Plot Synopsis

Using Bloomberg experts and prominent global thinkers, FORWARD THINKING is a half-hour series that reveals the global problems of the near future, providing background, facts and opinions about the issue while also highlighting potential impacts and opportunities. The series premiere, "March of the Machines," chronicles the rapid advances in a host of technologies -- including artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, robotics, Big Data and data science, genetics, medical imaging and computer vision -- that are combining to alter almost every profession and every industry in potentially radical ways. The world stands poised on the brink of a fourth industrial revolution that will transform services and professions -- from driving trucks on busy highways to drafting legal documents to analyzing medical research -- by using artificial intelligence and big data analytics.