You'd probably notice if the car that cut you off or pulled up beside you at a light didn't have a driver. In the UK, self-driving cars are still required by law to have a safety driver at the wheel, so it is difficult to notice them. But car companies have been testing automated vehicles on UK roads at least since 2017. Self-driving cars use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to steer themselves and navigate around obstacles. This technology is being introduced in many different ways, for example in cameras that detect whether people are speeding or using mobile phones while driving.

This spring, the Los Angeles Unified School District--the second-largest public school district in the United States--introduced students and parents to a new "educational friend" named Ed. A learning platform that includes a chatbot represented by a small illustration of a smiling sun, Ed is being tested in 100 schools within the district and is accessible at all hours through a website. It can answer questions about a child's courses, grades, and attendance, and point users to optional activities. As Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho put it to me, "AI is here to stay. If you don't master it, it will master you." Carvalho says he wants to empower teachers and students to learn to use AI safely.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are rapidly changing the way things work, how, and how much we work. This is increasingly noticeable in restaurant ordering and in retail as well as in other industries. Both the retail and the hospitality industries are going to see tremendous innovation and change in the next few years. Most recently, contributing to this change, Encounter AI created Mai, the world's most advanced voice ordering assistant for retailers and restaurants that also provides accessibility for the blind. Encounter AI was founded in September 2018 when the company's CEO and co-founder Derrick Johnson decided to take his experience as a former fast-food employee and investor to create a solution that could be able to simplify ordering.