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Apple has won an international award in recognition of its attempts to stop slavery and the work it has done to rid it from its supply chain. The Stop Slavery Award, which the Thomson Reuters Foundation said was in recognition of a "giant leap in the fight against slavery", comes after a concerted effort by Apple to ensure it is more transparent about its supply chain. Apple says it has worked hard to combat the kinds of abuse that happen in suppliers used by a wide variety of companies, such as workers who are forced into modern slavery by having their passports taken away or being saddled with huge debts they must work to pay off. Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Samsung Electronics will invest $22 billion in 5G networking and AI going forward to secure a "minimum" of 20 percent market share in network equipment by 2020, the company's network boss has said. Youngky Kim, president and head of Samsung's network business, speaking at WSJ D.Live in California, told a panel that the next-generation network will unlock the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), describing 5G as "oxygen" for AI. "AI needs a lot of data to respond to you," Kim said. "This amount of data can be provided by 5G, not 4G." Samsung produces half a billion electronic devices yearly, and this will provide it with international experience of what humans want, he said.

Ford teamed up with Domino's last year to test out self-driving cars for pizza delivery. And while a hot cheesy pie is certainly delicious, the autonomous technology is now being put to even better use. On Wednesday, Ford announced that it is now using Postmates delivery service to bring Walmart products to customers' homes via self-driving Ford vehicles. Ford works with Argo AI to power the self-driving part of the car. SEE ALSO: Ford and Domino's team up for self-driving pizza deliveries Starting in the Miami area, where Domino's is still testing autonomous pizza delivery and Ford has developed a urban self-driving car proving ground, the service will kick off with Walmart employees putting groceries into the car.

A "smart" wildfire sensor developed by two high school students in Cupertino, CA (Photo: Google) Google has set aside $25 million to fund research work by schools and other organizations using machine learning for "social good." Besides cash, the company's "AI for Social Good" project is also offering support from its artificial intelligence experts, credits and consulting from Google Cloud. Those chosen will also join a "launchpad" accelerator program with mentoring, support and access to Silicon Valley experts. Projects seeking funding need to address a societal challenge and have a clear plan to deploy the AI model for real-world impact. Organizations will have until the end of January 21, 2019 to submit their applications.

A "smart" wildfire sensor developed by two high school students in Cupertino, CA (Photo: Google) Google has set aside a $25 million pool to fund research work by schools and other organizations using machine learning for "social good." Besides cash, the company's "AI for Social Good" project is also offering support from its artificial intelligence experts, credits and consulting from Google Cloud. Those chosen will also join a "launchpad" accelerator program with mentoring, support and access to Silicon Valley experts. Projects seeking funding need to address a societal challenge and have a clear plan to deploy the AI model for real-world impact. Organizations will have until the end of January 21, 2019 to submit their applications.

Recently, analysts have argued that emerging technologies with military applications may undermine nuclear stability (see here, here, and here), but the logic of these arguments is debatable and overlooks a more straightforward reason why new technology might cause nuclear conflict: by upending the existing balance of power among nuclear-armed states. This latter concern is more probable and dangerous and demands an immediate policy response. For more than 70 years, the world has avoided major power conflict, and many attribute this era of peace to nuclear weapons. In situations of mutually assured destruction (MAD), neither side has an incentive to start a conflict because doing so will only result in its own annihilation. The key to this model of deterrence is the maintenance of secure second-strike capabilities--the ability to absorb an enemy nuclear attack and respond with a devastating counterattack.

AI is a hotly debated topic in every conversation, so much so that we have moved from saying'there is an app for that' to'there is an AI for that'. Oliver Schabenberger, chief operating officer and chief technology officer at SAS, observes how AI has permeated everyday discourse in recent years. Yet, AI has not always been talked about this way. An overhype of the technology led to'AI winter' in the 1980s, he says in his keynote at the Analytics Experience conference this week in Milan. During cocktail gatherings, saying one worked in AI could kill a conversation.

One employee traveling for work checked his dog into a kennel and billed it to his boss as a hotel expense. Another charged yoga classes to the corporate credit card as client entertainment. A third, after racking up a small fortune at a strip club, submitted the expense as a steakhouse business dinner. These bogus expenses, which occurred recently at major U.S. companies, have one thing in common: All were exposed by artificial intelligence algorithms that can in a matter of seconds sniff out fraudulent claims and forged receipts that are often undetectable to human auditors--certainly not without hours of tedious labor. AppZen, an 18-month-old AI accounting startup, has already signed up several big companies, including Amazon.com Inc., International Business Machine Corp., Salesforce.com

Self-driving car collaborations are becoming increasingly commonplace. The latest team-up comes from Ford and Walmart -- two older-world companies using autonomous tech to combat nascent startup rivals and remain relevant in an ever-changing landscape. The eventual goal is to bring Walmart shopping items to customers in a self-driving Ford with the help of Postmates' delivery infrastructure. Initially, however, the venture will rely on human-driven cars designed to simulate how a self-driving vehicle would operate. Ford has already started testing its autonomous cars in Miami and Washington DC, with plans for commercial production by 2021.

Privacy campaigners have raised fears for patient data following Google's takeover of an artificial intelligence health app used in NHS hospitals. London-based AI firm DeepMind said its Streams app will be subsumed by the technology giant in a move that one expert described as "totally unacceptable" and a betrayal to patient's privacy. DeepMind, which is owned by Google but has operated the app independently until now, justified the decision in a blog post that explained how Google would allow the app to scale in a way that would not be possible by itself. The app uses AI to provide doctors and nurses with an easy-access dashboard of patients' medical records. "Our vision is for Streams to now become an AI-powered assistant for nurses and doctors everywhere – combining the best algorithms with intuitive design, all backed up by rigorous evidence," the post stated.