Two decades ago, social media promised to connect people with pals far and wide. Twenty years online has left us turning to AI for kinship. IRL companionship is the future. Anyone looking for a vibe check on the populace's current feelings about AI would do well to check out the walls of the New York City subway system. This fall, alongside posters for everything from dating apps to Skechers, a newcomer made its debut: Friend .

Losing someone you love can be hard. Being unable to share their presence, touch them, or talk to them again can be even harder. For years, technology has offered a way for the bereaved to stay connected to those they've lost, whether that's through photos or videos. Things can now go one step further, however, as artificial intelligence can now be used to'resurrect' the dead so you can have a conversation with them. READ NEXT: 150-year-old'time traveller' painting shows woman using an iPhone in shock discovery For just £8, you can pay to build a chatbot that mimics the behaviour of someone you've lost.

This new technology will only expand the possibilities of what entrepreneurs can do. I remember watching the iconic movie Back to the Future as a kid, marvelling over what kinds of innovations the future would bring. Would hover boards replace skateboards? Only time would tell, and technology would transform the way we live, work and play. To jump into the machine economy, as I previously noted, remaining agile is of the utmost concern for every company; 78 percent of businesses believe digital startups will pose a threat to their organization either now or in the future, and nearly half of global companies say they don't know what their industry will look like in three years.

Financial firms have generally been slow to accept artificially intelligent stock pickers. They have already invested billions collectively to bring in quantitative analysts, who do major number crunching as well as develop powerful non-AI algorithms. Some argue that there isn't a lot of easy money left on the table for AI to pick up. Even so, hedge funds are now starting to turn to AI to give them an edge. Hedge fund managers, with their high fees (typically 20 percent of profits and 2 percent off the top of whatever an investor puts in), need to have healthy returns to justify the costs.

A new microscope will use image recognition software and machine learning technology to identify and count malaria parasites in a blood smear. The EasyScan GO, announced at MEDICA, the medical industry's leading trade fair, is the result of a partnership between the Global Good Fund, a Seattle-based group funded by philanthropist Bill Gates, and Motic, a China-based company that specializes in manufacturing microscopes. Field tests have demonstrated that the machine learning algorithm is as reliable as an expert microscopist in fighting the spread of drug resistant malaria. EasyScan GO is the latest example of Global Good's partnering to bring emerging technologies to health systems in low resource settings. Based at the invention company Intellectual Ventures, Global Good is focused on developing and deploying technologies for the poorest parts of the world.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most important technology we're developing this decade. Broadly, AI is the ability of a computer to understand your question, search its vast memory banks, and give you the best, most accurate, answer. AI is the ability of a computer to process a vast amount of information for you, make decisions, and take (and/or advise you to take) appropriate action. You may know early versions of AI as Siri on your iPhone, or IBM's Watson supercomputer. Watson made headlines back in 2011 by winning Jeopardy, and now it's helping doctors treat cancer patients by processing massive amounts of clinical data and cross-referencing thousands of individual cases and medical outcomes.