Even if you're not particularly interested in video games, you'll probably have heard of Assassin's Creed. They're a series of historically themed action games that take place in digital recreations of places such as Revolution-era Paris, medieval Jerusalem and 1860s London. Playing Assassin's Creed involves climbing up ancient buildings and mingling with the residents of cities of the past, meeting (and occasionally assassinating) historical figures as a member of an ancient, clandestine brotherhood working against the Templars. The games have been around since 2007 and have made an awful lot of money for their publisher, Ubisoft. The company employs a team of hundreds of artists, historians, writers, coders, sound designers and more to create these virtual places.

It is not news that AI is shaking up the world, unlocking new frontiers in addressing business and societal challenges. The AI progress metrics maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that in several applications, including tasks previously thought to be doable only by humans, AI has superseded human ability. Businesses and countries are leveraging this to improve their bottom-line and make life easier for their citizens respectively. They are also putting their money where their mouths are. Globally there was an investment of over 6 billion dollars in AI companies in just 2017.

Sudanese radiologist Dr Hania Fadl speaks with reporters in 2015 at the Khartoum Breast Care Centre (KBCC), which she opened in 2010 and equipped with screening and anesthetic equipment despite financial advisers' warnings to abandon the project. The mammogram is one of medical science's best tools for detecting breast cancer, but when the typically painful test reveals a potential problem, women frequently undergo breast biopsies for a closer look--a practice that's all too often unnecessary, according to a group of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, and which doctors may be able to significantly reduce thanks to a little insight from computers. Announced today, researchers from Houston Methodist have developed AI software that can interpret mammogram results a full 30 times quicker than doctors and with 99 percent accuracy, according to the team's recent study. Published in the journal Cancer, the study found that the software was able to intuitively translate patient charts into diagnostic information for human review at top speeds, which offers doctors reliable and seriously time-saving support when it comes to assessing patient cancer risk and the need for further tests. To determine the software's effectiveness for assessing breast cancer risk, the team provided its AI with mammogram and pathology reports of 500 breast cancer patients, as well as information on diagnostic features and correlated mammogram findings for breast cancer subtypes.

The United States military carried out its first ever drone strike against Qaeda militants in southern Libya this weekend, signaling a possibly significant expansion of the American counterterrorism campaign in the North African nation. Until now, the Pentagon had focused its counterterrorism strikes in Libya almost exclusively on Islamic State fighters and operatives farther north -- eight since President Trump took office. In 2016, the military conducted nearly 500 airstrikes in the coastal city of Surt over several months to destroy the Islamic State's stronghold there. But the attack on Saturday that the military's Africa Command said had killed two militants -- later identified by a spokeswoman as belonging to Al Qaeda's branch in northwestern Africa -- took place in the country's southwest, a notorious haven for a deadly mix of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups that also operate in the Sahel region of Niger, Chad, Mali and Algeria. "This appears to be the continuation of expanding AFRICOM activity in Libya's ungoverned areas," said Deborah K.

You totally prepared for this trip. You booked the flights months ago. You have all the best sights saved in Google Maps. But then you land in Munich or Kigali or Buenos Aires and realize you can't even identify the sign pointing toward baggage claim, much less tell your cabbie where you're headed. Luckily your phone can now do those things for you.

Within less than two decades it will be cheaper to operate robots in US factories than hire workers in Africa, a new report warns. Falling automation costs are predicted to cause job losses as manufacturers return to richer economies. Some analysts say poorer countries could be less impacted by this trend, however the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) suggests otherwise. But its report adds African nations have time to prepare for the change. "African countries must not shy away from manufacturing, but instead prepare by increasing access to internet, investing in technical skills and promoting technological innovation," said Karishma Banga a senior research officer at ODI. "If done well, automation can present important opportunities for African countries by improving labour productivity in manufacturing," she said.

It's 1492 and the printing press is starting to gain traction. This bothers a very select group of people very much. Monks, who had for hundreds of years been painstakingly copying out the scriptures word for word, are about to be replaced. A monk named Johannes Trithemius goes as far as writing an essay espousing the moral superiority of handwriting, claiming that handwritten books would last far longer than their printed counterparts. But nothing can stop the march of progress, and the printing press goes on to revolutionise the way we share information.

Evans Morris Gachiri, a fifth year Mechatronics Engineering student at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya, demonstrates how a robotic coffee machine works: Artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction. London, March 22, 2018: Chatbots, autonomous vehicles, and connected machines in digital factories foreshadow what the future will look like: The widespread implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications brings many advantages for businesses such as increased efficiencies, fewer repetitive tasks and better customer experiences. Vulnerability to malicious cyber-attacks or technical failure will increase, as will the potential for larger-scale disruptions and extraordinary financial losses as societies and economies become increasingly interconnected. Companies will also face new liability scenarios as responsibility for decision-making shifts from human to machine and manufacturer. In the new report "The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: Future Outlook and Emerging Risks", insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) identifies both the benefits and emerging risk concerns around the growing implementation of AI in society and industry, including in the insurance sector.

In science news around the world, South Sudan announces it has eliminated Guinea worm disease despite the civil war that is ravaging the country. Uber suspends its research on autonomous vehicles (AVs) after a pedestrian is struck by one of its AVs and dies; a person was sitting behind the AV's steering wheel, but the car was said to be in self-driving mode. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change establishes a task force to consider ways to improve gender equity within the organization, such as recruiting more female scientists to serve as authors of its authoritative reports on climate science. U.K. researchers develop the first wearable magnetoencephalography brain scanner, which can detect the weak magnetic fields emitted by communicating neurons in real time, offering an alternative to large, bulky scanning machines that require research subjects to lie inside and remain still.

South Africa is joining global non-profit organisation, City.AI, which organises gatherings of artificial intelligence (AI) practitioners on a quarterly basis across over 40 cities to share challenges and lessons in applied AI. SA is the newest member of the organisation and Cape Town will host its first City.AI event on 27 March. City.AI also plans to announce events in Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana soon. City.AI's goal is to make AI better by proactively tackling the issue of application of AI with the right people in cities across the globe using local ambassadors to grow and advance the AI community. "Our goal is to multiply the AI talent pool and allow for better application of AI globally," City.AI says on its Web site.