Russian scientists are developing an advanced automated submarine that will be powered by an external combustion engine, Igor Denisov, deputy director of the Foundation for Advanced Studies (FPI), revealed in an interview with Interfax, a Russian news agency. "We are planning to create an apparatus that will pass through the Northern Sea Route without floating up and without the use of nuclear power, including under the ice," Denisov said. "In order for this device to accomplish such a'feat,' its autonomy should be at least 90 days, which is already commensurate with the autonomy of modern submarines." The decision to forego the nuclear option to power the underwater vehicle was a conscious one, Denisov said, in order to make it increasingly safe. While a nuclear installation helps power submarines for uninterrupted movement throughout the world's oceans, it also puts its operational capabilities at risk.

In April 2017, the US Department of Defense launched an Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, otherwise known as Project Maven. The project uses Google's artificial intelligence to analyse drone footage. This did not go down well with Google's employees. More than 3,000 workers signed an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, asking the company to pull out of the program, writing that "Google should not be in the business of war". In early June 2018, reports surfaced that Google had informed employees it would not renew its contract for Project Maven, and days afterwards, Pichai published the blog post AI at Google: our principles, which laid out seven objectives for AI applications to guide Google's work going forward.

SINGAPORE: Robotics and Artificial intelligence (AI) are here to stay. AI applications are not just helping businesses become more efficient, they are more frequently visible in our everyday lives. Consider virtual assistants such as Nanyang Technological University's humanoid robot receptionist Nadine, and robotic instructors, known as RoboCoaches, that lead fitness classes for the elderly, demonstrate exercises, and offer encouragement here in Singapore. Not to mention the increasingly prevalent role of Alexa, Siri and Cortana in our lives. READ: The rise of artificial intelligence and how lives will forever be changed, the Big Read.

A couple of recent events made me think it would be good to post a brief but (hopefully) balanced summary of the discussion about superintelligence. Our brains are existence proof that ordinary matter organised the right way can generate general intelligence – an intelligence which can apply itself to any domain. They were created by evolution, which is slow, messy and inefficient. It is also un-directed, although non-random. We are now employing the powerful, fast and purposeful method of science to organise different types of ordinary matter to achieve the same result.

IBM, the global technology giant, showcased an artificial intelligence (AI) project that is designed to make logical arguments with humans at an event held at IBM's Watson West site in San Francisco on Monday. Known as'Project Debater', a champion debater and IBM's AI system, the company has been developing the AI's capabilities over the past six years, which includes data-driven speech writing and delivery, listening comprehension for identifying key claims made within a speech, and the ability to formulate principled arguments. The company has been staging in-house debates between humans and Project Debater for the past two years, said IBM Research principal investigator and creator of Project Debater Noam Slonim. However, it was the first ever such live public demonstration of a live debate between humans and IBM's AI system. For those unaware, IBM has a long list of major AI innovations, which also include "Deep Blue," the IBM system that took on chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, and IBM Watson, which beat the top human champions on Jeopardy! in 2011.

SEOUL – Months before the first summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Inc. invested $730,000 in Pyongyang's top computer lab. North Korean programmers there would develop online chess games and food recipes for Samsung to sell outside the North. Samsung quit the business as inter-Korea relations later deteriorated, and the lab -- Korea Computer Center -- was blacklisted last year for its alleged contribution to the North's weapons program. As companies from South Korea to Russia and China again look to cash in on easing tensions with Pyongyang, Samsung's now defunct businesses in Pyongyang and hundreds of similar failed joint ventures underline North Korea's status as one of the world's highest-risk investment destinations. Yet days before the historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, a conference in Seoul to explore investment opportunities in North Korea drew about 600 attendees.

Ever since its introduction in 2015, there's hardly anyone who denies information regularly on the big'Digital Transformation' that India boasts about. The efforts are being made to turn the Digital India a reality in the coming few years. On the other hand, recent advancements in key technologies have enhanced IoT's capacities and utility within enterprises and supported growth through digital transformation. BIS Infotech's, Jyoti Gazmer, recently had a dialogue with Interra Information Technologies Aniruddha Guha Sarkar, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Interra Information Technologies & Ranjan Guha, President North America, Interra Information Technologies has brought analysis of the digital transformation in India-what we know so far, how do we measure it and the challenges. Also, it touches majorly on how IoT can be an extended definition to define Digital Transformations.

China's intelligent voice recognition technology leader iFlytek, has initialed a cooperative agreement with the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) to set up a joint steering committee to cooperate in the voice processing, reasoning and artificial intelligence fields.

WATERLOO, ON, June 19, 2018 /CNW/ - Manulife today asserted its plans to further strengthen its leadership position in the Canadian insurance market. A key component of this plan is the launch of its Manulife Par participating whole life insurance product and an artificial intelligence algorithm that will transform the underwriting process. The whole life insurance market represents over half of all insurance sales in Canada*. By launching Manulife Par, satisfying advisor and client demand, and relying on Manulife's well-established network of advisors, the Company is confident it will gain market share. "Manulife has a proud 130-year history of innovation and leadership in insurance," said Alex Lucas, Head of Individual Insurance, Manulife.

Technologies for amplifying, sequencing and matching DNA have created new opportunities in genomic science. In this series When DNA Talks we look at the ethical and social implications. Everywhere we go we leave behind bits of DNA. We can already use this DNA to predict some traits, such as eye, skin and hair colour. Soon it may be possible to accurately reconstruct your whole face from these traces.