Alternative data will likely transform active investment management over the next five years, according to a white paper by Deloitte. Those firms that do not update their investment processes within that timeframe could, they argue, face strategic risks. Alternative data is a wide term that spans multiple categories. In brief, it refers to any non-traditional data (ie market price data, trade volume data) and includes online search data, trade data, satellite and weather data, consumer transaction data, geo-location data, etc. "The amount of data is growing exponentially. IDC said that there were 16.3 zettabytes of information generated in 2017 alone (one zettabyte is 1 billion terrabytes). In order to process all that information and generate meaningful signals out of these vast pools of data, you need machine learning and cognitive computing solutions," says Patrick Henry, Vice Chairman and US Investment Management Leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Brussels has called for a €20bn (£14bn) cash injection for artificial intelligence research, while pouring cold water over controversial plans to give robots human rights. The European commission wants governments and private companies to boost research and innovation spending on AI, amid rising concern that Europe is losing ground to the US and China, where most leading AI firms are based. Health, transport and agriculture are among the areas the commission would like researchers to prioritise. But the commission distanced itself from proposals to give the most advanced robots the legal status of personhood. "I don't think it will happen," Andrus Ansip, a commission vice-president in charge of digital single-market policy told journalists.