Algorithms are increasingly powerful, and researchers have recently been grappling with how they can operate ethically, and effectively, in society. I wrote earlier this year about a fascinating project where researchers had developed an AI capable of explaining its own workings. The researchers developed an algorithm that is not only capable of performing its task, but also translates how it achieved it into reasonably understandable English via a documentation process that is performed at each stage of its work. Despite official attempts to build this into our rules and regulations however, researchers suggest there is still a way to go. A paper, from a team from The Alan Turing Institute, suggests that the EU's General Data Protection Regulation does little to legally mandate tech companies to explain their algorithms. What's more, there are also doubts raised as to just what kind of information may be included when explanations are provided.

Governments and politicians have failed to respond to the current refugee crisis, and that's being made painfully prominent by the fact that 65 million people had been forced from their homes last year. However, where governments fail, private citizens and ingenuity can help. Joshua Browder's DoNotPay has proved this with a robot lawyer who gives refugees free legal advice. According to the Guardian, the chatbot aids refugees through Facebook Messenger by asking them a series of question to determine which forms they have to hand in and whether they are eligible for asylum protection. The robot lawyer also uses the information to automatically fill out forms and send them in on behalf of his'clients'.

The innovation upsurge may in part be generational. "If you make partner today in a law firm, and if you were in college with Google, you have different expectations of technology," says Josh Becker, CEO of Lex Machina. The company tracks the activities of lawyers and judges using an artificial intelligence technique called natural language processing (NLP) to analyze court documents and figure out things like how a particular judge tends to rule on particular types of cases. It can also ferret out types of cases, such as patent or trademark, the specific IP a claim asserts, and all the attorneys involved. The startup boom also comes from a new generation of technology.

The Facebook chat bot that can help you fight a parking ticket is now helping refugees seek asylum and fill out immigration papers. The chat bot called DoNotPay, developed by Stanford Student Joshua Browder, was originally designed to help users get free legal advice to enable them to challenge parking tickets. It worked: Within two years of the bot's release, it had overturned more than 160,000 tickets. Browder has since updated the bot, and it's no longer limited to legal advice on parking and traffic tickets but has expanded to advising on immigration as well. The newest addition to the app can help refugees in the United States and Canada fill out the proper immigration forms, and in the UK it can help them apply for asylum support as well.

The South by Southwest Conference promises to have a very different tone than last year, when then-President Obama was warmly welcomed for a keynote presentation on civic engagement in the 21st century. For the creators, marketers and entrepreneurs descending this weekend on Austin, Texas, politics in the wake of President Trump will surely be top of mind, perhaps even overshadowing some of the innovation in virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Instead of undermining the value for marketers eager to enlist technology in their work, however, the dynamic might highlight connections that are increasingly important to recognize. "Rather than a piece of technology or launch of a new app, this year's conference will really be about the way all the things happening in politics are being threaded through what everyone does," said David Grant, president of PopSugar Studios, the video unit at publisher PopSugar. "While in the past typically the focus is on a few new toys to play with, this year it is about how do these new toys affect journalism access and the ability to distinguish between real and fake news?"

After conspicuously being absent when the group came together in September 2016, Apple has joined the Partnership on AI. Tim Cook's firm has become a founding member of the organisation, which includes Google/DeepMind, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook and Amazon. Apple's Tom Gruber, the chief technology officer of AI personal assistant Siri, has joined the group of trustees running the non-profit partnership. "We believe it's beneficial to Apple, our customers, and the industry to play an active role in its development and look forward to collaborating with the group to help drive discussion on how to advance AI while protecting the privacy and security of consumers," Gruber said in a statement . Although Apple didn't join the partnership from the beginning it is said discussions involving its membership have been ongoing.

DoNotPay will automatically delete information within 10 minutes of completing a transaction, so it won't store sensitive data after the fact. Browder still wants to translate the bot into other languages (Arabic is next in line), and it's not going to help much if there are problems with an asylum case. The developer would also like to support WhatsApp in the future. Even so, this could be a big help for refugees who might have trouble deciphering a form, or can't easily make it to a location where they'll get assistance. And Browder believes that even this initial version is particularly useful in the current political climate, where refugees might have to make a sudden change of plans.

The phenomenon of human jobs being replaced by machines is not new; it has been happening since the industrial revolution. However, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) – and the ability for machines to think and learn like humans – is a potential game-changer that may seriously destabilise employment opportunities, economic growth and, ultimately, our society as a whole. Indeed, the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2017 suggests that managing technological change is a more important challenge for labour markets than globalisation.

A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news, our robotics digest is released on the first Monday of every month. Sign up to get it in your inbox. February is only just gone, and already 2017 is shaping up to be a year full of big ideas and ambitions. The Future of Life Institute, for example, just published the Asilomar AI principles: 23 guidelines to ensure AI developments are beneficial to humanity. They are calling for shared responsibility and caution against an AI arms race.