The above sector map organizes the Artificial Intelligence sector into 13 categories and shows a sampling of companies in each category. Deep Learning/Machine Learning (Platforms): Companies that build computer algorithms that operate based on their learnings from existing data. Examples include predictive data models and software platforms that analyze behavioral data. Deep Learning/Machine Learning (Applications): Companies that utilize computer algorithms that operate based on existing data in vertically specific use cases. Examples include using machine learning technology to detect banking fraud or to identify the top retail leads.

In the TV show --Westworld,-- artificially intelligent (AI) robots built to look and act exactly like humans take guests through different narratives of an old-west-styled amusement park in order to help them live out their fantasies -- whether promiscuous, adventurous, or deadly. In episode two of the show, one robot--s glitch gives --Westworld-- employees pause, causing them to decommission it. A scientist in the programming division suggests this glitch may be contagious, --so to speak,-- and could infect other robots, or --hosts-- as they call them in the show. This theory is denied by her superior, but later in the episode, the daughter of the decommissioned robot is shown seemingly infecting another host with "consciousness" by repeating what could--be a trigger phrase:--"These violent delights have violent ends." All of this seems like an eerie (and perhaps, impossible) peek into the future, but Christopher Atkeson, a professor at the Robotics Institute and Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, told INSIDER that simulated consciousness already exists in products such as Amazon Echo and the iPhone--s Siri, and that AI systems infecting other AI systems is not a hypothetical scenario.

If there's a new gadget released, odds are Peter Pham has bought it. The co-founder of tech incubator Science, Inc., Pham is obsessed with the latest new devices, and lives in a home surrounded by the newest in virtual reality, communication gear and bluetooth headphones. With new devices, "we live in a world where we smile a little more and enjoy our lives a little more," says Pham, whose company has helped firms like Dollar Shave Club and DogVacay get off the ground. For our extended weekend edition of the #TalkingTech podcast, we sat down with Pham to go over his top 10 favorite items of the year, a roster that for includes some obvious ones--Google's new PhotoScan app for snapping pictures of photos with your smartphone camera--minus glare, and Eero, the device for improving the home internet signal. He loves Google Home, Google's $129 answer to Amazon's Echo, a personalized digital assistant for the home to answer Google queries.

Can you tell us a bit about MindMeld? MindMeld is a leading Conversational AI company, now offering Deep-Domain Conversational AI. The company has pioneered the AI technology behind the emerging generation of intelligent voice and chat assistants and currently powers advanced conversational experiences used by some of the world's largest media companies, government agencies, automotive manufacturers, and global retailers. MindMeld's customers and investors include Google, Samsung, Intel, Telefonica, Liberty Global, IDG, USAA, Uniqlo, Spotify, In-Q-Tel and others. What does Deep-Domain Conversational AI mean?

A "sexual predator" has been jailed for eight and a half years for blackmailing and spying on Muslim women using intimate photographs and videos he took of them without their knowledge. Farhan Mirza, 38, of Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent, secretly filmed the women and threatened to share the footage before demanding money. Mirza, who denied the charges, met some of the women on online dating sites. He was jailed for voyeurism, blackmail, theft and fraud at Cardiff Crown Court. During the trial, jurors heard Mirza had initially impressed his victims by claiming to be a doctor and hung surgical scrubs in his wardrobe and carried a stethoscope in his car. He also claimed his family were highly educated professionals working in locations around the world.

The way we watch sport, the way we shop, the way we meet each other, the way we interact with machine intelligence -- everything we can imagine is now possible by adding a crystal clear layer of visual genius over our real world. The Fourth Transformation is based on two years of research and about 400 interviews with technologists and business decision makers. It explains the technology and product landscape on a level designed to be interesting and useful to business thinkers and general audiences. Mostly it talks about how VR and AR are already being used, or will be used in the next one-to-three years. It explains how this massive and fundamental transformation will be driven, nit just by Millennials, but by the generation following them, which the authors have named the Minecraft Generation.

The war rages on over the connected home--an idea that home appliances and accessories will all be connected to the Internet. Soon, your fridge will send a text message when the milk is running low. For most people, that prospect is still far from being today's reality. But this Black Friday will spark the first battle between Amazon Echo and Google Home. Both products bill themselves as a Wi-Fi speaker and a sort of Siri-in-a-tube that answers users' spoken questions.

LOS ANGELES -- What's worse, a phone that explodes in your face or a drone that falls from the skies? It's a question worth pondering as we embark on our annual list of the top tech turkeys of the year. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The Samsung Note 7 received rave reviews for wireless charging, water resistant design and the ability to unlock the phone with your iris. But weeks after the first shipments, consumers started reporting phones that were erupting in flames, causing damage to houses and cars. Samsung announced a re-call and a massive replacement-- and then the new phones started blowing up, too.

To most people, artificial intelligence (AI) is represented in terms of robots with human-like similarities. Today's reality is that of AI powering technologies and driving companies to complete tasks and make things easier. Companies are using AI more than ever, even for tasks that you may not consider. To understand how AI impacts your business, it's important to understand exactly what artificial intelligence is. According to Merriam Webster artificial intelligence is, "an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence."

Now if these are not dominant steps toward a world of AI I don't know what is. Front this technology with a robot body and it becomes an intelligent being. They can park themselves, drive themselves, break automatically and navigate based on coordinates. Once they are able to learn and map out routes as well as incorporate traffic reports and weather disturbances to get you quickly and safely from A to B without risk…bingo. Google Assistant, Amazon Echo, Apple Siri and the other personal virtual assistants are bringing all daily rituals, habits and requests together via one central point.