Opportunities to build a sustainable AI structure are within our reach: Montréal hosts a concentration of subject matter experts, with one of the largest university communities in the world. Provided, however, that researchers work for the benefit of our local businesses. Many sectors of the economy are in great need of algorithm experts. The AI giants present in the city already have their teams of scientists and are attracting researchers. In this hunt for talent, some 100 Canadian specialists are currently working elsewhere in the world.

The young, educated, and tech-savvy population of Brazil stands out as the market having the greatest upside potential, with 59% of our respondents looking forward to buying a device. A general preference for voice interaction and lower levels of concern about online privacy leaves many Asian nations not far behind. In China, more than half (52%) plan to buy one. The story is similar in Vietnam (19% own, 45% plan to), Indonesia (18% own, 49% plan to), and Thailand (15% own, 44% plan to).

Artificial Intelligence (AI), combined with the internet of things, big data analytics, nanotechnology and blockchain, is underpinning the fourth industrial revolution and together, these technologies are impacting how we live and work in a significant way. Whether this impact will be negative or positive is at the heart of the debate that surrounds this topic. Perhaps the biggest challenge, and key to realising the positive benefits coming out of these technologies, is our ability to navigate uncertainty in an ethical, responsible and sustainable way. Change, by its very nature, creates challenges; and there has been much media focus on the potentially negative impact AI might have, particularly on the workforce. AI and other technologies can be a force for positive change provided a human-centric approach is taken in the development, application and governance of the technology.

Maybe you don't think it's your job to do so (you're still unclear on what robotic process automation really does). Maybe you don't want to bring up the inevitable workforce implications. Or perhaps you'd rather focus on the glossier aspects of transformation--customer experience, upskilling, digital strategy. Automation is about all of those things. And every company needs to take a serious look at how they're approaching it, especially as new tools put the power to solve problems and streamline tasks into the hands of business users.

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents a "huge opportunity" for media, healthcare and other companies when it comes to their financial health and how "people communicate and trade with each other," according to Gary Rapsey, global assurance disruption and innovation leader at PwC UK. Major advances are being made in healthcare today, with the help of AI, he said June 7 at the H2O World Conference. "When I contrast that with company health, however … little has changed in that space in the way that company health is both diagnosed and company health cured," he said. Unlike in the world of healthcare, the best technology isn't typically being used to help companies' accountants, he told the conference. He explained: "Accountants are there to tell the truth. They're there to keep businesses and the market honest. But the problem that we face today is multiple-fold. We have a huge explosion of data – some real, some not real…. We have information which cannot be contained within companies."

The vast majority of healthcare organizations lack the capabilities needed to ensure that their artificial intelligence systems act accurately, responsibly and transparently, finds a new survey by consulting and professional services firm Accenture. AI has the potential to be a transformative technology in healthcare. In the Accenture survey, 80 percent of health executives agree that within the next two years, AI will work next to humans in their organization, as a coworker, collaborator and trusted advisor. However, 81 percent of health executives say their organizations are not prepared to face the societal and liability issues that will require them to explain their AI-based actions and decisions, should issues arise, according to Accenture's Digital Health Technology Vision 2018 report. With the increasing role that AI will play in healthcare decision-making, organizations need to carefully consider the responsibility and liability of the actions their systems take on their behalf, contends Accenture.

"The public sector, with its various schemes (Digital India, Make in India, Skill India), could identify areas where specific applications of AI and robotics can be utilised to increase reach, effectiveness and efficiency, thus giving direction to existing innovation across different fields," the study said. Indian government departments should take the lead in developing cross-border collaborations with countries leading in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, industry chamber Assocham said on Sunday. The departments like the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), should drive cooperative relationships with frontrunners like Japan, the UK, Germany, Singapore, Israel and China to develop solutions for social and economic challenges and accelerate strategy formulation in AI, machine learning (ML) and other new technologies, Assocham said citing its joint study with British advisory multinational PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). "Exchanging best practices and learnings from prior initiatives is one way of strengthening cooperation," the study titled "Advance artificial intelligence for growth: Leveraging AI and robotics for India's economic transformation" said.A It also suggested that policy planning in AI must be aimed at creating an ecosystem that is supportive of research, innovation and commercialisation of applications. "The public sector, with its various schemes (Digital India, Make in India, Skill India), could identify areas where specific applications of AI and robotics can be utilised to increase reach, effectiveness and efficiency, thus giving direction to existing innovation across different fields," the study said.

Consulting firm Accenture has a new tool to help businesses detect and eliminate gender, racial and ethnic bias in artificial intelligence software. Companies and governments are increasingly turning to machine-learning algorithms to help make critical decisions, including who to hire, who gets insurance or a mortgage, who receives government benefits and even whether to grant a prisoner parole. One of the arguments for using such software is that, if correctly designed and trained, it can potentially make decisions free from the prejudices that often impact human choices. But, in a number of well-publicized examples, algorithms have been found to discriminate against minorities and women. For instance, an algorithm many U.S. cities and states used to help make bail decisions was twice as likely to falsely label black prisoners as being at high-risk for re-offending as white prisoners, according to a 2016 investigation by ProPublica.

Accenture, a professional services company, will soon launch a new tool aimed at helping its customers find unfair bias in AI algorithms. Once such unfair bias is discovered, reps for the company have told the press, they can be removed. As scientists and engineers continue to improve AI technology, more companies are using AI-based tools to conduct business. Using AI applications to process credit applications is becoming routine, for example. But there has a been a concern that such applications might have biases built in, which produce results that could be construed as unfair.

Regulators are beginning to teach robots who's the boss. After spending billions of dollars on cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies, Europe's banks and insurers face tougher scrutiny of the tools they use to help root out fraud, check borrowers' creditworthiness and automate claims decisions. European Union rules starting this week will stress human oversight and consumer protection, which may hamper companies trying to build the tools of the future. "Companies developing AI technologies will have to consider and embed the data protection issues into the design process," David Martin, senior legal officer at Brussels-based consumer advocate BEUC, said in an interview. "It's not something where they can just tick a box at the end."