Uber is hiring Raquel Urtasun, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Toronto, as the ride-hailing company aims to build a lab for driverless car research in the Canadian city, a hotbed for AI talent. Ursasun--an associate professor at the university who specializes in the computer vision software that allows driverless cars to view the world around them--will oversee the new venture. "We hope to draw from the region's impressive talent pool as we grow, helping the dozens of researchers we plan to hire stay connected to the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor," Travis Kalanick, Uber's embattled CEO, wrote in a blog post published this morning. The move resonates on multiple levels, given the ongoing legal attack against Uber's existing computer vision technology by Waymo--the driverless car company that grew out of Google--and the widespread controversy over the Uber's allegedly misogynistic internal culture. Urtasun could help the company forge another much-needed path to the kind of AI that driverless cars will require.

While Tinder users have been analyzing profile pictures of potential dates, a programmer has been stealing them for artificial intelligence experiments focused on facial recognition. Some 40,000 photos were scraped from the dating app, all of users in the San Francisco Bay area, by a member of Kaggle – a platform focused on machine learning that was recently acquired by Google. The data set, named'People of Tinder', consisted of six downloadable zip files and each housed about 10,000 profiles pictures in each. Some 40,000 photos were scrapped from the dating app, all of users in the San Francisco Bay area, by a member of Kaggle. The plan was to use photos in artificial intelligence research focusing on facial recognition.

As global tensions continue to build, science fiction-fueled fears of a devastating electromagnetic pulse attack have begun to surface. Some speculate that North Korea could detonate a high-altitude nuclear weapon in space, setting off an EMP that would knock out electrical systems down below, with catastrophic results. But, experts are not convinced that this is how the scenario would pan out. According to nuclear non-proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis, tests of such devices in the past were largely anticlimactic, and failed to produce the widespread electrical disruption that's been predicted over the years. The expert points to a test conducted by the US in 1962 known as'Starfish Prime.' EMP, or electromagnetic pulse weapons use missiles equipped with an electromagnetic pulse cannon.

Inside an abandoned warehouse on the San Francisco docks, as the damp air floods through the holes in its rusted tin roof, Sunny Tang is playing her cello while recovering from the flu. She is 45 percent sad and 0.01 percent disgusted. That, at least, is the read from the AI that's tracking her expressions, gestures, and body language from the other side of the warehouse, flashing these stats on the movie screen behind her. The audience--several hundred people huddled between her and the AI, dressed in scarfs, hats, and overcoats--lets out a collective laugh. Tang is playing alongside the rest of the Kronos Quartet, the iconic San Francisco string ensemble known for its unorthodox experimentation, and the AI is obeying orders from Trevor Paglen, the American artist who poses big questions about technology and surveillance through nearly any medium he can get his hands on. It's all part of Sight Machine, a Paglen-orchestrated performance that explores the rise of computer vision.

"Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind," wrote the playwright John Milton in 1634. But, nearly 400 years later, technological advances in machines that can read our thoughts mean the privacy of our brain is under threat. Now two biomedical ethicists are calling for the creation of new human rights laws to ensure people are protected, including "the right to cognitive liberty" and "the right to mental integrity". Scientists have already developed devices capable of telling whether people are politically right-wing or left-wing. In one experiment, researchers were able to read people's minds to tell with 70 per cent accuracy whether they planned to add or subtract two numbers.

The AI NexusLab is a four-month go-to-market accelerator run by the Future Labs at NYU to support AI companies going from MVP to product-market fit. This program is a joint initiative between the NYU Future Labs and ff Venture Capital (ffVC). Each cohort is limited to no more than seven companies. Unlike traditional accelerators, the AI NexusLab is for founders who need a catalyst, not a classroom. Each company is pushed toward market entry and expansion through pilots and customers.

Hollywood gave us Sharknado, but real-life scientists have given us "Sharkcano" -- a highly active underwater volcano that is infested with sharks. And recently, those scientists presented us with another gift: They sent in a bunch of robots to get blown up in the eruptions. The robots, which were just some PVC pipes stacked with electronics, were necessary to take measurements of the Kavachi volcano in the South Pacific Ocean because it's too dangerous for humans to visit in the flesh, according to National Geographic. The scientific team was looking for things like temperature, carbon dioxide levels and acidity. After one enormous eruption, the researchers got even more than that when the robot caught pieces of ash that had just erupted as lava out of the Earth.

A device that can read people's minds by detecting their brainwaves has been developed in a breakthrough that could eventually enable people with "locked-in syndrome" to communicate. The system was only partially effective with a 90 per cent success rate when trying to recognise numbers from zero to nine and a 61 per cent rate for single syllables in Japanese, the researchers said. But, nonetheless, a statement about the research issued by the Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan said it showed that an effective device to read people's thoughts and relay them to others was possible in the "near future". They even suggested an "easily operated" device with a smartphone app could be ready in just five years. An electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to monitor people's brain waves while they spoke.

As many carmakers move ahead in the self-driving car race, one firm is expanding its operations to ensure it is not left behind. General Motors is set to hire 1,100 people over the next five years for its research and development facility in California. The new employees will be working at the Cruise Automation unit that the firm acquired last year, which is currently testing over 50 Chevrolet Bolt vehicles with self-driving technology in San Francisco, Scottsdale, Arizona and metro Detroit. General Motors is set to hire 1,100 more people over the next five for its researcher and development facility in California. General Motors (GM) has already added some 150 engineers to the Cruise Automation unit since purchasing it for $581 million in 2016 – it started with just 40.

A state economic development board on Thursday approved an $8 million tax credit for General Motors as the company looks to expand its autonomous vehicle division with more than 1,100 hires in California. The GM tax credit was among more than $91 million in California Competes incentives for 114 companies approved at a board meeting in Sacramento of Gov. Jerry Brown's GO-Biz agency. The credits range from GM's $8 million to $20,000 for MinowCPA Corp., an accounting firm that plans to hire eight people in Newport Beach and Santa Ana. GM promises to hire 1,163 workers at an average salary of $116,000. San Francisco is the hub for GM's autonomous vehicle research and development since the company acquired Cruise Automation last year, said Kevin Kelly, a GM spokesman.