SpaceX is poised to fire off a fresh Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, delivering a comically tiny payload for Taiwan's National Space Organization. At 1,047 pounds, the Formosat-5 Earth-observing satellite is almost light enough for a human to deadlift--but it'll launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket with 50 times more capacity. The overkill is thanks to a years-long delay, and SpaceX will take a substantial financial hit to make good on a contract it signed in 2010. Elon Musk's spaceflight company will attempt to launch the rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California during a 42-minute window opening at 11:51am PDT on Thursday. The satellite is bound for heliosynchronous orbit, where it will pass over Taiwan every two days for data retrieval. After the lightest single payload to ever hitch a ride on a Falcon 9 separates, the booster will fly back for a drone ship landing--hopefully to be reused in future, more economically viable missions.

Baidu, the dominant Chinese internet search operator that's trying to recast itself as a leader in artificial intelligence, will provide its technology to …

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Arend Hintze is a renowned assistant professor of Integrative Biology and Computer Science from Michigan State University. By day, he work on artificial intelligence technologies, trying to bridge the gap between humanity and machine. But by night, he is haunted by the consequences of his research. When the critics rose voice against the ethical nature of AIs, and were dismissed by so called shallow AI researchers, he came forward and put on his views on the same. And honestly, it does make sense.

Fighting in Dissidia NT, coming to the PlayStation 4, is mayhem. Six characters from the Final Fantasy universe, of varying levels of popularity, are rushing each other, launching giant magical projectiles, charging up summon attacks, and watching their backs as they do it. While the first two Dissidia games on PSP were one-on-one affairs, this time you're part of a trio. And similar to Overwatch and other competitive team games, characters are meant to work together in unison. Each is assigned to one of four classes, and that decides their play-style, weaknesses and strengths.

Developers in Japan are offering a robot "priest" to conduct Buddhist funeral rites complete with chanted sutras and drum tapping - all at a fraction of the cost of a human.

Locals in Reykjavik are now getting their takeaways delivered by drone. The world's first operational drone delivery service has launched this week in Iceland's capital city. The company behind the service plans to scale it up in the next few months to make hundreds of drone deliveries each day. If you order a takeaway while in Reykjavik, there's a good chance it will be delivered to you by a drone. The world's first operational drone delivery service has launched this week in Iceland's capital city Deliveries are made by Flytrex's autonomous delivery drone'Mule'.

Renowned Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima is currently developing a new game entitled "Death Stranding." While Kojima and the team behind the upcoming title have already outed several teasers and leaked some details about it, the game is still pretty much shrouded in mystery. Interestingly, Kojima has outed his main goal in creating such a game, and he may have also hinted at the multiplayer facet of "Death Stranding." This week, Kojima penned an article for Rolling Stone in which he discussed the rise of a new kind of war movie in the cinematic industry. However, he just used this to make a point as to what he is envisioning for his upcoming action game for the PlayStation 4 console.

The incredible possibilities artificial intelligence (AI) presents - and also its potential challenges - have made it an important talking point. Of course, there are a lot of myths out there about AI. Some like Alibaba founder Jack Ma said AI is not only a massive threat to jobs but could also spark World War III. Not only Ma, opinions are divided in the industry on whether AI is a job killer or a job creator. According to a recent report published by MIT Technology Review, Artificial Intelligence will not exactly eliminate jobs, but it will deconstruct them in the near future.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's State Council on Thursday issued a guideline for the development of the country's information technology (IT) industry. The State Council expects China's IT industry to reach 6 trillion yuan ($901 billion) in value by 2020, based on an average annual growth rate of 11 percent. The report includes references to nascent developments in e-commerce, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) as well as technology for traditional industries including medicine and education. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. The agency says people facing deportation have been released from detention because their home countries have blocked their return.

Few technological advancements have been as divisive as artificial intelligence (AI), especially in matters where human lives could hang in the balance. For example, AI is already seeing increased use in the medical industry, but many consumers view AI as unpredictable, or even dangerous, not to mention entirely superfluous. For reference, AI refers to any machine or automated process that's designed to imitate human intelligence, usually in the realms of learning, reasoning, or self-correction. Modern AI algorithms often fall into the category of machine learning, where complex algorithms can "teach" themselves to improve certain skills, such as recognizing diagnostic criteria for certain diseases. Despite the fears associated with it, AI is becoming increasingly necessary in many cases to advance medical treatment and improve outcomes.