"Artificial Intelligence": this term has become so popular/hyped/*add an adjective of your choice* in this decade, that we're talking about it more than ever. So much so that anything about AI becomes front page news. Tech media must be having a crush on AI for sure. Popular voices in the ecosystem, are so polarizing that you're left scared or excited. Mr. Singularity Ray Kurzweil says: We all must have heard of X-Prize, if not check out.

Twelve days into the strangest poker tournament of their lives, Jason Les and his companions returned to their hotel, browbeaten and exhausted. Huddled over a pile of tacos, they strategized, as they had done every night. With about 60,000 hands played -- and 60,000 to go -- they were losing badly to an unusual opponent: a computer program called Libratus, which was up nearly $800,000 in chips. That wasn't supposed to happen. In 2015, Les and a crew of poker pros had beaten a similar computer program, winning about $700,000.

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.

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!

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.

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."

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.

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.