If you thought the most highly-esteemed jobs in the world are immune to the robot revolution, think again. Wimbledon's line judges – a profession that goes back 147 years – have had their'love and passion ripped away' after being dumped in favour of AI. From 2025, new AI-powered technology called electronic line calling (ELC) will be used to make close calls during matches instead. So, could your career be next in the firing line? A new study has revealed the jobs at risk of being placed by robots – including several that involve years of training and qualifications.

Artificial intelligence is driving important developments in technology, from controlling autonomous vehicles, to developing medical diagnoses, to combating climate change. The global AI market was valued at nearly $59.7 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $422.4 billion by 2028. In conjunction with the global AI market growth, the number of patents for AI technology are on an upswing, and a general survey of patents for AI technologies shows just how innovative these industries are becoming. The types and variety of patent filings for AI technologies in the fast-growing FinTech, biology and pharma, clean/green technology, and automotive industries further show that the expansion of AI advancements is inevitable, and next year should see a continuation of this trend in filings. There's also been significant cross-technology development, further driving AI's prevalence in a number of fields.

The World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) first report of a series called WIPO Technology Trends, an extensive study of patent applications and other scientific documents, offers clues to the next big thing in AI. Rather than treating'AI' as a single homogeneous discipline (see our guide to AI terminology), the WIPO report divides it into AI techniques, AI functional applications and AI application fields, offering a finer-grained analysis. AI techniques are advanced forms of statistical and mathematical models used in AI, including machine learning, logic programming, ontology engineering, probabilistic reasoning and fuzzy logic. Machine learning is included in more than one third of all identified inventions and represents 89 per cent of AI filings, the report finds. Between 2013 and 2016, filings related to deep learning rocketed by about 175 per cent.

The world's biggest consumer electronics show was held last month and wandering around the seemingly endless stalls of emerging new products, it was impossible to avoid the claims of artificial intelligence in some form or another. Some gadgets were, of course, smarter than others. From facial recognition food bowls for your pets to handheld speech recognition and language translation devices, smart tech and self-learning algorithms abound. The actual intelligence of some smart products is debatable but the trend is undeniable.Source:Supplied Encompassing terms including deep learning, machine learning, neural networks and general artificial intelligence which seeks to build computers with a capacity to think and learn like humans, it can be hard to pin down what AI truly means. But it's clearly here to stay.

China and the United States are ahead of the global competition to dominate artificial intelligence (AI), according to a study by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published on Thursday. The research found tech giant IBM had by far the biggest AI patent portfolio with 8,920 patents, ahead of Microsoft with 5,930, and a group of mainly Japanese tech conglomerates. China accounted for 17 of the top 20 academic institutions involved in patenting AI and was particularly strong in the fast-growing area of "deep learning" - a machine-learning technique that includes speech recognition systems. "The US and China obviously have stolen a lead. They're out in front in this area in terms of numbers of applications and in scientific publications," WIPO Director-General Francis Gurry told a news conference.

From the advancements in natural language processing that make Siri and Alexa possible, to the machine learning advancements that give robo-advisors their trading chops, AI's ability to simulate human thinking means it can also streamline our lives. It can preempt our needs and requests, making products and services more user friendly as machines learn our needs and figure out how to serve us better.