Chinese researchers are working on a new handheld laser weapon capable of burning skin and clothing from up to half a mile away, according to a report. The high-powered laser rifle will be used by anti-terrorism squads in the Chinese Armed Police, the South China Morning Post reports, with prototypes of the device already being tested at the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi province. The ZKZM assault rifle causes "instant carbonisation" of human tissue, according to the researchers behind it, and will "burn through clothes in a split second. " The unnamed researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences added: "If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire." While the gun is not powerful enough to kill someone, the researcher said: "The pain will be beyond endurance."

The average worker of the future is a socially adept leader, entrepreneur, and life-long learner with transferrable technology skills, who is also happy to work in a team, suggests a new McKinsey report. Chris Middleton looks at whether organisations can really find such people. Reports about the growing IT skills gap in digitally enhanced organisations have been circulating for as long as the internet has existed as a business tool, suggesting that the supposed urgency of fixing the problem has not been an impediment to many successful organisations. However, a new report from management consultancy McKinsey suggests that the rapid introduction of automation and artificial intelligence systems within companies is changing the very nature of work itself, as technologies increasingly augment some human skills, and replace others completely. Over the next decade, this will force companies to reconsider how work is organised internally.

Nicole Camarillo was touring the Army base at Fort Meade, Maryland in early 2017 when a young captain--I'll call him Matt, due to the sensitivity of his position--crossed her path. I've got to talk to that kid, Camarillo remembers thinking. Just weeks before, she'd seen Matt deliver a presentation on a tool he was developing to counter enemy drone strikes in the Middle East. The technology, he explained, was being developed on a "shoestring budget." As executive director of talent strategy at the US Army Cyber Command, a relatively new branch of the Army, Camarillo's job is to convince top employees in Silicon Valley that they should sacrifice their stock options and six-figure salaries and apply their technological know-how in the Army instead.

Medtech startup AliveCor announced this morning it has pulled in $30 million from Omron Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic and is launching an artificially intelligent stroke prevention platform for doctors called KardiaPro. AliveCor already has an FDA-cleared mobile app called Kardia to accompany its $99 standalone EKG reader device. However, a partnership last year with the Mayo Clinic involving 4,500 patients for a major study on stroke prompted the company to build the new platform, which is a premium offering for doctors who want to monitor the EKG readouts of patients at potential risk for stroke or other heart-related diseases. KardiaPro will track a number of factors for at-risk patients, including weight, activity and blood pressure and then runs them through the AliveCor AI technology to suss out potential triggers doctors may not detect on their own. The platform then feeds what AliveCor CEO Vic Gundotra refers to as a "personal heart profile" for patients that can then be used to send alerts to the doctor to help them determine the next course of action. AliveCor raised $13.5 million previously from Khosla Ventures, Qualcomm and Burrill and Company.

The nearly 6,000-pound (2,700-kilogram) delivery includes genetically identical mice for a study of gut bacteria, and the round robot Cimon (pronounced Simon). Slightly bigger than a basketball, the AI robot from the Germany Space Agency is meant to assist German astronaut Alexander Gerst with science experiments. Cimon's brain will constantly be updated by IBM, so its intelligence -- and role -- keep growing.

We're living in a world where computers can do our taxes, drive our cars, and book our holidays. Back in 2013, a study by researchers at University of Oxford has given architects a mere 1.8% chance of being automated. This is because'creative tasks' which involve a high degree of human manipulation and human perception are difficult to automate. However, just because certain types of creative occupations can't easily be replaced, doesn't mean that their industries won't see disruption. With the advent of BIM, mixed reality, 3D printing, and other emerging technologies, architects are uniquely placed in the entire digital transformation of construction ecosystem.

The rush to watch a one-off event in Fortnite led to a bizarre series of events and a brand new record for the number of kills by one person in the game. In recent weeks, Fortnite has been taken over by a countdown clock that was teasing a mysterious event. It became clear that all the excitement was leading to a one-off event, during which a rocket would take off in real time, with only people playing at that specific moment able to see it. The event led to a surprise pause in hostilities as the time approached, with players giving up on the battle royale part of the game and instead working together to build vast viewing platforms so they could see the event. As the moment approached, huge numbers of players gathered to watch the rocket come out of the ground and smash open the sky. 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.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've probably heard of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal and Mark Zuckerberg's statements about the worldwide changes Facebook is making in response to European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If your business is not yet in Europe, you may be taken aback by the statement from U.S. Senator Brian Schatz that "all tech platforms ought to adopt the EU approach to (data protection)." This, despite the fact that 45% of U.S. citizens think that there is already "too much" government regulation of business and industry. So yes, GDPR is a big deal indeed. When it became the law in European Union on May 25, 2018, it improved data protection for EU citizens dealing with companies not only in Europe but all around the world.

Pepper is a 4ft tall approximation of a human being developed in France, and now manufactured and marketed by the Japanese-owned corporate giant SoftBank Robotics. If you went to the recent Robots exhibitions at London's Science Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, you will be aware of what he (Pepper has been given a male pronoun, for some reason) can do. Using a screen on his chest, he tells interactive stories, approximates the basics of conversation, and performs everyday gestures – all the while, according to his creators, "recognising the principal human emotions and adapting his behaviour to the mood of his interlocutor". I have met Pepper on three occasions: the fact that my two children were so entranced spoke volumes not just about his capabilities, but the easy charm his inventors have wired into him. More than 100 SoftBank mobile phone shops in Japan are already employing Peppers to interact with their customers; last week brought news that HSBC is doing the same thing in its flagship US branch in Manhattan.

Aeronautics company Airbus has successfully launched an AI assistant called CIMON into space. The artificial intelligence system is the first to arrive on the International Space Station (ISS) and is powered by IBM's Watson supercomputer and overseen by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation with Airbus. CIMON stands for "Crew Interactive Mobile CompanioN" and is a mobile and autonomous system designed to help astronauts with everyday tasks on the ISS, while also providing companionship. CIMON was created using 3D printing and made of plastic and metal. "We are the first company in Europe to carry a free flyer, a kind of flying brain, to the ISS and to develop artificial intelligence for the crew on board the space station," said Manfred Jaumann of Airbus.