In the early 1970s, a British grad student named Geoff Hinton began to make simple mathematical models of how neurons in the human brain visually understand the world. Artificial neural networks, as they are called, remained an impractical technology for decades. But in 2012, Hinton and two of his grad students at the University of Toronto used them to deliver a big jump in the accuracy with which computers could recognize objects in photos. Within six months, Google had acquired a startup founded by the three researchers. Previously obscure, artificial neural networks were the talk of Silicon Valley.

The Foreign Ministry plans to hold Japanese-language tests in at least seven countries for a new type of work visa, in line with the introduction of the new visa category in April, sources have said. The ministry also aims to conclude bilateral agreements with those countries by March to share information related to criminal investigations, in an effort to shut out rogue labor brokers and protect workers' human rights, according to the sources. The Japanese-language tests will be administered in Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia for applicants seeking the easier of the two new visa categories, the sources said. The government is negotiating with one more country on the matter, and plans to expand the number of countries where the tests are conducted in stages, according to the sources. The moves indicate that workers from those countries will be among the first group to be accepted in Japan under the new system, for the time being, aside from interns transferring from the existing foreign trainee program.

It is a relatively mild scene in a documentary about the sexual predator who helped transform American politics. Back when he ran Fox News, Roger Ailes bought up his hometown paper, and in Divide and Conquer--now in theaters--the Putnam County News and Recorder's former copy editor describes what happened to her after she eventually quit the job. In the next few days, people she had messaged privately about Ailes on Facebook began finding out that he was looking into them. One even received a phone call: "This is Roger Ailes, and I hear you've been making threats about me." Ailes then quoted the friends' Facebook conversation, verbatim. In her interview with Divide and Conquer, the copy editor was clearly still shaken by the experience: "It was really terrifying--this feeling that there are really powerful people who live five minutes from me that are out to destroy me and my life."

In the popular Netflix series Ozark, money launderer Marty Byrde expends a lot of time and energy mitigating the risks that relate to his work, including his drug cartel client, a pair of farmers, the local pastor, and his own employee and her relatives--but financial regulators never appear to be a blip on his radar. Would the series turn out differently if Marty's bank had used artificial intelligence to examine his deposits? The feds may be hoping for a plot twist. Recently, several federal agencies jointly encouraged banks to consider developing new technologies, particularly AI technologies, in order to help protect the financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing. Banks are now encouraged to "consider, evaluate, and, where appropriate, responsibly implement innovative approaches to meet their Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance obligations" by agencies including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

New rules mean drones are set to take off in India at last. But the legislation also requires pilots of all but tiny craft to get approval for every flight, even a zip around the local park. The regulations came into force earlier this month, overturning a 2014 ban on drone use by anyone other than government agencies. Now, commercial and recreational drones can fly during daytime, as long as they stay below 120 metres and within sight of operators.

Google's chief executive, Sundar Pichai, testified before the House judiciary committee on Tuesday morning, three months after his company thumbed its nose at Congress by failing to appear alongside Facebook and Twitter at a Senate hearing on election interference. In a hearing heavy on partisan theatrics, Pichai notably refused to rule out launching a censored search engine in China, a controversial plan that has garnered significant criticism from human rights organizations as well as rank-and-file Google employees. "Right now there are no plans to launch search in China," Pichai said numerous times, repeating a talking point that the company has relied on since news of the project leaked in August. Pichai characterized the Chinese search product as an "internal effort" and said the company would be "transparent" and consult with policy makers before launching in China. Pressed to rule out launching a tool that would enable censorship and surveillance in China, however, Pichai appeared to offer the company's probable justification for reentering a market that it left in 2010: "We think it's in our duty to explore possibilities to give users access to information."

WASHINGTON – Questions on privacy, data collection, China, Russia --and especially political bias -- dominated Google CEO Sundar Pichai's grilling before Congress Tuesday. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy opened the House Judiciary Committee hearing by noting a "widening gap of distrust" between tech companies and the American people. He asked whether tech companies are "serving as instruments of freedom or instruments of control" in the U.S. and beyond. He also expressed concerns that Google's business practices may have been influenced by employees' political bias against conservatives. The question of bias has dogged tech companies for years, but there has been no credible evidence that political leanings factor into Google's search algorithm.

A Nasa spacecraft that just arrived on an asteroid has already made its first big discovery: ingredients for water. Scientists hope that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will shed light on the mysteries of Bennu, an asteroid the size of a skyscraper that could hold clues to the origins of life on Earth. The craft only arrived at the asteroid in recent days but the discovery of water is a major breakthrough that scientists hope can be matched by more discoveries in the future. It was found when OSIRIS-REx flew close to the asteroid and picked up traces of hydrogen and oxygen molecules in its rocky surface. The probe, on a mission to return samples from the asteroid to Earth for study, was launched in 2016.

Google has revealed what people in the UK have been searching for in 2018, with the publication of its annual'Year in Search' results. Meghan Markle, who topped the list last year, was knocked off her perch by the World Cup but still managed to be the second-most searched term in 2018. Her marriage to Prince Harry, together with the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, helped'Royal Wedding' reach third on the overall list. Several other celebrities like Stormy Daniels and Ant McPartlin also appeared on the lists, which covered a wide range of categories including top trending'How to...?' and'What is...?' queries. Privacy scandals helped'How to delete Facebook?' become one of the most-asked questions using Google, while the dramatic rise and fall in cryptocurrency prices helped drive searches for'What is bitcoin?'.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Google CEO Sundar Pichai made his public debut before Congress on Tuesday, spending much of his testimony countering Republicans' allegations of anti-conservative bias in the company's search results. He also faced scrutiny of how much data Google collects on users and on the company's work on a censored search tool for China. Time and again, Republican lawmakers pressed Pichai on allegations of political bias in search results on Google and its video subsidiary YouTube.