This blog post is adapted from our June 10 response to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) request for information (RFI) 2019-08818: Developing a Federal AI Standards Engagement Plan. This RFI was released in response to an Executive Order directing NIST to create a plan for the development of a set of standards for the acceptable use of AI technologies. Given the wide adoption of AI technologies and the lag in commensurate laws and regulations, this post aims to help NIST by highlighting the current state, plans, challenges, and opportunities in ethics and AI. In 2016 the European Union (EU) created the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that would expand protections around EU citizens' personal data beginning in 2018. Meanwhile, China has extensively integrated AI technologies into their government and social structure via the China Social Credit System.

Temenos AG, a Geneva-based banking software company, announced the launch of its banking-as-a-service platform in the U.S., which it says can help launch a digital banking platform go live in 90 days. The Tenemos SaaS platform is designed to offer a range services like digital onboarding, know-your-customer verification, personal financial management and support for artificial intelligence, chatbots, wearables and other technology, according to a press release. "With our new U.S. front-to-back SaaS product for digital banks, we will revolutionize the software banking landscape in the U.S., which is a highly strategic market for us," Max Chuard, CEO of Temenos, said in the release. Temenos has worked with some of the fastest growing challenger banks in the U.S, including Grasshopper and Varo Money, Volt Bank and Judo Bank in Australia and Leumi's Pepper in Israel, according to the release. Temenos also works with incumbent financial institutions, including Commerce Bank and Partners Federal Credit Union, in Burbank, California.

Leading to 2020 several European countries have launched their national AI strategies, the European Commission put forward a European approach to Artificial Intelligence, a Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence "Made in Europe", laid out the path for Building Trust in Human Centric Artificial Intelligence and set up a High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG) which presented their Policy and Investment Recommendations for Trustworthy AI. And in 2020, Artificial Intelligence will continue to be very much a priority for the European Union. The recent paper Artificial Intelligence: Power for Civilisation – and for Better Healthcare that I had the honor to co-author asserts that Europe's goal should be to integrate AI into health-related operations, so as to improve clinical care, drive new therapies and treatments, and make healthcare systems more efficient. Data Front and Centre Europe is currently proving that it is capable of working together and sharing as the enthusiasm resulting from what was originally named the MEGA initiative (standing for Million European Genomes Alliance and proposed by our colleagues at the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine), now renamed as European '1 Million Genomes' Initiative, has clearly demonstrated. There is an undoubted willingness on the part of many Member States, and the regions within them, to collaborate when it comes to data sharing in healthcare, and not just in genomics. We must focus on regulatory and technological options to maximize the value of health data without compromising patients' privacy.

The JAIC is working to bring critical AI detection technology to the first responders who bravely battle wildfires. Increased use of AI will reduce response timelines, increase situational awareness, and save more American lives.

If Sunspring is anything to go by, artificial intelligence in film-making has some way to go. This short film, made as an entry to Sci-Fi London's 48-hour film-making competition in 2016, was written entirely by an AI. The director, Oscar Sharp, fed a few hundred sci-fi screenplays into a long short-term memory recurrent neural network (the type of software behind predictive text in a smartphone), then told it to write its own. The result was almost, but not quite, incoherent nonsense, riddled with cryptic nonsequiturs, bizarre turns of phrase and unfathomable stage directions such as "he is standing in the stars and sitting on the floor". All of which Sharp and his actors filmed with sincere commitment.

A technology company uses artificial intelligence to assist in cancer drug development has launched a study that will collect data on up to 1,000 blood cancer patients over the course of a year. San Francisco-based Notable said Wednesday it had launched the study, titled ANSWer, which will collect de-identified specimens with matched clinical data from participants in U.S. and Canadian clinical networks, at the time of their entry into the study and during subsequent visits. Patients with acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphomas, myeloproliferative disorders and others will be included. The goal is to establish a tumor registry with annotated clinical outcomes. "The observational clinical trial that we're kicking off will give us the opportunity to test more patients than ever before, allowing us to continue increasing the platform's predictive value," Notable CEO Matt De Silva said in a statement.

Workday co-founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri has been a success. He started the human resources technology company in 2005 and has grown it to a stock market valuation over $40 billion. His own net worth is valued by Forbes in the billions. He sees technology playing a big role in the success of all workers in the future. "Blockchain is a technology looking for a problem to solve. We found one to solve, which is credentials," Bhusri told the anchors of CNBC's "Squawk Box" from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.

Machine learning algorithms aren't just technological novelties relegated to tasks like picking out faces in crowded places. In the enterprise, they can surface patterns and relationships that would otherwise have been missed. To do just that, Outlier.ai's business analysis platform extracts data from internal and external sources and analyzes it to spot critical changes in behavior. Investors see potential -- a year after experiencing 400% growth, Oakland, California-based Outlier today announced that it has raised $22.1 million in a series B funding round led by Emergence, with participation from existing investors Ridge Ventures, 11.2 Capital, First Round Capital, Homebrew, Susa Ventures, and SV Angel, bringing its total raised to over $30 million. Cofounder and CEO Sean Byrnes says the funding will be used to accelerate growth and make strategic hires across Outlier's Oakland headquarters, as well as offices in Virginia Beach, Virginia and Europe.

Sen. Ed MarkeyEdward (Ed) John MarkeyParnas pressure grows on Senate GOP Sanders defends vote against USMCA: 'Not a single damn mention' of climate change The Hill's Morning Report -- President Trump on trial MORE (D-Mass.) on Thursday sent a series of questions to the CEO of Clearview AI after reports that the company has been selling facial recognition software with an expansive database to law enforcement. The New York Times first reported over the weekend that more than 600 law enforcement agencies have started working with Clearview, which claims to have a database of more than 3 billion photos, in the last year. "Any technology with the ability to collect and analyze individuals' biometric information has alarming potential to impinge on the public's civil liberties and privacy," Markey wrote in the letter to CEO Hoan Ton-That. "Clearview's product appears to pose particularly chilling privacy risks, and I am deeply concerned that it is capable of fundamentally dismantling Americans' expectation that they can move, assemble, or simply appear in public without being identified," he continued. According to the Times, Clearview has built its software by scraping major social media platforms and allowing users to upload photos of strangers.

A model invented by researchers at MIT and Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) that uses satellite imagery to tag road features in digital maps could help improve GPS navigation. Showing drivers more details about their routes can often help them navigate in unfamiliar locations. Lane counts, for instance, can enable a GPS system to warn drivers of diverging or merging lanes. Incorporating information about parking spots can help drivers plan ahead, while mapping bicycle lanes can help cyclists negotiate busy city streets. Providing updated information on road conditions can also improve planning for disaster relief.