BRUSSELS – EU countries could ban telecom operators deemed a security risk from critical parts of 5G infrastructure under guidelines issued Wednesday, amid U.S. pressure to shut out Chinese giant Huawei. The EU plan, which closely mirrors rules set out Tuesday by Britain allowing a limited role for Huawei, stops short of barring the company from the next-generation communications network designed for near-instantaneous data transfers. It leaves member states with the responsibility to ensure the safe rollout of 5G and warns them to screen operators carefully, saying security of the network will be critically important for the entire EU. The "toolbox" outlined by the European Commission avoids naming Huawei and does not call for an outright ban on any supplier. But it urges countries to "assess the risk profile of suppliers (and) … apply relevant restrictions for suppliers considered to be high risk" accordingly, including shutting them out of "key assets defined as critical and sensitive. It also recommends EU states avoid "major dependency on a single supplier" and "dependency on suppliers considered to be high risk.

The U.S. economy continues to expand, with reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicating there are more job openings in the U.S. than people to fill them. Despite this data, working Americans are very concerned about job loss due to AI and automation, especially as politicians fan the flames of fear to gain advantage as the election race heats up. Democratic primary candidate and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang has proposed the Freedom Dividend, a form of universal basic income (UBI) to supplement income lost by automation. Senator Elizabeth Warren is instead focusing on policy reform, training her sights on the multinational corporations moving their factories overseas. Former Vice President Joe Biden has proposed 14 years of public education in an effort to prepare workers for a future where technology reigns.

Google AI today shared that it's created a model for detecting an endangered species of orca whales in the Salish Sea, a waterway between the United States and Canada. Underwater microphones situated at a dozen points in the Salish Sea that includes the state of Washington and Vancouver Bay are used to alert officials when a Southern Resident killer whale is detected. Less than 100 of these whales are thought to still be alive, according to the Center for Whale Research. The orca detection model is the latest from Google, and it follows previous acoustic AI work to detect the sound of chainsaws in rainforests to stop illegal lumber operations and work last year with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the U.S. to help protect humpback whales. The orca model runs on a platform operated by the nonprofit Rainforest Connection.

These and many other insights are from Javelin Strategy and Research report published this month, Protecting Digital Innovation: Emerging Fraud and Attack Vectors. A copy of the report can be downloaded here (25 pp., PDF, opt-in). The methodology is based on a survey of 200 fraud and payment decision-makers for businesses headquartered in the United States. Respondents are evenly distributed from four industries including consumer banking, insurance, restaurants/food service, and retail merchants. The survey's results are noteworthy because they reflect how AI and machine learning-based fraud prevention techniques are helping retailers, financial services, insurance and restaurants to reduce false positives that in turn reduces friction for their customers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded into every aspect of life, and China is pouring billions into its bid to become an AI superpower. China's three-step plan is to pull equal with the United States in 2020, start making major breakthroughs of its own by mid-decade, and become the world's AI leader in 2030. There's no doubt that Chinese companies are making big gains. Chinese government spending on AI may not match some of the most-hyped estimates, but China is providing big state subsidies to a select group of AI national champions, like Baidu in autonomous vehicles (AVs), Tencent in medical imaging, Alibaba in smart cities, Huawei in chips and software. Baidu ("China's Google") is based in Beijing, where the local government has kindly closed more than 300 miles of city roads to make way for AV tests.

The last decade witnessed the technology landscape change rapidly. As humans kept pace, it also birthed the need for extensive reskilling. The next decade will be about the democratisation of technology when it's far more accessible (even to the under-privileged), immersive, personalised, and affordable. Reduced turnaround times, increased outreach and pinpointed go-to-market strategies will unlock a whole new world of opportunities. Importantly, this decade will allay the fear of job losses that dominated political capital all across the world.

Artificial intelligence could trick us into thinking we have found potential aliens, researchers have warned. Even computers could be prone to identifying shapes as evidence of extraterrestrial civilisations, a new study has found – and humans could then be deceived into believing they are real. Artificial intelligence is one of the breakthrough technologies in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, being used to sort through huge amounts of image in the hopes of spotting "technosignatures", or indications of alien life. But the new discovery suggests that people could be get excited about potential discoveries spotted by AI, only to find that they are actually meaningless, accidental formations on alien planets. The study used a particular formation on the dwarf planet Ceres, which excited alien-hunters when it was first discovered.

Paul Scharre is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. He is the award-winning author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, which won the 2019 Colby Award and was named one of Bill Gates' top five books of 2018. Aswin Pranam: To start, what classifies as an autonomous weapon? Paul Scharre: An autonomous weapon, quite simply, makes its own decisions of whom to engage in the battlefield. The core challenge is in figuring out which of those decisions matter.

There is a "real risk" that the growth of automation and increased use of artificial intelligence will see communities across Scotland left behind, Nicola Sturgeon has warned. Speaking at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance conference, the first minister said the growth of new technology will bring new opportunities for Scotland, but that their introduction must be carefully managed to ensure that the benefits are shared. The Scottish Government has worked with the Scottish Trades Union Congress to examine the effects of new technologies on the economy and workforce, with a joint 2018 report finding "there is a plausible case that the technological change in the 21st century could pose new and serious challenges in sustaining a labour market that supports broadly based prosperity". Appearing in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said her government aimed to create an economy where "collective wellbeing" was as fundamental as GDP, but warned that the movement to a low-carbon economy and the growth of new technologies would also pose challenges for communities and workers. The SNP leader said: "As we moved to increased use of technology, such as artificial intelligence, there is again a big potential for real economic benefit, particularly for country like Scotland, and for a city like Edinburgh, where there is already a very strong, vibrant and growing tech sector. But there are also a range of ethical questions to confront. There is also a real risk that as we make that transition, individuals and communities are left behind, so we must work now to make sure that does not happen."

Computers have guided us to the moon and back but can't help us with us with the biggest decisions we face today. Should Donald Trump be impeached? Should Britain leave the EU? Should Australia stop exporting fossil fuels? Questions like these do not have yes or no answers, however tempting it is to think otherwise.