Shivaram Kalyanakrishnan is an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. He specialises in artificial intelligence (AI) and is the only author from India who is part of an 18-member study panel of the Stanford University-hosted report titled Artificial Intelligence and Life. Kalyanakrishnan's expertise broadly fits in the area of machine learning. Called reinforcement learning, it defines what actions software agents should take to maximize a certain type of reward after learning from reward and punishment. In an interview, he urges people to be more optimistic about the things AI can do rather than be obsessed with the fear around AI machines.

IBM has produced a glossy multimedia website (see below) to expound the possibilities under the label "IBM 5 in 5: five innovations that will help change our lives within five years." And analog, MEMS and sensors are prominent. But digital electronics will also have its say in the form of big data and artificial intelligence. The full list is artificial intelligence; hyperspectral imaging; microfluidic lab-on-chips, networks of novel sensors and something IBM calls "macroscoping." Amongst the developments IBM researchers are predicting – and a slightly disconcerting prediction at that – is that what we say and write could be monitored and used as indicators of our mental health and physical well-being. Patterns of speech and writing and how they change over time, analysed by cognitive systems, could provide tell-tale signs of early-stage developmental disorders, mental illness and degenerative neurological diseases.

You're young and want to get ahead. You work weekends and message colleagues with inspired trading ideas at all hours. You've just marked yourself as a potential rogue trader. Welcome to the brave new world of trader surveillance, where former Goldman Sachs research analyst Erkin Adylov is building a library of banking villainy based on the behaviors of hundreds of past miscreants such as UBS Group's Tom Hayes and Societe Generale's Jerome Kerviel. Using thousands of inputs, from stress levels in voice recordings to the frequency of visits to the staff canteen, Adylov and his team at startup Behavox grade employees on how likely they are to go bad before they do anything wrong. While that may sound like something out of a Philip K. Dick science-fiction novel, hedge fund Marshall Wace and interdealer broker TP ICAP are already using the software to monitor employees, and some of the biggest investment banks and commodities dealers in the world have begun testing it.

What initially began as a Facebook event has morphed into a cultural moment, a juxtaposition of the previous day's inauguration of America's 45th president, Donald Trump. Heather Whaling is CEO of Geben Communication, a PR and social media agency with offices in Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago. She serves on the board of The Women's Fund of Central Ohio, mentors women entrepreneurs, and is a vocal advocate for paid parental leave. On the issues, it's increasingly difficult to find commonalities between Trump supporters and the marchers who will flock to DC and other cities around the country. Yet both groups share at least one tool in their toolbox: A mastery of social media as the go-to channel to amplify viewpoints and shape perceptions.

When psychologist Dr. Paul Ekman visited the Fore tribe in the highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1967, he probably didn't imagine that his work would become the foundation for some of the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI). After studying the tribe, which was still living in the preliterate state it had been in since the Stone Age, Ekman believed he had found the blueprint for a set of universal human emotions and related expressions that crossed cultures and were present in all humans. A decade later he created the Facial Action Coding System, a comprehensive tool for objectively measuring facial movement. Ekman's work has been used by the FBI and police departments to identify the seeds of violent behavior in nonverbal expressions of sentiment. He has also developed the online Atlas of Emotions at the behest of the Dalai Lama.

Whole brain segmentation: automated labeling of neuroanatomical structures in the human brain.

Investors haven't been happy with IBM (NYSE:IBM) lately. Since Ginni Rometty started as CEO in January of 2012, IBM has had 18 consecutive quarters of year-over-year declining revenue -- essentially every quarter of her tenure. The stock has lost nearly 10% compared with a gain of 78% for the S&P 500 over the last five years. For IBM shareholders, Ginni Rometty's four-year reign as chief executive officer hasn't been anything to go to Disneyland about. But her company has become a leader in one corporate category: board members willing to shovel incentive pay at a CEO turning in a mediocre performance.

Patient Number Two was born to first-time parents, late 20s, white. The pregnancy was normal and the birth uncomplicated. But after a few months, it became clear something was wrong. The child had ear infection after ear infection and trouble breathing at night. He was small for his age, and by his fifth birthday, still hadn't spoken.

Advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) opens new doors for businesses to make data-informed decisions, and if your business does not take advantage of the growing industry of data analytics, your competitors will steamroll ahead. The advancement of machine learning and artificial intelligence is opening new doors for businesses to make more data-driven decisions at higher accuracy rates. Data and analytics are also changing the way that businesses compete. As leading companies take advantage of the power of big data, and laggards stay behind, the disparity between the two groups will continue to widen in the future. Recently, Forbes has predicted that by 2020, we will have 1.7 megabytes of new information created every second for every human everywhere on the planet.

Chatbots have not seen the success in non-spamming application that we had once hoped. Microsoft's Tay experiment was a massive failure thanks to human interference. Microsoft is trying again with Zo, focusing on the future of chatbots being your best friend. That future is fluid interaction with a programmable and learning artificial intelligence without the assistance of humans. Conversely, In the case of Sensay, the future of bots is one that is just as human as a bot could possibly be.