Artificial Intelligence has come a long way from science fiction to providing innovative, and life-changing solutions in the real world. AI is a form of intelligence exhibited by machines, where machine learning methods teach machines how to perform tasks that humans either can't do or at which machines are more efficient and productive. AI never stands still and it has become a subject of ethical debates, including how to exploit AI but not harm the humanity but also how to treat an artificial intellect in terms of rights and freedoms? Machines we see today are already capable of performing full-time both industrial and non-industrial jobs, they can speak, learn, and even have sexual relationships with humans. These factors lead to questions of whether the time has come to institutionalize robots and give them rights and freedoms, because at the moment, the creation of conscious entity is not prevented by laws or physics.

In the future, you'll have personal relationships with the brands that surround you. What does that mean exactly? It means the massive shift from outbound marketing to highly personalized inbound marketing will reach its logical conclusion: brands will become personalities (think of the endearing droids in Star Wars), who can consolidate all of the objectives of content marketing into a simple 1:1 interaction between the customer and the brand. George Wiedemann of UMarketing.com, in his keynote address at the Integrated Marketing Virtual conference, provided a vivid picture of this 1:1 relationship. A user, when car shopping, can type in the make and model of a desired car and the mile radius around where the user lives.

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) today announced additional programming for Innovate! Jointly produced by CTA and Tech.Co, the event's combined programming will feature event offerings from both organizers for an audience of industry influencers and innovative tech startups. "We are thrilled to bring Innovate! "Hosting our conference in Silicon Valley's backyard enables us to provide even more opportunities for startup founders from across the world to meet nationally recognized accelerators and investors, gain valuable knowledge and connect with resources that will help amplify their efforts to build a high-growth company," said Frank Gruber, CEO and Co-Founder Tech.Co. Registration is open for Innovate!

Editor's note: Our 6th Annual Vator Splash LA conference is coming up on October 13 at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica. Speakers include Mark Cuban (one of the hosts of Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks); Brian Lee (Founder & CEO, Honest Company); Leura Fine (Founder & CEO, Laurel & Wolf); Nick Green (Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Thrive Market); Tri Tran (CEO & Co-founder, Munchery); Adam Goldenberg (Founder & CEO, JustFab); Andre Haddad (CEO, Turo); Mike Jones (Founder, Science) and many more. Yesterday I ate lunch at Eatsa. If you've never been, imagine a fast food joint the size of a large bedroom. Instead of a line of cashiers with the kitchen behind them, you see a line of electronic kiosks with a grid of screens behind them. After sliding your credit card in the kiosk and selecting your quinoa bowl, you wait alongside several other humans, looking at their phones, waiting for their orders.

An Expert system solves problems that are normally solved by human experts. We believe that SERAPEUM is even better in the sense that the speed of responses is unmatched by a human being. An expert system consists of a knowledge base of the domain, in our case tax law that draws both from public databases or private, reasoning mechanisms to apply knowledge to problems that are proposed mechanisms to explain the users the reasoning used when providing a response and mechanisms of learning and acquiring new knowledge. SERAPEUM also provides references to information that is based (whether Judgments, Legislation and Consultations resolved by the Director General). To create a knowledge base is necessary to have at least one human expert's domain. In our case has been formed through questionnaires and experience accumulated over time of various professionals in tax law.

For those of us that follow artificial intelligence (AI), we are often bombarded with negative messages about the role of AI. Generally, these messages are either based on a false understanding of AI, thinking that it is some sort of replacement for knowledge workers instead of a tool, or the negativity that comes from Hollywood films. However, once in a while a non-biased academic source publishes research on the role of AI and the future of work. Early this month, Stanford University released an artificial intelligence impact study as part of its One Hundred Year study of Artificial Intelligence. "Contrary to the more fantastic predictions for AI in the popular press, the Study Panel found no cause for concern that AI is an imminent threat to humankind… Instead, increasingly useful applications of AI, with potentially profound positive impacts on our society and economy are likely to emerge between now and 2030, the period this report considers."

The sale of artificial intelligence-based platforms to business started off as a multi-million dollar pitch targeted toward the CEO, according to Nova Spivack, the founder and CEO of Bottlenose. The Los Angeles-based startup is looking to automate the application of AI to business intelligence, as well as much of the work of data scientists, currently in scarce supply. That should lower the price, a lot. In recent years, AI-driven applications have been targeted toward the CIO. In the future, Mr. Spivack says, they well may be sold directly to business leaders, and the price will drop to thousands or even hundreds of dollars per user, he told CIO Journal.

"Inbenta was founded in 2005 with a vision of leveraging artificial intelligence in an entirely new manner to transform how companies and customers interact," said Jordi Torras, founder and CEO, Inbenta. "That vision has been realized, and now Inbenta is in a period of dramatic and profitable growth including global expansion into 23 countries and support for over 20 languages. This Series B financing will help bring our technology to a much larger group of demanding customers who need enterprise-grade solutions, and to further drive the innovation that underpins our technology." The funding will be used to expand sales and marketing, and to further drive product development for Inbenta's industry-leading natural language processing (NLP) technology that powers search, chatbots, and self-service solutions for customer support and e-commerce. Inbenta's products are now used by over 200 customers around the world, including Ticketmaster, B&H, CA Technologies and 8x8 to enhance customer engagement, increase retention, and drive sales.

As cars become more computerized, they're also facing a greater risk of being hacked. That's why Volkswagen is founding a new cyber security company devoted to protecting next-generation vehicles. On Wednesday, the automaker said it would partner with a former Israeli intelligence agency director to jointly establish a new company, called Cymotive Technologies. It's unclear how much Volkswagen is investing in the new firm, but security experts have been warning that internet-connected cars and self-driving vehicles could one day be a major target for hackers. Even older cars from Volkswagen are vulnerable.

The White House is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to former pariah state Myanmar, officials said Wednesday, as Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner and now the nation's de facto leader, met with President Obama. Suu Kyi's party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel peace laureate, deeply respected in Washington, is a crowning occasion in the Obama administration's support for Myanmar's shift to democracy, which the administration views as a major foreign policy achievement. The U.S. has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago but has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and dozens of officials and associates of the former ruling junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma. U.S. companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asia's last untapped markets. Human rights groups, however, say there are powerful reasons for retaining sanctions.