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.

The field of medical AI is buzzing. More and more companies set the purpose to disrupt healthcare with the help of artificial intelligence. Here, I collected the biggest names currently on the market ranging from start-ups to tech giants to keep an eye on in the future. No one doubts that artificial intelligence has unimaginable potential. Within the next couple of years, it will revolutionize every area of our life, including medicine. Although many have their fears and doubts about AI taking over the world, Stephen Hawking even said that the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.

Boeing will transition "many" of its commercial aviation analytics software products to run in Microsoft's Azure cloud. The two companies today said they had struck an agreement to help airlines "accelerate innovation in areas such as predictive maintenance and flight optimisation". Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "[We're] teaming up to accelerate the digital transformation of aviation through the use of analytics-based applications, cloud technologies and large-scale integration," Boeing digital aviation vice president Kevin Crowley said. Microsoft said the collaboration would see artificial intelligence and IoT play greater roles in the aviation space.

With the U.S. election finally in the rear-view mirror, the marketing community can get back to normal, or at least to debating what is normal now. After a period of rapid technological changes--connecting cars, homes, and humans--insiders agree 2017 will be a year of adapting to many of the recent trends. "We are between two worlds of legacy thinking and the new reality. Those two worlds don't mesh," said David Cohen, president of Magna North America. Part of that middle ground we predicted here--such as the mainstreaming of virtual reality and debates about transparency, fraud, and ad blocking--have come true even faster than expected. Others, such as "social shopping" and marketers having to pay consumers for their data, have met resistance.

The minute you mention chatbot technology, someone will inevitably bring up the Turing test. Created by Alan Turing in 1950, the test judges a machine's capability to demonstrate intelligent behavior that's indistinguishable from speaking to a human. There's even an annual competition that started in 1990 called the Loebner Prize that judges chatbots on how humanlike they can be. In each round of the competition, a human judge concurrently holds a chat-based conversation with both a chatbot and human being via a desktop computer. Based upon the chat conversation, the judge must try to figure out which is the chatbot. While this competition is great to push the technology of chatbots and AI forward, it's kind of a trap.

Artificial intelligence (AI) might seem like the realm of science fiction, but you might be surprised to find out that you're already using it. AI has a huge effect on your life, whether you're aware of it or not, and its influence is likely to grow in the coming years. Here are 10 examples of artificial intelligence that you're already using every day. Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are all intelligent digital personal assistants on various platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile). In short, they help find useful information when you ask for it using your voice; you can say "Where's the nearest Chinese restaurant?", "What's on my schedule today?", "Remind me to call Jerry at eight o'clock," and the assistant will respond by finding information, relaying information from your phone, or sending commands to other apps.

Someone sent a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte to my desk at work. Which was weird because I didn't ask for it. And even weirder because it came from some of the most sophisticated technology in the world: M, the artificial intelligence–driven virtual assistant Facebook is building into its Messenger app. AI, I thought, was supposed to outsmart and kill us, not send autumnal coffee beverages. So forgive me for being a little suspicious of the grande red cup at my desk. I've had M on my phone for about a month now. Before it becomes pervasive, I wanted to understand it, and ask questions of it. I've pushed it incredibly hard.

San Francisco start-up Forward is betting its hands-on--and very digital approach--to treating patients will help to carve out a niche for the new company in the emerging market for personalized and concierge-style healthcare. Founded by CEO Adrian Aoun, who previously worked as director of special projects for Google, Forward is attempting to shift the traditional healthcare model away from immediate and reactive care to proactive care through the use of technology and artificial intelligence. Google acquired Aoun's first start-up, Wavii.com, in 2014 in a $30 million deal. Wavii became the hub of Google's artificial intelligence business unit to develop more natural language and personal assistant technologies such as voice-activated search queries for the Google search engine. Now Aoun is turning his attention to digital healthcare.

Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly the technology of the moment. The number of AI startups has rocketed, as has the enthusiasm of established businesses when it comes to adoption. AI has applications within marketing, retail, manufacturing, production, entertainment and the domestic space, gathering and dealing with mass data efficiently. By analysing and visualising data, AI can work out the most important metrics and compile them into useful charts and graphs using data visualisation techniques. But what if all of this precious data was made up?