Machines, you may have heard, are coming for all the jobs. Artificial intelligence handles insurance claims and basic bookkeeping, manages investment portfolios, does legal research, and performs basic HR tasks. Human labor doesn't stand a chance against them--after the "automation apocalypse," only those with spectacular abilities and the owners of the robots will thrive. But before you start campaigning for a universal basic income and set up a bunker, you might want to also familiarize yourself with the competing theory: In the long run, we're going to be just fine. Our modern fear that robots will steal all the jobs fits a classic script. Nearly 500 years ago, Queen Elizabeth I cited the same fear when she denied an English inventor named William Lee a patent for an automated knitting contraption.

Fans of the innovative HBO series "Westworld" -- a futuristic tale of life-like robots mixing with guests of a Wild West-styled adult theme park -- can hear Wednesday about how close such technology is from a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor involved in artificial intelligence research for the U.S. military. "'Westworld' is an HBO series that deals with the'big questions' of artificial intelligence (AI) in an undeniably vivid and timely way," said Selmer Bringsjord, director of the RPI Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Lab. "The real world will ineluctably move toward giving experiences to humans in environments that are at once immersive and populated with sophisticated AIs and robots." Currently, Bringsjord is working on a multi-million dollar AI development project with support from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, which wants to advance military robotics for logistics and other missions. His work focuses on how to program a form of moral sense into AI, so that a robot not under continuous human control can make appropriate choices -- such as not harming innocent humans or causing unnecessary damage -- when faced with unexpected circumstances.

As data science gets set to drive the artifical intelligence (AI) market in 2017, a few Indian startups are initiating development of conversational bots, speech recognition tools, intelligent digital assistants and conversational services to be built over social media channels, a joint study by PwC-Assocham said on Thursday. Organisations are looking to leverage AI capabilities for predictive modelling. "Online shopping portals have extensively been using predictive capabilities to gauge consumer interest in products by building a targeted understanding of preferences through collection of browsing and click-stream data, and effectively targeting and engaging customers using a multichannel approach," the report added. To enable consumers to find better products at low prices, machine learning algorithms are being deployed for better matching of supply with consumer demand. Some of the areas where AI can improve legal processes, said the findings, include improved discovery and analysis based on law case history and formulation of legal arguments based on identification of relevant evidence.

Hey, I'm Adrian Rosebrock, an entrepreneur and Ph.D who has spent the last eight years studying computer vision, machine learning, and image search engines. I've launched two successful image search engines, ID My Pill, and Chic Engine. I've even consulted with the National Cancer Institute to develop image processing and machine learning algorithms to automatically analyze breast histology images for cancer risk factors. It's safe to say that I have a ton of experience in the computer vision world and know my way around a Python shell and image processing libraries. I'm here to distill all my years of experience into bite size, easy to understand chunks, while sharing the tips, tricks, and hacks I've learned along the way.

Artificial Intelligence is coming to sales on a significant scale. Rather than spending hours watching and researching companies, while looking for good opportunities to help out, salespeople can now rely on AI systems to do that grunt work for them. In almost every conversation I've had about AI in sales, that leads to the question of "does AI mean the end of salespeople". AI is great at sophisticated pattern recognition, and crunching through volumes of data. However, AI does not build trust, develop relationships, have conversations, change minds, or share a vision.

For as long as humans have been making machines, we have been fascinated with the deliciously horrifying idea of them coming alive -- and turning against us. These fears tend to conjure up a picture of dusty, apocalyptic landscapes and malicious beasts made of steel, however, another scenario is on the rise. "Machines taking over," is far more likely to manifest in the workplace than as a conscious rebellion. In fact, it is already happening. Many tasks that used to require manpower are being replaced by bots and A.I., and the list of jobs that no longer need a human is growing fast.

A baby seal robot called PARO has played a prominent role in animal therapy in hospitals and senior citizens homes in Japan and Europe since 2003. PARO has become the darling of many a patient successfully replacing live animals If demand of social robots like PARO was to increase, the robot-human interactions will expand social and cultural communication patterns. With the advances in robotics and affective computing, the relationship between robots and humans in society is changing. The combination of context-awareness, motoric skills and affective behaviour opens a wide field for robotic assistants or even robotic companions. Films like WALL-E (2008) or Her (2013) show that robots or artificial intelligence are no longer just means to an end but start to be seen as cultural entities.

The MESO-BRAIN project, awarded with € 3.3 million in funding from the European Commission as part of its Future and Emerging Technology scheme, aims at 3D printing human neural networks mimicking the brain's structure and function. These 3D networks are to feature specific biological architecture and the ability to interrogate the network's brain-like activity both electrohpysilogically and optically. The research team will us human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), that have been differentiated into neurones. The scaffolds for these cells are produced using a 3D laser printer capable of creating objects on a nanoscale. Nano-electrodes will be incorporated into the structure for downstream analysis of the network's function.

A construction firm based in Dubai has announced plans to build the world's first 3D-printed skyscraper. The company, called Cazza, has confirmed that it will be erected in the United Arab Emirates. It says it will use a new technique called "crane printing" to create the building. 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. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Xiaomi says its new Redmi Note 4 has become the fastest selling smartphone in India. The Chinese firm said it had moved more than one million units in just 45 days since its launch, meaning one sold every four seconds. The phone is the successor to the Redmi Note 3, which shifted more than 2.3 million units in the country following its 2016 launch, making it the best-selling smartphone in India in terms of online sales. "Redmi Note 4 has become the fastest smartphone model to sell a million units in India. Redmi Note 4 has sold more than one million units in 45 days from its first sale on 23 January, 2017," Xiaomi said.