Thousands of openings in artificial intelligence and machine learning posted on job boards are going unfilled. In fact, though AI is one of the fastest-growing areas for high-tech professionals, according to a recent Kiplinger report, there are too few qualified engineers. "Supply is far lower than demand," says Boris Babenko, a machine vision engineer at Orbital Insight, a company in Palo Alto, Calif., that uses AI to make sense of data gathered from satellite images. "That's true of all software engineering, but AI is a niche on top of that." The need for AI specialists exists in just about every field as companies seek to give computers the ability to think, learn, and adapt.

On Tuesday, June 28th we'll be exploring "The Art of AI." The evening will examine the opportunities and challenges presented when machine learning and storytelling collide. Together we'll explore the impact of AI on narrative and the role that it can play in building rich immersive storytelling experiences. Guests for the evening include The creators of Sunspring a short scripted by an AI starring Thomas Middleditch from HBO's Silicon Valley. This is a special presentation that mixes story and code in real-time.

When Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk proclaims that artificial intelligence is "our biggest existential threat," it makes headlines worldwide. But what goes unreported is that the very search engines people used to find Musk's comments are themselves an example of how AI has subtly but forcefully become a part of everyday, real-world life. When it comes to a discussion of AI, it helps to have a sense of history--as well as a sense of humor. Thanks to premonitory proclamations by Musk, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Cambridge's Stephen Hawking and other prominent technologists, AI has become a popular topic again, after a 20-year cooling-off period. It's tempting to assume that the "dire warnings" about AI being a threat to mankind were mostly tongue-in-cheek, but the end result is that just as it happened in the 1980s and '90s, the hype over AI is again outpacing the reality (virtual and otherwise). The first question that needs to be answered though is: Whatever happened to AI and why did it go underground for so many years?

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be worsening inequality, given the biases being embedded within the underlying machine-learning algorithms, writes Kate Crawford, a principal researcher at Microsoft and co-chairwoman of a White House symposium on society and AI. She cites one case in which Google's photo application was found to classify images of black people as gorillas as an example of systems with prejudices built in. An even more pernicious example was referenced in a recent ProPublica investigation, which found popular software used to evaluate the probability of criminal recidivism was twice as likely to erroneously assign a high risk to black defendants and a low risk to white defendants. Crawford says AI reflects the values of those who create it, and inclusivity must be accounted for to avoid machine intelligences that mirror a narrow and elite perception of society. "We need to be vigilant about how we design and train these machine-learning systems, or we will see ingrained forms of bias built into the artificial intelligence of the future," Crawford warns.

For those of us who haven't been hermits stuck in a remote section of Middle Earth, The Lord of the Rings book and movie series brought to our awareness the mythical powers of The One Ring: An object with a sinister inscription that reads "One Ring to Rule Them All." The ring bearers' powers will allow s/he to rule all lands and all people -- yet this piece of jewelry will enslave the poor ring bearer (life's full of trade-offs, right?). It's too good to be true -- "slip the ring on your finger and you'll rule the world!" Now that's convenience (for those whose ego is beyond measure). Products or devices bringing convenience and ease to us offer huge value.

The humanoid robot AILA (artificial intelligence lightweight android) operates a switchboard during a demonstration by the German research centre for artificial intelligence at the CeBit computer fair in Hanover March, 5, 2013.REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Google is now using RankBrain, its machine-learning system, to process the more than 2 trillion queries sent each year through its search engine, according to Search Engine Land. This is a considerable increase from when RankBrain was first introduced in Q3 2015, when it was used for roughly 15% of search queries. The full time deployment of RankBrain will make Google Search far more intuitive for users.

The White House wants to hear what you think about the future of artificial intelligence. Earlier this month, the Office of Science and Technology Policy announced it was hosting several public workshops on the technology, part of an effort to promote its use in government. Now, OSTP is asking the members of the public to send in their thoughts about the social and legal implications of artificial intelligence, among other topics. While potentially useful in government, especially in fields such as criminal justice, artificial intelligence "carries risks and presents complex policy challenges," OSTP's call for information says. The public input will help OSTP recommend "directions for research."

If you ask, Alexa can tell you a joke and Siri will recite a haiku. Jibo will do that, and more: the new home robot can sense when you're feeling down and try to make you smile. Cynthia Breazeal, a social robotics expert at MIT, designed the 749 bot to exhibit something approaching empathy. It isn't the first--Pepper, a humanoid robot from Softbank, does the same thing and arrives in the US later this year. But Pepper started in customer service and was adapted to home use. The oversized head is a bit too big for its body, like a puppy.

My previous blog highlighted key findings from our recent research study on RPA, including RPA as a concept, and related key business trends. An organization with annual revenues of USD 10 Billion has been considered. Typical size of the F&A functions for such an organization are estimated at 750 FTEs. It is not a cakewalk though. The NASSCOM-Everest report "Seizing the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Opportunity" examines the state of the RPA market today and its potential in the coming years. It offers a series of case studies across horizontal and vertical business processes and highlights lessons learned from early RPA adopters.