Global competition to be the country with the most sophisticated AI will be the cause of the next world war, Musk predicts. His comment was responding to a story about Russian president Vladimir Putin predicting the country winning in artificial intelligence "will be the ruler of the world." Musk posted the warning with a photo of a poster that read "in the end, the machines will win." "I have exposure to the most cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned by it," Musk said at the National Governors Association. "AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs or bad food were not -- they were harmful to a set of individuals within society, of course, but they were not harmful to society as a whole." According to Musk, an essential part of the solution is proactive and immediate regulatory oversight.

America's military budget, at $615 billion, dwarfs those of its closest competitors, China ($211 billion) and Russia ($69 billion). Even with that advantage, a new report finds that the U.S. is at risk of falling behind in the race to find and create AI for military applications. In 2014, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that his department intended to lead the coming AI revolution with what he called the "Third Offset Strategy." For the uninitiated, the Second Offset Strategy was in response to the buildup of conventional forces along the Central European front by the Soviet Union and its satellite states ... which itself was a response to the First Offset Strategy that had the U.S. putting its own forces in the field. America didn't want to match the Soviets soldier for soldier, so new technology like long-range sensors and a new generation of guided munitions and submunitions was developed to give the U.S. an edge.

A little more than a year ago, Amazon announced a new grocery store concept that promised customers a human-less shopping experience. Customers would simply walk in, grab the items they need, and leave without waiting in a line or going through a checkout--letting sensors, computer vision, and machine learning quietly do all the work to capture, calculate, and charge you for your purchases. With much fanfare, Amazon opened a trial store in Seattle. Then, headlines went quiet as the company hit unexpected technical challenges, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall). Last month, speculation of Amazon Go's rollout reignited when the company began hiring store-related personnel. But Amazon's rival JD.com, the second biggest online retailer in China after Alibaba, has already beaten it to the punch.

The humanoid robot AILA (artificial intelligence lightweight android) operates a switchboard during a demonstration by the German research centre for artificial intelligence at the CeBit computer fair in Hanover March, 5, 2013. From robots that can flawlessly perform backflips to electric cars that can go over 950 km (600 miles) on a single charge, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the future is far closer than we may have previously thought. If the missteps of the industrial revolution are any indicator, we need to start planning for that future today. And it seems that this is precisely what the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is trying to do. The nation's efforts are mainly concentrated in the city of Dubai, which is already home to a number of futuristic projects, including plans to create a "Mars science city" and build a real life hyperloop, programs for renewable energy and electric vehicles, and tests for flying taxis and even flying jetpacks.

Microscopes enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) could help in the quick and accurate diagnosis of the deadly blood infections, which may improve patients' odds of survival, according to a study. The bacteria that most often cause bloodstream infections include the rod-shaped bacteria including Escherichia coli or E.coli, the round clusters of Staphylococcus species, and the pairs or chains of Streptococcus species. Rapid identification and delivery of antibiotic medications is the key to treating bloodstream infections, which can kill up to 40 percent of patients who develop them. In the study, led by scientists Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) in Boston, used an automated microscope designed to collect high-resolution image data from microscopic slides. A convolutional neural network (CNN) -- a class of artificial intelligence modelled on the mammalian visual cortex and used to analyse visual data -- was trained to categorise bacteria based on their shape and distribution.

Horizons Ventures, the VC firm founded by Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-Shing, has made a rare early-stage investment after it backed AI startup Fano Labs. Horizons has invested in the likes of Facebook, Razer, Slack, Improbable, Spotify and more, and now it is putting undisclosed money into Fano Labs, which recently graduated AI accelerator program Zeroth. This deal also marks the firm's first investment in a Hong Kong-based company. Founded by academics, Fano Labs uses speech recognition and natural language processing to help out at call centers. No, the robots are taking those jobs (yet) but they are helping call centers themselves to run more efficiently.

The paper takes a look at how brands can make the most of machines in 2018, from facilitating seamless consumer experiences to delivering greater efficiencies. Feedback shows that the transformative impact of Voice, AI, and Machine Learning is being felt across the entire business landscape with 55% of marketers surveyed agreeing that Machine Learning will allow them to make better decisions in 2018. "In an increasingly complex digital economy, Machine Learning is set to play a pivotal role in our ecosystem. In India, we are already feeling these forces of change – driving better data understanding, enabling personalized conversation at scale and delivering greater efficiencies. We are at an inflection point where brands need to learn how to marry human capital and machines in order to succeed in the transformation that lies ahead," said Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India.

NEW DELHI: New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Machine Learning, Satellite Imagery and advanced analytics are empowering small-holder farmers in India to increase their income through higher crop yield and greater price control, Microsoft India said. In a few dozen villages in Telengana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, farmers are receiving automated voice calls that tell them whether their cotton crops are at risk of a pest attack, based on weather conditions and crop stage. In Karnataka, the government can get price forecasts for essential commodities such as tur (split red gram) three months in advance for planning the Minimum Support Price (MSP). "Sowing date as such is very critical to ensure that farmers harvest a good crop. And if it fails, it results in loss as a lot of costs are incurred for seeds, as well as the fertilizer applications," Suhas P. Wani, Director, Asia Region, of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), said in a Microsoft blog post.

Google has been recognized as a leader driving the global AI revolution, but the tools it offers to developers might not be as safe as many thought. A security team of China's social and gaming giant Tencent recently claimed (in Chinese) that it had found a "significant security loophole" in Google's machine-learning platform TensorFlow and that programmers are prone to malicious attack when editing codes using the platform. "Simply put, if the design professionals happen to be using the vulnerable component when coding a robot, it's likely that the hacker can control the robot through that loophole. So far we have only made a small step in security for AI. We look forward to making AI better and safer with the help of more technical talents," says Yang Yong, head of Blade, a team under Tencent's security division.

China is churning out robots. Annual production of industrial robots surpassed 100,000 for the first time -- and it only took 10 months. Shipments were up 67 percent through October compared with a year earlier, state media reported Thursday. And there's more to come: full-year output will reach 120,000 units, according to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology forecasts. China accounts for about a third of the global demand for industrial robots, which are at the core of the government's sweeping "Made in China 2025" plan to upgrade factories to be highly automated and technologically-advanced.