Though golf has a tendency to move slower than most industries, the technology innovations we've seen this week beg to differ. Artificial intelligence and robotics have been terms perhaps thrown around in the past, implemented by only the biggest companies, but now we're actually seeing the results of intense research and development. And that's especially true in the golf instruction realm, where lessons can have so much added value with the right set of data and smart products. There were too many items to say this is a definitive list. But this is at least what caught our eye at the 2020 PGA Merchandise Show in the ever-expanding tech/instruction space.

In a whitepaper released last month, the European Commission (EC) unveiled its strategy to promote the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe whilst ensuring the respect of fundamental rights. The whitepaper outlines the institution's plan to develop what it calls an "ecosystem of excellence" and an "ecosystem of trust." The idea here is to create a legal framework that would address the risks for fundamental rights and safety related to AI, all the while introducing initiatives to support and facilitate the adoption of the technology. "AI offers important efficiency and productivity gains that can strengthen the competitiveness of European industry and improve the wellbeing of citizens," the paper says, adding that AI can also contribute to finding solutions to urging societal challenges related to sustainability, demographic changes, democracy and crime. At the same time, AI entails a number of potential risks such as opaque decision-making, discrimination, intrusion in citizens' private lives or can be being used for criminal purposes.

I've been in the tech industry for a while, so I'm used to buzz words and phrases du jour. The one that has driven me the craziest, though, is "digital transformation" (aka, digitization, digitalization, IT transformation, IT modernization, DX – ugh). I can feel my eyes automatically roll back every time I see a new press release on the topic. Amorphous and annoying as it can be, it's taking hold and everyone's paying attention. The key word there is amorphous. I think it's a simple concept gone wild.

It is hard to know what it means when a global religious figure, two iconic technology giants and the Pentagon all find themselves on the same side of an argument. The U.S. Department of Defense issued five principles Feb. 24 for its own use of artificial intelligence, including biometric systems like facial recognition. Systems need to be responsible, equitable, traceable, governable and reliable. Four days later, at the end of a Vatican workshop examining artificial intelligence ethics and law, Pope Francis, Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. and other invited organizations called for "new forms of regulation" and six principles that overlap with the Defense Department's list. The document, titled Rome Call for AI Ethics and backed by the Pope, says every stage and aspect of artificial intelligence must adhere to ideals of transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, security and privacy.

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have developed an artificial intelligence system that effectively evaluates endoscopic mucosal findings from patients with ulcerative colitis without the need for biopsy collection. Assessments of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), which is a type of inflammatory bowel disease, are usually conducted via endoscopy and histology. But now, researchers from Japan have developed a system that may be more accurate than existing methods and may reduce the need for these patients to undergo invasive medical procedures. In a study published this February in Gastroenterology, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have revealed a newly developed artificial intelligence (AI) system that can evaluate endoscopic findings of UC with an accuracy equivalent to that of expert endoscopists. Accurate evaluations are critical in providing optimal care for patients with UC.

There are many steps in a common machine learning pipeline and much thought that goes into architecting it. There is the problem definition, data acquisition, error detection and data cleaning, etc. In this story, we begin with the assumption that we have a clean and ready to go dataset. With that in mind, we outline the four steps necessary before fitting any machine learning model. We then implement those steps in Pytorch, using a common syntax for invoking multiple method calls; method chaining.

John Catsimatidis recently used artificial intelligence to do a background search on his daughter's date, the billionaire founder of New York grocery store giant Gristedes told the New York Times on Friday. Catsimatidis was having dinner at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan when he saw his daughter walk in with a man he didn't recognize, so he asked his waiter to take a photo of the man's face, and then he uploaded that photo to his Clearview AI facial recognition app. "I wanted to make sure he wasn't a charlatan," he told the Times. Clearview AI uses artificial intelligence technology to connect photos from its enormous collection pulled from Google, Facebook, Instagram and other social media to specific individuals. It was originally intended for law-enforcement use, but individuals have also been reported using the app as a result of free business trials.

In addition to random celebrity sightings, residents of West Hollywood, CA will soon be spotting autonomous delivery robots in their neighborhood. Last night the West Hollywood city council approved the use of delivery robots on its city streets (hat tip to WeHoVille). A trial of the program will start next month with Postmates' Serve robot and run for 90 days. Serve is a cooler-sized robot that scurries around on four wheels, and while it can run autonomously using sensors and cameras to avoid people and obstacles, the city council is requiring a human chaperone during the trial. Additionally, only three robots can be in operation at once, they can only run during the day, and they aren't allowed on sidewalks deemed substandard.

The US Navy is quietly developing armed robot submarines controlled by onboard artificial intelligence. The vessels could potentially kill without explicit human control. The Office of Naval Research is carrying out the project, known as CLAWS, which it describes in budget documents as an autonomous undersea weapon system for clandestine use. CLAWS will "increase mission areas into kinetic effects", say the documents – military-speak for destroying things.

During an interview with the BBC last year, Google's senior vice-president for devices and services, Rick Osterloh, pondered whether a homeowner should disclose the presence of smart home devices to guests. "I would, and do, when someone enters into my home," he said. When your central heating thermostat asks for your phone number, your TV knows what you like to watch and hackers can install spyware in your home through a lightbulb security flaw, perhaps it's time we all started taking smart home privacy issues more seriously. Just this week the National Cyber Security Centre issued a warning to owners of smart cameras and baby monitors to review their security settings. You can get a quick overview of privacy options for many smart home devices using the Mozilla "*privacy not included" guide; however if you've already invested in particular technology, all is not lost.