A trio of experts on a wide-ranging panel discussion with that title addressed that very question at Splunk's .conf19 Here's what they had to say about AI's current impact, its future potential and how to separate reality from the hype. Adam Cohn, vice president for worldwide government affairs at Splunk, asked panelists to start by describing the most promising applications for AI in key sectors over the next few years. Jinsook Han, digital and strategy lead for applied intelligence at Accenture, said one of the highest values of AI lies in its ability to improve relevance for stakeholders in different industries. "You want the brands and the companies to really know you," she said.

As the specter of killer warrior robots looms large, the Pentagon has published a set of ethical guidelines for its use of artificial intelligence. It's a document designed to guide the use of AI in both combat and non-combat military scenarios. The document comes from the Defense Innovation Board, a group of 16 heavy hitters chaired by former Alphabet executive chair Eric Schmidt and counting Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman among its members. Called AI Principles: Recommendations on the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence by the Department of Defense, the missive is an attempt to lay out ground rules for the use of AI early on, giving the military a framework on which to build its AI systems. Frameworks like these are important for the safe rollout of new technologies, it points out, citing civil engineering and nuclear-powered vessels as examples. Now is the time, at this early stage of the resurgence of interest in AI, to hold serious discussions about norms of AI development and use in a military context – long before there has been an incident.

The confluence of access to large granular data sources ('Big Data') and the rapid advance of modelling techniques like those from machine learning (ML) promises new insights into the economy and a larger information set for policymakers. The Bank of England (BoE) and the Data Analytics for Finance and Macro (DAFM) Research Centre at King's College London have recently initiated a series of annual scientific conferences to discuss these advances. Our events aim both to discuss recent developments and, crucially, focus on particular aspects of Big Data and ML approaches which are of increased interest to applied researchers. Two such aspects form the focus of this two-day conference. The first relates to a commonly cited weakness of ML methods when applied to economic problems and data, which is lack of interpretability of ML model outputs.

If you ask a hundred lawyers whether a software system or a robot can buy a house or file a lawsuit, all of them would be likely to answer'no.' But because of the extreme flexibility of limited liability companies (LLCs) under US law, software and other artificial systems in fact can get basic legal personhood or at least a very close surrogate of it. That is, they can enter contracts, own property, sue, and be sued. The modern American LLC is an amazingly flexible structure. At its core, it is a legally recognized entity controlled however its organizers want it to be controlled.

PM Narendra Modi's government is expected to launch a national artificial intelligence programme soon. The programme will see the formation of a task force under the leadership of Principal Scientific Advisor K Vijay Raghavan. This force will identify projects and initiatives in which to implement AI technology. Recently, a long-standing clash between government think-tank NITI Aayog and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on which department will anchor the AI project, has ended. Since Finance Ministry has approved NITI Aayog's Rs 7000 crore plan, the much-awaited proposed policy can finally come into existence.

A glossy high rise in the heart of Miami aims to be the first residential building in the U.S. with a specially designed rooftop to accommodate a Jetsons-like future where cars take to the skies. Halfway through the construction of Paramount Miami World Center, developers determined that the $4 billion, 60-story complex needed something extra to stand out among the vast array of living options for the super-rich. So they installed an observation deck at the top that doubles as a landing pad for vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, often called VTOLs, or flying cars. The tower will have its grand opening early in 2020. Meanwhile, a flying car's reality, where passengers can be dropped off at home like Amazon drone packages, could be decades away – if ever.

Machine Learning applied to financial services industry has the potential to improve outcomes for both businesses and consumers. And in the UK, firms are beginning to take advantage of this. A recent survey, called'Machine Learning in UK Financial Services', carried out by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found that two thirds of respondents report they already use it in some form. The median firm uses live ML applications in two business areas and this is expected to more than double within the next three years. The Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have a keen interest in the way that ML is being deployed by financial institutions.

The World Economic Forum, released a report in 2018, stating that, 50% of companies, will reduce their workforce, due to the efficiency of technologies, such as automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, etc., which has, significantly, reduced errors associated with humans. The report, also, stated that 75 million jobs, will be lost, in the process. Technology is, gradually, taking over and it has been projected, by economists that, Robots could take over 20 million manufacturing jobs, around the world, by 2030. It was, recently, reported that 11 years from now, 14 million robots, will be, actively, working in China, (from a 2018 study, culled from Oxford Economics in) Automation and Artificial intelligence, (AI), are gradually, taking over and this trend is noticeable, in the workplace, where there has been an exponential rise, over the past 20 years, to 2.25 million. The calculation of flight trajectories that helped spaceships into the sky was, formerly, calculated by humans, employed by NASA, (as shown in the movie, Hidden Figures), but today, automation has taken over that, relegating those employed humans, to the background.

Roundup Hello, here's a short but sweet round up of news from the world of machine learning beyond what we have already covered on El Reg.

Rapid advances in AI and machine learning are defining cybersecurity's future daily. Identities are the new security perimeter and Zero Trust Security frameworks are capitalizing on AI's insights to thwart breaches in milliseconds. Advances in AI and machine learning are also driving the transformation of endpoint security toward greater accuracy and contextually intelligence. Gartner predicts $137.4B will be spent on Information Security and Risk Management in 2019, increasing to $175.5B in 2023, reaching a CAGR of 9.1%. Cloud Security, Data Security, and Infrastructure Protection are the fastest-growing areas of security spending through 2023.