Scientists have created an insect-inspired drone with wings that collapse'like origami' when it collides with obstacles mid-flight. The new drone is so flexible that it can absorb shocks without breaking before springing back to its initial shape. Engineers say the revolutionary design was inspired by insect wings and the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, making it both stiff and flexible. Scientists have created an insect-inspired drone with wings that collapse'like origami' when it collides with obstacles. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) developed the new hybrid origami drone.

AIs that can work out how to hack self driving cars and other vehicles to turn them into killers are coming - and sooner than many people think, a leading expert has warned. 'Such attacks, which seem like science fiction today, might become reality in the next few years,' Guy Caspi, CEO of cybersecurity start-up Deep Instinct, told CNBC's podcast'Beyond the Valley.' It raises fears that self driving cars and other technologies could be hacked, turning them into makeshift battle weapons. Security expert Guy Caspi claims the technology needed for killer vehicles already exists in self driving cars from firms like Alphabet's Waymo. Caspi says much of the technology needed for killer vehicles already exists.

WIRE)--Looker, a leading data platform company, today announced an integration with Google Cloud BigQuery ML (BQML) that accelerates the time-to-value of data science workflows and allows business users to operationalize insights with interactive predictive metrics. With Looker and BigQuery ML, data teams can now save time and eliminate unnecessary processes by creating machine learning (ML) models directly in BigQuery via Looker – without the need to transfer data into additional ML tools. BigQuery ML predictive functionality will also be integrated into new or existing Looker Blocks allowing users to surface predictive measures in dashboards and applications. "Much of the work in machine learning centers around data preparation and ML model evaluation and tuning," said Lloyd Tabb, Looker Co-founder, Chairman and CTO. "Looker and BigQuery ML are great together in that Looker handles the data preparation and BigQuery ML does the learning. Looker can also help you evaluate and tune ML models to integrate predictions into dashboards and data workflows. We look forward to continuing our work with Google and bringing BigQuery ML capability to Looker Blocks."

LONDON--China's use of facial recognition technology for widespread state surveillance has been feverishly reported by many media in recent months. The latest is the UK's Financial Times, which reminds us of a 2015 official paper that articulated a vision to have a national video surveillance network by 2020 that is omnipresent, always working and fully controllable. The technology upon which it is based is reflected in the figures for investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and related tech companies, including semiconductor companies. Take for example Beijing-based SenseTime, which in the second quarter raised more than $1.2 billion. Among other things, it provides AI-powered surveillance for the Chinese police.

Last year, eBay launched a visual search capability for its mobile app that makes it possible to find items with pictures instead of words. Now, the auction platform is making it even easier to use -- you don't even have to take screenshots of whatever it is you want to find anymore, because eBay will soon allow you to drag and drop images into its search bar. For instance, if you search for a "Hello Kitty purse" in the app and find one that catches your eye, you can drag that photo into the search bar to find listings featuring identical or similar items. It won't only give you a way to search for purchases quickly, but also to find the best deals on the website. According to eBay, its convolutional neural networks process the photo you use by transforming it into a vector representation.

The robot, modelled on the mythical centaur, has been developed by researchers at the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology), in the hope that it may one day play a vital role in disaster relief efforts. Like the fabled creature, it has a humanoid-like upper section with two arms able to manipulate and move objects, while the quadrupedal lower half is capable of robust locomotion on uneven terrain. Standing 1.5 metres tall and weighing in at 93 kgs, the anthropomorphic Centauro is designed to work in man-made environments and manipulate human tools, though with much greater strength. Its hybrid system combines legged and wheeled mobility, enabling it to navigate in a range of environments. This includes typical human infrastructures, narrow doors and corridors, and even stairs.

Big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are helping doctors make better treatment decisions and improve the delivery of care, say Imperial experts. Dr Aldo Faisal, Reader in Neurotechnology jointly at the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Computing at the College, and Mr Erik Mayer, Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Department of Surgery & Cancer at the College and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, presented their work on big data and AI at the recent Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) seminar series. In a packed lecture theatre, Dr Faisal outlined his work on using artificial intelligence to help doctors make better treatment decisions for the condition Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic muscle wasting disease that begins in childhood and mainly affects boys. It usually renders patients unable to walk by age 12 and carries an average life expectancy of 26 years.

You can hardly turn on the television news, pull a magazine off a rack in a doctor's office, or check out your social media without being confronted by a discussion about artificial intelligence. Whether the writer or talking head is decrying the imminent robot apocalypse or celebrating our deep-learning-based salvation, most of the coverage has one thing in common: an imprecise definition of AI. AI is, at its base, nothing more than software that simulates intelligence. One specific type of AI is cropping up all around the Internet: conversational AI, mostly in the form of chatbots. The most recent and high-profile news about AI was Google's announcement that its AI, called Google Assistant, beat the Turing test--150 times.

Following the launch of the Law Society's Public Policy Technology and Law Commission to examine the use of algorithms in the justice system, and its call for evidence, it is worth considering the interface between lawtech which uses algorithms and the tightening global regulatory framework for data protection and privacy. The quote from Google's research director Peter Norvig, 'We don't have better algorithms. We just have more data,' invites interrogation of the value chain linking AI software and data assets: does the algorithm or the data generate more value for a professional services organisation, or is the added value created by determining the right blend for each context? And can software achieve that? At the commission launch, data scientist Professor Sofia Olhede focused on data quality rather than quantity – returning to the'garbage in, garbage out' principle that is too often forgotten or ignored.

Millions of Chrome users are being warned that sites are "not secure" in an unnerving new change. The tweak has been made in the latest version of Google's browser. It is intended as a way of encouraging sites to introduce the latest web technology – but means that large numbers of people are being told their browsing might be unsafe. The warning applies to a whole variety of sites, including Mail Online, one of the biggest news sites in the world. 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.