In this episode, our interviewer Audrow Nash speaks to Gil Weinberg, Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Music and the founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. Weinberg leads a research lab called the Robotic Musicianship group, which focuses on developing artificial creativity and musical expression for robots and on augmented humans. Weinberg discusses several of his improvisational robots and how they work, including Shimon, a multi-armed robot marimba player, as well as his work in prosthetic devices for musicians. Below is a video that includes Shimon on marimba, Jason Barnes playing drums with a prostetic, and Prof. Gil Weinberg on bass guitar. Gil Weinberg is a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Music and the founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, where he leads the Robotic Musicianship group.

Over the next decade, innovative technologies such as edge computing, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality and Internet of things will combine to create deeply connected relationships between people and computers, resulting in fully augmented human beings. This is according to the Future of Connected Living report commissioned by Dell Technologies and conducted by Vanson Bourne. The research firm surveyed 4 600 director- to C-suite-level business leaders across four countries, including SA, to uncover their views on the impact of emerging technologies. The research found the gap between human and machines is shrinking, presenting a new era of human-machine alliances on the horizon. Over the next decade, it says, everything around us will become more intelligent, communicative and connected, with new kinds of networks, devices, interfaces and AI expected to help people augment, enhance and optimise their personal lives and working environment.

Given the amount of criticism IoT security faces, should embedded tech really be a reality? With the rise of the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, many unique innovations have been unveiled across various industries and the field just keeps growing. The two industries may be in their infancy but they've already helped with the creation of a new category called Artificial Sensors. At the annual SAS Global Forum, Artist and Cyborg activist Neil Harbisson delivered a keynote discussing his Cyborg project which has enabled him to develop artificial sensors that are embedded into the human body to transmit senses. This began with himself in 2003, when Harbisson became the first person to have an antenna implanted to his skull.

In the future, people - certain people - may be able to download information directly into a device embedded in their skull and linked to their brain. These people will also be capable of improved physical performance, courtesy of pods embedded in their bodies and controlled by a link to the brain that can release chemicals or hormones to enable performance of all kinds of tasks, even in extreme conditions. That's what awaits us as biology and technology blend together, says business software developer MYOB Group in its latest Future of Business report entitled, appropriately, 'The Augmented Human'. MYOB chief technical officer and futurist Simon Raik-Allen says technology will move from mobile, wearable technological devices such as Fitbits to tiny embeddable devices that can provide real-time data or move parts of the body. Artificial intelligence (AI) will enable people to enhance their brain or personality.