Through massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI) startups, the world's leading tech firms are racing to create markets to transform the economic landscape. DeepMind's technology is accessible to firms that run on Google's cloud. Intel's announcement to acquire Nervana came after Apple disclosed its deal to purchase Seattle-based machine learning and artificial intelligence startup Turi.

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Scientific American's sister publication, as "Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur." "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another." The digital revolution is in full swing. How will it change our world? The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015. Every minute we produce hundreds of thousands of Google searches and Facebook posts. These contain information that reveals how we think and feel. Soon, the things around us, possibly even our clothing, also will be connected with the Internet. It is estimated that in 10 years' time there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 times more than people on Earth. Then, the amount of data will double every 12 hours. Many companies are already trying to turn this Big Data into Big Money. Everything will become intelligent; soon we will not only have smart phones, but also smart homes, smart factories and smart cities. Should we also expect these developments to result in smart nations and a smarter planet? The field of artificial intelligence is, indeed, making breathtaking advances. In particular, it is contributing to the automation of data analysis. Artificial intelligence is no longer programmed line by line, but is now capable of learning, thereby continuously developing itself. Recently, Google's DeepMind algorithm taught itself how to win 49 Atari games. Algorithms can now recognize handwritten language and patterns almost as well as humans and even complete some tasks better than them. They are able to describe the contents of photos and videos. Today 70% of all financial transactions are performed by algorithms. News content is, in part, automatically generated. This all has radical economic consequences: in the coming 10 to 20 years around half of today's jobs will be threatened by algorithms. It can be expected that supercomputers will soon surpass human capabilities in almost all areas--somewhere between 2020 and 2060. Experts are starting to ring alarm bells.

"Within just a few years, the overwhelming majority of large and midsize organizations globally will deploy analytics applications or advanced analytics as part of a platform to improve business decision-making," said Dr. Rod Fontecilla, vice president and global lead for analytics at Unisys. "We want to give users an opportunity to learn about how artificial intelligence can help build those capabilities by giving them access to the unique tools and expertise offered by Unisys to help them remain competitive in the future." About Unisys Unisys is a global information technology company that specializes in providing industry-focused solutions integrated with leading-edge security to clients in the government, financial services and commercial markets. Unisys offerings include security solutions, advanced data analytics, cloud and infrastructure services, application services and application and server software. Unisys and other Unisys products and services mentioned herein, as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation.

This week the folks at Bosch have revealed their plan to work with NVIDIA to create artificial intelligence self-driving systems for mass market cars. They made this announcement during Bosch Connected World in Berlin, where Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner showed the system to the public. "Automated driving makes roads safer, and artificial intelligence is the key to making that happen," said Denner. "We are making cars smart." Bosch Connected World is Bosch Group's annual Internet of Things conference.

The US has brought hacking charges against Russian officials for the first time ever. The decision comes as federal officials continue to investigate whether Russian spies interfered with the 2016 presidential election by hacking the Democratic party, among others. The country launched cyber attacks that were calculated to help Donald Trump win the election, it has been claimed by intelligence agencies and some politicians. Though the Justice Department has previously charged Russians with cyber crime – and brought prosecutions against hackers sponsored by the Chinese and Iranian governments – the new indictments are the first time a criminal case has been brought against Russian government officials. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

The US has charged two Russian spies with the biggest cyber attack ever carried out. The Department of Justice said that two "state-sponsored" Russian hackers were responsible for breaking into Yahoo and stealing 500 million accounts. The case would be the first ever brought against Russian officials. The charge comes amid increasing tensions between Russia and the US over the use cyber weapons and hacking. Multiple US intelligence agencies have accused Russian state-sponsored hackers of running a co-ordinated campaign to upset the result of the US election and increase the chances that Donald Trump would become president.

CircleUp exists to help promising entrepreneurs raise capital and sophisticated investors invest in breakthrough brands with confidence and efficiency on both sides. Since we opened our doors in 2012 we've been challenging private equity norms by revolutionizing manual company sourcing and vetting with a technology-driven private marketplace. The ability to standardize and extract deep insights from large data sets has long been core to CircleUp's approach. Early last year, we introduced The Classifier, which analyzes each company that applies to CircleUp based on an average of 90,000 data points. Helio proactively collects billions of data points on over 1.2 million consumer and retail companies in the U.S. to analyze the relative strength of each company across key metrics.

Artificial intelligence and bots are still in the early stages, but for a group of brand representatives, utilizing these emerging technologies is simply about being where their customers are – and more and more, that involves being in their homes and on their phones. In a panel at SXSW, Talk to the Brand: AI, Bots and Conversational Marketing, the discussion centered around pushing forward their new bots and gauging the response to the technologies by their consumers. Moderator Fred Schonenberg, founder of VentureFuel, first asked if we really needed bots in our lives, and the response from the panel was decidedly'yes'. A good bot does one thing really well, and that's it. If it can crush it, that's key," said Sam Olstein, global director of innovation for GE Corporation. "Bots and AI can make our lives easier," said Chris McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com. "Consumers change, and we have to be there." He added that they need to look where people are spending their times, and often ...

While cognitive computing, often referred to as artificial intelligence (AI), is hardly new, the recent level of interest in it is astounding. The combination of vendor marketing, concerns about job losses, and even discussion of "robot overlords" have prompted massive interest in the media. There is also plenty of substance behind the hype. Cognitive technologies offer the possibility of increased productivity, better knowledge-based interactions with customers, and the ability to solve problems that are too complex for human brains. While there have been several "AI winters" and "AI springs" over the past 50 years, there is reason to be confident that the flowering this AI spring is changing the garden permanently.

Serko, a corporate travel booking and expense management business, is like a baby, Kiwi version of Concur, the SAP-owned technology company that is a developer of software that help businesses manage travel expenses. Serko's travel booking tool is used by more than 60 percent of enterprise businesses in Australia and New Zealand. The world's largest travel management companies (namely, BCD Travel, American Express Global Business Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and Hogg Robinson Group) all resell Serko's tool to their customers in Asia Pacific. So it is of regional significance that Serko plans to unveil a fresh travel-and-expense management platform with artificial intelligence (AI) baked in. In July 2017, the company will release a corporate online booking user interface as an optional premium solution alongside its booking tool for its 3 million users.