Although materially beneficial corporate deployments of AI are beginning to proliferate, the AI activities of the majority still amount to a few isolated pilot projects conceived in an ad-hoc basis. Organisations without a clear AI strategy – and that's most – run the risk of falling behind as other better organised industry players move forward. That said, while individual AI solutions can be transformative within the scope of their application, that's not as clear-cut an argument for front-to-back change as, say, the digital transformation of a high street retailer. Developing an AI strategy requires an exercise of careful discrimination – acknowledging the present limitations of AI as well as its strengths in order to identify where one can, cannot, or even should not exploit it. This article is about the'what' of an AI strategy rather than the equally important'how'.

The recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that effectively reinstated the Obama era's over-reaching joint employer regulation is a perfect example of how the left plays by its own set of rules. The joint employer rule made headlines in 2015 when the NLRB, under President Obama, rewrote the definition of what the government considered a "joint employer." Traditionally, a joint employer was an employer who shared direct control over an employee's workplace or employment with another employer. The idea was that since all employers shared and exercised similar and immediate control over employees, all should be responsible for making sure the employees had safe and reasonable working conditions. It also meant all joint employers were responsible for mistakes or bad behavior at their businesses.

US President Donald Trump has stepped up his war of words over trade tariffs, threatening to "apply a tax" on imports of cars from the European Union. Mr Trump said other countries had taken advantage of the US for years because of its "very stupid" trade deals. The trade wrangle began on Thursday when Mr Trump vowed to impose hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. That brought a stiff response from trading partners and criticism from the IMF and WTO. EU trade chiefs have reportedly been considering slapping 25% tariffs on around $3.5bn (£2.5bn) of imports from the US, following Mr Trump's proposal of a 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% on aluminium.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has joined criticism of Donald Trump's plan to impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminium. The body warned that such a move would hurt the US as well as other countries. It said others could follow the US president's precedent by claiming tough trade restrictions were needed to defend national security. Canada, the largest supplier of steel to the US, said tariffs would cause disruption on both sides of the border. It is one of several countries that have said they will consider retaliatory steps if the president presses ahead with his plan next week.

European Union officials have said they will respond "firmly" if US President Donald Trump presses ahead with his plan for steep global duties on metals. EU trade chiefs are considering slapping 25% tariffs on around $3.5bn (£2.5bn) of imports from the US, Reuters news agency reports. World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevedo said: "A trade war is in no one's interests." The rhetoric ramped up as Mr Trump tweeted that "trade wars are good". International condemnation has greeted the US president's Thursday announcement that he plans to impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminium next week.

"Just over 50% of developers engaged in AI projects now solely implement machine learning in those projects." Evans Data Corp. has released a study that estimates some 6.5 million developers worldwide are already using a purely AI approach, pivoting away from traditional rules-based techniques. The study, Evans Data's Global Development and Demographics Study, also reveals strongly growing momentum, with another 6 million developers expected join the ranks of AI/machine learning before the end of the year. "There's been a huge uptake for AI and ML technologies by developers." said Evans Data CEO Janel Garvin about the study's results. In specific, Evans Data estimates 29% of developers worldwide (6,452,000) are today using some form of AI or ML.

Editor's Note: The following blog post is a summary of a presentation from RFUN 2017 featuring Staffan Truvé, CTO and co-founder of Recorded Future, and Chris Poulin, principal/director at Booz Allen Hamilton. Artificial intelligence is about constantly trying to push the technology barrier -- once you actually succeed, however, it can be challenging to find the next new territory. There are a multitude of tricky questions to answer in dealing with artificial intelligence, so fortunately, there is no shortage of work in the field. Artificial intelligence is a complex contradiction in that it simultaneously deals with solving simple problems that are just repetitive, human tasks, while at the same time trying to push machines beyond human capability. Staffan Truvé, CTO and co-founder of Recorded Future, recently shared his expertise at the company's annual threat intelligence conference in D.C.

New technologies generate new buzzwords. Artificial intelligence (AI) as a technology and term has been around for decades, but only recently seems buzzworthy. Unfortunately, some vendors are associating the buzzword with their products without having any real AI. Or to be charitable, they stretch the limits of what can be considered AI. Maybe they don't really understand what AI is, or maybe the marketing team cajoled them into it.

One of the most important jobs of any national leader is to quit. National liberation heroes, from George Washington to Nelson Mandela, who stepped down without being forced to, ought to be venerated for that as much as for any good they accomplished while in office. Generally, rulers do not give up power unless they have to. In Africa, peaceful transfers of power are rare enough that a billionaire has set up a generous annual prize to reward leaders who step down voluntarily; many years it goes unclaimed. Around the world, cases like Bashar al-Assad, willing to watch his country crumble rather than give up power over it, or Robert Mugabe, forced out by his own military after 47 years, are more common.

IBM is trying to woo and support new developers as the battle for skilled AI talent ramps up. AI is among the hottest technologies on the horizon, and sub-topics like machine learning have emerged as a must-have for many new applications. IBM and others want to empower developers with tools to simplify the creation of AI-powered apps. Oracle released the long-awaited Java 9, but what will this mean for developers? Uncover how Java 9's improvements aim to simplify the development process.