A company that makes an implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) has been given the go-ahead by the Food and Drug Administration to run a clinical trial with human patients. Synchron plans to start an early feasibility study of its Stentrode implant later this year at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York with six subjects. The company said it will assess the device's "safety and efficacy in patients with severe paralysis." Before such companies can sell BCIs commercially in the US, they need to prove that the devices work and are safe. The FDA will provide guidance for trials of BCI devices for patients with paralysis or amputation during a webinar on Thursday.

AI is hungry for data. Training and testing the machine-learning tools to perform desired tasks consumes huge lakes of data. More data often means better AI. Yet gathering this data, especially data concerning people's behavior and transactions, can be risky. For example, In January of this year, the US FTC reached a consent order with a company called Everalbum, a developer of photography apps.

Elon Musk might be well positioned in space travel and electric vehicles, but the world's second-richest person is taking a backseat when it comes to a brain-computer interface (BCI). New York-based Synchron announced Wednesday that it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials of its Stentrode motor neuroprosthesis - a brain implant it is hoped could ultimately be used to cure paralysis. The FDA approved Synchron's Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application, according to a release, paving the way for an early feasibility study of Stentrode to begin later this year at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital. New York-based Synchron announced Wednesday that it has received FDA approval to begin clinical trials of Stentrode, its brain-computer interface, beating Elon Musk's Neuralink to a crucial benchmark. The study will analyze the safety and efficacy of the device, smaller than a matchstick, in six patients with severe paralysis. Meanwhile, Musk has been touting Neuralink, his brain-implant startup, for several years--most recently showing a video of a monkey with the chip playing Pong using only signals from its brain.

What are the issues of most concern for businesses in the EU Commission's recently published AI Act proposals? Our virtual gathering included representatives from the UK, Netherlands and USA, stretching across the automotive, energy, education, professional services and tech sectors. As with our first AI roundtable, the discussion ranged far and wide. A notable difficulty with the Commission's draft regulation on AI (as proposed, its "AI Act") is that it assumes that an end-to-end "provider" of an AI system can be identified and fixed with liability. The AI Act defines such service providers as the person or organisation that developed the system or had it developed.

Harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies has become the new arms race among the great powers, a Hudson Institute panel on handling big data in military operations said Monday. Speaking at the online forum, Richard Schultz, director of the international security program in the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said, "that's the way [Russian President Vladimir] Putin looks at it. I don't think we have a choice" but to view it the same way. He added in answer to a question that "the data in information space is enormous," so finding tools to filter out what's not necessary is critical. U.S. Special Operations Command is already using AI to do what in the old days was called political or psychological warfare, in addition to targeting, he added.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will play a role in protecting the United States from malicious cyber actors. NSA's Jason Wang, technical director for the Computer and Analytic Sciences Research Group, forecasted a future in which AI will support the Intelligence Community's (IC) efforts to secure and defend our Nation's networks. "I think the next frontier for us is probably in the cybersecurity space," he said. "There's a lot of opportunity … to bring machines to this very low latency, highly dynamic problem in ways that really are not human-time kinds of responses." Mr. Wang was responding to a question about cybersecurity and AI posed by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, one of several hundred audience members attending a virtual web briefing on July 12th that also featured AI experts from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).

This year's Olympic Games may be closed to most spectators because of COVID-19, but the eyes of the world are still on the athletes thanks to dozens of cameras recording every leap, dive and flip. Among all that broadcasting equipment, track-and-field competitors might notice five extra cameras--the first step in a detailed 3-D tracking system that supplies spectators with near-instantaneous insights into each step of a race or handoff of a baton. And tracking is just the beginning. The technology on display in Tokyo suggests that the future of elite athletic training lies not merely in gathering data about the human body, but in using that data to create digital replicas of it. These avatars could one day run through hypothetical scenarios to help athletes decide which choices will produce the best outcomes.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), a firm that provides drones and radar solutions for the US military, has released the first concept image for a missile-carrying air-to-air combat drone that can drop bombs in a war zone, engage in aerial threats or escort piloted plans into the battlefield. Part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) LongShot program, the system includes a manned craft that carries the unmanned aerial vehicle close to a warzone and then drops it mid-air to travel the rest of the way. GA-ASI notes that when carried by a bomber, the combat drone can clear the way for the piloted plane to carry out other missions without being attacked by enemy aerial vehicles. The new concept image shows a manned aircraft in the distance and a close look at the stealthy combat drone with a cockpit similar to a B-52 stealth bomber - but without the windows and a fraction of the size. There is a prominent V-shaped tail and a weapons bay on the side of the rear fuselage with two doors, The Drive reports.

Throw out the chalk and blackboards, because there's a new player in the world of education. While ink and copybooks were the foundation stones for a new era of learning centuries ago, in 2021 we stand on the precipice of another massive change in educational technology: artificial intelligence. Today's Daily Dose takes you through the exciting new ways technology is set to mold education in the years to come. We look at how it can ease stress, save time and put a 21st-century touch on some age-old teaching methods. So hang up your backpack and put away your pencil and scissors.

AI is hungry for data. Training and testing the machine-learning tools to perform desired tasks consumes huge lakes of data. More data often means better AI. Yet gathering this data, especially data concerning people's behavior and transactions, can be risky. For example, In January of this year, the US FTC reached a consent order with a company called Everalbum, a developer of photography apps.