Today, bigness means the retailer's machine learning efforts benefit from data generated by people who shop at Walmart every week and activities around the tens of millions of items on its website. "Scarcity of data is what makes artificial intelligence really hard," Mr. King told Ms. Castellanos. "If you have volumes of data like we do, you can really apply it much quicker across the board," he said. Mr. King shared his take on several technologies, some not quite ready for prime time. Overseas traders charged with hacking SEC's public filings site.

A natural reaction today may be to chalk up the sale of a smudgy-looking portrait as the latest sign that AI, no longer satisfied with taking jobs, is now moving on to creating artwork and general AI is here and don't forget Skynet, etc. But leave it to Artnet, an art market website, to provide a clear description of Generative Adversarial Networks, an AI system of algorithms and two neural networks used to generate photorealistic images. It also put artificial intelligence's potential in context for artists and business practitioners alike. "We would do better to stop asking where the boundary line lies between human artists' agency and that of AI toolsets, and instead start asking whether human artists are using AI to plumb greater conceptual and aesthetic depths than researchers or coders," Artnet writes. In art and in business, everyone would be better served if AI was treated as a tool, with benefits and risks noted.

"One problem, say roboticists, is that robots often can't'see' behind leaves or reach behind a tree branch without potentially harming themselves or the fruit they're trying to grab," they report. "Roboticists are trying to solve these problems by enhancing the quality of sensors that allow robots to understand and navigate their surroundings." "RootAI, a Somerville, Mass., startup that is testing a prototype tomato picker, has started talking to seed developers who want to design crops that are more amenable to robotic harvesters." California's Driscoll's Inc., the world's largest berry distributor, is looking at raising its growing beds, making it easier for both robots and humans to pick fruit. HSBC's robot is boosting foot traffic in New York.

The restaurant company says its use of artificial intelligence to field customer questions and send targeted messages to diners has delivered greater engagement and more orders. Fridays doubled its to-go business in the last 12 months, and has increased engagement on social media platforms by more than 500%.

For those looking to take advantage of emerging technologies coming down the pipeline, figuring out what artificial intelligence means for your business might be a good place to start. In its latest look at technologies that could drive competitive advantage, Gartner predicts about 80% of emerging tech will incorporate AI within the next two years. CIO Journal's Sara Castellanos has more. AI is becoming easier for enterprises to access via the cloud and integrate with other technologies such as edge computing, Gartner says. The use of virtual assistants and deep neural networks, which roughly try to mimic the operations of the human brain, are predicted to become mainstream within two to five years.

How certain one is in the belief that artificial intelligence is set to take over the world may depend on how close their career is positioned vis-à-vis the technology. In Brooklyn on Tuesday at a conference hosted by Ai4 Media., machine learning experts from Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley shared their perspective. CIO Journal's Sara Castellanos was there to take the view from the AI front lines. Great for detecting anomalies, but… Today, snippets of code do much of the job of a trader, as WSJ has previously reported, but when it comes to answering questions that need contextual understanding and financial acumen, AI algorithms are easily fooled, said Ambika Sukla, executive director of machine learning and AI at Morgan Stanley. "It's not clear that these models are learning or just memorizing the data," he said.

Asset managers are spending tens of millions on data science. The idea is to use lots of data and machine-learning tools in search of trading ideas and blind spots, the Journal reports. "Most of it is at an early stage, and I don't think it's matured yet," says Onur Erzan, a senior partner at consultant McKinsey & Co. "There will be new sources of data and it will help with investment decisions, but the real question is can an asset manager sustain an edge on those kinds of insights." This is how it starts. "Petter Stensland's foray into data began in late 2012 when, as a junk-bond analyst at AllianceBernstein Holding LP, he needed to analyze the prospects of the many oil-and-gas companies emerging in the nation's energy boom," the Journal says.

Artificial intelligence can't replace your doctor yet but it can help diagnose illness. Pfizer Inc. is expanding its AI-enabled analytics toolset to catch diseases that are easy to miss because they're rare or disguised by other illnesses a patient may have. The cloud-based system, called Virtual Analytics Workbench, brings together physicians notes, lab reports, demographics and other patient particulars, as CIO Journal's Sara Castellanos reports. Health care presents exciting opportunities to apply AI, but we're still far from Dr. McCoy's tricorder instant diagnostic device on Star Trek. One obstacle slowing AI's progress generally is a lack of suitable data with which to train algorithms, according to Kate Crawford, a distinguished research professor at New York University and a principal researcher at Microsoft Research New York, She spoke at the WSJ Future of Everything Festival this week.

China has made known its desire to become an AI powerhouse. Russia's Vladimir Putin last year equated AI dominance with ruling the world. On Thursday, the White House, a little late to the great game, hosted a meeting involving representatives from about 40 companies, including Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. as well as Ford Motor Co. and Walmart Inc., to discuss how the U.S. could maintain its lead in AI. The gathering followed a template for meetings of this type: Support was offered, 'atta-boys' were distributed. Still, the meeting acknowledged that AI, increasingly, has become tied to something larger.

Companies are working hard to figure out how to extract value from artificial intelligence (more on that below). Some promising early efforts can be found in sales, an activity that generates lots of usable data that lends itself to analysis. The sales team at Snowflake Computing Inc. employs an automated, AI-powered chatbot designed to engage with potential buyers by email or text. Each assistant, developed by Conversica, speaks six languages and works around the clock engaging with prospects and turning over the most advanced leads to humans, CIO Journal's Angus Loten reports. Collective (i) use AI to help sales managers assess the odds a deal will produce results.