Learning machines are capable of working ever more autonomously on ever more complex tasks. In this article, I explore whether it would it be smart for humankind to develop an'intelligent gun'. There are an estimated 875 million civilian, law-enforcement, and military firearms in the world, of which 650 million are in the hands of civilians, either legally or illegally[1]. Given the plethora of high-profile gun attacks in recent months and years – particularly in the US but also in France, Norway, Pakistan and Tunisia to name but a few – it is disturbingly easy to imagine gunmen on the loose in a school or at a public event, shooting indiscriminately and leaving casualties in their wake. Imagine how different things could be if a gun had artificial intelligence built in to it, turning it into an intelligent gun.

The banking world, and now Goldman Sachs in particular, is getting on board with artificial intelligence. The investment bank has put millions into a US startup which uses machine learning for marketing. The 30m round for New York-based Persado also came from previous investors American Express Ventures and Citi Ventures, as well as Bain Capital Ventures and StarVest Partners. "We are increasingly excited about Persado's ability to build a thriving business around a truly unique and differentiated technology. It stands out for driving great results for an impressive roster of customers - the world's most recognisable brands - with unparalleled consistency and effectiveness," said StarVest Partners genereal partner and co-founder Laura Sachar.

In a breakthrough that wouldn't look out of place in a science fiction film, researchers said they have been able to control the minds of living animals by tweaking the activity of their brain cells. Using a specialised microscope to tweak activity of brain circuits, they were able to control the behaviour of mice, leading to hopes that we could one day selectively stimulate cells in the brain, like hitting keys on a piano. While mind control may seem like the stuff of dystopian sci-fi nightmares, the team said the findings could provide insight how the different regions of the brain communicate with one another and even shed new light on brain disorders. The brain is an incredibly complex organ, made up of interconnected clusters of cells which form neural circuits for different functions. Cells within circuits may fire in response to a given task, but deciphering which combination of on-off signals within the circuits achieves the desired effect has remained unclear.

Everything around us seems real enough, but recently a growing number of scientists have started to wonder whether life is all just an incredibly sophisticated simulation. Although the debate has been raging for years, Neil deGrasse Tyson recently gathered a group of eminent scientists in an attempt to put the theory to bed - or at least discuss ways to test it. And the mathematical evidence seemingly points to the fact that our lives could be nothing more than an elaborate computer game-style existence. In recent years a growing number of scientists have started to wonder whether it the entire universe is just an incredibly sophisticated simulation. DeGrasse Tyson gathered a group of scientists at the New York City's American Museum of Natural History on Tuesday night for the debate.

Virtual reality promises immersive experiences that sound like sweepstakes prizes. For one group of designers, though, VR shouldn't give you heaven, but hardship. After researching neuroscience studies on "embodiment," the cognitive illusion of being someone else, design collective BeAnother Lab set out to give people a taste of adversity. A performer wears a vest with a first-person camera, which streams their perspective to a user's Oculus Rift, along with a voiceover about their experience. As users interact with what they see in their headset, the performer mimics their movements, and the participants can witness in a very real way what it's like to be the person whose story they're listening to.

A team of technologists working with Microsoft and others have produced a 3D-printed painting in the style of Dutch master Rembrandt. The portrait was created after existing works by the artist were analysed by a computer. A new work was then designed to look as much like a Rembrandt as possible - while remaining an original portrait. It was then 3D-printed to give it the same texture as an oil painting. "We really wanted to understand what makes a face look like a Rembrandt," Emmanuel Flores, director of technology for the project, told the BBC.

IBM wants to combine blockchain's distributed ledger technology with its artificial intelligence arm to make the billions of smart devices connected to the internet safer, and by doing so it would allow virtual time travel by letting regulators rewind to the point when the problem occurred and see just what happened. According to a report by CoinDesk, IBM is still in the very early stages of developing this project that brings together the company's Internet of Things Foundation and Watson divisions to create the Watson Internet of Things group, which is attempting to marry those technologies with the emerging blockchain technology that underpins the bitcoin network. The project is being overseen by IBM's chief architect in charge of Internet of Things security Tim Hahn who told CoinDesk that the possibilities of the collaboration of artificial intelligence, IoT and blockchain were huge. "What we're doing with blockchain and devices is enabling the information those devices supply to effect the blockchain. You begin to approach the kind of things we see in movies."

When self-driving cars get here, they'll make our commutes more efficient and allow us to get the kids to soccer practice without disrupting mom and dad's work days. They'll conserve resources, boost mobility for seniors and others who can't, and make deadly traffic accidents all but disappear. But the impact of self-driving cars will go deeper than even that, according to researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology, who've begun to study the potential ultra-long-range impacts of self-driving cars on urban environments. Everything from sidewalks and curbs to streets, building designs, urban layouts, and living patterns will change as computers take the wheel. "We're looking at the broader urban effects--and urban opportunities--of this technology," says Illinois Tech architect Marshall Brown, one of the team members in the Chicago school's Driverless Cities Project. "It's in the news a lot, but nobody's been discussing what it will actually do to cities." Just six percent of long-range transportation plans in major US cities are factoring the impact of autonomous cars, according to a report released in the fall by the National League of Cities.

A security expert caused a mild panic among iPhone users this week when he discovered a way to bypass the lockscreen with a simple Siri search. In a video, the bug seemingly let him unlock his iPhone 6S by searching for a contact on Twitter and then adding that contact to his address book. After Apple was made aware of the flaw, the firm has now confirmed the problem has been fixed and handsets should no longer be affected. A security expert caused a mild panic among iPhone users this week when he discovered a way to bypass the lockscreen with a simple Siri search. Spanish tech expert Jose Rodriguez was the first person to highlight the flaw and demonstrated the exploit in a YouTube video published under the name Videosdebarraquito.

Now, a source claims the Small UAV Coalition is recommending the ban be relaxed to encourage commercial development in the area. The recommendations call for creating four categories of small drones that commercial operators can fly over people, including crowds in some cases. The first category of drones would weigh no more than about a half-pound (230 grams). They essentially could fly unrestricted over people, including crowds. Drone makers would have to certify that if the drone hit someone, there would be no more than a 1 percent chance that the maximum force of the impact would cause a serious injury.