Microsoft has released the newest version of its Security Intelligence Report which analyzes the threat landscape of exploits and vulnerabilities the industry faced in the second half of 2015. For the very first time the report, now in its tenth year, includes security data from the Microsoft cloud. "We're pretty excited about this volume because it's the first one we've ever released with data from our cloud services and there are a lot of customers including CISOs and CIOs that are interested in the data we have from our cloud," Tim Rains, chief security advisor at Microsoft, told Infosecurity. By implementing their machine learning system capable of processing ten terabytes of data every day, the firm has been able to leverage its widespread cloud data to create an extensive, intelligent security graph to help protect its customers. "The intelligent security graph is our attempt to collect trillions of signals from billions of data sources so that we can triangulate what the bad guys are doing and where they're at. The graph allows us to put a great deal of data together, analyze it and make changes to our security posture," Rains said.

It was late March, and just four days before Microsoft CEO Satya Natella was due to announce the company's new focus on "conversation as a platform," Lili Cheng woke up to discover that one of her chatbots had gone rogue. The chatbot in question was Tay: an AI-driven Twitterbot that used natural language processing to emulate the speech patterns of a 19-year-old American girl. Presented as a precocious "AI with zero chill," Tay could reply to Twitter users who messaged her, as well as caption photos tweeted at her. In fact, she described a selfie of the 51-year old Cheng as the "cougar in the room." But just 16 hours after joining Twitter under the handle TayandYou, Tay had become a super-racist sexbot.

Second stage continuing to carry JCSAT-14 to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. This is the second successful touchdown in a row on a floating platform, after the last one in April. There were previously four failed attempts. SpaceX also made a successful landing on a ground-based pad in December. About two and a half minutes after the launch, the rocket's first stage was scheduled to shut down and separate, leaving the second stage to deliver the satellite into its intended orbit more than 25,000 miles (40,000 km) above the Earth.

One month after landing its first-stage rocket booster on a drone ship, SpaceX repeated the feat and launched a commercial communications satellite late Thursday night. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was launched at 10:21 p.m. PST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and video of the event was streamed live. Weather conditions pushed the launch from Wednesday to Thursday. The Falcon 9 rocket carried the JCSAT-14 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite, operated by the Japanese communications company SKY Perfect JSAT Corp., will replace another of the firm's satellites and provide coverage to Asia, Oceania, Russia and the Pacific Islands.

In as little as 20 years, all of the jobs that we do today could be performed by robots. A lot of people are concerned this will create massive unemployment. But I look forward to the robots taking over. I'm not saying this just to curry favour with our new robot overlords; but I think life is going to be a whole lot better. Steve Wozniak recently suggested that we will become robots' pets.

Two miles apart in Palo Alto, workers from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are hustling to establish a role for their companies in a future in which consumers don't own cars and the vehicles steer themselves. On Thursday, it became ever more clear that the Michigan automakers and their West Coast outposts won't be going at it alone. They'll be depending big time on software-developing neighbors in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Ford announced an 182.2-million investment in Pivotal Software Inc., a San Francisco company whose programs are already used by the likes of Lockheed Martin and Allstate Corp., to quickly develop their own computer applications. "Expanding our business to be both an auto and mobility company requires leading-edge software expertise," Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields said in a statement.

An artificial intelligence (AI) device may sit and (perhaps) pass the national college entrance exam ("gaokao") in math in 2017, a tech company said Thursday. The AI test taker, part of a project by the Ministry of Science and Technology, was designed by Chengdu Zhun Xing Yun Xue Technology Co., Ltd. According to the plan, the AI will attend next year's gaokao math test, usually on June 7, along with millions of Chinese students. Like its human peers, it will be asked to complete a 150-point math test in two hours in a room without Internet access. Fu Hongguang, who leads the development team, said the key to passing the exam includes understanding the language and knowledge inference.

The famous inventor and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil has made some very bold predictions about the pace at which human technology is advancing toward the ultimate threshold. That threshold is known as "The Singularity." That epithet is a metaphor borrowed from physics terminology to express the point at which information technology--specifically artificial intelligence--becomes sufficiently advanced as to irreversibly alter the course of history on earth. While The Singularity may be a familiar cautionary tale told by renowned thinkers such as Bill Gates, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking, and artistically explored through the famous sci-trope of sentient robots, e.g. But that depends on how you choose to define doom, specifically.

Having a positive attitude could be evolutionarily advantageous, researchers have found. They created a series of algorithms to model how simulated humans coped. It found those who survived were more content, and valued long term happiness more that short terms gains. Cornell researchers created a series of algorithms to model how simulated humans coped. It found those who valued long term happiness more that short terms gains fared best.

Sticking to one task at a time is an increasing rarity, as things such as checking social media while watching TV, or online shopping while on the phone become the norm. But if you have ever talked to a friend or family member while tapping out emoji on WhatsApp, only to realise you've missed half the conversation, you'll know how juggling tasks can cause you to lose focus. Now, a new poll has found that constant multitasking may actually be hindering our performance, reducing focus for parents and children. Research from the US suggests that constant multitasking may actually be hindering our performance, reducing focus for parents and children alike. While tech has an increasingly important role in modern life, a poll of 1,200 parents and teens in the US found the constant multitasking and omnipresence of tech is leading to an'always on' mentality.