In the global rush to develop artificial intelligence (AI), the US, European Union and China have taken an early lead in published research papers – but they are often drawing on talent from India, Turkey and other countries, according to a new database launched by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD database – part of a growing inter-governmental effort to track AI trends and policies – indicates India has produced three times as many people with AI-related skills as the average for the 20 biggest economies in the world. And, the database shows, Indian AI experts are also the most likely in the world to have used their skills to get work abroad – often in the US or Germany, two of the biggest importers of AI talent. Besides India, other major exporters of global AI talent include Turkey and China. These complex patterns of AI talent moving around the world come as concerns grow in several capitals that governments need to step up local training in AI, if they want to stay competitive globally.

The European Union unveiled proposals Wednesday to regulate artificial intelligence that call for strict rules and safeguards on risky applications of the rapidly developing technology. The report is part of the bloc's wider digital strategy aimed at maintaining its position as the global pacesetter on technological standards. Big tech companies seeking to tap Europe's vast and lucrative market, including those from the U.S. and China, would have to play by any new rules that come into force. The EU's executive Commission said it wants to develop a "framework for trustworthy artificial intelligence." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had ordered her top deputies to come up with a coordinated European approach to artificial intelligence and data strategy 100 days after she took office in December. "We will be particularly careful where essential human rights and interests are at stake," von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

The medical and healthcare categories have been leading robotic innovation for decades. Look no further than Intuitive Surgical, whose da Vinci robot has been performing surgery since it received FDA clearance in the early 2000s. These days, the SRI spinoff is currently valued at more than $60 billion. There's a lot of money to be made for established companies and still areas to be explored for young startups, both on and off the operating table. The venture community has been betting big on companies developing everything from new surgical robots, assistive robots for medical facilities, robotic medical aid devices or otherwise.

I offer you a cordial greeting on the occasion of the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life. I thank Archbishop Paglia for his kind words. I am grateful too for the presence of the President of the European Parliament, the FAO Director-General and the other authorities and leaders in field of information technology. I also greet those who join us from the Conciliazione Auditorium. And I am heartened by the numerous presence of young people: I see this as a sign of hope.

The UK has a well-documented decades-long 20% labour productivity gap with the US, Germany and France. With Brexit potentially creating extra challenges in overcoming this competitive disadvantage, the UK could fall even further behind. But if you are an optimist it could also be a moment for the UK to take a giant leap forward as it has done in the past when confronted with no other choice. Britain has been very good at doing this recently but it could be even better and Brexit could galvanise a new era of even more productive collaboration between public institutions and private business. There are many sectors of the UK economy that have bright sparks of world class performance but McKinsey Global Institute Productivity research shows very clearly they are held back by vexing bottlenecks.

The UK has a well-documented decades-long 20% labour productivity gap with the US, Germany and France. With Brexit potentially creating extra challenges in overcoming this competitive disadvantage, the UK could fall even further behind. But if you are an optimist it could also be a moment for the UK to take a giant leap forward as it has done in the past when confronted with no other choice. Britain has been very good at doing this recently but it could be even better and Brexit could galvanise a new era of even more productive collaboration between public institutions and private business. There are many sectors of the UK economy that have bright sparks of world class performance but McKinsey Global Institute Productivity research shows very clearly they are held back by vexing bottlenecks.

New technologies can bring more threats to corporate security, but because they increase information technology connectivity and vulnerabilities, they can also be used to fight against these problems. Cybersecurity software maker Imperva Inc. uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to do threat analytics and predictive attack research for its clients. "We are fighting against technologies like AI," said Pam Murphy (pictured), chief executive officer of Imperva. "But we are also using those technologies to help us decide where we need to continue to add capabilities to stop [cyberattacks]." Murphy spoke with Jeff Frick, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's mobile livestreaming studio, during the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Artificial intelligence is technology in which machines are given the ability to perform tasks that normally require humanlike thinking. Types of AI include machine learning and neural networks. It has a broad range of possible uses in transportation, health care, entertainment, education, agriculture, manufacturing, cybersecurity, and national defense. Current uses are "narrow AI," where the system does one specific task, such as recognizing images. In contrast, a "general AI" system would work more broadly and uses more of the human abilities to learn and to apply that knowledge to new areas.

Imagine being thrown into a morning panic by the sound of a blaring alarm, screaming at you to take immediate shelter. Your Smart TV displays the words "AERIAL DRONE RAID" in all red, and as you attempt to rationalize what is going on, you inch towards the window in sheer disbelief as you discover a decimated cityscape. Rogue armies of drone wasps run amok in search of deviants to poison and kill, unmanned tanks obliterate anything moving on the streets and sophisticated digital twin satellites successfully cripple our electric power grid system with advanced EMT attacks. Cyber criminals have already taken advantage of the situation, broadcasting "deep fake" news of a deadly virus to cause panic and hysteria among the masses. Biohackers take it a step further, threatening to unleash an AI-manufactured strain of the flu unless the government provides them with a sizable paycheck.

Scientists convened on an unfinished underground power plant in Elma, Washington to test a group of autonomous military robots in a simulated disaster scenario. The scientists weren't taking part in an experiment but a competition sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as part of its efforts to develop a range of autonomous robots to fill a variety of military roles. The winning team came from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a 60 person crew that oversaw a group of 12 robots they'd programmed through an initiative called Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Robots (CoSTAR). 'The goal is to develop software for our robots that lets them decide how to proceed as they face new surprises,' JPL's Ali Agha said. 'These robots are highly autonomous and for the most part make decisions without human intervention.' CoSTAR's robots autonomously explored the underground plant, which had been designed to simulate an urban disaster environment with a carbon dioxide leak and warm air vent.