The UK has been at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, from Alan Turing, the pioneering mathematician and computer visionary, who launched the field, to DeepMind's AlphaGo, the first computer program to defeat a professional Go player in 2015. Several pioneering AI companies were founded in the UK, including DeepMind, SwiftKey and Magic Pony, all of which were acquired by US companies – Google, Microsoft and Twitter – for $500 million, $250 million and $150 million, respectively. Over the last few years, the UK government has launched its Office for AI and Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. But is the UK still an AI leader? In 2019, McKinsey Global Institute placed the UK in the top quartile for "AI readiness".

LAST WEEK The INQUIRER travelled to CERN in Switzerland to see the Large Hadron Collider and learn more about the IT that makes particle physics tick. In the first of our reports from the legendary laboratory we talk to professor Michael Feindt, former CERN researcher and founder of Blue Yonder, the predictive analytics software that spun out of CERN and that still powers some of its work. Predictive analytics is a form of machine learning. Professor Feindt's work uses neural networks, a term that conjures up images of the type of domesticated synthetic intelligences that have been such a hit for Channel 4 with its sci-fi drama Humans. However, although machine learning is advancing, it's a long way from the artificial intelligence (AI) we imagine.

"I'm a nerd!" Jana Eggers tells us in a tone that suggests she is very much at ease with the description. Realistically, this airy room in the Berlin offices of the state of Baden-Württemberg, where a major conference on artificial intelligence (AI) took place on Wednesday and Thursday, is probably full of self-confessed nerds unlikely to be too upset by the moniker. Considering the tasks many of them have taken on in their professional lives -- the understanding and developing of artificial intelligence systems -- that brain power is needed. In effect, they are trying to build tech that mirrors the functioning of that most remarkable of natural organs, the human brain. Read more: Teachers for AI -- can robots create more jobs than they retire?

A monolith modelled on the Tower of Babel casts a long shadow over the dystopian city in Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Like much of the film, it stands as a warning against hubris: it is possible to be too clever for your own good. In 1927, the big idea for the future was robots causing havoc among the toiling classes. Since then, the prophecies have darkened still. In the'fourth industrial revolution', they say, automation will eliminate the need for human workers altogether, triggering an employment Armageddon. It's tempting to imagine this will involve hoards of terrifying, chrome-finished androids with Austrian accents, but the future's coming out of Silicon Valley, not Hollywood. Most likely, the machine that will take your job won't be a Terminator, but an algorithm.

Entrepreneurs need little convincing that technology is important, rapidly evolving, and likely to have a profound impact on their businesses. But keeping track of developments, and knowing where to focus one's attention, is anything but straightforward. Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (pdf) say the impact of constant technological breakthroughs represent a "megatrend" – a change so big that "every business should develop an emerging technology strategy". They have highlighted eight key areas that all businesses should pay attention to. The artificial intelligence market is growing rapidly and forecast to be worth $36bn by 2025.

Entrepreneurs need little convincing that technology is important, rapidly evolving, and likely to have a profound impact on their businesses. But keeping track of developments, and knowing where to focus one's attention, is anything but straightforward. Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (pdf) say the impact of constant technological breakthroughs represent a "megatrend" – a change so big that "every business should develop an emerging technology strategy". They have highlighted eight key areas that all businesses should pay attention to. The artificial intelligence market is growing rapidly and forecast to be worth 36bn by 2025.

Entrepreneurs need little convincing that technology is important, rapidly evolving, and likely to have a profound impact on their businesses. But keeping track of developments, and knowing where to focus one's attention, is anything but straightforward. Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (pdf) say the impact of constant technological breakthroughs represent a "megatrend" – a change so big that "every business should develop an emerging technology strategy". They have highlighted eight key areas that all businesses should pay attention to. The artificial intelligence market is growing rapidly and forecast to be worth 36bn by 2025.

Ask any soccer fan who will win the Euro 2016 championship and every one of them will have an opinion, fueled by a combination of patriotism, passion and hope. It's safe to say none of them will offer an opinion based on the results of more than 36,000 soccer matches held during the past 146 years and an analysis of 94 billion outcomes. That's what researcher Michael Feindt, a particle physicist who worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) for six years, has done. At CERN, Feindt created an algorithm to predict collisons of particles inside the Large Hadron Collider. Now he's CEO of Blue Yonder, a startup looking to commercialize the technology in retail, logistics, manufacturing and transportation, a process he describes as finding the "the possibilities of probable futures."