NASA has awarded a $187 million contract to Northrop Grumman to build a crew module that astronauts will stay in before landing on the Moon. Known as the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO), it will be the size of a small flat and form part of the Lunar Gateway, a small space station that will orbit the Moon. The Gateway is part of the Artemis mission - that will see the first woman and next man return to the Moon by 2024 and regular return trips over the next decade. HALO and the Gateway's Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), will launch in 2023, a year ahead of the first mission to land humans on the Moon since 1972. NASA says the Gateway will help them build a sustainable presence at the Moon as it expands its efforts to land astronauts on the surface and even build a base.

Software that can determine which breast cancer patients are in the most urgent need of surgery or chemotherapy has been developed by British scientists. The artificial intelligence algorithm uses data from different studies to identify patients able to go on hormone therapy rather than require urgent surgery. Scientists created the technology as a way to ensure women get the best available treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic that has seen surgeries cancelled. It uses data from multiple international trials to pick out those whose tumours are less likely to respond to hormonal drugs and found 5 per cent were at the most risk. Software that can determine which breast cancer patients are in the most urgent need of surgery or chemotherapy has been developed by British scientists.

The biggest challenge facing Microsoft and Sony's next generation consoles - the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 - might not be proving the most powerful or having the best games at launch but the fallout from Covid-19. Many gamers will have less spare cash to spend. And there has been speculation supply-chain problems caused by the pandemic will lead to manufacturing delays and higher costs. This was supposed to be the week of the giant E3 games expo, in Los Angeles, a chance to build hype for the launches. Instead, Xbox will give a first look at some games in development via a streamed event in July.

The US Air Force has long been exploring the way artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in its operations -- back in 2016 we saw combat AI beat some of the Air Force's top tactical experts, for example. Now, researchers are working on an autonomous drone designed to take down a piloted plane in air-to-air combat, with a showdown slated for July 2021. As reported by Air Force Magazine, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been developing an autonomous fighter jet since 2018, with plans to use machine-learning technology in less advanced planes initially -- such as the F-16 -- before graduating to newer models, such as the F-22 or F-35. Of course, details are a little hazy -- it's a military project after all and therefore subject to hefty classification. In a video, however, head of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan said the AFRL is "pushing the boundaries" of AI in a military application, adding that the team is quietly confident that the "machine [will] beat the human."

Robots have taken upon themselves several works requiring human interactions. With a COVID-19-hit world hard-pressed to maintain social distancing, a private firm has deployed seven humanoid robots and other artificial intelligence techniques to reduce human-to-human interaction almost next to nil in its functioning. From carrying files from one person to another to marking the attendance of its employees and taking visitors' temperature and regulating their entry to the office, the robots have taken upon themselves several works requiring human interactions in the office. A robot guards the entry gate to welcome visitors, performs thermal scanning to check their body temperature and sounds an alert if the visitor is not wearing a face mask. The robotic guard's artificial intelligence is synced with the working of the entry gate, which opens up only after it gets a green signal from the robot.

Getting lost on the Moon is a common problem, so it is reassuring to know that when you do miss the next lunar highway exit, AI software can guide you safely to where you want to go. NASA's Frontier Development Lab (FDL) seeks to "apply AI technologies to science to push the frontiers of research and develop new tools to solve some of the biggest problems that humanity faces". Each year, the FDL highlights a series of problems that AI could be used to rectify - involving commercial partners (like Intel), research talent (those studying data science at a post doc level) and large data sets. This ensures that participants have the maximum available scope to innovate, explaining the high success rates of the programme. One of the problems outlined at the 2018 FDL was "Localisation: Merging orbital maps with surface-perspective imagery".

When you hear the word "automation...", does your mind skip straight to "…destroys jobs"? If so, there should be a few stops in between. Automation is about removing friction, driving down costs, speeding processes up, and generally improving efficiency. Making goods and services better and cheaper is a good thing: it makes us all richer. There is scope to do this in all walks of life, and not least in professional services, such as accountancy and the law.

Each one of us has experienced artificial intelligence (AI) in our daily lives. From customized Netflix recommendations to personalized Spotify playlists to voice assistants like Alexa managing shopping lists and appliances – all these examples show how integral AI-enabled systems have become to our lives. On the business front, most organizations are heavily investing in AI/ML capabilities. Whether it is the automation of critical business processes, building an omnichannel supply chain, or empowering customer-facing teams with chatbots, AI-based systems have significantly reduced manual work and costs for businesses, leading to higher profitability. Despite these successes, a recent article by MIT author, Will Douglas, indicated that all is not well with artificial intelligence-based systems during the coronavirus pandemic.

TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2020 / BVI Tortola sports hedge fund AI Sports targets Asia as its core market and aims to soon having tens of millions of dollars under management. AI Sports - which has an investment fund that bets on sport on behalf of members, and trades or hedges its bets looks to be the first sports wealth management fund to set foot into Asia. In recent years, with the rise of big data analytics and machine learning technology, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been gaining popularity in different business applications, and has achieved wonderful results in applications such as search engines, personalized recommendations, and intelligent customer service, etc. AI Alpha Go, an AI computer program developed by DeepMind Technologies and acquired by Google even manage to defeat the Chess Master World Champion in 2017. This proves that AI technology has reached maturity and is able to replace human expertise in some highly intelligent industries. The Financial Investment sector is undoubtedly the most valuable and challenging sector for any artificial intelligence applications.

Artificial intelligence and the Internet of things (AIoT) is one of the newest players on the tech scene, and it's already garnered attention at a rapid pace. While IoT on its own is no doubt powerful, connected networks can only take things so far even when performing at peak. When AI is brought into the same picture, things get a serious upgrade. IoT is already well established and still set to grow, with more than 41 billion IoT devices in use by 2027. What's more, Gartner predicts that more than 80 percent of enterprise IoT projects will include an AI component by 2022.