Robots probably won't kill people, but people could kill people with robots. That's the concern of an open letter signed by scientists and other interested parties -- including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Stephen Hawking. If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. See also: Team KAIST won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, so now what? The Future of Life Institute, the volunteer-backed research organization which posted the letter, aims to "maximize the future benefits of AI while avoiding pitfalls," according to its website.

There's always one game at E3 that proves, counter to the general theme of the show, bigger isn't always better. This year, a tiny studio named Compulsion found itself thrust into the limelight after its project We Happy Few caused a considerable splash at Microsoft's press conference. But as a black comedy set in a dystopian Britain being destroyed by a vast group hallucination, it may now take on more profound and pressing connotations following last night's result. For some, this strange combination of 1984, A Clockwork Orange and Bioshock feels very much the game of the moment. The opening of the E3 demo, which momentarily silenced the usual energetic whooping, evoked the spirit of another wonderful introductory sequence, from Terry Gilliam's seminal 1985 film Brazil.

IN JULY 2011 Sebastian Thrun, who among other things is a professor at Stanford, posted a short video on YouTube, announcing that he and a colleague, Peter Norvig, were making their "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" course available free online. By the time the course began in October, 160,000 people in 190 countries had signed up for it. At the same time Andrew Ng, also a Stanford professor, made one of his courses, on machine learning, available free online, for which 100,000 people enrolled. Both courses ran for ten weeks. Such online courses, with short video lectures, discussion boards for students and systems to grade their coursework automatically, became known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

WIRE)--Ipswitch, the leader in easy to try, buy and use IT management software, today announced the findings of an independent global study, carried out by analyst firm Freeform Dynamics. The survey examines the attitudes and readiness of IT decision makers with regard to intelligent machines and business systems (machines with decision making and learning capabilities). Exploring the fast-paced adoption of these systems, the report looks at the positive impacts already being observed in the commercial world and the potential barriers to even further mainstream adoption over the next decade. According to the research, investment in intelligent business systems and automation is well underway across the globe. Top current application deployment areas cited by respondents include digital customer engagement systems (55 percent), process automation and workflow systems (52 percent) and automated risk monitoring and management solutions (50 percent).

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Now your videos of surfing, skiing, snowboarding, motocross…and all those other zany activities will be easier than ever to edit, thanks to machine learning and a new attachment known as Pik'd. Pik'd is meant to help you ensure that fun and adrenaline are the protagonists of your footage, and not much time or concern needs to be devoted to post-production. The communication between the technologies works automatically, so the user doesn't have to manipulate the device. All you have to do is attach the tech to your GoPro and record. Once the images have been captured, connect the camera to the computer and open the Pik'd software, which will be supplied free of charge.

We've long known that there are many tasks that computers can perform faster – and better – than humans. Of course, we still have to teach computers HOW to do these tasks, and when using conventional programming techniques we have to be very specific about what computers should do and when. With machine learning, we're essentially teaching computers how to learn what to do, and some of them are becoming better than we are at complex tasks. For example, machine learning is a key enabler of self-driving cars and experts predict that they will eventually be safer than human-driven vehicles. That's just one example of how machine learning is letting us use computers in new ways to do new things.

Trendytoutdoor pizza ovens have been labelled an environmental menace by scientists. The wood burning stoves used to cook pizzas churn out dangerous emissions which may be polluting some built up urban areas where the crusty favourites are particularly popular. It is not just pizzas that could be taking a bite out of attempts to clean up the environment, the study says. Similar wood burners are also used by many steakhouse restaurants too. The wood burning stoves used to cook pizzas churn out dangerous emissions which may be polluting some built up urban areas where the crusty favourites are particularly popular.

Tekstum provides real-time scientific analysis of the opinions and feelings that readers are expressing online. Using a state-of-the-art algorithm built with big data and artificial intelligence, the company promises to revolutionise how publishers market, and how customers search for and buy books, by synthesising, analysing and visualising readers' moment-to-moment emotions and experiences. Spanish founder and CEO Marc Santandreu worked for international publishing companies such as Author Solutions and Regió7. Lauren Romeo (PhD in Computational Linguistics) is the Lead Scientist, pioneering the Natural Language Processing research and development of the engine, while Juanjo Fernandez is the engineer responsible for the development of the software. Every year the number of new books in the market grows exponentially, generating huge amounts of data at ever-faster rates.

Scientists believe its only a matter of time before a devastating earthquake hits southern California. The'Big One', expected to be triggered by the San Andreas fault, could leave thousands dead or displaced. Now, scientists are preparing for the worst - and the latest defence is a steel frame building that experts believe could withstand a major tremor. Researchers at the University of California in San Diego rocked and rattled a six-story steel frame building on a giant shake table to see how the structure would withstand major earthquakes. The shaking simulated an earthquake of the 6.7 magnitude that occurred in 1994 in Los Angeles, causing significant damage.