Team NEDO-Hydra's robot is held in place by racks inside the Robot Garage during the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, June 6, 2015 in Pomona, California. The Pentagon's emerging technologies unit is seeking proposals that would utilize insect brains to control robots for a range of purposes. The Federal Business Opportunities website post seeks concepts that explore "new computational frameworks and strategies drawn from the impressive computational capabilities of very small flying insects for whom evolutionary pressures have forced scale/size/energy reduction without loss of performance." The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has researched a wide range of futuristic capabilities throughout its history and is known for having funded projects that helped lead to the creation of the World Wide Web as we know it. "Nature has forced on these small insects drastic miniaturization and energy efficiency, some having only a few hundred neurons in a compact form-factor, while maintaining basic functionality," a document from the post reads.

A cadre of senators is looking to prompt the federal government to be a bit more proactive in utilizing artificial intelligence technologies. To this end, the bipartisan group including Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., introduced the Artificial Intelligence in Government Act on Wednesday. Per a news release, the bill would seek to "improve the use of AI across the federal government by providing resources and directing federal agencies to include AI in data-related planning." The bill aims to do a number of things, including establishing an AI in government advisory board, directing the White House Office of Management and Budget to look into AI as part of the federal data strategy, getting the Office of Personnel Management to look at what kinds of employee skills are necessary for AI competence in government and expanding "an office" at the General Services Administration that will provide expertise, do research and "promote U.S. competitiveness." "Artificial intelligence has the potential to benefit society in ways we cannot imagine today," Harris said in a statement.

The modern navy is regularly working on updating its equipment, its outreach, its maneuverability. One of the ways in which it accomplishes these goals is through the employment of drones, autonomous machines fulfilling important defensive and militaristic tasks. AUV's, or autonomous underwater vehicles (sometimes alternatively known as unmanned underwater vehicles -- UUV's), comprise one department in which such drone tech is seeing action. According to Marine Insight, such aquatic automatons were being made as early as 1957. They can range in size anywhere from 0.91 meters (approximately 3 feet) to over 10 meters (over 32 feet) long.

London is said to be the most attractive destination for European technology investment, securing almost double that of its closest rival Berlin. According to new data sourced by PitchBook on behalf of the Mayor of London, London's position as one of the world's biggest financial centres, as well as the quality of AI research emerging from UK universities, has helped it outpace every other European country, Reuters reports. Of the £2.5 billion raised by UK tech businesses in 2018, 72% of that came from venture capital funding, equating to £1.8 billion, according to the data. "We get a lot of calls and inquiries from investors in the U.S. and Asia looking for fintech opportunities," said Eileen Burbidge, a partner at Passion Capital, speaking to Reuters. "In fintech, AI and a few other sectors such as life sciences and robotics, London genuinely leads the world."

Okay, this might be the most badass baby monitor ever built. At CES 2019, Los Angeles-based smart home startup Miku unveiled its signature Miku Baby Monitor, a technological marvel that uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine-learning technology to create a highly detailed health portrait of their new kid. It's the brainchild of co-founder and CEO Eric White, who decided to build a more technically advanced and flexible baby monitor as he waited for his first child to born. Using his personal experience building things like, oh, counter-remote controlled improvised explosive devices (Counter-RCIED) and dabbling in things like electronic warfare, White created a device that combines cutting-edge video and audio technologies with proprietary software backed by the National Science Foundation. "The Miku Baby Monitor is only the beginning for us," said White in a release.

Machine learning involves the automation of operations via intelligent mechanisms, which can adjust and adapt as needed. This reduces the need for human intervention--provided the right series of controls are in place. A diverse array of uses and applications exist for machine learning across multiple industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, security, and more. In most cases, machine learning analyzes processes and determines which data or actions are valuable or significant, and which are not. I spoke with email security organization Edgewave's President Steve Kelley about machine learning as it applies to the issue of email phishing, which represents a constant threat to organizations and users.

Technological development has become a rat race. In the competition to lead the emerging technology race and the futuristic warfare battleground, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming the center of global power play. As seen across many nations, the development in autonomous weapons system (AWS) is progressing rapidly, and this increase in the weaponization of artificial intelligence seems to have become a highly destabilizing development. It brings complex security challenges for not only each nation's decision makers but also for the future of the humanity. The reality today is that artificial intelligence is leading us toward a new algorithmic warfare battlefield that has no boundaries or borders, may or may not have humans involved, and will be impossible to understand and perhaps control across the human ecosystem in cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS).

If 2018 was the year we learnt to hate tech, then 2019 must be the year it hopes to win us back. It might seem that recently the industry has given up on its aspirations to revolutionise knowledge and communications, and instead focused on sowing disinformation and monetising our private lives. It was blamed for election results and mental health crises, finally changing the world on the scale its proponents promise – but not for the better. As the new year begins, companies will be defined by their response to these challenges. It seems unlikely that the largest tech companies will rise or fall any time soon, but we will likely point to this time as the moment things changed.

What would we find, if we could look into the future? Will we be living like the Jetsons.. served by machines? Or will we be trying to battle the machines.. like the Terminator? Today there's a new technology race that pits the US against both China and Russia. It's the race for A.I... artificial intelligence... which many believe will define the century and maybe our survival.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland granted a request by 14 Democratic attorneys general for a preliminary injunction. The rules, which are set to go into effect Jan. 14, allow businesses or nonprofits to obtain exemptions to an Obamacare requirement for contraceptive coverage on moral or religious grounds.