The following news release was issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). One of the projects receiving funding is aimed at developing intelligent experiments through real-time artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve fast data processing and autonomous detector control for the sPHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) -- a DOE Office of Science user facility at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory -- and for future detectors at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Another project will support AI-driven detector design for the EIC. Both AI projects will be led by scientists at other DOE laboratories and universities across the U.S. Schematic for the sPHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (left) and a preliminary concept for a future Electron-Ion Collider detector (right). WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $5.7 million for six projects that will implement artificial intelligence methods to accelerate scientific discovery in nuclear physics research.

There are many options for mapping and route planning on a smartphone, but one thing they all have in common is their car-centric nature. Those apps that do support pedestrian navigation tend to make assumptions about a user that are at best inaccurate, and at worst dangerous. The app, which was developed by the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology housed at the Paul G. Allen Center of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington and is based off of the web-based tool of the same name, enables users of Android and iOS in the cities of Seattle, Bellingham and Mount Vernon to generate customized walking directions on the go based on their own mobility needs and preferences. The app's release coincides with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, an annual observance initiated by the United Nations to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society, including political, social, economic and cultural life. "Many apps offer some semblance of pedestrian directions, but those directions assume a user profile that ignores the lived experience of a vast number of people," explained Anat Caspi, director of the Taskar Center.

NASA inaugurated its 23rd class of new astronauts on Monday, which includes 10 individuals who are set to walk on the moon and maybe even Mars. Deemed the'Artemis Generation,' this group consists of several former US military, an ex-SpaceX medical director and a bioengineer who also participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a track cyclist. The name is a reference to NASA's Artemis program, which aims to send the first woman and the first person of color to moon as early as 2025. The astronaut candidates for 2021 are: Nichole Ayers, Marcos Berríos, Guaynabo, Christina Birch, Deniz Burnham, Luke Delaney, Andre Douglas, Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon, Christopher Williams and Jessica Wittner. This is NASA first new class in four years and the group is set to begin the two-year training process in January 2022.

A predictive model of a polarized group, similar to the current U.S. Senate, demonstrates that when an outside threat – like war or a pandemic – fails to unite the group, the divide may be irreversible through democratic means. Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as part of a Dynamics of Political Polarization Special Feature, the model identifies such atypical behavior among the political elite as a powerful symptom of dangerously high levels of polarization. "We see this very disturbing pattern in which a shock brings people a little bit closer initially, but if polarization is too extreme, eventually the effects of a shared fate are swamped by the existing divisions and people become divided even on the shock issue," said network scientist Boleslaw Szymanski, a professor of computer science and director of the Army Research Laboratory Network Science and Technology Center (NeST) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "If we reach that point, we cannot unite even in the face of war, climate change, pandemics, or other challenges to the survival of our society." The model – essentially a game that simulates the views of 100 theoretical legislators over time – allowed researchers to dial up party identity, intolerance for disagreement, and extremism to levels such that almost no degree of shock could unite the legislative group. In some situations, the simulation revealed that even the strongest shock fails to reverse the self-reinforcing dynamics of political polarization.

'Watters' World' host lists the many domestic issues President Biden faces This is a rush transcript from "Watters' World," December 4, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to WATTERS' WORLD, I'm Jesse Watters. The Annual White House Christmas Tree lighting is always such a special event, except Joe Biden, the President seemingly forgot he was supposed to light it. Maybe he thought Barack was going to light it. These things just keep happening every single week. I kind of feel bad for LL, they needed to do a second take. Now, President Biden and First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] (END VIDEO CLIP) WATTERS: So, how are we supposed to feel confident the President can crush the virus when he can't even get it together for a Christmas Tree lighting? I'm not worried about the new variant. I'm worried about how the government is going to overreact to the new variant. Biden has got a new plan. More masks, more testing, but unvaxxed illegals can just pour across the Southern border without testing, without quarantining. And then Joe packs them onto planes and buses and sends them to your neighborhood. Does that make sense to anybody? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Fauci, as you advised the President about the possibility of new testing requirements for people coming into this country? ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Everybody who is coming into the country needs to get a test within 24 hours of getting on the plane to come here. DOOCY: But what about people who don't take a plane and just these border crossers coming in in huge numbers?

In media news today, a women's group says'good riddance' to Chris Cuomo after CNN firing, Brooke Baldwin calls on the liberal network to replace Cuomo with a woman, and an MSNBC anchor appears to downplay Bob Dole's accomplishments because of his support for Trump. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank doubled down Monday on his recent op-ed that claimed "sentiment analysis" data proved the media is tougher on President Biden than they were on former President Trump. Milbank's piece, titled, "The media treats Biden as badly as - or worse than - Trump. Here's proof," cited research from Forge.ai, a data analytics unit of the information company FiscalNote. The study used algorithms focused on adjectives and their placement in articles - more than 200,000 of them - to rate the coverage Biden received in the first 11 months of 2021 and the coverage Trump got in the first 11 months of 2020.

Advancing trustworthy AI and machine learning to mitigate agency risk is a priority for the US Department of Energy (DOE), and identifying best practices for implementing AI at scale is a priority for the US General Services Administration (GSA). That's what attendees learned in two sessions at the AI World Government live and virtual event held in Alexandria, Va. last week. Pamela Isom, Director of the AI and Technology Office at the DOE, who spoke on Advancing Trustworthy AI and ML Techniques for Mitigating Agency Risks, has been involved in proliferating the use of AI across the agency for several years. With an emphasis on applied AI and data science, she oversees risk mitigation policies and standards and has been involved with applying AI to save lives, fight fraud, and strengthen the cybersecurity infrastructure. She emphasized the need for the AI project effort to be part of a strategic portfolio.

Artificial intelligence is already pervasive in our digital life, from cell phones to chatbots. The popularity of AI is growing, thanks in part to the vast amounts of data that machines can collect about our interests, purchases, and activities on a daily basis. Artificial intelligence researchers utilise all of this information to teach machines how to understand and predict whatever we want or don't want. Let's take a look at where AI is headed in the future. In the future, you could relax on your couch and order a personalised movie with your favourite virtual actors.

In a move that aims to benefit 65,600 students and 540 teachers from government and government-aided schools in Goa, the State government in March this year implemented its novel and first of its kind in India – Coding and Robotics Education in Schools Scheme from the academic year 2021-22. The scheme aims to incorporate computational and design thinking abilities, as well as programming, into the Goa state board curriculum to prepare students to the needs of the digital world in the 21st century. It was introduced by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who is also the Minister of Education. The State government is looking to make this sort of skill education (coding and problem solving skills) accessible to school-going children from all sections of society. This scheme is a collaborative effort of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Directorate of Education, State Council Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and industry experts.

The UK's newly launched national strategy will help keep the UK competitive as AI transforms businesses and jobs The power of AI to drive growth and innovation is clear, evidenced by the McKinsey Global Survey on AI that suggests that organisations are using AI as a tool for generating value, increasingly, in the form of revenues. But the black box approach taken by most AI companies comes with serious risks to scale bias like never before, intentional or not. As part of any AI strategy, diverse teams must be part of the process from the ground up to recognise biases in the data on which models are trained and to scenario plan how minorities may be impacted. Ensuring AI is explainable with a greater degree of transparency in training data, data gaps, and algorithmic logic can further reduce bias at scale. These are the key ways to mitigate this very real risk.