The office of Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Google over the company's alleged years-long practices to capture and use of biometric data from, "millions of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent to do so." This is allegedly a violation of the state's Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act of 2009. The AG argues that Google used features in its Photos and Assistant apps, as well as through Nest Hub Max hardware, to scan and store the facial and voice data without first acquiring user consent. Furthermore, Paxton alleges, Google then leveraged that data for commercial gain by using it to train the company's machine learning algorithms. "Google's indiscriminate collection of the personal information of Texans, including very sensitive information like biometric identifiers, will not be tolerated," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in the Thursday press release.

Hurricane Ian left an extraordinarily broad path of destruction across much of South Florida. That was evident in reports from the ground, but it also shows up in satellite data. Using a new method, our team of spatial and environmental analysts was able to quickly provide a rare big picture view of damage across the entire state. By using satellite images from before the storm and real-time images from four satellite sensors, together with artificial intelligence, we created a disaster monitoring system that can map damage in 30-meter resolution and continuously update the data. It's a snapshot of what faster, more targeted disaster monitoring can look like in the future – and something that could eventually be deployed nationwide.

European Union countries have adopted sanctions on Iran over Iranian-made drones supplied to Russia and used in attacks on Ukraine, the EU Council's Czech presidency has said. "After 3 days of talks, EU ambassadors agreed on measures against entities supplying Iranian drones that hit Ukraine," the presidency said on Twitter on Thursday. Ukraine has accused Russia of using Iranian-made "kamikaze" drones in attacks on cities and energy infrastructure in recent weeks. It says its military has shot down more than 220 Iranian drones since mid-September. The mayor of the capital, Kyiv, said Russia killed four people in a drone attack on Monday.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has launched an inquiry into the UK's governance of artificial intelligence (AI), which will examine how to ensure the technology is used in an ethical and responsible way. In July 2022, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) proposed "a pro-innovation framework for regulating AI", highlighting the need for a clear legal framework to deal with a lack of clarity, overlaps, inconsistency and gaps in the UK's current approach. The committee's inquiry will now examine whether the government's proposed approach – which will be formalised in an upcoming whitepaper before the end of 2022 – is the right one, with a particular focus on bias in algorithms and the lack of transparency around both public and private sector AI deployments. The inquiry will also explore how automated decisions can be effectively challenged by ordinary people, as well as how the risks posed by AI systems should be addressed generally. This includes looking at, for example, which bodies should provide formal regulatory oversight, and how to improve the explainability of AI models to the public.

A recently passed law in New York City requires audits for bias in AI-based hiring systems. AI systems fail frequently, and bias is often to blame. A recent sampling of headlines features sociological bias in generated images, a chatbot, and a virtual rapper. These examples of denigration and stereotyping are troubling and harmful, but what happens when the same types of systems are used in more sensitive applications? Leading scientific publications assert that algorithms used in healthcare in the U.S. diverted care away from millions of black people.

After announcing its first autonomous shuttle deployment in Portugal on Oct. 10, NAVYA reports a platoon demonstration of two Navya Autonom shuttles beginning Oct. 17 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, a first for a U.S. airport. Navya, a French company specializing in the provision of autonomous mobility systems and related services, has made no secret of its ambition to become the reference player in Level 4 autonomous mobility systems for the transportation of passengers and goods. The Autonom Shuttle, its main development focus, is dedicated to passenger transport. More than 200 units have been sold in 25 countries as of December 31, 2021. It was recently tested in White Bear Lake, Minnoseta, and Inverness, Scotland.

SIEM is a solution that assists businesses in detecting, assessing, and mitigating security risks before they affect regular operations. The goal of a security information and event management (SIEM) solution is to remove attackers from a system by collecting data from throughout the firm, normalizing it so it can be searched, analyzing it for anomalies, and then investigating events and fixing issues. The use of distributed architecture by businesses is at an all-time high. When an architecture's design is intricate, there are more weak points that a malicious actor can exploit. The possibility of a cyber attack on the company is so increased.

Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessels (USV) operate with USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) on Oct. 7, 2022. The Navy is thinking about artificial intelligence in two ways: the infrastructure to make unmanned systems work and technology meant to enhance how sailor and their commanders make decisions, a panel of technical and policy experts said Tuesday. The output provided by AI is there help the human or supplement manned operations with unmanned assets, said Brett Vaughan, Navy Chief AI Officer, speaking at the U.S. Naval Institute on Tuesday. A human will always be in the loop and play a central role. "By and large, the AI is there to augment and provide a human decision maker a range of options and recommendations," Vaughan said.

The world's largest and most powerful space telescope has captured the iconic Pillars of Creation, huge structures of gas and dust teeming with stars, according to NASA. The James Webb Space Telescope has taken its first shot of the gigantic gold, copper and brown columns standing within the vast Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light years away from Earth, the United States space agency said in a statement on Wednesday. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope first captured images of the Pillars in 1995. But thanks to Webb's infrared capabilities, the newer telescope – launched into space less than a year ago – can peer through the opacity of the Pillars, revealing new stars forming. The Webb images show bright red, lava-like spots at the ends of several Pillars.

Russia has warned the United Nations against investigating its use of drones in Ukraine, amid accusations the weapons came from Iran and were used in violation of UN arms restrictions on the Middle Eastern country. The United States, France and the United Kingdom called a closed-door Security Council meeting on the drones after an attack on Kyiv on Monday that killed at least five people, and caused widespread damage to power stations and other civilian infrastructure. Ukraine says its military has shot down more than 220 Iranian drones, formally known as uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV), in little more than a month and has invited UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Ukraine to inspect some of the wreckage it has collected. Speaking after the Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy insisted the weapons had been made in Russia and condemned "baseless accusations and conspiracy theories". He called on Guterres and his staff to "abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation. Otherwise, we will have to reassess our collaboration with them, which is hardly in anyone's interests," he told reporters.