It's being dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution: the explosion of robots, machines, algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is coming. There's been a lot of recent speculation about how robotics and automation will change the landscape of employment, and the professions that could become obsolete as a result. We're all familiar with those annoying "unexpected item in the bagging area" self-service supermarket checkouts, or the big robots used on the production line in factories making cars and other complex products. In the supermarket, now just one checkout assistant can manage 6 or more tills, or cars and machines can be assembled safely, with every one being turned out to the same standard. So what jobs will be next on the chopping block in this technological revolution? By and large, the main professions under threat are ones that involve repetitive tasks – that could be inputting data, preparing spreadsheets and reports and other administrative duties, retail jobs, manufacturing and even some more complex analytical roles that could be better served by an algorithm doing all the hard work.

Move over, social media and mobility: Silicon Valley has a next big thing, John Markoff writes, and it's A.I. and robots. It is useful to think of them as part of the same thing, since many robots are autonomous machines programmed for decision making based on A.I. The movement can be thought of as a spread of computing intelligence everywhere, on wheels and wings, in your pocket and all through your house. That's a big enough idea to fund scores of companies, and quite possibly set up the next Silicon Valley boom. Yet it's worth asking how much of this is reality and how much is wishful thinking.

The world is going through a new wave of automation: across organisations areas are identified to apply machine intelligence to automate tasks. This means not only cost savings and increasing efficiency for companies, but an opportunity to learn over time and make an organisation sustainably smarter. While we're far away from real Artificial Intelligence (AI) the speed of innovation in the areas of Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing is very high. As outlined in this quarter's McKinsey review after predictable physical work, data collection and processing are most susceptible to be automated next by adapting currently demonstrated technology. The recruitment space is prime for automation; the hiring process necessitates the screening of a high volume of candidates.

I look forward to the Sandbox Summit every year. Hosted in Boston at MIT, this two day conference is smaller, focused and connects a great blend of experts across kids TV and digital media, emerging technology, education and toy manufacturing. This year was no different! With so many interesting talks and panel, I thought I'd share my takeaways from three of the talks. RJ Mical is a game pioneer who helped invent the Amiga Computer, was a co-creator of the Atari Lynx and currently holds one of the most awesome job titles in the world: Director of Gaming at Google. Mical's talk focused on his vision for the future of Machine Intelligence.

Is Honda's walking robot Asimo marrying Pepper, the chattering robot from SoftBank? Automaker Honda Motor Co. and internet company SoftBank said Thursday they will work together on artificial intelligence to develop products with sensors and cameras that can converse with drivers. Asimo, first shown in 1996, walks, runs, dances and grips things. Pepper, which went on sale last year, doesn't have legs but is programmed to recognize mood swings in people it interacts with. Major automakers and technology companies are interested in robotics to improve driving safety and comfort.

With the push of a button this spring -- Google was instantly using 40% less energy to cool a handful of its data centers. The achievement, which Google hails as a major breakthrough, points to how artificial intelligence can be used to make data centers, power plants, energy grids and manufacturing plants more efficient. As these huge, energy-intensive operations use power more efficiently, fewer greenhouse gases are emitted. "We're really thrilled about the environmental impact," said Mustafa Suleyman, who leads applied AI at Google DeepMind, a group of London researchers behind the project. DeepMind has leapt to prominence by building computer systems capable of mastering everything from Atari games to the board game Go.

The release continues, "NBRI's analysis of the data revealed a few findings: AI adoption is imminent, despite marketplace confusion – 38 percent of the survey group are using AI technologies, and of the respondents that don't have AI technologies deployed, 56 percent of the group plan to do so by 2018. Predictive analytics is dominating the enterprise – 58 percent of respondents confirmed use of the technology. The shortage of data science talent continues to affect organizations – 59 percent of respondents named'shortage of data science talent' as the primary barrier to realizing value from their big data technologies. Companies that generate the most value from their technology investments make innovation a priority – 61 percent of the respondents who have an innovation strategy are using AI to identify opportunities in data that would be otherwise missed while only 22 percent of respondents without a strategy could say the same thing."

This week, the White House and New York University's Information Law Institute hosted Artificial Intelligence Now, a symposium exploring the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across social and economic systems. We were pleased and honored to have Kate Crawford, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research and Senior Research Fellow, New York University Information Law Institute represent Microsoft as she joined to discuss social inequality, labor, healthcare, and ethics in AI technologies. The symposium focused on the near future (5-10 years) in technology, with input from leaders in technology, industry, academia, and civil society. We've gathered some of the best moments from the symposium -- in tweets -- below: "Sorry, we're not going to be talking about the singularity tonight" says Kate Crawford – focusing on today's real challenges instead #AINow Tech moves so fast and policy moves so slow – there is a mismatch. I want every drop of benefit we can squeeze out" with oversight & protections.

When Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley penned the cult classic Frankenstein, she referred to the story's ill-fated protagonist as "The Modern Prometheus," directly referencing the Greek Titan known for creating mankind. Prometheus loved humans, so much so that he stole the gift of fire from Mount Olympus and passed it on to the lowly humans who were neglected by the Gods. His generosity, however, was to undue him and curse him for the rest of his existence. Frankenstein would also share this fate after taking on the role as creator, a responsibility that ended up being too much to bear. And now, after centuries of reiterating the same theme, we too are becoming the modern Prometheus.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) encompasses everything from machine learning to the Internet of Things (IoT). Thanks to these tech advancements, AI systems are now able to perform tasks that previously required human intelligence, such as visual and speech processing, decision-making and language translation. From self-driving cars to automated assistants, AI is rapidly evolving and finding its way into surprising daily use cases, leading people to underestimate how it's fundamentally transforming our world. It's disrupting and improving organizations across all industries, and now it's headed for insurance. Below, we've rounded up AI applications with the greatest potential to impact the insurance industry.