THE CONTEST between China and America, the world's two superpowers, has many dimensions, from skirmishes over steel quotas to squabbles over student visas. Both countries are investing large sums in militarised artificial intelligence (AI), from autonomous robots to software that gives generals rapid tactical advice in the heat of battle. China frets that America has an edge thanks to the breakthroughs of Western companies, such as their successes in sophisticated strategy games. America fears that China's autocrats have free access to copious data and can enlist local tech firms on national service. Neither side wants to fall behind.

Ongoing projects for the artificial intelligence (AI) push, Shanahan told attendees, include predictive maintenance for the H-60 helicopter; humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, with an initial emphasis on wildfires and flooding; cyber sense-making, focusing on event detection, user activity monitoring, and network mapping; information operations; and intelligent business automation. The biggest project for fiscal year 2020, he said, is what the Pentagon is calling AI for maneuver and fires: "With individual lines of effort or product lines oriented on warfighting operations; for example, operations intelligence fusion, joint all-domain command and control, accelerated sensor-to-shooter timelines, autonomous and swarming systems, target development, and operations center workflows. "We are also embarking with DIU [Defense Innovation Unit] and the services' Surgeons General, as well as many others, on a predictive health project," Shanahan stated, "with several proposed lines of effort, to include health records analysis, medical imagery classification and PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] mitigation/suicide prevention. Our other major effort, one that is instrumental to our AI center of excellence concept, is what we are calling the Joint Common Foundation, or JCF. The JCF will be a platform that will provide access to data, tools, environments, libraries and to other certified platforms to enable software and AI engineers to rapidly develop, evaluate, test and deploy AI-enabled solutions to warfighters.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Sept. 4 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com A coalition of activist groups representing more than 15 million combined members is pushing for a federal ban on law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology. The groups, which are planning to blanket lawmakers with emails and phone calls, are coming together under BanFacialRecognition, which was organized by the digital rights group Fight for the Future as a way to show the public exactly where and how the controversial surveillance technology is being used nationwide. "Facial recognition is one of the most authoritarian and invasive forms of surveillance ever created, and it's spreading like an epidemic. The technology has been banned by three cities -- Oakland and San Francisco in California, and Somerville, Mass. Fight for the Future, along with more than two dozen other organizations, is calling for a total ban on facial recognition technology at the federal level. Two tests of Amazon's facial recognition software, which the tech giant claims can now detect "fear," falsely labeled California state lawmakers and members of Congress as criminal suspects. Most of the false positives were people of color in both tests. The Jeff Bezos-led company has said that it encourages law enforcement agencies to use 99 percent confidence ratings for public safety applications of the technology. Amazon's Ring security service, which deploys facial recognition technology, is reportedly working with more than 200 police departments. "When using facial recognition to identify persons of interest in an investigation, law enforcement should use the recommended 99 percent confidence threshold, and only use those predictions as one element of the investigation" and not the sole determinant, the company said in a blog post earlier this year. The grassroots coalition, which includes Consumer Action, Restore the Fourth, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Color of Change, United We Dream and Media Justice, is united in the belief that regulating the technology isn't enough. "We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I have a problem when I see the word healthcare next to industry. It seems like we're talking about a basic human right next to a word that means a sellable product. This industry relies heavily on human intervention and subjective opinions. It uses advanced technologies like genome decoding, MRIs, PET scans, and radiotherapy., But it also strongly depends on human interpretations, and humans make mistakes.

Russia's pioneering humanoid robot Fedor has started assisting astronauts on board the International Space Station. Video footage reveals the six-foot tall robot holding a towel and a drill before handing the power tool to an astronaut. The robot was sent into space to learn new skills so that it and others like it can carry out dangerous operations instead of astronauts, such as space walks. Fedor, the nickname of the pioneering robot, stands at six foot tall, weighs 353 pounds and can perform complex movements by mimicking a human on Earth. Roscosmos hopes it will help astronauts carry out tasks remotely.

The health industry in the UK is under immense pressure, with staff shortages and funding restraints leading to unsustainable heavy workloads and low retention rates. It is clear that digital transformation is key to supporting healthcare professionals by relieving the administrative burden, reducing unpaid staff overtime and improving employee job satisfaction. The early August pledge of £250m for NHS artificial intelligence is one step towards realising this metamorphosis that has been detailed by Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock's Future of Healthcare document and the NHS Long Term Plan. Artificial intelligence and automation already play a role in health. A highly publicised example of this is Ai-assisted robotic surgery to perform complex procedures.

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." In the 2018-19 Union Budget, Niti Aayog was mandated to establish a National Program on AI. This highlighted the urgency and importance the Indian Government is placing on the need to strategise the approach on AI and recognise its potential in transforming economies and providing social benefits. A study by EY and NASSCOM – Future of Jobs in India: A 2022 Perspective 2017 found that by 2022, 46% of the workforce will be engaged in entirely new jobs that do not exist today, or will be deployed in jobs requiring radically different skill-sets. These potential transformation leaders are to be created today.

After a rash of tech employee protests, the Defense Department wants to hire an artificial intelligence ethicist. "We are going to bring on someone who has a deep background in ethics," tag-teaming with DOD lawyers to make sure AI can be "baked in," Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who leads the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told reporters during an Aug. 30 media briefing. The AI ethical advisor would sit under the JAIC, the Pentagon's strategic nexus for AI projects and plans, to help shape the organization's approach to incorporating AI capabilities in the future. The announcement follows protests by Google and Microsoft employees concerned about how the technology would be used -- particularly in lethal systems -- and questioning whether major tech companies should do business with DOD. The JAIC is building an AI ethics process with input from the Defense Innovation Board, the National Security Council and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Policy to address AI ethics policy concerns and offer recommendations to the defense secretary.

Cybersecurity is in a dire state. A few years ago, 70 million Target customers were affected by a large-scale cyber attack. Target's CIO was immediately let go in the wake of such an unthinkable disaster. Now 70 million seems like a tame number after revelations of devastating cybersecurity incidents like the Equifax breach, which affected 143 million Americans, and the Yahoo account debacle came to light. Each attack compromised millions upon millions, maybe even billions, of citizens.

Britain's upper house of Parliament, the House of Lords, agreed early Thursday to vote by 5 p.m. Friday on a bill aiming to prevent the U.K. from crashing out of the European Union without an exit agreement. The House of Commons approved the bill on Wednesday, one of several consecutive defeats suffered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week. The lower house also rejected Johnson's motion to hold snap elections; the opposition Labour Party wants the legislation blocking a no-deal Brexit enshrined in law before agreeing to new elections. Assuming the House of Lords approves the bill on Friday, as expected, it will be returned to the House of Commons for a final vote, likely on Monday. Conservatives members of the upper House had threatened to filibuster the legislation, aiming to prevent its passage before Johnson suspends Parliament next week, but a compromise was reached in the early morning.