Deepfakes have made their way into the radar of much of the First World. As with many technology phenomena, deepfakes have their origins in pornography – editing (the Reddit page that originally popularized deepfakes was banned in early 2018). In April of this year, I was asked by UNICRI (the crime and justice wing of the UN) to present the risks and opportunities of deepfakes and programmatically generated content at United Nations headquarters for a convening titled: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Reshaping the Future of Crime, Terrorism, and Security. Instead of speaking about the topic, we decided it would be better to showcase the technology to the UN, IGO, and law enforcement leaders attending the event. So we took a video of UNICRI Director Ms. Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas, and created a deepfake, altering her words and statements by using a model of her face on another person.

On Tuesday, in an 8-1 tally, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to ban the use of facial recognition software by city departments, including police. Supporters of the ban cited racial inequality in audits of facial recognition software from companies like Amazon and Microsoft, as well as dystopian surveillance happening now in China. At the core of arguments around the regulation of facial recognition software use is the question of whether a temporary moratorium should be put in place until police and governments adopt policies and standards or it should be permanently banned. Some believe facial recognition software can be used to exonerate the innocent and that more time is needed to gather information. Others, like San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, believe that even if AI systems achieve racial parity, facial recognition is a "uniquely dangerous and oppressive technology."

But despite concerns, early studies already show that social robots – autonomous robots trained to interact and communicate with humans – really could address issues of care and social interaction. The majority of robotics researchers are largely in favour of introducing robotic technology on a wider scale and believe it could reduce loneliness and increase independence in elderly patients. The Japanese government even supports introducing robots in care homes to solve the country's ageing population problem. However, many strongly recommend carefully balancing the care benefits against the ethical costs.

Since the 1950s, artificial intelligence has been spreading its wings and recently have been in the limelight. Top leaders of the world including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are emphasizing their interest in AI. More than ever AI has been important in our lives today. With excessive production of data, advanced usage of algorithms and improvements made in the field of computing and storage, the enthusiasm for this technology does not cease. Artificial intelligence has impacted the automating businesses in a manner that the growing interest in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning has seen leaps and bounds and is getting immense popularity in the IT industry these days.

Decades after Isaac Asimov first wrote his laws for robots, their ever-expanding role in our lives requires a radical new set of rules, legal and AI expert Frank Pasquale warned on Thursday. The world has changed since sci-fi author Asimov in 1942 wrote his three rules for robots, including that they should never harm humans, and today's omnipresent computers and algorithms demand up-to-date measures. According to Pasquale, author of "The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms Behind Money and Information", four new legally-inspired rules should be applied to robots and AI in our daily lives. "The first is that robots should complement rather than substitute for professionals" Pasquale told AFP on the sidelines of a robotics conference at the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences. "Rather than having a robot doctor, you should hope that you have a doctor who really understands how AI works and gets really good advice from AI, but ultimately it's a doctor's decision to decide what to do and what not to do." "The second is that we need to stop robotic arms races. There's a lot of people right now who are investing in war robots, military robots, policing robots."

Recently San Francisco passed – in an 8-to-1 vote -- a ban on local agencies to use facial recognition technologies. The move is likely not to be a one-off either. Other local governments are exploring similar prohibitions, so as to deal with the potential Orwellian risks that the technology may harm people's privacy. "In the mad dash towards AI and analytics, we often turn a blind eye to their long-range societal implications which can lead to startling conclusions," said Kon Leong, who is the CEO of ZL Technologies. Yet some tech companies are getting proactive.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visited Silicon Valley Thursday to ask for ethical guidance on how the military should develop or acquire autonomous systems. The public comment meeting was held as part of a Defense Innovation Board effort to create AI ethics guidelines and recommendations for the DoD. A draft copy of the report is due out this summer. Microsoft director of ethics and society Mira Lane posed a series of questions at the event, which was held at Stanford University. She argued that AI doesn't need to be implemented the way Hollywood has envisioned it and said it is imperative to consider the impact of AI on soldiers' lives, responsible use of the technology, and the consequences of an international AI arms race.

I just returned from attending several spring digital marketing conferences – Adobe Summit and Martech West. In both the art of the possible was on full display and got me thinking about whether fully-automated AI-driven digital marketing could ever be a thing, and what realistic automation goals look like. Digital marketing continues to be on the leading edge of AI advances and high-tech innovations. Surveys repeatedly indicate AI professionals aim their efforts at infusing intelligence into digital marketing. And every day we're inundated with news of more advances in marketing automation such as: From all this, some might conclude the end of human-powered marketing is close at hand. But others, unconvinced by these tenuous signs, might simply respond, "Poppycock!"

Very little is known about the New York Police Department's use of facial recognition technology. What kind of facial recognition is in place? Which databases are being used? How many people have been scanned, and why? How long is their data retained?