Few technologies have the transformative potential to reshape how we live, move, and work. Electricity and the Internet were two technologies that fundamentally transformed life in the 20th century. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the 21st century equivalent of electricity and the Internet. AI is expected to bring massive shifts in how people perceive and interact with technology, with machines performing a wider range of tasks, in many cases doing a better job than humans. AI, in its simplest definition, is an umbrella term for technologies that are inspired by biological systems, giving computers human-like abilities related to seeing, reasoning, hearing, and learning.

It was a reliable sort of constant as innovators continued to increase the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits. But all good things must come to an end, and Moore's Law has been confounded by another, more immutable law: physics. Though transistors have shrunk to the size of molecules, they cannot--at least, not currently--shrink to the atomic level. However, though processing power has hit its limit, innovation in other areas has not. This is an opportunity for the combined forces of artificial and human intelligence to shine.

Pop culture these days is awash in tales of AI run amok, from machines that act like humans to humans in love with machines. The reason seems clear enough: We're anxious about a world in which machines have superseded us. Designers are already grappling with whether a robot should ever really act like a human. I don't mean robots in the futuristic sense, like you might find in Westworld or 2001, but rather robots that we're increasingly dealing with everyday. I mean the robots that live in Google Allo, Facebook Messenger, and a host of other new services that use chat-based assistants to serve up everything from airplane reservations to outfit advice.

Microsoft's slow advance into the mobile territory held by rivals Apple and Google continues this week with updates and expanded availability of a key mobile application that runs on the opposition's platforms. As iOS and Android circle the wagons to make sure that no other OS platforms can become established in the mobile space, Microsoft is playing a slightly longer game with a different target. Although Windows 10 Mobile is a great environment (and one that I personally enjoy) it does not have the market share or volume of mobile users that are needed to be self-sustaining. Which is why Microsoft is not only focusing on cloud-based services, but also ensuring they are usable on both iOS and Android as well as Windows 10. A quick glance at the app stores shows the prominence of Outlook, the utility of Outlook365, and the quiet magic of OneNote all riding high.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing everything from marketing to healthcare. And this holiday season is the beginning of the future for how marketers will leverage AI to better understand, connect with, and create superior experiences for consumers. To better appreciate the impact that AI is having on retailers, I connected with IBM's first CMO, Michelle Peluso. Peluso has a strong background in retail, having served at the CEO of Gilt as well as the Global Consumer Chief Marketing and Internet Officer at Citigroup. Peluso provides her thoughts below on how Watson's AI capability is changing the way retailers impact the consumer shopping experience.

Although 42% of respondents to a Tech Pro Research survey said their company lacks the skills necessary to implement and support AI and machine learning, and only 28% said they had firsthand experience with the technology, 50% said their companies will adopt these within the next few years. Almost as many respondents said all the implementation and support work would be done in house when the time comes, and that their company is working to address AI and machine learning in the corporate security plan. Among companies currently using, or planning to use AI or machine learning, the top uses were research and consumer analysis. Further down the list, those currently using AI or machine learning were more interested in uses like fraud detection and market analysis, while those still in the planning stages were interested in security monitoring and office automation. For more data and analysis on corporate preparedness and uses for AI and machine learning, plus information on vendor selection, download the full report: AI and machine learning in the enterprise: Uses, organizational readiness and vendor choices.

One of China's leading tech companies is building an AI lab that could soon rival those operated by the likes of Google, Facebook, Baidu, and Amazon. Tencent, based in Shenzhen, in southern China, operates a range of online and mobile services, including the hugely popular social mobile apps WeChat and QQ. The company created its AI lab in April, and it is growing rapidly. Tencent sent a delegation of AI researchers, recruiters, and business representatives to the industry's preeminent event, the Neural Information Processing Systems conference, held in Barcelona, Spain, this week. Tencent's push into AI research reflects a broader shift across China's consumer technology industry toward more fundamental research designed to spur real innovation.

When Amazon first coined the strapline "Ask Alexa" for its virtual assistant, it couldn't have predicted the X-rated nature of some of the requests. "She" may boast an encyclopaedic knowledge, but research by consumer behaviour analysts Canvas8 reveals that some users are more interested in a virtual hook-up than fact finding. And she's not the only target: the equally smooth voice of Microsoft's Cortana is getting customers just as hot under the collar apparently. From perma-smiling avatars in traditionally female support roles, to hyper-sexualised "fembots" pandering to male fantasies, the female form is everywhere in techno-world - attractive, servile and at your command. A little more conservative, but just as eager to please, is virtual personal assistant Amy Ingram, the brainchild of New York start-up X.ai.

The final argument of the pessimists is that automation is "hollowing out" the workforce by replacing the jobs of the middle-skill professions, so we will be left with a world of hedge-fund managers and their maids. There has been some disproportionate losses of middle-income jobs in America and Europe since 1980, but as the MIT economist David Autor argues, it's as much to do with competition from China as automation per se. And he thinks it is running out of steam anyway. Journalists, he says "tend to overstate the extent of machine substitution for human labor and ignore the strong complementarities between automation and labor that increase productivity, raise earnings, and augment demand for labor."

If Hollywood is to be believed, the development of super-intelligent AI will spell the end of civilization as we know it and spark an unwinnable war between man and machine. It doesn't make for nearly as exciting entertainment, but artificial intelligence also offers tremendous upside, from the potential to deliver customized education to everyone, to improving disease diagnosis and treatment and eradicating poverty. Although AI researchers are focused these beneficial outcomes, the dystopian vision portrayed in so much science fiction is also a real possibility. At the recent Singularity University (SU) New Zealand Summit we talked with Neil Jacobstein, the former president and current chair of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Track at SU, about how the outcomes feared by so many can be avoided.