Verizon said Wednesday it had turned on its ultrafast 5G wireless network in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis, though it will be available only to certain subscribers who pay a fee and own a compatible smartphone. The move makes Verizon the first wireless carrier in the United States to flip the switch on speedy, smartphone-ready 5G service in select urban areas, the company said in a statement, though other U.S. carriers including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have pledged to do the same in the coming months. The service Verizon is offering -- 5G, the fifth generation of wireless data networks -- could provide consumers Internet speeds that are up to 100 times faster than 4G networks, according to an industry trade association. Through the placement of small boxes that serve as conduits for invisible, data-transmitting radio waves, 5G networks could power a wide range of consumer devices, from smartphones that can stream Netflix videos more quickly to enabling the arrival of self-driving cars. The promise of faster speeds and more reliable connections has generated a full-on race between AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, the country's four largest carriers, to see who can offer service first (and capture new consumers and their cash in the process). The U.S. government also has taken notice, with lawmakers and the Trump administration looking to supercharge research, investment and development in the telecom sector, believing that better wireless networks will grant the country a more competitive business edge -- particularly against China, which is racing to deploy 5G as well.

The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed a framework on how it might regulate medical devices that rely on AI and machine learning algorithms. The report published this week outlines two types of algorithms for the purposes of regulation: "locked algorithms" and "adaptive algorithms." Locked algorithms provide the same result each time they're fed the same input. The answers are normally based on things like look-up tables, decision trees, or classifiers. An adaptive algorithm, however, will "change its behavior using a defined learning process."

Think you've been scammed and are looking for help on USA.gov? "Sam" is here for you. Sam is a new automated chatbot built by a small team at USA.gov that can answer basic consumer questions like "Is this a scam?" "Can I get my money back?" and more. Sam's reach is limited thus far -- intentionally so -- in that it's only available from three webpages on USA.gov. But for the team behind it, Sam is an exciting initial pilot with what could prove to be a powerful technological tool.

When artificial intelligence systems start getting creative, they can create great things – and scary ones. Take, for instance, an AI program that let web users compose music along with a virtual Johann Sebastian Bach by entering notes into a program that generates Bach-like harmonies to match them. Run by Google, the app drew great praise for being groundbreaking and fun to play with. It also attracted criticism, and raised concerns about AI's dangers. My study of how emerging technologies affect people's lives has taught me that the problems go beyond the admittedly large concern about whether algorithms can really create music or art in general.

Yoshua Bengio, who last month won the prestigious Turing award, alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun, for his work on AI, is worried about what the technology is being made into behind closed doors. In an interview with Nature, he explains his concerns, but takes care to avoid sounding like a doomsayer. A professor at the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, his main concern is not a particular nightmare scenario but simply that AI is being pursued by people who have few controls in place. "A lot of what is most concerning is not happening in broad daylight," he said. This we have certainly seen, with all the major tech companies in one way or another providing or considering government and military work, from the benign to the clearly conflict-oriented.

Britain's leading position in developing self-driving cars could produce a £62bn economic boost by 2030, the car industry claimed – but warned that such potential could be jeopardised by a no-deal Brexit. A report published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said the UK has significant advantages over other countries in pushing connected and autonomous vehicles, including forward-looking legislation allowing autonomous cars to be insured and driven on a greater proportion of roads than elsewhere. Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the SMMT, said more than £500m had been invested in research and development by industry and government, and another £740m in communications infrastructure to enable autonomous cars to work. He said: "The opportunities are dramatic – new jobs, economic growth and improvements across society. The UK's potential is clear. We are ahead of many rival nations but to realise these benefits we must move fast."

Scientists have created an infrared body-scanner to help tackle surging violent crime rates. It combines a standard camera with infra-red technology to detect concealed blades from up to 20ft (6 metres) away and works through heavy clothing and even belts. The potentially life-saving technology's developers in the UK say it could one day be fitted to handheld cameras and even mobile phones. If it proves to be a viable option to law enforcement, it may be expanded to include other'geometrically similar' objects with a similar heat signature, such as stowed handguns. A proof of concept is expected in six months and if it is successful, has the potential to be implemented across the UK and around the world.

Twitter has been forced to backtrack after the French government accidentally fell foul of its own law designed to prevent the spread of fake news. The #OuiJeVote (Yes, I Vote) campaign was rejected by the social media giant as it risked contravening a law introduced in December, that requires paid-for political content on the platform to be transparent about who funds it, even though the campaign is aimed at encouraging people to vote. Twitter's decision was criticised by the French government information service (GIS), which planned to pay for the sponsored tweets. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.

Two Chinese software developers are trying to harness the power of open source software to improve working conditions for coders. Last weekend, Katt Gu and Suji Yan, published the "Anti-996 License," which requires any company that uses the project's software to comply with local labor laws as well as International Labour Organization standards, including the right for workers to collectively bargain and a ban on forced labor. The license is part of the growing Anti-996 Movement in China, which refers to a common schedule of working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. This grueling schedule is allegedly widespread in the Chinese tech startup industry, according to a story in the South China Morning Post last month. Last week, one or more anonymous activists launched a website called 996.ICU, detailing Chinese labor laws that a 996 schedule may violate, including provisions that generally limit work to 44 hours a week and require overtime pay.

This weekend, nine teams of robots (and their humans) will make their way to the Edgar Experimental Mine in Idaho Springs, Colo. DARPA SubT is a challenge on a similar scale to DARPA's incredible Robotics Challenge that took place in 2015--a series of competitions based on real-world needs, attracting some of the best roboticists in the world with sophisticated robotic hardware to match. The integration exercise (which is closed to anyone but the participating teams, we definitely asked) is just the first step in a challenge that will involve both a virtual competition and a competition for physical systems, each with multiple circuits culminating in a final that wraps everything together into one epic event. Some teams will get over US $4 million in DARPA funding, and the prize pool for the finals is up to $2 million. We'll be following SubT through multiple stages all the way until the final event, which is schedule for August of 2021.