Technology firms have such an influence on people that they should be viewed as an'existential threat to humanity', according to an ex-Google product manager. In a new interview, Tristan Harris claims that tech firms are steering the thoughts of as many as two billion people every day. He even goes so far as to claim that the firms now have an even bigger influence on people that most religions. Technology firms including Facebook and Snapchat have such an influence on people that they should be viewed as an'existential threat to humanity', according to Tristan Harris, an ex-Google product manager Mr Harris was speaking during an interview with Evan Harris on BBC Newsnight. He said: 'It's much bigger than addiction, I'd actually call it an existential threat to the human race.

Sophia was made by Hanson Robotics, based in Hong Kong. It is currently a demonstration product doing a tour of the world's media. Business Insider caught up with it at Web Summit, the gigantic tech conference in Lisbon. We asked it a few unplanned questions and got a variety of answers, ranging in quality from impressive to nonsensical. Sophia delivered its side of the interview while making a series of faces, some eerily appropriate, some grotesquely bizarre. It has a habit of moving its eyebrows and eyelids independently, rather than together, for instance.

Employment Foresight has a number of uses for human resources and legal teams in businesses. The software uses machine learning to identify hidden patterns in judicial rulings, enabling users to navigate difficult areas of employment law and reach more informed decisions around issues such as reasonable notice, employee drug testing, worker classification and exemptions to overtime. The platform collects and analyzes the facts and findings from thousands of previous employment cases, and uses the information to predict how a court might rule in new circumstances. This achieved through statistical methods based on machine learning, focusing in the identification of relationships between different factors like the industrial sector; length of employment; and employee's position. This is to gain an insight into the industrial relations process.

Just one month after she made history by becoming the first robot to be granted citizenship, Sophia has announced that wants to start a family. The humanoid robot, which is modelled after Audrey Hepburn, was speaking during an interview this week when she said that family is'a really important thing.' She added that if she had a robot daughter, she would name it after herself, and said she believe droids deserve to have a family. The humanoid robot, created by Hanson robotics can chat, smile mischievously and even tell jokes. While Sophia has some impressive capabilities, she does not yet have consciousness, but Hanson said he expected that fully sentient machines could emerge within a few years.

Germany's Max Planck Society creates Nobel Prize winners. Most recently, in 2014, physicist Stefan Hell, one of its scholars, was recognised for a breakthrough in microscope technology, allowing much smaller structures -- less than 200 nanometres -- to be seen. Commercialising this kind of highbrow abstract research, however, has been a different matter. While the alumni of California's Stanford University have filled Silicon Valley with start-ups, Germany's research institutes have not created clusters on the same scale. A new tech hub -- Cyber Valley -- in southern Germany between Stuttgart and Tübingen, is attempting to create new kinds of collaboration between academics and businesses.

Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. Germany's Max Planck Society creates Nobel Prize winners. Most recently, in 2014, physicist Stefan Hell, one of its scholars, was recognised for a breakthrough in microscope technology, allowing much smaller structures -- less than 200 nanometres -- to be seen. Commercialising this kind of highbrow abstract research, however, has been a different matter. While the alumni of California's Stanford University have filled Silicon Valley with start-ups, Germany's research institutes have not created clusters on the same scale.

Elon Musk has been very vocal about his concerns over artificial intelligence, and now the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has quantified his worries. In a recent talk, Musk claimed that efforts to make AI safe only have'a five to 10 per cent chance of success.' The warning comes shortly after Musk claimed that regulation of artificial intelligence was drastically needed because it's a'fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.' Elon Musk has been very vocal about his concerns over artificial intelligence, and now the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has quantified his worries. In a recent talk, Musk claimed that efforts to make AI safe only have'a five to 10 per cent chance of success' Elon Musk's latest company Neuralink is working to link the human brain with a machine interface by creating micron-sized devices.

Farmers in China have caught up with the country's booming drone trend and started using unmanned aircraft to spray pesticide onto the fields. Not only that, a team of villagers in central China recently bought 30 of these bug-zapping vehicles in hope of turning it into a new business. Zhu Xiwang and his neighbours said they hoped their squad of agri-drones to could help them start a pest-killing service, according to Huanqiu.com, an affiliation to People's Daily Online. This £24.8K flat pack folding home takes just SIX HOURS to build Pictures show the 30 drones lining up on a field, ready to take off. The unmanned aircraft, known by its model name MG-1S, is produced by Shenzhen-based Da Jiang Innovation, one of the largest drone manufacturers in China.

When academics move to an industrial setting from a scientific computing environment, a language like Java might be a little more intimidating and Python is way more user-friendly. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are all the rage right now. Many companies feel the pressure to invest in an AI strategy before fully understanding what they are aiming to achieve. JAXenter editor Gabriela Motroc caught up with Sumanas Sarma and Rob Hinds at JAX London 2017 to talk about the different types of ML tasks, the most suitable programming language for machine learning, when it's wise to jump on the ML bandwagon and more. If you want to learn how to incorporate machine learning into your development cycle and how to adapt your process to include machine learning while still staying true to agile and lean principles, check out Rob's article.

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center received five @HPCwire awards, including one for poker AI'Libratus' The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) received not one, but five HPCwire awards at the 2017 International Conference for High-Performance Computing (HPC), Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC17) on Sunday, Nov. 12. One of the three Readers' Choice Awards that PSC received was for Best Use of AI: CMU School of Computer Science "Libratus" AI on PSC's "Bridges" wins Brains vs. AI competition. HPCwire represents the leading trade publication in the supercomputing community and their annual Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards, given out at the start of the annual supercomputing conference, are well respected in that community. The awards are determined based on a nomination and voting process among the HPCwire community as well as selections from the publication's editors. In addition to Best Use of AI, PSC received two more Readers' Choice Awards -- Outstanding Leadership in HPC (Nick Nystrom, Interim Director, PSC) and Best Use of HPC in Energy (PSC with Texas A&M uses OpenFOAM on PSC Bridges & Texas Advanced Computing Center's Stampede to better understand coolant & heat transfer in high-temperature-jet reactors).