When can we truly trust machines? From SIRI to self-driving cars, Google's search algorithms to autonomous weapons and drones, the past few decades have witnessed some of the fastest, almost meteoric, rises in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today, as different nation-states make choices around data, AI is shaping the privacy rights and governance rhetoric. Conversely, the "data" policies that nation-states form are also shaping the type of AI that emerges. With this backdrop, Vasant Dhar, Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University, discussed the ascent of Artificial Intelligence and its uses and implications for nation-states during a Development Seminar at Brookings India.

When can we truly trust machines? From SIRI to self-driving cars, Google's search algorithms to autonomous weapons and drones, the past few decades have witnessed some of the fastest, almost meteoric, rises in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today, as different nation-states make choices around data, AI is shaping the privacy rights and governance rhetoric. Conversely, the "data" policies that nation-states form are also shaping the type of AI that emerges. With this backdrop, Vasant Dhar, Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University, discussed the ascent of Artificial Intelligence and its uses and implications for nation-states during a Development Seminar at Brookings India.

YouTube erected a platform where commoners could climb the ladder to stardom. Now, the video-sharing giant is seeing another wave of new talent diving into a glittering entertainment scene. These entertainers are called "virtual YouTubers," or "VTubers," and are represented by digital avatars that look like anime characters. Almost exclusively a Japanese phenomenon, at least so far, these virtual talents have proliferated rapidly over the past several months and people in the industry, together with observers, predict the movement will only accelerate. Following are some questions and answers about virtual YouTubers.

"It is currently believed that many data scientists using R, Python and other technologies should be deployed in order to leverage analytics to achieve business results. However, dotData will overturn this belief and open data science technology to business persons and make them citizen data scientists. This impact seems similar to the one of cloud computing, which destroyed the superiority of large enterprises owning mainframes and high end servers, and opened these computer resources to SOHO users. In that sense, today should be commemorated as the turning point of analytics," he concluded.

More than one in five adults work for companies that are deploying artificial intelligence (AI)--and while these employees generally view AI positively, they also have concerns about its potential effects on their privacy, job security, and economic equality. In fact, AI users are both more optimistic about AI's benefits and more wary of its risks than nonusers. Those are the central findings of a survey of more than 7,000 people conducted in Canada, China, France, Germany, Spain, the UK, and the US by BCG GAMMA and Ipsos, a market research firm. AI adoption varies widely among countries. In China, 31% of survey respondents say they work in organisations that already use AI, followed by North America (26% in Canada, 24% in the US) and then Europe (20% in the UK; 18% in Spain, 16% in France, and 15% in Germany).

Shanghai-based computer vision company Yitu announced today that it has acquired an additional US$100 million in funding, with China Industrial Asset Management as the sole investor this round. Yitu is one of China's four AI unicorns, along with Face, Cloudwalk and SenseTime. On June 12th, 2018, Yitu completed its C Round with US$200 Million from GC Capital, ICBC International, and SPDB International. This new funding raises Yitu's valuation to over US$2.3 billion. Yitu was found in 2012 and focuses on computer vision, natural language processing, knowledge reasoning, intelligent hardware, and robotics.

The report, in its second year having been piloted in 2017, identified artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) as technologies under the umbrella of digital transformation. The six factors for digital transformation success were determined following participation in an online survey by 1,535 c-suite executives at medium to large-sized companies based across Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the UK and the US. The six factors identified by Fujitsu were: Leadership, People, Agility, Business Integration, Ecosystem and Value from Data. The companies declaring positive outcomes from digital transformation showed showing strong capabilities in these areas. See also: Looking for leadership?

Hold still while Vincent van Bot paints your portrait. That's right, sophisticated robots can now create works of art comparable to the old masters. The RobotArt gallery has amassed an impressive collection to show what the world's most creative androids and algorithms (and their creators) have come up with. On Wednesday, the international contest, now in its third year, announced the top ten teams, all of which walk away with cash prizes for their creations. The teams used a number of different approaches, showing that there are a hell of a lot of ways to interpret "artwork created by robot."

Today, we can pull out our smart phones and use various apps to enhance our everyday lives. Digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri are able to complete a number of helpful tasks in- and outside the home. Powered by complex coding and algorithms, these technologies are affecting how we interact with things around us, and even each other. But tech experts are warning that while AI has some positive impacts, these new advances could harm our environment. "Like any new innovation, we need to consider and manage potential new risks," Jahda Swanborough, a global environmental leadership fellow and lead at the World Economic Forum, told DW.

There are a number of direct applications of AI relevant for national security purposes, both in the United States and elsewhere. Kevin Kelly notes that in the private sector "the business plans of the next 10,000 startups are easy to forecast: Take X and add AI."1 There is similarly a broad range of applications for AI in national security. Included below are some examples in cybersecurity, information security, economic and financial tools of statecraft, defense, intelligence, homeland security, diplomacy, and development. This is not intended as a comprehensive list of all possible uses of AI in these fields. Rather, these are merely intended as illustrative examples to help those in the national security community begin to think through some uses of this evolving technology.