When considering how to draw the line between whether an application is AI or not, I'm tempted to paraphrase U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of applications I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description "artificial intelligence", and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it. A machine developing its own concept of what a "cat" is and learning to detect it in videos feels like AI to me. Although the more I read about it and understand it the more it just feels like a clever use of deep learning, creating a mathematical construct that is fit for purpose. It's like magic: when the trick is revealed I can still be impressed, but it doesn't feel like magic anymore.

DoNotPay, an AI-based chatbot app created to help fight parking tickets in the UK, now addresses roughly 1,000 consumer concerns and is available throughout the United States as well as across the pond. The app's creator, Stanford University student Joshua Browder, announced the expansion last week. Powered by IBM Watson, DoNotPay has about 1,000 bots capable of tackling a variety of legal and service issues, ranging from fighting one's landlord to appealing against unreasonable warranties, to getting a refund when a company doesn't fulfill its promise. The app lets users use a feature similar to instant messaging to get help. When opened, the app presents a blue screen that asks what it can help the user with, and offers a search field in which the user can type a response.

Most machine learning is literally prejudice--telling a machine, "based on what you've seen in the past, predict the future." But what do we do when it's also correct? Many of the most popular examples of "artificial intelligence" today are actually about classification. For example, we can show a computer past pictures of dogs, and have it predict whether a new picture is a dog (or a pastry.) We can also use those predictions to do things like mimic an art style, or try and anticipate what word will come next in a sentence, or suggest people with whom you might want to connect.

Every working day, I sit behind my desk and record what I do in increments of 6 minutes. Every qualified lawyer in private practice has been exposed to it, whether it be in the form of manually recording it via time sheets, or entering it directly into a specialized computer program. Within the next five to ten years, the onset of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to a revolution of the legal industry that will likely transform that model completely. For the most part, law firms make their revenue by billing their clients by the hour. Lawyers are accountable for their entire day.

Elon Musk caused a media stir recently. Not for his innovative technologies or promises to commercialize space travel. In front of a meeting of the National Governors Association, the Tesla CEO warned attendees that "[Artificial Intelligence] AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization." Based on his observations, Musk cautioned that AI is "the scariest problem." It's not the first time he's sounded this alarm.

Elon Musk caused a media stir recently. Not for his innovative technologies or promises to commercialize space travel. In front of a meeting of the National Governors Association, the Tesla CEO warned attendees that "[Artificial Intelligence] AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization." Based on his observations, Musk cautioned that AI is "the scariest problem." It's not the first time he's sounded this alarm.

While the U.S. relaxes drone regulations, the U.K. government announced Saturday users will have to register their unmanned aircrafts and take safety awareness tests. The U.K. said users need to register their drone to "improve accountability and encourage owners to act responsibly." Those who own drones that weigh 250 grams (about half a pound) or more will need to register details of the gadgets. Owners will be able register their drones online or through apps, the government said. Users will also be required to take a drone safety awareness test to prove they comprehend U.K. safety and privacy rules.

The government acted because of concerns that a midair collision between a drone and an aircraft could cause a major catastrophe. The new rules will make it easier for the government to track drones that have been flown in a risky manner or infringed on protected airspace.

If you look at the news, it looks like the entire world will be run by artificial intelligence (AI) in just a decade or two. One of the latest conversations has to do with the role of AI in the legal world. Is there a future here? The legal industry is still based on the same principles that it was decades ago, but it's undergone some pretty significant changes over the past few years. One area, in particular, that's worth exploring is AI.

I like the questionnaire style." Comments like these, you assume, refer to an Apple iPhone, Google Search, or some other product hailed for its superior user experience. When is the last time you heard a client make comments like these when discussing a law firm's legal services? Okay, maybe you've never heard a law firm client make comments like these, particularly when talking about legal services of any complexity. But that is what I heard from a potential client who had just seen a demo of the Akerman Data Law Center, a client-facing expert system that provides data privacy and security advice. Last Friday, I spent the morning in Akerman's Chicago office with Jeffrey Sharer, an Akerman partner and Co-Chair of its Data Law Practice. I planned for a discussion about legal industry innovation and a demo of the Akerman Data Law Center, but I got much more than that. Paul Stroka, Director of Legal Solutions for Thomson Reuters Legal Managed Solutions joined us for a broad discussion ...