The US Central Intelligence Agency has launched a research and development wing, dubbed'CIA Labs'. In a press statement, the Agency stated that this initiative is an effort to bring together private sector academia and CIA operatives to develop and produce tech solutions along various streams. Specifically, the research would take place across several spheres, including Blockchain, DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology), Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics. The CIA Labs project aims to conduct research, development, and testing in multiple disciplines to address new challenges It will also adapt or improve existing solutions to technological problems. This multifaceted research will focus on several technological ideas that have not been fully developed yet.

As we've learned (or apparently not) time and time again, AI and machine learning technology have a racism problem. From soap dispensers that don't register dark-skinned hands to self-driving cars that are 5 percent more likely to run you over if you are black because they don't recognize darker skin tones, there are numerous examples of algorithms that don't function as they should because they weren't tested enough with non-white people in mind. Over the weekend, one such algorithm with apparent bias drew attention after cryptographer and infrastructure engineer Tony Arcieri tried a simple experiment on Twitter. Arcieri took two photos: One of Barack Obama and one of Mitch McConnell. He then arranged them as below.

The retail banking sector has been hit with numerous scams during the past few years. Cybercriminals are now also beginning to increasingly go after much larger corporate accounts by launching sophisticated malware and phishing attacks, according to Beate Zwijnenberg, chief information security officer at ING Group. Zwijnenberg recommends using advanced AI defense systems to identify potentially fraudulent transactions which may not be immediately recognizable by human analysts. Financial institutions across the globe have been spending a lot of money to deal with serious cybersecurity threats. They've been using static, rules-based verification processes to identify suspicious activity.

America's most famous spy agency has a major competitor it can't quite seem to beat: Silicon Valley. The CIA has long been a place cutting-edge technology is researched, developed, and realized--and it wants to lead in fields like artificial intelligence and biotechnology. However, recruiting and retaining the talent capable of building these tools is a challenge on many levels, especially since a spy agency can't match Silicon Valley salaries, reputations, and patents. The agency's solution is CIA Labs, a new skunkworks that will attempt to recruit and retain technical talent by offering incentives to those who work there. Under the new initiative, announced today, CIA officers will be able for the first time to publicly file patents on the intellectual property they work on--and collect a portion of the the profits.

AEYE Health and Optomed have agreed to enter clinical and commercial collaboration to introduce an AI fundus camera Aurora AEYE. The collaboration includes a clinical trial with the aim to receive U.S. FDA approval for autonomous AI for retinal screening. Once the clinical trials are commenced and successfully completed, the Aurora AEYE will include Optomed's handheld fundus camera Aurora and AEYE Health's AI-based retinal screening system that aims to provide analysis of the retina for diabetic retinopathy changes and receive diagnostic results within 60 seconds. The Aurora AEYE simplifies the retinal screening process by providing an easy-to-use retinal screening system to examine these patients outside the ophthalmologist's office, including primary care and endocrinology clinics or pharmacies. Zack Dvey-Aharon, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of AEYE Health: "Today, we are taking a big step forward in the direction of providing accurate, affordable and useable solution to detect retinal conditions, prevent blindness and save lives. The use of our advanced AI algorithms and Optomed's quality handheld fundus cameras sets to democratize diagnostic eye screenings and ensure that all patients who need treatment will receive it on time. We are delighted to team up with Optomed and we look forward to spearheading global efforts to develop AI-based solutions for the early detection of a wide variety of retinal diseases."

Portland's 2016 entry for a $50 million federal contest called the Smart City Challenge described a Pacific Northwest tech-topia. It promised autonomous shuttles, trucks, and cars on city streets, through partnerships with Daimler and Lyft. Sensors from Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs would monitor people walking and biking around the city to analyze traffic patterns. The Rose City didn't win, and four years later there are no self-driving Lyfts on its streets. One thing that has changed: Portland's conception of what makes a city smart. This month, Portland adopted the nation's most restrictive laws on face recognition, banning private as well as government use of the technology.

The UN compendium provides further details on UN agencies, members of the AI for Good UN Partners, experiments with AI to improve their response to global challenges.

To learn the best, you must learn from the finest. Geoffrey Hilton is called the Godfather of Deep Learning in the field of data science. Mr. Hinton is best known for his work on neural networks and artificial intelligence. A Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, he is accredited for his exemplary work on neural nets. The co-founder of the term, "Data Science", Jeff Hammerbacher developed methods and techniques for capturing, storing and analysing a large amount of data.

Artificial intelligence offers a chance for the Latin America's economies to leapfrog to greater innovation and economic progress. E-commerce firms have faced a conundrum in Latin America: How can they deliver packages in a region where 25% of urban populations live in informal, squatter neighborhoods with no addresses? Enter Chazki, a logistics startup from Peru, which partnered with Arequipa's Universidad San Pablo to build an artificial intelligence robot to generate new postal maps across the country. The company has now expanded to Argentina, Mexico and Chile, introducing remote communities and city outskirts to online deliveries. That's just one example of how machine learning is bringing unique Latin American solutions to unique Latin American challenges.

Algorithms have taken a lot of flak recently, particularly those being used by the government and other public bodies in the UK. The controversial algorithm used to award student grades caused a huge public outcry, but national and local governments and several police forces have been withdrawing other algorithms and artificial intelligence tools from use throughout the year in response to legal challenges and design failures. This has quite rightly brought it home to public sector organisations that a more critical approach to AI and algorithmic decision-making is needed. But there are many cases in which government bodies can deploy such technology in lower risk, high-impact scenarios that can improve lives, particularly if they don't directly use personal data. So before we leap full pelt into AI cynicism we should consider benefits as well as risks it offers, and demand a more responsible approach to AI development and deployment.