A musician in the US has been accused of using artificial intelligence (AI) tools and thousands of bots to fraudulently stream songs billions of times in order to claim millions of dollars of royalties. Michael Smith, of North Carolina, has been charged with three counts of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges. Prosecutors say it is the first criminal case of its kind they have handled. "Through his brazen fraud scheme, Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed," said US attorney Damian Williams. According to an unsealed indictment detailing the charges, the 52-year-old used hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to manipulate streams.

We see it everywhere, in B2C, B2B space, on personal blogs and portals. Conversational chatbots, known as Artificial Conversational Entities among many of their names, are the future of customer support and a way for companies to stay on the bleeding edge of innovation. As said in this Forbes' article by some of the top chatbot experts in the field, chatbots have revolutionized the customer service space: instantaneous, personalized customer response that not only meets customer expectations but also saves hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. For many businesses, embracing this approach towards conversational UI as a way to engage with their customers might seem scary, perhaps inapplicable, too complicated to work with or even start with. The reality is different, especially when we look at their different types.

About a year ago, at a big testing gathering, five professionals sat in front of around 300 testers and confidently announced that robotics and artificial intelligence will take over the world of software testing. I think that development of artificial intelligence in computers won't really wipe out testing jobs -- but it will change how the function completes. Mobile applications have been leading today's world of innovation up until now. Today, though, we're seeing the use of robotics and artificial intelligence take over -- particularly when it comes to software testing. That being said, there are legitimate reasons to make robotics and artificial intelligence easy to use, cost-proficient, and time-productive.

Artificial intelligence is affecting all sorts of industries, and accounting is no exception. Some accounting practices are starting to implement such advanced technology to streamline their operations. The general outcome that they are perceiving is saving time, reducing costs, increasing productivity and providing better accuracy. This means this is hardly a trend that will fade anytime soon, so it's better to catch up with it now rather than later. Different from the times when cloud technology was unknown territory for most accounting professionals, the industry players are now fully adapted to implementing new tech into their routines, and the adoption of AI is happening at a much faster pace.

This year has seen both artificial intelligence (AI) along with bots dominate tech news based on the advancements that have been taking place in both areas. We're just beginning to see the possibilities and implications that both of these technologies will bring in our near futures. People have been contemplating ways to leverage these technologies for creating a presence for people that have died long before they began dominating the news. Several years ago I discovered Lifenaut and found myself intrigued and imagining a future where a digital version of myself would exist long after I died. The service allows you to upload documents, photos, videos, additional data as well as connect to your social accounts.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here. At least that's what our news feeds and blogs tell us. And we all find it incredible that we can now create technology that learns how we interact with one another and then in turn, can talk back to us in our very likeness. It's also incredible that every time we set one of these bots live on social media it turns into a bigoted, racist maniac and we end up pulling its plug lest we offend anyone. If you look around, you hear people laughing with each other that one day all our jobs will be taken by machines and technology.

"People want to feel heard and seen – and today's customer service very frequently does the exact opposite of that" – Dr. Justine Cassell, Carnegie Mellon University LivePerson and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) recently hosted over 100 customer care executives from globally leading brands for the Bots and AI conference in Pittsburgh. I had the great opportunity to attend as part of the IBM team. The idea at the heart of the Bots and AI conference is that bots and human agents can help customer service be more successful. Chatbots can build rapport with people and answer simple queries effectively. When a more complex interaction is necessary, chatbots can hand off to a live agent, and the agent can pass back to a chatbot to complete a transaction.

While his feet may have been in Sydney, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's head was firmly in the clouds. In Australia for a Microsoft Developers conference, Nadella laid out his main theories for the digital future: Mobile-first and cloud-first. SEE ALSO: Inside Microsoft's plan to bring 3D to everyone "We have a distinctive point of view when we say'mobile first,'" he said. "That's what the cloud enables." With echoes of Mark Zuckerberg's bot evangelism at April's F8, and Nadella's own remarks at the Microsoft's annual developers conference in March, it was a bot-heavy message sent Wednesday.

There is increasing speculation that customer service and possibly whole marketing functions could be replaced with bots. Artificial intelligence is already used in the insurance quotation process to assist consumers in tailoring their policy. On top of that, blockchain (essentially a tamper-proof way to store and share personal data) could fundamentally change how customer relationships are managed. For example, imagine if a lifetime of driving data was held as a blockchain to demonstrate a driver's risk, superseding the quotation process altogether: it could help beat fraud and change the face of the insurance industry. It is obvious to see how bots and AI could make life much easier for consumers by eliminating the mundane and facilitating enjoyment and fulfilment.

Chat applications are becoming a mainstream trend and our preferred way of interacting with colleagues, friends and family. From the early days of SMS to the favorite snaps of our children, real-time online conversations are everywhere and here to stay. The acquisition of WhatAapp by Facebook in 2014 for a hefty $22 Billion price tag made it clear and promising as TechCrunch noticed it one year later. But although TechCrunch saw messaging apps as the future of mobile portal, they remained more or less next to the Internet, without a direct impact, except their increasing audience. The recent surge of interest in Bots and AI is changing the game and we'll be witnessing the second major fragmentation of the Internet.