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As the car with the blacked-out windows came to a halt in a sidestreet near Tübingen's botanical gardens, keen-eyed passersby may have noticed something unusual about its numberplate. In Germany, the first few letters usually denote the municipality where a vehicle is registered. The letter Y, however, is reserved for members of the armed forces. Military men are a rare, not to say unwelcome, sight in Tübingen. A picturesque 15th-century university town that brought forth great German minds including the philosopher Hegel and the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, it is also a modern stronghold of the German Green party, thanks to its left-leaning academic population. In 2018, there was growing resistance on campus against plans to establish Europe's leading artificial intelligence research hub in the surrounding area: the involvement of arms manufacturers in Tübingen's "cyber valley", argued students who occupied a lecture hall that year, brought shame to the university's intellectual tradition. Yet the two high-ranking officials in field-grey Bundeswehr uniforms who stepped out of the Y-plated vehicle on 1 February 2018 had travelled into hostile territory to shake hands on a collaboration with academia, the like of which the world had never seen before. The name of the initiative was Project Cassandra: for the next two years, university researchers would use their expertise to help the German defence ministry predict the future. Instead, the people the colonels had sought out in a stuffy top-floor room were a small team of literary scholars led by Jürgen Wertheimer, a professor of comparative literature with wild curls and a penchant for black roll-necks.

Artificial intelligence has been on Washington's radar for decades, at least conceptionally. More concretely, over the past few years the federal government has sought to keep up with the dizzying pace of advances by Big Tech and any number of smaller startups – not to mention international competitors, most notably China. Congress and the executive branch – including the White House and a wide range of federal agencies in both the national security and civilian economy spheres – have increasingly supported direct investments, promoted incentives for stepped-up R&D, and worked to develop non-regulatory guidance for the public and private sectors in navigating the economic, technological and social implications of AI. Seeking to ensure a leading global role for the US in AI development and implementation is a prime motivator for American policymakers. In doing so, Washington has been reluctant to adopt or even propose an EU-style sweeping regulatory regime governing applications and oversight of AI for fear that it may slow innovation.

India is lagging behind China in Artificial Intelligence (AI) by at least a decade and also, unique data assets are routinely given away to foreign countries because of the ignorance of her leaders. Given the lack of effective strategic planning on AI and big data, plus its dependence on American digital platforms and Chinese hardware, India might slip further toward digital colonisation. Why does India lag at least a decade behind China in AI and related technologies, despite India having been recently proclaimed as the world leader in software? How vulnerable is India to becoming a digital colony of the West and China? How do Indian industries, military and other sectors stack up in addressing the AI-based technological revolution? India’s security involves combating internal insurgencies as well as protecting long borders with hostile neighbours. This requires considerable manpower that consumes bulk of the military budget. Insufficient funds remain for indigenous R&D and technology related modernisation. India is dependent on imported weapons to defend herself. India might find herself facing Pakistani boots on the ground, weaponised by China’s AI-based technology. How seriously vulnerable is India’s national security considering it is lagging in AI?

EuroHPC – its BullSequana will be used in five EuroHPC supercomputing centres – Sofia Tech Park at Bulgaria ("Discover"), CINECA in Italy ("Da Vinci"), IZUM in Slovenia, ("Vega") LuxProvide in Luxembourg ("MeluXina" which is also #4 in the GREEN500) and in the Minho Advanced Computing Centre in Portugal, reinforcing Atos' position as a European leader in high-performance computing. The Linkoping University's'Berzelius' supercomputer for AI will use Atos' recently announced Atos ThinkAI solution to enable its researchers speed-up processing times on their complex data, empowering them to gain insights faster, using the power of deep learning and analytics. "Topaze" at the CCRT – a new supercomputer at the French CCRT based on the BullSequana XH2000 solution from Atos, is the result of joint R&D by Atos and the CEA's Military Applications Directorate (DAM). It will soon be open to the first users, to start the'Grand Challenges' phase, for very large-scale simulations. "Noctua2" at Paderborn University – the recently announced "Noctua2" supercomputer at the University of Paderborn, based on Atos" BullSequana XH2000, will give the University the modern, highly available and flexible supercomputer infrastructure that is needed for excellent science and research. EuroHPC – its BullSequana will be used in five EuroHPC supercomputing centres – Sofia Tech Park at Bulgaria ("Discover"), CINECA in Italy ("Da Vinci"), IZUM in Slovenia, ("Vega") LuxProvide in Luxembourg ("MeluXina" which is also #4 in the GREEN500) and in the Minho Advanced Computing Centre in Portugal, reinforcing Atos' position as a European leader in high-performance computing. The Linkoping University's'Berzelius' supercomputer for AI will use Atos' recently announced Atos ThinkAI solution to enable its researchers speed-up processing times on their complex data, empowering them to gain insights faster, using the power of deep learning and analytics. "Topaze" at the CCRT – a new supercomputer at the French CCRT based on the BullSequana XH2000 solution from Atos, is the result of joint R&D by Atos and the CEA's Military Applications Directorate (DAM). It will soon be open to the first users, to start the'Grand Challenges' phase, for very large-scale simulations. "Noctua2" at Paderborn University – the recently announced "Noctua2" supercomputer at the University of Paderborn, based on Atos" BullSequana XH2000, will give the University the modern, highly available and flexible supercomputer infrastructure that is needed for excellent science and research.

During operations in Gaza in mid-May, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used a swarm of small drones to locate, identify and attack Hamas militants. This is thought to be the first time a drone swarm has been used in combat. Drones are usually controlled individually by remote operators, but a swarm is a single networked entity that flies itself using artificial intelligence.

Maplesoft offers AI-backed technology that can help students solve math problems. Our brains have long relied on machines to help with mathematics – calculators being the most obvious example. Waterloo, Ont.-based Maplesoft offers AI-backed technology that can help students solve math problems, check their homework and explore graphs in 3-D within seconds. "Our mission is to just make math more accessible," says Karishma Punwani, Maplesoft's director of academic products. "We want to change the way students view, learn and access math to help them see the awe in it." The Canadian-built technology isn't only used in the classroom: Maplesoft's software is also used by engineers and researchers at organizations such as Google, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and research labs around the world.

Spain is "lagging behind" when it comes to the general population's digital skills, especially women, the country's Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence told Euronews Next. Speaking on Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress 2021 in Barcelona, Carme Artigas said the Spanish government was tackling the country's skills shortage head on. "Women are still underrepresented in the population that has technological abilities," the minister said. "The jobs of the future will require not only basic skills, but also specialised skills, advanced skills". Artigas said digitisation was also lacking for small and medium-sized businesses but that Spain is "absolutely focused" on transforming its economic model, something she said, "needs to be tackled urgently".

The closest approach in the US for regulating AI to date has been draft guidance to the heads of federal agencies issued by the Trump Administration in early 2020, which advocated a lighter regulatory touch and favored non-regulatory pilot programs. "Federal agencies must avoid regulatory or non-regulatory actions that needlessly hamper AI innovation and growth," warns the January 7, 2020, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies. The guidance further states, "Agencies must avoid a precautionary approach that holds AI systems to such an impossibly high standard that society cannot enjoy their benefits." And the Trump White House's request for comments on the guidance further emphasized this laissez-faire approach: "OMB guidance on these matters seeks to support the U.S. approach to free-market capitalism, federalism, and good regulatory practices (GRPs)."

The Australian Government has released Australia's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan. The plan sets out a vision for Australia to be a global leader in the development and adoption of trusted, secure and responsible AI. It includes actions the Australian Government is taking to realise this vision and ensure all Australians share the benefits of an AI-enabled economy. This includes progressing the work we have been doing to promote ethical approaches to AI. A key feature of the Australian Government's Digital Economy Strategy, the action plan will help deliver a modern and leading digital economy by 2030.