During a recent four-day trip to Marib with a group of Western journalists and researchers, I saw a town struggling for a sense of normalcy -- and even progress -- despite the collapsed country around it. The trip was organized by the Sana Center for Strategic Studies, a research institute focused on Yemen, and led by Farea al-Muslimi, an energetic young Yemeni scholar, who said he worried that the international community was forgetting about Yemen, to the peril of both. "We can't stop the war in Yemen right now, but at least we can cause more conversation about it," he said. "We want to bring the world to Yemen and bring Yemen to the world." Marib's unlikely success is partly a symptom of the near complete shattering of the Yemeni state, which has left regions to fend for themselves in providing life's basics for their people.

The business headlines are dominated with buzzwords like machine learning, data analytics, and predictive analytics. You hear about case studies like "Chase uses predictive analytics to predict credit worthiness in customers", "Netflix uses machine learning to recommend movies to its subscribers", "Amazon segments customers using AI [artificial intelligence]", and, fantastic as it sounds, "Most hedge funds allow machine learning algorithms to pick and trade stocks… with better success than the experts." Machine learning and artificial intelligence are everywhere.

Apple's Clips video creation app is less than a year old, but it's already getting a big update. Thanks to lots of user feedback and the proliferation of new, more powerful iOS devices, Clips is now more polished than ever, and that's very good news for people looking to craft their next viral video masterpiece. The philosophy behind the app hasn't changed -- it's still all about making fun, short videos without much technical know-how -- but Apple worked to make the app even easier to use. Consider the app's interface: it was never particularly hard to wrap your head around, but Apple's zeal for simplicity sometimes made the original layout feel a little too basic. While you'll still use a big, bright record button to add clips to your timeline, a handful of new shortcuts beneath the viewfinder window make it easier to gussy up your work.

In comparison, people who watched the same shows were able to identify who was responsible 85 per cent of the time. Dr Lea Frermann, lead author of the study, said: 'Pinpointing the perpetrator in a TV show is a very difficult task for computers, but our model performed encouragingly well. 'We hope our findings will aid the development of machines that can take on board – and make sense of – large streams of information in real time.'

The cloud is no longer "the next big thing," with companies now looking at machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to make their products smarter, more efficient, and to release human operators from manual tasks where they can be intelligently automated. AI is becoming more accessible, breaking new ground, permitting new ways of working and increasing productivity. However, Sarah Adam-Gedge, Managing Director of consulting firm Avanade's Australian operations, says organisations need to establish an ethics framework for guiding our journey into an AI-first world. Just as we think about the benefits, we must also consider the impacts these new technologies can have, and how removing human operators from machinery such as weaponry and healthcare can compromise end results. AI introduces uncharted moral and ethical dilemmas and a new scale to risks.

A good rule of thumb with tech products is to avoid upgrading until you can no longer tolerate what you already have. That's certainly true of streaming TV devices such as Roku and Apple TV, which tend to be fine for watching Netflix or Hulu even years after you buy them. But with each wave of new hardware, the case for upgrading gets stronger, and I inevitably field questions about whether the time is right to replace an old streaming box or stick. To that end, here's a rundown of all the latest streaming devices from Apple, Roku, Amazon, and Google, and what you stand to gain by upgrading from their older hardware. Before we dive in, keep in mind that many new streaming players are touting 4K HDR (high dynamic range) support as their biggest new feature.

Call center agents wait for calls from their US clients as they work overnight in Manila's Makati financial district February 6, 2012.

A "lazy animator" has given a glimpse of what futuristic films might look like if artificial intelligence takes over the job of filmmaker. Digital animator Julius Horsthuis created a fantasy science fiction film using fractals--infinitely complex patterns that are created using an ongoing feedback loop. His latest short film Fraktaal used fractal patterns to automatically generate an alien civilization and landscape. The alien worlds generated by artificial intelligence are made using fractals. "I borrowed the aesthetic from science fiction films, and isolated that into something that I hope will stimulate the imagination into its own spacefaring journey," said Horsthuis.

Star Wars provides us with a perfect example of a science fiction floating city: Cloud City. Cloud City has an atypical backstory. Floating above the surface of the planet Bespin, the city was specifically designed to harvest tibanna gas rather than to house a displaced population. Tibanna gas is used in all kinds of technology in the Star Wars galaxy, including, but not limited to, blasters and repulsorlifts. Being one of the few sources of the gas, Cloud City enjoys financial success from its mining operations.