Opinion feature by Dr. Winnie Tang, Honorary Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Hong Kong:

Acquiring foreign talent is proved to be a shortcut to promote social and economic development of a place. The United States being well known as the melting pot of various nationalities is a typical example in this respect.

200 million US citizens have had their sensitive personal data exposed accidently by a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee. The data - which included 1.1 terabytes worth of information such as birth dates, home addresses, telephone numbers, and political views of about 62 percent of the entire US population - was available on a publicly accessible Amazon cloud server.

Chinese e-commerce colossus Alibaba has taken its first venture into developing artificial intelligence home devices by launching its voice assistant speaker, which has drawn comparisons to Amazon's 'Echo'.

US technology behemoth Apple has suffered a setback in its effort to lead the global movement towards a future of autonomous driving during testing of its self-driving program in California.

US telecoms giant AT&T is working with Maxwell Air Force Base, officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, a United States Air Force installation under the Air Education and Training Command, to bring the power of IoT to their base operations and infrastructure.

The Californian cities of Berkeley and Palm Springs have announced that it will take its first steps towards implementing its 'smart city' infrastructures after reaching an agreement with 5 Bars Communities, which is a dba of XG Communities.

China has been projected to lead the global adoption of 5G technology by 2023, according to research compiled by CCS Insight. CCS Insight have claimed that the country's booming market will ensure and facilitate that 5G is quicker out of the starting blocks than any other previous mobile technology.

China's government has made no secret of its ambition to become a global leader in AI - previously stating that it envisaged itself to have achieved that target by 2030. However, it has now received a timely boost following the news that three of the country's largest technology companies have joined forced to create an AI Challenger contest.

Online spending in China has increased by 32 percent per year in the last five years, reaching $967 billion in 2016, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which explores what makes China's rapid internet growth unique - and how foreign companies can crack vibrant digital markets.

US cable incumbent Comcast Corp has been forced to revise its strategy as more and more US consumers either discontinue their cable services - or opt for cheaper alternatives. The emergence of OTT players such as Netflix and Amazon have also added significantly to the increasing pressure on traditional cable companies.

A Consortium of Chinese companies which are being spearheaded by China's search engine Baidu are leading the country's self-driving charge in the United States. Baidu is set to announce its first vehicle manufacturing partners for its self-driving software in the next few weeks.

Affirmed Networks, a company specializing in virtualized mobile networks,  announced that du, part of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), has selected its Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) mobile core to provide an industry-leading 3GPP core network for IoT use cases, enabling a wide range of smart city use cases.

Founder and chief executive of social media giant Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has suggested there should be a universal basic income for all people. This would allow people in society to take more risks, he said, allowing people more freedom to execute new ideas and business ventures, with the confidence that they won't go without basic things needed to live.

Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Ajit Pai, has outlined the blueprint which he believes will help accelerate the development and subsequent deployment of 5G networks in the US.

The United States Federal Communications Commission has urged Apple to activate the FM (frequency modulation) chips that are in iPhone to promote public safety. Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released a statement applauding those companies that have "done the right things" by activating FM chips in their phones in light of natural disasters hammering the country.

US car manufacturer Ford Motor Co is partnering with Domino's Pizza in order to conduct an innovative self-driving initiative. Ford announced its collaboration with Domino's this week and revealed that it will launch a self-driving pizza delivery service.

Ford Motor Co has announced its plans to open a 'smart mobility' facility in the UK. The US automotive colossus will extend its services by opening a new office in London - and plans to start a workforce of forty people. The 'smart mobility' facility will be located on Here East campus which is co-working business incubator, set up in part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

US car manufacturing colossus Ford Motor has announced that it is currently weighing up the prospect of entering into a joint-venture with Chinese automotive firm Zotye. The collaboration between both parties would see them combine their expertise in order to develop and manufacture electric vehicles under a new brand - in a bid to exploit the boom for electric cars in the world's leading auto market.

It has emerged that the most likely frontrunner in the candidacy for the role of CEO at the world's largest ride-hailing service Uber, is former General Electric CEO, Jeff Immelt. Reports from several US media agencies continue to speculate that Immelt is the man that will be tasked with the responsibility of steering Uber out of choppy waters following the high-profile and controversial decision by Travis Kalanick to step aside as CEO in June.

The focus on self-driving technology, electrification and autonomy continues to accelerate and that was evidenced further by the investment in Silicon Valley based start-up NAUTO, by General Motors and SoftBank Group.