The expanding use of AI is attracting new attention to the importance of workforce diversity. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that, although technology companies have increased efforts to recruit women and minorities, computer and software professionals who write artificial intelligence (AI) programs remain largely white and male. A byproduct of this lack of diversity is that datasets often lack adequate representation of women or minority groups. For example, one widely used dataset is more than 74% male and 83% white, meaning algorithms based on this data could have blind spots or biases built in. Biases in algorithms can skew decision-making, and many companies have realized that eliminating bias upfront among those who write code is essential.

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency announced it will be holding an event next week for organizations potentially interested in participating in two artificial intelligence security programs. One, called Secure Assured Intelligent Learning Systems (SAILS), looks to find ways to stop AI system users from learning too much about private data used to train the systems. Without such protections, malicious users might be able to find out information about training data in aggregate, such as "the average of an individual's face used to train a facial identification model," or even determine whether a particular person's data was included in the training model, according to the agency. "The goal is to provide a mechanism by which model creators can have confidence that their trained models will not inadvertently reveal sensitive information," according to IARPA. A second effort, called TrojAI, looks to spot Trojans, an allusion to the legend of the Trojan horse referring to hidden malicious behaviors.

Last week, the nonprofit research group OpenAI revealed that it had developed a new text-generation model that can write coherent, versatile prose given a certain subject matter prompt. However, the organization said, it would not be releasing the full algorithm due to "safety and security concerns." Instead, OpenAI decided to release a "much smaller" version of the model and withhold the data sets and training codes that were used to develop it. If your knowledge of the model, called GPT-2, came solely on headlines from the resulting news coverage, you might think that OpenAI had built a weapons-grade chatbot. A headline from Metro U.K. read, "Elon Musk-Founded OpenAI Builds Artificial Intelligence So Powerful That It Must Be Kept Locked Up for the Good of Humanity."

The internal unrest over the Army contract follows a year of activism by tech workers who have become increasingly emboldened to voice their concerns about how their products are applied. A similar employee protest at Google last year contributed to the company dropping out of the military's Project Maven, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze aerial images from combat zones. Microsoft workers also last year raised public concerns and circulated an open letter protesting the company's work with U.S. immigration authorities.

Raman Ghuman demonstrates a HoloLens device at Microsoft's annual conference for software developers on May 7, 2018, in Seattle. Microsoft workers are protesting the use of the augmented reality technology in a U.S. Amy contract. Raman Ghuman demonstrates a HoloLens device at Microsoft's annual conference for software developers on May 7, 2018, in Seattle. Microsoft workers are protesting the use of the augmented reality technology in a U.S. Amy contract. Microsoft workers are calling on the giant tech company to cancel its nearly $480 million U.S. Army contract, saying the deal "crosses the line" into weapons development by Microsoft for the first time.

Employees at Microsoft on Friday demanded the company cancel a contract to supply its augmented-reality headsets to the U.S. Army, warning in a letter that putting HoloLens in the military's hands could "help people kill." Writing to chief executive Satya Nadella, more than 50 workers said the devices would be "turning warfare into a simulated'video game.'" They also urged Microsoft, which won the $480 million contract in November, to "cease developing any and all weapons technologies" for the government. "As employees and shareholders we do not want to become war profiteers," the letter concluded. "To that end, we believe that Microsoft must stop in its activities to empower the U.S. Army's ability to cause harm and violence."

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday launching the American Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative, a senior administration official told reporters in a background call over the weekend.

Nasa-funded scientists have developed a new kind of DNA-like structure that can store and transmit information – and could lead to new ways of finding alien life. The breakthrough discovery suggests there might be alternative, unimagined forms of DNA-based life as we know it on Earth. Life on other worlds might be built using different molecular systems of the kind the researchers developed in the lab, Nasa experts have suggested. The new molecular system will allow scientists who are looking for life elsewhere in the universe to re-think what they are actually looking for, researchers said. DNA is a complex molecule that allows the genetic information that makes us who we are to be stored and then transmitted.

"This is a very exciting day as we kick-off testing of autonomous vehicles, putting Rhode Island on the map as a leader in this new high-tech field in transportation. And we'll do it in a careful and safe manner partnering with institutions of higher education to carefully study and evaluate the service and its integration on Rhode Island roads," said Governor Gina Raimondo. The vehicles are being tested this week on low-volume roads in the park as the beginning phase of a pilot project scheduled to launch in Providence in the spring of 2019. The testing period in Quonset will be followed by similar testing in Providence, prior to the start of service. Between the two locations, the vehicles will undergo 500 miles of testing.