Artificial intelligence, robots, and automation are rising in importance in many areas. As noted in the recent book, "The Future of Work: Robots, AI, and Automation," there are exciting advances in finance, transportation, national defense, smart cities, and health care, among other areas. Businesses are developing solutions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations and using these tools to improve the way their firms function. Yet there also are concerns about the impact of these developments on jobs and personal privacy. A Pew Research Center national survey revealed considerable unease about emerging trends.

Artificial intelligence, robots, and automation are rising in importance in many areas. As noted in the recent book, " The Future of Work: Robots, AI, and …

Using data drawn from queries entered into Google, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines, scientists at Microsoft, Stanford and Columbia University have for the first time been able to detect evidence of unreported prescription drug side effects before they were found by the Food and Drug Administration's warning system. Using automated software tools to examine queries by six million Internet users taken from Web search logs in 2010, the researchers looked for searches relating to an antidepressant, paroxetine, and a cholesterol lowering drug, pravastatin. They were able to find evidence that the combination of the two drugs caused high blood sugar. The study, which was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association on Wednesday, is based on data-mining techniques similar to those employed by services like Google Flu Trends, which has been used to give early warning of the prevalence of the sickness to the public. The F.D.A. asks physicians to report side effects through a system known as the Adverse Event Reporting System.