Just a decade ago, few would have guessed that virtual goods could create a real market. Then the smartphone age sparked a whole new universe of ephemeral, yet lucrative, commerce. "People have gotten much more comfortable with the idea of paying for things that are virtual," says Joost van Dreunen, the co-founder and CEO of SuperData, a gaming research firm. For startups in this fast-growing market, the goods may be fake, but the sales are real. Some of the most promising new areas of business are hidden behind what can sound like Millennial smartphone-speak: Kimoji!

Two of modern science's most powerful voices, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, have both issued warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence in the past (Musk has even been tinkering with ways humanity can augment themselves to keep up). But good news: Musk and Hawking are jumping onboard the ethical AI bandwagon. In an open letter published by Future of Life Institute (FLI) last Monday, Musk and Hawking joined several AI and robotics researchers in a comprehensive outline called "Asilomar AI principles" - 23 guidelines for avoiding an artificial intelligence armageddon. The goal is to guide AI research toward beneficial intelligence rather than "undirected intelligence." The principles are the product of the FLI's 2017 Beneficial AI conference.

Ian H. Witten is a professor of computer science at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He directs the New Zealand Digital Library research project. His research interests include information retrieval, machine learning, text compression, and programming by demonstration. He received an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University, England; an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, Canada; and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Essex University, England. He is a fellow of the ACM and of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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Last month, Huawei boasted that its new Mate 9 will be the first smartphone to come preloaded with Amazon's Alexa smart voice recognition-and-search software. But it most certainly won't be the last. Beyond the home, it's evident that Amazon is determined to embed Alexa in mobile devices and in offices. Alexa and Echo, Amazon's companion Internet-connected speaker device, already have a strong presence in the living room, making Echo an unexpected hit. In the U.S., more than 8.2 million people have an Echo, according to market research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

COM ETHICS:ETHICS: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR THE 2. AI's next frontier requires ethics built through policy. COM 3. Will we live into a future where machines are as intelligent -- or frighteningly, more so -- than humans? COM 4. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS AT THE HEART OF THAT INNOVATION. COM What President Trump will have to add to this conversation is, as of now, another great mystery. 5. ORIGINALLY FEATURED ON TECHCRUNCH. COM In a report released by the White House on the current and future state of AI, leading innovators considered not only the technology that will drive AI, but also the ethical considerations that must fuel its growth.

The legal profession is not far away from being exposed to the disruptive potential of AI. In India, a leading full service law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has plans to deploy AI technology. This will help the firm to enhance its delivery model, in an attempt to provide certain legal services more efficiently, swiftly, and more accurately to its clients. The firm recently signed an agreement with a leading Canada-based machine learning software provider, called Kira Systems. Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, remarks "The firm has been working on several interconnected initiatives since last year. The collaboration with Kira will help us bring these technologies for our clients in a proactive manner."

Ask the Google search app "What is the fastest bird on Earth?," and it will tell you. "Peregrine falcon," the phone says. "According to YouTube, the peregrine falcon has a maximum recorded airspeed of 389 kilometers per hour." That's the right answer, but it doesn't come from some master database inside Google. When you ask the question, Google's search engine pinpoints a YouTube video describing the five fastest birds on the planet and then extracts just the information you're looking for.

Some people may have been confused by IBM's decision to support TensorFlow 0.12 with its PowerAI distribution. That wouldn't be surprising since many continue to judge the company chiefly by its enterprise business roots. However, while the TensorFlow decision helps to clarify where IBM is today and where it aims to be in the future, it also details the practical steps the company is taking to get from here to there. The aggressive promotion of artificial intelligence (AI) is rife with buzzwords but AI-related core technologies are fairly straightforward. In order to support AI-related functions and tasks, like speech and pattern recognition, computer vision and text analytics, underlying systems are trained with machine learning and deep learning frameworks.

Students code software at desktops, while others assemble odd machines with wires and multi-colored boxes. Earning a spot at this elite university isn't easy; UC-Berkeley accepted a mere 14.8 percent of applicants for the class of 2020. So this young crew will likely be tomorrow's tech leaders and pioneers. Despite all the promise, it appears that BRETT is struggling. BRETT is a robot, and he – or she, or it – is attempting to place a small wooden block into a small hole. Again and again, BRETT swings his arm over the opening, attempts to place the block, but fumbles. Just can't make it fit. However, as robots go, BRETT has a huge advantage: he can learn. Every time BRETT swings his arm and fails, he calculates what went wrong. In essence he's doing what we humans do: he's failing, and in response he's deciding how to improve the next effort. I stand watching for about 15 minutes, and finally BRETT succeeds – a lengthy period given the simple task. But the astounding point is that the robot really did learn.