Toyota is establishing a new company in Tokyo in the latest move to accelerate the development of self-driving car technology. The firm has announced a new venture would be investing more than $2.8 billion to develop automated-driving software, in the latest salvo in an increasingly frenetic battle to be ahead in a sector hit by a slew of disruptive technologies. The new branch, dubbed Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), will combine the efforts of Toyota, Aisin, and Denso to develop the software. Toyota has announced a new venture would be investing more than $2.8 billion to develop automated-driving software, in the latest salvo in an increasingly frenetic battle to be ahead in a sector hit by a slew of disruptive technologies The Tokyo-based venture, which will bring together some 1,000 employees including new hires, will be 90 percent held by Toyota with group suppliers Denso Corp and Aisin Seiki Co each taking 5 percent. 'Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota's automated driving program,' said Dr. Kuffner.

LAHORE – The Communist Party of China's (CPC) decision this week to eliminate presidential term limits seems to open the door for President Xi Jinping to be not just "Chairman of Everything," but also "Chairman Forever." The move has been met with dismay around the world, but it has also intensified an ongoing debate among China experts over whether the biggest threat to China is too much executive power, or too little. Where one stands on that question seems to depend largely on whether one is a political scientist, an economist, or a technologist. Many political scientists and legal scholars, for example, argue against the change, because they consider the model of collective leadership that the CPC established after 1979 to be one of its biggest successes. That model's term limits and system of peer review for high-level decision-making has provided the checks necessary to prevent a repeat of Mao-era catastrophes such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

The rise of machine intelligence has prompted policy wonks to weigh in with a list of caveats along with recommendations for preserving the American technology lead in AI and machine learning while initiating the process of managing future risks. The respected Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report on Thursday (March 1) calling for a national machine intelligence strategy. Underwritten by U.S. technology contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), the study takes a "look-before-you-leap" approach to machine intelligence development while advocating steps for maintaining the current U.S. lead. The report recommends "safe and responsible" development of machine intelligence by funding long-term R&D in areas the private sector has little incentive to invest. Along with risky, long term research, the government should focus on national security applications and "systems of ethics and control" akin to government agencies that help referee disputes over technology standards.

Internet giants Google, Facebook and Twitter are facing renewed pressure to tackle the problem of terrorist propaganda online after the European Commission (EC) gave them just a one hour deadline to remove offensive content from their pages or face penalties. The EC's demand comes at a time when the major search and social media companies are being urged to do more to censor inappropriate or illegal material posted by users and hosted on their domains. "Considering that terrorist content is most harmful in the first hours of its appearance online, all companies should remove such content within one hour from its referral as a general rule," the EC said in a statement. The commission will also ask companies to report back on the degree of co-operation they receive from other organisations in order to determine whether stricter legislation is necessary. Most online media companies have clear rules in place warning users against publishing hate speech and routinely investigate and remove troubling content as soon as it is reported by users.

Uber's co-founder Garrett Camp has announced that he is launching his own cryptocurrency in the hope of rivalling the likes of bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin. The taxi app entrepreneur's digital cash alternative, named "eco", is intended as a universal payment tool for daily use and the latest of approximately 1,400 varieties of cryptocoin to enter the fray. One trillion eco tokens will initially be issued, 50 per cent of which will be given to the first 1bn verified humans who sign up. Of the remainder, 20 per cent will go to universities, 10 per cent to advisors, 10 to Camp's strategic partners and 10 per cent will be held by a newly formed Eco Foundation, responsible for the cryptocurrency's oversight, according to TechCrunch. Camp's white paper on the project reveals there will be no initial coin offering to raise additional funds, while transactions will only be carried out by verified nodes and networks and make use of user-friendly web and mobile apps to encourage new users.

The partners will invest 300 billion yen or around $2.8 billion to achieve that goal and are already in the process of looking for the perfect location for their headquarters in Tokyo. Once that's done, they plan to staff up the HQ with 1,000 employees, both newly hired and taken from their own personnel. Dr. James Kuffner, the new company's CEO, said in a statement: "Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota's automated driving program. This company's mission is to accelerate software development in a more effective and disruptive way, by augmenting the Toyota Group's capability through the hiring of world-class software engineers. We will recruit globally, and I am thrilled to lead this effort."

Imagine a reality where computers can visualise what you are thinking. In late December, Guohua Shen, Tomoyasu Horikawa, Kei Majima and Yukiyasu Kamitani released the results of their recent research on using artificial intelligence to decode thoughts on the scientific platform, BioRxiv. Machine learning has previously been used to study brain scans (MRIs, or magnetic resonance imaging) and generate visualisations of what a person is thinking when referring to simple, binary images like black and white letters or simple geographic shapes (as shown in Figure 2 here). But the scientists from Kyoto developed new techniques of "decoding" thoughts using deep neural networks (artificial intelligence). The new technique allows the scientists to decode more sophisticated "hierarchical" images, which have multiple layers of colour and structure, like a picture of a bird or a man wearing a cowboy hat, for example.

Amazon's Alexa assistant is already capable of performing a wide range of capabilities, but the company wants to push it even further. A new report claims that Amazon wants to turn Alexa into a translator that's capable of not only translating phrases, but also incorporate culturally aware responses. Sources familiar with the matter claim that Amazon is "seriously exploring" the possibility of making Alexa more useful across different languages and cultures, according to Yahoo Finance. One possible way of doing this is by having Alexa translate language in a more sophisticated manner. For example, if a user from the U.S. is only capable of speaking English but he is at an event in Japan, Alexa will be able to help that user hold a conversation in Japanese.

Amazon has begun trialling a new home delivery initiative that sees its drivers photographing recipient's front doors as proof the package they ordered has arrived. The online retailer has been quietly rolling out the Amazon Logistics Photo On Delivery programme in carefully chosen locations across the US over the past six months, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Oregon, Indianapolis and North Virginia. The move is intended to address the problem of items being lost or stolen when the addressee is not at home to take delivery. While some may find the initial concept of strangers' photographing their porch while they're out decidedly odd or even creepy, customers have the opportunity to opt out and the majority so far appear to be reassured by the scheme. A second later, phone notification from @amazon saying my package was delivered and there's a picture available for viewing lol pic.twitter.com/NOugVn7XPV

Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will be onboard the International Space Station for about six months from around May 2020 and serve as its commander during the latter part of his stay, Japan's space agency said Friday. It will be the 49-year-old engineer's third trip to space following his missions in 2008 and 2012, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He will be the second Japanese commander of the ISS after Koichi Wakata, 54, who was tasked with the job for two months from March 2014. Hoshide's missions on the ISS have included the maintenance of facilities, conducting scientific experiments and manipulating the station's robotic arm. He will serve as the ISS commander for the final two months of his mission to ensure the safety of crew members and successful completion of their missions.