'Tis the season for the public relations exercise known as "here's what we think (or hope) will happen in the tech sector next year," flooding my inbox with predictions for 2017. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, let alone over the next 12 months, but the exercise yields interesting insights into what's hot (and what's not) in technology today. Artificial intelligence (and machine/deep learning) is the hottest trend, eclipsing, but building on, the accumulated hype for the previous "new big thing," big data. The new catalyst for the data explosion is the Internet of Things, bringing with it new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The rapid fluctuations in the relative temperature of these trends also create new dislocations and opportunities in the tech job market.

The blind man that convinced Google to launch a self driving car firm: Steve Mahan revealed as first person to ride without a Google engineer on board (and he says it was'like driving with a very good driver') Firm says its cars have now driven three million miles on public roads Legally blind Steve Mahan was the person person allowed to drive solo Mahan said it was'like driving we a very good driver' Google today launched its car firm, to be called Waymo Mahan said it was'like driving we a very good driver' Steve Mahan, former director of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center used one of Google's cars on his own in Austin in October 2015 - convincing the firm to spin out its project as car firm Waymo. Your left hand really DOES know what your right hand is... The'internet of the road': Government proposals call for... AirPods are FINALLY here after months of delays: Apple's... Your left hand really DOES know what your right hand is... The'internet of the road': Government proposals call for... AirPods are FINALLY here after months of delays: Apple's... The car Mahan rode in had a back up computers and multiple systems go control it.

'Tis the season for the public relations exercise known as "here's what we think (or hope) will happen in the tech sector next year," flooding my inbox with predictions for 2017. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, let alone over the next 12 months, but the exercise yields interesting insights into what's hot (and what's not) in technology today. Artificial intelligence (and machine/deep learning) is the hottest trend, eclipsing, but building on, the accumulated hype for the previous "new big thing," big data. The new catalyst for the data explosion is the Internet of Things, bringing with it new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The rapid fluctuations in the relative temperature of these trends also create new dislocations and opportunities in the tech job market.

Ben Dickson is a software engineer and the founder of TechTalks. The transportation industry is associated with high maintenance costs, disasters, accidents, injuries and loss of life. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world are losing their lives to car accidents and road disasters every year. According to the National Safety Council, 38,300 people were killed and 4.4 million injured on U.S. roads alone in 2015. The related costs -- including medical expenses, wage and productivity losses and property damage -- were estimated at $152 billion.

IBM Watson may be able to win Jeopardy!, but security experts are skeptical about the technology's ability to defeat today's cyberthreats. The IBM Watson for Cyber Security beta program launched this week with 40 partners around the world in an effort to help security analysts make better, faster decisions from vast amounts of data, but experts said this is the same promise offered by many other products. IBM said Watson for Cyber Security will feature natural language processing that can help it to "understand the unique language of security." "The truth is, a lot of security vendors today are attaching [artificial intelligence] or cognitive to a number of products that are really just advanced analytics or machine learning, which are also important elements that can help in the fight against cybercrime," Diana Kelley, executive security adviser for IBM Security, told SearchSecurity. "What Watson will bring to the equation that is unique is the ability to digest vast amounts of both structured data, as well as all of the intelligence that exists in natural language, like blogs, white papers and research reports. For example, there are around 10,000 security research papers published each year, and 60,000 security blog posts published every month."

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become key drivers of innovation. Machine-learning algorithms significantly improve detection time for modern threats, as they can analyze large amounts of data significantly faster than any human could. If trained to accurately detect various types of malware behavior, machine-learning algorithms can have a high detection rate, even on new or unknown samples. The merging of human ingenuity with the speed and relentless data analysis of machine learning significantly accelerates reactions against new malware, offering protection even from previously unknown samples – advanced persistent threats, zero-day attacks, and ransomware. Detecting ransomware, for example, requires several algorithms, each specialized in detecting specific families with individual behaviors.

'Tis the season for the public relations exercise known as "here's what we think (or hope) will happen in the tech sector next year," flooding my inbox with predictions for 2017. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, let alone over the next 12 months, but the exercise yields interesting insights into what's hot (and what's not) in technology today. Artificial intelligence (and machine/deep learning) is the hottest trend, eclipsing, but building on, the accumulated hype for the previous "new big thing," big data. The new catalyst for the data explosion is the Internet of Things, bringing with it new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The rapid fluctuations in the relative temperature of these trends also create new dislocations and opportunities in the tech job market.

Regarding Fear and Artificial Intelligence (AI), one question often comes up:'Will we be killed by a Terminator Doppelganger?' I don't know if this will happen eventually, but I do know that we already have robots fighting our wars. This century is therefore, the first time in human history that we engage in Unmanned Warfare. What is the current status of this'Unmanned Warfare'? What do people think about drone strikes and will terminators be the next step?

There have been several discussions lately around machine intelligence that are started to converge in how they may change competition and regulation in all markets but is likely to become a bigger issue in 2017. This is a bubble waiting to burst. The recent letter for Apple to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding policy changes to help promote automated self-driving vehicles stressed not just a level playing field to promote new technology and data sharing but also the impact of automated vehicles on the public good, including their consequences for employment and public spaces. Other issues around consumer product automation in the home with Amazon Echo Alexa and Google Home have raised the bar in interactive systems and questions over the type of privacy and data use issues these may bring. Other issues have been raised over the use by Facebook of algorithms for "editing" the social media sites for certain political issues or in the case of their entry to the Chinese market and creating a censoring app to comply with regulations.

Digital-related investment in industrial production is growing fast. Through 2020, enterprises expect to pump $907 billion annually into digital technologies on the industrial floor, according to PwC's Industry 4.0 research. That investment is expected to increase revenues by $493 billion annually and reduce costs by $421 billion each year. But where and how those dividends will be unearthed is only now coming into view. PwC sees enterprises following a path that spans prediction, prescription, optimization, and new business models.