Time and again, we have seen and read about many natural disasters that have caused great havoc in the world, killing thousands of people and destroying properties and livelihood. Despite the fact that the human race has made tremendous technological progress in various fields, predicting and preventing natural disasters is one area where we haven't been able to surpass the supremacy of Nature. Despite the technological and scientific advancements in this field, and ground breaking developments in weather forecast techniques, disasters at many times cannot be accurately predicted. Dark days for India Any Indian won't easily forget the destruction caused by the tsunami in Southern India which was triggered by a major earthquake in 2004 and the back-to-back floods in Uttarakhand and Kashmir in 2013 and 2104 respectively. Damages of these floods ranged from 7 billion to 15 billion, impacting more than 2 million Indians.

Artificial intelligence is all the rage in technology and as it progresses at a dizzying pace, the industry is at danger of being overhyped, say researchers. Speaking at a symposium about AI in bioscience, ex-IBM Watson veteran and head of technology at benevolent.ai, Jérôme Pesenti, warned the audience to have a healthy scepticism about developments in AI. There are great achievements in AI, but in reality the technology is probably "two steps behind PR", Pesenti said. Overselling AI can lead to bogus demos and give unrealistic expectations, he added. "People start with the expectations that AI can do everything. But nothing can do everything - even Watson had its limits."

The asset management industry is currently facing an era of rapid transformation that has the potential to change it out of all recognition. For many fund management firms, there will be a choice between embracing such change, or becoming redundant. We have already seen similar revolutions in other sectors: Amazon has completely re-written the rules of the book retailing world, Netflix has put the video store out of business, and Uber is in the process of revolutionizing the way we use taxis. For many businesses in these sectors, there was a hard choice to be made – adapt or die. Such revolutions tend not to emerge from the established companies that dominate sectors. In my father's business, airlines, the dominant players hoped to shield themselves through established practices that made it tougher for upstarts to change the way the aviation industry served its clients: the rise of the low-cost airline has forced airlines to adapt, many of them launching their own low cost carriers.

It was reported that the Apple company is about to acquire artificial intelligence startup Turi Inc., in a 200 million transaction. Artificial intelligence appears to be the next big step for the main technology company worldwide. Apple is trying not to be left behind by buying this Seattle-based machine learning startup. With the acquisition of Turi, Apple is aiming to tap into the Artificial Intelligence researcher's community which has suggested that the multinational tech company is too secretive about its AI advances. As well, Apple is planning to use Turi to improve its personal assistance program, Siri.

If you need an example of one of the many ways artificial intelligence is transforming our lives, look no further than research labs. These days, the problems we expect scientists to tackle, and the discoveries they're called on to make, are more complex than ever. Even the best and brightest need help now and then. So, in 2009, scientists at Aberystwyth University in Wales created Adam, an artificial-intelligence program that functions as a robotic biologist. Adam was first tested on yeast.

Jason Jercinovic, global head of marketing innovation at Havas, discusses Artificial Intelligence and how brands can benefit from the technology.

The buzziest thing Google announced at its I/O conference Wednesday was Allo, a chatbot-enabled smartphone messaging app that looks to take on iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and the Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Early sentiment about Allo is overwhelmingly positive: It looks beautiful, lets you doodle on images before you send them, comes with stickers as well as emojis, and it's the first Google product to offer end-to-end encryption, which is certainly a good thing. But if you care at all about your privacy, you should not use Google Allo. Allo's big innovation is "Google Assistant," a Siri competitor that will give personalized suggestions and answers to your questions on Allo as well as on the newly announced Google Home, which is a competitor to Amazon's Echo. On Allo, Google Assistant will learn how you talk to certain friends and offer suggested replies to make responding easier. Let that sink in for a moment: The selling point of this app is that Google will read your messages, for your convenience.

While robots have already revolutionised industries such as manufacturing, these machines are essentially dumb. They're typically built and programmed for a particular task – to fit components or welcome visitors – and require human intervention for any adjustments or improvements. The next and more exciting stage in the robot revolution is artificial intelligence (AI) and its subset, machine learning. Here, robots are not only given a certain degree of ability to "think" for themselves, but are also designed to learn from situations and adjust their processes and actions accordingly, taking the need for human involvement out of the equation. Machine learning can be applied to almost every industry, and for many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) it is key to streamlining business processes.

Intel's acquisition earlier this month of Nervana Systems is another example of how startups are preparing to disrupt the worlds largest industries using Artificial Intelligence. DCVC, a venture capital fund that invests in entrepreneurs applying cognitive computing, big data and IT infrastructure technologies to transform giant industries. The company wrote this overview on the services Nervana Systems is already deploying with the goal to disrupt the world's largest industries. Source: Standing on the Shore*: How AI is Disrupting the World's largest Industries by DCVC.

Google's smart messaging service Allo is finally available. The app differentiates itself from the plethora of messaging clients by integrating Google Assistant, which calls upon the company's vast machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to provide contextual information as and when you need it. Here's how you can get started with Allo. Allo is mobile-first, which means you'll have to set it up using your phone number. As Allo is a mobile-first messaging service, it relies on your phone contacts.