A recurring motif put our divided-mind anti-hero Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) -- and by extension, us, his "hello, friend" buddy -- in the backseat of a car and took us for wild rides by mad men and toady tools. This was the premise of the madly meta "Mr. Robot" sitcom, when Mr. Robot (Christian Slater), Elliot's rogue alter-ego and frequent altered state, seized the wheel of his consciousness and took him on a great escape. This was the cliffhanger of last week's trippy and tricky outing, with Elliot riding shotgun in a cab with a dark passenger he thought was dead, Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallstrom). He freaked and demanded his immediate release, a hair-pulling panic that might have spoken for us, too. Such was the thrill, frustration, and meaning of season 2, a saga of identity crisis run amok in a high anxiety culture on the blink and on the brink. All of its characters became unreliable narrators of themselves, and their distortions and their dimness became threatening to everyone as they executed reckless campaigns for change. Each of them had ideas for how to make the world great again.

Contrary to what some people will try to tell you, there are Canadian values. We aren't just a collection of disparate people who happen to occupy the same country. We're one of the few nations on earth with a native-born and immigrant population that welcomes people from all over the world to come here, work hard, obey the law, live in peace and freedom, and help each other. To pick one of countless examples, Canada is Jamaican-Canadians extending a helping hand to a brilliant young Albanian-born computer student, whose family immigrated here 17 years ago when he was four, leaving behind the turmoil of the Kosovo war. Jurgen Aliaj, 21, is the student and the Jamaican-Canadians who are helping him head the Independent United Order of Solomon, a charity run by my friends Lloyd and Madaine Seivright.

Automation and artificial intelligence are profoundly transforming trading and markets. Many scientists and futurists agree that the effects of artificial intelligence and automation on society are difficult to predict. While many predicted that the tip of the spear for such technology would play out in areas such as medicine or general computer system markets, the AI revolution is already underway in the financial markets. Many of the predicted challenges and solutions are occurring now -- in real time. Financial technology becoming possibly the first major component of society to be completely AI enabled is not surprising if you consider that financial markets are inherently big-data intensive, attract bright minds and high-quality capital, and often have a short investment-to-profit time horizon.

Demand for non-equity trading algorithms serving institutional asset managers and retail investors is expanding the prevalence of artificial intelligence in the world's financial markets. A recent report by Thomson Reuters estimates that algorithmic trading systems now handle 75 per cent of the volume of global trades worldwide and this figure is predicted, by those in the industry, to grow steadily. Firstly, while the institutional market has enjoyed a large variety of "algos" serving the equity markets to date, other areas such as futures are still witnessing huge product demand and innovation as a result. Secondly, regulations affecting the institutional investment market, such as the European Union Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II or MiFID II, are pushing for greater automation of trades in some asset classes which traditionally were not executed electronically. The fixed income market is a prime example and negotiations between industry groups are ongoing as to how practical a fully automated fixed income could really be, given the magnitude of the required shift from telephone to electronic trading.

Many scientists and futurists agree that the effects of artificial intelligence and automation on society are difficult to predict. While many predicted that the tip of the spear for such technology would play out in areas such as medicine or general computer system markets, the AI revolution is already underway in the financial markets. Nearly all market-making is presently dominated by machines that employ AI techniques, including advanced pattern recognition. The markets evolution from the primordial ooze of computers, networks and massive storage systems to a complex, intelligent and somewhat singular market entity will impact society well beyond finance.

Automation and artificial intelligence are profoundly transforming trading and markets. Many scientists and futurists agree that the effects of artificial intelligence and automation on society are difficult to predict. While many predicted that the tip of the spear for such technology would play out in areas such as medicine or general computer system markets, the AI revolution is already underway in the financial markets. Many of the predicted challenges and solutions are occurring now -- in real time. Financial technology becoming possibly the first major component of society to be completely AI enabled is not surprising if you consider that financial markets are inherently big-data intensive, attract bright minds and high-quality capital, and often have a short investment-to-profit time horizon.

Customers use interactive kiosks to place orders at Eatsa, a fully automated fast food restaurant in San Francisco. Customers use interactive kiosks to place orders at Eatsa, a fully automated fast food restaurant in San Francisco. Much of the anger and anxiety in the 2016 election is fueled by the sense that economic opportunity is slipping away for many Americans. This week, as part of NPR's collaborative project with member stations, A Nation Engaged, we're asking the question: What can be done to create economic opportunity for more Americans? When we talk about the economy, we spend a lot of time talking about jobs -- how to create more of them and how to replace the ones being lost.

This post is by Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of the Data Group at Microsoft. Online transaction processing (OLTP) database applications have powered many enterprise user-cases in recent decades, with numerous implementations in banking, e-commerce, manufacturing and many other domains. Today, I'd like to highlight a new breed of applications that marry the latest OLTP advancements with advanced insights and machine learning. In particular, I'd like to describe how companies can predict a million events per second with the very latest algorithms, using readily available software. Take credit card transactions or loan applications, for instance.

Pricing details for Google's upcoming smart speaker, the Amazon Echo-like Google Home, may have just been leaked and they suggest that Google's speaker will be a lot cheaper than Amazon's. SEE ALSO: Google sends invite for likely Pixel smartphone launch on Oct. 4 The speaker will sell for 129 when it goes on sale later this year, according to a report in Android Police. Google Home, which the company first introduced at its I/O developer conference in May, is a speaker that also has Google Assistant built in. It can also control smart home devices, complete searches and help you manage tasks like managing your grocery list. If true, the 129 price tag would make Google's offering extremely competitive with Amazon's Echo line. Amazon's flagship Echo sells for 179.99 while the portable Amazon Tap costs 129.99 The report didn't provide specifics around availability, just that the Google was set to unveil the price at its upcoming Pixel event in October.

Mumbai: ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank, today announced the deployment of'Software Robotics' in over 200 business processes across various functions of the bank. The bank is the first in the country and among few, globally, to deploy'Software Robotics' that emulates human actions to automate and perform repetitive, high volume and time consuming business tasks cutting across multiple applications. At ICICI Bank, software robots have reduced the response time to customers by up to 60% and increased accuracy to 100% thereby sharply improving the bank's productivity and efficiency. It has also enabled the bank's employees to focus more on value-added and customer-related functions. The software robots now perform over 10 lakh banking transactions every working day.