The endless possibilities and concerns about future technologies are staggering. Some suggest that through AI's enhanced productivity we will get to a point that humans will be free from working monotonous jobs. In return, we may find ourselves receiving stipends from the work that our robot counterparts are performing. Others fear that our robotic workforce will work their way up the corporate ladder and push us out to pasture long before were ready to leave. No one really knows what the future holds, but one country has an interesting perspective on artificial intelligence and how it will be harnessed to serve its citizens.

Six teenage members of a robotics team from Burundi, Africa -- who went missing last week after a competition in Washington, D.C. -- may have planned their disappearance, their coach said Monday. Burundi Police confirmed at least two of the missing teenagers were in Canada, and the remaining four were not in danger. Esperence Niyonzima, the director of Iteletique, the school which sent two of the teens said the students probably left the East African nation to get a better life, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Niyonzima mentioned that many Burundians, even those who travel outside for official or government assignments, remain in western countries. Read: What Happened To Burundi Robotics Team?

Summary: A great story about an AI-powered massive on-line open learning platform focused on STEM education. The platform and its content is to be available across many languages to serve students anywhere in preparing for a better life in STEM careers. If you're from the US you're probably feeling some angst as our K-12 students seem to slip further and further back on STEM studies. Imagine how bad it is in the lesser developed countries where shortages of STEM teachers and basic tech resources make it almost impossible for young people to prepare for a better life through a tech career. Worse still, UNESCO says there are 100 million young people around the world who do not attend school at all.

I'm always amazed at people who tell me they would never trust a driverless car to take them somewhere but then happily get into a car driven by their teenager. Talk about preferring the devil you know. Driverless vehicles are likely to be much safer than those driven by humans. The safety differential is so large that insurance companies are already looking at alternative business models to make up for the fact that premiums will likely plummet once robots are driving us everywhere. The barriers to our transition to driverless vehicles, and to other forms of robot intervention into our daily lives, then, are not just technical but social, political and psychological.

Summary: A great story about an AI-powered massive on-line open learning platform focused on STEM education. The platform and its content is to be available across many languages to serve students anywhere in preparing for a better life in STEM careers. If you're from the US you're probably feeling some angst as our K-12 students seem to slip further and further back on STEM studies. Imagine how bad it is in the lesser developed countries where shortages of STEM teachers and basic tech resources make it almost impossible for young people to prepare for a better life through a tech career. Worse still, UNESCO says there are 100 million young people around the world who do not attend school at all.

With Alexa and Google Assistant are gunning for control over the general voice-driven experience with technology, that might open doors for some more targeted verticals that are centered around voice. It's not an unheard of strategy -- building services and tools around specific experiences rather than trying to do it all at once has been an effective approach for many startups in Silicon Valley. Those services can even try to slot into larger platforms like an Alexa or a Google Assistant. And in the case of Hello, the makers of a sleep-tracking orb called Sense, that's what they're hoping to do with by launching new version of the device that enables voice control. "As a company we're trying to get rid of intrusive tech from your life -- how do you have more tech like Sense that blends in and disappears," Proud said.