The majority of Axon's AI ethics board have resigned after the company announced that it's developing taser-equipped drones. In response to yet another shooting in a US school, Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith began thinking about how the company could help put a stop to the all too regular occurrence. The shooting kicked off the usual debate over whether stricter gun laws are needed. Unfortunately, we all know nothing is likely to really change and we'll be back to rehashing the same arguments the next time more children lose their lives. "In the aftermath of these events, we get stuck in fruitless debates. We need new and better solutions," Smith said in a statement.

Dr. Hans-Peter Güllich is the founder and CEO of Dydon AI, a Swiss company offering transparent and flexible AI solutions for Sustainable Finance (Fintech), Insurtech, and Medtech. He made significant contributions to the development of numerous risk management systems (credit and operational risk), founding also a leading vendor of a cross-industry IT solution for governance, risk, and compliance management (Avanon AG) acquired years later by Thomson-Reuters. We discussed several topics with Hans-Peter, including the challenges facing investors and companies in complying with the EU Taxonomy, and the use of AI solutions to address those issues. The EU taxonomy provides companies, investors, and policymakers with appropriate definitions for which economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable. This should create security for investors, protect from greenwashing, help companies to become more climate-friendly, mitigate market fragmentation and help shift investments towards sustainable activities – one of the core objectives of the Paris agreement already back in 2015.

Avikus, a subsidiary of Hyundai, has successfully completed the first transoceanic voyage of a large merchant ship using autonomous navigation technologies, the company said in a press release. With the increase in computational capabilities, autonomous navigation solutions are being tested in various fields of transportation. Autonomous cars are expected to bring in a new era of human transportation, and the maritime industry is also not very far behind. Last year, we reported on a fertilizer company that deployed a fully electric and autonomous container ship in Norway to save 40,000 truck trips every year. While this deployment was over a short distance, maritime transportation involves crossing oceans and often in very congested port areas.

Axon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it was dropping plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned in protest. Axon's founder and CEO Rick Smith said the company's announcement last week -- which drew a rebuke from its artificial intelligence ethics board -- was intended to "initiate a conversation on this as a potential solution." Smith said the ensuing discussion "provided us with a deeper appreciation of the complex and important considerations" around the issue. As a result, "we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward," he said. The development was first reported by Reuters.

Meta Platforms Inc., the social media giant's parent company, announced plans last week to go the other way--decentralizing how it develops advanced AI and machine learning tools. In an online post Thursday, Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said the company's previous approach, centered around a handful of stand-alone R&D hubs, made it difficult to integrate new AI capabilities across the business. "In the new model we will distribute the ownership of these AI systems back to Meta's product groups," Mr. Bosworth said. "We believe that this will accelerate the adoption of important new technology across the company while allowing us to continue to push the envelope." The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team.

This photo provided by Axon Enterprise depicts a conceptual design through a computer-generated rendering of a taser drone. Axon Enterprise, Inc. via AP hide caption This photo provided by Axon Enterprise depicts a conceptual design through a computer-generated rendering of a taser drone. WASHINGTON -- Axon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it was halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned over the controversial project. Axon's founder and CEO Rick Smith said the company's announcement last week -- which drew a rebuke from its artificial intelligence ethics board -- was intended to "initiate a conversation on this as a potential solution." Smith said the ensuing discussion "provided us with a deeper appreciation of the complex and important considerations" around the issue.

AI-powered plagiarism detection is gaining momentum. Utilizing natural language processing (NLP) technology boosted by machine learning algorithms looks like a smart approach, rather than using the traditional word-for-word match approach to detect plagiarism is what new companies such as Stamford, Connecticut-based Copyleaks are doing. This week, this company announced that it raised $6 million in Series A funding. The financing was led by the Israeli venture capital firm JAL Venture. Copyleaks said that it will use the capital raised "to expand its presence across industries, safeguard its intellectual property, and continue to provide cutting-edge AI solutions," according to a press release.

Peugeot Sport has signed a multi-year partnership with the global leader in digital transformation Capgemini to provide the Peugeot 9X8's FIA World Endurance Championship programme team with advanced digital tools. Peugeot Sport is poised to make its return to topflight endurance racing this summer and will capitalise on Capgemini's data and AI applications expertise to take the performance of its revolutionary hybrid Hypercar forward, both in the simulator and on the racetrack. This new partnership also embodies the commitment of both companies to the energy transition. Pooling the capacity of Peugeot Sport and Capgemini's digital tools will enable the team's engineers, drivers and mechanics to deepen their understanding of the 9X8, while also accelerating and boosting its competitive potential as software development becomes a key factor given that the car's hardware specification will be frozen for a period of four years in keeping with the FIA World Endurance Championship's Hypercar regulations. With Peugeot Sport at a crucial stage in the car's development, this fundamental technological support is a sign of how motor racing is evolving.

A research group from the Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University, has taken a big step towards creating a neural network with metamemory through a computer-based evolution experiment. In recent years, there has been rapid progress in designing artificial intelligence technology using neural networks that imitate brain circuits. One goal of this field of research is understanding the evolution of metamemory to use it to create artificial intelligence with a human-like mind. Metamemory is the process by which we ask ourselves whether we remember what we had for dinner yesterday and then use that memory to decide whether to eat something different tonight. While this may seem like a simple question, answering it involves a complex process.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform the drug discovery landscape.