Online dating going mainstream hasn't made the potential dangers of meeting up with an internet stranger any less alarming. That's why Match.com is rolling out a check-in feature that lets users shoot over their date details to trusted confidantes, including the name of the person they're meeting up with, the location of the date and the time. Once check-in is turned on, users will receive an automated text message during their date asking them if everything is going alright and if they'd like to notify their previously listed emergency contacts if it's not. Match.com is letting users notify emergency contacts if their date is showing any red flags. Check-in sends users a text that users can reply to and send trusted contacts their date's name, the location of the date and the time The user can then reply'yes' to the text message and all three contacts will be notified.

A Tesla vehicle has been tricked into spontaneously accelerating over the speed limit with just a simply strip of tape. Researchers at McAfee placed a two-inch long piece of electrical tape horizontally across the middle of the '3' on a 35 mph speed limit sign, causing the car's camera system to misread it as 85 mph. When the 2016 Tesla Model X drove toward the altered sign in cruise control it automatically accelerated to 50 mph before being stopped by the driver – the same occurred in a 2016 Model S. The findings come just a month after Tesla found itself under investigation after 127 complaints were sent to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) claiming certain models experienced'sudden unintended acceleration'. Researchers at McAfee placed a two-inch long piece of electrical tape horizontally across the middle of the '3' on a 35 mph (left) speed limit sign, causing the car's camera system to misread it as 85 mph (right) The flaw is said to have caused 110 crashes and 52 injuries, with many drivers stating the incident occurred when they attempted to park in a garage or at a curb. However, Tesla has noted that'the car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so, and it slows or stops when the driver applies the brake'.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – A small instrument inside the drones that targeted the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry and those in the arsenal of Yemen's Houthi rebels match components recovered in downed Iranian drones in Afghanistan and Iraq, two reports say. These gyroscopes have only been found inside drones manufactured by Iran, Conflict Armament Research said in a report released on Wednesday. That follows a recently released report from the United Nations saying its experts saw a similar gyroscope from an Iranian drone obtained by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, as well as in weapons shipments seized in the Arabian Sea bound for Yemen. The discovery further ties Iran to an attack that briefly halved Saudi Arabia's oil output and saw energy prices spike by a level unseen since the 1991 Gulf War. It also ties Iran to the arming of the rebel Houthis in Yemen's long civil war.

Robotic process automation company Automation Anywhere Inc. is beefing up its platform today with a new Discovery Bot tool that can identify and automate more business processes for enterprises. Automation Anywhere is a heavily funded startup that has emerged as one of the early leaders in the red-hot RPA market. RPA is gaining traction because enterprises can reap massive benefits by speeding up mundane business processes, freeing up workers to focus on more pressing tasks. The company is chasing what analysts believe is a massive opportunity in RPA, with SiliconANGLE's sister research firm Wikibon forecasting that the total market capitalization for RPA software could be worth as much as $75 billion by 2025. But although there's a huge pot of gold up for grabs, it might not be big enough for everyone: Wikibon warns that RPA is still likely to be a winner-take-all market with room for a couple of players at best.

At Bank of America, Erica reminds thousands of customers when their bills are due. She also helps people balance budgets and search for past transactions. Customers love Erica, even though she's not a person -- she's a bot. But she also represents how businesses can forge successful digital transformations using a machine-first approach. The purpose of adopting a machine-first approach is to bring together diverse technologies, including automation, AI and analytics in a holistic way.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists are preparing to use machine learning (ML) to more easily monitor threatened ice seal populations in Alaska between April and May. Ice flows are critical to seal life cycles but are melting due to climate change -- which has hit the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions hardest. So scientists are trying to track species' population distributions. But surveying millions of aerial photographs of sea ice a year for ice seals takes months. And the data is outdated by the time statisticians analyze it and share it with the NOAA assistant regional administrator for protected resources in Juneau, according to a Microsoft blog post.

Computers using artificial intelligence are discovering medicines, designing better golf clubs and creating video games. Patent offices around the world are grappling with the question of who -- if anyone -- owns innovations developed using AI. The answer may upend what's eligible for protection and who profits as AI transforms entire industries. "There are machines right now that are doing far more on their own than to help an engineer or a scientist or an inventor do their jobs," said Andrei Iancu, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "We will get to a point where a court or legislature will say the human being is so disengaged, so many levels removed, that the actual human did not contribute to the inventive concept."

Cornerstone Research VANDY M. HOWELL, PhD Vandy Howell received her PhD in economics from MIT. She has expertise in industrial organization and labor economics. She is the head of Cornerstone Research's San Francisco office. Dr. Howell's practice area focus has been on antitrust, intellectual property, marketing, and breach of contract matters. She has experience across many industries, including cases involving technological and innovation markets, agriculture, and labor market issues.

Artificial intelligence can now rapidly search through billions of aerial and satellite images to find similar buildings or land features, such as football fields and Arctic ponds. This capability could help researchers classify the amount of land taken up by forests or farms, or could be used by militaries to identify bases or specific weapons used by other countries.

A major California university has dropped plans to use facial recognition for the surveillance of the campus. The idea was to have the University of California Los Angeles use facial recognition as a way to gain access to buildings, to prove authenticity and deny entry to people with restricted access to the campus, matching their faces against a database. Advocacy group Fight for the Future says UCLA was the first major university exploring using facial recognition to monitor students. The group had tested facial recognition software and found that "dozens" of student-athletes and professors were incorrectly matched with photos from a mugshot database, "and the overwhelming majority of those misidentified were people of color." Why your face is the key: Do you really control how your face is being used?