Dr Mark Woods is one of our panellists in the afternoon. Mark leads the Autonomy and Robotics group at SCISYS UK. We invited him to tell us more about himself ahead of the conference. Mark, thank you so much for accepting our invitation to be a panellist. And you've developed autonomous/AI/ML based systems for Mars Exploration including the European Space Agency's first robotic mission to Mars!

We make the decision based on the characters' strengths, not how many nominations they get. We also take account of who we've chosen in the past, because we want to make sure we feature a wide diversity of people and fields on our notes. The Governor has responded to a letter from Helen Grant MP about the diversity considerations throughout the character selection process. Find out more about choosing banknote characters.

ElectrifAi, a global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), today announced the launch of a new and improved open source platform and the appointment of industry veteran Edward Scott as ElectrifAi CEO. This comes alongside a comprehensive corporate rebrand for ElectrifAi, changing its name from Opera Solutions and launching a new website. In an industry-first move, ElectrifAi has re-architected its technology platform around an open source, Spark-unified computational engine that allows large-scale distributed data processing and machine learning, with embedded Zeppelin notebook capability. Now, ElectrifAi's data scientists – as well as those of its customers – can code and access data in any programming language. The incorporation of Docker Containers and Kubernetes enables ElectrifAi to build and deploy hybrid cloud enterprise solutions at scale, seeing results in weeks rather than months, thus increasing enterprise time to value dramatically.

Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing will feature on the new design of the Bank of England's £50 note. He is celebrated for his code-cracking work that proved vital to the Allies in World War Two. The £50 note will be the last of the Bank of England collection to switch from paper to polymer when it enters circulation by the end of 2021. The note was once described as the "currency of corrupt elites" and is the least used in daily transactions. However, there are still 344 million £50 notes in circulation, with a combined value of £17.2bn, according to the Bank of England's banknote circulation figures.

Though much of the technology was developed in the United States, President Xi Jinping wants China to be the world's AI leader by 2030.July 12, 2019

Elon Musk's brain computer interface (BCI) venture Neuralink will provide some more insight into what they've been working on for the past two years, during which time we've heard very little in the way of updates on their progress. In 2017, we learned that Neuralink's overall driving mission was to help humans keep pace with rapid advancements in AI, ensuring that we can continue to work with ever-more advanced technology by closing the input and output gap between ourselves and computers. Musk has famously forewarned of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, and what happens when it becomes more powerful relative to our own ability to control and understand it. He also founded OpenAI alongside Sam Altman and others as a research organization hoping to collaborate on the development of AI specifically designed to benefit, not harm humanity. At Recode's Code conference in 2016, and again in 2017 at an event in Dubai, Musk discussed how BCI could help people communicate with computers with much higher bandwidth and lower latency than is possible now, using our relatively primitive input methods (keyboard, mice and touch all introduce a surprising amount of lag and fidelity loss if you think about it).

In recent years, quantum devices have become available that enable researchers--for the first time--to use real quantum hardware to begin to solve scientific problems. However, in the near term, the number and quality of qubits (the basic unit of quantum information) for quantum computers are expected to remain limited, making it difficult to use these machines for practical applications. A hybrid quantum and classical approach may be the answer to tackling this problem with existing quantum hardware. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with researchers at Clemson University and Fujitsu Laboratories of America, have developed hybrid algorithms to run on quantum machines and have demonstrated them for practical applications using IBM quantum computers (see below for description of Argonne's role in the IBM Q Hub at Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL]) and a D-Wave quantum computer. "This approach will enable researchers to use near-term quantum computers to solve applications that support the DOE mission. For example, it can be applied to find community structures in metabolic networks or a microbiome," says Yuri Alexeev, principal project specialist, Computational Science division The team's work is presented in an article entitled "A Hybrid Approach for Solving Optimization Problems on Small Quantum Computers" that appears in the June 2019 issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Magazine.

The race to incorporate artificial intelligence in modern weapons threatens to outstrip the technology's capabilities -- and the world's ability to control them. The Commander-in-Chief of Russia's air force, Viktor Bondarev, has told a gathering at the MAKS-2017 international airshow his aircraft would soon be getting cruise missiles with artificial intelligence capable of analysing their environment and opponents and make "decisions" about altitude, speed, course -- and targets. "Work in this area is under way," Russian news agency TASS reports Tactical Missiles Corporation CEO Boris Obnosov as adding. "As of today, certain successes are available, but we'll still have to work for several years to achieve specific results." While neither indicated which missiles were slated to get such enhanced artificial intelligence, there are two apparent contenders among the "super weapons" President Vladimir Putin bragged about last year: the "Avangard" hypersonic glide vehicle and the "Burevestnik" nuclear-powered cruise missile. Much modern weaponry is already capable of making choices -- such as the automated Gatling guns designed to react and shoot-down incoming missiles in the blink of an eye.

Alan Turing, the scientist known for helping crack the Enigma code during the second world war and pioneering the modern computer, has been chosen to appear on the new £50 note. The mathematician was selected from a list of almost 1,000 scientists in a decision that recognised both his role in fending off the threat of German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic and the impact of his postwar persecution for homosexuality. The announcement by the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, completes the official rehabilitation of Turing, who played a pivotal role at the Bletchley Park code and cipher centre. William Shakespeare was the first historical character to appear on a Bank of England note in 1970. Here's the full list of the historical characters that have appeared on banknotes issued by the central bank in England and Wales over the last five decades.

Government AI regulation is necessary, AI experts and policymakers agree. But, there is no clear accord on how much regulation by the government is necessary and what to do if the state begins to infringe upon privacy. FREMONT, CA: As enterprises begin moving AI technologies out of testing and research and into deployment, technologists, consumers, policymakers, and businesses likewise have started to understand that government regulation of digital intelligence is necessary. AI has been dramatically boosting productivity, helping connect people in new ways, and improving healthcare. When used carelessly, AI can also do the opposite as it has the potential to harm human life.