he attends church Father posts awkward video invitation to his daughter's Quinceañera Mayhem outside Fox Valley Mall as police make several arrests Prince William & Duchess of Cambridge arrive at church service Ten-year-old girl's emotional reaction to puppy surprise!