Thu 9 Nov 2017 20.44 EST Last modified on Thu 9 Nov 2017 21.05 EST Thousands of online scammers around the globe are being fooled by artificial intelligence bots posing as New Zealanders and created by the country's internet watchdog to protect it from "phishing" scams. Chatbots that use distinct New Zealand slang such as "aye" have been deployed by Netsafe in a bid to engage scammers in protracted email exchanges that waste their time, gather intelligence and lure them away from actual victims. Computer programmers at Netsafe spent more than a year designing the bots as part of their Re:scam initiative, which went live on Wednesday. Within 24 hours 6,000 scam emails had been sent to the Re:scam email address and there were 1000 active conversations taking place between scammers and chatbots. So far, the longest exchange between a scammer and a chatbot pretending to be a New Zealander was 20 emails long.

Quantcast, an AI technology company focused on the marketing and publishing industries, announced that it will expand its advertising solutions into seven markets across Asia, connecting brands with an online audience of up to 300 million consumers. The company already operates in Australia and New Zealand. Marketers across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand will now be able to tap into Quantcast's live data insights drawn from more than 100 million online destinations to drive more effective brand awareness and performance campaigns. Andrew Double, Quantcast's Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, will taking on an expanded role to lead the company's growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Konrad Feldman, Quantcast's Chief Executive Officer and Founder commented, "Marketing is at a tipping point with AI set to transform every customer experience, every company and every industry. Marketers in APAC are looking for better ways to engage digital audiences that are both efficient and effective. We're excited to help brands and their agency partners leverage the power of Q, our audience behavior platform."

In 1997, Garry Kasparov famously lost his rematch with IBM's Deep Blue, marking the first time a reigning world champion had been defeated by a program under tournament conditions. Much of the press that followed was predictably hyperbolic, with headlines questioning whether a "Terminator scenario" was just around the corner. Twenty years on, the potential danger posed by powerful AI is in the spotlight once again. It's a concern that leads to the fourth and final question of this mini-series: if we cannot align AI with our own goals and values, do these systems need an off switch? To help explore this issue of AI safety, Ian Sample calls on a trio of experts, including the University of New South Wales's professor of artificial intelligence Toby Walsh, the University of Oxford's Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Dr Yasemin J. Erden from St Mary's University in Twickenham.

Tue 23 Jan 2018 12.47 EST Last modified on Tue 23 Jan 2018 14.35 EST The computer scientist Mary Lee Berners-Lee, who has died aged 93, was on the programming team for the computer that in 1951 became the first in the world to be sold commercially: the Ferranti Mark I. She led a successful campaign at Ferranti for equal pay for male and female programmers, almost two decades before the Equal Pay Act came into force. As a young mother in the mid-1950s she set up on her own as a home-based software consultant, making her one of the world's first freelance programmers. Modest about her own pioneering achievements, she is on record (in an interview with computer historian Janet Abbate) as saying that her biggest contribution was to be "the grandmother of the web". In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee (now Sir Tim), the eldest of her four children, proposed a system to access and exchange documents across the internet, and soon afterwards built the first web server, website and browser.

Kangaroo Kapital is the largest credit card company in Australia. Animals across the continent use Kangaroo Kapital credit cards to make all of their daily purchases, racking up points in the company's reward system. Since Australian animals have traditionally not worn much clothing, the challenges of carrying around cash are substantial. Only having to keep track of a single credit card is a big help for your average working wallaby. But since Australian animals have typically not worn much clothing, they still have a problem keeping track of even a single credit card.

Apple is finally ready to launch its attempt to compete with the internet-connected speakers made by Amazon and Google with the release of its long-awaited HomePod. Pre-orders for the HomePod will begin Friday in the U.S, U.K. and Australia, two weeks before the speaker goes on sale in stores for $349. Apple had intended to release the HomePod last month during the holiday shopping season, but delayed its debut to refine the product. Both Amazon's Echo and Google's Home speakers have been expanding their reach into people's homes since Apple announced the HomePod last June. Amazon and Google also are selling their speakers for substantially less, with streamlined versions of their devices available for below $50.

Siri's news reading feature is no longer limited to the beta testing crowd. Apple has officially released iOS 11.2.5, and the centerpiece is the ability to ask Siri for the latest happenings. If you're in the US, UK or Australia, you can get a briefing from a slew of local sources, such as NPR and the Washington Post in the states or the BBC and Sky News in the UK. And it doesn't have to be general news, either -- you can ask for business, music or sports news as well. Not surprisingly, 11.2.5 is also key to unlocking support for the HomePod speaker.

In 2016, an estimated 65.6 million people across the globe were forced from their homes by everything from war to human rights violations. Climate change and global warming are exacerbating the problem of displaced persons, with millions of people expected to be forced to relocate to other -- often cooler -- countries. The problem is becoming so widespread that New Zealand is even considering creating a new visa specifically for those displaced by climate change. Once they make the difficult decision to leave their home, refugees face a slew of other questions: To which country do they flee? Where in that country should they go?

Tue 23 Jan 2018 12.47 EST Last modified on Tue 23 Jan 2018 12.48 EST The computer scientist Mary Lee Berners-Lee, who has died aged 93, was on the programming team for the computer that in 1951 became the first in the world to be sold commercially: the Ferranti Mark I. She led a successful campaign at Ferranti for equal pay for male and female programmers, almost two decades before the Equal Pay Act came into force. As a young mother in the mid-1950s she set up on her own as a home-based software consultant, making her one of the world's first freelance programmers. Modest about her own pioneering achievements, she is on record (in an interview with computer historian Janet Abbate) as saying that her biggest contribution was to be "the grandmother of the web". In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee (now Sir Tim), the eldest of her four children, proposed a system to access and exchange documents across the internet, and soon afterwards built the first web server, website and browser.

Rumors have been swirling as of late that Apple is getting ready to release its new Amazon Echo and Google Home rival very soon, and now we have an official launch date for the HomePod. Apple on Tuesday announced that the $349 HomePod will hit store shelves on Feb. 9. The Cupertino tech giant will start taking pre-orders on its website this Friday, Jan. 26, in the US, UK, and Australia. The Siri-backed smart speaker is slated to arrive in France and Germany this spring. Getting to this point has already been a long road for Apple, which unveiled the HomePod in June and planned to start selling it in December, in time for the holidays.