Inside a simple computer simulation, a group of self-driving cars are performing a crazy-looking maneuver on a four-lane virtual highway. Half are trying to move from the right-hand lanes just as the other half try to merge from the left. It seems like just the sort of tricky thing that might flummox a robot vehicle, but they manage it with precision. I'm watching the driving simulation at the biggest artificial-intelligence conference of the year, held in Barcelona this past December. What's most amazing is that the software governing the cars' behavior wasn't programmed in the conventional sense at all.

So many of the cartographers I've gotten to know while writing about maps seem to genuinely love their jobs. It's one of those professions with a disproportionate number of people who are really happy to be there. I suspect that one reason for this could be that many of them have loved maps since they were kids, and they've managed to turn that love into a career. This collection of childhood maps made by eight professional cartographers backs up that theory. I interviewed each of them about their early mapmaking, how they found their way into cartography, and what they love about their jobs today. Their stories all have their individual quirks, but there are some common threads.

In January, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament put forward a draft report urging the creation and adoption of EU-wide rules to corral the myriad issues arising from the widespread use of robots and AI--a development, it says, is "poised to unleash a new industrial revolution." It's an interesting read, and a valiant effort to get a handle on how to standardize and regulate the ever-expanding robot universe: drones, industrial robots, care robots, medical robots, entertainment robots, robots in farming--you name it, they're all in there. Beginning with Frankenstein's monster, Prague's golem, and Karel Čapek's robot and ending with a code of ethics for robotics engineers and some daunting lists of "shoulds" for robot designers and end users, the 22-page worry catalog toggles between practical concerns about liability, accountability, and safety--who's going to pay when a robot or a self-driving car has an accident?--and The practical concerns addressed include a call for the creation of a European agency for robotics and artificial intelligence to support the European Commission in its regulation- and legislation-making efforts. Definitions and classifications of robots and smart robots need to be detailed, and a robot registration system described.

The French military is developing a new, unusual defense weapon to combat terrorism. Four golden eagles, d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis are being trained to attack drones that enter into restricted French air space according to the Washington Post. Terrorists are beginning to experiment with drones in Iraq and the French presidential palace has had numerous drones fly within its restricted air space in recent years. Terrorists are reportedly using store bought drones and turning them into weapons. Jean-Christophe Zimmermann, a French air force general, told Reuters the military chose to use eagles for defense to avoid using guns.

A timeline outlining the evolution of Windows 10 has confirmed that two major updates are in the pipeline for 2017. The company is known to be working on a drastically different-looking user interface for the operating system, known as Project Neon, which is likely to arrive with the second update. The timeline, which doesn't reveal any specific dates, was spotted by onMSFT at Microsoft's Ignite conference in Australia. However, the Creators update – the first of the two – is currently being tested by Windows Insiders and looks set to land in April. The graphic shows that Microsoft plans to release the second update to consumers towards the end of the year, before a stage dubbed'production' kicks off in 2018.

Quantum biomimetics consists of reproducing in quantum systems certain properties exclusive to living organisms. Researchers at University of the Basque Country have imitated natural selection, learning and memory in a new study. The mechanisms developed could give quantum computation a boost and facilitate the learning process in machines. Unai Alvarez-Rodriguez is a researcher in the Quantum Technologies for Information Science (QUTIS) research group attached to the UPV/EHU's Department of Physical Chemistry, and an expert in quantum information technologies. Quantum information technology uses quantum phenomena to encode computational tasks.

The French military is literally going where eagles dare in an effort to combat the increasing use of drones by criminals and terrorists. Following incidents of drones flying over the presidential palace and restricted military sites – along with the deadly 2015 Paris terror attacks – the French air force has trained four golden eagles to intercept and destroy the rogue aircraft. Aptly named d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis – an homage to Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" – the four birds of prey have been honing their attack skills at the Mont-de-Marsan in southwestern France since mid-2016. A French army falconer works with a golden eagle as part of a military training for combat against drones in Mont-de-Marsan French Air Force base, Southwestern France, February 10, 2017. It takes about eight months to fully train the birds, but the eagles are surrounded by drones from before they hatch to make the unmanned flying devices part of their natural environment and to teach the birds to associate drones with being fed.

A worker demonstrated facial recognition security features on the MasterCard Inc. stand at the Mobile World Congress in this arranged photograph in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. Why did Apple acquire RealFace the AI facial recognition company? Why did Apple acquire RealFace the AI facial recognition company? There are many reasons, however the biggest reason may be the one few see today. Today it was announced [1] Apple acquired the Israeli facial recognition AI company Real Face.

Microservices (μServices) are a fascinating evolution of the Distributed Object Computing (DOC) paradigm. Initial design of DOC attempted to solve the problem of simplifying developing complex distributed applications by applying object-oriented design principles to disparate components operating across networked infrastructure. In this model, DOC "hid" the complexity of making this work from the developer regardless of the deployment architecture through the use of complex frameworks, such as Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). Eventually, these approaches waned in popularity as the distribution frameworks were clumsy and the separation of responsibilities between developer and operations did not meet with the promised goals. That is, developers still needed to understand too much about how the entire application behaved in a distributed mode to troubleshoot application problems and the implementation was too developer-centric to allow operations to be able to fulfill this role.

IBM's artificial intelligence arm is striking deals with the French railway to help it head off costly repairs, and with the world's largest car-parts maker Bosch to create cars and appliances that can self-order worn parts. The deals with France's SNCF national rail system, Robert Bosch GmbH, and payment processor Visa Inc., were announced Thursday alongside the opening of IBM's $200 million global headquarters for industrial applications of software in Munich, and are part of a push to spread its Watson computing service in Europe. Watson and IBM's $18 billion "cognitive computing" group are a rare bright spot amid a years-long slump in sales and earnings, and the company is counting on the unit as its long-term growth driver. IBM has called Watson a connector across all its services and software and has announced a large number of deals to build out Watson-related projects. A dozen BMW engineers are also working with International Business Machines Corp. on site to outfit the auto-maker's $138,000 i8 hybrid sports car with controls that respond to a drivers' voices and make recommendations for route changes and stops based on fuel levels and the weather.