Tech moguls declare era of artificial intelligence

Tesla CEO Elon Musk reckons humans will need to implant "neural laces" in their brains to keep up with AI advancement. While Musk's description of an injectable human-computer link may sound like science fiction, top tech executives repeatedly said artificial intelligence (AI) was on the verge of changing everyday life, during discussion at a conference by online publication Recode this week. It is no secret that tech companies are diving into AI analytics research, an industry that will grow to 70 billion by 2020 from just 8.2 billion in 2013, according to a Bank of America report citing IDC research. AI, which combs through large troves of raw data to predict outcomes and recognise patterns, is already used in Web search systems, marketing recommendation functions, and security and financial trading programs. The technology will spread to driverless cars and service robots in the future, the Bank of America report said.