"Computer systems can automatically detect and interpret what is happening on video surveillance cameras; Siri allows anyone to have a personal assistant in their pocket; Watson has beaten two former champions on Jeopardy and Google driverless cars have driven over 500 000km accident-free. Modern technology is increasingly intelligent," says Suren Govender, Accenture Analytics MD. With the growing availability of sensors, better algorithms for data analytics and growing computational power, these intelligent technologies are becoming more prevalent and are being incorporated in everyday life and business. "The cognitive era is about thinking itself – how we gather information, access it and make decisions," notes Hamilton Ratshefola, country GM at IBM South Africa. Cognitive analytics engines have the ability to build knowledge and learn, they understand natural language, reason and interact more naturally with human beings than traditional programmable systems.

Robots play football in a demonstration of artificial intelligence at the stand of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence at the CeBIT Technology Fair on March 2, 2010 in Hannover, Germany. Artificial Intelligence or AI is one of the favorite topics today. AI has the potential of changing the future and making life more convenient. However, some remain reserved because of the potential threats AI may bring to humanity. Learn what Slate readers think about AI here.

Airlines around the world are eager to take advantage of rapidly emerging technologies to improve their passengers' experience and become more efficient. But while executives recognize the opportunities, they know they can't do it alone. The two industry leaders in aircraft engines and technology are collaborating to offer carriers their expertise and ideas in a business where cutting 1 percent of fuel usage amounts to 250,000 in annual savings per plane. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates digital tools in aircraft maintenance could save more than 100 million a year for a large carrier with a fleet of about 500 planes. "Our TotalCare maintenance program was revolutionary in the '90s, so we're pioneers ourselves, and by collaborating with a fellow pioneer like Microsoft, we can absolutely bring innovative digital solutions to airlines now," says Alex Dulewicz, head of marketing for services at Rolls-Royce's civil aerospace division.

Day 2 at NVIDIA's GTC 2016, and we see one of the first Deep Learning Robotics application demo with the IBM Watson robot. Finally, a deep learning robotics application that many can relate! Of all the deep learning examples we've come across, this IBM Watson Robot demo is one of the most appreciated and understandable for the masses. This is but a glimpse of cognitive computing. But what does that term mean?

Machine-reengineering is a way to automate business processes using machine learning. Although machine-reengineering is new, companies are already seeing striking results with it, particularly in boosts to speed and efficiency. Studying 168 early adopters, we've seen speed improvements of two times or more for most business processes -- and some organizations are reporting speed improvements of 10 times or more. How do companies do it? Our study found that organizations are using machine-reengineering to establish new forms of human-machine collaboration that break through the bottlenecks of complex digital processes.

In the last few years, an increasing amount of public-private initiatives have adopted IoT solutions, ranging from smart grids to energy efficiency applications. The unprecedented growth of the urban population, meanwhile, highlights the importance of increased public-private cooperation in smart cities and the circular economy to deliver more scalable low-carbon development models. For example, IBM's China Research Lab is working with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) and other municipal authorities in China to scale-up its air quality forecasting system, as part of IBM's Green Horizons Initiative. The system uses pollution data from a network of sensors spread throughout Beijing. Through complex modeling and machine learning techniques, it returns increasingly precise forecasts of air pollution levels in different neighborhoods.

This column is a little cheerful, slightly analytical, both confident and tentative and just a tiny bit angry. At least that's what IBM's Watson thinks. Last week, IBM revealed that its Jeopardy-winning supercomputer has a new capability. It's called Watson Tone Analyzer. You can use it like spell check, except instead of checking your spelling, it checks the "tone" of your writing.

The rise of the chatbot and the fall of the app-based economy have recently taken centre stage, thanks in large part to Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook was opening up Messenger to third-party bots. The potential for brands to interact with users at the same level they do with their peers is immense. As Kik's Ivar Chan says, "In a world where messenger apps have surpassed social networks, companies need to expand their digital presence to these greenfield pastures." OK, he's a partner at a leading chatbot specialist, so he does have a dog in the fight… but he's also right. This isn't about bots and artificial intelligence, this is about ubiquity of messaging as platform.

There's no way of knowing when the machines will take over, but scientists have a prediction about the breakthrough that would have to occur in order for that to happen: the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) system that rivals our own brains. There's an interesting reason why such a system would almost certainly overtake human intelligence and precipitate the rise of machines than are smarter than us -- not just equally smart. As director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), Seth Shostak ends up thinking a lot about AI. He predicts we'll find AI in the universe before we will be able to find the biological beings that might have created it, since computers and various devices can travel great distances much more easily than living beings (just think of the rovers we've sent to Mars). Here on Earth, as well as on other planets, Shostak thinks the exponential rise of computers will eventually allow them to outsmart us.

Two EteRNA players check out a molecule designed using the online game. The display above shows output from a laser microscope that tests the new designs. Two EteRNA players check out a molecule designed using the online game. The display above shows output from a laser microscope that tests the new designs. Though it's the world's top infectious killer, tuberculosis is surprisingly tricky to diagnose.