When a CIA-backed venture capital fund took an interest in Rana el Kaliouby's face-scanning technology for detecting emotions, the computer scientist and her colleagues did some soul-searching -- and then turned down the money. "We're not interested in applications where you're spying on people," said el Kaliouby, the CEO and co-founder of the Boston startup Affectiva. The company has trained its artificial intelligence systems to recognize if individuals are happy or sad, tired or angry, using a photographic repository of more than 6 million faces. Recent advances in AI-powered computer vision have accelerated the race for self-driving cars and powered the increasingly sophisticated photo-tagging features found on Facebook and Google. But as these prying AI "eyes" find new applications in store checkout lines, police body cameras and war zones, the tech companies developing them are struggling to balance business opportunities with difficult moral decisions that could turn off customers or their own workers.

The Israeli military says it's uncovered a plot by Hamas to spy on soldiers by befriending them on social media and then luring them to download dating applications that give the militants access to their smartphones.

A computer virus has spread among tens of thousands of Fortnite players, as hackers seek to take advantage of the vast numbers playing the popular video game. Security researchers at game-streaming platform Rainway uncovered the issue, which originates from a YouTube video claiming to offer free units V-Bucks – a virtual in-game currency. After receiving thousands of error reports on their platform, the researchers began looking for what those experiencing problems had in common. After noticing that all users affected appeared to be playing Fortnite, they found themselves trawling through hundreds of YouTube videos about the game that contained malicious links. "We finally found a match in a hack claiming to allow players to generate free V-Bucks and use an aimbot, two birds with one stone, how could someone resist?" states a blog that details their findings.

Towns facing another season of drought and wildfire are turning to drone shows as a less risky alternative to organized fireworks. This year's July 4th marks the 242nd year since the creation of the United States. SAN FRANCISCO -- Get in the car, kids. It's time to see the Fourth of July drone show. Towns in California, Colorado and Arizona -- facing another season of drought and wildfire -- are turning to drone shows as a less dangerous alternative to organized fireworks, encouraged by the development of jaw-dropping, choreographed shows like the one Intel prepared for the Winter Olympics broadcast.

Nintendo's 2DS XL is not just a throwback 3DS console (without the 3D), but also a blank canvas for special editions like the Zelda Link Shield version. That goes triply for Japan's equivalent 2DS LL version, where Nintendo just launched three new creative models. The first is a Minecraft "Creeper" edition, named after the baddy with the nasty habit of exploding in your face. The textured shell nicely captures the Creeper and Minecraft vibe and comes with a pre-installed version of Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, naturally. The two other special editions that you can only drool at but not buy here in the US are the Dobashi Animal Crossing Amiibo and Mario Kart 7 packs.

Open to seed stage AI and Internet of Things (IoT) startups from the UAE and around the globe, the AI Venture Launchpad is a 10-day sprint accelerator that helps participants develop a scalable, repeatable, and capital efficient venture. Teams disrupting industries in financial technology (FinTech), insurance technology (InsurTech), regulatory technology (RegTech), airport operations, predictive maintenance, fuel efficiency, and enterprise solutions through AI with Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics, Search, and Data Analytics are encouraged to apply. This accelerator is an opportunity for global startups to enter the UAE market and attract potential investments from key players in the region. Launching on September 30, the program is held in partnership with Etihad Aviation Group, a diversified global aviation and travel group comprising of five business divisions – Etihad Airways, Etihad Airways Engineering, Etihad Airport Services, Hala Group and Airline Equity Partners; UAE Exchange, the leading global Money Transfer, Foreign Exchange and payment solutions brand; and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi. The Artificial Intelligence Venture Launchpad will comprise a series of training and mentorship sessions, investor roundtables, pitches, interviews, local customer discovery, and validation activities.

Wokingham-based Volume has transformed from a B2B marketing agency to a specialist in experiential artificial intelligence (AI) over the past three years. Chief operating officer Gemma Hood explains why people as well as technology are at the heart of the company. Volume's experiential AI comprises conversational AI platforms that turn searches into asks, enabling a website to respond to how you interact with it, as well as physical interactions using humanoid AI robots and virtual reality experiences. Volume's robot, Pepper, cheerfully greets visitors when they arrive at its office. "We are continuing to develop our'experiential' AI capabilities," explained Volume's new chief operating officer Gemma Hood.

When a nuclear power plant accident occurs and radioactive material is released, it is vital to evacuate people in the vicinity as quickly as possible. However, it is difficult to predict where the emitted radioactivity will settle, making it impossible to prevent the exposure of large numbers of people. A means of overcoming this difficulty has been presented in a new study reported in the journal Scientific Reports by a research team at The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science. The team has created a computer program that can accurately predict where emitted radioactive material will eventually land over 30 hours in advance, using weather forecasts on the expected wind patterns. This tool enables evacuation plans and other health-protective measures to be implemented in the event of a nuclear accident like the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

Facebook un-blocked users that had been blocked by hundreds of thousands of people. The vast hack could have exposed Facebook users to danger from people they thought had been banned from seeing their posts. Facebook's blocking tools allow people to stop a user from seeing things on your profile, messaging you on Messenger or adding you as a friend. But a bug meant that stopped working, allowing blocked users to see people's posts and get in touch with them on Messenger. 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.

Emerging technologies and their rapid advancements will impact every player--big or small--across geographies, and regardless of the industry a company operates in. According to Convergence Catalyst's June 2017 report on artificial intelligence (AI), it took between 19 and 40 million pictures of cats for an average unsupervised (unaided) deep learning algorithm to recognize a picture of a cat. A follow-up research on the same topic earlier in February this year pegged the number down to less than one million--thanks to the significant advancements in low-data techniques, clustering algorithms and subject vector machines in the AI/ML (machine learning) space. Moreover, computing power used in the largest AI training runs has been doubling every 3.5 months. Since 2012, this metric has grown by more than 300,000x.