Researchers, companies and countries around the world are racing to explore -- and exploit -- the possibilities of artificial intelligence technology. China is working on an extremely aggressive multi-billion-dollar plan for government investment into AI research and applications. The U.S. government has been slower to act. The Obama administration issued a report on AI near the end of its term. Since then, little has happened -- until a Feb. 11 executive order from President Donald Trump encouraging the country to do more with AI.

The accent, emotion, and intonation are all mine. But somehow I now sound like a youngish woman with a high-pitched voice. My feminine "voice skin" was created by Modulate.ai, The firm uses machine learning to copy, model, and manipulate the properties of voice in a powerful new way. The technology goes far beyond the simple voice filters that can let you sound like Kylo Ren.

It knows the videos we might like. And it can even, perhaps, recommend the best course of action to take to maximize our personal health. Artificial intelligence and its subset of disciplines--such as machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision--are seemingly becoming integrated into our daily lives whether we like it or not. What was once sci-fi is now ubiquitous research and development in company and university labs around the world. Similarly, the startups working on many of these AI technologies have seen their proverbial stock rise. More than 30 of these companies are now valued at over a billion dollars, according to data research firm CB Insights, which itself employs algorithms to provide insights into the tech business world.

NAYPYITAW - A court in Myanmar on Wednesday sentenced a French tourist to one month in prison with hard labor, but he is expected to be released in about a week because of time he served while awaiting trial. Arthur Desclaux was arrested on Feb. 7 for flying a drone close to the capital's parliament complex, and for bringing the device into the country. He was convicted under the Illegal Export-Import Act, which has a maximum penalty of three years' imprisonment. French consular official Frederic Inza, who attended the trial, said Desclaux, 27, admitted his guilt but said he was unaware of the restriction. "We're satisfied that his good faith and the fact that he imported this drone without having the intention of breaking the law was taken into account by the court," Inza said.

Nearly 70 years since Alan Turing posed the question "Can machines think?" artificial intelligence (AI) is finally beginning to have an impact on the global economy. Proponents of AI believe that it has the potential to transform the world as we know it. So what is AI in business and what are the main themes? Within the AI industry, there are seven key technology categories: machine learning, data science, conversational platforms, computer vision, AI chips, smart robots and context-aware computing. Machine learning (ML) is an application of AI that gives computer systems the ability to learn and improve from data without being explicitly programmed.

AI algorithms are the foundation of the development of speech-based systems and chatbots, they help to predict production downtimes and support doctors in recognizing and treating diseases. AI algorithms save time and money. More often than not, they even make better decisions than their human counterparts. Sometimes, people ask whether or not AI is only a hype, because methods like neuronal networks have existed for decades. While this observation is correct, I am nonetheless convinced that AI is – unlike in many digital transformation projects – not only a buzzword.

This is an age of artificial intelligence (AI) driven automation and autonomous machines. The increasing ubiquity and rapidly expanding potential of self-improving, self-replicating, autonomous intelligent machines has spurred a massive automation driven transformation of human ecosystems in cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS). As seen across nations, there is already a growing trend towards increasingly entrusting complex decision processes to these rapidly evolving AI systems. From granting parole to diagnosing diseases, college admissions to job interviews, managing trades to granting credits, autonomous vehicles to autonomous weapons, the rapidly evolving AI systems are increasingly being adopted by individuals and entities across nations: its government, industries, organizations and academia (NGIOA). Individually and collectively, the promise and perils of these evolving AI systems are raising serious concerns for the accuracy, fairness, transparency, trust, ethics, privacy and security of the future of humanity -- prompting calls for regulation of artificial intelligence design, development and deployment.

The robotic contraption rolling down the street just might be delivering a FedEx package to your home or office. That's the vision, anyway, behind the FedEx SameDay Bot that the shipping giant unveiled Wednesday. This sub-200-pound autonomous delivery robot was developed by DEKA Development & Research Corp, whose founder is Segway inventor Dean Kamen. The SameDay Bot is so-named because its mission is to help retailers make same-day, "last mile" deliveries to local customers. FedEx is collaborating with AutoZone, Lowe's, Pizza Hut, Target, Walgreens and Walmart.

In 2017, two foreign journalists for Turkish state TV station TRT World and their interpreter spent two months in a Myanmar jail for attempting to fly a drone near the legislature. The three pleaded guilty to breaching the colonial-era Aircraft Act.

Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters. At the southern tip of the Himalayas, farmers in Himachal Pradesh graze cattle among rolling hills and forests. While policies to manage the region's forest have been but in place by the Indian government, the impact that these policies have had remains unclear. In this study, scientists led by Dr. Pushpendra Rana at the University of Illinois applied machine learning algorithms to examine natural resources policy and governance, evaluating how policies actually work on the ground. Using satellite images from NASA, Rana's machine learning algorithm was able to simultaneously evaluate policy effectiveness in over 200 forest management regions in Kangra, covering a 14-year period.