Predictions of when machines will make us obsolete seem to come either from AI evangelists or doom-mongers with little practical experience of the field. Now though, researchers have carried out the largest-ever survey of machine learning experts on the subject. The advent of AI that can outperform humans at various tasks will have a dramatic impact on society, so forecasting when particular skills or jobs will be automated could be invaluable for policymakers. But the field is so fiendishly complex and has so many specialized sub-disciplines that there are very few people in a position to forecast when these breakthroughs will come. So instead, researchers at the Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute decided to crowdsource the problem.

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping your relationship with the world and it's just getting started. Tesla's autopilot, job automation, the products you'stumble upon' online - it's entering our daily lives, careers, businesses, even our homes with such blistering pace you probably haven't even realized it. There's a reason Andrew Ng, the founder of $100m company Coursera said "Artificial Intelligence is the new electricity" - soon it'll be as much a part of your daily life as your smartphone, except without the off button. But here's where things get really crazy. This time round, the revolution will see machines taking on tasks no human intellect could ever perform.

HubSpot is announcing that it has acquired Kemvi, a startup applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to help sales teams. A few months ago, Kemvi launched DeepGraph, a product that analyzes public data so that salespeople can identify the best time (say, after a job change or the publication of an article) to reach out to potential customers. It also proactively reaches out to verify leads. "Our vision has been to empower sales and marketing professionals by building technology that can extract information from text about what's happening in the world," said Kemvi founder and CEO Vedant Misra. And from the HubSpot perspective, Chief Strategy Officer Brad Coffey said the company had been looking for new ways to bring AI technology into its platform. He acknowledged that "AI" and "machine learning" are buzzwords that get thrown around a lot right now, but he found Kemvi particularly appealing because it addressed a real need among salespeople.

Much has been made of the "food boom" in Pittsburgh, and the city has long had a thriving arts scene. But perhaps the secret, underlying driver for both the economy and the cool factor -- the reason Pittsburgh now gets mentioned alongside Brooklyn and Portland, Ore., as an urban hot spot for millennials -- isn't chefs or artists but geeks. In a 2014 article in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mayor Bill Peduto compared Carnegie Mellon, along with the University of Pittsburgh, to the iron ore factories that made this city an industrial power in the 19th century. The schools are the local resource "churning out that talent" from which the city is fueled. Because of the top students and research professors at Carnegie Mellon, tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Uber have opened offices here.

Imagine rescuers searching for people in the rubble of a collapsed building. Instead of digging through the debris by hand or having dogs sniff for signs of life, they bring out a small, air-tight cylinder. They place the device at the entrance of the debris and flip a switch. From one end of the cylinder, a tendril extends into the mass of stones and dirt, like a fast-climbing vine. A camera at the tip of the tendril gives rescuers a view of the otherwise unreachable places beneath the rubble.

Tesla's Model S sedan regained Consumer Reports' top safety rating after the automaker updated the emergency braking system on the vehicle. Tesla provided an over-the-air update in July to its software on the Model S to include automatic emergency braking (AEB) at highway speeds, Consumer Reports said. In April, the magazine, which provides an annual rating of vehicles sold in the United States, lowered its rating on the Model S, noting that Tesla's last software update for the emergency braking system was not adequate. In April, the magazine lowered its rating on the Model S, noting that Tesla's last software update for the emergency braking system was not adequate. The previous update activated AEB on vehicles on speeds up to 28 miles per hour (mph), far lower than the 90 mph limit for the prior AEB system included on older vehicles.

Microsoft researcher Charles P. Thacker, awarded the 2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award in recognition of his pioneering design and realization of the first modern personal computer, and for his contributions to Ethernet and the tablet computer, died Monday, June 12, at the age of 74, after a brief illness. Thacker, born in Pasadena, CA, on Feb. 26, 1943, earned his bachelor of science degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 1967. In 1968, Thacker joined UC Berkeley's "Project Genie" to finance a graduate degree in physics. Instead, he recalled, "I went to work for this computer project," which the Berkeley Time-sharing System, commercialized by Scientific Data Systems as the SDS 940. Thacker joined Butler Lampson (recipient of the 1992 ACM A.M. Turing Award) and others to launch the startup Berkeley Computer Corporation (BCC).

As a combat veteran and more recently an industry technologist and university professor, I have observed with concern the increasing automation--and dehumanization--of warfare. Sarah Underwood's discussion of autonomous weapons in her news story "Potential and Peril" (June 2017) highlighting this trend also reminded me of the current effort to update the ACM Code of Ethics, which says nothing about the responsibilities of ACM members in defense industries building the software and hardware in weapons systems. Underwood said understanding the limitations, dangers, and potential of autonomous and other warfare technologies must be a priority for those designing such systems in order to minimize the "collateral damage" of civilian casualties and property/infrastructure destruction. Defense technologists must be aware of and follow appropriate ethical guidelines for creating and managing automated weapons systems of any kind. Removing human control and moral reasoning from weapons will not make wars less likely or less harmful to humans.

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) today announced a major new project, the Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative. The Initiative will research the effects of the artificial intelligence revolution on the character of conflict, shifting power dynamics, and even fundamental elements of power. "We are at the beginning of a new industrial revolution powered by artificial intelligence," said Paul Scharre, Director of the CNAS Technology and National Security Program, who will lead the Initiative. "AI is already beginning to have applications across a range of industries, and economists predict major disruptions in the labor market and the economy as a whole. AI will similarly have a significant impact on international security. The Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative will explore how AI will change conflict and power, and provide recommendations for policymakers to cope with the changes ahead."

For Immediate Release: American Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AiAi) and AppTek announced their alliance to offer education and solutions in artificial intelligence. "With a long history of developing and delivering powerful A.I. solutions, AppTek is embarking on the next phase of its evolution, said Adam Sutherland, CEO of AppTek. From strengthening our national security to powering media, AppTek stands at the forefront of the A.I. revolution. We are proud to work with the American Institute of A.I. to bring education and solutions in the applied A.I. arena." "The A.I. revolution is unfolding at an unprecedented pace," commented Al Naqvi, Professor and CEO of AiAi.