As a woman who talks about video games on television, radio and elsewhere for a living, I'm often asked how I got into games, and I reply – truthfully – that I have been playing them my whole life. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family that owned every major game console. But when I reached adolescence, something (besides the obvious) changed. My varied video game diet narrowed dramatically. I skipped the entire console generation that included the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox in favour of my bedroom PC and two worlds it allowed me to access: The Sims and Neopets.

In the summer of 1995, a second-year grad student called Sergey Brin was giving a tour of Stanford University to prospective students. Larry Page, an engineering graduate from the University of Michigan, was one of those being shown around the Palo Alto, California campus. "I thought he was pretty obnoxious," Larry Page said of the encounter. "He had really strong opinions about things, and I guess I did, too." "We both found each other obnoxious," said Sergey Brin.

Artificial intelligence achieved prominence in 2017 as companies looked to automate how they derive value from data. Following years focused on collecting data, where Hadoop and big data management dominated the conversation, organizations are now turning their attention to machine learning and other forms of AI to better extract meaning for that data and to open up new business models, products, and services. For perspective, 451 Research expects the total data market to reach nearly $140 billion in 2021. Couple that with a rapid rise in job creation for AI skills and you have the telltale signs of big opportunities. Recently, the AI Index report from Stanford noted that the share of jobs requiring AI skills in the U.S. has grown four and a half times since 2013. To put data to use with a focus on AI, organizations should recognize that organizational change is as important as technological change.

The oft-foretold reunification of CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. may be moving closer to reality. National Amusements Inc., the theater chain operator and investment vehicle of media mogul Sumner Redstone, is preparing to call on the two companies to consider merging, two people close to the matter said Wednesday. National Amusements, which controls 80% of the voting shares of Viacom and CBS, is preparing a letter to send to the two companies' boards this week, according to the two people, who declined to be named because the proposal is private. Analysts have long expected the Redstone family to try to put CBS and Viacom back together again. Since the two media giants split in 2006, CBS and Viacom have followed starkly different trajectories, with CBS building a broadcast ratings juggernaut while Viacom's stock fell sharply.

Gone are the days when children being out past dark was a parent's worst fear; now they have to worry about smart toys tracking their child's every move. After a two-year probe, Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro and JumpStart have been ordered to pay 835,000 in fines for tracking and collecting personal data of children online. All four companies allowed tracking technology on their websites, which violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that limits marketing to children under 13. Gone are the days when their children being out past dark was a parent's worst fear, now they have to worry about Barbie tracking their child's every move. Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro and JumpStart were found to have tracking technology on popular children websites.