Technology is advancing every day, and it's disrupting industries from retail to manufacturing to insurance. It has become increasingly apparent that AI, blockchain and machine learning have the power to transform the future of business and the way people work and live. These new technologies are already being applied in the insurance industry. Some insurance companies are using AI and machine learning to automate certain parts of the claims handling process and improve customer service. Blockchain is being used to detect fraud and prevent risk. As these technologies become more widespread, the insurance industry will become more efficient, accurate and secure.

As technology rapidly progresses, doomsday stories emerge just as quickly. Dissident voices, however, are trying to spread alternative messages. In the past century, increasingly efficient technology and the advancement of knowledge have addressed global challenges including global poverty, deaths from violent crime, childhood mortality, preventable diseases and human life expectancy - at a scale never seen before. For obvious reasons, such breakthroughs can be considered among humanity's greatest achievements; yet we also see how technology facilitates online disinformation, global cyberattacks and unprecedented terrorist media campaigns inspiring thousands of would-be terrorists. "Technology is a force that takes what was once scarce and makes it abundant," write Peter Diamantis and Steven Kotler in Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think.

The application of AI in sectors such as retail and healthcare is already well charted, and will continue so to be, but other areas are set to be as important, such as manufacturing. A panel session at the recent Microsoft Future Decoded conference at London's ExCel Centre gave delegates a direct chance to ask questions, seek advice and challenge some of the myths about what AI can offer manufacturing industries. It has to be said from the outset that the panellists need some acknowledgement for their courage. Normally, such sessions start with some moderator-driven questions that break them in gently with relatively'soft' questions. Not this time: it was straight in with questions from the delegates.

Examine the problem of maintaining the quality of big data and discover novel solutions. You will learn the four V's of big data, including veracity, and study the problem from various angles. The solutions discussed are drawn from diverse areas of engineering and math, including machine learning, statistics, formal methods, and the Blockchain technology. Veracity of Big Data serves as an introduction to machine learning algorithms and diverse techniques such as the Kalman filter, SPRT, CUSUM, fuzzy logic, and Blockchain, showing how they can be used to solve problems in the veracity domain. Using examples, the math behind the techniques is explained in easy-to-understand language.

The current generation of bank CEOs are used to being called in front of congressional and parliamentary committees to explain themselves, so they can empathize with the recent spate of congressional testimonies from technology companies. Unfortunately, Accenture's Banking Technology Vision 2018 indicates that if they don't take action on how they manage data, bankers may have further opportunities to take out their best suits and head to whatever their country's version of Capitol Hill is. Like almost every other sector of the economy, banking sees data as the new oil – a valuable resource the best use of which will differentiate the winners from the losers. Accenture's survey of nearly 800 bankers finds that 84% increasingly use data to drive critical and automated decision-making. When the data is sourced internally, 94% of bankers are confident in its integrity.

TECHNOLOGY is here, now, and it's changing the world around us faster than ever before. C-suite executives, manager, and executives are trying to understand what the world will look like in the near future and how to tailor their business and strategies to keep ahead of the curve. Accenture, through its new Technology Vision 2018 report, attempts to bring clarity and provide some direction to the industry. Here's what they have to say about the trends that are shaping life, society, and business: Citizen AI, extended reality, data veracity, frictionless business, and the Internet of Thinking are five new technology trends that companies can leverage to build intelligent enterprises and create new opportunities for themselves. The consulting giant insists that AI is more than a program, that it's becoming a citizen and must be'raised' responsibly – calling it Citizen AI to make it more human-like.

The Verge reported that the news around Ebola was wreaking havoc in Texas towns. It was spreading like wildfire on the social landscape and these were messages from sources that sounded like newspapers. This happened in 2014 and what followed were trails of fake news sending shock waves across the media and user world. As per The New York Times, just before the presidential elections in the US, fake news and memes became the tools for perpetrators to influence the outcome of elections. Fake news is rearing its ugly head time and time again.

The Verge reported that the news around Ebola was wreaking havoc in Texas towns. It was spreading like wildfire on the social landscape and these were messages from sources that sounded like newspapers. This happened in 2014 and what followed were trails of fake news sending shock waves across the media and user world. As per The New York Times, just before the presidential elections in the US, fake news and memes became the tools for perpetrators to influence the outcome of elections. Fake news is rearing its ugly head time and time again.

The impact of fake news on the recent election has focused public attention on this multi-tentacled and growing problem. Vast swaths of the population fall prey to such misinformation, while others struggle to discern unbiased truth from the morass of lies and distortions that surrounds us. Experts recommend that we to follow basic principles of information hygiene to separate fake from real, including checking sources, looking for bad grammar and typos, and seeking out corroborating information. And top of the list: never believe anything you read on . However, none of these techniques is particularly effective.

The impact of fake news on the recent election has focused public attention on this multi-tentacled and growing problem. Vast swaths of the population fall prey to such misinformation, while others struggle to discern unbiased truth from the morass of lies and distortions that surrounds us. Experts recommend that we to follow basic principles of information hygiene to separate fake from real, including checking sources, looking for bad grammar and typos, and seeking out corroborating information. And top of the list: never believe anything you read on . However, none of these techniques is particularly effective.