WASHINGTON: In a 5 to 0 sweep, an AI'pilot' developed by Heron Systems beat one of the Air Force's top F-16 fighter pilots in DARPA's simulated aerial dogfight contest today. "It's a giant leap," said DARPA's Justin (call sign "Glock") Mock, who served as a commentator on the trials. AI still has a long way to go before the Air Force pilots would be ready to hand over the stick to an artificial intelligence during combat, DARPA officials said during today's live broadcast of the AlphaDogfight trials. But the three-day trials show that AI systems can credibly maneuver an aircraft in a simple, one-on-one combat scenario and shoot its forward guns in a classic, WWII-style dogfight. On the other hand, they said, it was an impressive showing by an AI agent after only a year of development.

How do you summarise India's journey so far in nearly three quarters of a century of Independence and where do we stand globally? After being freed from the shackles of colonialism, India has established itself as a leader at the global stage. However first, India had to play catch-up. We have gone from a food deficit nation to a food surplus one. Our service sector has emerged as a global powerhouse.

The Centre for Data, Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) has published its AI Barometer – an analysis of the most pressing opportunities, risks and governance challenges associated with artificial intelligence (AI) and data use within the UK. The Barometer, according to CDEI Chair Roger Taylor, provides a "system-wide view of how AI and data are being used." It explores where the opportunities lie, identifies barriers to adoptions and offers productive solutions and suggestions to improve the implementation of AI across all facets of society. The AI Barometer devotes 20 of its 152 pages to the uptake of AI within financial services. While a large proportion of the chapter focusses on applications and AI that affects customers and citizens, within it lies some key messages for financial service providers and regulators.

DJI, the largest drone maker in the world, have seemingly striven another victory in the patent war with Autel Robotics, as the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) decided not to enforce a ban on DJI drones. ITC made the decision on Thursday in a "final determination" document saying enforcement of the ban will be suspended.

An AI pilot has defeated a US Air Force pilot in a virtual F-16 dogfight in a "coming of age" moment for artificial intelligence. The US military's AlphaDogfight Trials was organised by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) - a secretive branch of the US Department of Defense responsible for the development of futuristic technologies. It sought to demonstrate the "feasibility of developing effective, intelligent autonomous agents capable of defeating adversary aircraft in a dogfight." The winning AI pilot, developed by Heron Systems, defeated other AI adversaries before going on to beat a human pilot wearing a VR helmet by a score of 5 - 0 in the final. "We've gotten an opportunity to watch AI come of age [against] a very credible adversary in the human pilot," said Col. Dan Javorsek, program manager in Darpa's Strategic Technology Office.

The simultaneous maturation of three technologies--AI, the Internet of Things and 5G wireless--are ushering in a data-driven 5th wave of computing underpinned by current cloud infrastructure, according to the chief executive of chip intellectual property vendor ARM. Speaking at an annual Defense Department microelectronics summit, Simon Segars said new chip architectures are being designed around IoT sensors networks that will generate huge data volumes collected and transported by emerging 5G networks. Those massive data sets can then be used to train machine learning models to extract useful information via new AI algorithms. As DoD seeks to revive U.S. chip manufacturing, drive semiconductor innovation and secure its microelectronics supply chain, "You have to think about the underlying technologies, the science that drives the next evolution of all of these technologies," Segars told this week's Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) summit sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). "And that's an area where I think governments can play a big role in helping stimulate research--because this stuff is really hard."

Israel will allow autonomous vehicle driving without the presence of a human driver as required nowadays, said a statement issued by Israeli Ministry of Transport on Thursday. The ministry said that a new planned legislation will allow advanced tests as well as free or paid passenger rides in autonomous vehicles via a dedicated application. "This is a huge step forward in promoting autonomous vehicles in Israel," the ministry said in its statement. So far, all testing of autonomous vehicles in Israel are carried out with a safety driver to take over the vehicle in case of emergency. "The new legislation will advance activities of leading technology companies in Israel, as they will be able to conduct advanced testing and operate autonomous vehicles," according to the ministry.

Cars that drive themselves may one day improve road safety by reducing human error – and hopefully deaths by accidents too. One morning in March 2019, a brand new, cherry-red Tesla Model 3 sat in front of a Sheraton hotel in Vancouver, Canada. Once they were inside the car, Amat Cama and Richard Zhu, both tall and lean twentysomethings, needed only a few minutes. They exploited a weakness in the browser of the "infotainment" system to get inside one of the car's computers. Then they used the system to run a few lines of their own code, and soon their commands were appearing on the screen. Cama and Zhu got the car, but they weren't thieves.

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) was set up by a Royal Decree in August 2019. The organisation oversees the National Data Management Office, the National Information Center and the National Center for Artificial Intelligence. "Data is the single most important driver of our growth and reform and we have a clear roadmap for transforming Saudi Arabia into a leading AI and data-driven economy," said Dr Abdullah bin Sharaf Al Ghamdi, president of SDAIA, according to regional news website gulfnews.com. The country is establishing a national data bank to consolidate more than 80 government datasets, the equivalent to 30 per cent of the government's digital assets. It is also planning to build one of the largest clouds in the region by merging 83 data centres owned by more than 40 government bodies.

The never-ending saga of machines outperforming humans has a new chapter. An AI algorithm has again beaten a human fighter pilot in a virtual dogfight. The contest was the finale of the U.S. military's AlphaDogfight challenge, an effort to "demonstrate the feasibility of developing effective, intelligent autonomous agents capable of defeating adversary aircraft in a dogfight. Last August, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA, selected eight teams ranging from large, traditional defense contractors like Lockheed Martin to small groups like Heron Systems to compete in a series of trials in November and January. In the final, on Thursday, Heron Systems emerged as the victor against the seven other teams after two days of old school dogfights, going after each other using nose-aimed guns only. Heron then faced off against a human fighter pilot sitting in a simulator and wearing a virtual reality helmet, and won five rounds to zero. The other winner in Thursday's event was deep reinforcement learning, wherein artificial intelligence algorithms get to try out a task in a virtual environment over and over again, sometimes very quickly, until they develop something like understanding. Deep reinforcement played a key role in Heron System's agent, as well as Lockheed Martin's, the second runner up. Matt Tarascio, vice president of artificial intelligence, and Lee Ritholtz, director and chief architect of artificial intelligence, from Lockheed Martin told Defense One that trying to get an algorithm to perform well in air combat is very different than teaching software simply "to fly," or maintain a particular direction, altitude, and speed. Software will begin with a complete lack of understanding about even very basic flight tasks, explained Ritholtz, putting it at a disadvantage against any human, at first. "You don't have to teach a human [that] it shouldn't crash into the ground… They have basic instincts that the algorithm doesn't have," in terms of training. "That means dying a lot.