The United States and China currently dominate the world of artificial intelligence, but used very different approaches to get there. While the US's academic system has generated and incubated the research that made today's AI possible, China's government has pledged billions in funding and offered the technology its full-throated support. It's a space-race redux, where world superpowers battle to define generations of technology to come. Despite the duopoly narrative, other countries, including Canada and the UK, have ramped investment in the technology, announcing deals to fund private and public AI ventures. After years of a slow trickle, the first months of 2018 have seen an explosion of government-backed projects announced all over the world.

Ideology is what determines how you think when you don't know you're thinking. Neoliberalism is a prime example. Less well-known but equally insidious is technological determinism, which is a theory about how technology affects development. It comes in two flavours. One says that there is an inexorable internal logic in how technologies evolve. So, for example, when we got to the point where massive processing power and large quantities of data became easily available, machine-learning was an inevitable next step.

A startup which is able to detect cardiac arrests using artificial intelligence has announced it will be expanding its service to further European cities later this year. Corti has partnered with the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) to expand its service to four additional cities. The startup, based in Copenhagen, will select which cities it will expand its pilot to next in June. The pilot in Copenhagen has been a resounding success measured by the analysis released today. Based on more than 2,000 cardiac arrest emergency calls in 2014, Corti was 93 percent accurate.

Last week, the European Commission published an important paper on artificial intelligence and robotics. Its communication on "Artificial Intelligence for Europe", released on 25 April 2018, describes AI technologies as being as transformative as the steam engine or electricity. They will, it is said, help solve some of the world's biggest problems, from chronic disease, to climate change, to cybersecurity threats. The communication sets out three pillars of a proposed integrated approach to AI across Europe: keeping ahead of technological developments and encouraging uptake of AI by the public and private sectors; preparing for the socio-economic changes brought about by AI; and ensuring an appropriate ethical and legal framework. As a starter, the EU has announced additional funding for AI-related projects via its Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, with up to €500 million extra available each year between now and 2020. These funds can be bid for by both the private and public sector.

In December 2017, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway announced the formation of a new healthcare company which would use technology to provide high-quality healthcare to patients and families more simply, and at a more reasonable cost. This move and rumors of entry into pharmaceutical distribution shook up stock prices for more established healthcare companies and pharmacy chains. Amazon's entry into healthcare is intriguing because medicine is ripe for disruption. In 2016, U.S. per-person healthcare expenses were $10,348, more than double that of other first-world countries that offer universal health coverage ($4,752 in Canada, $4,600 in France, $4,708 in Australia, and $4,192 in the UK). Despite these costs, U.S. medical care is not altogether accurate or safe; medical errors kill more Americans annually than AIDS and motor vehicle incidents.

The latest Fox News Poll finds that nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of current users say they care if Facebook shares their information with others, and a large 43 percent minority have thought about deleting their account in order to protect their privacy. Think about your interaction with Facebook as a relationship. Now, imagine being at dinner with someone new and they say they are recording the conversation, taking your fingerprints, tracking your movements and they are going to share all of that data with everyone--without your knowledge or consent. According to Matt Erickson, executive director at the Digital Privacy Alliance, that unpleasant scenario is what his colleagues are working against and what Europe's sweeping new privacy regulations taking effect on May 25 are meant to help prevent. During his recent Capitol Hill testimony, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company already has controls in place to comply with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and told lawmakers they'd likely extend some of those protections to its 2.2 billion users globally.

In amongst the current noisy UK political landscape it is good to see that the Government is redoubling its efforts to support the growth and development of AI focussed businesses in the UK. The coming years will likely prove to be a defining period for the World's economy as the pace of change that is predicted to be driven by the adoption of AI across multiple sectors and industries increases exponentially. The more that can be done to put the UK at the forefront of that change, the better. If we are to maintain a competitive advantage on the World stage we have to focus on what industries will bring revenue to the UK economy, retain existing talent and drive new talent to our shores. Right now, AI looks like a strong bet for the Government to make. The are, however, significant challenges.

For the first time, scientists have discovered that smart people have bigger brain cells than their peers. As well as being bulkier, the cells are better connected to their neighbours, allowing them to process more information at a faster rate. If results of the study are confirmed, it could help researchers find a way to enhance our intelligence. Smart people have bigger brain cells that are better connected than those of less intelligent people, say scientists. A study, led by Natalia Goriounova at the Free University Amsterdam, gave an IQ test to 35 people who were due to undergo brain surgery, according to report in New Scientist.

Pac-Man might never have left the public eye, but with Wreck-it Ralph, Pixels and Ready Player One, the iconic elder statesman of gaming is now in front of people that may have never touched an arcade joystick. To that extent, Pac-Man's latest'game' makes sense -- it's arriving on Amazon's Alexa as a skill today. Pac-Man Stories is more bed-time tale than arcade throwback, and will encompass several stories aimed at the family. 'Pac-Man and the Ghastly Garbage' is the first title, and as Lee Kirton, Chief Pac-Man Officer (real title), explained to me, it's a "choose your own adventure" kind of experience. It'll combine moral decisions, interactions with characters and lightweight, kid-friendly puzzles.

Ever been delayed on a flight because of straggling fellow passengers? That might be an annoyance of the past at Singapore's Changi airport which is testing facial recognition systems that could, in future, help locate lost travellers or those spending a little too much time in the duty-free shops. Changi Airport, ranked the world's best for six years straight in a survey by air travel consultancy Skytrax, is looking at how it can use the latest technologies to solve many problems - from cutting taxiing times on the runway to quicker predictions of flight arrivals. It comes as the island state embarks on a'smart nation' initiative to utilize technology to improve lives, create economic opportunity and build community ties. However the proposed use of cameras mounted on lampposts that are linked to facial recognition software has raised privacy concerns.