We develop new voting mechanisms for the case when voters and candidates are located in an arbitrary unknown metric space, and the goal is to choose a candidate minimizing social cost: the total distance from the voters to this candidate. Previous work has often assumed that only ordinal preferences of the voters are known (instead of their true costs), and focused on minimizing distortion: the quality of the chosen candidate as compared with the best possible candidate. In this paper, we instead assume that a (very small) amount of information is known about the voter preference strengths, not just about their ordinal preferences. We provide mechanisms with much better distortion when this extra information is known as compared to mechanisms which use only ordinal information. We quantify tradeoffs between the amount of information known about preference strengths and the achievable distortion. We further provide advice about which type of information about preference strengths seems to be the most useful. Finally, we conclude by quantifying the ideal candidate distortion, which compares the quality of the chosen outcome with the best possible candidate that could ever exist, instead of only the best candidate that is actually in the running.

A remarkable feature of human beings is their capacity for creative behaviour, referring to their ability to react to problems in ways that are novel, surprising, and useful. Transformational creativity is a form of creativity where the creative behaviour is induced by a transformation of the actor's conceptual space, that is, the representational system with which the actor interprets its environment. In this report, we focus on ways of adapting systems of learned representations as they switch from performing one task to performing another. We describe an experimental comparison of multiple strategies for adaptation of learned features, and evaluate how effectively each of these strategies realizes the adaptation, in terms of the amount of training, and in terms of their ability to cope with restricted availability of training data. We show, among other things, that across handwritten digits, natural images, and classical music, adaptive strategies are systematically more effective than a baseline method that starts learning from scratch.

A futuristic 3D-printed house that lets guests'experience Mars on Earth' will soon offer you the chance to experience what an interplanetary vacation of the future may be like, its creators say. Nestled in the woods of upstate New York along the Hudson River, Tera will be hired out to holiday-makers hoping to experience what sustainable life could be like on Mars. 'Tera' is the brainchild of AI SpaceFactory, a New York City design agency that was awarded $500,000 (£386,000) earlier this year for winning NASA'S 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge with its previous'Marsha' habitat. Each stay will be used to fund the mission of the firm behind its design, which hopes to research and develop the renewable and sustainable technologies of the future. This technology will be used both here on Earth and, they say, will be one day form the basis of a sustainable colony on the red planet.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks Monday with the Saudi king and crown prince about countering the military threat from Iran by building a broad, global coalition that includes Asian and European countries. Pompeo is likely to face a tough sell in Europe and Asia, particularly from those nations still committed to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump repudiated last year. With tensions running high in the region after Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone on June 20 and Trump said he aborted a retaliatory strike, Iran's naval commander warned that his forces won't hesitate to down more U.S. drones that violate its airspace. The U.S. has been building up its military presence in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. announced additional sanctions Monday on Iran aimed at pressuring the Iranian leadership into talks.

Three years ago, if you told me that one day I would use python to analyze AI policy and make Guido van Rossum chuckle, I would think you are crazy. Three years later at PyCon 2019 in Cleveland, that's exactly what happened. I was by no means a tech person. I was trained as an economist (read: stats nerd), but somehow for the past three years I've been writing analysis on deep-tech fields including AI and 5G. What I hope to achieve with this post is not #humblebrag (ok, maybe a little happy dance) but to share with you all the struggles I had and am still experiencing on a daily basis and to reassure a fellow researcher somewhere feeling that he/she is faking it all the time, you are not alone.

From visionary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tom Siebel comes a penetrating examination of the new technologies that are disrupting business and government – and how organisations can harness them to transform into digital enterprises. The confluence of four technologies – elastic cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things – writes Siebel, is fundamentally changing how business and government will operate in the 21st century. Siebel masterfully guides readers through a fascinating discussion of the game-changing technologies driving digital transformation and provides a roadmap to seize them as a strategic opportunity. He shows how leading enterprises such as Enel, 3M, Royal Dutch Shell, the US Department of Defense, and others are applying artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) with stunning results. Digital Transformation is the guidebook every business and government leader needs to survive and thrive in the new digital age.

The United States Postal Service is going to put mail on self-driving trucks. Starting this week, letters and packages moving between Phoenix and Dallas will travel on customized Peterbilt trucks run by TuSimple, an autonomous startup based in San Diego. There will be five round trips between the two cites, with the first haul leaving from Phoenix this morning. It's the first time that the Postal Service has contracted with an autonomous provider for long-haul service. "This pilot is just one of many ways the Postal Service is innovating and investing in its future," the USPS said in a press release that cited the possibility of using "a future class of vehicles" to improve service, reduce emissions and save money. After the initial trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, the Postal Service will assess whether to continue working with TuSimple.

The economy ministry plans to start testing unmanned ground vehicles on public roads by the end of March next year through cooperation with private-sector companies, hoping to put them into practical use soon. The ministry agreed Monday to establish a public-private council on UGVs. Members include e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc., Yamato Transport Co., Japan Post Co. and transport company Seino Holdings Co., as well as the National Police Agency, the transport ministry and local governments. The council is to identify challenges, including ways to secure the safety of UGVs on public roads and who would bear responsibility for accidents, officials said. The ministry is considering possible revisions to the road traffic law in fiscal 2020, which starts in April next year.

Ott Velsberg, Estonia's fresh-faced, 28-year-old chief data officer, is on a mission put AI into every part of the country's public services, from healthcare to education and job centres. "The aim is to make government more proactive and responsive to people's life-events," says Velsberg. Instead of citizens having to apply for things like driver's licences and school places, he envisions a system where public bodies can anticipate and preemptively respond to the needs people have at different stages of their life. "We're not telling people what to do. That might happen in China but not in Estonia, or in Europe as a whole."

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today said it will offer a new course on the openSAP platform that focuses on the ethical implications when developing and interacting with artificial intelligence (AI). Creating Trustworthy and Ethical Artificial Intelligence, offered June 25 through July 24, is geared toward all leaders, professionals, developers and general users of AI technology. "The potential for AI and machine learning is great, and the technology has already had significant impact in automating tasks and efficiently analyzing data sets," said Bernd Welz, chief knowledge officer, SAP. "As this technology continues to evolve and becomes further engrained in our society, it's important that we take the necessary steps to ensure that its development and continued application are carried out in an ethical way. Through this course, we're showing learners how they can keep ethics in the forefront when developing AI- and machine learning–enabled technologies."