Despite the many wondrous uses of artificial intelligence (AI), examples of "fragile" AI are increasingly common. Facial recognition systems make serious errors when presented With images of people of color. Large-language models spew out fluent text that on closer inspection makes little sense. Adversaries successfully confuse AI systems by corrupting sensor data. Automatic missile defense systems have sometimes mistaken commercial aircraft for enemy warplanes.

The U.S. Veterans Health Administration developed a suicide prediction statistical model and implemented a novel clinical program, Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health–Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET). This high-value suicide prevention program aims to efficiently identify patients at risk and connect them with care. Starting in April 2017, national REACH VET metric data were collected from electronic health records to evaluate required task completion. By October 2020, 98% of veterans identified (N=6,579) were contacted by providers and had their care evaluated. In the nation’s largest health care system, it was feasible to implement a clinical program based on a suicide prediction model.

SPEAKING at the University of Cambridge in 1980, Stephen Hawking considered the possibility of a theory of everything that would unite general relativity and quantum mechanics – our two leading descriptions of reality – into one neat, all-encompassing equation. We would need some help, he reckoned, from computers. Then he made a provocative prediction about these machines' growing abilities. "The end might not be in sight for theoretical physics," said Hawking. "But it might be in sight for theoretical physicists."

Thanksgiving week began with Joe Biden performing the annual tradition of pardoning a pair of turkeys. The two birds, Chocolate and Chip were raised by the National Turkey Federation's Chairman, Ronnie Parker, in North Carolina. As part of his presidential duty, Biden chose Chocolate as the official National Thanksgiving turkey. Both broad-breasted white turkeys will return to live in their home state. The turkey pardon began in George H.W. Bush's administration, and it's been followed done by all presidents since then.

On Saturday, October 29, a Russian fleet on the Black Sea near Sevastopol was attacked by 16 drones--nine in the air and seven in the water. Purportedly launched by Ukraine, no one knows how much damage was done, but video shot by the attacking drones showed that the vessels were unable to avoid being hit. In response to that and other successful attacks, Russia has retaliated with scores of missiles and Iranian-built Shahed-136 drones aimed at electrical and water systems throughout Ukraine. Despite daily reports of lands taken or lands liberated in the nine-month war, the conflict has been largely fought in the air, with artillery shells, rockets, cruise missiles, and, increasingly, drones. Small, cheap, relatively slow-moving, carrying far less of a wallop than a cruise missile or a 500-pound bomb, the Shaheds in particular have bedeviled Ukraine's otherwise excellent air defenses.

The president of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has confirmed there are multiple ongoing investigations into TikTok. The probes concern the transfer of EU citizens' data to China and targeted advertising aimed at minors. Investigators are seeking to ensure that TikTok meets General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) requirements. "The data practices of TikTok, including with respect to international data transfers, are the object of several ongoing proceedings," Ursula von der Leyden wrote in a letter shared by Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr. "This includes an investigation by the Irish [Data Protection Commission] about TikTok's compliance with several GDPR requirements, including as regards data transfers to China and the processing of data of minors, and litigation before the Dutch courts (in particular concerning targeted advertising regarding minors and data transfers to China)."

Artificial intelligence is augmenting almost every part of our lives in ways that were unimaginable just 20 or even 10 years ago. And cybersecurity is one of those areas that has gone through a huge shift. While more advanced technology is allowing hackers to develop more intelligent means of breaching our online security, AI has augmented our means of protecting ourselves -- as organizations and individuals. Like physical security for our commercial buildings and homes, cybersecurity is protecting arguably our most valuable asset -- our data. After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic pushed more businesses online, cyber threats have increased and become more complex in every area of cybersecurity: data leaks, phishing emails, malware, account takeovers, and more.

NASA's Orion spacecraft arrived at the moon yesterday after travelling some 230,000 miles (370,000km) in five days. The capsule zoomed over the landing sites of Apollo 11, 12 and 14 as it came within 80 miles (130km) of the lunar surface. But now it is circling the moon, what exactly will it be doing for the next 10 days before it heads home? As you'd expect there are a multitude of science experiments NASA is carrying out, including checking radiation levels, seeing how'space seeds' behave and monitoring a dummy called Commander Moonikin to see how he is coping with the journey. Artemis I will not only fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans - around 40,000 miles (64,000km) beyond the far side of the moon - it will also stay in space the longest without docking to a space station, and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

Recently, a man used the AI image generator Midjourney to enter a fine arts contest for the Colorado State Fair under the "Digital Arts/Digitally-Manipulated Photography" category. His piece won the top prize, sparking conversation from artists about the validity of AI in art. Many have flocked to AIs like Midjourney and DALL-E 2, which are designed to create illustrations from simple, one-sentence prompts, for their low-effort input and high-quality output. DALL-E 2 can "create realistic images and art from a description in natural language." The program, along with Midjourney and other image generation AI like Stable Diffusion, dominated internet searches for months.

Agencies' digital transformation efforts in areas like artificial intelligence must also consider workforce needs, according to a panel of government technology experts. Speaking at an ATARC event on Thursday, the panelists asserted that it does not matter how good the data or AI is, if people do not know how to use it correctly or understand it. As a result, the panelists emphasized the need for data literacy, education and training. "I can build the best AI model, but if I put it in the hands of my investigator, and if he has a ton of questions, then we just lost them," Ben Joseph, chief data officer for the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, said. "Earlier this year, we actually punched out a small program in terms of data literacy…so we educate my workforce, investigators, auditors and everybody else, like'how do you interpret data?'" "It's almost like you have to right-size the AI education for the position or the role that the individual is playing in the lifecycle," William Streilein, chief technology officer at the Department of Defense's Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, said.