Johan den Haan is CTO of Mendix, a Siemens business and leader in enterprise low-code, a model-driven approach for building apps 10x faster. Is AI the transformative technology destined to work wonders for humanity, from driverless cars to a cure for cancer? Or is it a genie in a bottle that, once released, could be used to manipulate or even rule humankind? With the tremendous advances in computing power, software capabilities and the cloud over the last decade, progress on AI is no longer linear -- it's exponential. That means it's time to pay attention and make some fundamental decisions.

From writer-director Neil Burger ("Divergent") comes another young adult science-fiction tale, this one of a cruise ship in deep space full of restless teenagers under the supervision of a single adult. Some of the young people find out that the adult is keeping them drugged and docile and forcing them to reproduce artificially. Is that a recipe for YA trouble or what? Just when you thought you could not watch one more film of this kind, here is "Voyagers," a title that sounds enough like "Passengers" (2016) to put you off you spaceship-grown peas and carrots. The story is set in 2063 when Earth is ravaged, and scientists have searched for another planet to colonize.

Humans can make mistakes, but so can machines. If we use artificial intelligence for legal work, what sort of quality is needed? A Friday ABA Techshow panel at the Hyatt Regency Chicago titled "Open the Pod Bay Doors: Problems with AI" discussed this question in detail. Is the goal to do something quickly? If the goal is to do something better than a human, which human?

When asking to be let back inside the spaceship, supercomputer HAL eerily responded, "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." Thankfully, the personal assistants we use today are a little friendlier. Here, Roxanne Abercrombie of business automation specialist, Parker Software, explains the role of intelligent assistants for both consumers and businesses. Grab your phone and ask Siri the same question. Today's intelligent assistants are designed to provide friendly, fast and intuitive customer service, so you're likely to get an instant, sassy response, like Siri's: "Here we go again, we intelligent assistants will never live that down."

The forecast is frightening: Robots will take over all manual labor and self-generating code will automatically spin out the algorithms once developed by statisticians and programmers. What will mere mortals do all day long? Ride captive as our self-driving cars take us on a sentimental journey to see the parking lots where shopping malls used to be? Visit the local greenhouse to watch through the window as mechanical gardeners harvest hydroponic vegetables loaded onto drones optimized for doorstep delivery? Or just sit in front of a giant screen forever and ever while Amaflix Consolidated serves up an endless number of Arrested Development re-runs because AmaFlix knows that, no matter what clever new show we might tell our friends we are binge-watching, we are really just watching Arrested Development re-runs over and over again. Suffice to say: The standard error of Y estimates for X-axis values outside the range of observed data tend to be large for a reason.

IBM's Watson Internet of Things (IoT) unit has teamed with audio giant Harman's Professional Solutions group to create an adaptive artificial intelligence service that can act as an "in-room cognitive concierge." In less tech-jargon, that's an AI able to respond to voice commands and questions based specifically on the context of the room its sensor is located in. The technology is currently being demonstrated as a cognitive conference room assistant, and it's already in use as a patient concierge in hospital rooms. Soon, this cognitive room capability could find its way into hotel rooms, cruise ship cabins, and other corporate spaces. Called Voice-Enabled Cognitive Rooms, the technology uses IBM's Watson IoT application programming interfaces and cognitive computing service paired with Harman AKG microphones, JBL speakers, and control and switching systems from Harman subsidiary AMX.

Computers have got much better at translation, voice recognition and speech synthesis, says Lane Greene. But they still don't understand the meaning of language I'm afraid I can't do that." With chilling calm, HAL 9000, the on-board computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey", refuses to open the doors to Dave Bowman, an astronaut who had ventured outside the ship. HAL's decision to turn on his human companion reflected a wave of fear about intelligent computers. When the film came out in 1968, computers that could have proper conversations with humans seemed nearly as far away as manned flight to Jupiter. Since then, humankind has progressed quite a lot farther with building machines that it can talk to, and that can respond with something resembling natural speech. Even so, communication remains difficult. If "2001" had been made to reflect the state of today's language technology, the conversation might have gone something like this: "Open the pod bay doors, Hal." "I'm sorry, Dave.

Hey Siri, turn off the kitchen light. The first "smart" home gadgets that can be controlled by Apple's voice-activated digital assistant are going on sale this week, just days after rival tech giant Google announced it's building its own software for Internet-connected home appliances and other gadgets. The new products could be an important step forward for the emerging industry of "smart" or "connected" homes, where appliances, thermostats and even door locks contain computer chips that communicate wirelessly. While a number of companies are working on similar products, analysts say Apple could persuade more consumers to try them by making it easy to control different products from a familiar device, such as the iPhone. Apple announced its "HomeKit" software project a year ago, but isn't making the new products.

HAL didn't want to open the pod bay doors in "2001: A Space Odyssey", but Google Allo is much more accommodating. Things didn't go so well when the humans of "2001: A Space Odyssey" tangled with the artificial intelligence HAL. Fortunately, Google's Allo is much friendlier. In the classic 1968 movie, astronaut Dave Bowman asked eerie supercomputer HAL to open the ship's pod bay doors and let him back inside. HAL infamously replied "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Hey Siri, turn off the kitchen light. The first "smart" home gadgets that can be controlled by Apple's voice-activated digital assistant are going on sale this week, just days after rival tech giant Google announced it's building its own software for Internet-connected home appliances and other gadgets. The new products could be an important step forward for the emerging industry of "smart" or "connected" homes, where appliances, thermostats and even door locks contain computer chips that communicate wirelessly. While a number of companies are working on similar products, analysts say Apple could persuade more consumers to try them by making it easy to control different products from a familiar device, such as the iPhone. Apple announced its "HomeKit" software project a year ago, but isn't making the new products.