Artificial intelligence will likely not reach the level of intelligence that allows it to think like human beings, even if technology now is able to surpass humans in specific tasks, according to a senior Microsoft executive. "Artificial intelligence currently learns in a very controlled, monitored environment, it learns through data [given to it],"Rui Yong, assistant managing director at Microsoft Research Asia, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. "But that is not how humans learn." While artificial intelligence technology today has surpassed human ability in certain tasks, such as AlphaGo's ability to beat humans in the game of Go or Microsoft's computer vision technology that recognises objects in images more accurately than humans, these technologies are tailored to achieve specific tasks and cannot adapt quickly to new problems. "When humans encounter a new situation, we can adapt and use our imagination to find a solution. But for computers, if they have never encountered a certain problem, then they cannot solve it," he said.

A new tech startup is merging deep learning with autonomous cars. Drive.ai has become the 13th company to be granted a license to test autonomous cars on public roads in California. If you haven't yet heard of them, you're not alone. Drive.ai has been in stealth mode for the past year. However, the company recently closed 12 million in Series A funding while developing deep learning technologies with their team of experts who specialize in everything from natural language processing, computer vision, and autonomous driving.

On yesterday's investor call, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked how the machine learning technology behind its recent introduction of bots to Messenger would manifest itself in the future. "So the biggest thing that we're focused on with artificial intelligence is building computer services that have better perception than people," he replied. "So the basic human senses like seeing, hearing, language, core things that we do. I think it's possible to get to the point in the next five to 10 years where we have computer systems that are better than people at each of those things." There are a couple of striking things about this statement: it imagines computer systems with abilities that are central to our existence as biological creatures, the essential skills that we rely on to understand and interact with the world.

America's premier game-design program canceled an all-star industry panel last week for the sole reason that the lineup was all-male. The University of Southern California was able to attract some of the biggest talent in the industry to their April 20 event: head game designer at Blizzard, Jeffrey Kaplan; CEO of Riot Games, Brandon Beck; and head of Infinity Ward, David Stohl -- among others. As reported by the Daily Trojan, not only would students have been able to hear from these titans of the game industry, they could have showcased their games to the panelists as well. It would be a shame if people's feelings got in the way…. Well, just four hours prior to the event, the whole thing was cancelled.

In recent blogs, I wrote about using codified narrative as a form of data. I also discussed using attribution models to systematically evaluate codified narrative for ontological constructs: e.g. I provide a brief overview of these topics a bit later in the blog. The third important piece to make use of narrative data involves "attribution profiling" in a process that I call "catching scent." Following the odour of data involves establishing a scent and then searching for it. After attribution models create profiles from the codified narrative, I have the search engine hunt for similar profiles. I don't consider the process particularly original or creative.

The International Space Station (ISS) astronauts may soon have a new duty – driving rovers on distant planets. Tim Peake, the popular European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut who ran a marathon in space earlier this week, will have to steady himself in a seat aboard the ISS as he pilots a rover on Earth on Friday. The driving is part of a project simulation program, called Meteron, in which a Mars rover will be driven around a faux-Mars landscape in England. The end goal, however, will be for an astronaut orbiting outside a distant world to help direct a rover in dangerous maneuvers. "Space is such a harsh place for humans and machines that future exploration of our Solar System will most likely involve sending robotic explorers to'test the waters' on uncharted planets before sending humans," the ESA says on a Meteron website.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

When it comes to the potential impact AI could bring, mass-unemployment is probably a more realistic concern for us than, say, the Skynet (the murderous AI system of the Terminator film franchise), says Martin Ford, a technology entrepreneur and author of two books about how tomorrow's technology might give a fatal blow to the social structure that we thrive on today. If we look far enough into the future, Ford says, few jobs would be safe from being automated, as algorithms with deep learning capabilities would take over not only entry-level jobs, but also those requiring years of training and experience. "In terms of jobs [that may be done by AI]… the important word there is'predictable'," Ford says. "If another smart person could study a record of everything you've done in the past in your job and based on that, learn how to do your job, then someday, maybe a machine might be able to do the same thing." Ford's warning of a jobless future is not entirely new; and as always, the idea is controversial because opponents argue that historically, workers have survived rounds of technological revolution and they always managed to find other jobs in newly emerged industries.

With HP announcing a line of slick-looking Chromebook laptops, Google may be closing the door on the Chromebook Pixel--at least for now. As VentureBeat reports, the 999 Chromebook Pixel has gone out of stock at the Google Store, which had been the only place to buy the laptop in the United States. Attempting to purchase this model--which comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and 32GB of storage--brings up a message saying it is "no longer available for sale." Google hasn't said whether this model is getting discontinued, though it seems likely the company isn't producing any more of them. From the outset, Google kept expectations low with the Pixel, an aluminum-clad laptop with a gorgeous 12.85-inch, 2,560x1,700 resolution display.

Speaking after the first day of the ICT meeting, Takaichi said she introduced eight basic principles Tokyo believes important when developing computer science that gives machines human-like intelligence, and that she was generally supported in calling for further discussion. The eight principles include making AI networks controllable by human beings and respect for human dignity and privacy. "The development of AI is expected to progress at a tremendous pace of speed, and it should be amazing technology that does not give anxiety to people," the minister of internal affairs and communications told reporters, noting the need to deepen international discussion about establishing a basic set of rules. The first G-7 ICT ministerial meeting in nearly two decades comes at a time when cyberattacks have become a global reality and the development of such potentially revolutionary technologies as artificial intelligence and the "Internet of Things" (IoT) -- the concept of connecting various products to the Internet -- continues apace. With cyberattacks having become a global reality, participants from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States discussed at the G-7 meeting ways to utilize advances in the field to drive economic growth while ensuring data security.