Computer scientists have taught an artificial intelligence agent how to take in its whole environment by just taking a few snapshots. The new technology can gather visual information that can be used for a wide range of tasks including search-and-rescue. Researchers have taught the computer system how to take quick glimpses around a room it has never seen before to create a'full scene'. The scientists used deep learning, a type of machine learning inspired by the brain's neural networks, to train their agent on thousands of 360-degree images of different environments. They say that their research could aid effective search-and-rescue missions by making robots that could relay information to authorities.

A new report details what privacy experts are calling a dangerous misapplication of facial recognition that uses photos of celebrities and digitally-doctored images to comb for criminals. According to a detailed investigation by Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology, one New York Police Department detective attempted to identify a suspect by scanning the face of actor Woody Harrelson. After footage from a security camera failed to produce results in a facial recognition scan, the detective used Google images of what he concluded to be the suspects celebrity doppelganger -- Woody Harrelson -- to run a test. The system turned up a match, says the report, who was eventually arrested on charges of petit larceny. In a new report from Georgetown University, an investigation shows that police have used celebrities to help its facial recognition software identify suspects.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - A Yemen rebel drone strike this week on a critical Saudi oil pipeline shows that the otherwise-peaceful sandy reaches of the Arabian Peninsula now are at risk of similar assault, including an under-construction nuclear power plant and Dubai International Airport, among the world's busiest. U.N. investigators said the Houthis' new UAV-X drone, found in recent months during the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen, likely has a range of up to 1,500 km (930 miles). That puts the far reaches of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two main opponents of the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen, within reach of drones difficult to detect and track. Their relatively simple design, coupled with readily available information online, makes targeting even easier, analysts say. "These installations are easily findable, like on Google Earth," said Tim Michetti, an expert on illicit weapons technology with experience in Yemen.

DETROIT - A Tesla Model S involved in a fatal crash with a semitrailer in Florida March 1 was operating on the company's semi-autonomous Autopilot system, federal investigators have determined. The car drove beneath the trailer, killing the driver, in a crash that is strikingly similar to one that happened on the other side of Florida in 2016 that also involved use of Autopilot. In both cases, neither the driver nor the Autopilot system stopped for the trailers, and the roofs of the cars were sheared off. The crash, which remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, raises questions about the effectiveness of Autopilot, which uses cameras, long-range radar and computers to detect objects in front of the cars to avoid collisions. The system also can keep a car in its lane, change lanes and navigate freeway interchanges.

LOS ANGELES - Longtime video game console rivals Microsoft and Sony on Thursday announced an alliance to improve their platforms for streaming entertainment from the internet cloud. Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform will be used by the two rivals to support game and digital content streaming services, according to a statement from the companies. Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox have for years battled as the two leading video game consoles, with exclusive titles often used as weapons to win the loyalty of players. Sony and Microsoft will also collaborate on semiconductors and artificial intelligence, potentially combining the Japanese company's sensors and chips with the US computer titan's cloud systems and artificial intelligence. "For many years, Microsoft has been a key business partner for us, though of course the two companies have also been competing in some areas," said Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida.

SANAA - The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen carried out several airstrikes on the Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Thursday after the Iranian-aligned movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil installations. The Sanaa strikes targeted nine military sites in and around the city, residents said, with humanitarian agencies reporting a number of casualties. Rubble filled a populated street lined by mud-brick houses, a Reuters journalist on the scene said. A crowd of men lifted the body of a women, wrapped in a white shroud, into an ambulance. Houthi-run Masirah television quoted the Houthi health ministry as saying six civilians, including four children, had been killed and 60 wounded, including two Russian women working in the health sector.

YOKOHAMA - Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday that from this fall it will start offering a system that allows navigated highway driving and hands-off single-lane driving, in the automaker's latest push toward self-driving vehicles. Nissan said its Skyline sedan for the Japanese market can be equipped with the new driver assistance system, the first of its kind in the world. Aiming to revive its sluggish earnings, the automaker is seeking to enhance the quality and brand image of its vehicles with next-generation technologies under a medium-term business plan unveiled Tuesday. "No other company has this technology of a navigated highway driving system with hands-off single-lane driving," Nissan Executive Vice President Kunio Nakaguro told a news conference at the carmaker's headquarters in Yokohama. Tetsuya Iijima, general manager of Nissan's autonomous drive development, said it would not be easy for other carmakers to commercially offer a more sophisticated assistance system for the moment. To use the new system, drivers will need to first set their destinations in the navigation system before entering the highway.

Recently we have discussed the emerging concept of smart farming that makes agriculture more efficient and effective with the help of high-precision algorithms. The mechanism that drives it is Machine Learning -- the scientific field that gives machines the ability to learn without being strictly programmed. It has emerged together with big data technologies and high-performance computing to create new opportunities to unravel, quantify, and understand data intensive processes in agricultural operational environments. Machine learning is everywhere throughout the whole growing and harvesting cycle. It begins with a seed being planted in the soil -- from the soil preparation, seeds breeding and water feed measurement -- and it ends when robots pick up the harvest determining the ripeness with the help of computer vision.

A new "demographic inference" tool developed by academics can make predictions based solely on the information in a person's social media profile (i.e. The tool--which works in 32 languages--could pave the way for views expressed on social media to be factored in to popular survey methods. Researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Michigan, University of Massachusetts, GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, the Max Planck Institute, and Stanford University have developed a method to infer information about a social media account owner based on the information disclosed in their Twitter profile information. A new machine learning system --unveiled at the Web Conference in San Francisco this week--learned the patterns associated with different ages, genders, and between organisations and individuals from a data set of over four million Twitter accounts in 32 languages. This information was then combined with estimated locations and re-weighted against census data to produce more accurate estimates of population in 1,101 statistical regions across the EU.

A cyber-security expert from Queen's University Belfast has been appointed to a body designed to develop the UK artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Prof Máire O'Neill has joined leaders from business, academia and data privacy on the UK Artificial Intelligence Council. Prof O'Neill is the inventor of a silicon security chip that is used in more than 100m TV set-top boxes. The council will promote the adoption of AI and its ethical use in business. Prof O'Neill said that she was delighted to have been invited to join the new body.