Do you want to know how it feels like to drive Google’s self-driving cars? The Wall Street Journal has captured this in-action. The car that drives itself will not be available anytime soon, but this breakthrough is a signal of another technological revolution that is about to unfold with Google at the forefront of it all again.

As Google becomes more and more enthusiastic in developing their driverless cars, automakers and U.S. authorities are already identifying possible hurdles that tag along vehicle autonomy. The regulators are already working with manufacturers and designers to ensure that autonomous car can very well interact with those controlled by people.

“Automated driving, and the components of it, really is the next evolutionary step for what we see as safety technology in the passenger fleet,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland said yesterday at an automated- vehicles forum in Washington sponsored by Volvo Cars. “We have to make sure the technology is reliable.”

Google would also like to get the message across that the fundamentals of the driverless cars are not to completely eradicate driving, but to help those who are incapable of driving and increase of productivity while driving. This was supported by the statement of Google’s self-driving car technology leader, Chris Urmson:

“Our view is that in the future, this is never something that takes away your ability to drive,” he said. “If we keep talking about it as taking away driving, we’re missing the point.”

The search engine giant is not the only big name that has been openly doing researches on the artificial intelligence technology. IBM is also pushing forward with Watson, the trivia master.

Dr. Watson

The Big Blue is also progressing to further enhance their AI flag-carrier, Watson. Following the sensation annihilation of Jeopardy champions last year, the supercomputer with supercomputing powers is being seen as the redeemer of healthcare in the United States. Several doctors and medical experts are actually hopeful that Watson could be a tool to help decrease medical malpractices and accidental mistakes that can cause fatality. This is because with machine, judgment is universal. There is no “human” factor which sometimes arbitrarily messes up the verdict. Watson for medicine seemed promising.

“It’s not humanly possible to practice the best possible medicine. We need machines,” said Herbert Chase, a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University and member of IBM’s Watson Healthcare Advisory Board. “A machine like that, with massively parallel processing, is like 500,000 of me sitting at Google and Pubmed, trying to find the right information.”

But there are some who do not completely buy the idea. Entrusting lives to machines is no joke. And perhaps, this is also a blow to the pride that has been earned through tumultuous years of studying medicine. Mark Graber a former chief of the Veterans Administration hospital in Northport, New York said that doctors have enough knowledge—something that he does not see as the problem.

As for IBM, with or without debates, they are moving towards the development of Watson in the health care direction.  It recently sealed partnership agreements with WellPoint and the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Soon, we will be seeing Watson in hospitals and might be the one dictating the diagnosis and prescribing medicine.

India Challenges China with AI

China is a powerhouse in terms of manufacturing. Its workforce market is so huge, the labor price is relatively and significantly low compared to other countries. This is why investors and big brands go to this country to replicate their goods. Inevitably, China becomes dominant. But a capable antagonist is fast-rising to challenge the most populated nation in the world. India is taking the battle to the technological war zone. They are tapping artificial intelligence and IT services. The second most populous country in the world is also the global leader in IT outsourcing. With the age of robotics and nanotechnology, experts are foreseeing a time when it is no longer practical to hire China’s labor force.