A US university's claim it can use facial recognition to "predict criminality" has renewed debate over racial bias in technology. Harrisburg University researchers said their software "can predict if someone is a criminal, based solely on a picture of their face". The software "is intended to help law enforcement prevent crime", it said. But 1,700 academics have signed an open letter demanding the research remains unpublished. One Harrisburg research member, a former police officer, wrote: "Identifying the criminality of [a] person from their facial image will enable a significant advantage for law-enforcement agencies and other intelligence agencies to prevent crime from occurring."

The news: US Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban the use of facial recognition technology by federal law enforcement agencies. Specifically, it would make it illegal for any federal agency or official to "acquire, possess, access, or use" biometric surveillance technology in the US. It would also require state and local law enforcement to bring in similar bans in order to receive federal funding. The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act was introduced by Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Seize the moment: The proposed law has arrived at a point when the police use of facial recognition technology is coming under increased scrutiny amid protests after the killing of George Floyd in late May.

An artificially intelligent humanoid robot has nabbed the leading role in a $70 million (£56.4 million) upcoming Hollywood sci-fi movie, titled'b'. Erica, the eerily human-like android actress, will play the role of a genetically-modified superhuman who goes on the run with the scientists who created her. The electric leading lady is understood to have shot her first scenes for the movie in Japan last year -- with the rest of the film scheduled to be shot next year. An artificially intelligent humanoid robot has nabbed the leading role in a $70 million (£56.4 million) upcoming Hollywood sci-fi movie, titled ' b '. Erica -- who made her public debut back in 2015 -- is the brainchild of roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro of Japan's Osaka University, who calls his creation the world's'most beautiful and human-like android.'

A fleet of steam-powered robots could one day be used to explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn by'taking giant leaps across their frozen landscapes'. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers are developing small football-sized spherical robots equipped with steam-powered thrusters for future exploration. If they ever move beyond the initial concept stage, the robots would let scientists explore icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus orbiting Jupiter and Saturn. These moons are thought to harbour salty subsurface oceans of liquid water, but very little is known about their surface - making it a potentially challenging terrain for a traditional moon rover, but easy for a leaping robotic ball powered by steam. The bots, called SPARROW, would run on steam from ice that was collected by mining the surfaces of the moons they explore - rather than'dirty' rocket fuel.

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One of the many benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) is to help us view societal problems from a different perspective. While there's been much hubbub about how AI might be misused, we must not overlook the many ways AI can be used for good. Our global issues are complex, and AI provides us with a valuable tool to augment human efforts to come up with solutions to vexing problems. Here are 10 of the best ways artificial intelligence is used for good. Artificial intelligence, powered by deep-learning algorithms, is already in use in healthcare.

In a recent article in JAMA, Derek C. Angus writes about the Hypotension Prediction During Surgery (HYPE) trial, one of the first randomized, controlled trials of an artificial intelligence (AI) intervention. Angus discusses how this type of study provides good evidence for actually using a particular, specific AI intervention--but he highlights the limitations of this type of research, too. Although Angus focuses on an AI intervention for hypotension, the principles he explores are relevant to mental health as well. Mental health apps using AI technology are already being used, despite the current lack of evidence for improved outcomes. Also, ethical concerns have been raised about the use of AI in all medical contexts.

Central to the collaboration with HP Indigo is Tilia Labs' flagship software tilia Phoenix. This is planning and imposition software that uses AI technology to reduce cost and optimize production in all print segments including packaging, labels, commercial, and wide format printing. Its AI-generated layouts eliminate the need for template-based imposition, instead dynamically adapting to manufacturing requirements and constraints – an innovation that earned tilia Phoenix a 2019 InterTech Award. Designed by Tilia Labs to be powerful and dynamic,tilia Phoenix's Imposition AI works quickly enough to keep up with the fastest presses on the market. For albelli of The Hague in the Netherlands, this means delivering automated, multi-lane impositions on-the-fly to their HP 50000 Digital Press – printing up to 770 duplex color/ 2300 mono pages per minute.

Future telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) are designed to sample the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres. Ten years from now, spectra of alien skies will be coming in by the hundreds, and the data will be of a higher quality than is currently possible. Astronomers agree that new analysis techniques, including machine learning algorithms, will be needed to keep up with the flow of data and have been testing options in advance. An upcoming study in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society trialed one such algorithm against the current gold standard method for decoding exoplanet atmospheres to see whether the algorithm could tackle this future big-data problem. "We got really good agreement between [the answers from] our machine learning method and the traditional Bayesian method that most people are using," said Matthew Nixon.

"The bill for miscommunication always comes due" Turing awardee Yann LeCun unintentionally sparked up a debate on the role of bias in machine learning with a single tweet. A paper called PULSE made the rounds last week, thanks to the CVPR conference. It was used to demonstrate how a machine learning model could generate a high-quality realistic face when it is given a pixelated input. However, things went out of hand when few enthusiasts started playing with the model. This image speaks volumes about the dangers of bias in AI https://t.co/GsoQqSr3XP