Visit our ETF Hub for investor news and education, market updates and analysis and easy-to-use tools to help you select the right ETFs. Robotics-focused exchange traded funds have seen "massive" outflows in recent weeks as one of the hottest trends of the past six months threatens to implode. The sharp reversal is starkest in Europe, where robotics and automation-themed ETFs chalked up inflows of $753m between September 2020 and February, according to data from Global X, a New York-based ETF manager. However, a record $506m of this money was pulled out of the market in March alone, cutting assets 8.5 per cent to $5.4bn. The US robotics segment also witnessed "significant" outflows of $363m, pulling sector-wide ETF assets down 6.1 per cent to $8.9bn, according to Global X.

One of the biggest challenges in making AI projects a success is dealing with the requirements for data needed by machine learning systems. Machine learning systems work by generalizing learnings from data, so if that data is insufficient in quantity or poor in quality, then the machine learning project will fail. Nothing is more true for artificial intelligence than the tech adage, "garbage in is garbage out". Shariq Ahmad, head of technology in the data collection group at financial services data firm Morningstar knows this very well. As part of his role at Morningstar, he is responsible for building a pipeline and methodology for dealing with large quantities of data in a wide variety of formats, qualities, and levels of completeness and accuracy to support big data projects, including those that support their machine learning efforts.

Anyone with an Amazon Web Services account can participate in the league. Teams or individuals can compete online in "virtual" races or in person at events world-wide. Teams build and train AI algorithms using Amazon SageMaker software, deploy them to self-driving cars measuring about 10 inches, then race them around a track of roughly 17 feet by 26 feet. "It's actually having practical applications," said James Rhodes, chief technology officer of investment research firm Morningstar. Thanks to the training, the company expects to have dozens of projects based on reinforcement learning and other machine-learning techniques in deployment by the end of 2020, he said.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC.

Pop into Morningstar's Chicago headquarters and you might see something unexpected: A group of employees cheering on what appears to be a remote-controlled toy car racing around a track. Morningstar, one of the world's biggest investment-research companies, is turning to machine-learning-guided cars to learn about ways to better pull and analyze data. Amazon Web Services has been using the DeepRacer cars to introduce clients on its public-cloud services to machine-learning technology. Wall Street firms, meanwhile, are talking more about wading into the public cloud and uses for artificial intelligence. James Rhodes, Morningstar's chief technology officer, said he was introduced to the AWS DeepRacer when employees asked if they could spend their training stipends on the cars.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC.

I'm Emma Wall and I'm joined today by Jeremy White to talk about Artificial Intelligence. Wall: Just a bit of buzz word at the moment AI, but what does it actually mean? It actually means many different things and people use it as a catch-hold to try and workout what they are talking about really, because it includes machine learning and it includes narrow AI, and broader AI. So, most people have encountered narrow AI what they consider to be with these chat box that you talk on your phone and you think you're having an conversation with somebody but you're not. It's almost like a decision pre-process you can very easily fool them.

But tech shares were hit the hardest, dragging down the broader market in the final hour of trading. A series of recent developments pointed to more government oversight of the industry. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is planning to testify before Congress about the social-media company's privacy and data-use standards, according to people familiar with the matter. The company's shares fell 4.9% on Tuesday and are down 15% this month over concerns about its handling of user data, on track for its worst monthly decline since 2012. The Federal Trade Commission, in a statement Monday, signaled that it is conducting a broad probe of Facebook, while 37 state attorneys general are also demanding explanations for its practices.

There's a heated debate among the tech elite about whether artificial intelligence will destroy or enhance human life. Tesla founder Elon Musk has been sounding the alarms over AI for months, saying in September that AI will be the cause for World War III. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, counters that AI will be a benefit to the world. Bryan Borzykowski is a Toronto-based business and investments writer. He's contributed to the New York Times, CNBC, BBC Capital, CNNMoney and several other publications.