The importance of algorithms in our lives today cannot be overstated. They are used virtually everywhere, from financial institutions to dating sites. But some algorithms shape and control our world more than others -- and these ten are the most significant. Just a quick refresher before we get started. Though there's no formal definition, computer scientists describe algorithms as a set of rules that define a sequence of operations.

You may be right to be paranoid about government surveillance and tracking, because the FBI may not be playing by even its own rules. A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that the FBI's facial-recognition systems have access to 411.9 million photos of individuals, far more than the 29.7 million previously disclosed. If you've got a passport, or hold a driver's license from Illinois, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina or a dozen other states, you're probably in there. The GAO report also criticized the FBI for not adequately performing required assessments of the systems' impact on privacy. The 382 million additional images the public was not aware of until yesterday were obtained by the FBI from the Department of State, which provided photos from passports and visa applications; the Department of Defense, which provided photos of persons detained by American military forces; and from driver's-license, arrest and prison records held by 16 states.

David: I've gone through this myself in the past couple of years. There is so much out there right now that if you have any interest in machine learning or data science topics, you can buy any number of good books that will give you overviews and get you started. There are online courses and tons of blogs that will cover a lot of this stuff. I would say the best thing to do is to get started and just try some stuff. Honestly, for basic machine learning, a good start is to take a look at our presentation.

"In 2016, selecting the top achievers was extremely difficult," said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. "The variety, depth, disruption and traction we saw from the early stage companies to those with significant scale made it one of the toughest vintages to judge. The North America winners are representative of the amazing ecosystem that never ceases to astound, with new and experienced entrepreneurs continuing to push the barriers of innovation. As one of the winners, Armorway should be proud of its accomplishment under such strong competition." Red Herring's editorial staff evaluated companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technological innovation and intellectual property, DNA of the founders, business model, customer footprint and market penetration.

The traditional definition of artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to execute tasks and solve problems in ways normally attributed to humans. Some tasks that we consider simple--recognizing an object in a photo, driving a car--are incredibly complex for AI. Machines can surpass us when it comes to things like playing chess, but those machines are limited by the manual nature of their programming; a 30 gadget can beat us at a board game, but it can't do--or learn to do--anything else. This is where machine learning comes in. Show millions of cat photos to a machine, and it will hone its algorithms to improve at recognizing pictures of cats.

I visited my local health-insurance office a few months ago. After entering the building, I was welcomed into a long and dark corridor, full of nervous people carrying bloated folders. The atmosphere was gloomy, and it was obvious that no one wanted to be there. After about 30 minutes I realized why: During that time, the line had barely moved, and it took me the better part of the day to reach a clerk. As a result, I was late for two other errands I had planned.

But in the digital age, sometimes humor has a way of capturing national attention more easily than pulling on the public's heartstrings. That was certainly the case recently when the comedy website Funny or Die released a video to promote a new bill that had been introduced in the Senate called The Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act. The goal of the video was to shed light on the truly backwards laws that dictate states' treatment of assault survivors. And by all accounts, it worked. But the real measure of success came last month, when the Senate passed the bill unanimously. Soon it will reach the House of Representatives, where, Brad Jenkins, a former White House staffer and executive producer of Funny or Die DC, expects it to pass, as well.

Whenever you upload a photo of yourself or your friends to Facebook, the social network uses a facial-recognition algorithm to identify who's in the picture -- and then suggests that you tag them. This might strike some as a little creepy, but at least it's relatively transparent. The same may not be true of a massive facial-recognition setup used by the FBI, which not only combs through pictures of criminals but also allows law enforcement to search the faces of millions of other law-abiding citizens without their knowledge. And now a top federal watchdog says the program risks putting countless Americans under needless suspicion because of the system's lack of safeguards. The FBI has access to more than 410 million photographs of people's faces.

New technology could lead humans to relinquish control over decisions to use lethal force. As artificial intelligence advances, the possibility that machines could independently select and fire on targets is fast approaching. Fully autonomous weapons, also known as "killer robots," are quickly moving from the realm of science fiction toward reality. The unmanned Sea Hunter gets underway. At present it sails without weapons, but it exemplifies the move toward greater autonomy.

Most of us carry a tracking device around with us every day in the form of the mobile phones, but some people are going further and having microchips embedded in their bodies. Now the US Navy has grown so concerned over the practice that is drawing up an official policy to help it deal with personnel who have chips implanted. Officials consulted with American presidential candidate and'transhumanist' Zoltan Istvan to discuss the implications of fitting humans with microchips to enhance their powers. Officials from the US Navy met with US presidential candidate and'transhumanist' Zoltan Istvan to discuss the'merger of humans and machines'. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is already working on microchips that can be implanted into soldiers' brains to make them more resilient to warfare.