The federal government believes Edmonton and the University of Alberta will lead Canada into the coming artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, which is expected to increase global GDP by $15.7 trillion by 2030 and disrupt every facet of life. That's why Western Economic Diversification Canada announced $2.5 million for the creation of the Artificial Intelligence-Supercomputing Hub for Academic and Industry Collaboration at the U of A, today. The innovative space, designed to be a collaborative link between industry and academia to bring new AI products to market, will be equipped with high performance computers capable of processing vast amounts of raw data in hours instead of days. "In a market of such potential, Canada must take part and I believe Edmonton can lead us," said Amerjeet Sohi, federal minister of natural resources, who was on hand to make the announcement on behalf of the Government of Canada. "The AI-Hub will help Canada and Canadian businesses compete in the global innovation race to bring new technologies and products to market and bolster our economy."

As we increasingly delegate decision-making to algorithms, whether directly or indirectly, important questions emerge in circumstances where those decisions have direct consequences for individual rights and personal opportunities, as well as for the collective good. A key problem for policymakers is that the social implications of these new methods can only be grasped if there is an adequate comprehension of their general technical underpinnings. The discussion here focuses primarily on the case of enforcement decisions in the criminal justice system, but draws on similar situations emerging from other algorithms utilised in controlling access to opportunities, to explain how machine learning works and, as a result, how decisions are made by modern intelligent algorithms or 'classifiers'. It examines the key aspects of the performance of classifiers, including how classifiers learn, the fact that they operate on the basis of correlation rather than causation, and that the term 'bias' in machine learning has a different meaning to common usage.An example of a real world 'classifier', the Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART), is examined, through identification of its technical features: the classification method, the training data and the test data, the features and the labels, validation and performance measures. Four normative benchmarks are then considered by reference to HART: (a) prediction accuracy (b) fairness and equality before the law (c) transparency and accountability (d) informational privacy and freedom of expression, in order to demonstrate how its technical features have important normative dimensions that bear directly on the extent to which the system can be regarded as a viable and legitimate support for, or even alternative to, existing human decision-makers.

Japan's new cybersecurity minister has never used a computer and doesn't seem to know what a USB port is. The bizarre admission has prompted mockery in Japan and across the world, but newly appointed Yoshitaka Sakurada says that it is unlikely he will have to actually use a computer, despite being responsible for ensuring that the country's millions of devices are kept safe. Instead, cybersecurity policy is set by a large number of people and aides can type into the computer for him, he said. Mr Sakurada has been in parliament for 22 years but has not held such a senior position before, now finding himself responsible both for cybersecurity and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona.

Most video games set in the First or Second World War shoot for gritty realism. It's the visual fidelity, paired with addictive combat, that draws players in. The story-driven experience, set during the last two years of World War I, has a painterly art style inspired by artists such as Claude Monet and Joseph Mallord William Turner. Every scene is created with tiny brushstrokes that slowly move, transform and dissolve. As you move the twin protagonists forward, the paint will change again to reflect your position in the level.

Mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. said Thursday it plans to start using drones to support rescue operations and search for missing hikers on Mount Fuji from next summer, aiming to eventually expand the service to other areas. KDDI successfully conducted a trial in conjunction with the Gotemba Municipal Government, a city to the west of the 3,776-meter-high peak; Yamap Inc., a developer of smartphone map applications; and weather information provider Weathernews Inc. During a simulated search operation carried out in late October, the drone was able to locate the position of a missing hiker who was carrying a device with global positioning capabilities, and help observe the status of the person in need of assistance. Coupled with a newly developed system that monitors and forecasts weather conditions, a drone operator selected the most suitable flight route to the location of the missing person so that rescuers could be mobilized. KDDI said it plans to add a microphone and a speaker to the drone in the future so that rescuers and hikers can communicate.

A futuristic, spider-like spacecraft could one day discover new insights about the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. NASA and software company Autodesk have unveiled a concept lander that's ultra lightweight and created, in part, thanks to innovative AI software. They say the lander has been expertly designed to be able to handle missions to distant planets. NASA and Autodesk have unveiled a concept lander that's ultra lightweight and created, in part, thanks to innovative AI software. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a research and development center founded in 1936.

Efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being seen as a global race, even a new Great Game. Apart from the race between countries to become more competent and establish a competitive advantage in AI, enterprises are also in a contest to acquire AI talent, leverage data advantages, and offer unique services. In both cases, success would depend on whether AI solutions can be democratized and distributed across sectors. The global AI race is unlike any other global competition, as the extent to which innovation is being driven by governments, the corporate sector or academia differs substantially from country to country. On average, though, the majority of innovations so far have emerged from academia, with governments contributing through procurement, rather than internal research and development.

Artificial intelligence could help in our hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn are two of our most promising leads in the hunt for alien life, but they're hundreds of millions of miles from Earth. Given the high cost of transporting payloads in space, NASA is currently in search of anything that could help decrease the weight of exploratory landers -- and AI is proving it might be up to the task. On Tuesday, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and software company Autodesk unveiled a lander designed to explore environments like those of Jupiter and Saturn's moons. The team developed the lander, which looks a bit like a spider that's missing half its legs, using a technique known as generative design.

Time travel to the UK in 2025: Harry is a teenager with a smartphone and Pauline is a senior citizen with Alzheimer's who relies on smart glasses for independent living. Harry is frustrated his favourite online game is slow, and Pauline is anxious because her healthcare app is unresponsive. Forbes predicts that by 2025 more than 80 billion devices, from wearables and smartphones, to factory and smart-city sensors, will be connected to the internet. Something like 180 trillion gigabytes of data will be generated that year. Currently almost all data we generate is sent to and processed in distant clouds.

Recently, analysts have argued that emerging technologies with military applications may undermine nuclear stability (see here, here, and here), but the logic of these arguments is debatable and overlooks a more straightforward reason why new technology might cause nuclear conflict: by upending the existing balance of power among nuclear-armed states. This latter concern is more probable and dangerous and demands an immediate policy response. For more than 70 years, the world has avoided major power conflict, and many attribute this era of peace to nuclear weapons. In situations of mutually assured destruction (MAD), neither side has an incentive to start a conflict because doing so will only result in its own annihilation. The key to this model of deterrence is the maintenance of secure second-strike capabilities--the ability to absorb an enemy nuclear attack and respond with a devastating counterattack.