The smart machines are on the march, are CIOs ready?

Drones and robots and mini Robocops, oh my! Leading off this week’s Searchlight: smart machines are having a moment and it’s only the beginning. Amazon and it’s delivery drone announcement, Google’s no-longer-secret robot labs, a crime deterring R2D2 all jockeyed for attention this week. And depending on your point of view it’s all very cool or all kinda scary. Sure these tech innovations are neat and could make life a lot easier. But what’s the price?

We’ve all been impressed by how smart a smart machine can be. We’ve seen Watson put the smack down on Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings. We appreciate, for the most part, that machines and drones carry out dangerous military actions in place of humans. But it’s worth debating long and hard whether they’re something we should strive to make an integral part of our economy.  One thing is for sure, CIOs need to get in on the technology and the conversation now. Also in the Searchlight: Apple pays a big price to get social, hackers steal and expose more than 2 million passwords, why coding shouldn’t be for everyone and more!