Google just made it a lot easier to build your very own custom AI system. A new service, called Cloud AutoML, uses several machine-learning tricks to automatically build and train a deep-learning algorithm that can recognize things in images. The technology is limited for now, but it could be the start of something big. Building and optimizing a deep neural network algorithm normally requires a detailed understanding of the underlying math and code, as well as extensive practice tweaking the parameters of algorithms to get things just right. The difficulty of developing AI systems has created a race to recruit talent, and it means that only big companies with deep pockets can usually afford to build their own bespoke AI algorithms.

Henrik Fisker spent this year's CES at Booth 3315, standing next to a deep red, curvaceous, quirky electric sedan with doors that pivot like wings. The EMotion is the work of Fisker Inc, the car designer's latest venture. But the stage Fisker and the car stood on didn't say Fisker Inc. It said Quanergy--a Silicon Valley-based startup that makes lidar sensors for self-driving cars; it has plans to embed several of its units is discreetly into the new car. Fisker wasn't the only one shacking up at CES. Ford's display highlighted not cars, but its deal with Dominos to work on autonomous pizza deliveries. Pizza Hut announced a partnership with Toyota.

Fri 19 Jan 2018 09.09 EST Last modified on Sat 20 Jan 2018 01.44 EST Russia responded on 5 January to an attack by a swarm of drones targeting a Russian airbase in north-western Syria and a naval station on the Mediterranean Sea. The multi-drone attack, which is suspected to have been launched by militants, is the first of its kind, representing a new threat from terrorist groups. The use of a swarm attack demonstrates a militant capability, which was previously limited to states, to simultaneously control and coordinate several commercial drones at one time using a GPS unit. This development may send viewers of the science-fiction series Black Mirror into hiding, but it should prompt professional militaries to double down on countermeasures, specifically the creation of electronic jamming tech. Swashbuckling drones operated by rebels and militants have been shoring up the frontlines of conflict internationally, in some cases braving the choppy waters off the coast of Yemen, and in others crowding the skies over Syria and Iraq.

Google has been using artificial intelligence to build other artificially intelligent systems for the last several months. Now the company plans to sell this kind of "automated machine learning" technology to other businesses across the globe. On Wednesday, Google introduced a cloud-computing service that it bills as a way to build a so-called computer vision system that suits your particular needs -- even if you have little or no experience with the concepts that drive it. If you are a radiologist, for example, you can use CT scans to automatically train a computer algorithm that identifies signs of lung cancer. If you run a real estate website, you can build an algorithm that distinguishes between living rooms and kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.

Prosecutors say Nardella stole two North Face jackets from a TJ Maxx in Salem and two Samsung robotic robots from a Salem Target in the span of a week. Prosecutors say Nardella returned to the same Target, took two more robotic vacuums and swung one at a security guard by its security cord when he was apprehended.

The simplest way to eliminate the spread of fake news would be to limit ourselves to a small group of mainstream publishers who do all their own reporting and fact-checking. The counterargument, of course, is that an open and democratic society allows for a wide range of voices, not just the ones a small cabal of editors deem acceptable. Fake news promises to destroy this system and undermine trust and democracy, which is why addressing fake news has become one of the tech industry's most significant and important challenges. His initial focus, post-9/11, was on national security, which is how he first become intrigued by the advantages AI offers in analyzing complex data sets. As 2017's fake news scandals grew, DeAngelis was approached by leading media industry veteran Greg D'Alba, CEO of VIDL News, to apply the same type of analysis Enterra was using to control the complex value chains of Fortune 500 companies to the media industry, where D'Alba saw a growing need to verify and validate news stories.

A pilot has flown a drone into a crane, according to an air-accident report. The pilot had planned the drone flight in Kent with four reference points, all at 400ft above ground level - higher than three existing cranes on the site. But another crane was erected after his site safety visit, and on take-off the drone crashed into the jib of the new structure, damaging the unmanned craft. The crash, in June last year, is listed in the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) update this month. The incident report was picked up by The Register.

When computer models designed by tech giants Alibaba and Microsoft this month surpassed humans for the first time in a reading-comprehension test, both companies celebrated the success as a historic milestone. Luo Si, the chief scientist for natural-language processing at Alibaba's AI research unit, struck a poetic note, saying, "Objective questions such as'what causes rain' can now be answered with high accuracy by machines." Teaching a computer to read has for decades been one of artificial intelligence's holiest grails, and the feat seemed to signal a coming future in which AI could understand words and process meaning with the same fluidity humans take for granted every day. But computers aren't there yet -- and aren't even really that close, said AI experts who reviewed the test results. Instead, the accomplishment highlights not just how far the technology has progressed, but also how far it still has to go. "It's a large step" for the companies' marketing "but a small step for humankind," said Oren Etzioni, chief executive of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, an AI research group funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Monika Chalk of the Amazon Alexa team demonstrates an array of devices infused the company's artificial intelligence in a Roadshow trailer parked at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 10, 2018. Two days into the annual technology fest that is CES and one of the biggest stories of this year's show is the battle between Google and Amazon for the smart home. So far, Amazon is winning. If there ever was an example of how first-mover advantage can change a market, it's Amazon's Alexa. The digital assistant has been popping up everywhere this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual tech fest that tries to set the agenda for gadget makers everywhere.