The book The Driver in the Driverless Car by Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever explores how technology is changing faster and faster, and what impact that can have on the future of our society. It aims to help anyone - technical or non-technical - frame decisions and thinking about rapidly developing technologies. Salkever and Wadhwa cover a wide variety of such technologies, including robotics, AI, quantum computing, and driverless cars. InfoQ interviewed Wadhwa and Salkever about how the future from a technological point of view can look, how to approach technology in a positive way, what tasks robots are able to do or not do and what the future will bring, the benefits that self-driving cars bring and the challenges developing them, what developments are causing energy to become cheaper and cleaner, and what becomes possible with quantum computing. InfoQ: What made you decide to write this book?

Machine-learning and artificial intelligence algorithms used in sophisticated applications such as for autonomous cars are not foolproof and can be easily manipulated by introducing errors, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) researchers have warned. Machine-learning and AI software are trained with initial sets of data such as images of cats and it learns to identify feline images as more such data are fed. A common example is Google throwing up better results as more people search for the same information. Use of AI applications is becoming mainstream in areas such as healthcare, payments processing, deploying drones to monitor crowds, and for facial recognition in offices and airports. "If your data input is not clear and vetted, the AI machine could throw up surprising results and that could end up being hazardous. In autonomous driving, the AI engine should be trained properly on all road signs. If the input sign is different, then it could change the course of the vehicle, leading to a catastrophe," R Venkatesha Babu, Associate Professor at IISc's Department of Computational Sciences, told ET. "The system also needs to have enough cyber security measures to prevent hackers from intruding and altering inputs," he said.

On Tuesday, NVIDIA unveiled the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) computer designed to drive fully autonomous vehicles by mid-2018. The new system, named Pegasus, extends the NVIDIA Drive PX AI computing platform to operate vehicles with Level 5 autonomy--without steering wheels, pedals, or mirrors. Pegasus delivers more than 320 trillion operations per second, or more than 10x the performance of its predecessor, according to NVIDIA. Some 25 partners are currently developing fully autonomous taxis using the NVIDIA technology, according to a press release. These vehicles could arrive on demand to safely drive passengers to their destinations, bringing mobility to more people and allowing professionals to get work done while commuting.

Washington (AFP) - Are robots coming for your job? Although technology has long affected the labor force, recent advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations, including highly skilled or "knowledge-based" jobs. Just a few examples: self-driving technology may eliminate the need for taxi, Uber and truck drivers, algorithms are playing a growing role in journalism, robots are informing consumers as mall greeters, and medicine is adapting robotic surgery and artificial intelligence to detect cancer and heart conditions. Of 700 occupations in the United States, 47 percent are at "high risk" from automation, an Oxford University study concluded in 2013. A McKinsey study released this year offered a similar view, saying "about half" of activities in the world's workforce "could potentially be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technologies."

One of the more resounding aspects of president-elect Donald Trump's campaign platform was his vow of job creation -- or job restoration -- by bringing back jobs that American companies have shipped overseas. In his column for The Washington Post, renowned expert Vivek Wadhwa explains why he thinks Trump will have a difficult time implementing his plans in the face of the expected shift toward automation. "[A]dvancements in technology and how they reshape our economy may also keep him from delivering on some of the major promises that made him so popular during the campaign season," writes Wadhwa, who's a fellow at Stanford University's Rock Center for Corporate Governance, director of research for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke, and a distinguished fellow at the Singularity University. This isn't because artificial intelligence (AI) is out to get Trump (or us). It's just that technology's been on a course toward automation, and no one can change that. The trends all point towards a future of job automation, Wadhwa explains in the article.

Vivek Wadhwa has been named to the Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering faculty as a distinguished fellow on its Silicon Valley campus, the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based university recently announced. In his role, Wadhwa will be teaching classes in exponential technologies, technology convergence and industry disruption, and the new rules of innovation. He will also be researching technologies and helping members of the Pittsburgh faculty connect with the Silicon Valley. "CMU is doing some of the most advanced research in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, autonomous cars and almost every field of engineering and bioengineering," Wadhwa said in an emailed statement. "This will provide me direct access to the amazing faculty and enable me to help them make a much greater impact on the world."

Much of today's technology reporting is focused on the potential threats posed by developments. Dangers are seen in everything from robots to flying drones and two-wheeled "hoverboards". Physicist Stephen Hawking has even warned that full artificial intelligence "could spell the end of the human race". Such concerns are not new, according to Carl Benedikt Frey, co-director of the Oxford Martin programme on technology and employment at Oxford university. "Fears about technology, and certainly fears that technology will destroy our jobs, have been with us for as long as jobs have existed," he says.