If you've been following the Drift blog, you've probably noticed that we've been writing quite a bit about artificial intelligence and chatbots in recent weeks (like this post about how artificial intelligence could change marketing forever, and this one that describes the different types of chatbots ... oh, yeah, and this one where I defined machine learning in terms non-technical people can understand). Anyway, after doing a bunch of research around these topics, and uncovering some pretty interesting statistics along the way, it dawned on us: Why not take everything we've learned so far and put it altogether in one big infographic? Check out our "Rise of the Chatbots" infographic below and let us know what you think. Feel free to use the embed code at the bottom for adding the infographic to your own blog or website, too. Once a week or so we send an email to 8,000 people from companies like HubSpot, Twitter, Pinterest, and more with our best content.

Siri was first introduced in 2011 on the iPhone 4S. When it was first introduced it was fun to play with and receive cute responses from, but it was not too useful. Since then, Siri and its competitors have become increasingly more useful. These phone voice assistants are just a small glimpse of what artificial intelligence could look like in the future. The singularity is a theory of a time in the future when humans create a true artificial super-intelligence.

How is the Internet of Things, or IoT, changing trends in cognitive business? The impact is evident with the alliance between computers and humans. Computers still quickly assimilate and spew out data based on what is seen, heard and read. The difference is that they are now reasoning, understanding, and learning from those processes, whether using older, stored information or real-time data. Swift, accurate decisions are based on facts rather than emotions or circumstances.

According to Musk, only one company scares him (he would not mention names, but Google is in the "pipe"). The danger is the following: an organization (company, group of individuals, government, etc ..) manages to create an AI with great intelligence and uses it for its own purposes. According to the intentions of the owner, this monopoly could lead to very negative consequences for our society.

A few years ago, Michael Osborne and a colleague at Oxford University caused a stir when they published research suggesting 47 percent of jobs in the U.S. are at risk of being replaced with robot labor. Subsequent studies suggest closer to 10 percent of jobs in developed countries could be automated, which is only marginally less worrying for workers. What isn't in doubt is that advances in algorithms and robotics will transform the workplace, with both rote manual labor and higher-level cognitive tasks soon to be performed by machines. Robotics companies, keen to avoid the insinuation their products take jobs from humans, talk a lot these days about "co-bots" (collaborative robots). Humans and robots will increasingly collaborate, they say, with humans freed to do more productive, fulfilling tasks thanks to machines taking on the grunt work.

Throughout all the uncertain economic news of the past few years, one trend has stayed constant: it's increasingly hard to find and attract good candidates for many of the roles that global companies require. This competition for the right people has pushed HR and business-line leaders alike to be more discerning in their candidate selection, and to find new approaches to assessing an applicant's likelihood of success. And the recent use of algorithmic assessments and machine learning has helped recruiters screen large volumes of applicants. But, as with any technology, it still requires human oversight. Some business commentators have also questioned how useful this approach to recruiting is.

Until Sep. 7, LinkedIn users searching for female contacts on the site may have noticed some strange results. Searches for common female names were yielding suggestions for male names as well. Take a LinkedIn search for "Stephanie Williams." Earlier this week, that query returned the result, "did you mean Stephen Williams?" (in addition to the 2,500-plus users actually named Stephanie Williams). A search for "Stephen Williams," however, simply displayed the 7,200 results for people with that name.

Over the past century, we have made massive strides in the rights revolution. These include rights for women, children, the LGBT community, animals, and so much more. Exploring the future, we must ask ourselves: what next? Will we ever fight for the rights of artificial intelligence? If so, when will this AI rights revolution occur, and what will it look like? We talk about protecting ourselves from AI, but what about protecting AI from us?

Last week in San Francisco, Singularity University hosted its first-ever Global Summit. In three days, we heard over 100 science and technology experts give talks in more categories than one human mind can fully process. Whether you attended the conference and need help making sense of the information or missed it and want a taste of the action, I've collected Singularity Hub articles on some of the major themes to give you takeaways from the event. If you're curious for a look inside the conference, you can watch: Singularity University Global Summit is the culmination of the Exponential Conference Series and the definitive place to witness converging exponential technologies and understand how they'll impact the world. As technology permeates almost every aspect of life, industries and institutions need to adapt how they think and operate.

Getting your site to rank in Google can be a tough slog. It requires knowledge of current ranking factors, as well as the time and ability to optimize your content for those factors. Any SEO hacks or "secrets" you can figure out can also go a long toward helping you. While Google doesn't generally let us in on high-level SEO secrets, there are some strategies we know – both from the research and from Google themselves – about ways to boost rankings. This is your chance to join them.