Fully assembled on the Launchpad. SpaceX's three-core, 27-engine Falcon Heavy launch vehicle sits on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in December 2017. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, that the demonstration flight will happen before the end of January 2018. MELBOURNE, Fla. -- SpaceX's much-vaunted Falcon Heavy launch vehicle will roar off a historic Kennedy Space Center pad on its demonstration flight before the end of this month, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday. Pad 39A, which once played host to Apollo and space shuttle missions, is expected to see the three-core vehicle lift off on a premiere flight that will test one of the company's most technically challenging undertakings to date.

Most technology companies are betting that artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to big changes for their businesses. For some, it should make their operations more efficient. For others, it may improve how they deliver content to their users, make their devices smarter, or enhance their hardware and software. But beyond those improvements that will be widely enjoyed across the sector, a handful of companies are actually leading the way. So what are these companies doing in AI, and is there more room for investors to benefit?

Both Hyundai and the Volkswagen Group announced today that they are partnering with self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation and will be incorporating the firm's autonomous driving systems into their own vehicles. Hyundai will be working the technology into its latest fuel cell vehicle, debuting next week at CES, while the Volkswagen Group says it could be incorporated into a number of its brands' vehicles, including self-driving Sedric pods, shuttles, delivery vans or trucks. Aurora was launched last year by three big shots in the self-driving world -- Chris Urmson, who headed Google's self-driving project before it was spun out as Waymo, Tesla's Sterling Anderson and Uber's Drew Bagnell. The company is focused on developing highly and fully autonomous driving systems that they can then license to companies like Hyundai and Volkswagen. While this sort of strategy means those companies won't have exclusive technology like they would if they developed it themselves, it allows them to get their hands on it more quickly and while devoting fewer resources to technology that is currently in constant flux.

Nissan is developing a way to help drivers execute evasive maneuvers faster using brain wave technology, the company announced today. By recognizing whether a driver is about to brake, swerve, or perform some other evasive move, Nissan says that this "brain-to-vehicle" interface could help a car with semi-autonomous capabilities begin those actions between 0.2 and 0.5 seconds faster. The company plans to put this technology on display next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. But details are otherwise light. "It's something that's being shown in a relatively early phase, and is not yet close to implementation," a representative for Nissan said via email.

The planning for AAAI-16 in Arizona, February 12-17, 2016 has begun! We hope you will join us for a memorable anniversary year. AAAI-16 Program Cochairs Dale Schuurmans and Michael Wellman plan to build on all the innovations introduced in the past few years, and will introduce a few of their own. Special technical tracks will include Cognitive Systems (Chairs: David Leake (Indiana University) and James Lester (North Carolina State University), Computational Sustainability (Chairs: J. Zico Kolter (Carnegie Mellon University) and Claire Monteleoni (George Washington University), and Integrated Systems (Chairs: Patrick Doherty (Linköping University) and Malik Ghallab (CNRS). Please check the inset on the following page for important deadlines.

Check Out the New AAAI Member Site! AAAI is pleased to announce the launch of the new AAAI member site. By now you should have received email and login information for the new AAAI member site. Using this site, you can renew your membership in AAAI and update your contact information directly. In addition, you will be directly connected with other members of the largest worldwide AI community via the AAAI online directory and other social media features. Direct links are available for new AI Magazine features, such as the online and app versions.

Mark your calendars now for AAAI-07, which will be the second AAAI conference to be held in Canada. You will note a slight name change in the conference to account for this trend! We are delighted to announce this permanent change as we expand the venue for the conference throughout the whole of North America. The Twenty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-07) will be held July 22-26, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in cooperation with the Canadian Society for the Computational Studies of Intelligence (CSCSI/CSEIO) and the University of British Columbia. The Nineteenth Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence will be collocated with AAAI-07, and will be held July 24-26 (for details see the links at www.aaai.org/Conferences/).

The Twenty-First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-06) and the Eighteenth Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-06) will be held in Boston, Massachusetts at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center, July 16-20, 2006. AAAI-06 will mark the launch of activities celebrating AI's fiftieth anniversary. Please join us for this landmark event! AAAI is pleased to announce the launch of the First Annual Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference. The conference will be held June 1-3, 2005 at the Marriott Hotel in Marina del Rey, California.

We are delighted to announce the continuation of the cooperative effort with AI Journal, giving unlimited access to the online version of the Artificial Intelligence Journal to all regular AAAI members. AAAI regular members can view and browse tables of contents, view articles published in recent issues of AI Journal, and utilize the current features available through Elsevier's electronic journal service. They may also view, print and/or download excerpts of reasonable quantity, provided that the use of such excerpts is personal and does not amount to or result in commercial distribution. Complete details were mailed to all regular members in good standing in January. If you have forgotten your membership number or need instructions, please write to us at membership04@aaai.org.

Many of you have been receiving the AI Alert newsletter, which highlights selected features from the "AI in the News" section of the AAAI Pathfinder/AI Topics web pages. If you are a member of AAAI and would like to begin receiving this newsletter, along with other AAAI announcements, please subscribe to our AAAI membership list server by sending email to majordomo@aaai.org Be sure to visit the AI Topics web site at www.aaai.org/AITopics/aitopics.html The deadline for nominations is November 1, 2003. The 2004 Spring Symposium Series will be held March 22-24, 2004 at Stanford University.