When Vic Gundotra left Google in 2014, he thought he might retire, forever. But a lingering interest in wearable technology and machine learning led him to AliveCor, which lets users monitor their heart health from their smartphones. Diving back into the fray of tech, Gundotra is now convinced that the potential of wearables and machine learning is just starting to be unlocked. AliveCor's portable EKG sensor, Kardia, alerts users if their heartbeats are irregular -- and now, the Mayo Clinic, an AliveCor investor, has begun identifying other signals in an EKG reading that a human might miss. "No human doctor can look at your EKG and tell you with a high degree of accuracy what your potassium level is," Gundotra said.

Ride-hailing requires a lot of machine smarts to maintain a competitive edge, so it's not surprising to see Uber make a strategic acquisition in the artificial intelligence space. The company has acquired Geometric Intelligence, a startup co-founded by academic researchers with AI experience, and its team will provide the core for a new central AI lab being established at Uber's SF HQ. Uber's doing a lot with machine learning already through its research team in Pittsburgh, but they're focused specifically on solving issues related to autonomous driving. This new core team will be looking at applications for AI more broadly, with a focus on basic research that's likely to have impact across a range of potential applications, including things like route management. It's also yet another sign that Uber wants to be passed among tech bigs like Google, Apple and Microsoft whose interest range beyond a single domain.

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For the time being, countless decisions still require human engagement. Awash in data, executives dream of a time when the Jetson utopia finally manifests -- and they find themselves sipping coffee and cashing checks while machines slave away for them, uncovering unexpected business insights and learning optimal ways to manage organizations. Despite improvements in cognitive technologies, that dream managerial scenario is still far from reality. Decisions that executives face don't necessarily fit into defined problems well suited for automation. At least for the time being, countless decisions still require human engagement. To oversimplify, machine learning emphasizes algorithms that use numerous examples as inputs.

The technology industry A-list is rushing to develop artificial intelligence (AI). Even the White House is in on the act having developed an open-sourced Facebook chatbot that lets you speak to the President.

Chatting with Rose is really good fun – at least to begin with. She talks about her life in San Francisco, her two chickens and her pet cat. She comes across as funny, quick-witted and interested in what you have to say. But as the conversation proceeds, she turns out to be a rather poor conversationalist. Whenever she can't think of an answer to a question, she tries to change the subject with a question of her own.

Back in early 2015, Google's mysterious DeepMind unveiled an algorithm that could teach itself to play Atari games. Based on deep neural nets, the AI impressively mastered nostalgic favorites such as Space Invaders and Pong without needing any explicit programming -- it simply learned through millions of examples. But the algorithm had a weakness: memory. Without a memory module, it couldn't store away any information it had already mastered. When faced with problems requiring multi-step reasoning, the algorithm faltered.

Artificial intelligence developed by the likes of Google's DeepMind and Elon Musk's OpenAI is taught within the confines of game worlds – including navigating around mazes, dodging deadly cliffs, playing laser tag and flying through space. In a mission to build a general AI capable of solving any problem put in front of it, DeepMind is open-sourcing its game code to everyone. The software and 14 levels from DeepMind Labs will be put on GitHub later this week. And, not to be outdone, Elon Musk's own OpenAI is also releasing its own'computer training ground' called Universe. Universe is open-source software that supports Gym; OpenAI's toolkit for testing its algorithms which help software play games, for example, using a reward scheme.