The EFF pointed out that the "unprecedented number of photographs" isn't the only problem. GAO's report also said that the FBI didn't test its system thoroughly for accuracy. It "has done little to make sure that its search results... do not include photos of innocent people," the nonprofit org wrote in its post. Since facial recognition technologies aren't perfect and still has issues recognizing people of color, FACE could return results with law-abiding people in the mix when law-enforcement agencies use the system to search for suspects. It could cause even more issues if the government grants the feds' request for its databases to be exempted from several key provisions of the Privacy Act. For instance, the FBI doesn't want to tell people who ask if they're in the database and wants to be legally allowed to withhold that information.

The biggest retailer in the U.S., Walmart, is experimenting with robot shopping carts. The company has yet to release any details of how the robo-carts work. But the news highlights how rapidly automation is moving into shopping and warehouse fulfillment. It also shows how keen Walmart is to embrace any technology that might help it counter the shift toward online shopping and faster product delivery. Just a few weeks ago, Walmart also said it was testing whether drones could help check the inventory in its stores.

The Mad Men era of advertising is long behind us, but some of its lessons are timeless: not least those imparted by David Ogilvy, the founder of Ogilvy & Mather, who was once described by Time magazine as "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry". That was in 1962, but even today, 17 years after his death, Ogilvy remains one of advertising's most revered minds, universally acknowledged as the father of modern advertising and credited with pioneering a unique style of ad that didn't insult the intelligence of the individual. But what could today's advertising leaders, or indeed those just starting out on their advertising careers, learn from Ogilvy? The Drum decided to find out, teaming with IBM's Watson to analyse Ogilvy's myriad writings and talks to draw out insights and advice. A man of many words, Ogilvy became the authority on advertising in his day, penning a number of books on the subject and representing the industry in numerous TV and newspaper interviews.

IBM today took the wraps off its first big foray into the world of self-driving cars, not as the driver of them, but as the brain behind making your self-driving journey a little more interesting: IBM Watson, the company's AI platform, is powering services in Olli -- an electric-powered vehicle that can carry up to 12 people that has been designed by Local Motors, a car maker based out of Arizona that uses newer technologies like 3D printing to bring down the cost of making cars on a low-volume basis. The cars will start operations first in Washington, DC, before expanding to deployments in Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas later this year. IBM says Miami-Dade County will run a pilot to transport people around Miami with autonomous vehicles. Local Motors and IBM, along with Intel, have worked together before, specifically on its Rally Fighter concept car. It looks like Olli might be the first commercial product that has resulted from the partnership.

Google is starting a research unit in Europe focused solely on machine learning, a major branch of artificial intelligence. The Zurich-based project, announced today (June 16), will be key to the company's ambitions, as it bets big on machine learning to power its next generation of products. These include the digital assistant inside its Allo chat app, its driverless car efforts, and enhancements to its ubiquitous search engine. The new unit, called Google Research, Europe, comes at a time when the search giant is facing serious scrutiny from European authorities. The European commission has the company in its crosshairs, as it faces two antitrust charges, over a search product and Android, which could rack up billions in fines.

Do join our debate chaired by Will Hutton, author of'How Good We Can Be', on The Future with AI: Will it be good for us? The UK has a wealth of capability in AI techniques and their application, but a future with AI raises many questions. In this 90 minute debate our panel of thought leaders chaired by Will Hutton, author of'How Good We Can Be', will address your questions. They will discuss the safeguards that might be needed to ensure a responsible and ethical approach towards the applications of AI technologies. The debate will be followed by refreshments and networking.

As far as anyone can tell, today marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin getting up after a sleepless night and declaring: "I've found it! What will terrify me will terrify others. I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow". She had hit upon the idea that would become Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, the cautionary tale that has provided a vocabulary for the relationship between science and society ever since. Appropriately, it has been a dark and stormy (OK, rainy) night on the shores of Lake Geneva, where I and other Frankenstein-botherers have been gathering at the Brocher Foundation, a few miles from the grand villa where Mary was staying with Lord Byron, her future husband Percy and associated hangers-on.

Ultra-luxury car brand Rolls-Royce unveiled an extreme, futuristic concept car Thursday that's billed as its "first-ever pure vision vehicle." The wild Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 made its splashy debut at London's Roundhouse arts venue. It boasts a dazzling design, including 28-inch wheels and a silky wool sofa in the interior. It also has advanced technological features, such as total self-driving capability. This car is just about as concept as concept vehicles get -- and there's a dash of the absurd, to be sure.

If there was any doubt that artificial intelligence is the future of technology, look no further than Google. The company announced the new AI research push on Thursday in a blog post. Opening as part of Google's existing Google Research center in Europe, the Machine Learning Research Group will focus on, naturally, Machine Learning, in which computers use vast amounts of data to teach themselves and build rules about the data; Natural Language Processing for speech-systems and conversational queries; and Machine Perception, which is used to understand the contents of images, sounds, music and video. This announcement comes four years after the company began aggressively pursuing machine learning technologies, three months after Google's AI beat one of the world's best Go players and just weeks after Google codified its approach to AI during its annual Google I/O developers conference. During I/O, Google unveiled Google Assistant, a voice-based digital assistant designed the take on Microsoft's Cortana, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa.

Android co-founder Andy Rubin has spoken about how he sees artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing transforming the future of technology. At Bloomberg's Tech Conference in San Francisco today, the Google veteran focused on how AI could be applied to smartphones and other devices to completely change the way consumers use gadgets in their everyday lives. Rubin noted how new computing platforms appear every 10 to 12 years, citing MS-DOS, Windows PC and mobile – 'What's the next platform?' he asked rhetorically. 'It's about data and people training AI systems to learn.' He explained that a combination of AI and quantum computing could result in one powerful, conscious intelligence system – displacing the likes of Siri.