Snips was founded with a simple vision: that artificial intelligence could change the way humans and machines interact, without compromising privacy. Indeed, the more we become connected, the more we feel oppressed by technology, as each new device requires effort to learn and operate. But if we could interact with devices like we do with people –using our voice– then perhaps we could have all the benefits while we make technology disappear into the background. But who says voice says microphone, so evidently privacy was going to be a major issue. Back when we first talked about it in 2013, few paid attention.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Jan. 3 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com The U.S. men's soccer team announced Friday that it had canceled plans to train in Qatar later this month following the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in an American drone strike. "Due to the developing situation in the region, U.S. Soccer has decided to postpone traveling to Qatar for the Men's National Team scheduled January training camp," the U.S. Soccer Federation said in a statement. "In the meantime, we are working on alternative arraignments in preparation for the match against Costa Rica on February 1 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif." "We are working with the Qatar Football Association to find an opportunity in the near future for our team to experience Qatar's world-class facilities and hospitality," the statement concluded.

"I think we're just seeing the beginnings of more consolidation in cybersecurity. The space is too crowded," said Rama Sekhar, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, based in Palo Alto, Calif. Deal value in the information-security market reached $21.6 billion in the first nine months of 2019, according to data from Statista Inc., exceeding 2018's total of $15 billion. Most of the consolidation is expected to affect companies that specialize in one aspect of cybersecurity and cannot scale to become a platform with multiple capabilities, Mr. Sekhar said. Some deal making will come from larger vendors picking off smaller competitors or seeking to add capabilities to their offerings.

From The Terminator to Blade Runner, pop culture has always leaned towards a chilling depiction of artificial intelligence (AI) and our future with AI at the helm. Recent headlines about Facebook panicking because their AI bots developed a language of their own have us hitting the alarm button once again. Should we really feel unsettled with an AI future? News flash: that future is here. If you ask Siri, the helpful assistant who magically lives inside your phone, to read text messages and emails to you, find the nearest pizza place or call your mother for you, then you've made AI a part of your everyday life.

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As vehicles become smarter and more connected to Wi-Fi networks, hackers will have more opportunities to breach vehicle systems, warns a study. Connecting your smartphone through an USB port can give a hacker backdoor access to data from both your phone and your car. Additionally, Google Android users who can download apps from unverified sites are even more at risk. The research, published in the Journal of Crime and Justice, applied a criminal justice theory to current forms of vehicle security and provided recommendations for manufacturers and owners to improve safety. "The risk with vehicles isn't just personal data – though that is still a real concern," said Thomas Holt, Professor at Michigan State University in the US.

A workshop held in 1956 at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, is usually considered the beginning of artificial intelligence. Participants included John McCarthy and Marvin Minski. Alan Turing and Konrad Zuse, who already dealt with this topic in the 1940s, are also mentioned as the founders of this discipline. For decades, machine chess was considered the highlight of artificial intelligence. It was not until 1997 that IBM's Deep Blue program was able to beat then-world chess champion Garry Kasparov.

A café in Tokyo, Japan has opened its doors to an unusual group of customers – robotic dogs. The Penguin Café invites hardware canines and their owners in for a play date every Sunday morning before opening to serve drinks and other treats to the public. The event, called'Aibo World' after Sony's robot dog, started a few months after the owner of the establishment purchased his own Aibo. Aibo World was first reported on by BuzzFeed, which walked in on a birthday party for two of the robotic dogs. A café in Tokyo, Japan has opened its doors to an unusual group of customers – robotic dogs.

A NASA-operated satellite designed to hunt for distant planets may be gone for good. According to the agency, NASA lost contact with its Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA), a briefcase-sized spacecraft designed to study planets outside our solar system. Communications were lost on December 5 according to NASA and the agency will continue trying to reach it until March 2020. 'The ASTERIA project achieved outstanding results during its three -month prime mission and its nearly two-year-long extended mission,' said JPL's Lorraine Fesq, current ASTERIA program manager. 'Although we are disappointed that we lost contact with the spacecraft, we are thrilled with all that we have accomplished with this impressive CubeSat.'

The European Union's Patent Office has issued a new ruling rejecting two patent applications submitted on the behalf of artificial intelligence programs. The two inventions were created as part of a multidisciplinary research project organized at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. The researchers used an artificial intelligence called DABUS, or'device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience.' The European Union's Patent Office has rejected two patent applications submitted on behalf of an AI, saying patents can only be granted to human inventors DABUS created two unique, usable ideas that were submitted to patent office: the first was a new kind of beverage contained; and the second was a signal device to help search and rescue teams locate a target. According to a report in TechDirt, the EU's Patent Office rejected both applications'on the grounds that they do not meet the requirement of the EPC that an inventor designated in the application has to be a human being, not a machine.'