When even the companies developing AI themselves agree with the need for regulation, it is time to stop discussing abstract principles and get down to the business of how to regulate a rapidly advancing technology landscape. It is clear that our regulatory system needs an update. If we try to regulate 21st century technology and beyond with 20th century tools, we'll get none of the benefits of regulation and all of the downsides. So, if we need to reinvent the rules to keep pace with the technological change advanced by the likes of Google, Amazon, and Facebook, where do we start? Google's Sundar Pichai is right that technology companies cannot simply build AI and leave it to the will of the market. But what we can do is try to use the best traits of markets -- competition, transparency, rapid iteration -- to reform our regulatory system.

When people hear about the race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominance, they often think that the main competition is between the US and China. After all, the US and China have most of the largest and most well funded AI companies on the planet, and the pace of funding, company growth, and adoption doesn't seem to be slowing anytime soon. However, if you look closely, you'll see that many other countries have a stake in the AI race, and indeed, some countries have AI efforts, funding, technologies, and intellectual property that make them serious contenders in the jostling for AI dominance. In fact according to a recent report from analyst firm Cognilytica, France, Israel, United Kingdom, and the United States all are equally strong when it comes to AI, with China, Canada, Germany, Japan, and South Korea equally close in their AI strategic strength. AI startups are raising more money than ever.

The Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity recognizes positive impacts of artificial intelligence to protect, enhance, and improve human life in meaningful ways with long-lived effects. The award will be given annually at the conference for the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) in February, and is accompanied by a prize of $1,000,000 plus travel expenses to the conference. Financial support for the award is provided by Squirrel AI. The award will be given for the first time in 2021. Candidates may be individuals, groups, or organizations that are directly connected with the main contribution stated in the nomination.

Dr Charlotte Webb is co-founder of Feminist Internet, a non-profit organisation on a mission to make the internet more equal for women and other marginalised groups through creative, critical practice. She was nominated last year by the Evening Standard as one of the most influential people in technology and science in London and has presented at TedX, Internet Age Media and Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. It's also the title of a recently published report by Unesco, which aims to expose the gender biases coded into technology products and address the global digital skills gender gap. The paper is a timely reminder that the voices of smartphone-activated smart assistants are now so firmly embedded in the cultural imagination that they feature in everything from NGO reports to TV ads and memes. And AI bias has become a mainstream topic: Joy Buolomwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, is on the six o'clock news talking about biased facial-recognition algorithms; the Barbican's AI: More than human exhibition is bringing AI to the masses; and US presidential hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just called out tech companies for their biases in the recent House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on facial-recognition technology.

Since 2014, Russia has played a dominant role in the civil war hostilities in Syria where the testing of technology fresh out of research and development has been applied to measure results, graded by software systems. Such military upgrades launched in Syria and in Yemen include the SS-21 Scarab, the Uran-9 and the Ratnick-4 (robotics). A four day drill was held in December 2019 in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. Participants were Russia, Iran, and China whose cooperation, unity, and military exchanges were evident during the drills. Russia's involvement should be considered in the light of a strategy.

The use of facial recognition by police and other law enforcement is proving divisive, with Verdict readers split over its use. In a poll on Verdict that saw responses from 644 readers between 24 January and 7 February, the majority said they were not happy with the use of facial recognition by police, but only by a slim margin. The response comes as the EU is considering a ban on the use of facial recognition until the technology reaches a greater stage of maturity. A draft white paper, which was first published by the news website EURACTIV in January, showed that a temporary ban was being considered by the European Commission. It proposed that "use of facial recognition technology by private or public actors in public spaces would be prohibited for a definite period (e.g.

The Federal Highway Administration launched an Exploratory Advanced Research Program this week to usher in "transformational changes and truly revolutionary advances" in highway engineering and intermodal transportation on roads across the United States. According to a new broad agency announcement, the administration is accepting research effort proposals--with the deliberate intent of awarding either contracts or cooperative agreements--that address three trendy topics in emerging tech: blockchain for highway transportation, artificial intelligence for highway transportation, and incorporating trashed plastic into asphalt cement to reduce waste. "This program supports scientific investigations and studies that advance the current knowledge and state-of-the-art in the sciences and technologies employed in the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and management of the nation's highways," officials wrote in the announcement. "Strategically, this research will enable and expedite the development of revolutionary approaches, methodologies, and breakthroughs required to drive innovation and greatly improve the efficiency of highway transportation." The agency's EAR programs aim to produce strong public-private partnerships that catalyze solutions through "longer-term, higher risk" research.

Dmitry Kochin (left) and Alexander Neymak are the brains behind FuturologyAI, a largely self-funded ... [ ] startup that creates bots for sales teams. Russian bots are not just for election meddling anymore. Bots, whether Russian or American made, can also pose as virtual assistants ready to help an existing sales team, or build one where there wasn't one before. Dmitry Kochin is a Russian'Botman', taught the tools of the trade at the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, where he earned his PhD in computer science in 2006. His three-year old company, FuturologyAI, has a team of five developers, all of them sitting in an office in Moscow, building what he calls a "virtual sales force" and training bots to better understand human conversation.

Healthcare is an essential, dynamic, and opportunity-rich industry. The demand for innovation to drive simultaneous improvement in health outcomes, affordability, quality, and access will continue to be high. As we look ahead, we suggest keeping an eye on the following seven trends. Multiple forces (including the mitigation of additional funding from the Affordable Care Act) are combining to form headwinds against profit pool growth in healthcare. New business models that create significant healthcare value (that is, substantially better cost, quality, and outcomes) will be critical--and are emerging.

As Chinese authorities race to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 34,000 people and killed more than 700 in China, Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence. Several Chinese tech firms have developed apps to help people check if they have taken the same flight or train as confirmed virus patients, scraping data from lists published by state media. In Guangzhou, southern Guangdong province, robots at one public plaza have even been deployed to scold passers-by not wearing masks, according to state-run Global Times. In Beijing, one neighbourhood committee responsible for an apartment complex of about 2,400 households said they used flight and train data to keep track of everyone's recent travel record. "Use big data technology to track, screen priority (cases), and effectively forecast the development of the epidemic in real time," China's National Health Commission (NHC) told local governments in an online statement Tuesday.