In India, we celebrated the festival of color "Holi" last week. We celebrate the end of the winter with a splash of color because that's what the spring will bring us in a few days. When I was young, the celebrations were sparse. It was the decade of frugal parenting. We waited for festivals so eagerly because it meant parent approved outing and fun.

Because of the label, we think of it as a replacement for human intelligence. But machine learning software is neither artificial nor intelligent.".

Artificial intelligence developed by a Samsung lab in Russia can fabricate video from a single image, including a painting. Imagine someone creating a deepfake video of you simply by stealing your Facebook profile pic. The bad guys don't have their hands on that tech yet, but Samsung has figured out how to make it happen. Software for creating deepfakes -- fabricated clips that make people appear to do or say things they never did -- usually requires big data sets of images in order to create a realistic forgery. Now Samsung has developed a new artificial intelligence system that can generate a fake clip by feeding it as little as one photo.

Cruise, the self-driving car company backed by General Motors, put out a video Thursday showing its self-driving electric Bolts making left turns all over San Francisco's busy streets. The company says it makes 1,400 unprotected left turns every 24 hours. For an autonomous car company it seems like this shouldn't be hailed as such an achievement, but it is. Waymo, the Google self-driving car spinoff company, notoriously struggled in Phoenix to turn left during testing on public roads. Its Chrysler Pacifica minivans were just too timid to make it through the oncoming traffic. People have noted that the robo-taxis have improved in those situations.

The industry is again at the forefront of grappling with the opportunity and challenges of transformational new technologies. At the start of last year, Microsoft released The Future Computed: Artificial Intelligence and its Role in Society. The book was designed to pique conversation on how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle some of the major challenges of our time, and generate discussion about how to create an environment for the ethical and responsible use of AI. The book was a success, helping to kickstart meaningful discussions with governments, businesses and civil society across the world on one of the fundamental issues of our times. The book builds on the existing AI debate, focusing on the impact of AI on the manufacturing sector.

Professor Toby Walsh is a top artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and a vocal advocate for a national and international ban on autonomous weapons, or killer robots. As the technology becomes a more important part of our lives, engineers also need to discuss the issues and impacts introduced by "more mundane" applications such as facial recognition and news algorithms, Walsh told create. "There are some important ethical dimensions to the way [the technology] is being used and how it will impact our lives," he said. To this end, CSIRO is seeking input on a discussion paper titled Artificial Intelligence: Australia's Ethics Framework. The paper, which Walsh helped review, identifies ways to "achieve the best possible results from AI, while keeping the well-being of Australians as the top priority".

NASA is plowing ahead with its plans to send humans back to the moon, selecting its first commercial partner for developing the lunar'Gateway.' In a statement NASA announced that Maxar Technologies -- formerly SSL -- has been awarded $375 million to build power and propulsion systems for the lunar'Gateway,' a small spaceship that will orbit the moon and act as a layover for astronauts on lunar missions. From the'Gateway' astronauts will board landers and make the descent to the moon's service. A power and propulsion element of the Gateway is a 50-kilowatt solar spacecraft. An artist's impression is shown As reported by Ars Technica, Maxar will be joined by Jeff Bezo's aerospace company, Blue Origin, and Draper, who will help build, design, and operate the craft.

The AWS DeepRacer League is the world's first global autonomous racing league. There are races at 21 AWS Summits globally and select Amazon events, as well as monthly virtual races happening online and open for racing. No matter where you are in the world or your skill level, you can join the league. Get a chance to win AWS DeepRacer cars and the top prize of an all-expenses-paid trip to re:Invent 2019, to compete in the AWS DeepRacer Championship Cup. The competition is heating up as the Summit Circuit hit the halfway mark in Sweden this week.

AWS DeepRacer TV follows the world's first autonomous racing league, an AWS / Intel-sponsored reinforcement learning competition that features developers of every background and skill level hoping to qualify for a chance to win the Championship Cup at AWS re:Invent 2019.

As we live longer and technology continues its rapid arc of development, we can imagine a future where machines will augment our human abilities and help us make better life choices, from health to wealth. Instead of conducting a question and answer with a device on the countertop, we will be able to converse naturally with our virtual assistant that is fully embedded in our physical environment. Through our dialogue and digital breadcrumbs, it will understand our life goals and aspirations, our obligations and limitations. It will seamlessly and automatically help us budget and save for different life events, so we can spend more time enjoying life's moments. While we can imagine this future, the technology itself is not without challenges -- at least for now.