nexxworks’ Best of the Web - week July 17 to 23

Mobile Payments Are Completely Replacing Cash in One of the World’s Largest Nations

KARLA LANT - FUTURISM

China's urban centers are rapidly becoming cash-free zones as digital payment methods take over. This cashless revolution is part of the "green finance" program in some areas, and it is saving the country money and resources.

Give robots an 'ethical black box' to track and explain decisions, say scientists

IAN SAMPLE - THE GUARDIAN 

As robots start to enter public spaces and work alongside humans, the need for safety measures has become more pressing. Robots should be fitted with an “ethical black box” to keep track of their decisions and enable them to explain their actions when accidents happen, researchers say.

Are AI And Machine Learning Killing Analytics As We Know It?

JOERG KOESTERS - DIGITALIST MAGAZINE 

AI and machine learning can help scale the repetitive analytics tasks required to drive leverage of the available data. When deployed on a companywide, real-time analytics platform, they can become the single source of truth that all enterprise functions rely on to make better decisions. So, AI and machine learning will rather give a new and even more impactful role in driving the future of retail.

Self-Disruption or Self-Destruction — Can Wall Street Tame the Blockchain?

JAMES WATKINS - OZY

Blockchain is poised to be the most disruptive technology since the internet. So why is conservative Wall Street leading the charge for change? 

Quantum Computing Would Make Today’s Encryption Obsolete

HUGO MILLER - BLOOMBERG

Quantum computing offers processing power so vast it may soon make today’s supercomputers look as crude as 1980s PCs. There’s a downside—the technology might also render the most secure encryption systems obsolete, cracking codes in a matter of minutes rather than months or years. Gregoire Ribordy says he has a solution. And it’s selling fast in China.

China Plans to Use Artificial Intelligence to Gain Global Economic Dominance by 2030

WILL KNIGHT - MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 

Artificial intelligence may have been invented in the West, but China seems determined to own its future. Its rising AI community just got a tremendous shot in the arm, in the form of a massive new government investment plan.