"AI can only solve'toy' versions of real-life issues" However, researchers were not able to deliver on the lofty promises associated with AI. In 1973, the British parliament commissioned a thorough investigation of the state of research in AI. The resulting Lighthill report stated that AI was not able to achieve anything that could not also be achieved in other sciences. The report concluded by proclaiming that most successful AI algorithms would grind to a halt on real world problems and they were only suitable for solving'toy' versions of real-life issues. The UK subsequently significantly scaled back government funded AI research projects.

Picture a world in which the baseline requirement for a new smartphone is a facial recognition test. You needn't imagine it -- in China, beginning December 1, that's the scrutiny to which the country's over 850 million internet users will be subject, without exception. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a late September statement that the rule, which will also prevent people from exchanging their mobile numbers, was necessitated by an uptick in phone and internet fraud. Furthermore, the ministry pledged that it would help to "increase supervision and inspection" and "strengthen assessment accountability" while "supervis[ing] the implementation of work" and the "real-name registration management of telephone users." A rule imposed by the German interior ministry in 2016 requires that domestic telecoms ask customers for ID cards, foreign passports, or temporary ID papers when they buy a SIM card or a cell phone.

"It's been a surprise that the Russians, the GRU, this unit, have felt free to go ahead and carry out this extreme malign activity … That's been a shock," the New York Times quotes an unnamed European security official as saying. Western intelligence agencies only recently became aware of this Russian covert operations unit, according to reports. This is despite Unit 29155 agents engaging in espionage activities for more than a decade. But the pieces have begun to fall into place. And the evidence reveals a Kremlin campaign to convince its people that their troubled nation is back on the path to "greatness" -- all while undermining the Western liberal democratic notion of "rules-based order".

A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that increased adoption of robotics and automation equipment has been a substantial driver of the declining labor share of income for U.S. workers, even during a period of extremely low unemployment. The Robotic Industries Association's data shows that the U.S. industrial robotics market is by far the biggest in North America. Mexico is now the second-biggest market, and has been bigger than Canada for several years. But Mexico's manufacturing wages are not similar to Canada's. Last year, Canada's average manufacturing wage (in U.S. dollars) was $19.31 per hour.

Large and powerful Typhoon Hagibis is disrupting mail and parcel delivery services in Japan while forcing amusement facilities to suspend operations despite a three-day weekend through Monday, a public holiday. On Saturday, Japan Post Co. halted mail collection and delivery operations, and over-the-counter services at post offices mainly in the Kanto region including Tokyo due to suspensions of public transport services and other factors. With delays having already occurred in some mail and parcel delivery services, Japan Post is expecting the disruptions to spread throughout the country. Yamato Transport Co. halted or shortened the day's parcel pickup and delivery operations in many areas to ensure safety of workers. Delays in parcel deliveries are expected to continue until around Monday due in part to road clolsures, company officials said.

For Telangana, information technology (IT) plays a significant role in its GDP. Overall services continue to contribute the maximum – around 55 per cent – of which IT contributes about 40 per cet in the state's GDP. Now, with emerging technologies such as AI and ML playing a defining role, the state is looking to leverage these frontier technologies to strengthen public service delivery and tech innovation. In an exclusive interview with ETGovernment's Mohd Ujaley, Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary - IT, Electronics & Communication Department said: "Emerging Technologies is the one area where we are making real advancement. In Telangana, these frontier technologies are being explored by different government departments to improve governance, public service delivery and creation of new jobs."

Last week I saw two articles about "smarter guns": an op-ed titled "Use AI to stop carnage", and a comment to that op-ed asking "Can smarter guns end the gun control debate? The author of the op-ed is S. Bringsjord, professor in a departments of Cognitive Science and Computer Science and an expert in logic and philosophy, specializing in AI and reasoning. The comment to his proposal says he is "comfortable speaking with media and available to speak about the concept of ethical guns". I look forward to reading his answers to my perplexities here. Those smart weapons would use ethical artificial intelligence to know, in any circumstance, that they have "no business being used anytime soon".

Hummingbird Technologies are a world-leading AI and machine learning business in the crop analysis space. We consolidate data from drones, planes and satellites and deliver value-driven actionable insights for farmers, agronomists and food companies. The Hummingbird platform delivers greater insight into crop health and yield potential with a range of crop-specific AI tools for earlier disease identification, optimum nutrient management, detailed plant counting, crop development modelling and yield prediction. Backed by Sir James Dyson, the European Space Agency, BASF and some of the leading tech VC and large agro businesses, Hummingbird have operations in UK, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and North America.

Microsoft does more research and development in China than it does anywhere else outside the United States. But, as US-China relations continue to sour on issues of trade and cyber-security, the decades-long ties Microsoft has in China are coming under close scrutiny. In an interview with BBC News, Microsoft's chief executive Satya Nadella has said that despite national security concerns, backing out of China would "hurt more" than it solved. "A lot of AI research happens in the open, and the world benefits from knowledge being open," he said. "That to me is been what's been true since the Renaissance and the scientific revolution. Therefore, I think, for us to say that we will put barriers on it may in fact hurt more than improve the situation everywhere."

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration and China declared a temporary truce Friday in their 15-month-long trade war. However, the grievances that led them to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of each other's goods remain largely unresolved. The administration agreed to suspend a tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports that was set to take effect Tuesday. And China agreed to buy up to $50 billion of U.S. farm products. The de-escalation in tension between the world's two largest economies was welcomed by financial markets.