In 2016, Stanford students started hacking for defense--that is, they took on real projects from National Security Agency, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Army Cyber Command, the Veterans Administration, and other agencies with defense-related problems. The students actually came up with prototype solutions. The innovative Hacking For Defense (H4D) class, which requires each student team to conduct at least 100 interviews with defense industry "clients," caught on quickly. Today, according to Steve Blank, an instructor at Stanford and one of the creators of the curriculum, eight universities in addition to Stanford have offered or will offer a Hacking for Defense class this year: Boise State, Columbia, Georgetown, James Madison, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Southern California, and the University of Southern Mississippi. At Stanford, the class has spun out Hacking for Diplomacy, Hacking for Energy, and other targeted classes that use the same methodology.

Campaign rhetoric will calm down. People will return to their daily lives and America will go back to focusing on its future. Trump's victory, largely led by the voices that got ignored by the previous administrations, provides a clear mandate for the Trump administration. The minor problem: when it comes to technology, the Trump mandate is mostly silent. The major problem:technology strategy by the Trump administration can be at odds with the low-to-medium skilled job creation promise on one hand or lead to decline in American competitiveness on the other hand.

American Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AiAi) announces alliance with Leathwaite to help provide business executives with A.I. market insight and education. Al Naqvi, professor and CEO, said, "Our institute is dedicated to providing guidance and training to C-Level executives on the responsible and effective adoption of A.I. solutions, and we were honored when we were approached by Leathwaite and asked to help them deliver this invaluable insight to their clients." Max Woolger, Head of New Partnerships of Leathwaite said, "One of the most valuable services our company provides is market intelligence regarding industry trends, and A.I. is the most common topic of conversation lately. We are pleased to have American Institute of A.I. to provide such powerful information to our clients." The alliance constitutes research, solutions, and education.

This week, we have two mammoth events: The Fifth Elephant on 27 and 28 July (Thu-Fri) followed by Anthill Inside on 29 July (Sat). As you might've rightly guessed, we are bang in the middle of preparation. We'll be live streaming both the events on YouTube, so if you aren't able to make it, do watch the live streams (YouTube lets you set a reminder): The Fifth Elephant and Anthill Inside expose you to trends in data science, deep learning and artificial intelligence. At the same time, we have taken care to curate conversations on topics that the community cares about, and should know. These conversations will take place at Off-The-Record (OTR) sessions: semi-structured panels where participants can share experiences with practitioners.

Mid-century writers often discussed flying cars and massive space settlements, but how many predicted mobile phones? Still, some trends are clear, and few would argue that smart technology is going to play an increasing, and perhaps even dominating, role in our cities' futures. Will these trends lead to better quality of life? What are the potential downsides? Although cities are changing at a rapid pace, many of these changes aren't immediately visible.

In 1942, science fiction author Isaac Asimov introduced the world to his three laws of robotics. In LinkedIn's Financial Services/Fintech survey of more than 1,000 professionals from the broader FI/Fintech space, it is clear that the threats and opportunities associated with A.I. have never been more present conceptually than they are today. When you look at some of the organizations making big bets on A.I. today, the online lists always include technology majors, but we don't yet see banks investing anywhere near the scale of Microsoft, Google, Apple, Alibaba, Baidu and others. Industrial players like Boeing and Tesla are making big bets on A.I., so it is reasonable to expect that we should see big investments coming through financial services also. However, right now the lion's share of progress appears to be coming from players like Ant Financial and smaller Fintech's who are able to specialize in various technologies.

At the site of an ancient city on the West Bank, archaeologists are hunting for evidence of the tabernacle that once housed the Ark of the Covenant. Associates for Biblical Research, a consortium of individuals and universities, recently completed four weeks of excavation in Shiloh with the goal of eventually locating the tabernacle. Dr. Scott Stripling, director of excavations at Shiloh and provost at The Bible Seminary in Houston, Texas, told Fox News that the site could offer up vital clues. "We have just begun the process of accumulating evidence but we're confident that the tabernacle rested at Shiloh," he said, adding that that the tabernacle was located at Shiloh for about 350 years. "The tabernacle was set up at Shiloh in 1400 B.C. - Joshua 18:1 mentions it."

Google has added autoplaying videos to search. The clips automatically start when your results load, and can show up even if you aren't specifically looking for a video. They could prove a controversial addition, as search has always been clean and relatively free of clutter, and autoplaying videos have provoked irritation on other platforms. 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.

China's top administrative body has laid out a three-step approach to make artificial intelligence (AI) the key driving force of the country's economic growth for the next decade. According to the plan initiated by the State Council and released last week, China will first keep pace with other leading countries in terms of AI technology and applications by 2020, aiming for a core AI industry worth 150 billion yuan ($22 billion) and AI-related fields worth 1 trillion yuan, according to a Tencent news report. After the conclusion of the second phase by 2025 when legal grounds for the industry are established, the government plans to be the global leader in AI theory, technology, and applications and the major AI innovation centre globally by 2030. At which time, the core AI industry will value 1 trillion yuan and AI-related industries 10 trillion yuan, according to the blueprint. The government has also pushed for vigorous development of AI-related emerging industries in China, including intelligent hardware and software, intelligent robots, and Internet of Things based devices.

MEPs have approved rules for keeping humans firmly in charge of Artificial Intelligence (AI). They include ways to establish liability in law, for example where driverless cars cause accidents. They have also called for ethical standards to be built in to AI algorithms and robots that work for humans, and standardisation across Member States to ensure a level playing field for technology companies. After a heated debate, the vote was passed on Thursday by a large majority, 369 to 123 with 85 abstentions. But clauses that would introduce a basic state allowance for people who lose their jobs to robotisation were defeated. A coalition of right-wing parties voted them out.