Common sense isn't common, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. Computers struggle to make fine distinctions that people take for granted. This is why websites require you authenticate your humanity before logging in or making a purchase: Most bots can't tell the difference between a crosswalk and a zebra. At the USC AI Futures Symposium on AI with Common Sense earlier this month, more than 20 USC researchers reported on the technical reasons why that's the case, and different avenues of research to address this. Advances in common sense AI will improve human-facing services, from enhanced social services to better serve society to personal assistants that better predict our context and needs.

The coronavirus pandemic expedited the digital transformation underway in healthcare, and patients and providers alike saw benefits to the new tech and virtual solutions. Telehealth appointments, remote patient monitoring services, and amended insurance offerings were able to extend quality care to consumers at a quicker and less-expensive rate. But incumbent healthcare institutions should keep an eye out for big tech companies encroaching on their space, as companies including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft try to sway consumers from traditional healthcare players through consumer-first, tech-focused approaches. Below, we run through the trends and transformations taking place within the healthcare ecosystem, and outline what traditional health players can do to stay ahead of big tech competitors. While the healthcare industry was slow-moving when it came to digital solutions, COVID-19 upended the entire health ecosystem, including insurance, healthcare delivery, and pharmaceutical spaces.

As part of Australia's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan, the Australian Government is investing $53.8 million over four years to establish the National AI Centre and four AI and Digital Capability Centres to lay the foundations for an Australian AI and digital ecosystem. As the national science agency, and housing some of the country's leading capability in AI research and technology development, we're well positioned to act as lead in establishing the National AI Centre. We're bringing together partners from government, industry and the research sector to boost exploration and adoption of AI in Australia. We are uniquely positioned to represent the interests and capability of Australia's AI sector internationally, and to grow awareness of our AI capacity with global leaders in the field. By partnering with like-minded organisations, we aim to drive a new level of understanding, technology development, and adoption of AI in Australia in the years to come.

WASHINGTON – The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has selected a team of commercial and academic partners to build an artificial intelligence system with synthetic data, which will further help the agency determine how it builds machine learning algorithms moving forward. Orbital Insight was issued a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract by the NGA, the company announced. It will collaborate with Rendered.ai As the organization charged with analyzing satellite imagery for the intelligence community, NGA has put increased emphasis on using AI for its mission. The agency sees human-machine pairing as critical for its success, with machine learning algorithms taking over the rote task of processing the torrent of satellite data to find potential intelligence and freeing up human operators to do more high level analysis and tasks.

When Mike Koval, the police chief of Madison, Wisconsin, abruptly resigned on a Sunday in September 2019, the community's relationship with its men and women in blue was already strained. Use-of-force issues hung over the department after the killing of a Black teenager in 2015. Then, months before Koval left, another Black teenager, in the middle of a mental health crisis, was beaten on the head by an officer while being restrained by three others. The process of selecting a new police chief followed a standard formula. A five-person team of mayor-appointed, city-council-approved commissioners would make the ultimate decision, allowing for public comment beforehand.

Editor's Note: In 2020, an MIT Task Force produced a comprehensive report on the Work of the Future. Since then, the global pandemic has had a significant effect on work and businesses, providing the impetus for The Work of the Future, by the same authors. The book, from which the following excerpt is adapted, will be published by MIT Press on January 25, 2022. A decade ago, powerful mobile phones were still a novelty, driverless cars were never seen on public roadways, and computers did not listen to conversations or respond to spoken questions. The possibility of robots taking jobs seemed far off, save for an assembly line or two.

The authors attest they are in compliance with human studies committees and animal welfare regulations of the authors' institutions and Food and Drug Administration guidelines, including patient consent where appropriate.

A top leader of the Pakistan Taliban escaped unhurt from a suspected drone strike on a safe house in eastern Afghanistan, the militant group said Friday. The strike on Thursday evening came a week after a ceasefire between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the government collapsed, with militants accusing Islamabad of killing its fighters. The TTP -- a separate movement but sharing common roots with Afghanistan's new leaders -- plunged Pakistan into a period of horrific violence after forming in 2007. Two TTP sources currently in Afghanistan told AFP that Maulvi Faqir Mohammad was the target of what they described as a drone strike on a compound in Chawgam village, in the eastern province of Kunar bordering Pakistan. "Maulvi Faqir Mohammad was not present at the time... two fighters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were wounded," one source said.

In December 2020, we published a list of 10 predictions about the world of artificial intelligence in the year 2021. With 2021 now coming to a close, let's revisit these predictions to see how things actually played out. There is much to learn from these retrospectives about the state and trajectory of AI today. As of the beginning of this year, no autonomous vehicle company had ever gone public. TuSimple, Embark and Aurora have all debuted on public markets this year.

It may be smart, but it's not that clever. Artificial intelligence is nothing without human input. The algorithms that drive AI rely on the expertise of programmers and it's still no more than a tool – albeit a powerful one – that scientists and engineers can use to solve problems. Yet this is not to say that AI isn't the fastest-growing deep technology in the world, with the potential to transform people's lives and boost nations' economies. Facilitating AI innovation has even become a priority for the UK government, as laid out in the National AI Strategy it published in September.