The idea of thinking machines may evoke thoughts of a Terminator-esque era, but the fact is that artificial intelligence, to an extent, is already a part of our lives and its presence is only set to grow. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that deals with making computers simulate human intelligence. However technical and geeky that may sound, AI is a far less mundane technology than you might believe. Right from medical diagnoses to driverless cars, AI has fundamentally improved the way people consume a product, which is why marketers bet on it big time. A 2016 survey by Demandbase pointed out that over 80 percent of marketing executives believed that AI would revolutionise marketing by 2020.

Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace. The convergence of business and technology across everything we do is both exciting and challenging to business and technology leaders. But CIOs don't have to get swept up in the maelstrom. Rather than thinking about how technology will change the way we work, CIOs need to think about harnessing that technology and using it to change the way we work to achieve more. Accenture's 2017 Technology Vision looks at IT trends and innovations that people will apply to shape business in the next three years.

Among all of the self-driving startups working toward Level 4 autonomy (a self-driving system that doesn't require human intervention in most scenarios), Mountain View, Calif.-based Drive.ai's Drive sees deep learning as the only viable way to make a truly useful autonomous car in the near term, says Sameep Tandon, cofounder and CEO. "If you look at the long-term possibilities of these algorithms and how people are going to build [self-driving cars] in the future, having a learning system just makes the most sense. There's so much complication in driving, there are so many things that are nuanced and hard, that if you have to do this in ways that aren't learned, then you're never going to get these cars out there." It's only been about a year since Drive went public, but already, the company has a fleet of four vehicles navigating (mostly) autonomously around the San Francisco Bay Area--even in situations (such as darkness, rain, or hail) that are notoriously difficult for self-driving cars. Last month, we went out to California to take a ride in one of Drive's cars, and to find out how it's using deep learning to master autonomous driving.

Jefferson Graham shows how to change your security settings on Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft for two-factor authentication, which security experts say is your best, quick defense against a hack. LOS ANGELES -- Maybe your Yahoo account got hacked. Or your preferred presidential candidate didn't get elected, in part due to damaging information revealed by a hack of an official's Gmail account. How about that McDonald's Twitter hack this week--now, do we have your attention? No story generated bigger tech headlines this week than news related to what's thought to be the largest hack on the books: The Yahoo hacks.

NASSCOM's flagship event India Leadership Forum in Mumbai in February this year brought together global leaders on the theme, 'Re-imagine, not re-engineer'. This clearly suggested that the future lies in our ability to innovate and automate. During the event I interacted with award winners of the NASSCOM Digital India contest and came across innovations addressing the biggest challenges the country faces in healthcare and education. A team from Phillips demonstrated a low cost device which could transmit ECGs from rural locations to specialised health care hospitals for expert review. In pilots conducted with KMC Manipal, 380 ECGs were read, and cardiologists found 86 ECGs (22.6%) with abnormal findings.

In order for AI systems to enhance quality of life, both personally and professionally, they must acquire broad and deep knowledge from multiple domains, learn continuously from interactions with people and environments, and support reasoned decisions. Broadly, the AI fields' long-term progress depend upon many advances. As AI systems become ubiquitous in people's lives, serving many purposes in both personal and professional tasks, there are still many things they cannot do or that they should do much better. In order for AI systems to enhance humans' quality of life, both personally and professionally, they must acquire broad and deep knowledge from multiple domains, learn continuously from interactions with people and environments, and support reasoned decisions. Significant research efforts should be devoted to address these deficiencies.

A direct attempt to classify these and to describe machine methods of forming abstractions from sensory and other data would seem worthwhile.

The answer isn't clear, because after decades of research and development, AI is finally starting to become a force to reckon with. The proof is in the M&A activity underway right now. Big companies are willing to pay huge sums to get out in front of this shift. The list goes on and on. AI has turned into an arms race among big companies, which are pouring billions of dollars into this field after a lull that lasted nearly a quarter of a century.

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When Junichi Hasegawa of Sony first met the two young creators of Preferred Networks, there was something familiar about them. They each possessed, in his view, the spark and talent of Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, the founders of Sony itself. Shortly afterwards, in 2011, Hasegawa, who was in the team developing the PlayStation games console, opted to join the tiny start-up that later became Preferred Networks. Sony was languishing under heavy losses from its once-mighty consumer electronics products and Hasegawa had the opportunity to move on. "Instead of rebuilding Sony, I felt it was faster to build a second Sony," he says.